So change of plans: This chapter is going to strictly be Itachi, Sasuke, and Sarada. I decided to take an event I had planned for later and move it now- Catniss07 totally called it- so hopefully that ramps up the drama and gets the plot really going now! Enjoy!

Itachi wanted to leave to find Orochimaru immediately, but Sarada crossed his path before he could circumvent the village walls.

"I'm so glad I found you!" she said, briskly bounding over to him. "I haven't had much time to talk to you since the accident. We can head over to training together."

Itachi couldn't help but just stare at her as they walked next to each other down the road toward the Uchiha training grounds. It still was surreal that the girl who was walking, talking, breathing next to him was his Sasuke's daughter. It didn't feel like she should even exist. He watched as she talked hurriedly with her hands, pushing a piece of hair back behind her ears quickly in the same manner his mother used to, and thought about how he always assumed he and Sasuke would be raising their families together. Their kids would be playmates and run around the yard, fighting and training and playing with each other, just as he and Shisui did growing up, while he and Sasuke and their wives could sit back and have adult conversations about whatever it was the grownups in their lives used to talk about. In reality though this girl had no siblings and, as far as he knew at least, had no cousins or family to play with. She literally only had him, her friends, her teammates. And it was his fault.

"...So what are you going to do?" Sarada had stopped speaking and was staring poignantly at him now.

"Huh?"

She sighed and placed her hand on her hip, clearly annoyed. "I was asking if you made a decision about joining the Anbu," she spewed. "Did you really space out for all of that?"

"...I-I'm joining the Anbu?"

"Well, I don't know, that's why I'm asking." She rolled her eyes. "Ugh. Sorry. I keep forgetting you lost your memory."

Itachi opened his mouth to speak but Sarada elbowed him hard in the side and said, "Shhhh, we'll talk later!" Sasuke was walking toward them at the entrance to the training grounds.

"See you found our straggler," he called out to them. "Sorry to cut yesterday short, Boruto. Business. Are you feeling up to training?"

"Shuriken training, maybe?" Sarada asked excitedly. She looked at Boruto then smiled sweetly up at her dad; Itachi could instantly see the longing and admiration in her eyes as she watched him walk closer to them. He remembered Sasuke asking him to help with his own shuriken skill, and now he had his own little clone begging to do the same. Itachi could see right through the shuriken training for what it really was: this was a ploy for Sarada to get time with Sasuke.

Before Sasuke had a chance to answer, Sarada pulled out her own bag of ninja tools and threw the first one to left without looking; it hit the target dead on. She smirked. "Bet you can't do that," she mused at Itachi.

"You've definitely been practicing," Sasuke said. Itachi looked at his brother who was now next to them, and though he didn't have a smile on his face, he could see the shining adoration toward his daughter and her skill. I'd be proud too.

Itachi picked up his own bag and heard his mouth spew, "You really think that was good? I can do better." That had to be Boruto.

He picked up two shuriken and wound his arm to the left before releasing both to his right, also without a glance. He heard two thick thunks as they stuck into the wood.

"Whoa."

Itachi raised his eyes to the target on the tree to see both lodged in the center.

"That injury must have knocked something into you," Sarada said, her voice edged with surprise and envy. "You could not do that last week, not from this far away."

Itachi greedily looked to Sasuke for approval; however, instead of his eyes filled with pride for his student, Itachi was surprised to see they were narrowed hard with his jaw tightly clenched shut. He was instantly perplexed. Shouldn't he be excited his student was progressing?

He watched as Sasuke then determinedly moved his hair out of his face to reveal his left eye. Before he could make another move however, Itachi cried out.

"Holy shit, you have the rinnegan?!"

Sasuke's hand froze; clearly this was not the reaction he expected him to have. Itachi watched as something indescribable rippled over Sasuke's face, like his mind was running through a thousand flying thoughts but he couldn't quite catch one. He just stared down at his student's genuine surprise and interest.

Sarada was now beside Boruto and looking up in interest at her father too. "Hm, I've never seen that eye before," she said. "What's the rinnegan? Is it like the sharingan?"

Now Itachi was the one to be surprised. He spun around to face her. "Don't you know about the rinnegan?"

"N-no. Should I?" she asked.

Didn't Sasuke tell her anything? Did he really possess the rinnegan, the most powerful of all visual jutsu (though to be fair, he had only heard rumors of it) and not even explain to his daughter what it was? The girl could easily have the sharingan- it was her birth right for fuck sake- and his brother had clearly explained nothing to her.

"How do you know what the rinnegan is?" Sasuke growled lowly.

Itachi reeled back at his tone, surprised. "W-What do you mean?" he asked.

"I just mean that you have some weird memories that decide to show themselves." Sasuke folded his arms across his chest and leaned forward. "I don't recall you ever asking about my rinnegan before."

"I-I've been getting my memory back…" Itachi trailed off as he tried to think of a lie quickly. "I've been trying to do research...to see what I've been missing...and I came across a book about visual jutsu...because…"

"Because you're looking for answers about your eye," Sarada finished for him. She nodded knowingly and looked at her father for confirmation.

Itachi stared between them, looking for anything in their eyes that would explain what the hell they were talking about, before sputtering, "Yeah. My eye." Probably the Byakugan, right?

Sasuke straightened his body but did not take his eyes off Itachi's. Itachi wanted to ask why he looked so suspicious and disapproving, why his demeanor changed so quickly, but he had a strong feeling in his core it was going to take him down a path he wouldn't want to be on.

"So…" Sarada asked. "What exactly is the rinnegan? Did you not always have it?"

Sasuke stared at Itachi for a few more seconds, his eyes unreadable, before turning back to Sarada. "I guess I can tell you this story now," he said and slunk down on the grass. "I got it during the Fourth Great Ninja War."

"I've heard so many stories about you and Lord Seventh," Sarada breathed, eagerly sitting next to her father. "But I've never heard any from you…"

Itachi couldn't help but lean forward as Sasuke visibly pulled into himself before beginning his story of the Fourth Great Ninja War. It was as though something passed over his brother, a shadow, and Sasuke was trying to retreat, to make it to a safe place within himself before his memories ventured outwards. He had a sneaking feeling he hadn't talked about this aloud ever.

He eyed Sarada as she hung onto every syllable of Sasuke's words. This is clearly what the girl hungered for: any look into her dad's life. Without spending much time with them, he could already tell that this girl craved her dad's approval, just as Sasuke and Itachi did as kids. Her eyes widened as he relegated fighting Kaguya, and a character called "Black Zetsu" sent to relegate fear among the Uchihas for centuries. Itachi wanted to sit back as a visitor and lovingly take in a pivotal bonding moment between his brother and his niece, but he lost himself to the story too.

He felt himself spiraling into this hurricane of new information, it sucking in what he thought he knew about his family, shinobi, their whole world, before spitting him back out.

"Gods?" he finally asked. "They were gods?"

"That's a word for it," Sasuke replied.

But how. "How did she get there?" Itachi heard himself ask. He couldn't stop himself from talking now. He was pulled in- after he died, after his reincarnation vanished, so much had happened. "How did she put all these people under her genjutsu?"

He watched another shadow pass over Sasuke's face as it froze. He could see his eyes calculating but he couldn't read the thoughts behind them. Finally Sasuke spoke. "She just appeared," Sasuke settled on. "She just came back and set this genjutsu...the infinite tsukuyomi she called it."

Itachi felt his heart drop. The infinite tsukuyomi. The Akatsuki. That was what he was collecting the tailed beasts for all those years ago, what Madara had whispered to him. Sasuke was lying. She didn't just appear. Something made her appear.

"The gedo statue…" Itachi whispered. He felt more vague memories of him fighting Kabuto emerge. The war. He was fighting in the war. The infinite tsukuyomi. But this was supposed to create peace, they said. Madara said. Whether he agreed with their means of peace or not, wasn't this supposed to create peace?

"What?" Sarada asked.

Itachi just shook his head. "So…" he continued, trying to wrap his head around what he as Itachi once knew and what he and Boruto now knows. "The infinite tsukuyomi was going to end the world…"

Sasuke nodded grimly then quickly added, "But you don't need to worry about that anymore. That was a long time ago. My job is to make sure it never happens again." He stood up to indicate that the conversation was now over.

His mind spun. The Akatsuki was going to bring in the destruction of the world. Did they know that? Did they agree to that? Surely they didn't…

The documents he found jumped to his brain again, and he couldn't believe he stopped thinking about it for even a moment as Sasuke's war stories wrapped him up. The documents said "Akatsuki." What was this new Akatsuki doing? Someone couldn't be planning to end the world again, surely, not under their noses. This new Akatsuki, that also was under the name of the Foundation, the Anbu… One that Sarada's face was attached to. His stomach dropped again. She asked if he was joining the Anbu. Was this what they were being scouted for? It couldn't be...no one would be that stupid…no one would try something like this again... He knew he needed to stick to his original plan and find Orochimaru as quickly as possible. He was about to make an excuse to leave when Sarada's next words immobilized him.

"Was any of your family there to fight with you?" Sarada asked.

"My family?" Both Sasuke and Itachi froze at the word. He heard Sasuke's tone waver slightly and was sure he was the only one in the world who would notice.

"Yeah," Sarada continued. "I tried to do research on our family...when you weren't coming home...and it said our whole clan died in a terrible misfortune...was it because of the war?"

A tingle ran through Itachi's feet and climbed his legs; it threatened to overtake his body and claw him to death. Breathe, Itachi. Breathe. He remembered how Sasuke told him yesterday he never had a left arm. Would he lie about this too? What if that was a past he shed and shoved in a dusty closet as though it was junk he wanted to forget ever existed because it didn't fit in his new life? Was Itachi in this closet too?

He desperately wanted to see how Sasuke would respond. He forced himself to turn his head and saw the same expression on Sasuke's face as he felt on himself. Sarada must have noticed Sasuke's complete discomfort because she began to backtrack. "I'm sorry, you never really tell me much, and we've never talked about this before, and I thought this would be a good time but-"

"No," Sasuke said suddenly.

Sarada stopped. "No?"

"No. Most of the clan was gone before…We were already small...just general misfortune." Itachi could hear the struggle to find words but Sarada looked as though she bought it.

Itachi wanted to scream out I was there! I fought with you!

I was your brother, I was real, I existed. I am your brother, I am real, I exist.

But he could see that shadow over Sasuke's face and he suddenly understood: if he admitted to having a brother, one who died, one who came back to help fight, then everything would have to spill out; once he toppled one domino they'd all fall. He was trying to protect his daughter from the family pain he harbored alone.

But GOD how it fucking hurt to watch his brother lie to his daughter. At that thought he suddenly noticed his vision blur then sharpen suddenly. A slight pain ruptured behind his eye. It was a sensation he recognized well, one that he knew his soul brought with him.

He jumped up and began to hurry away. "I just remembered something I need to do!" he called loudly to Sasuke and Sarada as he scrambled to get out of there as fast as he could. Sarada yelled something after him, but he was too focused on getting to a mirror to hear her properly.

Come on, come on, come on, come on… He ran through the village with his head lowered, his brain mapping out where the nearest bathroom was. He burst through the first shop he saw and beelined for the bathroom. He slammed himself up against the sink but couldn't bring himself to look into the mirror; he knew in his gut what was going to stare back at him, but he didn't want to look because looking would make it true, and furthermore he didn't know how it'd even be possible.

3…

2…

1…

LOOK.

Fuck. Staring back at Itachi, set in Boruto Uzumaki's face, were two shiny Sharingan.