A/N: I want to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows as well as reviewed the last chapter.
"Do you want to know the truth even if it changes the way you see Konoha?"
Black eyes stared blankly at her as they took a seat in one of the private booths in the café inside the mall. The two of them decided it would be best to find a private place to talk. If they talked out in the open then it would be a matter of time before her classmates found her.
The vibrations coming off her phone told Naruto her classmates were trying to locate her. Itachi locked his eyes on her phone, not making a single comment to tell her to shut off her phone. She kept her eyes fixed on the man as she lowered down the volume of her phone.
"If you want me to help you then you tell me about that night," Naruto opened the menu and fixed her eyes on the delicious cakes on offer. "I want to know what happened that night even if it shatters everything I know."
She has changed. Itachi pressed his lips and stared at the young woman, realizing for the first time the confidence in her. The innocent blue eyes of her childhood was gone and replaced by eyes blazing with the desire to know the truth. He took in a deep breath—ribs cracked under the breath and for a brief moment he recalled the words spoken by the medic in one of the villages he went with his partner.
He needed to take rest.
"The Uchiha Clan planned were planning a coup d'état against Konoha," Itachi paused when a waitress opened the curtains to look at them. She had a cheerful smile playing on her lips, a notepad in one hand and a pen in another hand.
"Oh? Do you want me to come back later?"
"Actually can you bring me some chocolate cake? And can I have a watermelon milkshake?" Naruto pointed to the cake on the menu and tilted her head at him. She nodded. "The guy over there will have some green tea."
The waitress scribbled down the note, bowed slightly and then closed the curtains. He raised his eyebrow as Naruto pressed her fingers against her temple. Should he feel impressed the girl knew his order? Or be insulted she thought what he would prefer to drink? Itachi shook his head. The current goal was to get the girl to help him with his brother.
"A coup d'état? Why?" Confusion shone through her eyes. "Why would your clan plan something like that?"
"The elders believed that an Uchiha was behind the Kyuubi's attack on the village since the Sharingan has an ability to control the beast," Itachi explained as Naruto leaned towards him. "The council ordered all members of the Uchiha clan to live in one section of the village."
Naruto frowned. "You mean to tell me that you guys didn't always live there? That they purposely isolated you people from the rest of the village? All because of what might be a possible reason?"
Itachi nodded and waited for the girl's reaction. Naruto chewed on her bottom lips and there were several emotions flashing through her eyes: sorrow, anger and maybe even pity. What a strange child. After what some of the members of his clan did to her and after what his brother put her through, she chose to feel sorrow for them.
"The members of my clan began to feel mistrust and felt isolated in the village as you guess," Itachi took a deep breath. "My father along with most of the other members of the clan began to hate the village and as a result they started to plan a coup d'état to overthrow Konoha."
The booth curtain swept open as the waitress came in with a tray filled with their orders. The waitress smiled warmly, placed the warm green tea in front of him before sliding the cake and watermelon milkshake to Naruto.
Stream rolled out of his drink, tickling his nostrils and Itachi felt the tension inside of him to be relieved. He wrapped his hands around the tea cup, took in a deep breath and sipped the tea while Naruto stirred her milkshake. Blue eyes seemed to be faded, almost like the girl was in another place and time.
"And how did you end up being the one committing genocide?"
Itachi kept his face blank, not willing for the young woman to see how much her words affected him. Genocide. For the good of the village he committed genocide. His clan meant little when one took into account of the number of lives that would be lost if the village underwent a civil war.
"My father wished for me to spy on the Hokage," he admitted—he stirred his tea. "I did not want a civil war to break out if my father was successful with his plans. If the clan had been able to accomplish their plans then another Shinobi World War would happen so I went to the Third. I told the Third Hokage about what my clan plans to do because I had no clue on how to fix the issue."
Naruto nodded. "Of course you didn't know, you were fourteen."
Itachi blinked and stared at the girl who gazed at him with sadness and understanding. He felt his lips twitched, feeling almost faintly amused at how the girl presumed to understand his dilemma at the time. Three years ago, the girl looked at him like he was a monster. Her eyes used to be filled with so much anger for what he put Sasuke through and now her eyes were filled with sympathy.
"The Third tried his hardest to find a peaceful solution with the clan," Itachi continued. "He tried negotiations with my father but my father refused to listen to the talks. At one point Shishui tried to use his sharingan to force the elders to change their minds but it failed. His eye was taken from him and Shishui entrusted his left eye to me. After that, Shishui committed suicide."
Tears began to leak out of Naruto's eyes and Itachi was at a loss on what to do with the girl. The pure anguish in her eyes was genuine as the blonde patted her eyes with the tissue offered by the café. The emotional crybaby is always going to be there. Itachi recalled the days of ANBU duty when the blonde cried for her bad luck in life.
"The village councilmember Danzo came to me one day and gave me one of two options," Naruto blinked her eyes. "I could let the Uchiha clan continue out the plans and let the whole clan be killed including me and Sasuke or I could assassinate the Uchiha clan before the coup takes place but spare my brother."
"What they made you do was wrong and I really want to punch that Danzo in the face for making you go through this hell," Itachi blinked as the blonde stood up from her seat. Her blue eyes were locked on him. "But what you put Sasuke through was inexcusable. There were many ways you could have dealt with him…but not that. You should have never made him think you are a monster."
"I don't want him to hate the village."
"Who cares about the village! The village can go and fuck themselves for all I care!" She yelled. "Sasuke wanted you to be by his side! He probably would have been less fucked up if you just told him the truth! If you just stuck by his side! He loves you and what you just told me is going to kill him."
"You plan to tell him."
"He deserve to know the truth."
"Where were you? Who was that man? We tried calling you!"
Her classmates had rush towards her with worried and concerned expressions. Naruto could not even bring herself to smile at her classmates—her eyes were locked on the disappearing figure of Itachi. She knew from the police that Tomura had been here and encountered her classmate, who seemed to be shaken from his own meeting with the man.
"That was my best friend's brother." Naruto slipped her hands into her pocket and stared up at the clear blue sky. My doubts about Konoha is gone but I definitely cannot let Sasuke continue on his path. The chipping birds and the blueness of the sky did not reflect the dilemma she was faced with: Does she enjoy the rest of her summer and act like the teenager she wanted to be? Or should she figure out what to do with the information given to her?
"Where were you?" Momo asked, knitting her eyebrows together.
"I was in a café having a talk with Itachi," she forced herself to smile. "I got lost with my talk that I forgot to inform you guys about it."
Her classmates glanced at each other and then looked at her. The disbelief and concern in their eyes told her they did not believe her words. She chewed the inner corner of her cheek, wishing not for the first time in her life that she grew up like they did. If Naruto grew up like them then this dilemma inside of her would not be so confusing because she would never have been a kunoichi first.
"You looked angry when you saw him," Mina commented gently. "Did something happen between you?"
If only you knew. Naruto shook her head and stared at the water fountain. What was she going to do? There was no chance in hell she would return back to Konoha. She was not insane. The village treated her like dirt, made her feel like she never deserved to have the right to live and now she learnt they made a fourteen-year-old commit genocide.
She ignored the concern looks of her classmate and made her way to the water fountain. Taking a seat on the fountain steps, Naruto pressed her fingers against her temple. What should she be her choice? She had to find a way to bring Sasuke back to the right path. Just as she knew Sasuke would have done everything to protect her, she should do the same. Yet a part of her felt conflicted on what should be done.
He made it clear to you that you meant nothing to him. A sinister part of her whispered in her mind, trying to lure her away from the thoughts. There was a throbbing pain on the wound Sasuke inflected her, reminding her of the action he took against her. He hurt her. He reminded her of how crappy her life was. Why should she save him? Why did she want to save him? Was it because of a promise made to Sakura? Or was it because of guilt?
'Wouldn't it be worse if you just stood there and never did anything about it?'
The words haunted her as she stared at the fountain. Would she be able to live with herself if Sasuke ended up becoming a criminal? Would her best friend still choose the path of loneliness and darkness if he knew the truth? If someone told him the truth then what would he do? A part of her believed he would simply ceased his madness and find his own happiness.
Yet another part of her knew he would destroy Konoha for putting his brother through this hell.
If the Uchiha clan was murdered for the good of the village then was it possible that they really allowed their allies to die? She felt like hurling as she recalled the way she used to say the village's oath with pride. Hokage. How could she used to dream to be a leader to a village willing to hurt the very people they swore to protect and defend? How could the Third live with himself whenever he saw Sasuke?
Was violence the only answer they had?
"Naru-chan, are you okay?" Momo asked gently, rubbing her shoulders. Naruto looked up and felt her throat dried up when she saw the worried expression on her friend's face. She opened her mouth to say the words yes but the words were stuck on her throat. All she could do was nod her heads and let the tears flow out.
"What's wrong Naru-chan?"
"Why is she suddenly crying?"
"Does it matter?"
Tsuyu wrapped her arms around her and rocked her back and forth, allowing her to muse in her turmoil. Bastard. Fool. Selfish. These were all the words Naruto wanted to use to describe the two Uchiha brothers. Why her? Why could they not let her come to a final decision in peace? She knew she could not let her friend continue to be lost. She knew she had to find a way to fulfil her promise because heroes keep their promise.
There had to be a way for her to keep to her promise without returning back to the Elemental Countries because Naruto refused to go back to a village that allowed this shit to happen.
"You don't need to lie to us Naru-chan, ribbit," Naruto blinked her eyes and her classmate stared at her with concern. "You don't need to pretend everything is alright around us. You can tell us anything."
I can't tell you that I learnt a councilmember was more willing to murder a whole clan than let the Third find a peaceful resolution. Naruto nodded and stared at her concern classmates, feeling her stomach churned as she realized Itachi had barely been older than her and her classmates when they gave him the most difficult choice in his life. A member of the council was more willing to take away someone's Kekkai Genkai than let them find a peaceful solution.
They were monsters to force Itachi to go through this hell.
"I came as soon as you send me the message. What's wrong brat?"
Naruto stared out at the sea as Kenji took a seat beside her. Hazel eyes shone with concern from the lack of response from his niece. All he could see was the absolute turmoil in her eyes. He knew from television that one of her classmates encountered a villain but Kenji doubt the girl was shaken from something like this. His eyes widened when he saw the tears streaming down his niece's eyes. Did one of those punks hurt her? He wrapped his arm around her.
"Nearly eights years ago, a tragedy stuck Konoha," Naruto whispered, blue eyes locked on the waves. "In the dead of night, a whole clan was murdered except for one person: Sasuke. They told us that the murderer was a member of the clan and when I became Sasuke's teammate, I learnt the killer was his brother. They say Itachi went mad. Sasuke claimed his brother killed the clan for power and I believed him. We all believed in his words."
The girl choked and Kenji wanted to squeeze the girl to tell her not to cry in front of him. The emotional crap was not for him. He left the whole crying and comforting to Kumiko. His wife was the one who had gently told Eisuke why his dog would never come back when he was seven. He was good with advise but not emotions.
All he could do was keep quiet.
"I never questioned Sasuke or the village's words," Naruto placed her head on top of her knees. "I believed them when they say Itachi Uchiha was a mad man who murdered his clan for no reason but power. I refused to believe Eisuke when he claimed that Konoha would rather see your home destroyed for the soldiers because I thought the councilmembers and the Hokage wouldn't be so cruel. Now everything is fucked up."
Kenji stared at the sea. "The world had always been fucked up but what made you realize it really was cruel?"
"Itachi Uchiha contacted me," Naruto said dully. The waves stroked their feet and the smell of the salty water tickled their noses. "He wants me to bring his brother back to Konoha and I told him that I wouldn't even agree to it unless he told me the real reason for the murder of his clan."
If she believed in the words spoken by Konoha and by her friend then why did she question him? Kenji fixed his eyes on the blank-faced teenager. How did the girl end up thinking there was more to the attack? If it was eight years ago then Naruto would have been nearly eight. A child that would have not known better about the darkness of the shinobi world. The girl became a genin at the age of twelve as she informed him one time.
Until then she would have been innocent.
"What made you realize there was another motive to the massacre?"
"I used to be so jealous of Sasuke," Naruto admitted. She smiled at him but the wobbliness of her smile told him that the girl really was not okay. He cured under his breath and gave her a one armed hug. "I used to watch him whenever his brother came to pick him up. Itachi was always so gentle and loving when it came to him and I hated him for that. He had a brother who loved him and a mother who gave a shit about him while I had no one. I feel sick to my stomach to admit this but I was a little bit happy when his family was murdered because I thought finally someone was having a shitty life like me, someone was just as lonely as me…but everyone still loved him."
"You know you have us," Kenji reminded her.
Naruto did not smile at his words. "When I told my boss of the story of Itachi, they asked me a question that I never stopped to think about. Can a gentle boy really kill his family for power? She told me it would be such an easy thing to say to someone. She said it makes more sense if Itachi was trying to protect Sasuke. When he told me he wants my help to bring Sasuke back to Konoha, I knew something was up."
"Because it sounded more like a brother's plea."
"Yes," She twisted a lock of her hair against her finger. "If he asks me for help then I knew something is up. A heartless brother would never ask for help when it came to his brother and I saw the love he has for Sasuke…so I asked for the truth."
The observation skill must have come from her father. Kenji poked his tongue to the side of his cheek as Naruto continued to look blankly at the sea. There was a sombre feel to the environment despite the sight of a few happy couple sitting twenty feet away from them. For a moment he felt an itch to go and get some rum as he tried to figure out how to deal with his niece's conflict.
"The truth makes me disgusted," Naruto choked out. "I knew from my first serious mission that shinobi were nothing but tools that can be discarded. It was always there in the back of my mind but I never thought the village would be so cruel to a person."
There was a temptation for Kenji to hunt down the Itachi boy and smack him in the head for putting his niece through so much conflict. A part of him wanted to murder the boy for hurting a member of his clan but Kenji held himself back from cursing the boy. Naruto needed to learn just how cruel the world could be. If not from experience then from the stories told by Itachi.
"Why is it hard for you to believe? They were cruel to you," Kenji picked up a pebble from the sand and tossed it up and down. "If they could be cruel to you then it is not a stretch they could be cruel to another person."
"They asked a fourteen-year-old to murder his own clan because they were planning to overthrow the government! They manipulated his love for his brother to accomplish their end goals!" Kenji threw the pebble to the sea and grabbed hold of his niece. He pushed her close to the chest, absorbing her cries and screams of anguish. "Instead of finding another peaceful resolution, those bastards decided genocide was the best answer! They made him murder his parents, his cousins, his clans member in front of his baby brother and they never took responsibility for their actions."
"Naruto…"
"How can he ask me to bring Sasuke back to a village that destroyed his family?" Kenji rubbed her back. "A huge part of me always felt guilt for not bringing Sasuke back to the village and letting him go through more suffering. The part of me that wants to be free from this guilt and move on to be happy knows that it is impossible until I fix the error."
"Why does it have to be only you?" Naruto blinked and the man growled. "I understand why you want to do anything for his happiness because a part of you always felt grateful for the big risk he took for you. But why must you bear such a huge burden? You might have been his teammate and you might have love him like a brother but it is not your duty to knock sense into him. That job should have been the village's job! When a child goes through something this traumatic, there should have been someone to check up on him. Someone to nurture and comfort him because only a fool would think he was fine."
"Itachi was a genius."
"A genius when it comes to tactics and anything shinobi related but that is where all his prodigy talent lay," he snarled. His head throbbed and Kenji wondered if it was wrong of him to spring an attack on his son to see how sharp his senses were. "The Elemental Countries likes to think the moment a shinobi gets his headband that he is an adult. They forget that there are certain things a child does not understand! Itachi Uchiha was not thinking logically when he put his brother through such a trauma."
"Uncle Kenji…"
"This is why they should never make a child a shinobi," Kenji rubbed Naruto's back, allowing himself to fade back into the memories of the war. "The trauma that Itachi went through as a shinobi meant that he was constantly dealing with it and no one bother to help him. If he was a prodigy then his father must have made his life hell if he ever tried to act out of line. The fact is: the world he saw growing up made him think that doing what he did to your teammate was reasonable. Two people paid the price for his actions: his brother and you."
Naruto did not deny his words.
"I don't know how he expects me to bring Sasuke back to Konoha," Naruto shook her head. "I cannot do it. I cannot go back to a village that would rather kill a whole clan then find another peaceful way. I don't understand how the hell Itachi could hold so much love for Konoha after the hell they put him through! I don't know what he is thinking of wanting Sasuke to go back to Konoha! The both of them deserve better than this."
"Then what are you planning to do?"
"I spent the last three hours thinking about it and I realized my words and actions were barely enough to touch him," Naruto tucked a strand of her hair. "And the same goes for Sakura. We might have had a bond with him and we care for Sasuke in our own ways but after hearing Itachi's story, I think it is his duty to tell him the truth. He made the mistake and he should be the one to fix it. When I think about it…Itachi also needs to go through some therapy—him and Sasuke."
"Are you going to tell him this?"
"After the camp," Naruto stared out at the ocean. "I know it sounds silly and maybe it seems silly but knowing the truth about the massacre cleared a lot of things in my mind. I feel guilty for giving up on my best friend, on my brother and for not accomplishing my promise…but now that I think about it: can I really bring him back? If I bring him back then who is going to help him through the trauma? Because I am too fucked up to deal with this shit."
Kenji snorted. "We are all fucked up."
"Sasuke says he wants to kill Itachi…says it was his life's mission but I doubt he can actually go through with it," Naruto closed her eyes. "Can you look at your brother's eyes and murder him in cold blood? I think he will hate himself and he will hate himself even more when he discovers the truth."
"Telling him the truth would kill him even more," Naruto blinked her eyes and Kenji scratched his chin. "Imagine spending your whole life thinking that your brother murdered your clan for power and then finding out the village he stayed in were the ones that ordered their deaths. Tell me, do you think Sasuke would never entertain the possibility of murdering the whole village for their actions? If Itachi told the whole world the truth then the Uchiha clan would be seen as monsters."
"So it is better for Sasuke to plan and murder his brother?"
"I think the fool should have told his baby brother the truth and that it would have been better if he had done it from the start," Kenji looked out at the sea. "If Itachi told his brother the truth then yes he would develop anger and maybe he would plot for revenge but if he stayed by his side and try to make the little shithead his love for the village then your teammate would be a different person."
Kenji looked up at the sky and sighed.
'The world is filled with fools, don't you think Reo-niisan?'
A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter.