Hello Lovelies! I'm back. The long awaited chapter. I sped up a few things. I realize this won't be a super long fanfiction since the timeline is placed around the Uchiha massacre. Lets see how it unfolds.

- NuteWelt01

"In retrospect, it is your fault."

Itachi awoke with a start. The afternoon sun hovered low in the sky from the place reflecting off his window. His gaze drew forward, culminating around his room for a familiar pink head; a hand rubbed across his eyes.

Sakura is missing again.

It's unlike him to flop back on his bed with a deep drawn-out sigh, but he did just that. Everything he knew about his clan and the world upside down. There were players pulling strings in the dark. Making up a plan to extract them all could be challenging.

First, he would face Sakura and prepare a new plan, one that won't result in chaos and his brother banished from the village in the imminent future.

With that thought in mind, Itachi started his morning routine. It was silent, mostly. Without a knock on the door from his mother for breakfast, he became skeptical. When stepping out of his room into the dim hallway, no one addressed him, but he could pick up the distant voices of his family from the living room. Walking the familiar path around past Sasuke's room made Itachi think of his mother. What would have transpired if she didn't die? If Sasuke had one parent, what would happen to him?

"Itachi, are you going to remain there all day?"

Fugaku's voice drifted from behind. The tone sounded curious, if not put-off by his heir's arrival in the living room. Mikoto sat on a pillow nearly stuffed under the small table pouring tea. Sasuke and Sakura were nowhere in sight. Instead of pausing, he drifted past his mother to another sliding door across the room. Mikoto didn't pay him any mind for once. An odd occurrence he would look into later. Itachi slid the door open, blinded by sunshine. Eyes dilated by dying rays of purple in the distance adjusted to its surroundings. They searched until landing on the quiet form of Sakura.

Pushing the door back in place, he made his way down the porch and across the lawn. Admiring Mikoto's handwork between the weaving bushes and a large flower bed became a hobby in the past. It used to fascinate him years ago. At some point, the sanctuary of his parent's home was more of a prison. The garden included if anyone knew flower language as Kunoichi's did.

Light footsteps stopped at the edge of the pool beside the sitting girl. Sakura's shoulders were hunched upwards in frustration. A hand petted the surface of the koi pond scraping the lily ponds without thought.

"What are you going to do, Itachi?"

He was taken aback by the tone in her voice. The frustration and anger were visible in each word. It was confusing from the reaction he saw yesterday.

"About Sasuke?"

A plausible answer, but he wasn't sure it was the right one.

"No. Madara Uchiha, what are you going to do about him?"

The teen bent his knees to the ground in a crouch. His gaze never left the tense shivering of her shoulders or the slow turn of heavy Veridian looking back.

"What are you going to do about the man who started this whole thing?"

Itachi's lips didn't part for an answer because he didn't have one yet. The encounter, however, hadn't happened yet. There was time to gather evidence from the past that would be impossible to enquire in the present.

"We could make a plan, go to the Hokage-"

"NO!" Sakura's voice shouted, dying at the end into a plead. Maybe it was the selfish desire to make sure everything went to plan, but there were things she still wasn't privy to as the Hokages apprentice. She winced in remembrance.

"The massacre was caused by you and Madara. The Hokage orders you to carry out the mission."

The mentioned day caused a stir of anxiety, causing Itachi to shift. He sat down beside Sakura, looking at pieces of grass fall on her skirt. He never noticed the greenery littering her feet was from her constant plucking. She couldn't hide her feelings with perfection as he could.

" Then, we need to depend on each other. If we stop what happens now...then Sasuke won't leave the village in the future."

Her fingers twitched, itching to rip more grass from the ground. No matter how far she has come, the anger surrounding the death of any shinobi Sakura has ever known started with the avenger. A teammate she couldn't save from the darkness. Fingers released fragile roots from their place; her gaze met his.

"Do it for him, but don't forget everyone else involved."

Itachi nodded, his voice unable to carry the simple message resonating in his mind.

' Always for you, little brother.'

" An outsider appealing to my son. Hmp!"

The disgruntled voice of Fugaku split the air as he sipped tea from a porcelain cup. He never set for tea because of his duties as a clan head, nor relinquished control of the ever-growing anger at his wife's opinions of their sons. Speaking of the woman sitting across from him and pouring another cup of tea, Fugaku scrutinized the Matriarch of the clan.

She hadn't aged since the start of their marriage yet small bags set under Mikoto's eyes. Stress lines he hadn't noticed until now. The clink of the teapot caught her attention blank ebony eyes glancing from her cup to Fugaku. It was an innocent gesture. The man nearly gritted his teeth from the action. As if understanding, Mikoto looked away, staring back at her cup. Fugaku stared for another moment sipping his tea with slow precision.

" Itachi will start training for the role of Patriarch. In addition to this, suitable candidates for Matriarch will be presented to him in the coming months. The council thinks his leadership will help us secure a position on the Konoha council, or better, Hokage. "

Mikoto couldn't hide her surprise. Widened eyes were the only indication she reacted to how Fugaku spoke of their son. Mikoto's untapped side shook itself, dusting off years of shinobi reflex to reach across the table and accost her husband. Although it was possible, she knew it wouldn't change the problem on her hands. Her son was being handed over to the elders on a silver platter by her husband.

The grip on her teacup increased, " Is it possible to wait until he is eighteen at least? Ambu is taking much of his time. He still needs to make relationships with other people. "

Rough hands squeezed the skin of her jaw bone. Mikoto didn't see her husband move from his spot; the familiar presence of his Sharingan burned the thin skin of her forehead. She refused to look at him.

" You will mind yourself. It is what is best for Itachi and neither you,"

Thick fingers rusted from weapon use clenched the whole of Mikoto's face before pushing her away forcefully. She grunted from the impact when her head hit the floor by the table. A hand reached to touch her cheek, running a thumb over a thin scratch from his fingernail.

"Nor your progressive ideology will change my mind."

Fugaku leaned back in his seat, fully engaged in the thought of throttling his wife right there. How dare she defy him. He stood from the cushion rounding the table in quick few steps.

"Father." Sasuke's voice could be heard from across the room by the hallway. His eyes were full; the school bag hanging on his shoulder dropped to the floor. Another presence stood from behind the screen door reaching for the smaller Uchiha. Shisui was quick to body flicker out of there with Sasuke before anything else could was said.

Muahahaha see not so bad! poor little Sasuke.
I went with the "do not include the hokage - he is an ass" opinion. I listen to my fans. :D
What do you guys think? Leave a comment! :)

- NuteWelt01