Chapter Three

"Uchiha Fugaku."

"Uchiha Mikoto."

"Uchiha Shisui."

"Uchiha Sasuke."

The four aforementioned people looked around them bewildered, taking in the darkness around them and the booming voice calling their names. All of them knew they were dead, some due to duty, others by their own hand, but they were all keenly aware that the one person that linked them all together was not currently present.

But how?

Itachi was dead too…wasn't he?

"So you have noticed." The voice stated and Fugaku scowled.

"Where is my son, you bastard!" He yelled and the temperature around them cooled.

"Silence!" The voice thundered. "Uchiha Fugaku, it was your arrogance and greed, and your wife's complacency that led to the suffering of your eldest son and the breaking of your youngest. You'd do well to listen to what I about to tell you. For it will serve you well."

The Uchiha patriarch fell silent, glowering at the faceless darkness around him.

"For those of you that did not know, Itachi was killed five years ago by his baby brother." Fugaku and Mikoto shot a glance at the young man standing between them and Shisui. He stared back impassively.

"After his death, he was supposed to be sent straight to heaven for his selflessness and the sacrifices he'd made in life. However, as his soul left his body…it was stolen and forced into the reincarnation cycle."

Sasuke scowled darkly. "So when Kabuto brought him back, he pulled him from his new life?"

"No, but it does pertain to why you four are here. Whoever stole Itachi's soul locked his memories away and they were partially released during one of the most influential events of his new life leaving him so far engulfed in his hatred that he has- well it's not good. Your job, is to help him find his way again. But be warned, for he is far more jaded than he was in this life."

Sasuke frowned worriedly. "Who are you?"

A chuckled sounded and the darkness began to fade away.

"You may call me Kami."

This…this was impossible! It had to be!

He had died! He was now Ciel Phantomhive, Earl of the Phantomhive estate! He wasn't Uchiha Itachi anymore.

So why was he seeing this?

His otouto, his precious otouto was fighting beside him, against a monster that shared the face and personality of Orochimaru's apprentice, Kabuto.

His otouto, who he had told…The Truth.

His heart constricted in his chest and he fought not to breakdown and weep, fought not to beg for the forgiveness he knew he didn't deserve. Instead he rested his forehead against the teen's and smiled.

"From here on out, no matter what you do, just know that I will always love you."

Sasuke stared up at him tearfully, pleading with him to make Kabuto stop the release of the Edo Tensei but he just smiled, allowing the peace of the afterlife to engulf him in its warm glow.

He was at peace.

Then he was awake.

For a moment, he could do nothing but gaze up at the ceiling blankly, mourning the loss of the peace he had only been allowed to enjoy for a moment.

Somehow, Kabuto had dragged part of his soul from his current body and used it in his Edo Tensei in an effort to destroy Konoha. However, thanks to Shisui's eye, which he had entrusted to Sasuke's not-boyfriend, Kabuto's control over him had been broken and he'd been able to stop the bastard and release the jutsu.

Moreover, Sasuke knew The Truth of everything he'd done now, and while his otouto hadn't forgiven him, he felt lighter all the same.

A tiny smile crossed his lips and he slipped from his bed to get dressed.

He needed to get some training in before Sebastian came to dress him for the day. With everything going on around him, he needed to get higher than the mere jounin level he'd reached in the three months since regaining his memories. Much higher.

Slipping out the window, he cast a low-level genjutsu to keep from alerting the demon to his absence and disappeared into the forest.

Two hours later found him running a bath for himself and ignoring the throbbing in his muscles from the intense sparring session he'd just had with his Kage bunshin, and the itch in his eyes begging him to activate his sharingan.

In the three months since regaining his memories he'd barely activated his kekkei genkai, unwilling to give away his one trump card over the people in this world. Let them think he was a helpless child without his demon, it would be their last regret, for the pacifist in him was just too jaded and too broken to care anymore.

There was no room for a pacifist in the underworld of his first life and there was no room for one in the underworld of this one. If his hands had to rewash themselves in the slick of blood and his soul had to take on the burden of more deaths, more broken families, to protect the innocents and complete his mission then he would do it.

Because he was a tool, a weapon, and tools weren't supposed to have feelings, no matter how much his heart cried otherwise.

The bath filled, he undressed and slipped into the tub, ignoring the way the water seemed to bleed red the moment it touched his skin.

No feelings.

None at all.

Sebastian entered the room with his usual smile, a perturbed gleam in his eyes as it was every time he found Ciel bathing himself. It went against his code as a Phantomhive butler to have his master doing a job he saw as his own.

"Good morning, bocchan."

The young earl didn't respond, staring into the water with a pensive expression.

"Bocchan?"

The child glanced at him with an unnervingly blank look in his eyes then hummed softly, before standing.

"My schedule?"

The demon stared at his contractor for a moment, a small frown on his lips, before he covered it with his usual smile.

"You have a meeting with Lau right after breakfast, also Lady Elizabeth will be visiting this evening with her parents. Your lessons for the day have been postponed for tomorrow and you have a meeting with Her Majesty right after lunch."

His master gave another soft hum but didn't speak as he dressed him. Tying a ribbon around the child's neck to complete his outfit he fought a frown. How had he neglected to notice that his master was due for a haircut? The Earl's hair reached his shoulders, something that the child had once complained was unacceptable.

"Shall I schedule a trip to the barber as well?" He asked and Ciel frowned.

"No."

Sebastian waited for him to elaborate but the boy said nothing else on the matter. Instead he reached for a ribbon and tied his hair back in a low tail.

The demon pondered the look for a moment then sighed. "Whatever am I to do with you, young master?"

Ciel smirked, but it lacked the usual arrogance. Instead it was faintly amused, like the smile a parent would give an errant child and Sebastian fought not to bristle at the implied accusation.

"Shall we?"

He nodded and led the boy from the room, still no closer to figuring out why his master had changed than he was when the changes had begun.

He glanced at the child, noting the strange grace the boy seemed to have acquired, his keen eyes catching sight of the purple polish coating his master's nails. It had shocked him when he had come to wake the boy to find him sitting calmly on the window seat painting his nails and when he'd asked, Ciel had only smiled sardonically and ignored the question.

Asking directly about the changes had only gotten him a raised eyebrow from his master and a sarcastic "what changes?"

It was maddening.

"If you are done?"

He blinked at the soft monotone that broke him from his thoughts.

"My apologies, my lord."

Ciel stiffened, but relaxed immediately, making him wonder what had offended him but he pushed to the back of his mind.

He would discover the cause of these changes and hopefully return his master back to normal.

TBC…

A/N: I know that Ciel is more Itachi than Ciel, but I feel that Itachi will be the more dominant personality because he is the base-soul and Ciel's personality was mainly built off of his misunderstanding of his memories and his own words to Sasuke.