Chapter 49 - This Disease Called Love
I shouldn't have to deal with this on my first day back to work.
Well, to be more accurate, the Hokage-sama sent a message this morning that Jiraiya-sama had returned to the village. Hence, my mission to find and convince Senju Tsunade commenced immediately.
The Hokage and I waited in his office for a whole hour, but Jiraiya was nowhere to be found.
I mean, I had no opinion, but the Hokage's brows twitched at his old student's antics. Just before he was about to lose it, a message from an Anbu agent made him sigh in exasperation.
"The Anbu observing Naruto found him and Jiraiya to be together. It's likely more productive for you to go find him instead." The Hokage passed me a mission scroll to show to the Sannin. I took it and asked, "As you wish, Hokage-sama. Where are they now?"
The bathhouse. They were at the bathhouse.
Hiding on the tree, I found them crouched in a corner, by the screen separating the onsen for female and male.
"Shh, you're gonna make a fuss and we'll get caught!" The white-haired Sannin put a finger up and tried to hush the boy.
"But you're just being a pervert!" Naruto, of course, yelled at the top of his lung and accidentally knocked on the screen.
The population on the other side seemed startled by the commotion. A few screams were heard, making the man and the boy shrunk backward.
Now that was something I never thought I'd be seeing.
I exchanged a look with the Anbu next to me. I couldn't see his face with the animal mask, but just based on his eyes, I felt his speechlessness.
After much debate, I jumped down from the tree and landed in front of them.
Jiraiya only raised an eyebrow at my sudden presence, but Naruto covered his face in pain and shrunk even smaller.
"Jiraiya-sama. The Hokage was waiting for you," I bowed at the Sannin first, before turning my attention to the little boy. "Fancy seeing you here, Naruto, care to explain?"
"You heard all that didn't you, Maiko-nee-chan?" I nodded and Naruto let out a yelp in pain. "I can explain, I swear!" I raised an eyebrow, waiting for his explanation.
"I was just practicing a jutsu on my own, and then this perverted old man showed up and told me he can help me improve it. But I never thought this was what he meant." Naruto explained in a speed faster than light, but I got the gist of it
"A stranger showed up and you just left with him?" I could feel my rage boiled up. What kind of common sense was that? If this was Sasuke, he'd be grounded right now.
"Well, I didn't know he's perverted back then. Besides, we're in the village and I'm going to be a shinobi soon …" The more he continues, the more his voice dies down. He could sense my anger, I reminded myself. He hadn't seen the truly dangerous part of Konoha yet, it was Anbu's job to make sure they would never appear.
I pushed down my rising anger and turned my attention to Jiraiya. "Pardon my intrusion, but what kind of jutsu would require … inspirations from a bathhouse." Inspiration could be from all sorts of places, you never knew. I just had to keep an open mind.
Jiraiya must have found my interaction with Naruto interesting. After all, Naruto was the nine-tail jinchuuriki and the Yondaime's child. Both for village affairs and personal matters, Jiraiya must have held a special interest for the boy and everything around him.
"Show her, boy, your secret technique!" Based on how happy Jiraiya sounded, I got a bad feeling about this.
Naruto made the hand seals for the transformation technique and with a poof of smoke, I froze.
"Interesting." That was all I could say when Naruto transformed into a naked woman, blinking 'her' eyes at me.
"Right? Could be better though. He needs to see the real deal to create true masterpieces." Jiraiya fueled the flame from the side.
"Where do you even … nevermind." I shook my head as Naruto dispelled the jutsu and returned to normal. Just a little less than a year before he graduated, Kakashi could deal with whatever that was.
"Go back, Naruto, don't be so naive and follow whoever comes along. There's no place in the world that's completely safe, not even Konoha." That was all I could tell the boy. I couldn't tell him about the dark shadows that lurked beneath the street light, nor could I tell him what being a Jinchuuriki really meant for his future.
"Okay …" Naruto looked deflated as he climbed out of the bathhouse. The Anbu in the trees would soon follow along.
I turned my attention back to Jiraiya. Despite the nonchalance in his posture, it would be a mistake to underestimate one of the Sannin. I was sure that he had gathered all kinds of information just from our exchanges earlier, along with whatever he had known from the Hokage.
"Jiraiya-sama, this is the mission given by Hokage-sama." I handed him the sealed scroll. While the man read the scroll, I stood on the side with silence.
"So, Uchiha Ojou-chan, the Sandaime sends you to convince the last Senju to come back." Jiraiya finished the sentence with a laugh. So it wasn't just me who thought this combination of Uchiha and Senju was terrible. "Well, an order is an order. I hope the old man is prepared to get nothing. It'd be lucky if that woman didn't punch us in the face the moment she sees us."
That part, the Hokage never told me.
"Time to pay the old man a visit. He must be bored." Jiraiya stretched his arms, as if crouching at the bathhouse peeking at naked women took too much effort.
(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ fuwa~fuwa~desu~~~
Jiraiya scratched his ear as the old man nagged his ear off at taking Naruto to the bathhouse. Something about not setting a positive example. When did he become a source of positive examples, he wondered?
"Anyhow, I trust that you have Tsunade's location?" Finally, the old man decided to move on and get to the point.
"The last time I checked, she's at Kujirai Village. There are a lot of taverns there, along with an underground casino. Should keep her entertained for a while," Jiraiya answers.
"Good, sounds like you have a goal." Sandaime said with a nod. "Approach her with care. She's … not someone to be persuaded easily. But try your best either way, even if just to get her back to the village."
The warning must be for the Uchiha girl, since Jiraiya knew Tsunade's temper better than anyone.
Jiraiya had heard a lot about Uchiha Maiko. She might be a good Anbu and a good Shinobi - no one would have doubted her combat prowess after hearing about Danzō's twelves deaths - but the girl did not look like a good talker.
"Understood, Hokage-sama." The girl lowered her eyes, hiding any emotions she may have had for this mission.
It was the Hokage's order, so she didn't bother showing any opinion, but did she really want Tsunade to become the Hokage? After all, the next in line would be that Hatake kid. Anyway he thought about it, she would prefer someone who fought alongside her in her crusade against Root and Danzō, rather than someone she had never seen before.
And the second part of Sandaime's mission scroll - Get in contact with Uchiha Itachi and exchange updates. Allow him the option to decide his next step.
The old man didn't think the girl would rebel against the village, not after everything that had already happened. But clearly, the Hokage wanted to see if he could repair her trust.
There never was a person or a clan that the village couldn't live without. Senju used to mean everything for Konoha, yet many years had passed without a Senju in the shinobi force and the village thought nothing of it.
The same applied to the Uchiha. Even if the Uchiha were to disappear, the village would survive.
However, the old man always believed that Konoha could use all it got. The three Uchiha that were left in this world could be considered the most talented in their generation. The Hokage was hoping they would put in the effort to continue the prosperity of Konoha in the next generation.
Uchiha Maiko lived inside the village as an Anbu Captain, yet her trust for Konoha was corroded. Uchiha Itachi roamed outside the village as a missing-nin, yet his faith in Konoha remained fierce.
Letting Maiko reconnect with Itachi then, could mean as much for Sandaime as much as it would mean for the girl.
They had not explicitly talked about Itachi yet, and Maiko didn't bring it up either, as if she really was just here to bring Tsunade back.
"I assume you're prepared?" Jiraiya asked when they stepped outside the Hokage tower. The girl behind him nodded, cladded in a standard shinobi attire devoid of any identifying feature. As for Jiraiya, he never prepared to stay in the village.
"Let's go then. Time waits for no one."
(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ fuwa~fuwa~desu~~~
Jiraiya took us to a village Northwest of Konoha. He sat down at a ramen shop and ordered us each a bowl of Tonkatsu ramen. He didn't bother to explain anything before starting to eat. A moment later, I did the same.
Kujirai Village was located Northeast of Konoha, so we deviated from the course from the very beginning. Jiraiya never meant to take me straight to Tsunade, that part was clear. Which meant that this little detour could only be for Itachi, the brother I hadn't seen in three years.
Yet, the Sannin never said anything to confirm or deny my suspicion.
This was a battle of patience. And I didn't want to play right into it.
The Hokage and Jiraiya, they all thought that I was dying to meet with my brother - my wronged brother who had suffered so much.
Only I knew that I was feeling a sense of dread. The next time I see him, who would I see? The ruthless killer who cut off our parent's heads? The silent martyr who sacrificed everything he had to ensure a peaceful village for us? Or maybe someone completely foreign?
Four years seemed to change everything, yet nothing seemed to change.
I watched Jiraiya check into an inn For the first time, I raised an eyebrow. Were we supposed to stay in this … unremarkable village?
My expression did not escape Jiraiya. "You might want to get yourself settled in. We will be here for a while. Oh, and there's no need for that." He tapped his eyes, guessing my intention to place a genjutsu on the innkeeper, to make her unable to recall our details.
I turned my attention back to the innkeeper. She gave me a knowing smile and asked, "One room for you too, Miss?" I nodded. She was one of Jiraiya's informants.
Jiraiya hummed as he opened his room. Nonchalantly, he placed two freshly painted privacy seals on the wall. The door was left open and the Sannin placed a bottle of sake on the wooden table.
It was an invitation to chat.
"Be my guest, don't hold back!" Jiraiya pushed a bottle of sake in front of me while taking a large sip from his.
I shook my head, "I don't tolerate sake well." This stuff was poison for me. One cup and I was as good as gone. I wasn't about to waste chakra on something like this.
"That's a shame," Jiraiya pushed the bottle back to his side. It didn't look like a shame, more alcohol for him, I guessed.
"I heard you've met Orochimaru before. What's it like, fighting one of the Sannin?" Jiraiya asked, as if we were still discussing sake. I thought about how I should answer him. I wasn't sure what he wanted to hear considering this trip had been nothing but confusion.
"He is the most obnoxious, resilient, and cunny thing I've seen." I decided to go with my most sincere commentary, but toning down the curse words a bit.
Jiraiya laughed loudly at my words. "Ojou-chan, that's the first time you seem like a person with real emotions. I've been wondering if that little exchange you had with Naruto-kun was just a dream."
This time, I raised my eyebrow again. "That's how I act around him, and this is how I behave myself on missions. I hardly think that this … duality disqualifies me as a person." At this time and place, who didn't hide half of themselves under a mask.
"My apologies, it seemed that I had chosen my words wrong." Jiraiya shook his hands in defeat before gulping down another mouthful of sake. "I'm merely trying to get you to loosen up. After all, the kind of shinobi you seem like," he waved his hand at me, "efficient, emotionless, treats mission as above everything, that's the kind of people Tsunade absolutely hates seeing."
"Should have chosen someone more friendly then," I said, somewhat mocking. Jiraiya laughs as well. Clearly he didn't think I could make a difference either. "But I'm already here and like you said, a shinobi like me tries to complete her mission."
Jiraiya looked at me with skepticism - something I felt since we began this mission. He questioned why I was here, if I truly wanted to complete my mission.
No offence taken, my motivation was never that pure to begin with. But something should be said while we still could.
"I do believe that Tsunade-sama will be a good candidate for the Godaime Hokage. While Kakashi is someone I am more familiar with, it's simply not the best time." I had every faith in Kakashi. He understood what he would sacrifice and gain upon ascension to Hokage. No matter how frustrating his journey would be, he didn't need my pity.
However, it didn't mean I couldn't try to make his life easier. Just a few more years, and much more could be done to Konoha. Both the new Advisory Council and Kakashi believed that Tsunade wouldn't tolerate the corruption that festered in the older Konoha structure if she were to take charge, so I, who had limited knowledge about her character, decided to believe their judgement.
Yes, my motivation was impure. I left to convince Tsunade ro return to the village for a mixture of things.
Jiraiya said that I looked like a shinobi that treated mission above everything. I couldn't correct him, but I doubt that he truly believed that in the first place.
Jiraiya narrowed his eyes at me, as if deciphering the true meaning behind my words. Well, it sucks for him, there's no hidden meaning. I meant what I said.
"So to make my mission easier, Jiraiya-sama, would you mind telling me why Tsunade-sama left the village?" I asked him.
Jiraiya finished the last bit of his bottle and slammed it on the table. "It's no S-rank secret. Who knows, after you hear about her story, you might figure something out."
(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ fuwa~fuwa~desu~~~
It was a simple tale of grief and loss.
Senju Tsunade had a brother and a lover, both dreamt of being the Hokage for the betterment of the village.
However, war had no mercy. First it was the boy, then it was the man. Both were torn away from her by the clutch of the war and conflict.
Intense grief overwhelmed her, and she started to question if being a shinobi, fighting for the sake of peace really had any meaning.
Senju Tsunade left the village after the war. She didn't hate the village; she just found no point in being a Konoha Shinobi anymore.
I let out a sigh as I ran around the woods surrounding the Konga Village - the village that Jiraiya chose to be his next writing inspiration.
After Jiraiya told me about Tsunade's history, he shooed me away and said that he'll be busy for the next couple of days, finding material for his next novel. I was … certainly not part of his schedule as he arranged it.
So instead, I took the time to get to know the village. The innkeeper was nice enough to introduce the village to me, pretending I was just the wandering traveller. She wasn't a shinobi, but she was trained in information gathering, that part was clear.
Still, some things are just better when you confirm it by yourself, hence my errand around the village, painting a landscape of everything in and around the village. On the way, I had time to contemplate Tsunade's story.
Personally, I saw nothing wrong with her actions.
First of all, I didn't pretend to understand the kind of grief she was feeling. Second of all, she only left after the war was over when her absence could be tolerated. She finished the job and wrapped up the conclusion, before she decided to act on her desire to leave.
Why did it look like we were the bad guys here, trying to disrupt the peaceful retirement of a war hero?
Eventually, I stopped by a river that ran adjacent to Konga village.
The village itself was as unremarkable as it got. Most travellers used it as a stopping point to advance to other destinations within the Fire Country, hence businesses like inn and carriage rentals that filled the street.
However, shinobi liked us had very little need for such transition stops - the tree would suffice for an evening - unless they were escorting clients.
Therefore, the dozens of shinobi that I saw in Konga village, pretending to be hired muscles transporting cargo, really didn't make sense.
It's about time. I thought as I dipped my hand in water, pretending to wash my hand. A moment later, a dozen kunai rained down on me.
Already prepared, a column of water rose up from where my hand was in the water and splashed towards the kunai. Using the water as a screen, I body-flickered away, right towards the signature burning bright under my Sharingan.
The first one didn't even register as I appeared behind him, stabbing my tantō into the back of his skull, severing his spinal cord. He opened his mouth in shock, but no sound came out. Before his body could fall down and hit the ground, I already moved onto the next one.
Kunai, Shuriken, occasionally some low rank ninjutsu. It was by the third or fourth body that I realized that these shinobi were far too weak. Their skill sets were lacking and their reactions were too slow. Compared to normal humans, their only advantage was that someone trained them in basic bukijutsu and taught them how to use their chakra without killing themselves.
So, who sent them here to attack me and for what?
As I pulled my tantō out of my eleventh victim, I saw a surge of chakra rising to his face. Immediately, I jumped back and slapped my hand on the ground. I caught a glimpse of an explosive seal written on his tongue, before three earth walls rose from the ground, standing firm between me and the explosion.
The huge bang sent heat waves above my head and two of my earth walls collapsed while the third one barely held up.
The loud explosion made my ear rang in discomfort. But before my hearing could return, the disturbance in the air made me snap to my left in alert. In the blind spot created by my left eye, wind bullets flew towards me at lightning speed.
They knew about my Mangekyou, now that's irritating. I jumped up and landed on my barely-standing earth wall, then flickering away as the wall crumbled. Raising two fingers to my lips, I blew out a great fireball and let it crash into the direction that the wind bullets originated.
A flicker of shadow escaped the burning carcass. You're not running away. Katon: Enryu Tensa. Three fire dragons shot out from my mouth and slithered towards my attacker.
A replacement jutsu, my eyes caught the switch right before the dragons crashed into a dead body. At the same time, I turned around and blocked the attack from a guardless ninjatō.
Ah, something never changes. Root, I recognized immediately when I saw his emotionless face. His eyes were lowered, probably to prevent my dōjutsu.
My chakra pulsed and I let the lightning chakra run over my blade. The electricity crackled and lashed out in agitation, threatening to pierce his body.
He wanted to jump back, but I didn't give him the chance. I twisted my sword in a smooth motion and broke my way into his defence. I kicked him in the stomach, making him stagger back. Then I slashed the tantō again in a horizontal motion. He had no choice but to block it with his arm so that his neck wasn't slashed.
I felt the tendon being sliced as my tantō made contact. Still, he endured the pain silently, even making a comeback with his ninjatō. I ducked again, placing my hand on the ground. Sparks of electricity radiated from the point I touched the ground. Before the former root agent could blink, webs of lighting traveled up his body, paralysing his muscles and senses.
I placed my tantō over his exposed throat, eyeing him with caution.
"Where did the rest of you run to after Danzō's death?" I asked, hoping for once that we could do this the nice way.
Of course we couldn't. The man just eyed me silently. What was that I saw? Hate and Disgust?
My Sharingan swirled, attempting to place a genjutsu on him. He closed his eyes tight and I pushed my chakra harder.
Just as I was debating whether or not he was worth my Mangekyou, he started to convulse despite having a blade to the throat. The tip of my tantō scratched his skin and blood immediately started to flow down his neck.
The hell- I followed the burst of chakra that started to nourish his body and saw its origin - a black mark on his neck, made up of three tomeo.
He kicked his leg and I had to flip backward to dodge. Somehow, the rush of chakra replenished his body and helped him break out of the paralysis.
To my surprise, he jumped up and charged at me at a speed that was doubled from what he had been showing me before.
I hit his ninjatō to the side and immediately, a large wind blade followed. I slid underneath the jutsu, barely avoiding its edge, before having to roll to my side to dodge a particularly fierce punch to my face.
I stood up and readied my blade again, however, my fierce attacker seemed to stop in his tracks, he opened his mouth, but only a scratchy gasp came out. His body convulsed once again and he fell on the ground in pain, as if his body simply couldn't take it anyway.
Carefully, I moved closer with my blade in hand. The black mark on his neck seemed to pulse, even without the Sharingan, I could tell that it glowed a sinister energy.
He needed to be interrogated by Inoichi-san, so that we could finally get a lead on the remaining Root agent. I needed a way to immobilize him and get him back to the village. Or maybe I should just try my luck with the Mangekyou, now that the Root Curse Seal is gone. But He wasn't affected by my genjutsu, especially not now when his chakra system was running wild, already making a mess without my interference.
Before I could send another jolt of lightning down his spine, with a burst of power, he rolled up and charged straight at me at a speed even faster than before.
Even though the scene was played out in slow motion in my Sharingan, before my brain could register, I jumped back on reflex. Then, I saw, his hand expanded and extended, until the shape could no longer be called a hand anymore.
His finger grew into long nails, inching closer to my face, my eyes, and my neck.
Immediately, I made two hand seals and touched the ground. A wall of ruby-red blames rose in a circle around me, cutting straight into the midriff of the former Root agent.
At that moment, time seemed to stop as the mutilated hand paused in front of my face. The smell of burnt human flesh filled my nose as the man was bisected where the Uchiha Kaenjin hit him.
He let out a gagging sound before choking down his last breath. It wasn't just his hand, I could see the disfigurement on half of his face.
I let the Uchiha Kaenjin drop, careful not to lose control of the jutsu until the last moment - otherwise, this whole forest would be gone. A blackened circle appears around me at where the flame barrier once was.
"Jiraiya-sama," I whispered, knowing full well that he could hear me. A moment later, the Sannin appeared from behind the tree, eyeing the bodies around me with full seriousness.
I noticed his presence right after I burnt the Root Agent in half with the Uchiha Kaenjin. He ignored the other eleven bodies littered on the forest bed and focused on the Root Agent, or more specifically, the black mark on his neck.
"I heard you were on the runaway Root's to-kill list, but it seemed like they found a new master." Jiraiya knelt down to examine the body, placing his fingers on the black mark.
"This is …" Looking at the distorted figure left behind by the former Root agent, I had a strong feeling as to who might be the cause.
"Yes, this is Orochimaru's work. Only he could make something as abominable as this using Senjutsu energy." Jiraiya pulls out a scroll from his bag and rolls it open on the ground. With a few hand seals, the seals on the scroll stretched beyond the fabric and wrapped around the Root agent's body. With a puff of smoke, he was sealed within the scroll.
"Looks like our time in this village was done. Luckily, I had gathered quite a few inspirations." Jiraiya said, all that seriousness flowed out of his body like it was just my imagination. Also, I was sure that all he did was flirt with the waitresses in the tavern next to the inn, that counted as inspiration?
As if noticing my skepticism, Jiraiya held up his hand and made a sign for the number one. "A little lesson about running an information network. When you are going to meet with one of your most important and secretive informants, it's best to make sure your trail is as unpredictable as it gets. So that something like this doesn't occur during the actual meeting."
He looked at me, seeing the complex emotions boiling in my eyes as I comprehend the implication of his words.
"It's not everyday that I get to chat with Itachi-kun. A little caution wouldn't hurt, don't you agree, Uchiha ojou-chan?"
(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ fuwa~fuwa~desu~~~
We passed through two more villages. Jiraiya looked for his 'inspiration' all so diligently, as if he was really just a travelling novelist.
With each passing day, my heart grew uneasy, about Itachi, and about Tsunade.
The ruby red lotus turned slowly in my hand. Ironically, manipulating the yin-chakra infused fire was the most calming thing for me at the moment. After all, if I couldn't stay calm, then this room would be as good as gone.
"So this is the Uchiha Kaenjin. I haven't seen a glimpse of it since the Third Shinobi War." Jiraiya said from the other side of the room. This was the fourth village we had stayed in since we left the village, and also the second time that Jiraiya had invited me to chat. What this implied was quite obvious.
"Did they die in battle then? The last Uchiha who could use it." I asked, manipulating the lotus to close its blossom, and then open again.
Jiraiya turned his head, as if he needed to think hard to conjure up that memory. "Sounds about right. Must be a picky jutsu, then, if no one could reenact the jutsu until you."
"It's got quite a bit of selection criteria, I simply got lucky," I said, wondering if the Kaenjin would be lost once again after I had passed. Itachi, I had no idea, but Sasuke wasn't one of the Uchiha that had inherited more Yin-chakra than our average clanspeople.
Carefully, I let the blossom disintegrate. The tips of the petals seemed to come undone like a thread was being pulled out. The crimson chakra faded in the air like strings of smoke, little by little, until all that was left was the heated air.
A cacophonous caw rang in my head. It was a genjutsu, I felt it the moment the sound touched my head. Only Jiraiya and I - the people in this particular room, heard the warning.
It must be a sort of signal agreed upon between Itachi and Jiraiya, because Jiraiya walked to the window and wrote something with his finger. The privacy seal opened up a slit and in the blink of an eye, a black crow shot itself into the window before the barrier sealed itself again.
The crow multiplied until they started to form the shape of a man.
Itachi and I stared at each other. None of us moved, nor did we move our gaze. The flash of surprise in his eyes got buried immediately, but I, for the love of god, couldn't calm my racing heartbeat down.
Jiraiya coughed, forcibly breaking the tension in the air. Both of us turned towards the Sannin, who choked a little by our intense gaze.
"Konoha has been through some changes recently," Jiraiya said, "Why don't I let the Uchiha ojou-chan explain it to you, considering she had been in the center of it."
Itachi's finger twitched - he was on the verge of dispelling his crow clone, I somehow understood his urge. I needed to say something that would keep him here. Anything.
"I killed Danzō," I said. Now, that got Itachi's attention. "Legally, after he tried to …" I attempted to find the right word to cover everything that had happened, "... ruin my life. Root is … disbanded. Sandaime forced the Elder Council into retirement."
My words started to get faster and faster until I spat out the conclusion that I was sure Itachi didn't want to hear "He told me everything about the Uchiha Massacre."
I wasn't sure how I wanted him to react. To calm myself, I closed my eyes and opened them again.
Finally, I was able to look at my brother clearly.
Itachi … had grown taller. At the night of the massacre, he was just a thirteen-year-old boy. Now, the seventeen-year-old looked at me with his black eyes with the depth of a dead ocean. Nothing stirred behind the pupil. Nothing survived under the water.
I was struck with a sense of foreignness that quickly descended into panic. Did I … did I finally lose him? Everything that I thought I had known about Itachi, would he still want to keep those relics of the past?
After all, it always seemed much easier to forget the past, when all it brought you was torture and suffering.
Nevertheless, I wasn't twelve anymore. I wasn't a chūnin, content with doing B-rank missions to experience life and freedom, not anymore.
I took a silent breath and paced myself once again. "The news of the change of power hierarchy has been contained within Konoha so far. However, there are still some Root agents that escaped, and news like one of Konoha's Elder being executed on treason was bound to get out eventually. No one knows how it would affect your … undercover mission in Akatsuki better than yourself, so the Hokage wanted to give you a heads up and let you decide."
After an extended silence, Itachi finally spoke up, "I see." He turned his eyes away from mine and looked at Jiraiya, asking silently if there was anything he wanted to ask.
He got my message - at least, I'd like to think he got it. Business first, other things can wait.
"Well, ojou-chan basically covered it. Things in Konoha are unstable. Revolutions are happening. Old clutches of power were being pried open, and new gaps were being filled. The old man decided to retire soon to complete the transition. Your sister here is sent to convince Senju Tsunade to come back and take on the mantle. If not, then that Hatake youngster should be good enough for the job." Jiraiya supplied, still sounding nonchalant as ever. This time, even Itachi raised an eyebrow at the mention of Tsunade.
Great, even my missing-nin-but-not-really brother thought that this mission was doomed to fail.
"You agreed quite quickly to this meeting, Itachi-kun, even though it's you who usually delivered information," Jiraiya said, rubbing his jaw. "So, what do you have to tell us?"
Jiraiya had given an overview of Akatsuki in the past few days, which was not many. Itachi's delivery of information had been quite static. Akatsuki so far seemed like an aimless organization whose sole purpose was to gather the worst of the worst missing-nin - those that remained in people's recent memory, like Orochimaru and Itachi, or those buried in history, like Sasori from Sunagakure.
However, no one actually believed that they were aimless, not Itachi, not the Hokage, not me after hearing about all the reports. They were taking on bounty missions and assasination jobs, and the funds that were gathered had to go somewhere.
"Before I start, I have to apologize for keeping this information." Itachi didn't drag things on, his first sentence was quite explosive. "Regarding the member Tobi I had reported before, he has the Mangekyou Sharingan, and he claimed to be Uchiha Madara."
Uchiha … Madara?
I heard Jiraiya sucking in a cold breath and I probably wasn't much better. "Tobi is the one with … interesting personality?" Jiraiya confirmed, to which Itachi nodded. My attention, however, was on the Mangekyou Sharingan.
"Mangekyou, so was he the one that manipulated the Nine-Tail and caused Yondaime's death?" I asked. Somehow, my mind was able to process the information properly as long as I didn't have to focus on the one named 'Itachi'.
"Most likely, given that there were no other Mangekyou users that I had registered," Itachi turned to me, eyes still calm as a dead pool of water.
"I know you have your reasons, you always do. But why did you keep this information until now?" Jiraiya asked, looking a little confused.
"First of all, I haven't been able to confirm his claim. He might be an Uchiha, but whether or not he was Uchiha Madara, that part is not clear. Tobi … has been an interesting character. His reason for being in Akatsuki was unclear, but he has his own plans," Itachi explained, each and every word making Jiraiya squeezing his brows closer.
"And the second reason?"
"Shimura Danzō is dead," Itachi said and suddenly everything was crystal clear. He never trusted that Danzō would behave and let the Uchiha go, even after all he had done for Konoha. Telling them that another Uchiha, likely Uchiha Madara was doing god knows what in Akatsuki, was asking Danzō to stir up trouble.
Furthermore, having such biased people deciphering such messy information could be problematic. Just imagine the panic the Elder Council would have hearing that Uchiha Madara was still alive and kicking, adding onto that was their extreme hatred towards the Uchiha. I shuddered to think what 'logical' decision they would make.
"That's a reason I can get behind," Jiraiya said, coming to the same conclusion.
"What's his Mangekyou ability then?" I asked, to which Itachi frowned slightly.
"Only his right eye was visible. His Mangekyou ability appeared to be space-time related. He could transport himself into another space and travel to other places. It leaves the space distorted when he was using the ability."
Distorted space … Memories seemed to flash in front of my eyes and a wave of dread washed over my body. "I saw something like that during my final confrontation with Danzō. Tobi … Madara, whoever he is, probably already knows what happened in Konoha."
Itachi didn't look surprised. "He seems to know many things already. I am not surprised if he already knows the secret behind the Uchiha Massacre."
Then Sasuke's genjutsu … "Someone placed a complicated genjutsu on Sasuke when we were dealing with Root. I used to think it was Danzō that placed it on him with his stolen Mangekyou, but the timeline and the evidence didn't add up. If Tobi really could appear anywhere with his Mangekyou, then he might be the one who placed the genjutsu on Sasuke to make him turn on the village." Itachi's eyes seemed to stir a little at the mention of Sasuke, but it soon faded into nothing.
Right, we were only dealing business here.
"Tobi wanted to make your brother and sister turn on the village, which could be a likely outcome, given how dangerous things had become and ojou-chan's mental state back then. Then, Itachi-kun, you would have no reason to protect Konoha, wouldn't you?" Jiraiya concluded from the side. Itachi didn't deny it.
"What is this, he's trying to make another Uchiha Clan?" Jiraiya made a joke, but none of us found it funny.
Tobi, or Madara, knew my brother's allegiance was with Konoha from at least two weeks ago. Yet, he made no moves against Itachi, who was learning about their plans and performing their missions.
"Okay, moving a little away from this … Madara. What were you originally planning to tell me, Itachi-kun?" Rubbing his nose from the awkward silence, Jiraiya decided to move on.
"Akatsuki's leader, Pein, has declared an overarching mission for the organization. Capture the nine tailed beasts," Itachi announced. "He planned to use the power of the tail beasts to 'revolutionize the world', or so he said."
Jiraiya and I looked at each other, and we both saw headaches coming for each other.
Imagine, Naruto, the Naruto who could be duped into following Jiraiya anywhere by a few simple words, facing against Akatsuki, whose goal of 'revolutionizing' the world probably translated to 'destroy the world as we knew it'.
If what Itachi said was true, then we at Konoha could try our best to protect the boy, but ultimately, there would always be time that he would be alone, fending for himself. With the way Naruto currently was, I wasn't feeling hopeful.
"And this Tobi person never exposed you and even let you freely learn of their plans?" I asked, merely proposing a possibility. If Itachi's role as a spy had been exposed, then the validity of his information might be questionable.
Then again, it could just be that Tobi didn't care about Akatsuki. Whatever Akatsuki's leader had in plan for the world didn't mean a single thing for him.
Jiraiya turned his gaze towards Itachi, wondering the same thing.
Itachi tilted his head a little - a motion that finally brought back some familiarity. He used to do that when arguing with Shisui and I. It was the 'You have a point, but I also do' expression.
"Perhaps, like I said, I found his motives to be ambiguous. However, it was also possible that he didn't care if I was a spy as long as I completed the jobs. Their ambitious plan is bigger than just one village. What could Konoha do, even if we knew that they would be coming for the tailed beast?" Itachi laid out his point of view. I was reminded of the fact that he and I now experienced things at the different end of the spectrum.
We at the Konoha Anbu worked with caution. Examining details meticulously and we couldn't afford to take too much risk. One wrong move from a piece of false information could lead to countless lives lost - the lives of those shinobi that I fought with, and the lives of those that I loved.
Missing-nin, however, lived their lives on the edge of thrilling demise. Powerful missing-nin, in particular, were prideful of themselves. Others meant nothing to them; if opposition came, then might as well just get rid of them. The more chaotic the better.
What could Konoha do? That was the question of the century.
The Third Shinobi War had long ended, but the fact that it was every village for themselves didn't change. Distrust brewed deeper than our roots. If we believed just 50% of what the other village said, that would be a good day.
I had no doubt that if we went to the other four major hidden villages, banging on their Hokage;'s door and claiming that an organization of S-rank missing-nin had decided to gather up all the tailed beasts and planned to destroy the world, it would be Konoha who was first being targeted.
What was Konoha's goal? Why would they suddenly pay attention to our tailed beast? They would question our source of information - Itachi was not the most credible source based on his status - and they would suspect our motive.
Hell, Kumogakure would probably laugh at us as well. "You figure out your own tailed beast," they would say, "Our tailed beasts can handle themselves.
After all, hidden villages were also prideful. What could a band of S-rank missing-nin do, against a full village of shinobi?
"At the current age, the Shinobi villages couldn't be united. They wouldn't take our warnings seriously. Worse if they think we had some sinister motives behind this." Jiraiya came to the same conclusion. We didn't have to be the Hokage to figure out that this piece of information was the devil's words. It would bring Konoha more strife than it solved.
Even then, now that we knew, we had to do something, start somewhere, rather than choking the information down our throat and wait for Akatsuki's plan to unfold.
"Kirigakure," I spoke up all of a sudden, drawing the attention of my company. "They, of all villages, might be more inclined to heed our warning about Akatsuki."
"I know that Kiri has been getting rough lately, and we've had some … collaborations, but that doesn't mean they want to hear more about potential threats than any other village." Jiraiya reminded me, which was a valid point. "So tell us what you're thinking, ojou-chan."
He's never going to stop calling me 'ojou-chan', isn't he? Should have stopped him at all cost before it settled in. What an oversight.
"When I had contact with Kirigakure's Terumi Mei - now the Godaime Mizukage, I supposed, congrats to her. Anyway, she expressed a lot of interest in the Sharingan," I paused a bit to collect my thoughts. "It's different from Danzō or Orochimaru. She doesn't necessarily want the sharingan, she just wants to understand them, and if needed, how to fight them."
Call it an intuition, but while Terumi Mei's interest annoyed me, it was nothing when compared to the disgust I got over Danzō and Orochimaru.
"Therefore, it was more likely that she or Kirigakure had been the victim of Sharingan, or at least, she suspects it to be." I laid out my conclusion and watched the room fall silent in contemplation. It was a bit of a reach, but not without a certain degree of logic. "
"The era of the Bloody Mist." Itachi was quick to catch up on what I was trying to say.
"Exactly. The way she is approaching the Sharingan, it's almost as if she's trying to solve a mystery; like she's trying to validate a conclusion, so it's probably not as straightforward as having a couple of Uchiha wreaking havoc on the Konoha-Kiri battlefront during the Third Shinobi War. Other than that, there was nothing more mysterious than how the era of the Bloody Mist started under the reign of the Yondaime Mizukage and how it ended." I completed his thought. After a pause, I had to add, "Again, this is just guesswork based on my intuition. Don't take it too seriously."
"No, no, that's exactly what intelligence work entails. We filter through loads of junk information and try to make sense of the pieces. Speculation and intuition are a big part of it." Jiraiya nodded at me and said, "so finish your theory, we might be going somewhere."
So I took a deep breath and continued.
"While the exact time is debatable, the era of the Bloody ended around a year ago, maybe two - that was when Mei was able to take control of the remaining Kirigakure forces, likely after the Yondaime had died. I think that's what's causing the confusion for her, if she indeed suspects Uchiha Sharingan to be behind this." I said, watching the realization settle on their faces. "At that time, the Uchiha Clan had been massacred and the only known Sharingan users left were Itachi, Kakashi, Sasuke and myself."
I continued, dumping out the clues I had gathered since my first meeting with the Godaime Mizukage, trying to string them along in a somewhat cohesive manner. "Itachi and I were only babies when the Bloody Mist started, Sasuke wasn't even born. Kakashi was a teenager and thus the most likely candidate. But Kakashi's trail had been too exposed. Ever since the Third Shinobi War, every village kept tabs on him like crazy, Terumi must have come to the conclusion that it was unlikely to be Kakashi as well."
Not to diss Kakashi, but with the way he used his Mangekyou like a last resort and how the Sharingan drained him faster than using an old laptop with a broken battery, if he had been keeping up a genjutsu like that since he was a teenager, he would be dead ten times over.
Of course, there were always Orochimaru and Danzō, whose fascination with the Sharingan had been blinding. But Orochimaru never transplanted a working sharingan on himself, considering the effect of the transplanted Sharingan inferior.
Danzō, on the other hand, had acquired the majority of his sharingan collection and a working Mangekyou until Shisui's death and the Clan Massacre, and I doubt that a transplanted Sharingan could have the power to sustain a genjutsu of that calibre. Not when he couldn't even cast a convincing genjutsu without Kotoamatsukami.
These things, Terumi Mei didn't need to know. Even if she somehow got the wind of these secrets, we had explanations.
"Based on these thoughts, Terumi Mei would be more inclined to take our warning seriously and prepare for the worst, if there was another Mangekyou Sharingan user that, in every aspect, seemed to fit the culprit of who she suspected to be behind the Bloody Mist." Whether she believed us or not, it didn't matter, I argued. What was important was that she understood the consequence of ignoring such a threat.
"Sanbi … based on the rumours, should be rebirthing somewhere in the wild after getting released from the Yondaime Mizukage. As for Rokubi, I heard nothing, but I hope that jinchuuriki is still in Kirigakure, able to fend for themselves," Jiraiya counted with his fingers. "It could be a promising direction to take for Konoha, considering Akatsuki would be more likely to go for tailed beasts that are unprotected by the villages first. Sanbi is a vulnerable target. Kirigakure, as of now, more than any other villages, cannot lose another power source like the tailed beasts."
Jiraiya looked to Itachi to confirm his speculation, and Itachi nodded after a moment of thinking. "Pein had not given out a mission to hunt for the tailed beasts yet. But yes, it was logical to guess that we would target the tailed beast without the protection of a village first. Akatsuki also operate in teams and we rarely communicate between teams. If a mission was not given to me, I wouldn't know what they were doing, and it would be strange for me to pry." Itachi said that now, but we knew that he would try to get that information out even if it would endanger his life.
Under the table, I fought the urge to tighten my fist. Itachi had agreed to this meeting and had told us everything he had known, bringing more progress than in the last four years.
It wasn't just because Akatsuuki had finally decided to make a move, he also didn't think his undercover could last for long. He knew that it wasn't good enough anymore to just passively collect information, not when Akatsuki had finally showed its teeth and hatched a plan that Konoha couldn't sit and watch.
He needed to play his part as a spy with more risk, and for that end, he would likely expose his position. He might not plan to sacrifice his life - not before knowing Danzō and the threat to his siblings' lives in the village would be gone - but he needed a meeting to dump everything out and tell the Hokage, clear and loud that 'I, Itachi, might not be able to stay undercover anymore, but don't scratch me out yet, because I will be alive and make sure you keep up the end of your promise.'
His safety might be uncertain, but Itachi definitely knew how to make a lasting impression.
Everything was calculated. Nothing was done without careful contemplation - that was the Itachi in front of me right now, forced by the life he had chosen. So how could I reach him, under those layers of calculation and lies?
Upon hearing Itachi's words, Jiraiya shook his head and said, "The old man is clear that it would be your decision, whether to continue your undercover or to return. He would respect your decision, and Danzō was not there in the village to question your motive, your sister made sure of that."
Itachi nodded but said nothing else. He turned towards me and for the first time during our meeting, he showed his emotion to me clearly.
He smiled at me and I knew. His decision was clear. He would not choose to return.
My eyes changed, they went from the black pupils to the three-tomoe sharingan in an instant. Only my right eye though, considering my left eye was temporarily out of commission.
"How's your eyes?" Itachi asked and my sharingan halted in its transformation and forced itself back to normal. I hated it so much, that he had so much power over my emotions, but nothing I said, nothing I felt, seemed to be able to crack him, even just by a little.
"They'll manage. I should be asking you the same question," I said. Business was done, this was personal now. I was aware of the fact that Jiraiya was still here, observing our conversation. He was the one keeping the seal active, after all.
"..." Itachi didn't answer that question, he never would, but he already told enough with his silence.
"It's … nice seeing you again, after all these years" he said and it was the voice that I had remembered. There was no pain, no hurt, no sorrow. He sounded like my brother, when I was twelve and he was thirteen. When we would meet up finally after a long mission for both of us. It mattered not that he was in Anbu and I wanted nothing to do with the clan. We were just happy to see each other.
His voice brought comfort, but at the same time, it hurt me so much. I couldn't understand how he could have gone from a stranger to my brother from memory just like that, without a second of hesitation.
But that made sense. This was Itachi we were talking about.
"I guess so. It's nice to see you too." So I smiled, giving him the happiest smile I could find, as if we were still twelve and thirteen and still had a family. If that's how he wanted to take it, then smiling was the only thing I could do for him.
(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ fuwa~fuwa~desu~~~
Itachi thought that his disease must have advanced into hallucination, when he saw Maiko in the sealed quarter.
Great, now he was seeing things that he wanted to see.
But soon, he realized that it was the haunting reality. This Maiko was not just a fabrication of his imagination, built from his memory. This Maiko was real, more detailed that he could have filled out, more vivid than he could have imagined.
In an instant, he started to piece out what happened. So Sandime couldn't keep that part of his promise …
"I killed Danzō," She said, and that filled the last pieces of the puzzle. It was naive of him to think Danzō would stay intimidated.
Still, he was glad that Maiko had grown to a point that Danzō would consider her to be able to rival him, that was the only reason he would try to use her against him.
And look, she was here and he was dead. She surpassed Danzō's imagination.
She got herself into the Hokage's grace as well, by the look of it. That should be enough to secure their future in the village, considering how much guilt the Sandaime held for the remaining Uchiha.
Everything seemed to be doing okay. Except, he didn't know how to face her anymore - the way he was right now, broken, tainted, full of darkness.
Their eyes met, and Itachi saw the sorrow and sadness in her eyes, as if the mere sight of him was her greatest fear. That wouldn't be too far from the truth, Itachi imagined. He was her worst nightmare since four years ago, he made sure of that himself.
Maiko composed herself and proceeded like a true Anbu Captain, diligent, concise, and quick to understand everything.
He watched her dissecting the situation, stringing broken logic together, and devising plans. He couldn't help but feel proud.
His Akatsuki identity scared her, so when they were forced to go back to personal matters, Itachi tried to be the brother she had remembered, the brother she was familiar with.
He soon realized that she hated that too.
When she smiled at him, pretending like nothing had ever happened, his heart was hurting.
He must have shown that on his face, just for a second. Maiko caught that. Still with a smile, she said, "It hurts, doesn't it? Seeing me smile and pretend like nothing had ever happened. So why do you even try?"
As sarcastic as ever, Itachi thought, but he got it. It hurt her, just like it pained Itachi, seeing him trying to be something he was not, whether it was the Itachi he tried to be in Akatsuki, or the Itachi before the Clan Massacre.
They couldn't go back to how it was before the Clan Massacre, before Shisui's death, and before knowing the Uchiha Rebellion.
So Itachi scratched that facade, meeting her eyes with a gaze that had seen many things. Dark, disgusting, painful things. She looked at him back, unflinching. Her eyes telling him that she had seen her fair share too.
For the first time, the seventeen-year old Uchiha Itachi, carrying the darkness of the Uchiha Massacre and living as a spy for Konoha in Akatsuki, met the sixteen-year old Uchiha Maiko, who had journeyed endlessly to uncover the truth of her Clan and to find her brother.
"How have you been?" He asked, simply because he truly wanted to know. His eyes naturally went to her left iris, seeing the greyed out pupil as soulless as glass. How often did she have to use her Mangekyou, having to face enemies like Orochimaru and Danzō.
She noticed, naturally putting a hand over her left eye. "It's temporary. I had to do my best, when Danzō had somehow pillaged eleven sharingans and used them all for Izanagi."
Itachi widened his eyes for a moment, because Izanagi was not something that he thought he'd heard. But the shock subsided in an instance. He really shouldn't be surprised by anything that Danzō did at this point.
"My eyesight is deteriorating, I won't lie, but I only use the Mangekyou in emergencies and I'm trying to find ways to relinquish my reliance on them," Maiko answered, then tilting her head towards her, asking him to do the same.
"I'm not blind, but I'm not that far from it, with the rate I'm using them," Itachi replied, not intending to lie to her. He had been careful with the Mangekyou abilities - he had planned to make it until Maiko or Sasuke needed his eyes, after all - but sometimes it had been inevitable. Given his health conditions, the Mangekyou would damage his eyesight faster. Maybe a few more years, if his body could handle it.
Maiko looked at him, her eyes glossed over his own. He saw her sadness with the way her eyes dimmed - she didn't try to hide them now - and he wished that he could tell her that it was okay. He never planned to see past their meeting.
Even at this meeting, it was a surprise. To fact that he was able to see her again, to carve her image into his memory, it was already a blessing.
"Sasuke opened his Sharingan on the night of the Clan massacre. He has three tomoe now and he's learning a lot on how to use them. He'll be graduating from the Academy next year, first place in everything, of course," Maiko said a second later, with a small smile on her lips. Itachi felt himself doing the same. Sasuke was still their pride and joy, nothing could ever change that.
Maiko's smile faded a second later. She looked at Itachi with the eyes of a seasoned warrior, looking straight to his soul. "Why won't you come back to us, then. Now that you finally have the chance."
She knew what Itachi had planned to do - to stay undercover at Akatsuki and attempt to thwart their plan, and eventually living out the rest of his life as a missing-nin, run from both Konoha and Akatsuki.
"You know how much you meant to me, to Sasuke. He knows everything, by the way. I told him everything. He is more mature than you think," Maiko continued, pounding every word into Itachi's heart. "Even from Konoha's point of view, your value as a spy in Akatsuki decreased dramatically the moment you were found out. Instead, you'd be better placed as a shinobi of Konoha, to try to convince other villages of the threat, and to help protect the tailed beasts."
Maiko kept her voice calm, laying out nothing but simple logic for him. She might have fooled him, if Itachi didn't know Mai so well. She was desperate, trying to use everything to get him to come back, Sasuke, herself, and even the village. Anything she could think of that he cared about, anything to use against him.
She hated doing that to him, and Itachi hated himself for having to make her desperate enough to do it.
But how could he come back, after everything he had done to the Uchiha Clan, to Maiko and Sasuke?
Itachi was a sinner, and he made his remaining existence to repay the debt.
So he shook his head at Maiko and said, "Like you keep trying to tell me, Maiko, things can never go back to how they used to be. I've done unforgivable things, and I have to accept the consequences."
It mattered not who gave the order, it mattered not if he had a choice or not. Itachi killed his own kin and slaughtered his parents.
It mattered not that Maiko and Sasuke had forgiven him - which was still debatable - Itachi couldn't forgive himself.
"It's not your debt to repay. It never was." Maiko stared at him, refused to accept his self-loathing as a valid excuse to go on a suicide mission.
"My existence would only cause pain for the two of you. It already did." Itachi said in a mocking tone. Maiko needed to hear it, now that his original plan wouldn't work. "My eyes, I will seal them within my summoning crow when the time comes, transplant it to yourself, and it should cure the deteriorating vision -"
An intense feeling of threat hit him as his chakra rushed to his eyes to defend. It took him a moment to realize that his Mangekyou had been activated, despite his broken body being unable to support the rush of power.
The trigger … It was Maiko's own Mangekyou Sharingan. Her tri-petaled left iris stared at him in anger, before that rage slowly faded into shock, and finally, desperation.
It was then that Itachi remembered how the flow of chakra in his broken body would look to a Sharingan user. There was nothing he could hide.
"Is this why you are determined to go on a suicide mission, even planning out details on how to utilize your corpse to the fullest extent?" Maiko laughed, not holding back on the mockery. "Because you're already so far into the grave that your chakra couldn't even support yoru Sharingan?"
"Ojou-chan …" Jiraiya had to call out from the side. Even he could see that the turn of the conversation was a bomb waiting to explode.
But Maiko didn't lash out in anger. She closed her eyes, forcing Mangekyou down so that Itachi's own body wouldn't feel the threat. She kept her eyes closed for a moment, as if trying to push something down.
Itachi's eyesight was dying, but before his Sharingan calmed, he caught a flash of tear before Maiko forced it back.
Maiko hated crying since she was little and Itachi hardly thought that would change when she grew up.
"It's fine, Jiraiya-sama," she reassured Jiraiya before opening her eyes again. She stared at Itachi with a piercing gaze and said, "Even Buddha can't save those who don't want to save themselves."
"Itachi, your existence doesn't cause me pain. Knowing that you think like that and truly believed that you could do everything for us is what's causing me pain." Maiko tried to hold herself back, but the anger in her voice seeped through like fuming flames.
Itachi furrowed his brow, wondering if there was something he could say that would placate her anger.
"Stop trying to think what you can say to get me to calm down - I can see it in your eyes - I'm very calm right now," she didn't look calm. "So just shut up and try to listen." Itachi did.
"I'm not as strong as you, Itachi. I'm mentally weak, I fell into Danzō's traps and Kakashi had to come and save my ass. I'm indecisive, I wanted to leave the Clan when it was still there, but only after it was gone, I asked myself why I hadn't done anything before," Maiko said, clearly and loudly, ripping out her scars one by one. Itachi wanted to say that it wasn't true, he never thought of her as weak, but Maiko wasn't done.
"I am struggling in life already, but that's exactly what life is, that's my life. I don't need you to give up your life to plan out mine just so it could be easier. If you ask Sasuke, he would say exactly the same thing."
For a moment, she didn't say anything, merely letting her words sink in, to truly reach him.
Itachi knew he was controlling. He always did, he wanted to provide the best for his siblings, to shoulder all their worries so that they didn't have to. He took on the Anbu role father assigned for Maiko; he took on the role of a kinslayer, so that Maiko and Sasuke didn't have to face the repercussions of a rebellious Clan. He decided to give his eyes to Maiko so that she didn't have to experience blindness ...
He told them, 'I did them all willingly' and he truly believed he did.
That was his love, his sickening, pathological love.
"We accept your love, Itachi, but it's not love if it's only one-sided, that's only a burden, both for you and for us," Maiko said, lowering her eyes as if she's finally exhausted from all the rage. "Please, accept our love too."
The world seemed to stop in its tracks as both Itachi and Maiko fell in silence.
"Maa, maa, Itachi-kun, you don't have to decide now, whether or not you want to come back to the village." Jiraiya had to step in to mend the broken atmosphere. "It's getting late, we should wrap up the meeting, There's always a next time."
Itachi's crow clone couldn't last for long either, he had no choice but to leave soon.
As soon as Jiraiya said the words, Maiko raised her head and looked at him. They still had so much to say, so much to work out.
"I will always love you and Sasuke, no matter what." That was the only thing Itachi found himself saying as he stood up from the table and walked to the window. It seemed to be the only thing they could agree on, and it was the most broken aspect of their relationship.
"I know, I believe you," Maiko whispers. Suddenly, she disappeared from her seat and body-flickered in front of him. She grabbed his hand and pulled it up towards her.
"This is the new access code to Konoha's Anbu entrance; we had to change them after the Root invasion," Maiko said as she glided her index finger over his palm, writing out the pass code one by one. "This code will last for twenty days from now, after that, the barrier will be reset again."
Maiko's eyes burnt into his soul, as if trying to carve an image into his memory that he would never forget.
"Itachi, I meant what I said, Please, think it over." That was Maiko's last words before Itachi dispelled the clone. In his swirling consciousness, he thought he heard a sigh hanging over the air.
(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ fuwa~fuwa~desu~~~
I placed my hand on the floor, contemplating what I was about to do.
Jiraiya let me go after Itachi's Clone dispelled. He offered to chat with me, if I so desired, but I refused. I know he meant well - my talk with Itachi was anything but comforting - but even if I do need to let my emotions out, he wasn't someone I could show my weakness to.
"Summoning no jutsu" I whispered as I planted the seal onto the wooden floor. A moment later, Fuyuki appeared in front of me, her head dangling over my kneeling figure.
"What's wrong, my little pup?" With one sniff, the snow wolf knew my broken heart and soul.
"I told Itachi that his love is suffocating, even though he sacrificed everything for us." I reached out and touched Fuyuki's neck. Fuyuki wasn't a pet dog, her fur was not smooth and soft, Instead, it's thick and coarse to touch, built as an armour to keep her alive in the harsh environment.
Upon hearing my words, Fuyuki said nothing except to bring her nozzle closer to touch my face.
"I basically told him to come back in twenty days," I continued, grasping onto her fur tighter. "What if he never comes back to me?" I gave Itachi the code out of an impulsive decision and pushed every hope I had onto that. If he refused to come back before the code expired, then that meant there was nothing more I could do to convince him to come back. I didn't know what I would do then.
I closed my eyes, feeling the warmth beneath my fingers. Fuyuki knew everything. She had lived for a long time, but even she couldn't deal with complex human emotions like this festering tangle between Itachi and I.
"My brother is dying, Fuyuki. His body is barely holding onto the pieces, like a piece of dying cinder, barely burning." I buried my face into her fur and felt the tears streaming down my face.
My brother wanted to use the remainder of his short life to its full value, extracting the last bits of his uses, forgetting not even his corpses.
My brother's love was brutal and cruel, and he was the first and foremost victim.
There were two kinds of people that Buddha couldn't save: himself, and those who didn't want to save themselves. Unfortunately, Itachi was both.
Fuyuki said nothing other than being here for me, nuzzling her head around mine, providing me with comfort in silence.
Eventually, when I felt my tears run dry, Fuyuki rubbed my body with her foreleg and pushed me towards the bed. She said, "Sleep, my little pup. I will keep watch for tonight."
I nodded, laying down on the bed and felt the giant weight beside me as Fuyuki jumped up as well. Her tail swung over to cover my body, until all the dread, the hope, and the emotions melted into dreams.
A/N: So, Itachi appeared ;;-;;
I don't pretend that everything is all roses and rainbow now that Danzo is dead. What's done is done and the relationship between the Uchiha siblings will never be the same. But, I think Itachi and Sasuke's lives were too difficult back when I was watching Naruto and it hurt me a lot seeing Itachi die after giving away his everything, leaving nothing for himself. So, even if pain still remained, I didn't want the ending to be unsalvageable.
Also, the name of this chapter came from a vocaloid song. It's a good song, but I don't actually understand what its lyrics were telling, it seems to be a very complicated story. But, I thought the name of the song would fit the chapter somewhat.