Divine Retribution

Part 1

The moon was red-no it was crimson...the color of blood, the symbol of life and death and tonight it hung, suspended in eternity, in the cloudless starry night sky.

Itachi sighed his red eyes closing momentarily.

He wasn't the type to feel remorse and he was not the type to feel guilt. In his eyes those bastards deserved everything coming to them and more.

His hands clenched at his sides.

They all thought him so perfect, held him up to an impossible standard of which only he had a chance of fulfilling. And even after the death of his best friend and cousin which was rumored to be at his own hands was he still revered and treated so politely. Each time he passed they would speak a greeting always ever so kind, for he was the prodigal son of the clan leader and the rightful heir to that title.

Itachi smirked as he turned his face up to that bloody moon and breathed in deeply.

And so they danced under his gaze like fragile puppets on a string but behind his back when they thought him unaware they gossiped, whispered, and mocked him. Even his "dear" old mother had learned to fear him. He could not blame her however for if he were anyone but himself he would also fear the almighty power bubbling like an untapped well inside his veins and the ease in which he manipulated his strength against his enemies. Itachi knew without a doubt that he was easily one of the strongest shinobi the nation had ever seen, and tonight he would play another role.

Itachi slowly opened his eyes, a rare smile forming on his handsome face.

Tonight he would be the leader of Divine Retribution.

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Kagome peered into the mirror and giggled as she ran her hands through her hair feeling the intricate twists and knots and jewels scattered throughout. She twirled and spun as the edges of her silk black and silver kimono fanned out behind her the red symbol of her clan etched proudly on her back. Tonight would be a night like no other. Her and Sasuke's birthday, and the 300 year anniversary of her clans arrival to the nation of fire. She froze and stared. She couldn't believe this was the same girl who just the day before had been traipsing around with her older brother while her mother was unaware. The same girl who had been running and jumping in the forest with her brother on their special times together. Kagome bit her lip her thoughts turning inward. She knew something had been bothering Itachi but she didn't know what. She could sense it in his mood, read it in his eyes, and hear it in his voice. Kagome frowned and reached her soft pale hand up to touch the glass of the mirror. Those eyes. Forever she had been judged by her own people for what Uchiha had eyes the like of she? They were pale not the blue of when she was a young child but now they shone silver, like the eyes of the blind seers in the panel of elders. But she was not blind, and she was not a seer. And so she was feared. It was in that sense that she understood her brother. For Itachi had been feared more than she and for longer. Maybe they were kindred souls in that way, she and her brother, and that is why perhaps he wanted to protect her...to teach her to protect herself.

Kagome pouted as she sat in the swing her tiny legs kicking back and forth. Her ghostly beautiful eyes took in the area around her with something like wonderment. All the little dark haired, dark eyed children ran and play and laughed...but no one approached her no one asked to be their friend. She wanted to kick the ball and she wanted to run and jump and play.

Kagome froze as one of the kids tripped and sent the ball rolling to her feet. The creaking of the swing ceased as Kagome lightly got down and wrapped her tiny hands around the ball. She lifted it up to eye level seeing the different swirls of light that traveled like mists off the ball, the same colored mists which wrapped around each of the other children. Kagome smiled and made her way over to the now silent and apprehensive children. "Hewwo, you color is dark like hair," she said to one boy the mist pouring from him was gray and stormy and it reminded her of thunder storms and cloudy days were she would curl up on the couch with her mother in front of the fire. "Color is all on ball, it is yours?" she asked a smile spreading across her chubby dimpled cheeks. The boy frowned at her, he was a head taller...older and with heavily lidded dark black eyes.

"What are you talking about you freak?" He sneered his eyes dropped to hers and he backed up, "what are you even doing here you silver eyed freak, this place is for Uchiha's."

The other kids tugged the boy back whispering to him but he ignored it.

Kagome frowned thoughtfully. "But I am an Uchiha."

"Liar! You look like a freak!" The boy said and reached out and snatched the ball roughly from her hands causing her to topple over unto her back.

Kagome watched tearfully as the kids walked away leaving her alone on the cold hard ground. She looked down at her beautiful silk white kimono now stained with mud until her eyes filled with tears so she could no longer see. She balled her small hands into fists and covered her eyes. Those eyes. The eyes that made her not an Uchiha.

"Kagome come here."

Kagome swiped away her tears and looked up into the soft face of her older brother. Her brother the Uchiha, with the dark eyes and hair, that everyone still feared. Her love and savior. Shakily she stood up and on shaky legs she ran and barreled into him pressing her face into his shirt and fisting her small hands in the fabric of his jacket.

"Ita-Ita-Ita!" She gasped out her eyes swimming as she pulled back to look up at her brother. "I no Uchiha! I a freak! I see!" She said gesturing towards her face.

Itachi peered down at his younger sister, his beautiful, lovely sister and bent to eye level. "Kagome," he said running his hands through her silky black hair, "you are better than any other Uchiha I know. You are a special Uchiha, My special Uchiha, My little pearl." And with that he scooped her up into his arms and carried her, filthy and covered with mud, away.

That was the day when she really began to see her brother as no one else had ever seen him, as the kind warm Itachi that he really was. He touched her heart and warmed her soul like no one else had ever done...and for that she loved him more than anything else in the world. So she would be brave tonight and she would smile and she would have fun even if her Itachi would not be there...because that is what he would have wanted.