Interlude-Cloudy Skies

Looking at the evening sky, the clouds blocking the sight of the star-filled expanse that he grew to love, Hiruzen let out a sigh.

He felt old, this was a familiar feeling and the longer things went the more often he felt it, but it was on nights like this that he felt it the most.

The Kyuubi Attack, Minato's death, it all seemed to go downhill from there. His village was in ruins, and tensions that they couldn't afford quickly rose, he went from having the perfect Hokage candidate and plenty of spares to scrambling to find even a single decent one.

Orochimaru, his wayward student, was quick to reveal his true colors after he was passed by and as much as it hurt Hurizen to see the child he comforted over his parent's graves go down such a dark path he knew that he could not give Orochimaru what he sought.

Konoha had to come first.

Fugaku, one of the strongest and most influential shinobi in the village, was also passed for a replacement, both because it would cause even further unrest in the village to replace Minato so soon and because of the divide that rose between the Uchiha clan and Konoha.

And while Hiruzen was busy rebuilding the village and ensuring the other nations wouldn't take it as an opportunity to invade, the civilian council and even his own forces slowly caused the situation with the Uchiha to worsen.

The civilian council, despite all their bluster, normally held no real authority. Konoha was a ninja village first and foremost, and the council itself was just a way to increase dialogue and cooperation between the clans, with certain wealthy civilians only being given a seat because pretending to appease them helped the economy.

Yet, when their complaints were backed up by a great majority of the civilian population, the very same population that was required as manpower for the village while the shinobi focused on missions, they suddenly found themselves with the power they always pretended to have.

Hiruzen could have cracked down on them, he could have forced them to stand down, but Konoha was in a precarious situation and they could hardly afford to deal with the civil unrest it would cause after such a catastrophe, nevermind the hit their finances would take.

Strangely enough, it was Danzo that proposed to increase their authority to the point that the five civilian councilors had authority roughly equivalent to a clan head. They might not always see eye to eye, but Hiruzen knew Danzo could be pragmatic for the good of Konoha.

Or maybe it was another one of his ploys, Hiruzen, while always the stronger of the two, had no issue admitting that in the subject of subterfuge and trickery Danzo was the better of the two.

Knowing Danzo, it was likely both.

So the civilians, afraid and uncertain after the Kyuubi Attack and suddenly empowered, were quick to latch on to any justification, quick to pin the blame without all the facts to prove it.

The Uchiha were already isolated, and with the majority of the village's population turning against them it was no wonder they stopped seeing themselves as part of the village.

His forces, while perhaps better justified and certainly better informed, still didn't help matters.

Hiruzen had authority to do a lot, as Hokage he technically had authority to do whatever he wanted in the village, though realistically it was a lot more politics and exchanges of favors.

But no amount of authority could ensure loyalty, you can't order a man to love something. It is why that love is nurtured, from the day they are born the next generation is taught to love Konoha, that when the time comes they will be the ones teaching their children to do the same.

So as much as he could and did order his forces to treat the Uchiha fairly, he couldn't order them to love the Uchiha anymore than he could order the Uchiha to love Konoha. It had to come willingly, he couldn't force it.

Itachi and Shisui were a golden opportunity, he planned to use them both to fix the mess and tie to Uchiha tightly to Konoha. Itachi, an unrivaled genius, would become the Fifth Hokage in a few years, and Shisui, another prodigy, would have been his jonin commander.

But then Danzo acted, while Hiruzen agreed that Shisui Uchiha's Mangekyo Sharingan was far too dangerous to be left unaccounted for the boy's loyalty all but ensured that it would be used for Konoha's benefit.

Danzo disagreed.

The moment Hiruzen received the report, Shisui was dead and Itachi had awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan, deep down he knew it was over. He still tried, but at that point he knew it was pointless.

Danzo gave Itachi fake orders, Hiruzen should have stopped him, and deep down he knew Danzo would do it, but he didn't. Maybe out of some misplaced hope, maybe he was seeing things in his former best friend that no longer existed, he didn't know.

It didn't matter, what mattered was the current mess he was stuck with.

"Would one of you care to inform me how this was missed?" He asked, never turning away from the window.

A simple journal stood on his desk.

After a moment of silence, when no answer came, he spoke again.

"Dog!" He says. "You were responsible for sweeping his residence, how is it that you missed this?"

While his posture didn't change, the feel of his chakra was enough to tell Hiruzen everything.

"I apologize, Hokage-sama!" Kakashi said. "I could not go over their every journal in detail."

Hiruzen considered calling him out on it, saying that he understood why Kakashi would feel guilty for failing Obito by letting this happen, even though he didn't know the full truth.

Instead, he shook his head.

"Your carelessness has seen an S-rank secret revealed by a child!" Hiruzen said sharply. "It was pure luck that her status or her father's name weren't written on the journal."

Hiruzen sighed.

"No more missions for a month." He said, then before Kakashi could argue he continued. "That is an order."

"Yes, Hokage-sama!" Kakashi said, and it was only his decades of experience that let him hear the anger in his voice.

"Return the journal." Hiruzen said. "Make sure you aren't seen this time."

Despite the situation, Hiruzen's lips quirked into a small smile, the fact that a child managed to spot him, for however little and even through luck, gave a painful but ultimately necessary hit to Kakashi's ego.

Then he schooled his features, while it was good that little Natsumi found a friend and that she and young Sasuke seemed to find a bond with each other, he wasn't pleased that Kushina's identity was revealed.

While she had enemies of her own, hiding her identity was mostly a consequence of hiding Minato's identity and the Kyuubi. It was well known inside Konoha, though less so outside, that she was the Kyuubi jinchuriki.

Anyone who suspected young Natsumi would connect the dots, especially considering only an Uzumaki can hold the Kyuubi and those are especially rare nowadays.

And while her relationship with Minato wasn't well known, keeping the jinchuriki close to the Kage's family is a common practice in most villages, even if it isn't necessarily one Konoha has adhered to. Natsumi might share an uncanny resemblance to her mother, but her hair and eyes look just like Minato's.

Anyone who sees her and figures she is the jinchuriki is dangerously close to knowing who her father was. And that is something Hiruzen can't allow, even if it breaks his heart to lie to the girl he sees as a granddaughter.

Konoha can't afford another war, and more than that, he can't handle leading his home through another war, losing even more friends and loved ones.

So he sighs, and hopes that his two regrets, the girl he couldn't care for as he should have and the boy he failed, will give each other the happiness they deserve. Hoping is all he can do.

And the ruthless and calculating part of him, the part that saw him as the Third God of Shinobi, sees the benefits of their friendship, of having two of Konoha's most important assets ensuring each other's loyalty.

It thinks of the future and sees the benefits of their union, of both the Uchiha and the Uzumaki restored and strengthened by each other, of a clan with powerful bodies and powerful eyes. Of a jinchuriki that can finally tap into the Kyuubi's full power without losing control, of using Madara's technique to turn the very beast that laid waste to Konoha into its greatest weapon.

And he hates himself for it, for seeing two children and thinking of the benefit their bloodlines would have when combined. He knows he can push for it to happen, he can manipulate them and give Konoha an incredibly powerful asset.

He thinks it is for the good of Konoha, and with that thought, he grits his teeth and goes about planning how to push them towards that.

And for a moment he has a thought that nearly breaks the old war veteran.

When will I finally be able to rest?

But he shakes his head and sighs.

He never felt so old.

-[TGaE]-

Looking at the cloudy night, the silhouette of the full moon barely visible, Itachi felt another stab of guilt.

Just like that night.

Thinking about it hurt, remembering what he did, how his entire family was dead, at his hands no less, it all hurt.

That is precisely why he does it, he deserves to suffer, for what he did, for what he'll do.

Sometimes, when Itachi is at his worst, he likes to remember the good times. Him and Shisui just hanging out, his mother's cooking, his father's stern but kind demeanor.

The way Sasuke would look up to him, adoration clear in his eyes.

What little comfort those memories bring only serves to make the inevitable wave of guilt all the worse, but Itachi still does it.

The pain keeps it real, it doesn't let him forget what he did, and for as much as he knows it isn't healthy for him to torture himself like this Itachi feels like he has to. He has to at least try to atone for what he did, even if he knows he deserves no forgiveness.

...he hopes Sasuke is okay.

A part of him, the one that often tells him he should have just joined his family that day, sneers and asks what right does he have to ask after his brother after what he did? After how he tortured him like that?

Another, always sounding hollow, tries to justify it. He has a plan, the Uchiha will be avenged, Sasuke will be seen as a hero, and Konoha will be fine.

"That's your plan?" The first part asks. "After you nearly broke him!?"

"It was necessary!" The second part argues. "I couldn't let the coup go through!"

"Couldn't you find another way!?" The first part shouts. "Instead of becoming a monster!? Of hurting him!?"

A third part, one Itachi has done everything he can to ignore even as it always comes back and all his instincts tell him to listen, whispers the thought Itachi fears.

"But it wasn't just nearly, was it? You did break him, you broke Sasuke."

He tries to deny it as the other two go silent, but he knows the look he saw, that look of horrified realization and grim determination that should never have been in an 8-year-old's face, the same look he saw in plenty of his ANBU comrades when they went on a mission they knew they weren't coming back from.

The same look he imagines was in his eyes when he accepted his final mission as a Konoha shinobi.

The look of the truly desperate, of those with nothing to lose and everything to gain, of those who would set the world ablaze if it meant seeing their purpose through.

"Yes." It whispers to him. "You broke our Otouto, whatever was left, whatever you left behind, was no longer the Sasuke we knew!"

Itachi wants to scream, he didn't! He didn't kill his brother! It was all for him!

But the voice won't go away.

"But you did. Whether you wanted to or not, your little plan broke him, it turned him into something else."

Itachi's nails draw blood from his palms, yet he barely notices, too busy drawing on every scrap of willpower he can find to silence the damned voice. To make it stop!

And then it is over, his mind is his own again and he breathes a sigh of relief even as he does his best not to think about what the voice said.

Because he knows he can't, he knows that if he thinks about it he will know it to be true and if he does, if he really changed his brother so much that the Sasuke he knew is gone, then he's doing this for nothing.

And that way lies madness.

So he gets up, ignoring his partner's curious gaze, breathes in the cool night air, the burning in his lungs just ever so slightly less painful, and moves.

Itachi Uchiha keeps moving, he does because he can't stop, because he knows that he if he does he will never move again, he will just lay down and die like he should have with his family.

He moves because it has to be worth it, all the sacrifices he made, all the pain he endures, it has to mean something.

He never stops moving, feeling the shadow of the reaper at his back, knowing that he has a purpose to fulfill and that he can't die until he sees it through.

Whatever it takes.

-[TGaE]-

Just a short little interlude to show how both Itachi and Hiruzen are reacting to Sasuke and his actions.

I had this chapter done Friday evening, but a combination of a power outage and Mother's Day sneaking up on me forced me to only be able to edit and post it today.

Oh, and I know this isn't a full-length chapter, the next chapter will be extra-large to compensate, I just wanted to show what they were up to without too much bloat. I intend to keep the main chapters as Sasuke's POV exclusively and occasionally write these little interludes to show different POVs.

Anyway, reviews are appreciated, and see you next time.