I do not own Naruto~

"Uchiha," Danzo barked out. Itachi narrowed his eyes and stepped forward.

"Hai." Danzo narrowed his eyes back at him.

"Your cousin is spying on us." Itachi's breath caught slightly, and he bit his tongue.

"...Yes." Koharu spoke up next.

"Where does his loyalty lie?" she asked. Itachi knew they were thinking about getting him to spy on the clan, too. He thought of Hiyuki.

"...With the clan..." Homura sighed.

"He's gotten obvious about finding out information," he stated. "Dispose of him." Itachi's eyes widened.

"You don't understand," he defended quickly. "They're holding his sister hostage. He doesn't want to do it-"

"Well then let's spare his sister if he messes up," Danzo interrupted. "Kill him, Uchiha, this isn't open to negotiations. Let's make the Uchiha a little paranoid." Itachi grit his teeth and looked to the third for backup. Sarutobi sighed and shook his head sadly.

"They found out, didn't they?" His younger cousin stayed silent. He let out a chuckle, looking defeated. "They sent you here to kill me, right?" Itachi's gaze lowered.

"I'm sorry..." he murmured. Shisui shook his head.

"I was messy, it's my fault." He laughed again. "So, you're still better than me, huh?" Itachi was about to protest, but Shisui silenced him by pulling a out a slip of paper. "I figured they'd send you after me, so I went ahead and made this to get the clan off your trail." He held up the paper and Itachi noticed it had writing on it. He reached forward so he could read it.

"Ah," Shisui objected, pulling it away from his reach. "Fingerprints. It's a suicide note."

"Suicide?" Itachi repeated. Shisui grinned, like he wasn't discussing his death.

"Yeah, I'm gonna drown myself in the river," he gestured behind him. "I'm gonna need your help, though, or I'll just come back up on reflex." Itachi was speechless. Shisui grinned again.

"Come on, we gotta hurry," he told Itachi, grabbing him and pulling him to the side of the bridge. "They're gonna send people to look for us soon. We had a meeting tonight, didn't we?" Itachi nodded after they landed on the soft bank of the river. Shisui looked at him with a sad smile.

"Just make sure they don't try to do anything to my sister after I'm gone, kay?" He glanced in the cold water and shivered, then looked back at Itachi with a grin.

"Bye, little cousin."

A knock on her window made her jolt awake.

Her thoughts flew back to the masked man that had broken in, but when she looked, she saw the figure of Itachi illuminated by the moon.

"Itachi?" she asked. She stood up and went to unlock the window and let him in. "What happened?" The cold air filled the room and made her shiver.

He surprised her by immediately collapsing by the window, burying his face in his hands.

"It's Shisui," he groaned. Ayano blinked, frowning. She kneeled beside him and had a strong urge to comfort him.

"Shisui?" she asked. "What about him?"

"I killed him."

It felt like someone injected ice into her veins.

"You..." she couldn't finish the sentence. She was speechless.

"He was spying for the clan and they found out," he moaned. "They ordered me to kill him." Ayano's breath was coming out in short bursts. "I tried to get them to understand, I tried--" He suddenly cut himself off short, looking at her in shock. She wasn't supposed to know about the coup. "I--"

"Spying...?" she whispered. Itachi grit his teeth. He needed to tell her, now.

"The clan feels as if they aren't trusted," he told her. "They got me to join ANBU to spy on the government for them. They're planning a coup de' tat." He was silent for a while, letting her digest the words. She was trying to calm herself down. "But the government found out, and they're using me to spy on the clan. Shisui was told to get them information because it looked like I was messing up, when I was giving the clan false information. He didn't want to, and they threatened his sister." He let out a deep breath. "The government found out Shisui was spying on them and ordered me to kill him." He stopped there. He couldn't bring himself to ask her if she would join, not after what he had just done. He looked at her expression and felt more alone than he ever had.

She was looking at him in horror, her skin ghost white and breath coming out in shallow gasps.

"They..." she gasped out, "...made you kill...Shisui...?" Itachi didn't answer: just buried his face in his hands again. Ayano felt something warm fall down her cheeks. "Shisui is...dead?" She put a hand over her mouth and tried to stop crying. She couldn't break out into sobs, not when her mother was in the other room. She hadn't felt this sad ever before in her life, not even when her parents got divorced. Shisui was dead. And she was never going to see him again.

But if she felt bad, then how did Itachi feel?

She lifted her eyes to him, and saw how he was still hiding his face, heard how his breath was coming out in short bursts.

"...Itachi...?" she asked. He didn't reply. She reached out and touched his shoulder, and he tensed. "Look at me." He didn't. "I won't give you any more dango," she warned.

He let out a forced chuckle, glancing at her then. It sounded like the laugh of someone who was about to break down, the laugh that sounded slightly hysteric coming from his lips.

It didn't matter that he was in ANBU and a feared shinobi. It didn't matter that he was the prodigy of the clan, or that he had killed countless people before. What mattered is that he was only thirteen, and he had been ordered to kill his best friend.

He didn't remember the last time he cried like this.

The sun filtered through the trees cheerfully, clashing with his mood. She was walking towards him, so he sat up and waited for her.

"...They came to your house, didn't they?" Ayano asked as she sat down beside him in the field. Itachi nodded, his eyes faraway but far from peaceful.

"They think it was me anyways," he mumbled. "They're starting an investigation."

"Even after the note?" she asked. He layed back down on the ground.

"It's because if you use Sharingan you can forge someone's handwriting," he explained. He looked like he was thinking about something and was quiet for a minute.

"What is it?" she asked. He shook his head.

"It's nothing," he replied quietly. "Just something I realized." He looked like he didn't want to talk about it, so she didn't press. She tried to think of a way to cheer him up.

"My mom locked me in my room yesterday," she said sourly, but grinned. "So she could pig out on fried twinkies and chocolate cake." Itachi cracked a smile.

"Don't you know?" he asked. "Never deny a pregnant woman something when she is craving." He shuddered. "When my mother was pregnant with Sasuke, my Dad wouldn't go get her strawberry cake with pickles on it and she broke the fridge..." He chuckled. "That was around seven or eight years ago, but I remember it perfectly. We had to go out shopping again because all our food spoiled." Ayano laughed.

"Why can I picture that?" she asked him with a grin. He shrugged, and his smile turned fake. She frowned.

"I have to go home," he stated, standing up.

"Already?" she asked. He dusted himself off and shrugged, smiling down at her.

"I'll see you tomorrow," he told her, waving goodbye and walking towards the woods. She frowned after him and sighed, falling back down on the grass, looking up at the sky through her eyelashes. Fluffy clouds frifted lazily across the light blue sky, and small breezes lightly rustled the leaves. She looked to the side of her, remembering the time she watched Shisui and Itachi spar. To anyone they would have looked like they were trying to beat each other's brains out, but she could tell they were having fun.

She sighed as a sad smile made it's way to her lips, her eyes getting moist. She looked back at the sky.

Her mom was probably at home eating something unhealthy, she knew it. She chuckled and stood up, starting to walk home.

There weren't very many people on the streets that day, but she was glad about it. It always felt weird around any clan member after she heard about what they were planning. She opened her front door.

"Im home," she called out. "Oof!" She ran into someone, and looked up in surprise at Itachi.

"Again?" she whined as he steadied her. She rubbed her forehead where her head smacked his.

"This is happening quite often, isn't it?" he asked, chuckling and touching his own forehead.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"I went home and remembered that I needed to tell you something, so I came to see if you were home yet," he shrugged.

"Oh," she said. "What is it?" He hesitated for a second.

"...Do you work tomorrow?" he asked. She blinked.

"No, why?" He pursed his lips.

"My mother wants me to run errands, and I was going to ask if you wanted to come." She blinked and nodded.

"Yea, I'll come," she replied. "Spending days off laying around the house is boring." He smiled.

"Then I'll see you tomorrow," he told her, turning around to walk off.

"Kay," she replied, waving a little and turning to go inside.

When she closed the door, she leaned against it, a frown unintentionally making it's way to her face.

Usually, wouldn't Shisui go with him? She let out a sigh and let her head fall back on the wood, staring up at the ceiling. He had to have been thinking about him again, the way he slightly winced when he asked her if she would go.

She suddenly heard sobbing from the living room.

She stood up in alarm, walking towards the sound of her mother crying.

"Mom?" she asked. "What's wrong?"

Mari was sitting on the couch, clutching a picture of a seven year old Ayano to her chest. She looked up when Ayano entered, and smiled.

"You've gotten so big," she cooed. Ayano went and sat beside her, hugging her.

"What's wrong?" she asked again, as her mother hugged her back tightly.

"Oh, it's nothing," she said back. "Just being emotional." She pulled away and wiped a few tears. "You know I love you, right?"

Feeling awkward, Ayano nodded.

"I love you too, Mom," she replied. "Want some chocolate cake?" Mari grinned and nodded, and Ayano went to fix them both huge slices. They sat in the living room talking, just about random stuff, for the rest of the night, something they hadn't done in a long while.

The errands the next day had been simple ones, just go shopping, get a certain cook book from the library, go tell Fugaku that Mikoto was mad at him for accidently breaking her best china when Sasuke ran into him. (That was his excuse, but then she scolded him for being a lame ninja because he couldn't hold a cup when he got jostled around a bit.) The entire time, Itachi was looking guilty about something, but when she asked, he would just brush it off. After the second time she asked, though, she noticed he started forcibly acting more carefree, which made her feel guilty. The day passed by rather fast, too, much to her displeasure. She was actually enjoying it a little, when she tried to forget the nagging voice telling her in the back of her mind that she was laughing and having fun when one of her close friends had died two days before. But this wasn't to cheer her up. She was trying to make Itachi smile, who had been rather blank since Shisui was killed.

Itachi walked her to her house that evening, which she was grateful of. She had still been a little paranoid about the other clan members and the imp-man.

"I'm gonna go train after I drop this off," he stated, holding up said bag that contained a book and a loaf of bread. "So I guess I'll see you."

"See you," Ayano replied. He left and she opened the front door, stepping into the house and not seeing any lights on.

"Mom?" she called out. "I'm home!" There was no reply. Confused, she peeked in the kitchen and the living room, then went to check her Mom's room. She checked the backyard, where her turtle Aki was crawling around randomly, but saw no one. "Mom?" she called again. She went back to the kitchen and spotted a white sheet of paper laying next to a pile of cash. Curious, she walked over and flipped through the bills, her eyes widening when she saw the amount. Was her mom doing bills? And if she was, where did she get this money? She picked up the paper and frowned when she saw the dried tear stains on it.

As she read the letter, her skin paled and she started shaking. Tears fell from her eyes, mixing with the dried up ones on the paper.

Ayano,

I'm so sorry, words can't describe it. I had to leave the village, and I don't know when I'll be coming back. I left some money on the counter for you that should last about a year, so be good and try not to spend it all, 'kay? I love you with all my heart, and I promise not to eat anything unhealthy and keep the baby safe ;)

-With love, your mother.

*le-gasp-ith*

So, the series is getting close to ending soon, but I'm not sure how many more chapters there will be. I'm thinking around four, maybe...?

Review!