Chapter 5 - Paradise Lost

Uchiha Itachi was on the back foot.

Uchiha Itachi was unaccustomed to being on the back foot.

He barely had a moment to react to the rush of air that came from behind him. It was a subtle thing, just a brush, a breath, that barely tickled the hairs at the nape of his neck.

Once he'd dove, the space he'd been occupying was pierced by kunai attached to chains. They pierced the ground just in front of where he'd been and then there was a hiss.

Itachi had only a moment to get back on his feet when he found himself substituting with a nearby fallen tree to avoid the detonation of the explosive tags that ran down the length of the chain.

"Get back here, Uchiha!"

The voice was coming closer, he could already hear the rush of water that followed her.

A blur of hand seals later, a great fireball was flying in the direction of the voice. It burned bright like the sun and Itachi could feel the sweat on his face evaporating.

Three kunai flew through the fireball, his Sharingan told him one was aimed at his torso, another at his knee, and the last at his head. Itachi lept to the right and caught himself in a roll.

Brown eyes and waving brown hair had gone in the opposite direction as him, still dodging the fireball. His jutsu detonated on contact with one of the nearby trees and sent a blast of hot air around them that sent hair in front of his eyes.

His opponent threw three stakes in his direction, but his eyes told him none of them were aimed at him.

Itachi had turned around and was running for the nearest tree before the first one landed a foot in front of his last position. The second landed halfway up the same tree Itachi was climbing, and the third was pierced through the nearest tree on his then-left.

As he passed it, he got a better look at the stake. It was pure black and rounded. At the top was a sealing array that was glowing pale-blue in the darkness of the canopy.

"Fuinjutsu: Shi no Shirushi! (Sealing Technique: Deathmark)"

He was in the air half a second after he heard the jutsu name be called out. The fireball he'd sent out earlier had been hot. It was hot by Uchiha standards, maybe even hot by fire specialist standards, too.

The forest below flashed like a kiln filled with molten steel. Chakra suffused the air and the light it made to his eyes mingled with the orange-gold of the Fire Dragon Jutsu. He had to turn away to not be blinded.

Itachi knew, logically, that he wasn't anywhere near the fire now, maybe two or three meters away and in the air. There was no way the Fire Dragons were touching him when they were aimed at each of the three stakes.

When the rush of air came as the blasts of flame streaked forward and superheated the air around them in under a fraction of a second, Itachi was knocked out of the sky and had flipped at least once before falling to the ground.

As he righted himself before landing, he saw the tail end of the blaze running its course, with his opponent standing in the thick of it. She was completely unbothered as over fifteen streams of flame had passed her by, from high and low and left and right. One of the seals had even been at her feet, from what he could see from the final sputtering of the jutsu as it died away in the ink that it was cast from.

Her eyes went from deep purple back to brown, water rushing in front of them. Where had that come from? How had that not been turned to steam by the heat?

Itachi grunted as he felt his genjutsu slapped away by the chakra-infused liquid.

She was charging him a second later, a katana in one hand and a kunai swinging on a chain in the other. The water that protected her eyes moved with her, looking like a film that guarded her from his most favored school of the ninja arts.

He was on his feet with his own katana drawn in his right and a kunai in his left.

One strike came in for his shoulder that he deflected with his kunai. Itachi dove in to capitalize on the opening with a thrust.

She took a step back, and Itachi felt something try to snake at his right leg. He sidestepped out and kicked to knock the chain from its course.

He got a knee aimed at his gut for the trouble that was answered by a parry with his arm. He didn't even have the time to shift the kunai to stab at her.

The chain rattled as it was let go. Itachi was thrown off balance as he was suddenly pulled to the right and towards the ground.

A quick substitution saved him from landing on his back.

He stood panting, taking a deep breath before he began preparing hand signs for his own Fire Dragon.

She just looked at him with a smirk as she held her left hand in a single half-seal.

"Kai."

Itachi was on the ground and shaking uncontrollably a moment later. His vision blurred as darkness crept up from its edges. Pain coursed through him like his everything was on fire.

The bitch had slapped a lightning seal onto his shoulder when she'd gone for the grab.

It was the last thought he had before the darkness claimed him.

~TtT~

He was awake and leaned against a tree, with the soothing mintiness of healing chakra in his veins before he realized what was happening.

With a rasp, he tried to speak, "How are you not in any Bingo Books?"

She smiled, but didn't take her eyes off the work she was doing on the electrical burns that ran through his upper torso. He didn't look down, but he was certain some patches of skin had been burned black. When he asked her to not go easy on him, she really hadn't.

"Being a ghost helps." Nohara Rin replied. "All in all, though, I'd say you did well, Itachi-kun. You held yourself against someone with both more experience and more information than you."

"From what I've read up on your public records, you weren't exactly working with people that used the Sharingan for very long."

She'd been in a team with Uchiha Obito for just a few months, and with Hatake Kakashi for a little more than a year after that. Nohara Rin had disappeared from public record afterwards, but that wasn't all that surprising when you faked your own death. Hatake Kakashi hadn't ever really recovered from that. Even when Itachi had worked with him on the times he was rotated out of security detail for Azuchi, the man was glum.

Nohara shrugged.

"Fair, but Kakashi isn't exactly bad at using his Sharingan. He managed to earn himself a name with it, after all, and his is as fully-matured as yours is. Besides, I told you why I'm so prepared to go up against the Sharingan."

Because the person responsible for the Kyuubi attack on that fateful night all those years ago was an Uchiha. Itachi hadn't been sure what to feel when he found out that the suspicion that had been levied by the village at his clan had actually had some merit.

Nohara had also pointed out to him that the man was likely not affiliated with the village. There was no record of anyone that powerful being in the clan, and Itachi was certain that his father would have been more than happy to brag about them if they had. It was certainly what the man had done about Itachi and Shisui, after all.

Still, this training was necessary. No better way to learn how to fight other people with the Sharingan than to go up against one of the people he'd come to know that had made it her business to counter the Sharingan in the first place.

It was an enlightening experience, really, being made to see the weaknesses of what had been historically considered one of the most powerful bloodlines the village ever had.

Not all of it was new information, sure. Denying him the ability to see wasn't unexpected, but timing it so that he was put off balance and vulnerable even for just a brief moment was something he could take advantage of, himself.

Eye-contact based genjutsu couldn't work if you couldn't even get your chakra to connect to them. The water had been charged with chakra, and the application of a genjutsu used so little chakra it was easy to overpower.

Yes, this would serve him well in the days to come.

There was a pat on his shoulder, he looked up to see Nohara getting up and dusting her hands off. "You're all sorted now, Itachi-kun. No permanent damage. You should probably get changed, though, the lightning did a number on your clothing." He saw her scrunch her nose as she took a sniff in his direction, as though only now registering the smell. "You could maybe use a shower, too."

He couldn't help but roll his eyes as he accepted the hand she offered to help him up. "I wonder who stuck a lightning-charged seal to me."

She shrugged before turning. "I couldn't possibly guess. Maybe it was the Raikage?"

Itachi wasn't sure if the Raikage was good enough at fuinjutsu to be able to make seals that could replicate entire ninjutsu techniques. He didn't even know that was possible until he started training with Nohara.

As he followed her back to the house, he saw what they had done to the woodland training ground. The place looked like the origin of some sort of forest fire. The grass had been burned away, and they stepped on the ash that remained. The two trees she'd used the Fire Dragon seals on were blackened husks.

Maybe he ought to look into this fuinjutsu thing.

~TtT~

As she walked from her bakery to the academy, Uchiha Izumi realized that she'd already managed to settle into the routine of picking up Sasuke every day.

She supposed it wasn't all that surprising after doing it for a week now. He'd stay with her at the bakery or in her house while they waited for Itachi to pick him up and take him home. After the first few days, he'd asked her about her work, and asked if he could help out at the shop.

Izumi tasked the boy with packing the bread for takeaway. It took him a few tries to get it, but both Emiko and Sae were happy to show him how. They found him positively charming. Izumi couldn't really disagree.

"Izumi-nee!" The boy cried to her as he dashed out of the academy's doors and towards her. She returned the hug that followed and gave the boy a pat on the head.

"How was class today, Sasu-chan?"

He looked up to her, onyx eyes shining. He began regaling her about his day as she took his hand in hers and she turned to take him away from the academy.

According to him, he'd befriended an Inuzuka boy named Kiba and another girl that was also just as shy as he had been at the start of classes named Hinata.

Izumi had been introduced to the two on the third day that she was picking him up, as they had been talking with Sasuke as he was walking through the door.

Turned out, both kids were the children of clan heads, the boy was the son of Inuzuka Tsume. The girl was the eldest daughter of Hyuuga Hiashi.

She also knew for a fact that the same class had Namikaze Naruto and Aburame Shino in it, as well as Sasuke, himself. Talk about a loaded class. She wondered how much pressure their instructor must have been under, with so much blue blood in there.

All the same, Izumi had been more than happy to meet both kids. Kiba was a bit brash, but managed to be polite enough. All Hinata managed to do was send her a small wave and a tentative smile. Izumi made sure to return it with gusto, and it had the intended effect of putting the girl at ease.

"And I heard from Itachi you'd been trying to learn the Gokakyu, how's the practice been going for you?" Izumi asked the boy after he'd finished telling her a story of exploring the upper-year training grounds during their lunch break.

The boy looked to her with surprise, clearly not expecting her to know about it. She ruffled his hair and gave him a smile.

"Your brother found out about it. You were doing a really good job sneaking out to practice in one of the more well-hidden training grounds. Honestly, I'm impressed you managed to find the time. I pick you up after classes and you stay with me every day."

If Sasuke had the luxury of stopping in the middle of the street, Izumi could imagine him pausing to look down at his toes. Instead, he just opted to let his hair fall over his eyes as they continued their leisurely trek.

He mumbled, "I go early in the morning."

She felt a grin come to her lips, patting him on the back, she replied, "You're very determined then, Sasu-chan." Leaning in, she continued, her grin turning just a smidge mean. "I hope you're still getting lots of sleep though, you don't want to stay this short forever, do you?"

At this the boy looked up at her aghast. His eyes wide at the idea. "No!" He said with a hop as they picked up the pace, Sasuke overtaking her before he turned back to face her as he walked backwards. "I'm going to be taller than you, someday!"

"Is that a promise?"

"Yes!"

Izumi laughed. "I'll hold you to it, then." She walked up to him and gave him another hug. "Now come on, we've got a long walk ahead of us."

"But the bakery's just down this road."

Shaking her head, she answered, "We're having dinner up on Kinenhi-zan tonight. You, your brother, and I have been invited to dinner at Azuchi."

At this, he looked up to her with confusion.

"I think your brother was training there today, so he was invited to stay for dinner. Since he usually picks you up after his work, they thought we might as well have dinner there, too." And leaning in conspiratorially, she added, "Also, I have it on good authority that some of your classmates will be there."

"Besides Namikaze-san?"

Considering it was a Friday night, and Izumi had already been to Azuchi on a Friday night before and seen the four kids running about in the gardens before dinner, it was definitely more than just Namikaze Naruto.

When she nodded, her boyfriend's younger brother looked up at her in almost wonder, the excitement clear in his eyes.

"So come on, we've got to hurry so we aren't late."

As far as Izumi was concerned, she was living a charmed life.

While she wished her father had been here to see it, she was running a successful business with her mother, she'd made quite a few good friends, she was looking forward to eventually settling down with a wonderful young man, and her life was just on the right side of interesting.

Upon arriving at the mountain residence, Izumi got to enjoy Sasuke's reaction to the palatial house that was called home by their late Yondaime Hokage. His jaw had dropped and he rapidly looked from it to her and back again.

Izumi was beginning to see why Rin liked to meet guests at the property entrance and walk them to the door, herself.

Dinner had been lovely. Rin and Jiraiya had apparently put it together themselves with some takeout from Mitsuko's for the side dishes. Izumi always did like their sashimi, and she agreed with Jiraiya that it was very hard to find anything as good in the village.

And Sasuke got a chance to make some more friends, too. He'd started talking to kids that passed by the bakery when he helped out in the late afternoons, but this was different. He wasn't 'working' this time, and it wasn't class. She later managed to confirm with Itachi that this may have been Sasuke's first time spending time with kids his own age in such a relaxed environment.

The boy looked like he was really enjoying himself.

So when Rin offered to have Sasuke join the sleepover that was happening the following weekend, with Izumi also staying over to keep an eye on things, as Itachi was going to be busy that week, she'd been more than happy to accept, as long as Sasuke's parents were alright with it, of course.

Itachi had been quick to offer that he'd take care of everything.

The boy had been all smiles while he held on to both hers and Itachi's hands on the way down the mountain afterwards.

Izumi found herself exchanging grins with the Sasuke.

As far as she was concerned, this was paradise enough in a world like theirs.

~TtT~

Shimura Danzo couldn't sleep.

Considering all the things he'd had to do over the course of the past fifty years that he'd served as a member of the Konoha council, one would have thought that he'd be able to sleep at night despite everything he'd done and been responsible for.

Despite that, he knew that Hiruzen, Homura, and Koharu all had trouble sleeping at night sometimes. He'd peg it to an unhealthy sleep schedule. That was very common with shinobi, especially those on mission, and about as uncommon for statesmen as far as he was concerned.

Occasions like tonight, though, were caused by dwelling on things they were responsible for. Unsavory things that resulted from their action or inaction.

Because of greed, ambition, mistrust, and blind hatred from people unrelated to him, or even long-dead, a boy of fifteen was going to have to kill his own family for the good of the many. For if he did not, the blood of many hundreds more would have to be spilled, and they risked opening themselves up to war.

Arguments could be made that the shinobi world wasn't a kind place. Children far younger have had to kill for less.

Danzo, and he was certain many others, would argue that you still shouldn't be putting a child in the position where he had to strike at the family that surrounded him, that nurtured him, that loved him all his life.

That was something that could break a person. Danzo had seen stronger ninja break under less.

"Danzo-kun? What are you still doing up?"

Turning from the window that overlooked the village, he saw Nabiki walk through the bedroom door. Moonlight framed her pink-silver hair and white robe. Her green eyes reflected the light in much the way he imagined a cat's would.

"There were things on my mind, Nabiki-chan."

"I can see that." She seemed to drift in the darkness as she moved to sit beside him on the sitting room couch. "You've been bouncing around between stressed and gloomy all week, you know. It's been hard to miss now that you're sleeping over almost every day."

"I can move out again if it's been bothering you." He'd failed to suppress the smirk that came when she slapped his arm in response.

"Hush. If it bothered me, I'd have done something about it within a few days." She leaned into him. "I'd figured it was work-related. You're a statesman, Danzo-kun. This isn't unexpected, I'd say."

He supposed it wasn't.

"Can you talk about it? I've heard it helps."

"Well, there isn't exactly much more I can do besides let it happen and be ready to pick up the pieces afterwards."

He proceeded to explain the whole situation. Danzo felt they were past the point where they were keeping things like this from each other. They were married in all but name now, and it wasn't exactly much longer until they were in truth, too. It wasn't all that strange to confide in one's spouse. He knew for a fact that Hiruzen had done so, as did Minato ─ though Kushina hadn't been all that interested in matters of state, herself. Danzo had been privy to times where Uzumaki Mito had provided Hashirama with some sage advice during the first great shinobi war, too.

When he finished, the woman shook her head in dismay. "I can see why you're not all that keen on this."

"I'd tried to dissuade the boy, but he wouldn't hear any of it. He and another one of the Uchiha, Shisui, had one last-ditch option they were going to try, but they weren't entirely sure it was going to pan out."

Kotoamatsukami. A terribly powerful technique to be sure, but not enough to stop the coming storm at this stage. It had simply been too late. Too many of the Uchiha clan were riled and ready to spill blood that even if Fugaku had backtracked on his plans, the others would have gone on without him. The dam had already burst. Returning the flagstone to its place would not stem the tide anymore.

But credit where credit was due. "Those boys had done their best. They brokered, they bargained. They did everything they could to stop this from happening. But their elders wouldn't listen, and we listened far too late. By the time we realized what was happening and what we had allowed to pass, nothing we could do would stop it."

They had observed the clan subtly after the death of Namikaze Minato.

The rest of the village had been less subtle. And compounding that on top of old policies they hadn't ever thought to change made things worse.

Changing things now would have seemed like too obvious a move to placate them so close to their time to move. Danzo knew that Fugaku had been making less of a fuss over the past year or so, too, so any action that so blatantly favored the Uchiha would be suspect. Which would have been warranted.

"So where do you fit in all this now?" she asked.

A breath. "I'll be deploying Root-trained containment specialists around the compound to make sure none of the fighting will get out. The whole point of this is to make sure no one else gets involved. We'll keep it that way."

Not that he expected there to be much of a fight. Itachi had explained to the council what he was planning to use against his clan to make sure that one man could take down so many others that used the same dojutsu.

The Mangekyo Sharingan.

Such a distasteful thing. Was all of the clan's history steeped in murder and betreyal? He tried to suppress a shudder, but Nabiki clearly noticed since she held onto him a little tighter.

"The last two children are going to need to be watched over, though."

Danzo nodded. "They will. We're fairly sure that Izumi-chan will be taking Sasuke in. Itachi mentioned having a plan for this, but he wouldn't say what. Izumi-chan already has an ANBU guard keeping an eye on her since she's connected to the Namikaze household at this point. We'll just have to double-up on the guard and get a detail for Sasuke-kun, too."

It would have to be enough, and he hoped those two would be able to recover from this.

Nohara Rin had volunteered to handle cleanup, so she'd be going in after Itachi finished the grisly work. The two had supposedly coordinated on that front, already, so he left it to them.

Once they had finished, Nabiki stood and pulled him back to bed. He didn't fight it this time.

And while he still couldn't really sleep, he felt a little bit more at ease having her know, and having her understand.

In the darkness of their room, Shimura Danzo hoped that Uchiha Itachi could find his own peace in all of this, too.

~TtT~

The Naka River.

Uchiha Itachi remembered playing here as a child. Running through the dense woodland and later jumping through the branches beneath the canopy once he was a ninja. It was here that he truly learned how to use his Sharingan. The same Sharingan that he had unlocked after he'd run into that man on that mission where his entire team had been killed.

The same man that had promised him his help tomorrow on the condition that he join his organization. This… Akatsuki.

"A fitting place, don't you think?" Uchiha Shisui sent him a smile, one that Itachi couldn't really return, knowing what was coming. "This was the river that the Uchiha clan grew around in its oldest days. The river originated from the spring on the side of Kinenhi-zan and flows down the mountainside into the Land of Fire."

Shisui turned away from him and looked off into the ravine he sat before. Itachi could hear the crashing of the waves below as the water flowed towards one of Konoha's walls which the river flowed under to escape into the rest of the country where it would be used to irrigate the farmlands that fed the citizens of the Land of Fire.

"It really earned its name, didn't it?" Itachi walked up to the older boy.

His friend nodded. "The river brought life and joy to our people. Access to this river is part of why they chose to build Konoha here, in what was the Uchiha ancestral home." From the corner of his eye, Itachi thought he saw Shisui's grip on his own knees tighten. "It's still giving life now, even if it won't be giving it to the clan for much longer."

A sigh, a bowed head. "Kotoamatsukami wasn't enough."

Itachi was kneeling and wrapping an arm around his friend's shoulders before he knew what he was doing.

Shisui continued, "It was too late. We decided to do it too late. Your dad's advisors spotted something off with him almost immediately." He shook his head before he looked off towards the full moon. "They now suspect that someone from the village knows and is trying to stop them."

"We didn't want to do it in the first place." Itachi felt numb. They'd wrestled with what they'd done for months before deciding to go forward with it. Only desperation really forced their hand when words were no longer working and it seemed that force was the only option the clan could see.

"It may have still had more of an effect had we done it earlier."

He looked away and squinted his eyes shut as he imagined it. His father acting out against his own will to try and allay the concerns of the rest of the clan, to stop the escalation from happening. Maybe had they done it months before, years before?

But would they have been any better, then? The clan's grievances stemmed from being marginalized and trapped, stripped of their agency.

The desire to not be monsters was what stopped them from doing it long ago.

Funny how monstrous things were going to need to be done anyway.

"No, no we didn't, but here we are." Shisui turned to smile at him. "Did you bring it, Itachi?"

Of course he did.

Wordlessly, he took out the little wooden plaque and gave it to Shisui. Even from here he sat, he could see his friend eying the seal-work. It was made of two concentric rings bridged by three vertical lines. Additional scripting ran in between them to complete the piece.

Marvelous work, it was.

"When you first told me about it, I expected it to be bigger." Shisui held the thing in the palm of one hand while his other brushed the inkwork.

"Nohara-san is very good, and apparently Jiraiya-sama worked with her on completing the prototype."

"Can you tell me what's going to happen?"

Itachi nodded though he knew his friend wasn't looking. "When you charge your chakra through it, it'll spew out heated toad oil. I was told there was enough in there to cover all of you. Afterwards, the second part of the seal will ignite it."

Not wanting his friend to feel him squirm, Itachi stood up and stepped back.

He didn't want this.

He really didn't want this.

He didn't want this for his clan, or for his best friend, or for his parents, or for his little brother that would be left with just Izumi once everything was said and done.

Closing his eyes, Itachi tried to force himself to still his shaking. He was a member of ANBU, he was a prodigy, he was the pride of his clan, and ─ once upon a time ─ the pride of his village.

He was fifteen, and his best friend, just a few years older.

Why did it have to be them?

"Do you want me to knock you out after you activate the seal?" He couldn't recognize his voice. Did he ever sound so small? "I imagine burning alive isn't exactly pleasant."

Shisui chuckled. The ass actually had it in him to chuckle.

"I'd guess not, huh?" He twirled the seal in his hand before setting it down on his lap and reaching into his pocket to take out a letter. "Set this where someone will find it, will you? I want them to know why."

Again, he found himself nodding even though his friend wasn't looking at him. Itachi took the letter and kept it. He'd drop it off at his family's doorstep and make it look like Shisui left it there. The message was already carved unto a stone a few meters away with a kunai. The letter was just to make sure Fugaku saw.

"I think I'd like to stay awake, though." Shisui added. "I don't want you to feel alone in this."

Itachi couldn't answer.

Shisui clearly wasn't bothered. "You'll have to be strong, Itachi. You have a long and dark road ahead of you, and I won't be there to help the way I'd like to." Itachi could see movement from his friend, but couldn't be sure what.

Below them, he heard the water flow and crash against the rocks on the bend that made the ravine.

"Hold on to these for me, will you?"

He blinked and looked up to see Shisui holding up something in his left hand.

"Shisui, you…"

Oh spirits.

The voice that answered him was choking, whether from pain or emotion, Itachi couldn't tell anymore.

"I hope these can grant you vision once yours begin to fail, Itachi. Don't falter."

Without argument, Itachi took the offered eyes. "Thank you, Shisui."

Finally, finally, the man that had been another brother to him looked over his shoulder to face Itachi with his own eyes closed.

"I believe in you."

There was a burst of smoke and then a rush of wind.

A flash of red in Itachi's eyes.

Uchiha Shisui slumped forward as the flames consumed him.

Itachi stood there and watched the man die.

His eyes pulsed and he felt the change come.

Mangekyou Sharingan.

Uchiha Itachi sat down and wept.

~TtT~

It had been, maybe, ten years now since Nohara Rin last decked herself out in full combat gear.

Considering the work she'd been doing, and the lifestyle she was leading there wasn't really much of a need to.

Honestly, she probably didn't even need to do that tonight, either. Her job was rather straightforward, after all. She would've gotten away with the same rather basic attire most ANBU wore. She probably didn't even need a vest.

But it was a matter of principle, and if something unexpected was going to happen such as Itachi running late, then she'd rather be ready.

So here she was, sliding on the same pitch-black armor she'd been given just after she'd faked her death and gone undercover, and making sure all of the scrolls that were supposed to be holstered on her person were there. After that, she checked her weapons.

Her katana was hard to miss, and she had her kunai, shuriken, senbon, and ninja wire in her supplies pouch as well as scattered all over her person in various storage seals on her armor.

With all of her essentials on, she forwent the haori tonight. The very few people that knew of her involvement were aware of her role, and she didn't really want to advertise corpse disposal as a Namikaze Corporation service.

Spirits, that was morbid.

Shaking her head, she picked up her mask ─ a plain white thing with no discernible markings. May as well go the whole way, after all.

Jiraiya was waiting for her downstairs. The man was sat on one of the bigger plush chairs that was closest to the main entrance. He held a glass filled with something amber. It almost glittered in the low light.

"Take care out there." was all he said. He was keeping his eyes up on the ceiling, though she suspected he was more looking towards the upper floors.

All the kids were here tonight. Their parents were awake and paying attention to what was happening just in case something went wrong. Rin was sure even Nana was up, though the civilian woman could probably not do much if it came down to a fight.

"I'm not expected to do any fighting, Jiraiya."

He scoffed at her response. "You wouldn't be dressed the way you are if you didn't think there was a chance of a fight happening, Rin."

She shrugged. "Just in case, you know?"

"Exactly." He finally looked at her and sent her a sleepy smile. Raising his glass to her, he added, "Stay safe. I'll see you when you get back. I'll make sure nothing happens to the kids."

Rin put a hand on his shoulder and sent him a smile from behind her mask that she was sure he felt more than saw.

"Ittekimasu."

"Itterashai." He said in answer.

And she was out the door and leaping into the night sky.

Konoha was silent.

Just about everyone in the village was asleep at this hour, which had been the point of why they were doing this now in the first place. Rin made it a point to keep away from the few lights that still illuminated the street, and kept her steps on the roofs that she traversed to a minimum.

Very few people were made aware of what was happening tonight. The members of the Konoha council numbered six people including the Hokage. After that there was Itachi and Jiaraiya. If Rin counted herself, that made a total of nine people. Not even the Root containment specialists that currently surrounded the compound knew what they were really securing the area for. Officially, they were making sure no one was coming in or out. A simple security measure on account of tensions between the wayward clan and the rest of the village was so high. They'd been keeping watch in shifts for almost the entirety of this week, really.

Of course, Rin knew that some people would suspect come the morning, be that the containment team that had been pulled off of regular duty on other teams, to people like Aikuchi Nana who'd had a hand in reporting what the Uchiha were up to behind everyone's backs.

But that was fine. Uchiha Itachi was there to take the fall for the village leadership, and he'd gone off and volunteered himself for the job.

Rin knew that the boy was competent enough to be able to erase his own evidence, but the plan was for him to be known for it. Also, Rin taking care of cleanup would give Itachi maybe a good few hours to get ahead of the inevitable pursuit teams that they'd be sending to try and apprehend the good for nothing traitor.

Getting past the containment specialists wasn't too hard. She'd already been informed of their composition and positioning, and Danzo had been kind enough to make sure she had an opening.

It wasn't much. Just two of the guys spaced a meter or two further away than they were in every other part of their formation around the compound. Between that and her armor making her undetectable to any sensor that village possessed, making into the compound quietly was a simple matter.

A grisly sight was there to greet her when she vaulted over the walls and dropped in.

Unfortunately, this wasn't unexpected, and she'd seen all of this before.

Rin could still feel some chakra flaring in the distance to her left. It wasn't a lot, but she was probably close enough to notice.

Was she early? She was tempted to check on Itachi, but she doubted that the boy would be in any condition to meet with anyone about now.

On the right and up on the hill, she caught movement coming out from what she remembered to be the clan head's home.

Instincts told her to hide, and so she did. Whatever was happening on her left had stopped. She couldn't feel any more chakra coming from there.

Uchiha Itachi walked out of the door of the house on the hill.

What the hell was going on to her left, then?

A moment later, someone materialized beside him, seeming to appear from nowhere. From Rin's position, she couldn't hear what they were talking about, but they were definitely talking. Committing every detail she could to memory, black robes, black hair, and a mask. Was that orange? It was hard to tell from here.

That was a familiar description, wasn't it? Unfortunately, black hair and black clothes weren't exactly rare in these parts. Still, odd that Itachi wasn't attacking this person if they were an Uchiha.

She'd have to ask him when the boy next checked in. Rin would be handling him from now on, after all.

Eventually, both ninja looked to be satisfied with whatever conversation they were having, and had turned to the wall to leave. Or, at least Itachi did. The other simply vanished into thin air the same way he appeared.

If nothing else, that was certainly a connection.

Minato had mentioned it was exactly what the person responsible for the attack that fateful night was capable of, after all.

Rin waited in her place after both had gone, after both signatures had disappeared. She waited for almost ten minutes to make sure they weren't coming back, and that there wasn't any movement within the compound. When she was certain, she acted.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu." A hand-sign and a burst of chakra later, six copies of herself clad in the same dark cloth and armor stood before her. "You know what to do." All six nodded before beginning to dash about the compound.

The plan was rather straightforward. The Sharingan couldn't be allowed to fall into anyone's hands. Rin also had first-hand experience of how easy it would be to let that happen. Itachi also didn't want the dead of his family to be desecrated. So the solution was to burn it.

She couldn't just burn the bodies, however, as that would take more time than was practical.

So the whole compound was going to go. It's not like anyone was really going to need it anyway. Little Sasuke wouldn't be staying here all alone with the ghosts of his family, no.

Two-step detonation seals were being placed all over the compound and on the bodies of the slain. These carried much more oil than the little wooden tablet she'd given Itachi days ago. Rin wanted the fire big and hot and fast. She wasn't willing to permit anyone to stop the blaze once it started.

No, all of the Uchiha compound had to ignite in one immediate, glorious burst of fire.

While her clones did their work, Rin entered the house of Uchiha Fugaku. Both he and his wife Mikoto were lying face-down in pools of their own blood. After a quick check of their pulses to make sure both were dead, Rin began to comb the house for Fugaku's study.

The nice thing about fires as powerful as the ones she was going to set off was that nothing was expected to be left. Wood would turn to ash, stone would melt, and bodies wouldn't even have bones left to intern.

A document or a hundred missing wouldn't even register to anyone. It couldn't have survived the blaze, after all. The Uchiha clan didn't need any assets or contacts after this. They were beyond the need for such worldly desires.

The Namikaze would make better use of them, alongside any secrets to the Sharingan she could find.

Know your enemy and all that.

When she found the study, she didn't bother sorting through anything. She could do that later. Instead, she took out one of the many scrolls she carried and began storing everything wholesale. After that, she looked for the library, and then moved out and towards the clan assembly hall.

Once that was cleared out, she checked for the in-compound police force office.

The Naka Shrine was her last stop, since it was already outside of the complex for the most part, and wouldn't actually be hit by the blaze. Here, she wasn't sure she'd find anything, but she checked anyway.

Afterwards, she stood at the entrance to the shrine and overlooked the now-silent compound. Rin took in the sight.

It was a piece of history after all. The Uchiha inhabited these lands long before the village had even been built.

Rin almost felt honored for being the person to destroy it.

"Kai."

A puff of smoke was the prelude to all that followed. The night grew bright as the fire came into being. It was like seeing the entire compound one moment, and the blaze in its place the next.

That was bound to get the containment team to do something. She was certain they wouldn't be bored now.

Shaking her head, she started her return trip to Azuchi. She didn't want to keep Jiraiya waiting too much longer.

At least, that had been the plan until she ran into an ANBU agent that had somehow managed to catch her. Rin recognized the dog mask and silver hair immediately.

Well, she supposed, it was going to happen at some point.

~TtT~

The pounding at the door stirred her from her sleep.

The shouting was what jolted her awake.

"Izumi-nee!" It was Sasuke, hitting the door as powerfully as a nine-year-old could. "Izumi-nee!"

Uchiha Izumi got up from the bed and answered the door. Sasuke did not even allow her the chance to ask what was wrong before he dragged her to one of the windows that lined the hallway of the wing they were given for the night.

Even from up Kinenhi-zan, she could see the fires that now consumed their clan compound. Izumi gasped.

Sasuke was going down the stairs before she knew what was happening.

"Sasuke!" She cried, not bothering with her nickname or any honorifics in the urgency. "Sasuke!"

Izumi moved to follow. As she came down the stairs, she heard people's feet hit the floorboards. The kids were probably being woken up by the commotion.

"What's going on?" Was that Jiraiya? Izumi could hear the front door being thrown open. Sasuke had gotten outside!

"Fire at the Uchiha compound." She called back without looking at the man.

Sandals.

She had to find her sandals. Where the hell did she put them?

There! On the left, nearest the open door. Her navy blue sandals were being illuminated by the moonlight.

"I'll go get him."

Izumi wasn't sure how quickly she managed it, but it felt like she had them on and was running unto the path like a lightning bolt.

He couldn't have gotten far. He was just an academy student.

Barely any moonlight made it through the canopy as it crept over her path. Her eyes flashed with the red of the Sharingan to help her see better.

Even in the darkness, doing so caused the memory of the blaze she saw through the window to return to her. It was like looking at a star come to earth for how bright it was.

Her mother had gone to the compound tonight for some sort of meeting. Sasuke's parents lived there. Spirits, she hoped they were alright. She hoped they managed to get out.

But she had to prioritize Sasuke first. He was her responsibility, and there was no point in worrying about the rest of their clan until the boy was safe. Sasuke first.

When she got to the main road without running into the boy, Izumi cursed.

Damn, he was fast for his age.

She raced towards the only road that led down the mountain, street lights and the moonlit night guiding her way.

Where the hell were the ANBU? They'd have stepped in to check-on them, she was sure. One of the kids running out into the night was one hell of a red flag.

And where the hell was Itachi? Was he at the compound when the fire started? Was he okay? Her mother, Sasuke's parents?

Izumi felt her vision blur and her breath shorten. She blinked the tears away.

Sasuke first.

There.

She saw a familiar silhouette of the boy standing stiffly under one of the street lights. At least he wasn't running anymore.

"Sasuke!" Izumi called, but the boy didn't answer. She ran to him. "Sasuke!"

Her hands grabbed his shoulders and pulled him to her. Sasuke felt stiff in her hands, and he didn't turn to face her.

"You can't just run out like that, Sasu-chan. It's not safe." she said, her voice softer now that she had him in her arms. He didn't look up to meet her eyes and just stared straight ahead.

Looking up to see what it was that had caught the boy's eyes, hers widened.

"Itachi?" Was his sharingan active? They almost glowed in the darkness he stood in.

"Hello, Izumi."

Relief flooded through her. "You're okay." She released a breath. "The compound is on fire. Sasuke ran out of the house, so I came to get him back. Is everyone alright?"

She felt Sasuke slump against her, she squatted to catch him.

"Sasuke?" Izumi shook him. "Sasuke!?"

"He'll wake up in the morning." Itachi chimed in. Looking up, Izumi saw him regarding her with his Sharingan.

"What happened?"

"Genjutsu."

"You put him under? Why?"

"I want him to have his priorities straight. You're all he has left now."

A chill overcame her, and she instinctively hugged Sasuke closer to herself. She hadn't felt this in years, not since she'd retired.

Killing intent.

"Itachi," she whispered, but it felt like it was the loudest thing she'd ever heard, even louder than the sound of her heart pounding in her chest. "Explain."

"The clan is dead." was what he had to say, "I've killed them. It's just you and Sasuke now." He turned away from her. Izumi was tempted to either strike or run, but couldn't bring herself to move. "The fire is to make sure no one else ever uses the Sharingan. It's just us three now."

"I find that hard to believe, Itachi."

He turned back to her and she could almost imagine him shrugging. "You'll know if I'm lying by morning. But I assure you, I'm being sincere."

"Why?" Because none of this made sense. She knew that his home life had been tense, it's why Sasuke had been staying with her after classes for the past few weeks, but this seemed out of nowhere.

"I felt the clan had grown weak, so I decided to test it." The shining Sharingan eyes widened in a mania Izumi had never seen in them before. A mania that wasn't the boy she'd known and grown up with. "They all failed."

This was not the Uchiha Itachi she'd grown up knowing. Izumi felt her hold on Sasuke tighten.

"Was it all a lie, then?" She remembered playing together with Shisui in the woods around the compound, or running around the streets of the village. Of being introduced to Sasuke after he was born, of spending a few days at Itachi's family home after the Kyuubi attack and her own father had passed away. "What was all of it for? All the years?"

"I always envied you, Izumi."

She frowned at that.

"You got to live a life outside of the clan. You weren't cloistered up like the rest of us were. We fought with the village, but we weren't really part of it." Again, his eyes seemed to grow impossibly wide in the night. The red seemed to swallow her up. "Not like you were."

There was movement. Her eyes looked to see him take out something from one of his pouches.

Izumi gagged. She deactivated her Sharingan, but she already knew the image was going to be burned into her mind forever.

"A little something Shisui left me to remember him by."

Shisui… She remembered Shisui used to call Itachi his best friend.

Spirits, this was really happening. Itachi really wasn't lying. She fought down a sob. She would not let him have the satisfaction of hearing her break down. But she had to get up, she had to get out of here.

Izumi needed to get Sasuke out of here.

Where the hell was ANBU? She wasn't sure if Jiraiya was going to follow. He was keeping an eye on the kids. Wasn't Rin there? Rin could come.

"So what do you intend to do, Itachi?" She asked, steel she didn't know she still had filling her voice. The baker's legs pained her in protest after being crouched so long. "Here to finish the job?"

He chuckled. It was humorless and cold. Izumi did not know this… this thing.

"Neither you nor Sasuke are worth the effort. I'm only here as a courtesy." He stepped backwards. "I felt you ought to know. You and my brother are the future of the clan now, after all."

"How kind of you." She spat. "Message received, Itachi." And something in what he said made her taste something bitter in the back of her throat. "And you don't get to call him your brother any more. Not after that you did. Don't you even dare use the Uchiha name. You have no right."

Another chuckle.

"Alright, alright." He stepped back and away, the darkness seemed to swallow all of him now, and Izumi gasped as all the streetlights flickered off. "And you also ought to know that ANBU isn't coming. I've incapacitated all of them."

His eyes morphed, changing into something she'd never seen before. It looked like… a pinwheel?

"Sleep, Uchiha Izumi."

And that concludes the Uchiha Massacre, with all of the changes that the fic's premise entails. Sasuke isn't the only one let, with Izumi-neechan being there to help him pick up the pieces, and the entirety of the compound destroyed.

I figured that since Danzo wasn't going to be stopping the Kotoamatsukami plan, it would've pushed through, but I also felt like this would have been so late into the game that it wasn't going to make enough of a difference. Hopefully, that's explained reasonably enough in the chapter proper. Also, Itachi now gets BOTH of Shisui's Mangekyo Sharingan, rather than just the one like he did in canon.

I hope you guys consider this a good enough payoff for the setup of the past few chapters. After this, there's just one more chapter to go over the aftermath and the setup for the next arc and we'll be moving on to the genin graduations.

The fight scene at the start of this chapter is also the first one in the fic. I'd love to know what you guys thought of it! I opted to make it far more detailed than I'd usually write out my fights on account of it being entirely in Itachi's perspective and his having a fully-matured Sharingan and his being able to see everything in slow motion. Fight scenes not involving that dojutsu will likely be written out differently. Hopefully I can show that to you guys soon.

Cheers!

Review Responses:

Dr1zzy - Thank you! Glad you like it.