Chapter 10: Ignorance Preferred

Chosen to be one of the guards of Sasuke in the next trial to be his familiar face that he'd listen to, she visited him the next two days when she was allowed to. Sometimes with Sakura and sometimes without, but she couldn't get over everything that was going on.

Even mentioning it to him when Sakura was gone, it was the most attentive he was without speaking to anyone. "I just can't believe it ya know? I mean I remembered Danzo as a kid, he never liked me and even hit me with his cane once just 'cause I was in jiji's doorway but, fuck. No wonder Sai's all messed up!"

"I never woulda thought Itachi would be.. protectin' me. I wonder how the Akatsuki are takin' it, now that he's gone. Do ya think he's gonna be on their number 1 hit list?"

"I'm not sure how he knows my element.. but I guess he was doin' everything he could. If all he wanted was for you to be in Konoha, I guess tryin' to make you come back and fight me is one way, ha!"

"He kept getting in the way when we were all fightin' Danzo, was annoying as hell! But the fact that he actually fought against him and all those eyes.."

She froze in her spot when he finally spoke to her.

"I want proof that my family was going to throw a coup d'tact before I think of all the ways he was protecting anyone."

"I don't blame you," she started slowly, cautious. "They were our police force, why would they even want to overthrow the village?"

The other guard was an actual ANBU member, Cat who was silent the whole time. Escorting the two to the reserved part of the stands, they sat against the wall. The room reminded Naruto of the academy classroom, the stands raised up further by each row of seats forming an oval shape. The other side of the oval though meant for the two councils and kage was fancier and didn't go as high as the side for guests. A single chair sat with its back facing the door that the council and person being judged would come in, the guests door being against the door she was leaning on.

She could remember the last time she saw this room on accident. The Third Hokage had stayed afterwards when the sentence of a merchant that was attempting to poison civilians and shinobis was performed. He explained it a lot differently and how the final decision came down to him of course over ramen, the stress oozing down him with each step until they sat down.

Stopping herself from the painful thoughts, she decided on less painful ones.

Kagami.

'I haven't seen the toad since he left to follow that bird. Maybe he's super far away, or he was taken care of.. no. Then the toad would be back already.' Waving and grinning at the rest of the Konoha 12 arriving, Termari the ambassador was even there with a scroll. Seeming to take notes on who was here, she watched the seats get filled on the other side as well. Full of important people, she recognized some of her friends parents and a few of the bossy shop owners.

When the Hokage arrived, she made a show to observe who had came to witnessed. ANBU quickly blurred into existence around the room, standing on guard as soon as she sat down.

The room silenced immediately.

"Welcome. We are here to decide on Itachi's life. As we all know, he had massacred his clan, became a missing nin, and joined the Akatsuki. I have summoned you all here and allowed specific guests to attend as with Danzo's execution and the investigation conducted, information had come to light."

The truth turned around to the ANBU being able to uncover the files regarding the massacre rather than him confessing, committed to his final task as a shinobi of Konoha with Hurizen's consent to protect the last Uchiha and the jinchuuriki from afar. Everyone who had battled against Danzo themselves knew, Sasuke informed as well to be in on their secret on the clan killer's involvement in the battle.

Itachi was led into the room by two ANBU members. Sitting gingerly in the firm chair that was bolted to the floor, shackles held his wrists and ankles down. Emotionless and sitting straight, Naruto wasn't sure how to feel about everything that was going on. This time, her first perverted sensei had not warned her to come prepared for a battle to follow and left it at that. Instead, he had gifted a small booklet of all you can eat coupons at the ramen stand and disappeared.

The truth seal was placed on the back of Itachi's arm once more in the view of the witnessing crowd, Tsunade explaining its purpose for everyone.

Rubbing her temples with a heavy sigh, the Hokage started a lot more formally than she did last time.

"Itachi Uchiha, do you admit to the crimes of massacring your clan, going rogue and joining the Akatsuki?"

"Yes, I do."

"Before going rogue, you were accused of murdering your cousin Shisui Uchiha, is that correct?"

"Yes, it is."

"Well, did you actually do it?" Staring down the man who was staring back, he shook his head.

"No. On the night of his death, Shisui had approached me with an eye missing. Danzo had attacked him with ROOT operatives in an attempt to steal his eyes, only succeeding in one. He gifted me his other eye before committing suicide. I also admit to forging his suicide note."

Naruto didn't know what to think at that, not even knowing who Shisui was, though the next bit made her stomach stair uncomfortably in disgust as the kage bitterly puckered her lips. "Shisui Uchiha's body was not found, however.. Danzo's autotopsy report shows that he had amputated his own arm, replaced it with Shisui's and then implanted that eye along with several Uchiha eyes in it. We compared it with the DNA files," she added to explain to the crowds. "Where is his other eye, assuming it's that important?"

He remained quiet until Tsunade grounded her teeth and repeated the question firmly. Wincing as her own eyes met Tsunade's, the realization became clear. "I had entrusted it to someone without her complete knowledge. She will not abuse it."

Wanting to throw up, Naruto covered her mouth as the taste of crow returned thanks to her imagination.

"Why had he trusted his eye to you and not another member of the clan?"

The man turned his head away from Tsunade and his eyes found Sasuke before he explained in depth. "The clan was angry. With Tobirama demanding the compound to be pushed to the edge of the village, the Kyuubi attack 16 years ago had destroyed the reputation of the Uchiha's. Only Hashirama Senju with his Mokuton ability and Madara Uchiha with the Sharingan could control the Kyuubi. Speculation had grown that the Uchiha's had controlled the fox, forcing it to attack the village. My father, Fugaku was the one who suggested starting a coup d'tact."

The echoed mutterings started before Tsunade slapped her open palm on her table. It was odd hearing the older crowd admit to their prejudices and suspicions of the Uchiha's like they had with her, Sasuke forming fists as he hung onto every word. "Being his son close to the Third Hokage as ANBU, he expected me to report village secrets he could take advantage of. I couldn't do it. I had made copies of Fugaku's plans and turned them to Hurizen-sama, telling him everything I could. He had spoken with his advisers and Danzo over the year. He wanted to approach peacefully whereas Danzo wanted each member who agreed to a coup d'tact publicly executed to warn others away from committing treason."

Pausing at the shuffling of papers, Tsunade had passed out yellowed notes to the council beside her. "These are the notes and letters Danzo had given to Itachi, and Danzo's notes on several of the meetings he had with Hurizen-sensei."

"Yes, though there wasn't any deadline for the coup d'tact, only resources gathering and training, Danzo had went behind Hurizen-sama's back. After Shisui's death, he began leaving me notes and letters, threatening that Sasuke would be harmed. Though innocent and not knowing about the coup, he was Fugaku's other son. He would be punished as well, if I wasn't careful."

Covering her mouth to stop herself from shouting at how unfair it was, Naruto rested a hand on Sasuke's shoulder. Shaking in his spot, blood leaked from his palms at how hard he was squeezing his fists. Waiting until all the notes and letters were returned to the file on the Senju's desk, she nodded to the Uchiha on trial. "Why did you go through with the massacre?"

"He had given me no choice that night. Either I kill my clan, or he will kill Sasuke within that hour. My clan would not change their mind, my and Shisui's attempts to do so failing. If Sasuke was sacrificed for the clan, they would create a civil war one day in their own selfishness. Konoha would be weak and other villages would attack. Afterwards, I had approached Hurizen-sama and explained my actions before he released me to go rogue. Not long after, I was approached by a man claiming to be Madara Uchiha to join the Akatsuki."

Nobody moved. Shikamaru's dad, the official Jonin Commander's soft response had several of the other Shinobi in the room nodding in agreement. "He had prevented a war, protecting Konoha from his own family."

"Why did you traumatize Sasuke in the process? You put him under an advanced genjutsu that forced him to relive the massacre multiple times," Inochi, Ino's dad spoke up. He had agreed with Shikamaru's dad, but he was the only one who firsthand knew how deep the damage in Sasuke ran.

"I wanted him to kill me," the words were spoken so easily that she pretended not to see Sasuke's tear. "I had murdered our family and him hating me for doing so would've hid the crime they were planning to commit. He would've been able to change the reputation of the clan around with my death, rebuilding it from the ground up with healthier views, after he got rid of the criminal who had in his eyes, ruined it all the first time. It would've been less painful to die by his hands than by my illness, proving he was strong enough to survive against the Akatsuki as well."

It was horrible. The plan was horrible, the forced suffering was horrible, and Naruto was beginning to feel afraid of what else was coming.

Sakura was ordered to the floor, standing on the bottom step as she went over his medical report and the damage done from his crappy meds. He should've been dead months ago, going so far as to take the very illegal medication to keep living. "Onto the Akatsuki, then."

He joined when he was 14, recruited by a man that called himself Tobi who insisted he was Madara Uchiha and a half plant named Zetsu. He then recruited Deidara who would later help kidnap Gaara. Partnered with Orochimaru who had attempted to possess him as well until he abandoned the organization, where he was assigned Kisame Hoshigaki to begin hunting jinchuuriki, to gather all nine and to force the world to become peaceful.

"When assigned to hunt her, was it ever your intention to harm Naruto Uzumaki?"

"No, I sabotaged each attempt."

"How so?"

Explaining how he had known from his crow summon that she would be with Jiraiya out looking for Tsunade, he still entered Konoha and dragged out his battle with Kakashi and Kurenai, and when he followed her, he had casted a weaker genjutsu on the civilian woman who was meant to seduce the Toad Sannin, that'd be easy to see through. Biding his time with peaceful attempts until Gai and Sasuke appeared, he convinced Kisame to run at the sight of Jiraiya.

It was weird to her that he, a complete stranger she never met was protecting her like that. Having her own questions to ask, Tsunade moved on quickly.

"During the three years of the organization gathering resources, what were you doing?"

"I left Kisame to travel across the nations."

"Is that all?"

"Yes," he said before the seal finally flashed red. Scooting herself to the edge of her seat alongside with everyone else on what he could be hiding, he slowly blinked as he stared at the ground before him. Wondering if he forgot about the seal, Naruto was surprised at the glare Tsunade gave him.

"What else happened?"

He sat in silence for a long minute.

"Uken, Lightning Country."

Freezing, Naruto felt her stomach drop.

"I had presented myself as Kagami underneath a genjutsu to Naruto Uzumaki, who was traveling with Jiraiya. She had complaints about Jiraiya-sama's lack of teaching and I decided to help her train."

Several heads turned to her, seeing the color leave her face as she knew the horror was etched onto her face.

She wasn't sure if she wanted to throw up or cry. She wanted to scream at him, that was the only thing certain.

Suddenly she felt as though she needed a shower. 'He lied, he lied, heliedhelied,' began in her head, on repeat. Burying her face in her hands, tears escaped without her permission. Quickly running through every moment they had spent with each other, each letter they had sent, she only halfway paid attention to the continued interrogation. Comforted by the fact that he did not mention everything they had done together, her mantra of him lying began transforming. 'I fell for him, I had sex with him, he lied to me,' jerked back into reality at the feeling of a hand on her knee, she cracked a finger far enough to see a tearful Sakura staring concerned at her. Her sensei Kakashi was leaning against a wall, his lone eye watching her as Jiraiya's form visibly stiffened.

'They know. They know what we did.'

Paying only half attention to the rest of the trial, he admitted to having distracted Madara and Zetsu from his battle to the death against Sasuke, knowing that the squad meant to find him would rescue Sasuke from succumbing to his injuries.

The whispers between the council had quickly blown up into a large conversation as Tsunade listened in to everyone's opinion, offering reality to some of the outrageous solutions. With a bang of her fist though, everyone had silenced.

"Itachi Uchiha, your dedication to Konoha is amazing. From the shadows you have protected Konoha and her citizens in your own form that no one would have expected you to be anything but a monster. In exchange for all the information you have given regarding the Akatsuki, I am not giving you a choice. Welcome home. By tomorrow morning, every citizen will know what you have done for us. You will be put on a 1 and a half year house arrest, and then a 5 year probation with community service before reentering the shinobi work force if you like. You will undergo medical treatment under myself and my apprentices to create a cure and if you do not reproduce, you will pass over that technical Clan Head title over to your younger brother."

The silence was deafening, a ringing in Naruto's ears blending out the final questions the two councils had for the former Akatsuki member. Robotically escorting Sasuke back to his ANBU cell, their ashen faces could almost match. The curiosity he had about what had her so shocked was prevented by the arrival of Jiraiya however and she was whisked away in a poof to a training ground.

When the perverted sannin was informed of her assuming Kagami had been captured by the Akatsuki from Tsunade, he had intercepted the toad. Telling it to stay silent and not report back to her as the situation complicated, the shame and disgust pooled in her stomach and she did her best to disappear from those who knew after punching the man in the nose again.

Sakura, Jiraiya, Tsunade, Kakashi, she did her best to avoid them especially. Not even visiting Ichiraku Ramen, the banging on her door one morning as Sakura and Sai loudly demanded her to come out sent her running to the one place no one would think to find her - the Forest of Death.

Taking her frustration out on the angry and massive animals, living in a small cave sent her head spinning that she wasn't sure on how much time had went by before she returned to her apartment, finally a little less guilty than before.

He had lied to her. Well of course, he was still undercover as an evil, mass murdering lunatic.

He had pretended to be someone else. But not completely, he just left out most details of his past.

He had helped her train. It saved her and her friends life, being able to do wind jutsu.

Itachi had still manipulated her in the end. The fact that it was for her safety and a genuine greater good of preventing her capture and the Kyuubi from being ripped out of her stomach was almost a good one - and it was better than carrying the shame of having actually fallen in love with a true criminal. Only pretending to be one before, everyone knew he wasn't now so she wasn't committing any crime.

It was 12 days since the public announcement announcement.

Sasuke and Itachi had been released to their clan compound with a trusted shinobi to watch over them, and while she wasn't sure Kakashi was the best idea ever as she could imagine him just reading his book as they battle to the death once more, she hadn't been around to question that. Returning to her original habit of hiding at a training ground or her apartment, she finally returned to Ichiraku Ramen for a meal.

She was fine with waiting to see Sasuke after his house arrest was over if it meant avoiding Itachi. Planning on returning to her apartment for an evening, she kept to the streets. Freezing at the familiar voices though, Naruto practically slithered underneath a jewelry cart and hushed the owner who rolled his eyes at the weird shinobi antics. Listening in on their conversation easily, Sakura and Ino were on a shopping trip.

"Sasuke only asks me where Naruto is when he's not fighting Itachi. Itachi just stares off into space when I'm around, but since he's always there when Sasuke is asking for Naruto, I think he wants to know too."

"What do you think happened up in Lightning Country then? And what do they even fight about anymore!? You'd think they would've tried to figure this crap out by now! My dad has been visiting and doing some kind of family therapy thing with them and he said they're making some progress."

"..I'm not sure what happened in Lightning, but since Naruto hasn't even visited once, I don't think it's good. But I don't know, Kakashi-sensei says they blow up at the small things and just end up destroying most of the house. Yamato-taicho has been visiting every other day to repair it, too."

She was irrational, she knew. Unpredictable is what Kakashi would call her, so flipping the cart over and making Ino and Sakura squak in surprise before anger, Naruto began heading to the Uchiha compound.

"Kage no bunshin!" Not needing to order the hoard on what to do, they ran off in every direction within the clan walls. Feeling one pop after a long moment, she turned right and dispersed the rest. Roof jumping until she found them, Sasuke and Itachi were out in the yard of a better maintained house than the rest. Kakashi was reading his book while Yamato whispered in concern to him on Sasuke yelling at Itachi, who was distracted by the clone's that were now popping away.

Announcing herself by her battle cry, she aimed a punch at Itachi's face.

He dodged with ease, only making her angrier. Turning and attempting to hit and kick him, he only dodged and pushed her away when she came too close. "Fight me! Fight me damnit!"

"No," he stated as he jumped backwards. Yamato's signature wood had risen to create a wall between them, only for her to point at her teachers.

"You stay out of this!"

Leaping over the wall, she was quickly pulled down to the ground by a root. Raising herself back to her knees, she ignored Kakashi's questions and created the usual 10 clones. Quickly jumping in a rough oval around her, the wall, and Itachi, her growl of frustration was hidden by the clones.

"Wind Embrace!"

The voice of embarrassment rubbed it in before anything else, practically fueling the jutsu indirectly. 'Kagami finally gets to see the jutsu we made.'

Around her, her chakra had forced the wind around her to start swirling outward. Keeping it contained for herself, the wooden root attached to her leg swept up easily. Her clones however, with their hands pushed outwards in formation, they created a large oval shaped cyclone that peacefully hid her, her clones, and Itachi away from the group. Watching the wooden wall be swept up into the wind, she tried to gather her thoughts at the sight of him. The shouts of her two teachers only sounded like whispers being thrown around, not helping her at all.

Standing still on the other side, Itachi Uchiha stood on guard with his doujutsu inactivated but eyes slightly widened. Wearing square-wired glasses that she assumed Tsunade demanded, he was wearing a short sleeved shirt and matching standard black shinobi pants. Going shoe-less, there was no weapons pouch or anything in his pockets for that matter - the wind blowing his clothes everywhere.

Everything but his face was the same from before. His shirt being raised by her jutsu only revealed a thin scar on his stomach that went upward only proved it, the story behind it being from him joining the Third Shinobi War. Not knowing what to say, she stopped the now familiar burning in her eyes.

Posted: 06/1/2019