Part I: Episode 13
The sun was still rising as Itachi finished strapping on his ANBU uniform. Technically he shouldn't have been up this early, but he had been called to a Council meeting. Today, even at the expense of his clan, his family, he would save Konohagakure from tearing itself apart. He thought about his parents. How they were a perfect team in everything. He thought about Sasuke, his little brother, and made a note to do anything, beg even, for the Council to spare him. Even if the rest of the clan had to suffer, Sasuke was just a kid. He didn't deserve to be punished for the sins of his clan.
Everything appeared normal about the uniform, but when Itachi looked in the mirror what he saw almost scared him. He had known he was unwell, but it was disturbing how much the stress had eaten away at his body. There were dark bags under his eyes, his skin was frighteningly pale, and even his hair and eyes didn't seem as dark as they originally were. He sighed and tore himself away from the mirror, before doing a last scan of his room. He had everything and he wanted to leave before his mom woke up. No doubt she'd be horrified if she could see her eldest the way he looked now.
Danzo's words were still dancing in Itachi's mind as he silently slipped through the Uchiha manor. The mere suggestion made him sick, but then again Itachi always felt sick lately. It made it impossible to keep food down, which might explain the several pounds he had lost in the past few weeks. Ever since his father first mentioned the coup d'etat. Itachi pushed that thought out of his mind, but Danzo's words took its place. There was no middle ground at this point.
Before realizing it, Itachi arrived at the Naka River, the ghost of a smile on his face. He always took this route out of the village, even though it was out of the way. Of the three rivers in Konoha, the Naka was always the most calm. Even now, with all the bitterness and anger that seemed to pour out the compound like smoke, the river flowed lazily, as if it couldn't be bothered by what it considered humanity's mere whims. The river babbled like a stream, even though the water was somewhat murky due to the occasional misplaced Katon technique that came from the Uchiha compound. There wasn't much wildlife in the river, which Itachi didn't mind. That meant there were no animals competing for the right to live. There was no strife in the Naka river.
Caught up in his thoughts, Itachi almost missed the presence that appeared behind him. Almost. Quicker than his appearance would have suggested possible, Itachi turned around, sword unsheathed to face Shisui. His face was bloodied and his right eye was shut. Even now, blood seemed to be flowing out of it to the socket, which Itachi had the sinking suspicion was empty.
"What the hell, Shisui?" Itachi cried out. Despite his bloodied face and clothes, Shisui seemed disturbingly calm.
"We can't stop this Itachi. I tried going after Danzo, but he took my eye. Now he has access to Kotoamatsukami and I think he's going to try and take my left eye too." Shisui paused before gently fingering the area beneath his remaining eye. Itachi saw what he was about to do and before the taller Uchiha could react, Itachi had slammed the hilt of his sword into Shisui's forehead, causing him to crumple to the ground. Itachi slung one of Shisui's arms over his shoulder and quickly made his way towards the Council room. Tsunade would be there. She could help Shisui.
Itachi's mind was racing, despite both ANBU's and his father's insistence that he should always keep his cool. He probably shouldn't have hit Shisui. After having his eye taking out and who-knows-what-else, that kind of hit could have ended worse. But Itachi wasn't thinking quite straight anymore. He couldn't help it. Between all the pressure from both the Council and the Uchiha clan and Itachi's inability to eat and sleep, he needed Shisui to stay with him. Itachi couldn't do this alone.
Faster than he had expected, Itachi arrived outside the meeting place. Had the adrenaline not been pumping through his veins, he probably would have felt exhausted. Shisui was significantly heavier than he looked. As he raced up the stairs with Shisui on his shoulders, various guards, secretaries, and other staff members looked on with horror. By the time Itachi made it to the Council room, the two guards in front of the door were hesitantly blocking the door. Itachi evaded them expertly and was inside the chamber in the middle of Danzo's speech. There was a collective gasp in the room as Itachi turned his pleading eyes to Tsunade.
"Help him, please." Tsunade noticed the look in Itachi's eyes first. She recognized the eyes of a broken kid when she saw one, as she had seen plenty before. The eyes of someone who had lost just about everything and was coming to Tsunade hoping, praying that she could fix the last person they had left. Tsunade took a step forward and then she saw the blood. It was all over the other Uchiha's face and all over both his and Itachi's clothes. She tensed up, her eyes wide.
"Shizune!" She called out, instinctively. Thankfully, her raven-haired apprentice appeared and instantly recognized what to do.
"Clean him up and I'll be right there!" Tsunade ordered, somehow regaining some of her composure. Shizune bent down and tensed slightly when she tried to pull Shisui away from Itachi. Like Tsunade, Shizune recognized the look in his eyes. She had seen dozens if not hundreds of kids desperately torn between giving their loved one to the sole person who could save them and never letting their loved one go. She watched as the logic settled back into Itachi's eyes before he released Shisui. With a nod, Shizune quickly pulled the boy out of the room.
Throughout the entire commotion, Orochimaru and Jiraiya would sneak glances at Danzo. The man didn't even bother trying to look surprised or appalled. Instead he looked irritated, as if the Uchiha boy's death was a great inconvenience to him. Orochimaru then turned to Tsunade who was trying to regulate her breathing. He had forgotten how strong her hemophobia was, mostly because most of her patients in the past few years had been cleaned up prior to her seeing them.
Regardless, after a few breaths, the woman hailed as the strongest kunoichi in the world stood up. She silently asked Orochimaru for permission to leave and with a nod he granted it. The Council's meeting room grew uncomfortably silent afterwards. Even Danzo had stopped speaking. Finally Orochimaru stood up.
"We will continue this meeting at a later time." Orochimaru stated coolly before he walked out of the room like two young boys covered in blood hadn't just burst into a very tense Council debate. The Hokage looked down at Itachi with unreadable eyes before silently ordering the boy to come with him. Itachi cast one last glance at Danzo. It was one of hatred. Not the flaming, white-hot hatred one would expect of a kid. It was the kind of cold hatred that came about through decades of rage and mistrust. Orochimaru put a hand on Itachi's shoulder and the boy flinched. The Hokage was surprisingly warm, something that quickly bought Itachi back to reality. Slowly he stood up and followed the Hokage out the room and Hiruzen followed closely behind.
Orochimaru was silent as he and Itachi made their way towards the medical room that had been placed in Konoha's Ninja Academy. Itachi had filled him in on everything that had been going on: the coup, he and Shisui's refusal to join in, the bitterness of the Uchiha clan, and Shisui's meeting with Danzo. Had Hiruzen not been there, Itachi would have stopped there, but the 3rd Hokage's presence caused the boy to spill into the pressure he had been feeling and his begging to not punish Sasuke for the Uchiha's plans. Orochimaru found himself grateful for his sensei's presence. Itachi might have reminded Orochimaru of himself talent-wise, but the boy was centuries more sentimental than the Hokage had ever been.
By the time they arrived at the medical room, both Hiruzen and Orochimaru were deep in thought. They sent Itachi to watch Tsunade and Shizune so that they could talk alone, although neither said anything for a long time. Finally, it was Hiruzen who broke the silence.
"This is very bad Orochimaru. Danzo might be thinking of Konoha's best interests, but he is fanatical. And now, he is potentially the most powerful man in the world. We have no idea if he's even used Kotoamatsukami yet." Orochimaru was frustratingly quiet. His eyes seemed to be drilling a hole into the wall of the medical room as his mind attempted to piece various pieces of this puzzle together. Orochimaru tapped on a wall three times and two ANBU ninja appeared.
"One of you tell the Council that they need to go home immediately. I want the other to clear everyone out of the building." Orochimaru ordered. The ANBU didn't question their orders and just as quickly as they had appeared, they were gone. Orochimaru stepped in the increasingly crowded room where Tsunade's hands were gliding all over Shisui's body.
"He's lost a lot of blood and he's in shock right now," Tsunade announced to Orochimaru and Hiruzen. Nearby Shizune was going through the standard comforting phrases she had used throughout her relatively short medical career.
"Can you stabilize him?" Orochimaru asked. His eyes shined for a brief moment but no one noticed. There were various machines hooked up to Shisui and all of their outputs were low. Tsunade wore a grim expression on her face.
"I can't say. Most of the damage is stuff I can't heal even if I wanted to. I've removed most of the drugs that were in his system to dull the pain, I've cauterized his eye, and there's some very slight head trauma on here but that's being fixed with ice. Honestly, I'm not sure he will stabilize. Itachi..." Tsunade let her sentence hang and hang it did. It hung over the room like a cloud and Itachi looked like if Shisui were to die, he might die along with him. Orochimaru sighed and took a deep breath.
In a quick flash, his neck had extended several feet from his body, much to everyone's panic. Shizune screamed and screamed again when Orochimaru sank his teeth into Shisui's neck. The machines that were hooked up to Shisui's instantly reacted, displaying the boy's vitals as jumping exponentially. For a second, Shisui's eye shot wide open and he took a deep breath before passing back out. There was a stunned silence in the room as three small marks appeared on the left side of Shisui's neck where had been bitten. Orochimaru's neck returned to his original length as Shisui's breathing began to take on a regular pattern. He had survived the Cursed Seal of Heaven.
"Orochimaru...what the hell was that?!" Tsunade snapped angrily, much to Orochimaru's surprise.
"I gave him a fighting chance, Tsunade." Orochimaru responded. Tsunade glare was harsh but she said nothing. Both Itachi and Shizune looked an unhealthy mix of confusion, shock, and sickly. Orochimaru summoned another pair of ANBU.
"Do not let anyone inside this room aside from Tsunade. Not even me." Orochimaru ordered. He said something else, but Itachi didn't hear him. He just sat, looking at Shisui's sleeping form completely unsure of what to do next. This time the ANBU looked at each other, no doubt confused by the order. Orochimaru ignored this and gave everyone a look that said it was time to leave Shisui in peace. When his eyes connected with Tsunade's, he knew that their conversation would continue. Itachi didn't move and Orochimaru let it be.
"A cursed seal Orochimaru? Are you out of your damn mind? You could have killed him!?" Tsunade roared once the two had stepped into the Hokage's residence. There had been a few hours between them leaving the Academy and arriving home, mostly filled with questions from the Council members. Danzo was noticebaly absent at the time. Orochimaru took a deep breath and looked at her with a strange mixture of things Tsunade couldn't quite distinguish. He was confused, she could tell, about why she was mad. He was helping the way he knew how. Tsunade steeled herself from defending Orochimaru.
"I saw a possibility to save the boy and I took it." Orochimaru said. "You're upset because I didn't tell you about the cursed seal," it wasn't a question, but not quite a statement either. Tsunade folded her arms under her chest.
"Have you ever even tested it before, Orochimaru?" Tsunade asked with a resigned sigh. It was nearly impossible to stay mad at Orochimaru. Orochimaru sighed as well. Had everything gone the way he'd planned, Anko would have been among his first subjects to test the seal on. Unfortunately becoming Hokage had derailed that entire process.
"No," Orochimaru answered. Tsunade took a deep, irritated breath.
"What you did was dangerous and reckless, Orochimaru. You could've killed the kid and Itachi...you might've killed him too." The last part of Tsunade's sentence was spoken softer than the rest. There was a short silence.
"Oh, um excuse me." A voice said, distracting the two sannin from their conversation. They turned to see the white-haired boy who had been living in the Hokage's mansion for the past few months.
"Kabuto-kun, I didn't know you were here. I'm sorry if you overheard that-"
"Oh don't worry Tsunade-san, I was reading one of your medical books upstairs. I just came down for some water. I hope I'm not interrupting anything. Sorry." Kabuto said with a quick bow before slipping out of the main room. Tsunade sighed. She had hoped he would've become less formal in the months he'd be the Hokage's mansion followed by Danzo nearly killing him, but no luck. She then turned to face Orochimaru.
"We should check on the boy. We'll want to be there when he wakes up." He said. He paused for a minute. "Kabuto." It always impressed Tsunade how Orochimaru's voice could fill an entire room without him shouting. He simply had the kind of voice that reverberated throughout a room. The white-haired teenager poked his head out of the kitchen.
"Yes sir, Orochimaru-san?" He asked.
"Come with us please." Despite its polite sound, it wasn't a request. Kabuto chugged his glass of water and quickly made his way to the door to follow Orochimaru and Tsunade.
"It's me." Tsunade said as she stepped closer towards Shisui's room. The two ANBU ninja looked at each before each grabbing a kunai. Tsunade stopped and looked at them curiously.
"What are you two doing? Orochimaru said to let me in." Tsunade growled, clearly irritated. The ANBU raised their kunai and both proceeded to cut themselves on the length of their forearms, causing blood to spill outward. Tsunade looked unimpressed.
"If you two are done wasting my time-" Tsunade said as she took another step, but the ANBU blocked her.
"Who are you? You're not Lady Tsunade." One of the ANBU said. Tsunade cocked her head to the side.
"What're you talking about? Of course I'm Tsunade." Inside the medical room, Itachi began to stir. He wasn't sure when exactly he had fallen asleep and despite falling asleep on a row of chairs, it was the best sleep he had gotten in a while. He immediately noticed the altercation developing outside. Two of the ANBU ninja were facing off against Tsunade, who looked incredibly irritated by the ordeal. Quickly, Itachi made his way outside.
"What's going on?" He asked. The next few seconds were instrumental in proving to Itachi that the woman he was facing was not Tsunade. First, he noticed the cuts on the ANBU's arm and thought about Orochimaru's explicit orders before he left. "When you see Tsunade, make yourself bleed." Itachi thought it was weird at first, but then he remembered how the Sannin had reacted when he bought Shisui's body into the Council meeting. Tsunade was terrified of blood.
Secondly, Tsunade attempted to grab him. Tsunade was perhaps the greatest medical-ninja in the world. If she wanted Itachi incapacitated, grabbing him was not a wise maneuver. As Itachi quickly evaded, he grabbed Tsunade's arm and had her half-flipped when he activated his Sharingan. Two separate chakra systems were blended in a sloppy combination transformation. When "Tsunade" landed, there was a puff of smoke and three teenagers, around Itachi's age, were tangled in a mess of arms and legs, although they quickly stood up and organized themselves.
The boys were dressed in a uniform Itachi wasn't quite familiar with. It involved black pants, a black half-shirt with only one sleeve. One of them began to remove his clothes. With his Sharingan, Itachi could see that his chakra system was barely visible and instantly recognized it as that of an Aburame. The reason he had not seen at first was because of the chakra-draining insects.
"Who are you? What do you want?" Itachi asked. He was still dressed in his ANBU uniform, he realized. Slowly he pulled out his katana. And one of the boys, one with chin-length lavender hair charged, tanto in hand. The two weapons clashed with a clang. This guy knew what he was doing. Despite his age, he was a killer. Itachi attempted eye contact, but the boy jumped back, tanto raised.
Itachi knew their target and promised to himself and to Shisui that they wouldn't get past the medical room threshold.
Author's Corner
As usual, I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed and followed and favourited. I really do appreciate it a bunch. Now for all the other stuff:
I know the whole Kabuto living with OroTsu kinda came out of nowhere and I will do a flashback for him at some point, but he does somewhat play a role in the next chapter. But yeah, his background is pretty much canon with the only difference being he kinda sorta got adopted by Tsunade (and Orochimaru by extension).
In retrospect, I wish I would've done Itachi vs Root more. They weren't in the original draft of this story and honestly I might've bumped their ages a bit, but I couldn't find official ages (if you couldn't tell that was Fu, Torune, and Shin). I kinda wish I would've done more interactions between Itachi and Hiruzen. It was just kind of a plot device at first, but now I think it'd be kind of interesting.
And finally to, um Guest? Well everyone, sorry the past few chapters have been kinda meh in terms of how they're written. I got kinda lazy and started writing them and posting them the day of instead of writing in advance and editing as the week went on. So I'm back to that and I hope you all continue to enjoy.