First I want to say I am sorry if I sounded like a bratty bitch at the end of the last chapter. My life is taking a toll on me as of late.

Anyhoo, Itachi leader of the Akatsuki. That takes a lot of effort to develop in order to make it different than usual, apart from canon. Konan and Kisame obviously live, and that calls for who else will be involved... (finger to temple, thinks hard) XD

Chapter Two

Itachi: The New Akatsuki Leader

With the position the Leaf Village was in, he couldn't just stand by anymore.

He lost contact after the war hawk took over; that was when new plans were made with the "help" of the ones who were now beneath him, because who dared mess with Itachi of the Sharingan? And this was based on the fact one was his partner who took his word of raising a hand against a comrade seriously, another who was brilliant but nowhere near to beat him when he refused to join the Akatsuki, and another who served as only the eyes and ears for the organization.

The fourth was seldom a participant these days, working to make her village a better place, less dominated by fear and out of understanding - because of the one who swayed her comrade. When he heard Naru Uzumaki changed Pain's heart, he was beyond impressed.

She reminds me too much of Shisui.

That girl who carried the Nine-Tailed Fox, whom he and his partner were ordered to capture for the Gedo Statue - which was now shoved to the farthest reaches in their base, for a better purpose than its founder's - had the same soul as his martyred best friend, the kind that would change the world when so many before her failed. Though Shisui gave up when Danzo took his eye, entrusted his remaining to HIM, and it meant he would have to pass it on to someone who shared the dream.

He was beginning to think about who that would be - and that day came when he encountered her while she was out on retrieval of his brother. He saw the changes in her from three years prior, the interesting jutsu she mastered, seeing a youthful spark and determination - but had it faded now in the past year?

He asked her why she was so obsessed with his brother, who was now nothing more than a rogue Shinobi. These were her words:

"We may not be blood, but Sasuke is more of a brother to me than YOU ever were!"

She sealed everything: she was the one.

~o~

"I'm aware you want to take Sasuke back with you to Konoha, but tell me: what if it doesn't go the way you want?" he asked the girl as he stood a good distance from her, shrouded by his crows while many more surrounded her in an endless spiral against the mass of blue and blood-orange.

"I don't see it going any wrong than it already is," she retorted. "I'll do anything to keep it that way."

"Even taking him by force?" Itachi questioned. If she was lucky, Sasuke could just easily return with her to the village, but with the way he progressed now - including killing Orochimaru and leaving the one thing left which he lived his whole life for - it sounded unlikely. It could mean that Sasuke were to attack the Leaf Village...after he finished his brother off, of course...

When he asked her this, her eyes widened with shock, but trying to push back the possibility. "What...no, Sasuke could never do something like that!" Naru insisted heatedly.

She was such a naïve one. "Sasuke is still a blank canvas. He can easily be dyed to any color. If he were to attack, what would you do? Could you weigh him against the village on a set of scales?"

Angrily, she shoved aside her cloak as a sign of frustration past the limits, her words matching.

"I will defend the village and find a way to stop Sasuke without killing him!"

"You're such a child," he said, contempt dripping from his words, half-believing himself and the other half inclined to agree with her. "All your tales are nothing but mere fantasies. You can't be a Shinobi based on solely ideals. You must be capable of making very harsh decisions." Although he knew that it wasn't going to stop her, but would it at least make her open her mind up to the knowledge that not everything would go the way she envisioned?

"...someone else once tried to tell me the same thing. As far as I'm concerned, there is NO choice.. But I made a promise and I never break it. That's my nindo - my Ninja Way!" Naru shouted, her lips pulling back like a feral fox...just like the one inside her.

He'd seen such ferocity before, but in her, she was strong-willed as both her parents. She was the only one left who seemed to believe she could save his brother from the darkness, so he chose now to give her the crow which carried what Shisui left him.

If Sasuke wouldn't bend to her, then this would help him see reason. Although Itachi hoped the day wouldn't come.

~o~

The day hadn't yet come, but something else had. It wasn't Itachi's death, but if he had, he wouldn't be here today.

His fellow remaining Akatsuki need not know - at least not until the village was reclaimed, which wouldn't be easy. It never was. But he was certain it would work with the right help they would get. When he told his plan to the others, they were far from ecstatic when he had the authority to say that this was exactly what would happen. "Seriously, we're going to SAVE the Leaf Village?!" Deidara exclaimed, pouting and folding his arms across his chest, earning a toothy grin from Kisame.

"Well, soft side finally coming to the open for your old home, eh, Itachi?"

"It's not like that," he said with a pinch of the bridge of his nose. "It concerns the Nine-Tails Jinchuuriki. Then we worry about the rest of the details."

So he related all the details following Great Leader's attack and eventual demise: the Fifth Hokage was rendered comatose, leaving him without any trusted contacts to keep tabs on Naru and the welfare of Konoha. However, he sent crows hovering and covering chakra tracks, reporting back to him - and all of it grim and worse than ever. Not only was Naru locked away for lashing against the imprisonment of the Godaime who was like a guardian to her, but the division of Jounin and ANBU underneath the Hokage. Now a tyranny which I never wished on any of the civilians or even comrades.

"Whether you agree or not is none of my concern, because the Akatsuki are on the brink of a new age. The captured tailed beasts should be returned in the future, but right now are more pressing concerns."

Onward, he explained that Danzo Shimura was unworthy to be Hokage, and from the word that was around the surrounding nations, he needed to be removed by force. This time he was unafraid of spilling blood, because this man was one who played a part in destroying his life as well as Sasuke's.

And so here he said: "I'm going to get a coded message out to the Kazekage's exclusive eyes only."

When his crow would leave it outside the office window of the leader of the Sand Village, it was picked up and intercepted in no time. It didn't take long for Itachi to read the reply that Gaara agreed to meet him. The Uchiha would come alone, but he wouldn't hold the Kazekage to those restrictions.

Surrounded by desert gave Sunagakure the advantage of resistance against invasion; this meant outside powers wouldn't be able to completely tolerate the sandstorms and limited water systems. Not only that, but the surrounding fortress was filled with many passageways in and out, even going out to cliffs which made it difficult for ground attacks.

They met at the village gates, with him being alone as promised - or rather, a shadow clone of himself. "Itachi Uchiha," the red-haired young man stated as he stood accompanied by both of his siblings. "To what do we owe the unwanted pleasure?"

"It doesn't take me to say that it directly involves a certain Naru Uzumaki."

The mention of his friend and fellow Jinchuuriki - or should he say, the Kazekage was the former One-Tails vessel - piqued immediate attention. "Naru," was all Gaara could say. "Yes, the Hokage has her imprisoned for attempting to renege against him and the village, but I've doubted it from the beginning. Only we cannot act against our 'allies' -" Itachi heard the air quotations because while he was proud to be, he loathed because of the current leader. "- just so rashly. At least, there is no alternative to receive the help we can get."

"With that, what brings you here, Itachi of the Sharingan?" Temari asked, eyes glittering like the sea, calm but cruel. "When you have the guts to come here yourself after one of your own took Gaara - and for the assault on Killer Bee of the Hidden Cloud Village?"

"Yes, I played part in both, but I am not here for repeats," Itachi said. "Ever since our leader died, defeated by none other than Naru, I have assumed leadership to amend the Akatsuki. In the future we will return all tailed beasts, but as of now, there is something far more pressing which is infiltrating the heavily fortified Leaf Village to retrieve the captive Kyuubi vessel herself."

It was common knowledge that after Lady Tsunade went comatose and then vanished, likely pronounced dead, Danzo Shimura sent the village into a warzone which included his Root Foundation operating as a shadow of fear, keeping civilians in line rather than simply apprehending criminals. Jounin were divided. And the two counselors - who also knew what really happened behind the Uchiha massacre - were killed by Danzo when they were wary of his methods.

Itachi finished this small report with Naru, the last hope and the heroine who took down Pain: "She was locked up when she found out about the death warrant on my brother whom she still considers a friend despite everything, even the removal of Lady Fifth, so she's the key to removing Danzo. That is the first honest step for the Akatsuki."

It seemed he got through to all three of them. It made him smile slightly if Gaara was doing just that - and it also took him putting them into the mild genjutsu to show his memories and knowledge, sans the reason behind his rogue status, to see he wasn't lying to them.

"Genjutsu isn't just manipulating to advantage, but it is still up to the affected to decide whether or not I am telling the truth," Itachi told the trio when it was all over.

The Godaime Kazekage looked at him with a hard, piercing gaze. "I did not appreciate that in the slightest, Uchiha. Using visual prowess on another highly indicates hostility."

"Yeah, while I agree, I'm willing to go on a little faith," Kankuro stated with a grunt. "No choice but to agree with him, assuming he can keep what's left of the Akatsuki in check."

Itachi chuckled once before reverting back to serious. "I assure you, they will think twice before turning on me, but they understand well even if they don't relish this. So, do you three agree to this proposition in assisting with rescuing Naru?" he asked.

The final verdict from these three in front of him was yes, of course, and so his job was done. But that meant they had to take it up with the Council. He would gladly wait for the answer within the week.

His shadow clone dispersed into crows to take off into flight. "It's done," he said to the grumbling Deidara, the sniggering Kisame and the back and forth Zetsu, regarding the official edict: they were going to get Naru themselves.

~o~

Another matter that immensely troubled him was his brother, of course.

Sasuke was no longer the child he remembered, and he was tripled from the young teenager he put under Tsukuyomi and made him leave his village and his friends. He never would have thought it would have come to the way it was now. It wasn't supposed to happen.

Why would he just forsake his comrades, then defeat Orochimaru only to take over Otogakure in his stead? Unless that was his way of equipping himself with everything he would need for the day that would come. Itachi considered that perhaps it wouldn't end with his death after all, and that he should kill his brother himself even if it pained him.

But that also meant Naru would loathe him more than she did already. So he put all thoughts of Sasuke aside for now until she was safely away from Danzo's clutches.

He, Kisame and Deidara were all atop a giant clay bird as they took flight near the clouds, careful not to exceed oxygen level but enough to be mistaken as part of the late night flock which were his own crows. Late night flights of birds were common occurrences.

"So the fox is in the mouth of the mountain, is she?" Kisame asked as he surveyed the landscape which was a quiet, dreary place with some smoke in places. "Looking down at her precious village as it is slowly reduced to rubble. How does it feel to see it this way, Itachi?"

"You wouldn't understand," he replied, thinking, Hurts more than words can explain.

Deidara snorted. "Well, if you ask me, this is too boring to be called art. Just wait until I burst that cage open and then we haul out of there like tailless critters." His comment earned a lift of Samehada as a warning, but that made him stick his tongue out.

And the explosion was likely to alert both factions of the Black Ops. There would also be security hidden within Danzo's mountain face. Seeing the repulsion made him narrow his blood-red eyes - just as it sickened his stomach to see the figure behind those bars, yelling at the top of her lungs that they were going to be sorry for everything they were doing.

Just wait a little longer...Naru.

In other words, Itachi is NOT sick this time. We're pretending he isn't, which has been done before. I also recently finally found out in the new English set of Shippuden from BLACK ZETSU that all those trapped in the Infinite Tsukuyomi would eventually, over the years, become shadows of their former selves (i.e. WHITE ZETSU). Cuing my demonic rage like the time I first saw Kabuto summon Itachi-kun and the other Akatsuki.

Then it cut to Madara being absorbed by Black Zetsu, and thus KAGUYA DEBUTS. That's where I anxiously await the next set, and who knows when that will be. But at least I also was happy to see Itachi Shinden after an eternity of waiting. :'D What I know already combined with new bits.

So this time, Zetsu is just the eyes and ears. But it's nothing new either.

Sasuke is head of the Hidden Sound Village, like another fic I read such a long time ago, but I can't remember what happened exactly, what it's name was or who wrote it. But I still yet don't know what he's up to before he and his brother face off (maybe), or if he ended up being anything like Orochimaru.

Review. :)