Chapter Three

"Will you be okay going to Konoha? We don't have to go. I can tell leader-sama you weren't feeling well." Kisame fretted as he held his slender husband in his arms.

The younger man said nothing, gazing blankly at the wall across from their bed, his body soft and pliant in the elder's arms. The Uchiha had been in the same state since their meeting with Pein had ended hours previous and had yet to respond to his worried inquiries.

"Itachi?"

The raven shifted quietly, then finally spoke, his voice soft and broken.

"Those two men. There is no information on them and they are hanging around Sasuke. I- I have to."

Kisame gritted his teeth.

He was the only person in the Akatsuki that knew the truth behind the Uchiha Massacre and he hated just how far the raven would go for that little brother of his. He hated that Itachi saw himself as little more than a tool to be used to ensure the safety of his brother and his village no matter personal cost. His lover was far too kind for this world.

"If it gets to be too much, we're leaving."

Itachi nodded, but there was something defiant in his otherwise passive gaze that told him it wouldn't be easy to convince him to leave.

The older nuke-nin sighed irritably. "Rest. We've got a long journey ahead of us."

Sarutobi Hiruzen frowned slightly as he stared at the six shinobi in front of him, particularly the two supposedly dead Uchiha.

He hadn't believed it when Kakashi had reported their appearance in the wave and despite the copy-nin's verification that they were who they said they were, he couldn't help being cautious. Only Kakashi and Obito could verify the latter's last memory, but he could verify Shisui's himself.

"Uchiha Obito, what is your last memory?"

The man in question straightened. "Rocks were falling and Kakashi was in the way so I pushed him outta the way. Then it all goes black and I'm waking up in the wake way older than I should be."

Kakashi nodded, hand tightening at his side and the Sandaime turned to Shisui.

"And yours?"

"I was talking to Itachi about The Mission. It failed and Danzou confronted me with Ne because of it. I gave 'tachi my remaining eye and committed suicide so that he could unlock his Mangekyō."

Hiruzen frowned while Obito gasped.

"Danzou left it out of the reports that he confronted you."

Shisui gave a bitter snort.

"I imagine he left a lot of things out of his report, Sandaime-sama. Including the fact that he ripped out one of my sharingan and used it to replace the eye he lost in the war."

The Sandaime's frown darkened at his words and he leaned forward, hands clasped under his chin. Staring at the group he silently prayed for Itachi's forgiveness as his next action would unravel the plans he'd made to redeem his clan and keep them clean in his brother's eyes.

"No word of what I am about to say, leaves this room." He ordered and everyone nodded, including the members of team seven.

"Shisui, seals."

The formerly dead jounin flashed through a few one handed seals then nodded.

"They will not speak of it beyond these walls, Sir."

Naruto swallowed. "What's going on, jiji?"

"I'm going to tell you all a story. More so, I am going to invalidate the sacrifices of one this village's most brilliant shinobi and I can only hope he will forgive me. However, with the recent events, I can no longer keep this truth from the six of you in particular. Some of you know the truth and others, well this will shatter your beliefs in our village and for that I apologize."

He paused and they all stared at him with varying amounts of caution.

"Thirteen years ago, as you all know, the Kyūbi no Kitsuneattacked our village. What you do not know is that the beast was being controlled."

Everyone but Shisui gasped, staring at the Sandaime wide-eyed. What was so powerful that it could control a bijuu?

"Of all the villages in the elemental nations, ours is the only one with a doujutsu powerful enough to control the bijuu. And that doujutsu belonged to the Uchiha."

"The sharingan." Obito murmured quietly and the man nodded.

"But, but how?" Naruto stammered, shooting a fearful look at the two older Uchiha.

It was Shisui that responded. "The sharingan has four forms, one of which is nearly impossible to achieve. The first is the basic one. At this stage, the user has one tomoe on one side, usually on the side of their dominant hand, and two tomoe on the other. The next level, there are three tomoe in both eyes. This is the level that most Uchiha never advance past because many don't know of the other two. Those that do, rarely try to achieve them because the cost of achieving them is too high."

His eyes fluttered as he remembered the anguished cry of his name escaping Itachi's lips as he fell, the peace he felt when he finally let go.

"The Mangekyō sharingan is considered by those who know of it the most powerful sharingan. It has the power to force even the strongest of bijuu under a genjutsu which is why many fear its power. It is achieve through trauma, whether that be the death of someone close to you or you killing that person yourself. The final form of the sharingan in called the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan. It…it is formed by transferring the Mangekyō sharingan of one's brother into oneself. It's the rarest form of our clan's doujutsu and to this day only one Uchiha has unlocked it."

Sasuke paled and his brother's words from that night rang in his ears.

"There is no value in killing the likes of you… My foolish brother… If you want to kill me… curse me! Hate me! And live a long and unsightly life… Run away… run away… and cling to your pitiful life. And then some day, when you have the same eyes as I do, come before me."(1)

How was he supposed to believe that his brother only wanted what was best for him when the man wanted him to suffer? Wanted him to gain the second worse form of their doujutsu?

All this was doing was making him hate the man more.

The sandaime took over the explanation again.

"Exactly. The village blamed the Uchiha for the attack, and it was decided by the council that they would be put under watch, especially considering that the beast was contained within the village."

Naruto flinched and Sasuke scowled.

"I thought the Yondaime killed it."

"You can't kill a demon," His teammate responded, his voice softer than Sasuke had ever heard it. "You can only contain it." The sandaime nodded.

"The head of the Uchiha, your father, was upset about it. He was, rightfully, offended by the village's attitude toward the Uchiha and in response he formed a plan. For your clan to regain the power it had once held, they'd need to stage a coup d'état."

Everyone gasped, excluding Shisui who closed his eyes painfully.

"He started pushing Itachi harder and harder, forcing him to advance through the ranks as quickly as he could until finally, when Ita-chan was ten, he joined the Anbu. He was to spy on the village, on the Hokage and report back to the elders so that they'd know how to plan their next move. I followed, unwilling to let him go through with it alone, but even I had no idea that Itachi had another plan. I had already been on a team in the village and was playing double agent for both the elders and the village, but Itachi was so loyal, so family-driven that I never expected him to disobey Fugaku-sama and tell the Hokage of their plans." He let out a shuddering breath.

"When we returned home, I asked him why, and he told me that he had to. He said that if the clan managed to be successful, it would drive the village into a civil war…and eventually another Great War, one the other villages realized that ours had fallen into disarray. He said he couldn't- wouldn't let Sasuke grow up in the same violence that we had."

Obito and Kakashi, remembering their own war-torn childhoods, and the small raven haired child they'd always seen on the battlefields trying to help in any way he could, nodded. They knew as well as any of the other survivors of the Second War, the trauma that it left in its wake.

"We worked for years, trying to work both ends, to save our village and our clan, then finally I came up with a plan. There is a jutsu that can only be cast with the Mangekyō sharingan. It's called the Kotoamatsukami. It…it's a mind-control jutsu, subtler than the Yamanaka's signature and a lot more powerful. It can only be used once every ten years and I thought…I thought it would succeed. With both the Clan and the village council pushing for results, for answers, we couldn't afford for it to fail. I tried to use it on Fugaku-sama to negate the coup…it failed." His voice broke and Obito reached out for him only for him to move away.

"Danzo-sama confronted me about it and we fought…just when I thought I'd defeated him, he caught me off guard and ripped out my eye. He placed in his own empty socket while I escaped. Then he sent the Ne after me. I ran, and lured Itachi to the Naka river. There, I informed him of my failure. I told him it was all up to him now, then…then I gave him my remaining eye and I fell…"

The sandaime took over, once more, while everyone stared at Shisui, stunned.

"Itachi informed us of your death, and your failure to subdue the clan. Your clansmen blamed him for your death and had decided to move up their plans…so we ordered their elimination. He protested, but Danzo, Homura, and Koharu, ordered it so. He agreed on the condition that his little brother, Uchiha Sasuke be spared."

"No."

Everyone turned to Sasuke who was glaring at them all with wet dark eyes.

"I don't believe you! I- I can't believe you."

The sandaime sighed and handed them the official mission papers.

Sasuke read them shocked as the man continued speaking.

"Once the deed was done, I gave him the mission to go undercover in a criminal organization called the Akatsuki. He asked that I watch over you, and protect you until you became a shinobi and could protect yourself."

A broken sob left the teen who threw the papers down, his entire core rattled. Then, blind to everything but his own grief, he raced from the room, ignoring the cries of everyone behind him.

TBC…