What horrors do his crimson eyes behold? These are the unfathomable depths of Uchiha Itachi.
I don't own Naruto nor do I profit from these writings in any way.
"Speaking"
"Thinking"
"Demon"
Ninkai no Ou
xx
One shinobi gave his life to defeat the Monster Fox…
Held forever in the memory of the Leaf…
Under the light of a cold blue moon, kitsune prance…
"Hold it Baaack! Even if you die!"
"Don't allow it within sight of the walls!"
A giant fox with nine crimson tails marauds in the night, destroying the countryside to the sounds of screams. Its terrible chakra hangs heavily in the air, a strange heated wind carrying the stench of death and a killer intent so intense that the very clouds flee from the sky.
"RRRROOOOOOAAAAARRRR!!"
-BOOM!-
"Gyaaahhh!"
"H-hold out until the Fourth-"
"Flank it, raise an earth rampart-"
"He's here! The Yondaime is here!"
Held proudly in the memory of the Leaves…
A Daikaijuu-sized summon, a giant toad wielding an equally titanic sai, faces off against an irate demon fox. Atop its head a hero stands resolute.
The all is light…
All is silence…
For a moment, no one understands, and then….the scant handful of square miles of forest separating the battle site and the outer walls of Konoha, the Hidden Leaf ninja village, erupt in cheers
The Yondaime Hokage, held forever in the memory of the Hidden Leaf….
xx
At the Same Time…
xx
They stood grimly, looking upon the body of the child.
The Kage Bunshin of the Yondaime shuddered as if some ill wind had somehow entered the candle-lit chamber.
Sarutobi Hiruzen, watched the scene grimly, sparing only a glance at his neighbors. To his left, stand his fellow advisors, Koharu and Homura; and to his right, stand two Uchiha elders, Fugaku and Mikoto. The latter group is escorted by eight AnBu, Kuma and Neko stand in to open, the rest are hidden in the shadows watching.
Normally, the Uchiha clansmen would not have been allowed in the chamber, to witness the final half of the sealing ritual if not for one thing.
"O-okaa-san…" a child's voice murmurs sleepily.
On the sacrificial altar lay Uchiha Itachi, unknowingly the imminent recipient of the Kyuubi's yang chakra.
At the child's helpless murmur, Mikoto sobs quietly, under the disapproving glare of the Uchiha elders.
Sarutobi spares them just another glance, for Fugaku it is enough.
"You disapprove?" The man asked lowly.
The Sandaime stares ahead a moment longer before replying, his eyes never leaving the trembling body of the Fourth.
"I wish that it sere not necessary to burden Itachi-kun further…"
The Sandaime was referring to the Shinrabanshou technique that had been used on Itachi at birth, the willing sacrifice of several Uchiha elders too old to serve had been given toward awakening Itachi's powers to their fullest potential.
"Itachi was born during a time of war." Fugaku intoned, "With respect, Sarutobi-dono, granting him the skills of thirty of our most skilled warriors was to make him the perfect tool of the village, a means to create a greater bond between my clan and the village, with the war's conclusion, my son's sacrifice served no purpose," The man finished quietly, "Now he does."
It was at that moment that the village advisors became determined to separate Itachi from his clan, though for different reasons. Koharu and Homura, though impassive, nursed worries over such a power falling into the hands of any single clan. The gazed at the Uchiha elders with veiled suspicion and the elder glared back aware in part of what thoughts might hide behind those blank stares.
Sarutobi evaded the confrontation by stepping forward, past Kuma, who guarded the Yondaime. Though in his heart he made a solemn vow to se Itachi treated as a hero and free of his family's influence.
"Being sacrificed once should have been enough… there will be no third time!" The elderly man thought.
Finally, standing at the elbow of the Fourth, Hiruzen asked his question. "What is it like?"
"Like dying." Came his successor's solemn reply, "It's something that can only be explaind through experience." The man's voice hushed and was accompanied by a persistent chill. "He's here, the younger man stated aloud, before bending over with a groan.
"It's time!" He gasped. "Tell her, tell Kushina, I love her, protect Naruto and…this child, I leave the village to you! Sarutobi!"
"FUIN!"
And so, the Yondaime Hokage, died, passing into legend, without ever knowing, of his wife's death in child birth, nor of the burden of hell that Itachi would fall under. That cross would be Sarutobi Hiruzen's to bear.
As the Sandaime Hokage…
xx
In the aftermath of rebuilding, many of the injured did what little they could to lighten the burden of the frenzied efforts to protect Konoha and project an image of strength. This burden would in part be offset by the early graduation of the academy to the rank of genin. Itachi however, would not be among them.
The six year-old rested by his window, in an apartment on the opposite side of town from his parent's home.
The Sandaime had made good on his promise, to separate Itachi from his parent's influence.
What the Sandaime could not have known, was that Itachi had not been as unwilling a sacrifice as he or the boy's own parent's assumed. Truly a prodigy, he had been hidden, listening to the elders propose that either he or Sasuke bear the seal. Aware of the consequences, Itachi hadn't made a force when his father had rendered him unconscious with a combination o drugs and sharingan-backed genjutsu.
Even drugged, Itachi had retained enough awareness to listen in his father's true opinion and his mother's lack of one.
Dark eyes hardened. His chakra control was now abysmal, thrown out of whack by the sealing and explained away as an injury perpetrated by the attack. Itachi knew better.
So his chakra control was sub-par, he would improve it.
So he was hated and unloved, then he would create a place for himself.
With quiet intensity, Itachi made his promise… to his soul.
He was…Uchiha Itachi, Host of the Kyuubi no Kitsune