Hello again! I hope life has been treating you well! :) I've had a fairly good week! And I forgot to mention that updates will be on Sundays, sometime during the day.
Back in the Uchiha district, Fugaku Uchiha sat in his office, content with his life. Today was a good day.
He was the one who was orchestrating this entire 'uprising' ordeal, and needless to say, everything was falling into place almost perfectly.
The ridiculous Konoha elders had no idea what was happening right under their wrinkled noses. Fugaku had Itachi acting as the double agent for the clan. Itachi, who also had no idea what exactly he was partaking in. Fugaku obviously didn't tell his eldest son everything about the plan.
The most he told his son was that he planned to overthrow the Hokage. However, his plan was much more elaborate and intricate than he on.
One couldn't just take over Konoha, and not expect the neighboring villages to do something. Sure, they weren't on the best of terms, but if it came down to it, Fugaku would not risk losing everything just because he didn't plan everything properly.
Basically, after taking down the Hokage, he planned to take out the other kages.
How exactly would one do this extremely complicated endeavor? Well, allow me to enlighten you on this brilliant plan-
No, there's no time for that. One cannot bask in glory until the mission has been properly completed.
Fugaku sipped his tea, then breathed deeply.
He shouldn't let his pride get away from him. Because then, in his arrogance and pride, something would go disastrously wrong. And Fugaku wasn't in the mood for anything to go wrong.
No, instead everything would continue on flawlessly. In merely days, the Uchiha uprising would begin, and Konoha would see what they'd done to themselves. They would no longer be able to keep the Uchiha in the dark, because the Uchiha would be ruling the village.
And eventually, they'd be running the world.
Fugaku allowed a small smile to grace his scowling features.
Yes, today was a good day.
Itachi dug his nails into his sides tightly enough to remind him of reality and his duties to Konoha.
He bit the inside of cheeks, letting the pain drag his tortured mind back to the forest where he was.
Ha...look at him. The Uchiha prodigy, reduced to a dribbling pile of sadness and salty tears of pain. If his mother and father were here, what would they say to him?
Itachi breathed in deeply, calming his heart-rate.
No one would ever suspect that the great Itachi Uchiha would have panic attacks. But he did. He was human too. He could feel pain and sadness just like any other broken soul.
Being a prodigy wasn't all what everyone made it out to be. Yes, perhaps it was fun...in the beginning. Then when he graduated, he began to feel the brunt of the ridicule and fear that his fellow clansmen felt from most everyone in the village.
Taking other deep breath, Itachi stood up. Wiping away the rest of his tears, he looked up to the sun through the trees.
When Itachi was younger, maybe 3 or so, his mother would tell him a story about the sun and the moon.
Long ago, the sun had two sons (How ironic...) with his wife, the moon. The Sun and Moon were the King and Queen of the world and rather than lighting up the Earth, they selfishly kept their light for themselves. So people had to light up their cities, houses, and towns with candles.
One day, someone kidnapped the youngest brother. The oldest brother went to the Sun and Moon for help. They both declined. The oldest brother argued trying to get them to do something helpful. So the Sun told the oldest brother that if he brought back his sibling, the Sun and Moon would shine as a light for any other missing people. The Sun would shine for half of the day, and the Moon would shine for the other half. The older brother agreed, and went to save his sibling.
The oldest brother set off on a journey. The older brother spent years trying to find the younger brother until one day, he came across the younger brother and his kidnapper.
The kidnapper was an ugly troll, who was the ugliest and meanest of all the trolls. In fact, this troll was the Troll King.
The oldest brother knew that he wouldn't be able to defeat the Troll King by attacking him. No, he would have to be clever about this.
So the oldest brother devised a crafty plan.
The oldest brother disguised himself in mud and twigs, and tied branches to himself to look larger. Then he asked some bees to aid him. The bees said yes.
When the people of the world began to extinguish their candles, the oldest brother took the chance to jump into the clearing. The Troll King, who had been expecting the brother, turned to him, but stopped when he saw that it was not the brother.
It was a large monster, covered in mud, twigs, and leaves. It was buzzing extremely loud. The Troll King had never heard anything like it and was frightened. So the Troll King ran, abandoning his prisoner.
The older brother then took off his disguise and brought his brother home to the Sun and Moon. As the Sun and Moon promised, for the older brother's bravery and courage of going on the mission and returning with the younger brother, they both began to share their light with the rest of the world.
It was a simple and easy story. One that Itachi liked very much. He liked to imagine that he was the older brother in the story, constantly watching over his younger brother and ensuring that nothing bad ever happened to him.
Perhaps why Itachi enjoyed this story so much was because he always aspired to be the older brother in the story. A brave and courageous older sibling to look up to and try to be like.
Itachi hoped Sasuke looked up to him. He really tried to be the best big brother that Sasuke ever had.
Thinking of that story calming Itachi's frayed nerves and scatter-brained thoughts. Gathering chakra to his feet, Itachi jumped away through the trees to go to his house.
He was done with ANBU for today. He'd had enough murder for now. If he killed anyone else, he might just snap.
In no time at all, Itachi reached his home, and immediately set down in the garden closest to his room. Hopefully he wouldn't run into his father. It would kill him now if his father said or did anything.
His father...Itachi clenched his fists. The mere thought of his father sickened him. How could he stand to be so cold and evil? How could he stand to kill people like he did in cold blood?
"Nii-san!" A little boy's voice cried from behind Itachi.
He turned to see his little brother, Sasuke, running towards him.
"Hello Sasuke." Itachi said with a gentle smile. His poor, poor innocent brother...
"Nii-san! Guess what they taught us in school today?!" He nearly yelled.
'What did they teach you?"
"They taught us about the history of Konoha!" He said exuberantly.
Itachi's smile almost faltered.
"Is that so?"
"Mhmm!" Sasuke nodded, his hair bouncing up and down. "We learned all about how our village was founded by Hashirama Senju!"
Itachi's smile became slightly more forced at this. He knew that it was not only Hashirama who had founded the village. It was also created by one of their ancestors, Madara Uchiha.
This alone proved the contempt that the former villagers of Konoha had for the Uchiha. Even though one of their ancestors helped build the village to what it was today, Madara's name was only mentioned as the name of the villainous man who fought and lost against the First Hokage in the Valley of the End.
Trivial mess-ups of history like this are what made people hate the Uchiha. What was even to say that these lapses in the school history books were indeed mess-ups and not purposeful hatred towards the clan?
Either way, it could not erase the memories.
Itachi remembered in school, before his genius abilities were revealed, how his classmates quickly turned on him after learning that Madara had tried to hurt the First Hokage. How quickly his small group of friends turned into his worst tormentors.
Of course, none of it lasted long. He had always held back on his true abilities because he had craved friendship from a human that was his age. However, now that he no longer had any friends, there was no reason to hold back anymore.
So he began to ace the tests perfectly. Each and every homework assignment was completed in class. He did whatever possible to gain the attention of the teachers, hoping that they'd see his God-given ability, and move him up a grade.
Eventually, they did, and he learned that those classes were also very simple to understand.
And from there, everything sort of snowballed. He graduated at the age of 7. Merely a year later, he awakened his Sharingan in the middle of a sparring match with his uncle, and mastered it days after. At age 10, he passed the Chunin Exam and, under the orders of father, enrolled as an ANBU half a year later.
He was a 10 and a half year old Chunin, who made it to ANBU. Of course, at first the others were skeptical, and some were downright vicious and quite unwelcoming, but that soon changed after he completed his first mission perfectly. And then his second...and third...then fourth.
Itachi had finally earned his place among people.
Though he had earned his place, he couldn't seem to relate to anyone. No one seemed like they could be a friend. Sure, he was polite and courteous, but he had long ago stopped caring and stopped trying to make close friends.
Until he met Kakashi.
He'd met him on his first mission. They had to observe an alliance between the village and The Land of Woods. If things turned sour, they'd have to kill the group.
Of course, it was a trick, and the team made quick work of the Land of Woods ninja.
Later on, Kakashi praised him on his first perfect mission. Itachi felt proud, but had learned long ago that if you let your pride or emotions show, many people, especially ANBU, would see that as a weakness, and you would be cut down very quickly.
Prideful people were not tolerated in the ANBU. Especially if they were a 10 year old boy.
So instead, Itachi smiled and accepted the compliment easily. Kakashi seemed like a good man. Yet something also felt quite...not right about him.
Kakashi Hatake gave off some sort of vibe that kind of scared Itachi. He radiated a sort of sadness, and anger. Kakashi seemed as if he was always on guard and poised to fight, no matter the situation.
Itachi sensed the emptiness that came with time and death. He held a certain wise air about him, that reminded Itachi of one of his few legitimate friends, Shisui Uchiha.
Shisui was a few years older than him, and quite an accomplished ANBU due to his very useful Mangekyo Sharingan. Itachi couldn't really remember when they started talking. (Perhaps the Nara Deer Incident had something to do with it...) It just sort of happened, their friendship.
Shisui was one of the few people that Itachi could trust. He was Itachi's only friend. And he was the only friend that Itachi wanted.
"Nii-san?"
Itachi then realized that Sasuke had been rambling to him for the last few minutes, and he'd just realized that Itachi wasn't paying attention to him.
"Yes Sasuke?" Itachi replied with a smile.
"Are you even listening to me?" Sasuke puffed up his cheeks.
Itachi chuckled gently. "Yes, you were talking about what you learned in school today?"
Sasuke's smile returned, and he nodded. "Hashirama sounds like a really powerful ninja! I want to be as strong as him someday!"
He then pantomimed chopping a person with his tiny hands.
"Hey Nii-san," Sasuke said, his voice strangely serious. "When we were at school, some kids said that my ancestor was evil and mean, and tried to hurt the First Hokage. Is that really true?"
Itachi pursed his lips, and glanced at his younger brother. He had this desperate and innocent light in his eyes, as if praying that Itachi would say it was all a lie. Looking at Sasuke, he couldn't bear to tell him.
"Sasuke." Itachi stopped walking, and Sasuke paused next to him.
"What?"
"Sometimes..." Itachi turned and knelt in front of his brother's innocent eyes. "Sometimes kids say things...mean things. They make stuff sound worse than what it actually is. That's what they were doing now. They were making things sound worse than they really are."
Sasuke frowned slightly. "But did our ancestor really do those things?"
Itachi was about to make some sort of lackluster excuse, when they heard their mother call to them from the kitchen.
"Come and eat, Sasuke, Itachi!" Mikoto's voice rang out across the compound.
"Yay!" Sasuke cheered, then immediately ran off towards the scent of food.
Itachi breathed a sigh of relief, and stood up. Thank god for his mother. She seemed to be able to tell exactly when to stop a conversation, and had been Itachi's savior many times for other conversations.
And thank god for Sasuke's short attention span.
Itachi walked and in no time made it to the kitchen where Sasuke was already gorging himself on the soup and babbling again, and his mother and father were already sitting down. His mother was smiling at Sasuke's story that he was telling, while his father was reading a scroll, his soup untouched.
Just another typical dinner.
"Itachi," Mikoto said as he sat down. "After you eat, you've been requested by the ANBU to report immediately to headquarters." Sasuke dropped his spoon into the bowl, successfully splashing broth everywhere.
"Can I go with Nii-san?!" He asked jumping up excitedly.
Mikoto laughed lightly. "Unfortunately, no. You have to clean your room. It's a pig sty!" She exclaimed.
Sasuke huffed, then sat back down.
"Now finish up you. Then you have to clean your room." Mikoto ordered.
Sasuke groaned. "Please, can I train instead?"
Mikoto opened her mouth to reply when she was interrupted by Fugaku.
"That's a grand idea Sasuke. Why don't you go do that instead?"
Sasuke stared dumbstruck at his father, who'd hardly ever acknowledge Sasuke's presence, let alone an idea of his.
Sasuke finally snapped out his stupor, and leaped up. "I'm going to train right now Father!" He said, and smiled brightly at Fugaku, who had already disappeared into the scroll once more.
Itachi felt anger bubbling up inside of him. Fugaku neglected Sasuke so much, that Itachi felt as if Sasuke would do anything to gain his attention and approval. If Fugaku asked Sasuke to kill someone, Itachi would bet his Sharingan that he'd do it in a heartbeat.
After Sasuke disappeared, Fugaku immediately set down his scroll, and stared at his eldest son.
"Itachi. I need to speak to you." Fugaku announced, his voice cold and calculating as always.
"Then speak, Father." Itachi spoke without realizing.
"Itachi!" Mikoto gasped. "Do not speak to-!" Fugaku held up his hand, and Mikoto stopped talking, and settled for glaring at her son instead.
"The rise of the new age begins in 3 days. Long ago, our ancestors had a dream, that one day, the Uchiha would be recognized, and rule over the Shinobi world. You have helped achieve this dream of theirs and mine."
Itachi was silent, too busy trying to figure out where this was going to reply.
"However," Fugaku said. "If any one of us strays from the dream, or their faith in it falters for even a second, they are traitors to their clan."
He let those ominous words hang in the air around his son. Itachi was silent again, as he pondered the best way to go about this.
His father suspected that Itachi was betraying the Uchiha and their insanity. Of course he was completely right, but Itachi had to convince him otherwise.
"If there are any traitors to the clan and it's plans, I will personally destroy them."
Fugaku's lips pulled up slightly at the corners. Itachi had said the right thing.
"Good. Out of all of the clan, you are the most powerful Uchiha I have ever encountered...well besides Shisui." Fugaku grabbed the scroll, and continued his reading, thus effectively ending the conversation. Mikoto stood, grabbed the dishes, and began to clean up. Itachi then stood and walked outside, saying nothing to his mother or father.
They said nothing to him either.
He did the proper hand seals, and appeared inside of the ANBU headquarters.
When he arrived, he was greeted by the sight of complete emptiness in the main room. It confused him that no one was there. Was this a trap perhaps?
"Itachi." A deep and familiar voice greeted him. Itachi looked to the front of the room, and spotted Shisui standing there.
"Shisui..." Itachi said cautiously. His voice echoed around the room making it sound as if there were multiple Itachi's speaking.
"I need you to meet me at the place where it began. The place it also ends."
"What?" Itachi asked. "What place?"
"You know where. Quickly. We don't have much time."
"Wait! What do you-?"
Just then, Shisui disappeared. Itachi narrowed his eyes. Was someone listening to their conversation?
Itachi activated his Sharingan, and looked around quickly. If there had been anyone, they were gone now. And what place did Shisui mean?
The place where it ends...
Shisui was right. He knew where it was. And if he was right, then something bad was happening, and Shisui was trying to warn him.
Well yes, hello. Hi. Konichiwa. Hola. Whatever you children say these days! Anyways, so yes, I have nothing of importance to say.
OH WAIT NARUHINA AND SASUSaku arE canOn. HELL YESSSSSSS :))))) I HAVE SHIPPED THEm FRO SO LONGGG! AND NOW THEY HAPPENEd! AND SHIKATEMA! AND SAIINO! AND MY OTPSSSSS! YAASSSSSS BITCCCHHHHEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSS!
Sorry. My inner fangirl couldn't resist.
Edit 2: Lol, this was being written as the last chapter came out... R&R