Itachi: Hope
Itachi sat on a boulder somewhere near the boarder of river country, meticulously running a cleaning rag over the blade of his ninja-to. The past two months had been a nightmarish downward spiral ending in the massacre of his family the previous night. Now his clan was no more, the Uchiha line reduced to himself, his otouto and Madara, their ancient ancestor. Itachi felt that the clan had been right to shun Madara back in the beginning, shortly after they founded Konohagakure with the Senju -the ancient shinobi was clearly insane- and it was a shame that his father's generation had chosen to follow in the madman's footsteps.
He had gotten away from Madara for a little while, but Itachi knew it couldn't last; the man wanted him for something. Probably his latest scheme for the annihilation of Konohagakure, Itachi reflected with a snort. His ancestor's monomania was was more than slightly ridiculous for a shinobi of Madara's supposed stature. Sadly, he couldn't think of a more worthwhile way to pass the time now he had become a nukenin. He'd been trained to follow orders since before he could walk; his newfound independence was probably about the only thing his upbringing had not equipped him for.
"You know, Itachi-kun, that the little display you put on for your otouto has probably warped his mind beyond what even the greatest medic-nin could hope to repair?"
Itachi twitched. The speaker, contrary to all expectations, was not Madara. She was about five foot four, glowing softly white around the edges and slightly translucent. Wearing a simple white kimono and obi, her hair was tied up in knot on the back of her head and her eyes were as black and star-filled as the night sky. She looked like a yuurei from a fireside tale, although the large scroll strapped to her back was somewhat incongruous.
"Who are you?" Itachi asked levelly.
The girl smiled wryly. "Does it really matter? I have something of yours here," she patted the scroll, "so I was going to give it back to you."
Itachi didn't respond, sliding the newly cleaned blade of his ninja-to back into its sheath. Whoever this girl was -she looked about sixteen to his thirteen, but he had been an ANBU captain until this morning and she looked and acted like a civilian- she was a security risk. If she had indeed seen him use the Tsukiyomi on his brother little brother and understood what he had done, she had done so without making him aware of her presence, which took uncomfortably high levels of skill. That she had clearly evaded his ancestor's notice as well spoke further volumes for her stealth. Her claim that she had something of his, however...
"I didn't leave behind anything that I am interested in reclaiming," Itachi said eventually, voice bland.
The girl raised an eyebrow; "Not even if it shares your blood?"
Sasuke. She has Sasuke. Itachi stood, sliding into a ready stance as his already active sharingan slipped into Mangekyou: "Give him to me."
She lifted her hands as if to ward him off, body language relaxed and unruffled. "Easy there, I said I would give them to you, did I not?" She slid the scroll off her shoulder and unrolled it across the grass still damp with morning dew, revealing a series of seals. "And I don't have your otouto, just so you know. The ones I was able to lift are all considerably younger and smaller than he is." She pumped chakra into the seal array, releasing a cloud of smoke.
When the smoke cleared, a dozen tiny, childish bodies were revealed. The oldest looked about five, the youngest no more than six months old, probably less. His former clan's future.
Itachi had killed all those Uchiha involved in the prospective coup against the Hokage; it had been Madara who had slaughtered the clan's civilians, women, children and elderly. Seeing the tiny, lifeless bodies really brought home what a monster Madara truly was. To wantonly slaughter babies was abominable. That could have been Sasuke; he looked like that once, so small and helpless.
The ghostly girl seemed immune to the horror and gently touched glowing fingers to the forehead of the oldest child.
There was a brief flare of chakra and the boy took a deep gasping breath, his own chakra suddenly exploding into life to Itachi's sharingan.
"Kaa-san?" the boy whimpered, looking around wildly. "Aniki?" He spotted Itachi, who had deactivated his Mangekyou to conserve chakra, and seemed to relax a little.
"Itachi-san!" The child made a beeline for the teenage nukenin and hugged his leg tightly, tears welling up. "He-he killed kaa-san and nii-san, Itachi-san!"
Itachi stared blankly at the smiling girl, one hand carefully ruffling the sobbing boy's hair in an attempt at comfort. "What did you do, exactly?"
"You are aware of the fact that your ancestor, Madara, is irredeemably psychopathic, hai?" the girl hedged.
"Hai."
"Well, I swapped those children I reached in time with flesh clones, which Madara killed believing them real. Then I used a jutsu specific to my mother's clan on the children I saved so I could seal them in a scroll without causing them harm."
"Flesh clone?" Itachi inquired, still absently comforting the boy. He wasn't very good with children and for all that he loved his brother, they'd never spent much time together.
"It's kinjutsu. Created a flesh-and-blood body that the caster can use like a puppet and mould to mimic the features of anyone they choose. Kill it and the corpse stays behind," the girl replied, resealing the other bodies back into the array. "Be nice to the kid; he just saw his mother and brother killed. I'm told you experienced death for the first time at a similar age."
Itachi froze, suppressed memories of the end of the third shinobi war emerging from the sticky depths of his subconscious. He narrowed his eyes at the girl who was calmly rolling the scroll back up again. "Why are you doing this?"
The ghost-girl closed her eyes briefly, looking away. "I was in Mizu no kuni during the latest round of bloodline purges," she said softly. "I promised myself I would do everything within my power to save those children young enough to start over. Madara was largely responsible for those massacres as well."
"In Kirigakure?"
"Uchiha Madara was the Sandaime Mizukage," she replied calmly, eyes cold as midwinter, and for his crimes committed in that office, among others, he will die by my hand."
That assertion killed the conversation dead for a few minutes.
"What's your name?" Itachi asked eventually.
"Gomen, Itachi-kun. Watashi-wa Yogensha Usei desu."
"Konnichiwa, Yogensha-san," Itachi said politely.
"Ohayo Usei-san," the little boy sniffed, wiping his eyes on his sleeve.
"Why are you here, Yogensha-san?" Itachi asked. He was getting a headache behind his right eye.
"Well, I thought you might need something to do with your time now that you've left Konohagakure, and well, I have a dozen under-fives in need of support," Usei said, shrugging. "I thought you might like to help since they're family."
"I know knothing about children," the nukenin said flatly.
"Then you should learn in case you ever reproduce."
"Madara will come looking for me."
"I'm on a long-term S-rank mission from the highest authority to permanently end his life. Being around you will make finding him easier."
Itachi looked down at the boy clinging to his thigh. "I don't know their names."
"Give them new ones. That way it will be harder for anyone to trace them back to their former clan."
Itachi was mildly concerned to realise he was actually considering it. He wasn't sure if he should be amused or horrified. Looking down at the five-year-old again, he wondered who to name him after.
"Kamen, Inutaicho," he decided after a pause. ANBU had been more family to him than the clan had ever tried to be. Naming his new charges after the masks of his comrades was fitting, and naming the eldest after Hatake-sempai was one in the eye for the deceased elders. More importantly, he respected the copy-nin. He was an excellent shinobi.
"Hear that, Inu-chan? Itachi and I will look after you know," Usei said gently. "You'll have to help us take care of the babies, though. Can you do that, koinu?"
The newly named Inutaicho nodded, eyes wide.
"Good boy. Now let Itachi-kun give you a piggyback so we can reach town quickly. I know somewhere safe we can lie low for a while until we find a more stable base of operations."
Three months later Itachi wandered around the fortified mansion Usei-sempai had somehow acquired, bemused by recent events. The 'safe place' had been an okiya in the capital of River country. The geisha in charge had been magnificently indifferent to the Uchiha's new status as an S-ranked nukenin and had rented a suite of rooms to them.
Itachi had then been the recipient of a crash course in childcare as Usei woke the other eleven children over the next five days. She had thankfully taken charge of the babies and toddlers, but seeing to the wants and needs of five children aged between three-and-a-half and five years old was more nerve-racking than any previous mission he'd had before, ever. If ANBU candidates had been made to care for even two small children for a week before being considered for admission to the ranks of the elite, those who actually made the grade would probably be far less highly strung.
He'd named them in threes, like genin teams. Of course, genin teams rarely had more than one girl in, but that couldn't be helped.
Inutaicho, Kame and Neko were the first set. Neko was the female of the group and Usei had used a seal to set a permanent genjutsu on her hair, turning it from dark to pale brown. Another seal hid her and Inutaichos' eyes, changing them from black to gold. Kame had a seal which changed the bone structure of his face so it looked rounder and less refined than the classic Uchiha look. Usei-sempai said the seal would grow with him, modifying his true features so that even if the seal was removed he wouldn't look particularly Uchiha-like.
The second trio was made up of Tori, Nezumi and Usagi; oldest and youngest were both female, while Nezumi was male. Tori had a seal which darkened her skin heavily, while Nezumi had his eyes turned golden like his oldest brother and sister. Usagi had been granted blonde hair and green eyes, making her the most eye-catching of the children over three.
Hebi, Tora and Kitsune were next, all toddlers aged between two and three. Exact birthdays were yet to be determined, since no-one knew when they were supposed to be. Hebi was the girl of the trio, as well as the most precocious.
Hebi had been given purple hair in honour of Mitarashi Anko, which went well with her brown eyes, while Tora had been given blue eyes and had his skin darkened. Kitsune had dark red hair and similarly blue eyes. Again minor changes in bone structure had been factored into the seals, ensuring that once grown they would not look unusually Uchiha-like.
The youngest three were Ushi, Uma and Koumori, all less than a year old with Koumori being the youngest and the token female of the set. Ushi and Uma appeared to be exactly the same age, so they had been officially named as twins. Both had been given green eyes to go with their brown hair, granting a surprising resemblance to Usagi. Koumori, who wasn't even weaned yet, was the family baby. Itachi had named her in a moment of frustration for her habit of demanding to be fed in the middle of the night. The only seal on her was a skin-darkening one, making her look like Tori.
Itachi found the stresses of parenting paradoxically calming. After three months of eighteen hour days helping to care for a dozen highly active and chaotic preschoolers, the prospect of conventional ninja missions was almost a relief. Usei-sempai had promised to find caretakers so he could take up his secret mission in Akatsuki and so far she had found two he had actually approved, both female.
The younger was ten, an oiran's daughter of Hyuuga parentage written clearly in her pupil-less pearly grey eyes. While pretty she was neither graceful nore well-spoken, which was why her mother had been perfectly content to sell her to Usei-sempai for an apprenticeship. Itachi had discovered in the girl sufficient aptitude to make a good kunoichi and an excellent medic-nin. She had also activated her byakugan, so the Uchiha had not hesitated to inform her of her talent and potential. As a result, Nitsuki -nicknamed Mogura, mole, by the children- was as loyal and hardworking a carer as any parent could hope for.
The elder girl was nineteen, fully adult and a properly qualified civilian nurse. Her name was Retsu and her unemployment when Usei-sempai found her had been due to the nurse losing her temper with a wealthy yet ill-tempered patient. Retsu got on well with the children, who called her Ryuu -dragon- and obeyed her when she gave them orders. She also made the effort to spend time with each and every one of them, learning about them as individuals and not just a means of continued employment.
While Usei-sempai had unanimously been elected the 'kaa-san' of the brood, Itachi was generally addressed as 'aniki', a role he was fairly familiar with. Itachi was not however allowed to get away with the neglectful behaviour he had engaged in with Sasuke; neither Usei-sempai nor Retsu-san permitted it and Itachi had learned to be wary of the latter's temper. He therefore found himself teaching Inutaicho and Kame to throw kunai, explaining chakra to Neko and Tori, playing ninja with half-a-dozen of them at a time and teaching basic kata to all of the bipedal children at odd hours of the day. It was actually fun; he found himself wishing he'd made time to do it with Sasuke.
"Tadiama! Where are you, Itachi?"
Itachi set off toward the front entrance, careful not to wake Koumori who was fast asleep in his arms. She always woke up if he tried to put her down, so he had resigned himself to carrying the eight-month-old around the house with him.
Walking down the stairs and around the corner, he stopped dead and stared at the man standing behind Usei-sempai.
It was the Yondaime.
Itachi had only been four when Namikaze Minato had died, but he'd seen his Hokage once or twice while in the academy. He'd remembered the smiling blond as he rose through the ranks, recalling the man's heartfelt desire for peace and being determined to bring it into being.
"Konnichiwa, Itachi-kun," the living ghost said with a gentle and achingly familiar smile. "You're all grown up."
"Yon-Yondaime-sama?" Itachi managed to croak.
"Maa, not for a long time now, Tachi-kun. Call me Minato," the blond said, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment. "And yes, I really did die, but my soul was bound to this plane so I couldn't pass on. Usei-chan made me this body but it's just a short-term fix. It's nice to be corporeal again, though."
Itachi blinked, swallowed and turned to Usei-sempai who had shed her coat and sandals, pulled a paintbrush out of nowhere and was now advancing on Minato, ink bowl clasped in the fingers of her other hand.
"How is this temporary, Usei-sempai?"
"It's just a bunshin, Itachi-kun. A shintai-bunshin, but nonetheless a bunshin. While Nato-chan will be able to channel chakra, in this body his reserves will never be more than low chunnin in absolute terms," Usei-sempai said, painting what Itachi recognised as a cosmetic seal on Minato's forehead. Once completed it glowed briefly then vanished, dying his hair dark red and his eyes gold.
Which reminded him...
"Nato-chan?" Itachi heard himself ask.
Minato blushed. "she was five," he muttered, "and it was better than the alternative."
"What was the alternative?" Itachi just had to hear this.
"Mina-chan," Usei-sempai said calmly. "Where are the chibi? I want them to meet their new tou-san."
Itachi was torn between incredulity at the girly nickname Usei-sempai had bestowed on the Konoha no Kiiroi Senkou of all people and vicious, vindictive hilarity at what Uchiha Fugaku would think of the former Yondaime raising the next generation of Uchiha. That Minato was probably the father of the Kyuubi jinchuuriki if appearance was anything to go by was the sauce topping on the dango. Itachi couldn't help himself.
"Are you laughing at me?" Minato whined piteously. "I told you it was worse."
"Not that," Itachi wheezed, handing Koumori to Usei-sempai before his shaking woke the baby up, "What Fugaku-sama would say if he knew you'd be raising the next generation of his clan..!"
Minato grinned, firmly cementing Uzumaki Naruto's parentage in Itachi's mind. "He'd have a heart attack, the stuffy tight-ass," the newly disguised former-blonde stated cheerfully.
Uchiha Itachi, default head of the Uchiha clan, gave up all pretences of dignity and rolled on the floor, laughing so hard he cried.
Name Translations
Kamen = mask.
Inutaicho = dog-captain
Kame = tortoise
Neko = cat
Tori = bird
Nezumi = rat
Usagi = rabbit
Hebi = snake
Tora = tiger
Kitsune = fox
Ushi = ox
Uma = horse
Koumori = bat
Yoko = demon fox, fox spirit
Itachi = weasel
Umei = sound of rain
Nitsuki = two moons
Retsu = fiery, violent
Minato = harbour
Konoha no Kiiroi Senko = Yellow Flash of Konoha
A/N: Sorry about that; all properly edited now. Behold, the first major departure from canon: Sasuke is no longer the last Uchiha!