Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Itachi. Wish I did though. Itachi's so cute!
Kelle: I have no idea how this is going to turn out. PLEASE if you have any ideas at all, I would really appreciate it if you told me.
Astonishment would not even begin to cover what Team 7 was feeling right now. Tsunade had called Sasuke to her office, and of course, Sakura and Naruto felt obliged to go with him. But they were not expecting to see what they did when they arrived.
A little boy, tied tightly to a chair in the middle of the room. He didn't look at them when they came in, but went on staring at Tsunade with his teeth slightly bared.
The room looked bigger now that Tsunade's desk had been cleared away. She was sitting cross-legged on the floor, looking at her broken sake bottle sadly.
It had been a faithful bottle. A clear, glazed blue-green in color. She had brought it with her when she had left Konoha, and had lugged it all the way back when Jiraiya came for her. It even had had a special place in the middle of her desk where she could reach it easily. But now it was gone. Fallen victim to the heel of the boy's shoe.
Her eyes suspiciously bright, she dumped the broken pieces into the trashcan with a last look of regret. Then she faced the astounded group.
Before she even drew breath, Sakura and Naruto exploded into accusing her.
"Tsunade! What did you do with the little boy? Look at the poor thing, the ropes are too tight!"
"Granny Tsunade! Are you crazy? He's only a little kid!"
Only Sasuke didn't say anything, although he did raise his eyebrows at her.
Tsunade felt her level of irritation scale up to new heights as Sakura and Naruto continued to yell at her. She gritted her teeth and counted slowly to a hundred. Somehow, she managed to hold out until they stopped long enough for her to speak.
"This boy claims to be Uchiha Itachi."
That shut them up.
"What?" the three chorused loudly in unison.
Naruto began circling the chair the boy was tied to.
"But isn't Itachi…I don't know. Supposed to be a little -Naruto tapped a leg of the chair with his foot- older?"
Tsunade frowned. "Yes, but he has the Sharingan."
Sasuke's dark eyebrows drew together, and he crouched down so he could see eye-to-eye with the boy.
"Are you really Itachi?" he asked in quiet disbelief.
The boy nodded.
"Prove it. Prove you really are him!"
The boy chuckled and smirked, showing no signs of fear at all, only black confidence.
"Foolish little brother," he hissed slowly, "If you wish to kill me, hate me, detest me, and survive in an unsightly way. Run, run and cling to life."
Although his voice was the high-pitched squeak of a four-year old, and although he was dressed in pink overalls with matching yellow ducks on it…he still managed to sound and look dangerously frightening. The usual childish innocence found on little kids was strangely disfigured by his black eyes glowing with menace, and the hint of a sneer on his lips.
"Itachi!" Sasuke snarled, eyes swirling automatically into his Sharingan. He drew back his hand, aiming for his throat before anyone could comprehend what he was going to do.
"Are you going to kill me Sasuke? When I'm like this? When I can't fight back? So much dishonor in your spirit," Itachi taunted, looking almost strangely happy by this.
Sasuke stopped and put his arm back to his side very slowly, but kept his Sharingan.
The two brothers glowered at each other. Sakura could almost see their hatred blacken the air between them.
Tsunade was the first to break the long silence that followed. "Very well Itachi, if your little-oh! I mean, older brother says you are Itachi, then you must really be Itachi."
He trained his eyes on her instead, fixing her with a full-blown Uchiha glare. She did her best not to wince at the fierceness of the glare. She asked,
"How did you get to be like this anyway?"
Itachi looked away, pressing his mouth closed.
"I beat you with no real effort at all last night," Tsunade said, narrowing her eyes and ignoring Sakura's soft cry of reproach. "You are at a disadvantage Uchiha. We could hurt you, kill you even. And we have every right to."
He seemed to struggle with himself, weighing his options. But it was obvious they had the upper hand.
"Something for the Atasuki," he mumbled so unwillingly, that it was hard to make out what he was saying.
Itachi seemed to be biting his tongue from preventing himself from saying more.
Tsunade waited for a few minutes before growling her impatience. "I want the full story Uchiha! From start to finish! Right now!"
He had kept his silence for as long as he could, but even Itachi could see that he could keep it no longer.
"I was on a mission for the Atasuki, and I won't say what," he emphasized his last word strongly, giving Naruto a very nasty glare because he had opened his mouth to speak.
"But I was fighting someone, and they did a very strange jutsu on me…next thing I know, I'm four again. I've reverted exactly how I was when I was four, I have unstable chakra control, I can't do most of my jutsus, my body's a lot weaker, and my arms and legs are shorter…"
Itachi trailed off, plainly not wanting to list any more of the weaknesses he might have at the moment.
"If you've reverted back to your four-year old self and abilities, why can you activate your Sharingan then? You were unable to until the age of eight."
He blinked as if that had never occurred to him. "I am an Uchiha," he said simply. (A/N: He means that he can do anything if he sets his mind to it)
"Alright, continue with your story."
Itachi hesitated.
"I've been looking for a cure, and I finally found someone who said she would give it to me, but she also said that I had to kill you before she gave it up," he said rather glumly. "Obviously, I couldn't take it from her by force, so I agreed."
"Who was it? And what was the cure?"
He shrugged. "I honestly don't know what the cure is, she wouldn't say. The person was this old lady. I don't know her name, and I don't know if I could even find her again. So don't ask me."
"And you thought you could beat Granny Tsunade like that?" Naruto scoffed.
"What would you have done?" he shot back.
Naruto didn't reply.
"Then why didn't the Atasuki just take it from her by force?" Sakura asked thoughtfully.
Itachi gave her a long, meaningful look of defiance with his chin raised up.
"They abandoned you," Sasuke guessed flatly. Surely, he must've been shocked at Itachi's story and all, but if he was, he didn't show it. He looked…bored.
Itachi shrugged once, smoothing his expression into nothing. But Sakura caught a flash of anger flitting across his eyes before they went blank.
"The Atasuki have no time for this. They expect me to find a cure and come back to them," he responded coolly.
"Now, what should we do with you?" Tsunade muttered to herself, rubbing her temples like she did when she was thinking hard. "You are a wanted S-rank criminal. You should be punished severely for doing what you did."
"He's only a little boy!" cried Sakura in alarm, stepping in front of him as if Tsunade would charge at him right then and there.
"He may look like a little boy on the outside, but on the inside, he's not!" Tsunade snapped. "But you're right…we can't kill someone off when they're helpless like this…it's not honorable."
Suddenly, she rolled her eyes and threw her arms up in the air. "Ah! This is so complicated."
"We could watch him," Sakura suggested, inching closer and closer in front of Itachi. "We could take care of him until you decide what to do. Besides, he can't escape, he's too weak!" (Itachi growled a little in anger)
Tsunade seemed to consider that. "For now, I think you're right Sakura. You three can take care of him, and keep a close eye on him, while Shizune and I search for a cure. When you are back to normal Itachi, no doubt we will deal with you harshly."
If he was intimidated by her veiled threat, he didn't show it.
"But only if he swears on his honor that he won't try something funny," Tsunade conditioned warningly. "Do you, Uchiha Itachi, swear that? If you don't, we have no choice but to lock you up."
He paused, and at last gave her the tiniest of nods.
But inside his head, he was plotting his escape. Even as they cut the ropes, the gears in his brain were clicking. His thoughts lingered on Sakura, and how she seemed to have a soft spot for little kids.
Good. Then he would use her. He would play up the part as the innocent child, and when the time was right, he would use her to his advantage, and escape. Maybe he could get away with killing Tsunade in the process. After all, he always had something up his sleeve
Kelle: I'm not sure about the story or the pairings. SakuxIta? Remember, if you have any ideas of how this is going to turn out, please tell me!