AN: Hey guys. Please comment if you like the story.
It was a dark and gritty evening. Itachi loomed over the Uchiha clan's unsuspecting members, as he resolved himself. He knew what had to be done. He was not sure if he had the strength for it.
He leapt off and started with unsuspecting members in the police force headquarters. It was so disgustingly easy for him that he was disgusted with himself. But the village came first. It would always come first. So he resolved himself and moved on. One slash at a time, doing it from the back so he wouldn't have to see their faces of shock and desperation, so he wouldn't have to see their betrayed faces as he slammed his tanto into their guts. So that they wouldn't see his pained face as he massacred them.
The adults and elders were the easy bit. They were causing a rebellion. He was ordered to kill them. It was for the good of Konoha, he told himself as he killed them one by one.
But when he started with the children, he was so disgusted with himself. He was killing innocent children. He knew that as a shinobi, he would be expected do these things, but this, this was not what he signed up for! Each time he stabbed one of them, he would see Sasuke's face instead of theirs, looking at him, shocked, afraid, paralysed and betrayed. Tears soon started flowing out of his eyes.
He then reached Izumi, his girlfriend. He used Tsukuyomi to show her how they would have turned out if this massacre wasn't happening. They lived their entire lives out in Tsukuyomi. When he finished the Tsukuyomi, within a millisecond in real time, Izumi said, "Thank you" as she fell to the ground.
Itachi's eyes were shedding tears at this point.
At last, he reached his parents. His father said, "So you chose the village, over the clan. I can respect that. Take care of Sasuke" as Itachi plunged his sword into their backs.
Just as he rose to meet Sasuke who would arrive in a short time, he heard Kakashi's voice from behind him, "Itachi, stand down"
He turned around to see Kakashi in full gear, with his own Mangekyou in full display.
"I don't want to do this Senpai" Itachi said.
"Neither do I, Itachi" Kakashi lunged at Itachi with his chidori.
Earlier that day,
Kakashi had a bad feeling, his gut was telling him something bad was going to happen.
The sun was out, there were no clouds in the sky, he was just back from another "suicide mission", somehow alive. He was back in Konoha after a month outside the village. It was good to be back home.
But still, his gut was screaming out, there's something going on, and he told himself, it's nothing, just his over alert ptsd mind from all the "suicide missions" he's been taking on since Sensei died, none of which managed to actually kill him, even when other ANBU died, his messed up survivor's luck kept him alive, to complete more and more dangerous missions every time he survived. His chakra had also grown with the constant usage, with constantly being pushed to it's limits, he now has enough chakra to successfully pull off a hundred of his thousand jutsu in one battle.
His dear kohai, Itachi, not that he really had any hand in training him except in ANBU, had been promoted to ANBU captain last month, when he was last in the village, with the position of Hokage within the next two years, if the Sandaime's desperation to retire was any indication.
His dear kohai, Tenzou had started coming out of his emotional shell, letting people in, the rest of ANBU was doing swimmingly, the war was gone, Konoha was ushering in an era of peace, her people happy and prosperous.
So why did he feel like this was just the calm before the storm?
He went to the Third Hokage to report his mission. Entering through the window, unnoticed by anyone, and kneeled before the third, and said, "Mission successful, Hokage-sama. Sand shinobi were eliminated during their mission for their Daimyo and there are no traces that will connect them to us. Even to the trained shinobi eye, it will look like sheer incompetence. Partially because they were half baked shinobi, thanks to my previous efforts" he chuckled.
Hiruzen took his pipe, smoked a little and said, "Good, Kaze no Kuni's Daimyo will have no choice but to come to us, with Suna shinobi being worthless to him. Thanks to your efforts in fueling the civil war ongoing in Kiri, even Mizu no Kuni's Daimyo is giving us majority of their missions."
"Now, I want to speak to Kakashi, the man, not Inu the ANBU captain"
Kakashi removed his mask and asked, "What is it, Hokage-sama?"
"What do you intend to do with your life Kakashi? Do you intend to spend the rest of it, like this, in ANBU, taking all these missions, trying to kill yourself through these missions? Why are doing all of this?"
"I just want to serve Konoha"
"Oh cut me the bull crap Kakashi. We both know that you can serve Konoha just as well from the inside, as a Jounin, taking on students, helping the next generation grow. Serving Konoha is not why you are doing this. Why don't you stop blaming yourself for the deaths of your teammates and your Sensei? You are not responsible for it. And if you feel so responsible, then why don't you take care of his only legacy, why don't you take care of Naruto?"
Kakashi had kept away from Naruto the same way he stayed out of the village, by going on one mission after another. Whenever he saw the kid, he was reminded of Sensei, of how he failed to protect Sensei and Kushina nee chan. Everytime he saw the kid, his guilt crept up to him, and he felt like killing himself. But he couldn't tell that to Hiruzen. He couldn't tell that to anyone. So he kept quite, put up his mental barriers, stopped letting people in, closed himself off and curled into his deep self loathing lifestyle, because he was a shinobi, and emotions were just going to get in his way. Tools like himself weren't supposed to have any emotions.
"You've spent eight years in ANBU. Is that not enough of time to figure out that you weren't responsible for the things you blame yourself for?" Hiruzen sighed as he continued, "Leave ANBU, and help Naruto if you blame yourself so much for Minato's death. You will leave ANBU, this isn't a request. It's an order. Today is the last day you spend as Konoha ANBU. A bunch of students are graduating in a few months. I'll assign you a team."
Kakashi looked up at Hiruzen, and before he was about to say anything, Hiruzen continued, "I won't hear anything else. Your time in ANBU is done. Leave, now"
So he did. He wandered around the village, unnoticed by everyone else, without any direction, without any purpose. He could do as Hiruzen said, reach out to Naruto.
He went to his apartment, took off his ANBU attire, and dropped down on his bed. He opened Icha Icha but even the book didn't prove to be distraction enough for him. So he decided to go to the academy, pick up Naruto, get to know the kid better. He wore the standard of Jonin outfit as he walked out.
His guts were still screaming, Something bad is going to happen, and he told himself, Nothing is happening. Everyone is safe within Konoha walls, nothing bad is going happen!
He reached the Konoha academy in a short while. The children were filing out. He saw Itachi giving his younger brother a piggyback ride home. From the shadows, he saw Naruto, on a swing, all by himself. He saw Naruto's face, Minato Sensei, he just started at Naruto from the shadows, his mind in turmoil. Unable to face Naruto, he went back to his own apartment.
There, he took a scroll and started writing instructions for a multitude of things such as shadow clone, tree walking, water walking, and a chakra paper with instructions on how to interpret it, and further instructions on how to learn control over all five natures since Kakashi didn't really know what natures Naruto might have. He also left a few basic jutsu for all natures so that Naruto wouldn't have any problem with any justu. In the end, he signed as a well wisher of Naruto, not having the guts to write his own name.
He dropped it off at Naruto's apartment. Naruto came by and looked at it, seeing that it was addressed to him. He took it inside and started going through the contents of the scroll.
When he was done going through it, he was so happy that it brought a tear to Kakashi's eye. Naruto looked up at the air and said, "I don't know who you are, well wisher, but thank you" He said the last part many times with a large grin on his face and started to practice the shadow come jutsu, determined to master it.
Kakashi stayed there for a long time and then, left to go to his own home with a smile under that mask of his.
On his way home, he was interrupted by an ANBU, "Hokage sama has summoned you." He also flared his chakra in ANBU code for- be there in full gear, high level intruder.
So he shushined back home, put on his gear and went to the Hokage office in under twenty seconds.
"Hokage sama"
Hiruzen said, "Intruder in the Uchiha district. He was only noticed when he entered barrier. Disappeared since then. We might be dealing with an older ANBU, so be careful" The barrier system was changed a few years ago, so any ANBU who defected after the change would never be caught but those who defected before would only be noticed when they broke in, but little had changed beyond the barrier, that even they could stay hidden.
So that narrowed the list down. Very few ANBU had defected before and survived till now. That just made them all the more dangerous.
So Kakashi rushed towards the point of entry and summoned his dogs, "Find any tracks or smells of anyone here. Find any clues to find our intruder"
It took the dogs a while of sniffing until Pakkun came and said, "I have news boss, but you won't like it"
"Go ahead"
"This intruder is good. The trail of smell ends right where it started. There are footprints in the same position but nothing else"
Kakashi was not happy. "Let's head towards the Uchiha compounds"
The sun had started to set. Him and his dogs finally caught a scent near the clan compound and started tracking it down and it ended at the Uchiha clan fence. He entered, stealthily to make sure they didn't find him. There he saw Itachi on a pole, and Itachi started to attack his clan members.
So this was how Hiruzen was dealing with the coup. He'd known about it since he was guarding Hiruzen through most of the talks involving the Uchiha. All that talk about peace and the village wasn't even willing to let the Uchiha stay in the same vicinity as the rest of it. No wonder they wanted to coup. And this was how Hiruzen was dealing with it.
Tsk. Pathetic. The worst part is that Itachi would be forced to leave the village. Not on his watch. He flared his chakra, to let his team know that he needed them here, emergency.
Tenzou, Genma and Yugao were there in less than half a minute.
He ordered them to take anyone twelve and younger to the hospital as soon as possible.
After giving them orders, he went to the house of Fugaku, to find Itachi killing his parents.
He made a shadow clone and sent it to Itachi while he crept underground waiting for an opportunity to strike.
The shadow clone said, "Itachi, stand down"
Itachi turned around to see Kakashi's clone, with his own Mangekyou in full display, and chidori in hand.
"I don't want to do this Senpai" Itachi said.
"Neither do I" said the clone.
Itachi and the clone rushed at each other, Itachi with his Tanto and Kakashi with his chidori, they clashed in the middle of the room. Itachi's eye spun revealing his Mangekyou Sharingan.
He said, "You forced me to do this, Senpai," as the eye bled and he used Amaterasu burning Kakashi's clone.
Kakashi used the moment Itachi used Amaterasu to strike up with chidori in his arm. Itachi barely moved out of Kakashi's arm's way. Kakashi managed to kick Itachi in the gut and pushed him to the wall of the house. Itachi managed to get up, but before he was able to do anything, Kakashi was already onto him, his chidori slamming into the wall, Itachi surviving by a hair's breadth yet again. Kakashi then said, "Raiton: Denji Myakudo"[Lightning Style: Electromagnetic Pulse]
The chidori in his arm burst out in a large sphere of electromagnetic radiation, hitting Itachi's head causing him to roll over. Once again, Kakashi's arm, clad in lightning, attacked Itachi, once again Itachi managed to roll over and stand up, in bated breaths.
Just as he stood up, Sasuke entered the house and saw Itachi bloodied, assumed it to be Itachi's blood and started panicking. He asked Itachi, "Nii san, who is this man? Is he the one who killed everyone?" Sasuke was shivering in fear. How could his perfect nii san be beaten like this?
Itachi was distracted for a moment when Sasuke questioned him and Kakashi struck at Itachi making sure to miss everything important. Then kicked Itachi in the gut and removed his arm, leaving a gaping hole in his shoulder, as Itachi fell down.
He looked at Sasuke and said, "Yes, I killed everyone. Your parents, your cousins, and soon, your brother as well. What will you do about it?" He then threw a kunai at Sasuke and said, "You want revenge, kid? Go ahead, try it"
Itachi looked at Sasuke and said, "Run, Sasuke!" Unfortunately, it came out only as a whisper.
Sasuke seeing that Itachi was still barely alive, took the kunai in hand, still shivering and ran at Kakashi in anger at the fact that his parents were dead, that his brother was injured greively. His eyes changed into the Sharingan as he charged at Kakashi with kunai in hand. Kakashi kicked Sasuke away before Sasuke could reach him and said, "Your brother was no match for me. What makes you believe you are? Try the same thing after a hundred years and you might succeed"
Saying so, Kakashi left and was greeted by the third Hokage. He looked at him with disgust hidden under his ANBU mask and said, "I'm taking the fall for Itachi. He's still alive inside. You better not do anything to those kids my team saved. I'll know if something happens to them. And you know just as well as me, what happens to villages that I decide to messs with" as he left in a shushin.
Kakashi's team reached the Hokage just moments after Kakashi had fled. They asked, "Orders, Hokage sama"
Hiruzen said, "First take Itachi to the hospital. Make sure the children his team saved survive. The safety of the Uchiha is most important. We must save those who survived Kakashi Hatake's massacre"
The ANBU looked at the Hokage in surprise and asked, "Kakashi killed them?" doubt in their minds. Why would Kakashi have them save the kids, if he attacked them in the first place.
Hiruzen said, "Yes. Now take Itachi to the hospital!" The ANBU complied, not wishing to anger their leader and took Itachi to the hospital.
Hiruzen looked up at the sky and sighed in defeat and anger. He should have known Danzo would go behind his back and order Itachi to do this.
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