Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

A/N: Big thanks to all those reviewers, fav&alerts. Though I can't reply to all of reviews(since I'm both working and studying), I'm deeply appreciated.

Sorry for the SUPER late update, I'd been so busy. Also sorry for the grammar, this chapter hasn't been betaed.

Hope you enjoy.

Act Two : Itachi

Chapter 1.

Konohagakure, 4 years later

Namikaze mansion, a day before the village festival

The Namikaze mansion was quite simple, compared to the manors of the leaders of other vilages. There was a grand yard inside it, mostly used for no more than trainings.

Inside the mansion there were lots of portraits placed upon the walls of every rooom. Some of them were portraits of famous heroes, like Shodai Hokage or Sarutobi Sasuke. However most of the portraits were from unknown artists.

After observing all of these Danzo now turned his gaze to the cup of tea in front of him. It had been almost twenty minutes since the lady in front of him started to wriggle, having a hard time to speak out whatever was on her mind.

The wife of the Hokage asking the most notorious council man to visit her under secrecy.

Obviously the lady wanted something that would go against her husband's will.

Seeing his own patience running out, Danzo took a sip of his tea and then broke the silence for the lady.

"So what's your business with a man like me, Kushina-sama?"

Konohagakure, three weeks before the village festival

He was lying on the grass, his dark, weary eyes half-closed.

He had been there laid quite for a while, witnessing once blue sky slowly turning into crimson red by twilight.

The forest hadn't changed that much, save for the fact that there no more was a grand Uchiha manor right in front of it.

It had been years.

This place once had been a secret place, for him and his late father. The day he'd turned into 4, his father had started to train him here every evening_ though it had been more like a 'battle game' than a real training. There had been too much fun in it that he himself almost couldn't regard it as a 'training'.. And they had kept it as a secret to anyone, that not even his mother found it out…

Then his father had stopped taking him to the forest the day he'd joined the Academy.

"Hmm.."

He heaved a sigh at the flooding memories.

Now all left for him were repentance, repentance and repentance….

Tears formed into his grey eyes then. He himself couldn't understand why he was still living, living in this place where only shame was left. He then thought of his mother, his aunt, and then his pathetic little brother.

But the heavy responsibility didn't help him to understand the reason that much.

'Where are you?'

He quickly sprang up as the certain grim voice suddenly rang upon him. There was no one around, but he could hear the voice speaking for him...

'Come back.' The voice spoke again.

He began to run then, rushing back to the center of Konoha.

'Hurry up.'

Tears again filled into his dark pools as he speed up.

Konohagakure, two weeks before the village festival

"Kushina-sama. It's already a dusk." The monk's calm voice resounded off the wooden walls of the temple.

Her figure knelt in front of the statue, and her hands still squeezed together, Kushina opened her eyes, a sigh escaping through her lips when her prayer was interrupted.

It had been a year since she'd visited the temple every afternoon to pray. Sometimes she broke into tears while praying because of the wavering emotions as she asked for Gods' help.

With a melancholy air around her Kushina left the temple, her beautiful violet eyes fallen downcast. She walked through the empty streets, then through the marketplace where people were booming. She made a feigned smile every time the civilians greeted her, or inquired her about her family, or commented about her beauty.

Her beauty.

She smiled bit sardonically at the word. Seriously, what good was there for the beauty among the beauties if she wasn't actually beloved by her own husband?

It had been years since she and Minato had made love. Nowadays Minato was being even more indifferent to their households, treating their daughters like annoying, troublesome bugs(though he took an unforgiving action if any of them caused a trouble).

And their girls were not really growing that well.

Minami was still plain_ almost pathetic in her training, causing everyone around her to tilt his or her head quizzically,and always ranking average score in Academy. Seriously, how could she be that plain with bijuu's power sealed into her? It seemed like Kyuubi had succeeded in blocking any human influence from taking his chakra away. Or maybe it's just because she's still young?

But Kushina once had been the demon's vessel, and she hadn't been like her daughter when she was little.

So what's the problem? Without Minato's help she couldn't find out that much.

Kazumi was making an average score in her Academy as well. Besides training Minami, Kushina tried to help her second as much as possible, but Kazumi wasn't that zealous, and often had a nasty fight with her elder sister, claiming that she'd always been ignored because of her.

The poorest one was Aika the youngest. No one except for her mother cared about her in their house.

Kushina now knew well that all the misfortunes were caused by the fact that she wasn't able to bear a son.

But how would she bear a son if her husband hardly touches her? Had Minato just gave all the possibility up?

If only I could bear a son...

She abruptly skidded to a halt when she felt she'd hit someone.

"Sorry-."

"Kushina-sama."

Kushina smiled when she realized that it was the elder son of Mikoto.

"Oh, Itachi-kun. How are you?"

"I'm good. You're on your way back home?"

"That's right."

"Let me guard you, then."

Kushina smiled again, pressing a rising irritation as the Uchiha ANBU began to walk beside her, 'guarding' her.

The time went fast. This boy had been a crying toddler when she'd seen him first time. And now the baby had grown into a fine figure of a man, being a best example of loyal shinobi.

Uzumaki Kushina was a good woman. But no matter how good she was, she couldn't help feeling irritated with this boy- all because of her own husband. Though Kushina loved, and at the same time, sympathized her friend Uchiha Mikoto, she also was jealous. Seriously, how could a woman not be jealous if her husband seemed to care more about her friend's children than their own children?

And especially this Itachi boy. Minato was almost treating him like his own son nowadays.

Her daughters hated the Uchiha boys as well. Minami hated Sasuke with all her heart because she thought he's arrogant and had no respect (especially since she'd been severely punished by her father after a quarrel with the boy), Kazumi hated Itachi because she thought he'd taken their father's love away from them, and Aika… Well, Aika was too young to think of such things.

Few painful coughs from Itachi broke the redhead from her own reveries.

"Are you sick?" She asked, trying to make her voice as gentle as possible.

Itachi made a crooked smile. "I'm fine. I just forgot to drink the tea this morning-."

"Tea? What tea?"

"Hmm?" The coal eyes blinked innocently. "The tea Hokage-sama had offered to me. Rin-san made it with some medical herbs, so that it'll help my troublesome coughs." He smiled good-heartedly then.

Kushina nearly let out an irritated sigh. Minato had ordered Rin to make a special herbal tea just for this boy's coughs? And just how many times had she been telling him that there's something wrong with Minami?

She pressed a twitch, a jealousy raising its ugly head.

"You should take care of yourself well." She blurted out almost unintentionally. "A S-ranked shinobi suffering a cough problem? It doesn't look good."

The boy seemed bit confused at her strangely turned tone. "I'm aware. I'm sorry, Kushina-sama." He bowed apologetically.

"Well… It's not really a matter of an apology." What the heck am I doing? Kushina felt an urge to slap her own mouth. What the heck was she doing, revealing her 'pissed' feeling so stupidly in front of this Uchiha boy?

Hatake Kakashi stared down at the bundle of the papers on the desk. After a brief sigh he began to flip them with his half-gloved hand, his revealed eye deep with anxious thoughts.

"… kids." Muttered Yamato as he threw a glance at the files Kakashi was reading. "Well, they are running wild, aren't they, sempai?"

"Hmm.." Kakashi merely frowned.

"It's not really a big deal, for the boys at such age." Anko voiced crossing her arms. " Creating a gang and making happenings everywhere- that's just understandable. The problem is that Uchiha and Hyuuga boys are leading the gang."

"Uchiha Sasuke and Hyuuga Neji." Yamato then sighed. "What did they do this time?"

"They'd vandalized the one of the stores in a marketplace." With another sigh Kakashi tossed the files away.

Just like Anko said, Ten year- old boys creating a gang for fun was kinda natural_ rather cute in Hatake Kakashi's demise_, but their actions were getting wilder and wilder. And what's big deal was that the brother of Itachi was among the group, causing chaos. The complaints from the villagers were indescribable especially toward the Uchiha boy naturally. Some were even claiming that they must put the boy into the prison.

"Poor Itachi-kun." Anko murmured.

"The boy isn't that an evil brat, I mean the Sasuke boy." Yamato commented with his usual calm, melancholy tone. "He's quite nice to his elder brother anyway. And I also heard that he's the top in his class."

"The boys that age just want to have fun, feeling delights at the derailments…"

Kakashi shrugged. "The mother of Hyuuga Neji claims that Uchiha Sasuke must have put bad influence upon her son. And it seems like Hyuuga clan leaders also agree with her."

They all became pensive then.

Uchiha Sasuke and Hyuuga Neji had a lot in common. They'd both lost their fathers at young age, they were both vindictive and aggressive… probably such resemblance made them into friends, causing them to end up creating a childish gang.

Despite the mothers' tearful pleas, the relatives' or the elder brother's scolds, they did not stop.

Probably they thought it cool.

"..Bastards."

At least the Yondaime was being quite generous upon the matter. Every time the trouble occurred, the blond Hokage simply consoled the angry citizens, offered them a right kind of compensation, and then advised them to understand the boys in adolescence.

All the generosity for the sake of Uchiha Itachi. The Yondaime quite cherished the Uchiha ANBU.

But if Hyuuga clan starts to make a move against Sasuke it'd be a bit different story. The Hyuuga clan leader had been Minato's childhood friend, and Minato would not be able to ignore his complains.

And everyone knew that Itachi's mortal vulnerable point was his little brother.

"Here's your change, Kushina-Sama."

"Thank you."

"The bag looks really gorgeous." Hikari whispered to Kushina as they both stepped out from the shop.

"You think so? I'm actually worried, if it's too expensive than.."

"No way, it suits you well."

Kushina smiled at the comment from Hyuuga Hikari. Nowadays the redhead mostly hanged out with the Hyuuga woman_ the wife of Hyuuga Hiashi_ instead of Uchiha Mikoto.

She didn't really meant to turn away from her former best friend, however, having Mikoto's company was way too mess. Though it's been four years since the Uchiha incident happened, citizens of Konoha were still freely showing their hatred toward the Uchihas and everytime they saw Mikoto and Kiyu on the street they poured glares and aggressive whispers onto them. Some of the citizens even had politely advised Kushina not to accompany the filthy Uchiha woman.

It was helpless. Kushina's reputation would be ruined if she kept on hanging out with the Uchiha girl..

"Kushina-chan?"

Holy crap, pressing a frown in annoyance Kushina turned to the direction where the Uchiha girl's voice rang up.

"Hello, Mikoto-san. And hello, Itachi-kun." Hikari was the first to greet the Uchihas with graceful manner.

"Mikoto-chan." Kushina quickly smiled at Mikoto. "And Itachi-kun."

The Uchiha ANBU bowed at the two ladies without a word.

"Seems like you two were shopping?" Mikoto asked to her 'best friend', a small smile hanging upon her usually pale face.

It's not your concern, pressing a rising annoyance Kushina nodded. "Yes. Are you from grocery?"

"Oh yes. I'm going to cook udon tonight."

"Kaa-san!"

Kushina nearly fell backward when a certain red-headed figure rushed into her.

"Kazumi-chan! How many times did I tell you not to jump around?" Chiding her second with an affable tone Kushina gave a little hop onto Kazumi's head.

"Hello, Kazumi-sama." Hikari greeted the girl with a smile.

"Hi baa-san. Kaa-san, I'm hungry! Buy me a ramen!"

"Alright, alright. How was your Academy today? Where's your nii-chan?"

"It was bored, nii-chan went to Hinata-chan's house…" Just then upon noticing a tall figure standing beside them, Kazumi's childish happy expression immediately shifted into a childish scowl. "Why are you here?"

Itachi gulped, bewildered. "Hello, Kazumi- sama."

"Beat it! I hate you!" Screamed the girl.

"Kazumi-chan!" Kushina tried to scold but the girl was already starting to childishly push the Uchiha ANBU away using her tiny palms. "Go away, away!"

"Ka..Kazumi-sama.."

Mikoto's face flushed with a bewilderment. Her mouth gaped she eyed Kushina who also seemed quite bewildered as well.

"Kazumi-chan, you shouldn't push a person…"

It was good that there's no passerby on the street, really..

Then a sudden voice interrupted the scene, causing everyone around to fall silent immediately. "Yes, Namikaze Kazumi. You should not push a person."

Both Kushina and Mikoto froze in their places when a certain handsome blond shunshined in front of them.

Kazumi immediately stepped away from Itachi and clung to her mother, her slender shoulder starting to tremble.

"Hokage-sama." It seemed like Itachi and Hikari were the only ones who did not froze at the Hokage's appearance.

Minato frowned little but soon made his usual grin to this strage group. "Alright, ladies and Itachi-kun. What's going on here?"

"Oh it's nothing." Kushina quickly voiced, hoping Minato would just pass it off. "By the way, where are you going?"

Without answering his wife's question Minato turned to Itachi then. "Itachi-kun, where are you going?"

"Home." The Uchiha ANBU smiled bit nervously. "Do you need me to do something, Hokage-sama?"

"Certainly. It seems like Kakashi's taking a lonely lunch."

"Actually I'd offered him my company, but he refused it in first place, so.."

The two males both chuckled then.

"Let's go. Oh, by the way," The blond abruptly turned to Mikoto, causing the Uchiha woman to nearly stop her breath. "So you're on your way home?"

"Yes, Hokage-sama." Mikoto quickly replied, her voice shaking and her face flushing like a tomato.

Minato nodded. "Alright, we'll take you home and then join my student."

Now both Itachi and Mikoto flushed.

"It's okay, Hokage-sama, I'll just take my mother home and then join you.."

"It's okay, Hokage-sama, I can go alone..."

Minato blinked few time at the embarrassed two before chuckling again. "Now now, don't fret, it's my pleasure anyway."

"But Hokage-sama, our house is too humble to..."

"What do you mean? Let's go!" With a sushining smile the Yondaime urged them.

They look like a family, thought Kushina as she watched the trio walking away together. She did not realize that she was biting her lips hard_ until Hikari softly nudged her.

"Kushina-sama, what's wrong?"

"Huh..?" The redhead quickly perked up, her head totally blank for a while, then she hastily put a feign smile onto her face again. "Ah.. haha, it's so hot today! I can't believe it's autumn!"

Hikari tilted her head little but soon smiled back. "Hokage-sama is quite a genlteman. You'd never know how much of jealousies you're getting from women in our village." then the Hyuuga lady looked down at Kazumi who'd suddenly become quiet, her head dropped. "Are you okay now, Kazumi-sama?"

"huh..?" The girl flinched little. "Ye-yes."

Probably Hikari just thought Kazumi hated Uchihas with the same reason the many citizens hate the family of the traitors.

Kushina, Kazumi and Hikari got out of the marketplace, chattering not as lively as while ago. When they were about to separate Hikari whispered to the red-haired beauty.

"I know that I shouldn't say things like this, so please just pass it off. I just can't help feeling that Mikoto-san has something for your husband."

XX

The sound of the door of the rooftop being opened made the silver-haired ANBU to snort.

"Stupid weasel, I knew that you'd be back..."

"Kakashi-kun!" A happy voice of the last person he'd expected to hear at this moment made him nearly jump up from the cloth sheet he'd been sitting on.

"Hey...Rin-chan." Putting his chopsticks down lazily Kakashi made an eye-smirk to the brown-haired medic-nin. What the heck was Rin doing here?

Rin smiled bit shyly for a moment then approached him, holding something wrapped in a cloth in her one hand.

"Sensei told me to bring another herb tea. He said he'd be here.."

"Oh," Now Kakashi understood. "Well he's not here."

"Maybe he'll be here soon?"

"Guess so." With a shrug Kakashi picked up one of the originis in his bento box and took a bite.

A clumsy silence fell between the two then, causing the girl to feel helpless for a while. Kakashi noticed it as always, and again, pressed a wince. It was always like this everytime they were together. And Kakashi always had to feel guilty for he knew that he was making her sad by his callous manner.

But he couldn't give her what she desired. All he felt when he confronted her was a great guilt... But that's all.

And Hatake Kakashi wasn't kind of a man who would take an advantage of his fangirl.

Rin bit her own nails before opening her mouth again, in her usual affable, small tone. "I wonder if Jiraya-sama will be back on this year's festival."

"I can tell you." Replied the ANBU boy in his usual lazy manner. "Sensei said the pervert sanin will be surely visiting on this festival."

"Really?"

"Sensei said so. Darn, I hope he will bring his unpublished editions along..."

Rin giggled at the comment, hiding her mouth with one hand. Kakashi looked down at her and smiled quietly.

Dark, onyx eye and soft brown eyes met together then.

For a moment Rin thought his eyes looked sad...

"I wonder what his disease is." The boy abruptly muttered.

Rin flinched, then blushing a little she dropped her head. "Me too. Shame on me that I couldn't find it out..."

"It's not your fault. Maybe Tsunade-sama will be able to figure it out."

"But we don't know where she is..."

Slam!

The another sound of the door being opened rang up. Both Rin and Kakashi perked up, and upon noticing the spiky golden head and another dark head Kakashi waved his hand at them. "My dear friends!"

The Yondaime grinned, his deep blue eyes slowly getting darker. "Friends?" Then he gave Kakashi a punch on the head, causing latter to yelp in a funny way.

Long time ago, even upon the time of the foundation of Konohagakure, Uchihas always had been a hot potatoe.

Now there were only four survivors of them, clinging to their wretched lives and trying hard to prove their loyalties toward the village.

To play with Uchihas.

The Hokage must be joking.

Pressing a scowl Danzou calmly flipped the files in his hand. The missions accomplished by Uchiha Itachi in those four years after the Uchiha execution arc.. 30 A-ranked missions, 22 S-ranked missions, and 50 B-ranked missions. All done with excellent results.

The pathetic Uchiha was working his ass off.

Frowing the old man lifted his hand and slowly touched his own bandaged eye, where late Uchiha Shisui's eye was placed underneath. It was a shitty deal that he wasn't able to collect the Uchihas' eyes. The Yondaime had strictly forbidded it upon the execution mission.

What the heck was the young Hokage thinking?

Heaving a sigh Danzou then wondered if the Hokage was preserving the sharingan eyes in some secret place.

What's on the Yondaime's mind no one would know. Even a man like Danzou sometimes felt unarmored in front of the young man, whether he was frowning or grinning.

The old man shook his head then, putting the disturbing thoughts away and then looking at the files again. The eyes will be mine in near future anyway, he consoled himself.

Nowadays it had become a known fact that the Hokage's putting too much trusts onto Uchiha Itachi. Some were even saying that the Hokage's favor toward the Uchiha boy was going beyond the limit. Danzou could see that there's some jealousy within the saying shinobis, but anyway the statement was true enough.

The Hokage must be joking.

None of the Uchihas deserved a single trust. Even a loyal shinobi like Uchiha Itachi didn't deserve this kind of benefits.

Danzou remembered how the boy had threated him four years ago, claiming his little brother's life in exchage of the information and then warning the council that he would explode the village's secret to the enemy villages if anyone lifted a finger against Sasuke.

The insolent little brat..

None of the council liked it when the Yondaime had rejected the massacre plan and decided to spare the three Uchihas for the sake of Itachi.

And now it's getting worse.

The Hokage was being naive, to favor the Uchiha boy that much.

He didn't mind the two Uchiha hookers that much. What's big deal was the brothers. They needed to be trampled quickly before they... bloom.

Danzou had been concocting his own plan for those four years, and now it was time to put it into an action. And to carry the mission out in success there needed a outstanding trapper, who both got brain and power…

With a cruel smile hanging upon the end of his lips the old man turned to Hyo and then ordered him to summon Naruto.

He was staring at the burning candle, watching the slim figure slowly melting away.

After waiting until the flame completely died, he stripped his wet shirt and then changed into his usual dark uniform.

The village festival was coming close. To the people_even shinobis_ outside it'd be a happy-enjoyable day, but to the ROOT members the day was nothing more than a troublesome day where spies disguised as civilians could sneak into the village easily.

Especially for this year_ Danzou had ordered his subordinates to keep their guards even more tightly. There was a rumor which said there'd been a broken talk between the Yondaime and the leader of Kumogakure.

The Hokage's ANBUs protected the village under the light, and the ROOT members eliminated the village's enemies in a shadow. Each faction was doing its own tasks, all in one purpose.

PROTECT THE LEAF!

He noticed gazes from his fellow members as he slammed the door opened and then paced down the dark yard, passing the training ground. There even were little fledglings who hadn't done ROOT regulation yet, staring at the blond with their eyes full of admiration.

Not a surprise.

The blond was quite famous among his fellows, once being the youngest member in the legendary Uchiha Execution mission, then he'd achieved 34 A-ranked mission and 14 S-ranked missions afterward, causing their leader to smug with a satisfaction.

Though he's only ten years old, he was growing faster than the usual boys in his age that he looked almost twelve or thirteen already. Despite the rather prim and pretty look his face had developed into, his body was getting more and more muscular beside his moodless, cynical attitudes.

The utmost unique point in his look was that his sapphire eyes had turned into an odd.

It was Torune who'd first noticed the blond's right eye slowly turning into violet two years ago.

Now the blond's right eye was crimson red, with a pupil in it slowly becoming longer and thinner_ shaping into something like cat or fox's pupil.

Including the blond himself, everyone wondered if there'd be some kind of unknown doujutsu developed, but until now there's no big change in his doujutsu ability.

Woosh.

He entered Danzou's office without making a single noise.

When the old man looked at him he made a deep bow, then opened his mouth, the empty, emotionless voice resounding off the protected wall.

"ROOT shinobi number 135, code name Naruto. I always accomplish my mission, Danzou-sama."

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