Konoha's Weasel Prince
Summary: Itachi never got to use his Susanoo in his fight with Sasuke. As soon as the Kirin hit, he was sent back through time to the founder's era and it was up to him to ensure a safer and surer future for Konoha and the world at large. KisaIta TobiMada HashiMito others mentioned
Despite what Senju Tobirama seems to think, one Uchiha Itachi was perfectly aware of the fact that he was being followed around. One did not make it to the status of ANBU at eleven, thus officially becoming the youngest ANBU in history, if one cannot sense a pair of eyes on them, subtly discover their location and their intentions in the span of the first five minutes. As good as Konoha's future Nidaime Hokage was, Itachi had spent five and a half years playing hide and seek with a sensor type, one of the best in the world, his godfather and Uchiha Fugaku's close friend, Namikaze Minato the Yondaime Hokage.
Minato-sama and Itachi's Chichiue were actually old war buddies, as far as Itachi understood it. Fugaku was a whole decade older than Konoha's Yellow Flash and they met the first time a eleven year old Minato was sent out into the war. They saved each other's lives countless times and they worked together like a match made in heaven. Their respective better halves, Uzumaki Kushina and Uchiha Mikoto, were also a remarkable team and the four of them were feared throughout the Great Five Nations.
When Mikoto fell pregnant with Itachi, the other couple were the first to know, even before the elders of the Uchiha Clan as the tradition dictated. Fugaku asked Minato to be the godfather of his heir and Mikoto asked Kushina to be the baby's godmother and both had been teary-eyed and honored and were the first there when Uchiha Itachi was born, months later, a perfectly healthy child.
And so, the friendship forged in the toughest of situations was strengthened forever, only severed by death, five and a half years later.
But, before that tragic event, Itachi had been the proud godson of the Yondaime Hokage. Sure, Minato-sama had actually only been Hokage for one year or so before he had given his life to seal the Kyuubi away, but he had spent on and off time plying with his godson as much as he could and one of his favorite games had been hide and seek. Minato had been the first to see potential in the little four year old prodigy, the first to see the change that seeing the battlefield had caused in his honorary nephew. He didn't know what the change was, not fully, but he had still been the first to see it. And he had been the first to act.
It had seemed innocent and inconspicuous enough to the rest of the world, the Yondaime Hokage wanting to play an innocent game with his little godson, a game where he could easily sense if Itachi somehow got too close to anything dangerous, an easy way to entertain a child's mind. But in their little game of hide and seek, it was anything but a silly little game as Minato had complained to the four year old Itachi that he was such a good sensor that whenever he played with anyone else, it was not fun as he easily found them. As he had hoped, Itachi took it as a challenge. Their first game was pathetic, really, with how easily Minato found the little raven. Still, Itachi had surprised Minato with the ease he found him, too, even when Minato suppressed his chakra almost completely.
The next time they played, the stakes had gone up. Itachi could find Minato with ease no matter how far Minato suppressed his chakra but the boy still could not hide well enough from his godfather. It took two months of practicing until Minato one day found himself stumped that he could not sense his little nephew anywhere. The boy had seemingly disappeared off of the face of the earth. Even extending and straining his senses to their fullest could not unearth the boy's position until Itachi would let him. The level of Itachi's chakra control had astounded the blond man. It was the first time any sensor, let alone one of Namikaze Minato's caliber, had been unable to pinpoint the exact location of a ninja.
It had been Konoha's first hint that it will one day get an incredible ANBU.
Itachi had used and further mastered that skill upon entering the Akatsuki, where there were three different sensory types to watch out for. But even before he joined the Akatsuki, Itachi had achieved a new level of impressive when he had become capable of hiding from the Byakugan. Hiding from Samehada, from Konan and from Leader-sama's Rinnegan was just a new challenge that he gladly took up. It had taken him a bit of time before he managed to find a way to hide his chakra from all three different types of sensory abilities, but he had managed it. He was not hailed as a genius for no reason, after all.
So escaping Senju Tobirama's sensory abilities, so much like Minato-sama's, would be no problem, it is just that Itachi has yet to find a good enough reason to do so. In order to hide from a sensor, he would have to use his chakra in a manner that bound chakra should not be able to be used. As was stated before, however, Itachi's chakra cannot truly be bound without hindering his health by using a too strong suppression seal. Mito-san had tried her best to make a safe but strong seal to hold him, but it is not enough. Still, if Itachi were to try and hide from Tobirama, the younger Senju brother will realize that Itachi was deceiving them by pretending to be docile and that would only bring about more suspicion and possibly hinder Itachi's movements further.
And Itahci would rather that his area of movement is not hindered.
Especially with what he had discovered.
There was something strange inhabiting these woods, the Uchiha had found out. He had never properly seen or sensed it, but Itahci's gut feeling was telling him that something was moving about and that something only shifted when Itachi got out of its apparent range. It would follow Itachi all along the mile or so he could move away from the settlement, never straying too far away from him but never coming any closer, either. It even hid expertly from Kuro Onyx as the bird moved about above his head, which further unsettled him. Kuro Onyx had been especially trained by Itachi to act as his eyes from the sky almost as soon as they had formed their pact. Nothing had even escaped his crow's notice, especially not after he implanted Shisui's Sharingan eye into it's left eye socket.
Something strange was going on around here and the Senju were completely clueless, so it was up to the Uchiha (oh, the irony) to keep them safe if whatever it was turned out to be hostile. However, that was proving to be harder by the day, as the future Nidaime just wouldn't stop following him. Itachi couldn't go further into the forest, where the strange thing would for the first time go on ahead of him and just ... linger, just barely out of sight but close enough that Itachi's gut feeling still registered it as present and it annoyed him that he couldn't go further.
Still, it wouldn't do for him to suddenly do something to warrant the younger future Hokage's suspicion and for him to suddenly be held back or worse yet killed by the Senju because he was suspected to indeed be a spy for the Uchiha (and he still found it ironic that this had been a half truth at one point in time). He'll just have to wait until the month was up and he could leave the Senju Compound. He'll check out what that thing is and then move on to finding a way to go back to his time before he did anything that might change the fate of the world.
As far as he can tell so far, Sasuke's attack had somehow managed to mess with his Tsukuyomi, which should be entirely impossible. His one of a kind doujutsu kind of didn't interact with other techniques, no matter what their nature or type is, yet there had been an exception this one time. And in the moment he would have activated his trump card, so to say. That in itself was enough to garner suspicion. It's a bit too convenient that in that one moment, for the very first time, when his fate was being decided, that his eyes failed him.
It had nothing to do with Sasuke, that much Itachi had instantly understood. The boy was far from as powerful as he liked to portray himself to be. He had been struggling with Itachi in his near-death-all-but-blind state, despite being a lot stronger than the last time he had charged at Itachi with the Chidori - and oh, was Itachi going to have a word with Kakashi if he survived this shit and made it back to his time. What was that man thinking, teaching a revenge-obsessed boy of twelve when he was so clearly not mentally stable a jutsu like that?! That was practically like giving him a written invitation to defect from the village and go further in seeking power! Someone so young and so unstable, getting a taste of such power? Never a good idea. Especially not with an Uchiha.
And yes, sure, Itahci can't exactly say from personal experience since he had always been a bit exceptional, but he'd seen the few Uchiha that had been around his age that got their Sharingan and how arrogant and stupid they got from so much power suddenly rushing through them. They had mocked Itachi for still not having activated his Sharingan at eight despite being a prodigy, unaware that he had had his Sharingan four years already and was just not yet ready to use it in prolonged periods of time since his chakra had not yet developed a special reserve just for his Kekkei Genkai's activation. Most of them had died by the time Itachi entered ANBU or could no longer preform their shinobi duties and were discharged honorably.
His brother had also fallen pray to the Uchiha Clan's pride and arrogance, forgetting Itahci's memorable power that had allowed him to kill a clan of over two hundred people in a single night and just rushing at him, thinking his not yet mature enough eyes and a new deadly technique would be enough to take down one of the greatest criminals in the ninja world's history. The beating he had given his brother that day had been child's play and their last fight would have been registered as such, too, if Itachi had still been health at the time.
He was snapped out of his thoughts of his younger brother when the thing that always followed him around in the woods - and no, not Senju Tobirama - suddenly rushed forwards again and Itachi knew he was venturing too deep into the woods. Sure enough, the grass just a few feet further away from him was fresher and healthier, unlike the grass on which Itachi had been walking on for almost two weeks now, a sure sign that that was too far to go from the village. Well, at least with his wanted escort it was, Itachi thought in annoyance. He spared a quick look around in front of himself, trying to pinpoint the thing that always shadowed him, but he could not find it, just like every other time he had tried. The Uchiha sighed in frustration quietly before turning on the heels of his feet and starting his journey back towards Konoha.
As soon as he left the woods, he saw some children playing around, obviously waiting for him to come back from his daily trek and he saw all of them perk up when he appeared. He couldn't hold in a smile as they all rushed towards him, asking if they could play this game or that. He could never resist or deny them, giving in far faster than he had ever allowed himself to give in with Sasuke when they were kids. After all, here, he had no rank, no duties, no responsibilities and no clan image to hold up. He kind of pitied Sasuke for living in a world where his older brother had never been allowed to play with him because of how rigid in their pride their clan was. Not to mention there was also no fear of his family suddenly planning a coup d'tat, either.
It was ironic and sad, Itachi thought even as he let the kids distract him and lead him further away from the woods, his Hokage stalker and the strange thing that has been boggling his mind for days. It was ironic and sad that in this so called warring era, he had found more peace than he had ever managed to find in Konoha, where peace had prevailed since the end of the Third War for over sixteen years now, maybe more.
But he knew, realistically, that this was just the calm before one of the numerous storms war brought along and it was only a matter of time before the first storm struck.
