Chapter 8 – How Anbu Live

It was a quiet morning. Outside the main house, the bamboo suikinkutsu made sure, steady sounds against the flow of water dripping onto the stone. There were no birds, since Hanabi didn't like how they woke her early with their chirping. The newest council member carried a letter in one hand when he pushed open the sliding door.

"Hiashi-sama." He bowed, holding out the letter. "This arrived in the night. We think it has something to do with the commotion happening in the civilian area."

Hyuga Hiashi walked over and took the paper, frowning at the clan stamp on the seal. He unraveled it and let his eyes scan over the words. Hyuga Kou gave some time for him to finish reading before speaking.

"The Hokage is probably aware that we have received this, Hiashi-sama," Kou reported. "He will be waiting for a response. It is best if we write one quickly."

The letter was folded back up into a neat square. Hiashi shook his head. "No, this is nothing serious. I will have a meeting with the Hokage later this week to clear the matter later on. You may take this to Tokuma to file away."

Kou frowned. "Are you sure, Hiashi-sama? They may assume wrongly."

The Hyuga weren't as brash as the other clans. They were slow and deliberate, and their decisions were made the same way. The meeting with the Hokage would not be a quick affair that could happen in a few minutes. It would be a planned meeting, scheduled well before hand and preferably over dinner. Hiashi would take the time to talk about intra-village affairs first, if only to obey long held tradition. Then they would slowly approach the topic of some 'coup', discussing what exactly it was and what could be done about it and how the Hyuga clan could offer their support to the Hokage without actually offering their support to the Hokage. It was simply how they operated.

"Then that is their fault," he replied. "You already know of my dislike for that council, but I have no complaints as long as Sandaime-sama is able to keep them in order. The Uchiha can do what they like, and they cannot truly expect to put as much effort into this as would allow them results. Getting involved now will only cause us trouble."

"Then I will take it to Tokuma-san," Kou nodded, but he was still apprehensive. "I only hope you schedule the meeting soon, Hiashi-sama. You may be certain of your decision, but many believe you will turn the other way." He took the letter and exited quickly.

The Hyuga clan head remained standing in the back room. Hinata would wake soon. She had another match against Neji that day.

He was half-awake while he was dragged back, half-aware of the gathering crowds around him.

There wouldn't be any corpses to bury; the black fire couldn't be put out. His eyes hurt with a pain that seared through his skull. Itachi pulled him through the alleys to keep out of the milling people in the streets, and his feet were numb as he followed along.

He vaguely recognized the small neighborhood that Naruto's apartment was in. They were going back. That was ok; maybe the strange conviction of his younger self would finally leave him when Naruto was there again. It took the form of a desperate sadness that hurt far more than his eyes.

Itachi didn't bother to knock on Naruto's door; he headed for the side window and swiftly unlocked it with one hand, slipping inside. Sasuke followed through, still disoriented. He felt the sensations of being placed on a couch in the sitting room, of having the lights dimmed, of someone putting a black cloth over his eyes, of another pair of smaller hands pulling at his sleeves.

"Is Sasuke hurt?" Naruto's voice asked.

Sasuke turned towards the sound, but he couldn't see anything through the cloth that bound his head.

"Yes, slightly," Itachi's voice replied. "Listen, Naruto-kun, the village will be in danger soon, and there will be fighting outside-"

"Cool! Shinobi fighting?!" The boy's voice sounded excited, too excited.

"… yes. But it's dangerous for you to go outside. So stay in today, all right? I need to make sure Sasuke recovers, and then I'll have to help them fight."

"The village is in danger? Are there enemy nin attacking?"

"I suppose so. The enemy nin are the members of our clan, though. The ones with the fans, like this one." There was a ruffling of cloth.

"Oh," Naruto replied with great understanding. "So shinobi are fighting, and I can't help?"

"No, no you can't."

"Well, I think we should go tell Sandaime-jiji," Naruto said sagely. "Sandaime-jiji can do anything."

"Of course, Naruto-kun. We'll do just that. Do you have any ice?"

There was a patter of feet as the boy ran to the kitchen. Sasuke looked into the black cloth over his face and tried to ignore the pounding pain in his head. "N-Nii-san?"

There were hands pressing onto his eyes, over the cloth. "It's not healthy," Itachi murmured. "Seven is too young. You've barely acquired chakra usage, your body doesn't yet have enough to use something like this. It'll stress it too much."

"This is …" Sasuke paused.

So this was the Mangekyou Sharingan. This burning, fiery pain that consumed his head and ran through ever nerve in his body was the epitome of the Uchiha doujutsu. He closed his eyes quickly, and let out a breath. Little by little, he was able to force the chakra away from his eyes. It sunk down, back into his tenketsu.

Itachi had said that he'd needed to see the death of his precious person. Could it have been that in that one moment, that one final scream, he had somehow loved oka-san again? Was it his younger self who had been responsible? Had he yearned that much for her love, and been so stricken when he'd lost it just as he'd gained it?

"I made it go away," he said stiffly, reaching up to pull at the cloth over his eyes. It fell away, revealing Itachi's worried face in front of his own. "It's not activated anymore, right?" His head still pulsed, but the burning feeling was fading.

"No," Itachi sat back on the couch. "But you have to be careful about never activating it in the future, at least in the near future."

"Why?" Sasuke frowned. It was powerful, wasn't it? He could use something like this. The pain was nothing, he would stand it. With him and Itachi both in possession of the Mangekyou, couldn't they stop the coup?

His brother ran a hand through his hair. "There are things about it that you don't know yet. Every weapon has its price, and this one is expensive." He paused. "It blinds you, Sasuke. Slowly but steadily, as you use it. It takes away the clarity of your sight."

Sasuke's eyes widened, now dark again. That couldn't be right. "But nii-san, you-"

"I already don't have much time to live," he said with a sad smile. "My body may fail before I go blind. It's fine for me to use it."

"How far?" His voice came out almost pleading and he hated himself for it.

"Not far, yet. I can still see, and read. I can feel that it's only just begun. Sometimes it takes a while for it to focus in the mornings, when I wake up."

"How do you cure it?" He demanded. "Senju Tsunade became the Hokage in my time, and her knowledge of the body was beyond even Orochimaru's imagining. There isn't a disease she can't cure. She can fix you, and stop the blindness."

Itachi shook his head. "It is the Uchiha's curse, and it takes all our sight facilities with it. It's not something that can be solved through iryouninjutsu. The only way to prevent it is through transplant. A transplanted eye between family does not lose its sight." He paused. "I think I might have planned to help you with that. But you'll have to wait until then, Sasuke."

Two fingers reached forward to tap his forehead, but Sasuke was still with shock.

"Ice!" Naruto chimed, running back into the room. He carried a handful of ice cubes wrapped in paper, and pushed them onto Sasuke's face. The cold seeped into his mind.

"Where are they?" Utatane Koharu demanded. "The meeting was supposed to begin almost five minutes ago."

She sat in the council meeting room of the Hokage's tower, tapping her fingers against the table. Homura sat stiffly beside her, his hands folded into his sleeves.

"Hiruzen is the one who called this. He must be distracted."

"Well he should know better than to allow himself. And Danzo? What is that man's excuse?"

"I apologize for keeping you waiting."

They both turned at the voice behind them and saw a bandaged figure standing in the doorway. He walked over slowly on his cane, and took his seat. His wrapped arm was held stiffly in front of him. "I'm afraid I'm growing old, you see. It took me a rather long time to wrap my arm."

Koharu smiled wryly. "Well, I suppose you would know where Hiruzen is?"

Danzo shook his head, "I have not seen him. However, I have scheduled to meet with him later today. We can continue without him, and I will inform him on what has happened."

Homura frowned, "a council meeting without the Hokage?"

"Well, he is busy. You know why, Homura-san. You live near that area, don't you?"

He nodded. "Yes, I was woken up by the sounds. Are we to decide what to do with them?"

"It's a direct coup," Koharu said sternly. "We already know what they will expect, and they are willing to shed blood over it. It seems Nidaime-sama's legislature hasn't put them properly in their places. If only they were as silent as the Hyuga, for instance…"

Danzo laid his bandaged arm carefully on the table, "That is what we must discuss. The Hyuga have always had close ties with the Uchiha, and they have been invited to partake of the coup in return for their help."

Silence fell in the conference room. The two other council members looked at one another uncertainly, knowing well the particular brand of loathing that Hiashi Hyuga seemed to have for them. They'd always excused it because he was on good terms with their Hokage but now, if Danzo was bringing it up, it was an issue.

"Yes," he went on. "This is something we must be concerned with. And, as the Hokage is occupied at this time, he will have the chance to see that leniency does not work nearly as well as a good, strong rule. We must take prior action to make sure that the Hyuga will not hesitate to remain loyal to their village."

"Are you sure?" Koharu frowned. "We may have veto rights, but we by ourselves do not have the right to take action without Hiruzen's approval."

Homaru smiled wryly, "come now, Koharu. We've been his teammates for decades now, we know what he will do. He will prioritize rescuing the civilians while continuing to negotiate. Ultimately, much of our forces will be killed in the effort and he will end up relenting more control to the Uchiha. If we can finish this quickly without him, he'll only be glad."

It was a risky thing to say, but the quiet words had been hovering there between them for too long, and it sounded almost natural. Danzo nodded sternly and supported his stiff arm with his other hand.

In the morning haze, a young pink-haired girl looked to either side of the street before promptly leaping out of her window. She landed silently on the grass, kneeling to break her fall like she'd learned at the academy. It was early and they'd told her to stay inside, but there was a physical test at the academy and she couldn't keep her rank if she missed it. Her rank was important. It was the only thing she could be respected for, the only thing that mattered.

Sakura inched across the yard, looking back to make sure both her parents were still in the house, discussing something. She was supposed to be in her room studying for the day. When she reached the street, she immediately straightened, hidden behind the rows of shrubs along the outsides of the civilian houses. If she walked like that, no one who walked down the street would see her. There weren't many people walking down the street anyway, apart from the occasional police member who would stiffly patter by.

She paused when she heard the swift sound she'd begun to associate with a shunshin. Eyes widening, she crouched down behind the leaves and held her bag close to her chest. Two 'swooshes'. Two people were in the street.

She looked out through the gaps in the foliage and managed to make out two blue-clad figures who wore the Uchiha fan. They spoke loudly, as if they knew that only the mere civilians could possibly be around. The slight unfairness made her grit her teeth, but she stayed quiet and listened.

"...-sama, there has been a disruption five kilometers west of here," a woman's voice said.

"Report." The second voice was undeniably male.

"Fugaku-sama, your … well, it was …"

"Please report, Naori-san. If there are casualties, it is best to say. We knew what would happen when we all decided this and we must face the consequences," the second figure said. Sakura inched closer; casualties?

The Uchiha woman seemed to take a while to focus. "It's … Mikoto-san, she was killed a few minutes ago."

There was silence in the street. Sakura held her breath, watching the two of them. So someone had been killed that morning. It didn't take long for her sharp mind to deduce that there was conflict happening nearby, and judging from what she'd read in the history books shinobi conflict tended to be bad.

"How?" It took a while for him to answer, but when he did his voice was sharp.

"A stranger who wore a robe and mask. He took her hostage to call for your son, and killed her when Itachi didn't appear. Two of our shinobi tried to intercept him to save her but they were killed. He has disappeared now, and Mikoto-san seemed to have drained her chakra fighting him. She was last seen the previous evening at Uruchi-san's senbei shop."

He remained silent.

Uchiha Naori seemed almost guilty for having told him. "We … don't know where she was after that. Did your wife … make it to her house?"

He nodded.

"Ah, I see. I'll report the casualties, Fugaku-sama." Without saying any more, she was gone.

Sakura let out her breath, because it didn't seem like the man standing in the street would hear her. She put one small hand into the bushes and pushed them aside a little, feeling pangs of sympathy as she looked at the figure with stiff shoulders.

It had been his wife, then. This man had lost his wife to some unknown fighting, and maybe some poor kid had lost his oka-san. Sakura flinched unknowingly, but not from fear. She flinched from a mixed sense of dread and horror upon trying to understand what he felt.

She watched for a little while longer, even through she suspected that the person who was still standing there – frozen – would barely notice if she got up to walk. She had to go to the academy, after all. She was late already, and she would miss her test if she were later. But for some reason, her feet urged her to come out from behind the bushes. Wondering if she was mad, Sakura pushed through the leaves and emerged onto the street side, slowly walking towards the man whose wife had died.

"Oji-san?" She called. "Are you alright?"

Uchiha Fugaku. She smiled in pride at remembering the name that Naori-san had called him, and recalling the clan of the people who wore the red fans like Sasuke-kun. But he didn't turn towards her. He was still looking slightly upwards, into the sky in the distance.

"Oji-san?" She asked again, stopping a few feet away. He slowly turned towards her, as if only just realizing that she was there.

Sakura tried to give him her most sober look. "I'm sorry for your loss." That's what her otou-san had taught her to say to people whose relatives died. She didn't know why, since she certainly wasn't sorry – she hadn't done anything in the first place – but it seemed necessary. Now that it was over, she could ask her question. "Do you know why everyone is staying inside?"

He gave her a contemplating look. She tried to read the emotion in his eyes, but not everyone was as easy as Iruka-sensei. This person was unreadable. She could sense that he was angry, but she couldn't tell how much. His frown lines were already too prominent.

"Go back inside," he commanded.

She frowned, "why? What's happening?"

"Revenge is happening. Go back inside or you might get caught up within it."

His tone was haunting. It wasn't the stern voice it had been when he'd first spoken to Naori-san, but it wasn't sad either. It was something in between, like a bowl that had been shattered then put back together with cement instead of clay. Something about it made her nod and walk silently back down the street towards her house.

"Help me stand, nii-san. We can go now. We have to see Sandaime-sama."

"Jiji!" Naruto said happily. "Awesome!"

Sasuke frowned, still struggling to lift himself from the couch of the apartment. "You aren't coming with us. It's dangerous."

The boy shook his head. "I can see Sandaime-jiji whenever I want!"

"He's right," Itachi muttered. "He's one of the only ones who is allowed within the office without a meeting or a call. Sometimes Hokage-sama has even cut short a meeting with my team simply to see to him."

"I'm important," Naruto asserted with a nod.

"But we cannot go until you can stand. We could be attacked; the anbu will be looking out for Uchiha members."

Sasuke rubbed his head in one hand, feeling the vestiges of chakra loss still in his body. He couldn't stand yet; his legs kept falling. He collapsed back onto the couch with a groan.

It was already light outside, and the brightness of the day was strangely out of character. Konoha was going to be thrust into war on a day like this, and it was because of him. He remembered his clan as he'd first thought of it; the great Uchiha, masters of the Sharingan, unified in everything. Against their light, Konoha had seemed almost dull. But this … it was madness. They weren't powerful enough to win, but they were powerful enough to cause trouble, they were banking on that. In a few weeks, maybe a few months, Konoha would be a ruin of its former self and the Uchiha would be there, promising security and safety and strong rule from countries that would see their chance to attack.

Or it could be that the clan would utterly fail and his own history would happen twice. But this time, it would happen with far more death than it ever had before.

"Why?" He murmured. "Why are they doing this?"

Itachi knew what he meant without needing to ask. "They have their reasons, Sasuke," he said softly. "You can't blame them. They are victims of circumstance just as we are. Just as Konoha is."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Naruto stated, seating himself on the couch. "Aren't we going to see Sandaime-jiji?"

"No," Itachi reached over to ruffle his yellow hair slightly. "More boring clan matters, Naruto-kun. You have academy homework, don't you?"

The boy frowned. "That's even more boring. I'd rather be bored with Sasuke than bored by myself."

"If you complete your assignments, I'll show you a shurikenjutsu later on."

He beamed and jumped up, "sure! Ok! I'll have it done in five! Gimme ten minutes while I go find my bag…" He ran off, half-skipping in excitement.

Sasuke gave his brother a wry smile when he turned back. "A bad habit of yours, nii-san."

"You know it best."

"Tell me what I don't know," he said, his smile fading. "Tell me what our clan is like." He sat silently on the couch, waiting. Outside there were morning birds chirping. The sounds filtered in through Naruto's sitting room window and sounded simply wrong.

Itachi leaned back, looking up at the ceiling. "That would require knowing what you know, Sasuke."

Sasuke glowered.

He chuckled, "alright. I can't tell you many things, but I will tell you that there has been tension ever since the Nidaime Hokage's rule. The Uchiha clan was great, once. People tend to fear the great. Eventually they fell, and though they were given equal rights as any other clan they found their position stifling compared to their previous authority. The will to regain their status was passed down through the clan heads, from otou-san's mother to him, and it was supposed to be realized through me. But they grew restless and made the mistake of starting too early," he smiled wryly. "If they had left it to me, then maybe I could have broken this curse."

"And so you were sent to kill all of them," Sasuke muttered. "You did it, nii-san. You killed our parents, those people at the senbei shop … even Fukurou."

There was silence in the room, and he could sense that the topic had closed. There were things being kept from him. He didn't like it, but he couldn't hate it either; it was just a fact that Itachi-nii was anbu through and through.

"We can go, I think I will be able to walk," Sasuke began. His legs still shook with chakra loss, though walking and maybe jogging was possible. But when he turned, Itachi had a troubled look on his face.

"Why did you mention her in that tone?" He asked. "As if she was the most unbelievable? Surely you understand that our marriage is arranged? I've already told you that I leave things to her." He explained it patiently.

"Well, because you like her," Sasuke replied glumly. He couldn't believe he had switched so quickly to holding his brother in high regard, but somehow he could no longer think that Itachi-nii was that man. Not when he had planned to … his teeth clenched just thinking of it. Unfair. It was unfair.

Itachi shook his head, "The only person I truly almost failed to kill was Shisui. I didn't care for her more than the others."

"But you took flowers to her!" He exclaimed. "Ino told me, her mother owns the Yamanaka flower shop."

His brother tilted his head, and then understanding dawned. "Those were for Shisui," he said quietly. "I wouldn't give Fukurou-san flowers. She wouldn't like them as much as he would."

Sasuke sat back, eyebrows furrowed. Those words … it was like suddenly being reminded that this person, even though he was Itachi, was still a thirteen-year-old boy. He was a thirteen-year-old boy who had seen all the wrong things, and while he had the wisdom of an old man in some areas, he was still a child in this one.

"Why?" He asked. "I know you're supposed to marry her, but if she was like that, then you liked each other, right? At least somewhat?"

His brother shook his head, and a wry smile ghosted across his lips. "She doesn't really like me, Sasuke. She may be like that with me, but I've seen what she's like with others. She thinks I'm too young."

A type of cold dread settled down on his shoulders. "Others?" Sasuke asked carefully, "what do you mean, nii-san?"

Itachi frowned, "you're a little young, Sasuke. But there are other things that people do-"

"I'm almost seventeen," Sasuke deadpanned. "I may look like a kid, but I'm not one. I'm older than you, right now." His few hasty nights with some of the Sound girls who had approached him were enough to acquaint him with the subtler aspects of life. "Tell me what you meant by that, nii-san."

"Ah, of course. I forgot. It's nice to know that no matter how old you are, that look of yours will never go away," he replied. He turned away, looking across the room. "Well, it's common, in anbu. Even Wolf is like her, although he is even more open. I suppose you would think it's unfair, but the only thing I dislike is that she doesn't hide it from me. It's simply how anbu live."

Sasuke stilled.

"It would be nicer if she hid it. I would have found out, but knowing that she took the effort would have made up for it, since she's not the only one. Sometimes I understand why oka-san didn't want me to join anbu."

What was he saying? What was aniki saying?

"What … do you mean?" Sasuke asked again. Maybe he didn't understand properly.

"She's angry," Itachi murmured, closing his eyes momentarily. "She's like me, but she hates the position she was born into and I don't blame her. I saw her with her first lover when I first joined, when I didn't know my way through headquarters and kept opening the wrong doors."

Sasuke decided that he was going to kill her. Itachi stopped, realizing that it wasn't something to discuss with a seven-year-old. But one look into his younger brother's eyes convinced him that this Sasuke had heard everything already.

"She wasn't like she is now," he went on. "She was more passionate. More alive. Badger was sent as a decoy and didn't return, but he had been just like she was. She moved on like an anbu is supposed to. It's better for an operative than clinging to the past, Sasuke."

"She moved on to you," Sasuke tried, trying to keep the worry down. He could almost see his brother remembering the sight he'd seen. He was thirteen! She couldn't do that!

"Partly. Although she still sees Wolf whenever the clan doesn't require her home early," he said it lightly, as if to soften the blow.

There was silence in the apartment, and Sasuke sat back, feeling the dread swirl in his stomach.

"Why do you let that happen to you? Why aren't you angry?"

"It's not something I'm supposed to understand, Sasuke," Itachi looked every one of his thirteen years, and the wisdom in his eyes seemed completely out of place. "I know that they do it to stay sane. Anbu is like that; it's a curse of the strong. In some ways, they're like the Uchiha. They're strong, and the village keeps them under check to make sure their strength doesn't go too far. It causes a sort of destructiveness that overshadows every other aspect of their lives, because everyone knows this and they do whatever they can to fight it without actually fighting it." He looked down at where his hands loosely held the edge of the couch."

"It would be easy for me to call off our future engagement, but this benefitted the clan most and I'd rather it be her because I remember what she looked like back when she was alive. There's no point now, anyway. It's unlikely that our clan will ever regain its status."

Sasuke glared, feeling indignant anger rise up. That was beyond unfair, to put a thirteen-year-old in a position like that, where he had to experience betrayal. He'd always known there was a side to Itachi he'd never seen, but why did it have to be this? If it was so well known that the anbu lived in desperate secrecy, why had everyone been so willing to sacrifice his brother's childhood? Why was his clan so … cruel?

He sighed, because Itachi had only just answered that.