Author's Note: So the scene at the end of this chapter appears three times in the anime, Naruto #129, Shippuden #357 which is the Kakashi: Shadow of the Anbu arc and Shippuden #455 which is Itachi's Story arc. I had to look for it, I forgot that Kakashi's Arc showed Itachi's early Anbu days better than Itachi's Story arc did. Trying to make this seamless. Please review.

Citations: Naruto Episode #129, Naruto Shippuden Episode #357, Naruto Shippuden Episode #455, Itachi's Story: [Midnight] pg. 24-38

Chapter's Song: "Kimi No Sei" by The Peggies (If AmaLee does an English cover of this song in the future then listen to it!)

Chapter 35
It's All Your Fault

Knock-knock-knock. Akina answered the door, him seeing her in her Anbu Uniform. His eyes widened at the sight, her hair in a ponytail with a big maroon bow tying it up. "Akina… chan…"

"Good morning." She breathed, awkwardly but dignified as she snapped the strap of her armor into place. "Shisui already left."

"Oh," He looked away down the street, but glanced back to Akina with just his eyes. "You have a mission, too?"

"Sasuke's entrance into Academy." Akina explained shaking her head slowly.

"Y-You're still going?" Itachi's eyes widened, slightly.

"Well, I'm working…" She shrugged implying his stupidly. "And I care about Sasuke."

"Right." He scratched his neck.

"I'm sorry for snapping at you, you just—"

"No, you don't have to apologize. I'm sorry, too." He glanced away and they shared an awkwardly silent moment until Itachi followed up with, "Well… See you."

"Itachi!" He looked back to her soft voice. "Be safe." Her serene eyes begged. She stepped close and hugged his neck. Itachi was shocked, but he hugged her back until she backed up, smiling. He then dashed down the stairs to head out of the Uchiha compound.

Akina's cheeks turned red, pouting. "It is your fault I'm now looking like a coward!"

"Everyone! Congratulations on your entrance! From here on, please work very hard towards striving for the Shinobi path. I know you will do the Leaf Village Proud!" The Third Hokage said to the crowd of children.

Sasuke glanced back at Fugaku just standing in a row with other adults, his eyes closed and arms crossed.

Fugaku stood with Sasuke and Daikoku. "Gee… I remember the time when Itachi entered." He then looked down on Sasuke with a smile. "And you're his spitting image."

"Thank you for your help with both of my boys." Fugaku smiled.

"Oh, not at all. It's been a pleasure." Daikoku dismissed. "The first prodigy since the beginning of The Academy… There were no students as exceptional as that boy."

"That's a bit too much praise." Fugaku insisted.

"Not at all…" Daikoku argued and looked at Sasuke. "I'm hopeful for you, too, Sasuke."

"Become a fine Shinobi, just like your older brother." Fugaku smiled.

"Yes." He replied, depressed.

Akina watched from afar off in one of the windows high up in The Academy, when Fugaku left, she jumped down out of the window, and walked up to Sasuke. "Akina-san…"

"Your brother asked me to come in his place since he couldn't be here."

Sasuke smiled, and lowered his eyes to the ground to nod sadly.

"Why so down? I know I'm not your brother, but…"

"It's not that. Thanks for coming." He mumbled.

"What's up?"

"Everyone keeps comparing me…"

"I've known your brother since we were born… I can tell you that you're not like him, Sasuke."

"But I need to be! I need to be great."

"You are great because you are Sasuke. And Itachi is Itachi. You're skilled in your own way. You have a great determination, your own dreams that are different from Itachi's. You're special, too."

"Thanks." He mumbled still.

"You want to get dango to celebrate?" She grinned.

He furrowed his brows to look up at her, "I don't like sweets."

"Another way you're not like Itachi." She nodded, proving her point.

"You already knew I don't like sweets…" He smirked.

"Yeah." She confessed. "You better get to class."

"Ngaaaaah!" Itachi heard a cry from Mukai's right side, the Byakugan's blind spot. In the corner of Itachi's hazy field of view, Shisui launched a flying kick.

"Shisui…" Itachi had the leeway to murmur his friend's name, because Mukai had dropped into a defensive posture.

As Mukai dodged the kick merely by angling his head, he grabbed hold of Shisui's neck with his outstretched left hand, and held him up high, lifting the sturdy body of the young man with a single arm.

Strangled like this, Shisui struggled frantically. But the five fingers sunk into his throat simply would not peel away.

"There's this thing called 'training' that you do to overcome your weak points. The first step in my training was to compensate for the Byakugan's blind spot in one eye, with physical jutsu. Don't underestimate this old man, brats."

"Kohinata Mukai…" Unconsciously, Itachi called the name of the powerful enemy before him. His feet had also taken a step forward without him realizing it.

"What? You want me to kill him?"

It was easy to see why he'd think that. Beaten hard by Gentle Fist, the flow of chakra in his body interrupted, what kind of counterattack could Itachi have left? Moving forward without any kind of plan was basically an act of masochism.

However, Itachi's feet would not stop moving. Even though he didn't remember telling them to do so, they continued to walk artlessly toward Mukai.

"Then I'll put him out of his misery, as requested!"

"Hngh!" The hand around Shisui's throat tightened its grip. Mukai was going to crush his Adam's apple.

"Stop!" Itachi shouted, and the Sharigan in his eyes glittered.

"There's no way that sort of obvious Genjutsu is going to work on me," Mukai said, turning his face away from Itachi. Before the man's eyes was Itachi's friend's face.

"Mangekyo Sharigan," Shisui murmured. The eyes of his friend, now crimson, took on a shape unlike any other Sharigan Itachi had ever seen.

Normally, the Sharigan had a small black dot in the center of the eye, and in the pupil around that, the snake tails if magatama shaped specks popped up. The power differed depending on the number of magatama, but the form itself was common to the entire clan.

But Shisui's was different. The three commas of magatama were enlarged and connected, and the small black dot in the center had disappeared, leaving a crimson hollow. If the ratio of red to black in a normal Sharigan was eight-to-two, then Shisui's eyes at that moment appeared to be a fifty-fifty struggle for supremacy.

Most likely, the intersection of the gazes of Shisui and Mukai had lasted less than a thousandth of a second. For a normal Sharigan, the user couldn't be a certain of capturing his opponent in a moment that short. Shisui had not missed that fleeting instant. Mukai had definitely been ensnared in the Genjutsu.

"Mukai!" Shisui shouted, dumbfounded, the hand around his throat releasing him at last. Before his eyes, Mukai fell, a spray of blood shooting from his stomach.

Itachi stared, rooted to the spot.

Mukai had cut his own stomach. The instant Shisui's eyes Sharigan had been activated, Mukai had stiffened slightly, and pulled a kunai from his pocket to slash a cross into his own belly.

"Hold on, Mukai!" Shisui shouted, crouching down to cradle the ninja's head.

"I'm a spy for another village. Any interference with my brain, and a jutsu that makes me end my own life is executed. You can't save me." Mukai coughed, and blood spilled out of his mouth. "I-I've never seen anyone caught in a Genjutsu in that short of a time… What the hell was that?"

Shisui didn't answer.

"Uchiha secret jutsu, huh?"

Shisui faltered, and Itachi glanced at him before addressing Mukai. "Do you have anything you want to say?"

"S-so, this is where we're at… I did what I did on my own. My wife and kid have nothing to do with it…"

"So you're saying the crime of treason was yours alone?"

"Totally selfish, but, well…" With a trembling hand, Mukai groped for something in his pocket.

Itachi pushed aside Mukai's fingers, and pulled out the object he was fumbling for. He grabbed a cigarette from the package, and put it between the man's lips.

"L-light…"

This time, Shisui pulled the lighter from Mukai's pocket, and held the flame to the end of the cigarette.

Mukai took a long drag, letting the smoke flow down to the bottom of his lungs, before exhaling the smoke as though relishing the taste. "This is how a ninja dies, you know? I'll be waiting for you over there…" Mukai's hand dropped, cigarette still between his fingers, and he stopped moving.

"It's over," Shisui said, his voice shaking with exhaustion.

Itachi nodded. "That Sharigan…"

"Will you keep quiet about it to the guys in the village?" Shisui murmured, still staring at Mukai.

"Yeah."

"Mangekyo Sharigan." Shisui said, and his eyes showed once again the strange pattern. "When the time comes, I'll tell you— just you— everything."

Itachi felt an irresistible attraction to the unknown power secreted away in his friend.

Kakashi knelt on one knee before Lord Third sitting on both his knees. "Very soon, a new member will be joining your team."

"Is it the one we talked about?" Kakashi asked, raising his one eye to the Hokage.

"Yes, he's an extremely capable shinobi."

"Perhaps, but very young." Kakashi said with cynicism.

"That's why Danzo recommended that he gain more experience."

"Here's your equipment." Said a burly Anbu behind the barred counter, he slid an open wooden tray filled with the Anbu uniform, a katana, and weasel mask to Itachi.

"Yes, thank you." A newfound numbness in Itachi's voice stated.

The door of the men's Anbu Locker room opened, Tenzo peeking around the corner in curiosity. "I'm starting my new Anbu assignment today. Uchiha Itachi. I'm glad to be here." Stated Itachi.

Tenzo approached with a friendly smile for Itachi to stare up to him emotionlessly. "So, you're the one. You can take the locker that's in the back."

"Yes, sir." Itachi said to begin walking.

"That him?" A man in a cat mask asked two other masked Anbu.

"They say he's only eleven."

"That makes him the youngest Anbu ever!" They discreetly watched as Itachi put his things in his locker.

Tenzo approached, to stand in line with nine other Anbu. "You'll be on Team Ro. Meet at the Third Training Ground in Five Minutes."

"Right." Itachi swiftly agreed, glancing out of the corner of his eye.

Anbu were in the branches, and on the stumps near the water. Itachi, fully suited and masked felt the tense aura as he walked straight ahead, a kunai missing him only by millimeters to stab into the ground next to his left foot, shuriken flying by him to miss him by millimeters, as well. Itachi glared through his mask—

"What are you doing?!" A stern voice asked, Itachi glancing nervously to his back on his left side. A man with white hair and a fox mask.

"Hatake Kakashi." Itachi thought.

"Explain yourselves." Kakashi demanded with Tenzo standing masked behind him.

"We wanted to make sure he had the skills to be one of us." A man in a lizard mask explained from the stump.

"Since he's so young." A cat masked man added.

"You have a problem with your superiors' decision?"

"No, sir. It's not like that…" The cat masked man said in shame to look downward.

"Haven't you already been able ti tell that he's not an ordinary shinobi?" Kakashi then turned to Itachi. "I'm Kakashi, captain of Team Ro. You're new, but I want you to learn the Anbu riles and formations quickly."

Itachi looked up face-to-face. "Yes, sir."

Itachi stepped out a few steps, felt his footing to widen his stance just slightly, making sure it was perfect. He jumped in the air, flipped backward to be upside down to spin himself midair and throw four kunai and then another four to hit those four and get bull's-eyes on every target. Itachi landed on one knee.

"He's good." Lizard masked man acknowledged in a groan.

"He is talented, but making an exception for someone so young is rather unusual for the Anbu." Tenzo said to Kakashi.

"Well, Danzo-sama recommended him…"

"Really? Huh, he doesn't seem to fit the mold, though." Tenzo said suspiciously.

"How so?" Kakashi turned his head to Tenzo.

"Danzo-sama has his own set of criteria for Anbu and Foundation agents." Tenzo informed full well.

"And?" Kakashi asked.

"I just can't see it…" Tenzo confessed.

"Team Ro, hm?" Danzo muttered, gaze trained on the paper before him as Itachi stood at attention and watched. They were in Danzo's room of the house given to the Foundation. Sitting in front of the ebony desk, Danzo rested the elbow of his left arm on the armrest, and held the papers in his right hand, not even glancing at Itachi. "The team leader is Hatake Kakashi, hm?"

"Yes," Itachi replied, briefly. He had been curious this whole time about the man standing beside Danzo. A Foundation member in a white tiger mask. It wasn't anything particular about the man or the mask. He was just curious. The eyes on the other side of the round holes in the white mask had been staring at Itachi, almost glaring at him. For some reason, the treacherous gaze unsettled him.

"He is an excellent ninja," Danzo said, almost a declaration.

"Hatake Kakashi…" He had saved Itachi, not long after he became a ninja. Tenma's death flashed through Itachi's memory. The masked man had muttered Kakashi's name and vanished. Itachi didn't really understand why. "Was it fear or another reason?"

"He has a darkness inside. This is the most important element for the Anbu." Danzo addressed.

"Darkness… Do I have that, too?" Itachi questioned himself.

"Rest assured. You also have plenty of darkness," Danzo said, almost as though he had seen right through Itachi.

Itachi was not surprised. It was a simple thing to jump ahead with suppositions to a certain extent, and to reply to unspoken thoughts. That was all Danzo was doing.

"Prepare a transfer celebration." Danzo said, dropping the paper and standing up. He tucked his ebony chair under the desk of the same material, stood next to Tiger Mask, and looked at Itachi. And then he placed a hand on the man's shoulder, and a rare sunny smile spread across his face. "This man is going to be on loan to Team Ro."

Silence.

"Don't worry. I naturally obtained Hiruzen's permission," Danzo offered, as if reading his mind once more. No matter how many times that Itachi heard that arrogant way of speaking, he could never grow to like it.

"Nice to meet you. My name is Sugaru," The man in the tiger mask abruptly said. His voice was mixed with a dry rustling sound, as if something was stuck in his throat, making it hard to hear what he was saying.

"Sugaru had a serious illness in his throat when he was young, and he hasn't been able to speak that well since."

"Missions which require talking are difficult, but other than that, I will do anything." There was a strange quality to his voice, but his tone was light. He seemed to have a friendly nature.

"You can use this man as your hands and feet."

"Hands and feet?"

"Yes," Sugaru replied to Itachi's question to Danzo. "I am a member of The Foundation. Danzo-sama's orders are absolute. So, if I am ordered to be the hands and feet of Itachi, I am prepared to give my life for you, even if you are younger than me," He noted. Sarcasm?

Itachi didn't even smile as he stared at Danzo. "I can make it in the Anbu by myself."

"Don't take this too seriously. At best, Sugaru is on loan to Team Ro. Your team leader Kakashi doesn't know about this. And you needn't even be aware of Sugaru. But he will always be keeping you safe."

"Keeping me safe? Are you saying that someone is targeting me?"

"The first Uchiha Anbu, a mere eleven years old. That position's plenty to inspire prejudice and jealousy."

Silence. He knew it was true by how most of Team Ro treated him earlier that day.

"I value you. I won't have you dying young because of the jealousy of your teammates, or some such."

"No matter who attacks me—"

"Do not underestimate the shinobi of the Anbu." Danzo cut Itachi off. "The closer you get to the center of the village, the more people you will encounter who do not have a favorable impression of the Uchiha. It's entirely plausible that some of them might try to kill you, and make it look like died during a mission. And if you died, what would your clan think?"

"Impossible…"

"I'm saying that the impossible situation is entirely possible." Danzo nodded deeply, as if to affirm Itachi's thinking.

Itachi dies on a mission. His father and the others suspect a plot on the part of the villagers. Itachi's death would be the perfect trigger for an explosion. When Itachi thought about the fact that his own death could become the trigger for a coup d'état, he felt a shiver run up his spine.

"You're already in a position of serious responsibility with both the Uchiha Clan and in the Village." Danzo moved away from Sugaru, and came around the desk to stand next to Itachi, before placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. "You must be a bridge connecting the village and the clan for me. Live a long time, Itachi."

Silence. "Konohagakure and the Uchiha Clan…"

"Uchiha Fugaku stood out as one of the shrewdest security captains in generations. It comes as no surprise that he is your father."

Itachi kept his eyes closed and head down as he was knelt below Danzo's sight, but he raised his onyx eyes to Danzo in question.

"I mean no judgment." His old shrewd voiced insisted. "Konoha ordered the Uchiha Clan outside the village. But Konoha also granted them the ability to govern themselves. So we cannot interfere in their matters. Therefore, we need our own set of eyes and ears there. I'm counting on you, Itachi."

"Both sides justify themselves…" Itachi thought. "The Uchiha Clan were also people living in the village of Konohagakure. In which case, wasn't the antagonistic nature of their relationship unnatural right from the start? Why didn't Konoha have complete rule over the Uchiha Clan? Why did the clan harbor such dissatisfaction toward the village, despite the fact that brethren of the clan had even been given the right to self-governance? A presence to connect the two. As his father put it, a pipeline. In Danzo's words, a bridge. They were the same thing."

"I will protect you. You fulfill your duties in the Anbu without worry, Uchiha Itachi." Danzo told him smugly.

Itachi bowed slightly, before quickly leaving.

"I started my duties today." Itachi informed late into the evening, kneeling before his father.

Sasuke walked the hall of his home, passing by the closed door of his father's room, the room lit inside. Fugaku laughed joyfully. "That's my boy. You'll go far in the Anbu ranks, no question about it."

Fugaku said as Itachi bowed his head before him in thanks. "However, keep this close to your heart. Though, you're an Anbu, you are first and foremost Itachi of the Uchiha Clan."

Itachi raised his head, tired eyes. "Yes, sir."

"The Uchiha Clan's been entrusted with the security of the Village. So our clan has to live outside the village boundaries. It's essential that our clan have one of its own inside the Anbu. I am counting on you, Itachi."

"Everyone's counting on me…" Itachi thought for it to echo in his head and make his heart sink into his stomach to make him nervously nauseous.