In this chapter Itachi goes back to the Uchiha neighborhood and finds something important. Obviously this is AU- Pain still happened but we'll pretend that the Uchiha neighborhood is still intact. This chapter is starting to flesh out the reason why he's here; he has to solve something. Next chapter we'll see Orochimaru, and I'm going to post another with it so we can see more ~sweet family time~ with Sasuke and Sarada since this is what the people really want to see. Itachi is about to go all protective uncle up in here! And we're getting closer to someone/someones finding out that Itachi is back! Thanks for all your support! :)

The first thing Itachi noted was that the red of the fan had faded into more of a pink and the white was almost completely bleached out from the sun.

He stood at the crumbling gates of the Uchiha neighborhood. Like Sasuke's new personality, he should have known that his part of town would have been abandoned, condemned and promptly forgotten about as if people believed that what happened there would happen to the rest of the village. Itachi's memory was a jacket they couldn't wait to shrug off. If only they knew the truth.

But still, even though he should have known it, that didn't mean he didn't feel the shock of this abandonment. Bleached police tape stuck to the corner of the wall as a past warning of the bloodbath within, but other than that, nothing gave away to a passerby that this was something more than an abandoned part of town. Taking in a large breath of air for guidance, he finally crossed the metaphorical line separating the Uchihas from the rest of the village and ventured in.

His footsteps echoed loudly on the pavement; no animals had taken up shelter here, not even birds. It was like they, too, could feel how cursed this land was and couldn't stand the oppressing suffocation of the dried blood.

I wonder if Sasuke ever returned here… When he came home to the village, did he ever come back like Itachi was now, looking for any semblance of his past self? Probably not. Who in their right mind would want to face their worst memory again? Itachi's face flushed slightly as his eyes took in the thick vines that wrapped themselves around the cracking buildings to reclaim it for the earth. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. For dust you are and to dust you shall return. He suddenly felt ridiculous being there. What did he hope to find? There was nothing here in these streets, no signs of life and no signs that anyone had ever lived there. Surely there were no memories left of him either, especially of him. He hadn't been there since That Day, so he had no business being there now. He was the whole cause, afterall, for the nothingness surrounding him.

But still he pushed the large creaking door aside to face the dusty tomb that was the Uchiha home. Wow. He half expected a tiny Sasuke to come running out behind the dust, but he was only greeted by cobwebs and particles shining in the sunlight in the forefront of an oppressive silence. Other than the dust, the room looked completely frozen in time like it was a military wife waiting for her fallen husband to return.

Another memory flashed in his mind now. He was standing in this spot, a lifetime ago, thinking of how there was No Other Way. Only he could take care of the coup. What a fool he was for thinking that was something he could do by himself; look how well it turned out.

He looked around at the open rooms with the sunlight filtering through dust. There had to be something of him and Sasuke. He couldn't even really say why he wanted it; earlier, when training with Sasuke, he felt like an item could connect them, some tangible proof that at one point they were brothers and all was right with the world. Now, standing in the home, knowing that only bloodstains were left to greet him further in, he just felt silly.

As Itachi turned to leave, he suddenly heard a slam and a shudder of footsteps. His blood ran cold- it had come from inside the house. Logically the noise could have been an animal, or wind shaking broken door frames, but it sounded too calculated, too...human.

He ran ahead in search of the noise and before he could fully realize where the sound had taken him, he was standing in the doorway of his parents' bedroom.

Itachi sucked in breath and reeled backwards at the realization, to avoid staring at the floor where he knew a brown stain would be waiting for him; however, something white caught his eye and pulled his focus to the middle of the room anyway. In front of him, on top of the blood stains, lay papers.

Papers? Who the hell would come back here to leave something? Itachi stepped forward slowly to pick up the mess scattered on the ground.

In his hands, he realized, was an organizational map of the Leaf Village hierarchy. Boxes started at the top with the Hokage- his father's name scribbled inside the topmost box- with an arrow below that led to a box reading "jounin", then an arrow "chunin," and finally "genin." Next to Naruto's box was another box that read Anbu; nothing followed under Anbu. Underneath the first map was a large line that separated the top and bottom half of the page. On the bottom half of the page, in large spindly black letters, read NEW ROOT: FOUNDATION/ AKATSUKI. Below those words started a new organizational map, with the topmost box saying "Anbu," a box connected to the right with the name "Danzo" and then arrows leading down off Danzo to six boxes all with the word "Root" inside.

Danzo. The name soured in his mouth. Of course he knew Danzo; Danzo was the reason his clan was dead, the reason he came into possession of Shisui's eye. Though of course he did what he needed to for his village, in hindsight he knew he shouldn't have done it on his own, or put so much trust into Danzo. Surely though he couldn't be alive, right? He had to be, what...100 by now?

And the Akatsuki?! Surely that still couldn't be together because Naruto Uzumaki was still walking around...

Itachi now had a sick feeling in his stomach that he was looking at something private; but if it was private, why wasn't it sealed in a scroll? The privacy, a voice in his head answered for him. Someone was trying to hide something. No one clearly had been to this side of town in decades: this might be the perfect place to keep something you didn't want anyone to find. Why seal it if there was no chance anyone would find it?

He took out the next paper that was behind it. His stomach instantly dropped. It was a picture of Mitsuki and Sarada. Sarada. What the hell was a picture of his teammates doing with an organizational map of the village? But something even more got him; at the top of Mitsuki's picture was a scribble of a name: Orochimaru.

Okay. Now he knew definitively that Orochimaru was dead- he used Susanoo's sword of Totsuka to extract him from Sasuke and seal him away right before he himself died. Duh. But if Danzo's name was on here, was there also a chance that Orochimaru was alive? Were they both alive? And how the fuck was Orochimaru connected to his teammate? It just didn't add up.

He could ask Sasuke about these papers. No. He'd be suspicious why he was out here in the first place and what could he say to explain himself? He was sure he wasn't even supposed to know what the Akatsuki even was. No, Itachi knew he couldn't tell a soul. He pocketed the papers quickly and thought back to the noise he heard. Clearly someone was trying to hide something, heard him, and made the decision to leave behind the papers if it meant not being caught. He needed to get out as soon as possible.

"I'm home!" Itachi called out to the Uzumaki household.

Naruto's face popped out of the kitchen. His eyes narrowed upon seeing him. "Where were you?" he growled.

"Just...out," Itachi replied. "I saw Sasuke this morning. Can I ask you a question? ...Wait, why are you looking at me like that?"

Naruto was in front of him now, glaring hard down at him, and searching his face urgently as though he was trying to read a lie on it. Itachi slunk backwards. He opened his mouth to speak when words that definitely weren't his came out. "What are you doing, Old Man?" he spewed. "What's wrong with you?"

Naruto's face reddened but then his eyes softened slightly like he found what he was looking for. His son. He was still there. Sasuke HAD to have been mistaken... right? "Nothing," he replied. He grinned. "You had a question?"

Itachi came back to himself. "Yeah," he said. "Uh, it's a weird one, but I was just thinking about the really great ninja from the village and, uh… Is Orochimaru still alive?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow and said, "Yeah…? You met him… Remember, he's Mitsuki's parent?"

Mitsuki's parent. So Orochumaru was alive. And Boruto had met him. If he knew something and someone in that organizational chart was fucking with Itachi's teammate and especially his niece, so help him, he was going to release the wrath of the gods. Next stop: find Orochimaru and get him to talk.

SARADA'S DIARY

I still haven't said anything to my parents; the head of the Anbu was very clear in the letter that this was a personal decision that I need to make.

I still can't believe it. The Anbu? We were told it'd be a special program, that they used to have something similar but it got disbanded after the Fourth Great Ninja War. It wouldn't be quite so intense, they said, but how cool is it that they thought of my team? And we're only genin! This is my chance to prove I can be Hokage. Truthfully, I just want to make my dad proud. He's out there doing so much for the village, and it still sucks when he's gone, but this is my chance to do just as much as he does.

I still don't know if Boruto will join. The last we talked about it was the day of his accident. He said he was thinking about it. He's all about protecting the village from the shadows and I can't think of a better way to do that.

I probably should go to bed now. Tomorrow my dad said he'd train Boruto and me in the morning and I want to be well rested.