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

Watching Itachi grow up had been a unique privilege, Sarutobi Hiruzen thought eighteen years later, as one of his student's swords pierced his chest and he prepared himself to seal his old mentors and possibly Orochimaur - or at least his jutsus - into the Shinigami's stomach like Minato had sealed the Kyuubi thirteen years ago. It was a privilege he had always thought hew would be able to share with his sensei and Hashirama-sama in the afterlife one day, but as it was, perhaps they will never get that chance. No one had ever left the Shinigami's stomach to tell the world if it acted like the afterlife did while there had been enough Edo Tensei tests that suggested what the world beyond was like.

A shame, really, that he can't tell Tobirama-sensei and Hahsirama-sama that Itachi was from this time, that he was here and that he needed them.

Also a great shame that he will never get to tell them just how cute of a child the weasel named Uchiha was.

Still, Hiruzen felt he had failed them all even more in regards to Itachi than he had ever in anything else. He had known how Itcahi had suffered, yet when the Third War had heated up, he had all but forgotten the child as he tried to make peace. Placating the other nations was not an easy job and it had, in the end, taken Minato killing over a thousand Iwa jonin by himself and the disaster that was the Kannabi Bridge mission which had lost them an Uchiha - young Kakashi never did get over Obito's death - for them to even consider a peace treaty. By then, Itachi was already four and both Hiruzen and Minato were horrified to learn that he had been taken out on the battlefield, had seen war and had killed for the first time. Minato had spent a long time yelling at both Fukagu and Mikoto for their actions but neither parents reacted beyond telling them it was Clan Business and not any interest of the Hokage's.

Minato had recoiled at the cold treatment, the first time Fugaku had ever looked at him with anything other than friendship before, the bitterness of not even being considered for Hokage making him bordering on cruel. It got better, later, when the Uchiha got a lot of the credit they deserved for how many Konoha nin had been returned alive despite many considering them done for. The Uchiha were somewhat pacified and Minato started coming around to visit his godson more often, or as often as his new office allowed him. Hiruzen had just been lad to be rid of the paperwork.

At nearly five, Itachi was a bright young mind that already detested war, just like he had once told the founders, many years ago. He started his training earlier than nay other shinobi ever had and he gained the necessary skill rapidly. By the time h entered the Academy, he was as skilled as any average chuunin.

Hiruzen blamed his old age that he had never noticed Danzo's interest in Itachi was more than just proving whether that was indeed the Itachi who had saved them all from the Shimura Compound when they were about seven when he returned to being the Hokage after the Kyuubi Attack just a year earlier.

Itachi graduated at the age of seven, after only a year at the Academy, at the top of his year with his peers almost twice as old as him. He was a master of taijutsu, ninjutsu and shurikenjutsu, had the best grades and an incredible mind. All his teachers praised him, saying they have never seen a student like him before, which was the only reason Hiruzen had allowed such a young child to become a genin when it was now peaceful. He had mastered Tobirama-sensei's ever difficult Kage Bunshin no Jutsu nad had even created a jutsu of his own, the Karasu Bunshin. Sensei would have been so proud.

Itachi was placed on a genin team that had stayed with him only a year before one was killed and the other quiet after a disaster mission where they were escorting the Daimyo towards Konoha for the regular visit - a mission they got because of Itachi's skill and contribution to the team in the first place - only to be ambushed by a powerful genjutsu caster who had trapped everyone but Itachi and the other boy in a genjutsu. The older boy had attacked without thinking and had died in front of Itachi's eyes.

At eight, Itachi developed the Sharingan with two tomoe in each eye, or so Hiruzen knew so far. There had been times when the ANBU watching over Itachi could have sworn the child's eyes had turned red in dangerous situations before, but they were never sure and just shrugged it off as the play of light. Hiruzen wouldn't be surprised if Itachi had gotten the Sharingan as young as four, after seeing the war, or at five, after the Kyuubi's Attack. He had been defending his four months old baby brother Sasuke back then, after all.

(Hiruzen still didn't know whether to love or hate the little brother Itachi would do anything for.)

At eight, Itachi also proved to be more than chuunin level when he defeated the best kunoichi in ANBU during an interrupted training exercise with Shisui. Two years later, at Danzo's insisting - Hiruzen still hadn't grown suspicious of him then, a fact he regrets every day of his life for the past six years - Itachi was allowed to participate by himself in the Chuunin Exams. He set the second highest score on the test, second only to Namikaze Minato the Yellow Flash himself, set the record of 5 hours and 37 minutes in the second stage in the Forest of Death, a team gives up without fighting him and he ends up promoted after one fight in the finals where he throughly traumatized a boy from Kumogakure. Hiruzen feels especially vicious that Kumo is so humiliated as their representative whimpers and cries about not wanting to die, having fallen prey to Itachi's Sharingan, in honor of his sensei's gruesome death.

A year later, Danzo asks for Itachi to join the ANBU and Hiruzen would have drawn the line at that had it not been so obvious just how displeased the Uchiha were. Since the death Nidaime and then Yondaime, the opinion of the Uchiha had been very bad, especially after the Kyuubi's Attack as they were suspected to be behind the tragedy with their controlling powers of the Sharingan. They were already under constant surveillance and they no doubt knew it. Danzo suspected a coup so Hiruzen let Itachi join at only the tender age of eleven. He assigned him to Hatake Kakashi's Team Ro until Itachi was promoted to a captain at thirteen.

Then the tragedy of Itachi's life happened, Shisui's death leading into that dark age. Hiruzen cursed his stupidity, his naivety, his incapability to save the man who had saved him. Itachi had killed his family and had gone with only the request of keeping Sasuke safe. In return he would spy on the dangerous new organization that was making its presence known in the shinobi world. Before Hiruzen could blink, five-six years passed and the man that lived in a child's body grew up into a true man. Or so some of the rare few who glimpsed him rumored about.

In his last dying breathes, as he stared down his student, Jiraiya regretted never seeing Itachi that one last time.

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Shimura Danzo had kept the promise, the oath, the vow his father had made to Dare no Ichozoku no Itachi to heart for many, many years, while the man was still present within Konoha's walls and long after he had left. After Sanzo's death, Danzo became the Head of his Clan but he never married, never had kids. Instead, his focus was his vow.

The Shimura always take their oaths seriously.

He would protect Konoha no matter the cost.

It was easy to manipulate Hiruzen. His old friend trusted him and his old teammates enough not to ask too many questions when they advised him on this or that. He even allowed them to take up some of his duties, making decisions in his name without even consulting him about it. Hurzen came to rely on Danzo even more after the Kyuubi Attack. The death of the Yondaimed Hokage had put Konoha in a very disadvantageous position. Danzo to this day sneered on Namikaze Minato's name. Orochimaru would have been a much better choice. The Sannin had the backbone to do what needs to be done for Konoha to stay strong. But perhpas it was for the best that Orochimaru hadn't become the Hokage, for he had turned traitor so easily. Konoha needed a strong leader.

Orochimaru was obviously not strong enough.

Danzo's branch of ANBU, ROOT, was perhaps the best thing he had done in his life until young Itachi's thirteenth birthday. Child soldiers were the best soldiers, especially if they were raised just right. His project with Hashirama-sama's cells was also a somewhat success. One child had survived, which meant that the experiment can be recreated in better conditions again and again. An unstoppable army of Mokuton users would make Konoha a force no one would dare attack. He knew with Hiruzen that no new wars will start. The old coot didn't understand that war kept Konoha strong.

He was too weak, too naive, too old, too soft.

That's why he had Danzo there to make all the hardest decisions for him. That's why they had finally been able to rid of the Uchiha, even if two still soiled the world with their presence. And he could not get rid of the useless one, either, or else Konoha's most sensitive information will be made known to all the nations, sold to the highest bidder and then to everyone else who wanted to know in retaliation.

Uchiha Itachi may just be Dare no Ichozoku no Itachi but he was still an Uchiha and Uchihas cannot be trusted. He might have stopped a civil war but he coldly threatened to start a war as well if his little brother was to come to harm.

Itachi had been Konoha's wild card, their strongest and most dangerous weapon since he became a chuunin at the age of ten. He had access to information that most other ANBU captains can only ever dream of. He was the Clan Heir of one of Konoha's founding forces. He had permission to enter the Abandoned City of those infernal cats and he had the loyalty of Nekomata. Those last few privileges came from Itachi's little stint in the past as it was clear both Nekobaa and Nekomata remember him, if older and wiser and far more damaged. Itachi was also the youngest ANBU, the youngest ANBU captain ever. He was a genius in every sense of the word and could not be fooled or manipulated. He saw everything and he made decisions for himself. He had contingencies for his contingencies and he had no weakness other than his lower than average chakra reserves and his little brother.

Due to his incredible chakra control, the first was easily compensated for.

Danzo had had to use his brother's life against him to make him kill his entire clan.

Itachi was a far too gentle and peace-loving soul to become the weapon Danzo so wanted to make him into. As long as his brother lived, Itachi would have the strength to continue on. Danzo had never wanted to lose that particular weapon, so he had sent an assassin after Sasuke after the boy ran off with Orochimaru. His death would have been a devastating blow to Itachi's fragile heart and he would have destroyed Akatsuki from the inside out with those black flames Danzo remembered first seeing in that dark, dank cell in his family's old compound or with that chakra giant that had rendered his clansmen useless. He would have then returned, broken, to the last thing in this world that he loves and Konoha would have had his full love and devotion.

Danzo would have had a trained Uchiha dog on a leach, ready to attack whoever he pointed to without questioning his orders. He would have made Konoha invulnerable. The first Uchiha ever to match Madara for talent and power and he would have had that Uchiha under his thumb.

But Uchiha Sasuke survived and unknowingly selfishly held Itachi's heart and love with him until he finally dared kill Danzo's perfect weapon.

Now, six weeks after hearing of Uchiha Itachi's death from the gleeful masked Uchiha Madara, who had been behind Akatsuki this whole time, Shimura Danzo glared across the field at all those black and brown heads along with hundreds of other reanimated bodies from all across the Five Great Nations. There was a giant best that was actually the Juubi, the predecessor of the other nine biju, under the command of one man Shimura recognized as the supposedly long since dead Uchiha boy, Obito. On its head stood, besides Obito, Yakushi Kabuto, the caster of this massive Edo Tensei. There was an army of Zetsu clones mingled in with the reanimated shinobi, who ranged from missing nin to Kages.

Half the reanimated army were Uchiha and Senju from the warring states era, Uchiha ever since then and the Uchiha who had been massacred by Itachi. Uchha Sasuke watched in sick glee from Obito's left shoulder, Kabuto right next to the boy.

Besides Obito stood the fear and terror of Konoha's worst nightmares, Uchiha Madara the Edo Tensei, purple Rinnegan eyes glinting as he looked down upon them with arms crossed over his chest.

Except Kakashi and his remaining teammates, everyone else was frozen in fear, staring at the impossible to beat army. Danzo grit his teeth.

The Fourth Shinobi War had started.