Not long after the sun had set, Itachi had found a tall tree with thick branches near the forest's top canopy. Not knowing when he would run into trouble, the ANBU Captain had decided to rest for a few hours, before continuing with his search. Sleeping in a sitting position, his back probed against the tree's trunk, it was only when the stars had started to fade away with the coming morning sun that one of his crows landed on his shoulder. His summon had apparently found an old fortress where suspicious activities were currently ongoing, not 10 kilometers from his current position.
Not wasting anymore time, Itachi swallowed a soldier pill that would give him the extra energy he would need if he was ever drawn into a fight, and ran towards his destination. His senses were on high alert, but he couldn't stop his mind from wandering back to the members of Team 7.
A year ago the trio, all in their early 20s now, had become the new Sannin of Konoha after killing off Orochimaru. It wasn't the first time that they had encountered the snake-nin, no; that first meeting had occurred over a decade ago when Orochimaru had infiltrated Konoha during Sasuke's Chunin exam. At that time, Itachi had been there to save his little brother from the power-hungry missing-nin, but hadn't been fast enough to protect the third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi. After Sarutobi's death, Tsunade had been asked to take on the role of the next Hokage.
Itachi was proud of his little brother and his teammates for earning the title they had worked so hard to gain, but he also envied them. He was the best ANBU Captain of Konoha. Was a feared and respected S class shinobi. But he was lonely. He rarely took to leading a team since old teammates usually stuck together, so more often than not, he took on solo missions. After all, he was there to do all the dirty and dark deeds for the Hidden Leaf Village, and had worked his hardest to make sure his little brother, and the generations to come, would never experience the atrocities of war like he had when he was no older than 5 years old. He knew he wasn't invincible, and if anything ever happened to him, he needed to be sure that Uzumaki and Haruno, even Hatake, would be there to look after his Otouto, and next Uchiha heir. He took extra care to look out for Sakura. She was the medic-nin of their little team, and a very good one at that, and if she died, who would make sure Sasuke survived if he ever was wounded during a mission?
At least that's what he told himself when he followed Team 7 around. When he followed her around.
Snapping out of these thoughts he wasn't ready to look into right now, Itachi saw the outlines of an old stone wall appear in the distance. With his Mangekyou Saringan activated, he could see an old fortress in ruins just beyond the obstacle. The stones were old and dark, as if the place had been burned down, leaving only the outer stone structure of the fort intact. The stones had been polished by time and rain, but the air around the place was stagnant and cold; eerie even. As he jumped over the wall and into the central courtyard, Itachi finally saw the hundreds of chakraless corpses just standing there, randomly placed in the open space and looking into the emptiness around them.
Even if his mother had always been very adamant about him not swearing, he couldn't hold back the few cuss words that slipped past his lips.