"Now. First of all, I believe some introductions are in order." Tobira suggested, taking charge as he sat in the chair a few feet away from Itachi. He sat with a firm posture, upright and serious. With one leg crossed over the other and an arm leaning on the chair's arm, he finally looked Itachi in the eyes. "Of both the official and unofficial kind."
Nodding, the pre-teen matched the eyes of the elder shinobi. He allowed his sharingan to fade, the silent peace offering understood as they sat parallel. "That would probably be for the best." he agreed, more than willing to accept any information the man was willing to give. After all, it seemed he already knew quite a bit about the young Uchiha. Definitely more than Itachi would have ever willingly given him.
He could hear Hiruzen shift slightly in his seat, though he didn't pay much mind at the moment. Instead, he listened carefully to the masked man across from him. "There are three layers to my identification. Public, Classified, and Executive."
That would make sense. It wasn't an uncommon system, particularly when it came to people involved in either the ANBU or Internation cooperation. Itachi himself had been part of the system, for a time. To the public, he had been a chuunin. Meanwhile, he had actually been classified as an ANBU member to those with a high enough clearance level. Then, finally, the hokage and elders had the executive knowledge of his stance as a double agent.
As such, he wasn't particularly off-put as Tobira went on to explain his own layers of identification. "To the public, I am Tobira. I am related to the Uchiha clan through marriage, though my spouse has since passed away. I came for Sasuke in honour of their memory since I couldn't bear to live in my old lands any further."
This much Itachi had already heard, namely from the gossiping travellers he had passed during his travel towards the village. It was good to hear it confirmed, helping Itachi paint a picture of what was going on. Or, well, what they wanted him to think was going on.
"At the secondary level, I am Tobira, one of Hiruzen's acquaintances he met during the Third Shinobi War and kept in contact with. I've come to visit him and lend a hand while he focuses on making some administrative shifts."
This peaked his attention. Administrative shifts? The boy leaned slightly so that he was laying on his right arm, though his left hand remained on his lap. Fingers reflexively hovering in front of his mouth, he listened, saving his questions for after the man was finished talking. If this was the second level of classification, he wasn't quite sure what they could be locking behind the executive level.
Itachi simply nodded as Tobira paused, silently assuring the man that he had heard. Dark eyes shifted between the silver-haired man and Hiruzen, focusing on the masked man as he reached up to touch his clothed nose.
"There are currently only four people with executive knowledge. Hiruzen Sarutobi, Danzo Shimura, Koharu Utatane, and Homura Mitokado. We have made preparations for both you and Tsunade Senju to be added to the list, though it has not been finalised yet." the explained, the black fabric sliding down his face and revealing three evenly-placed tics on each side of his jaw.
Itachi's dark eyes scanned over the patterns on his face, the image ahead of him clicking in his brain. It synchronized with the crystal-like memory that came with the sharingan, overlaying against the images of a man he'd seen time and time again throughout most of his childhood.
An imposing stone, carved so high into the sky he'd once had to strain his little neck upwards to see it.
The regal man, posed for photos upon photos in his academy history courses.
A confident scientist, image taped to back of shinobi concept texts he'd find in the library as a curious genin.
The frowning form of the Lord Second, printed in a few select pages of ideology books. Right next to the more prominent discussions about Lord First, his red eyes embedding themselves in a young chuunin's subconscious.
This man couldn't be Lord Second.
Nearly every text he'd ever read had listed his date of death right beneath his long list of achievements. Danzo's curt lectures about the importance of self-sacrifice. The worn and faded photographs lining the books.
Yet his youthful face sat across from Itachi, patiently folding his mask on his lap and allowing himself to be scanned over like some sort of newly recovered ancient scroll. His words carried on in a calm tone despite the way things seemed to slow around Itachi, the teen pressing back the layers of images that floated through his mind. "On the executive layer, I am Tobirama Senju."
As the man sat his mask on the desk, eyes focused on the fabric, Itachi sent a quick glance over towards Hiruzen. He had been Tobirama's student, so if anyone knew the man's chakra, it would be him.
The brunet man simply eyed Itachi with a nod, silently endorsing the silver-haired man's words. Lord Second's words, he reiterated in his mind.
Feeling the eyes of said man return to him, Itachi glanced away from the wrinkled man. His ebony eyes moved from across the desk to Tobirama, the young Uchiha feeling something unsettling nest in his stomach as they made eye contact once more. This time, it was not Tobirama who looked away.
The pre-teen, slightly unsure of what to do, bowed his head as the pause in conversation threatened to slip into awkward silence territory. "I see." he managed to force out, eyes tracing over his own hands that had somehow ended up back on his lap.
What exactly was he supposed to say? He was far ahead of Itachi in age, skill, power, and knowledge. Yet this was also the man he'd just spent the last day lurking around, watching from a distance as the red-eyed man pretended not to notice. All the while he trained with Sasuke, cooking him a nice dinner and putting him to bed. Resting a hand on the six-year-old's shoulder as they passed through the compound.
The care Tobirama seemed to take with Sasuke ran on a loop in Itachi's mind, clashing with the rumours and speculations surrounding Tobirama's feelings towards their clan.
While Itachi wasn't so presumptuous as to assume the things he'd heard about someone over their actual actions, an unsettled feeling swelled in his chest.
He wouldn't allow himself to be led by the accusations of others, especially those who never knew the actual man themselves, and yet...
It felt as if an icicle was stabbed through his heart as the intrusive thought entered his mind: Was Tobirama staying with Sasuke to safeguard the last of their clan, or was it to gain easy access to its demise?
If any of the rumours rang true, it would be the perfect time to get rid of them. Danzo had certainly taken to using the coup to its fullest.
Tobirama could end Sasuke any time he wanted. Itachi, as skilled for his age as he was, wouldn't stand a chance against one of the legendary founders of Konoha. He could fight, yes. He could threaten the leakage of village information, sure. In no case, however, could he kill this man as he was.
Suddenly, Itachi felt foolish for his early pondering of whether he should kill Tobirama or drive him away.
His fingers felt cold, a pain pinching behind his eyes once again as his sharingan activated on their own. Stress built up in Itachi at the mere thought, though he schooled his face into remaining passive. He stayed still, forcing the chakra away from his eyes and towards his hands to still the slight twitch they'd acquired.
Dragging his pupils upwards to look at Tobirama, the pre-teen met the gaze of the elder. He held not a single pose from any of the books he'd seen over the years. He did not appear regal, agitated, or confident in this moment. He looked...somewhere between discontent and curious, his brows pulled together ever so slightly with a slight frown on his lips.
"If that is so," Itachi watched him carefully, "Then may I ask what you are doing here?" eyes focusing on the youthful-looking elder as he spoke. "I can only assume this is the work of some sort of jutsu, whether it be closer to the impure world reincarnation or transformation ends of the spectrum."
A bemused look crossed the man's face, though he kept his tone focused as he looked over to the young Uchiha. "It was, in fact, the work of a technique quite like the impure world reincarnation. However, this technique does not require a sacrifice nor caster at the expense of taking a longer time to go through. Specifically, it takes around a month to finish."
Itachi frowned tightly at this. A month. So it did have something to do with the massacre, then. He stayed quiet, listening as the silver-haired shinobi explained, "It was designed to bring me back should there be any unusual movement with the Uchiha clan." his red eyes narrowing as he spoke, seeming less than pleased. "It was a safety precaution for the village, meant to allow me to step in if things got to the point they triggered the seal."
Oh. The ravenet could see exactly where this was going. The sudden dip in the number of Uchihas must have activated the seal, awakening the man from what should have been an eternal rest.
That couldn't be what this meeting was about, though, surely? Was this why he was called back? To apologize to Lord Second? He hadn't gotten the impression that the man was so vain, and yet. With Sasuke hanging so carefully in the balance, spot still unclear in all of this, he was less than willing to express his potentially offensive question.
He was of course guilty for waking the man from his rest, but if this was indeed the reason he had been called away from his mission, it did put a damper on said apology.
Itachi stood from his chair to lower himself into a deep bow, offering his apology in a serious tone despite his reservations. If nothing else, at least he had practice when it came to offering apologies he didn't fully agree with. Generous courtesy of Inabi. "I understand. You have my deepest apologies for your wake." he apologized, though this didn't seem to be what the other had in mind.
"Do not- Itachi, stand." Tobirama ordered, waiting until the dark-eyed boy lifted himself back up to speak. What had previously been displeasure shifted into flat annoyance as he spoke, words almost scolding. "My rest is the last thing we need to focus on right now. If I were so concerned with it, I never would have planted the seal." his eyes narrowed, "If anything, I should be offering you thanks for setting it off, accidentally or not. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to see the mess this village has become."
That was. A lot to unpack. The mess the village had become? Did this have anything to do with the administrative shifts they'd mentioned earlier? Finding himself confused, Itachi slowly sat down as Tobirama motioned for him to do, a small frown on his face. "I'm afraid I don't understand, Lord Second. The village has been free from any major conflicts for nearly seven years now. The only issues that have been prominent have been the ninetails incident and the coup, both of which have been dealt with as far as it was possible."
"Too far." he corrected, "They both went too far. The amount of child sacrifices I've seen since being revived is sickening, even without going into the lousy systems they've put in place to care for the children that do survive. Many children are still suffering immensely despite the villages' supposed claims of prosperity, but no one seems willing to lift a finger to aid them. That." he put an emphasis on the word, looking Itachi in the eyes as he spoke, "Is what today is about. Things are going to change around here, starting with you. This village will not stray any further from its path."