Chapter Three: Pride of the Uchiha

When Mikoto gave birth to her first son, she affectionately named him Itachi because of the way he seemed to wiggle around on her chest, reminding her of a weasel--always on the move and unable to be still for long periods of time. At home, she always chased him around as he crawled about with an incredible speed for an infant. He showed the traits of a genius, able to quickly guess where she was hiding during a game of hide and seek, learning how to spell his name at the age of two, and more importantly, being able to understand what was going on in the world around him. Mikoto was awed by Itachi's psyche. The way his little mind worked always caught her off guard; his questions often made her stop and think of a logical answer that he would be satisfied with. Itachi was closer to his mother than his father, Fugaku, that is until the day Itachi picked up a kunai that Fugaku had left on the nightstand in their bedroom...

Itachi was wandering through the house searching for his mother and decided to check in their bedroom. He poked his head in and gave it a look over, and his eye landed on a shiny piece of metal left carelessly on a nightstand that was eye level in height to him. He picked it up by its handle and eyed it.

'What's this?' Itachi turned it over in his hands. It was cold and fairly light, as if made to throw. He heard his father's voice and quickly ran out of the room, forgetting that he still carried the weapon. He dashed to his room and sat in the closet, still eyeing the weapon. The edge was sharp, that he could tell just from looking at it. 'What is it supposed to do?' He looked around the room until he spotted a teddy bear an aunt had given him as a birthday present. He sat on his knees in front of it and poked the bear in the side with it. As he'd suspected, the stitching on the bear's side was sliced and fluffing began to bulge out. Itachi's eyes widened as he realized that what he was holding was dangerous. He stood slowly as if the kunai would attack him at any moment and turned to return the metal back to where he had gotten it from.

"Itachi, what are you doing?" Fugaku asked. Itachi's eyes widened as he realized that he could possibly be punished for going into his parents' room without their permission and taking something that obviously was a danger to him.

"I-I was going to put this back--"

"Is that mine?" His father cut him off. "You know you are not to go into our room..." His voice trailed off as he became aware of what Itachi was holding, and how he was holding it. It was the first time Fugaku had ever seen Itachi holding something related to a shinobi's life. Then just as quickly, another realization hit him: As smart as Itachi was, it would have been no trouble at all to start teaching him the basics of being a ninja. Sure he was only three, but still. It would better to get him started now then to wait five more years like the rest of the children. His son was a genius, even he knew that. He'd just never shown any interest in his son until he saw him holding the kunai. He was certain his son had the talent, the will, and the power to become the Uchiha clan's strongest ninja. He let Itachi keep the kunai as he stepped around him, going to the master bedroom. The wheels in his head turned quickly, plotting out Itachi's lessons and training. Yes... He would be the pride of the Uchiha one day. Even if it killed Fugaku, he would make sure Itachi would represent the Uchiha clan well.

Suddenly there was no time for Itachi to go outside and play with the other kids. There wasn't even time to play hide and seek with his own mother. He soon saw more of Fugaku then he did his mother, and as a result, they became distant. She soon was no longer excited to see Itachi come and go, and Itachi stopped running into her arms whenever he and Fugaku came back from training.

Because Itachi saw so much of his father, he began to unconsciously absorb and exhibit some of his father's traits. For example, he never saw his father smile. His father was also very methodical; there was a reason, part of a bigger plan, for every little thing he did down to the smallest detail. Over time, the Itachi that his mother knew began to disappear. The more Itachi learned about being a shinobi, the less he acted like the four year old he should have been. The once bright and smiling face everyone knew slowly disappeared. He went from smiling from ear to ear, being carefree and asking a million questions about everything, to a withdrawn, militant, and very serious child. In short, he was robbed of his childhood in order to become stronger, faster, and if possible, smarter as a shinobi.

Mikoto noticed this change in her son. He came home the first day excited about all of the cool things his father had taught him, like how to throw the miniature shuriken at trees and hit the targets and concentrating his chakra in order to blow tiny fire "clouds". A week later, his eyes no longer reflected the joyful smile on his face, as if he were forcing it for his father's sake. The week after that, there wasn't any detectable joy on his face at all, just sadness; it was as if he had been told he couldn't have something he wanted, and even that was true--he wanted to be a kid again but now he had crossed the line between child and adult. The only problem was that he was stuck in his four year old body. Soon the sadness was replaced with a chilling indifferent look, like he had given up trying to be a child again and had accepted the fact that he was going to be what his father wanted him to be, a great and honorable ninja. In truth, Itachi had come to terms with his situation. His dad controlled his life at this point and there was nothing he could do except make his father proud of him. Deep down inside, Itachi felt inferior to his father. His father dominated his life, controlled it, and in a way, owned it. Itachi began to feel like he had no life of his own, no mind of his own, and the look of indifference began to settle permanently on his face. Small age lines began to set, causing two very short age lines on his face at forty-five degree angles between his nose and eyes symmetrically on each side of his face.

To Itachi and Mikoto's relief, another son came along, Sasuke. Itachi hoped that Fugaku would spend more time wrapped up in Sasuke to take the pressure off of him to become the superhero Fugaku wanted him to be. Mikoto wanted another son to replace the one that Fugaku had taken away from her and turned into an expressionless dull child. She let Fugaku have Itachi as long as she could have Sasuke. Little did she know, if she had at any time during this point in Itachi's life stepped in and spoke on his behalf, she could have saved her son from becoming cold, distant, and eventually heartless.

But she didn't.

She wrapped herself up in Sasuke as she had done with Itachi. He often watched her hold Sasuke and wondered why she wouldn't hold him anymore. He'd listen to her sing to the infant and wonder why he had stopped hearing her sing her own song for especially made for him. He'd watch with a broken heart as she planted gentle kisses on Sasuke's forehead and wonder what he had done that caused him to be unworthy of her motherly love and affection. Soon he closed his heart to such feelings and concentrated on his training. If his mother refused to love him then he would try to win his father over.

Itachi secretly resented Sasuke for stealing his mother's attention from him. The first time Itachi was allowed to hold Sasuke, all he could think about was using a technique Fugaku had shown him that killed an opponent by snapping their neck. Sasuke had such a tender, fragile neck. It wouldn't take much to break it. In fact, he was awed at how it was able to hold up Sasuke's head at times.

As the months passed, Itachi got better with his speed, agility, and jutsu every day...but he couldn't get Sasuke's little neck out of his head. He never wanted to kill Sasuke. At his age, he had learned so much about how to kill someone and death itself that it was hard not to look at someone, find their weaknesses and devise the fastest way to kill them. By the time Sasuke was one year old, it didn't even feel like he had a mother anymore. Just some woman who would chase his drooling babbling little brother around the house. Soon Mikoto became nothing to Itachi.

Instead, Itachi exhibited another Fugaku trait and began to try to seriously teach Sasuke the proper uses of a kunai. The wide-eyed child appeared to be listening intently and his parents would watch them closely. A light bulb went off in his head. As he played with Sasuke and attempted to teach him shinobi things, both of their parents actually saw him as a human being. If he became the big brother they wanted him to be, then maybe they would stop pushing him so hard...

It was late one night when Itachi was going to the bathroom and overheard Fugaku talking to Mikoto.

"You know, if Itachi had the patience, he could train Sasuke to be great like him one day." He glanced at Mikoto who had been pinning her hair up for bed.

"Do you think so? I've never pictured Itachi actually spending time with Sasuke, since you two are always off training and all."

Fugaku chuckled, "I have been training with him a lot lately. But soon I will become captain of the Konoha Police Force and I won't have as much time to train with him."

For the first time in two years since they had brought Sasuke home, Itachi felt joy. No more training?

"What about the academy? He just turned seven; he can just go there." Mikoto suggested. Itachi clenched his fists tightly.

"You're right. I'll take him there tomorrow and see about getting him enrolled."

After that, it was quiet. He assumed that they had fallen asleep by their slow paced, deep breaths and then Fugaku's snores. He tip-toed back to his room and crawled into bed. It had been years since he had last been around other children. How would they react to him? How would they treat him? Then he realized something...He honestly could care less.