Hitomi couldn't stop her hands from shaking slightly. No one would reproach her that sign of fear in such a situation – Uchiha Itachi was a nightmare made man for many Konohajin shinobi, even the bravest. And yet, just by looking at him, it was difficult to perceive him as intimidating. He was tall and slender, and the calm power exuding from him didn't call for violence or bloodshed. The lines of strain and pain under his eyes had grown longer since the last time Hitomi had seen him. Had he started to go blind yet?

"I… I have the information you came for, Uchiha-san," she said, her voice hoarse in anxiety. What good would it do to her to hide her fear as she stood in front of the two deserters? She had been hurt by Orochimaru barely a few weeks ago and, compared to those men, Orochimaru was a fucking joke.

"Oh, really?" Kisame laughed. "The little girl knows things that could interest us, now, does she? Why give us reasons to hurt you, girlie? You don't look that stupid."

"N-no need to hurt me. I'm ready to offer this information freely, and all future information as well. I don't need to have conditions because I know what Uchiha-san will choose to do when he hears that information."

She finally dared to overcome her anxiety and look him in the eyes. The Sharingan was beautiful, hard and noble in the middle of his regal features. With his eyes active, he couldn't have passed for a civilian but, even without them, the truth of his identity would always lay in his gait, in the aura of quiet assurance about him. A lot of powerful people had bowed before him, with either fear or respect.

"And what can you tell me, then, Yūhi-san?" the elder Uchiha asked, his voice betraying the faintest trace of surprise. It had to be because she was looking at him in the eye. Not many people were crazy enough or self-destructive enough to do that – and yet there she was.

"S-Sasuke. It's about Sasuke. I know what you came to do here. I know the truth about the Massacre."

A wave of killing intent hit her hard enough to make her fall on her knees., her hands clawing at her throat. She couldn't breathe. Hoshihi hissed, tried to hurl himself at the deserter but she grabbed him by the scruff of his neck, still slowly suffocating. The giant cat pressed his body against her, his fur so bristled it could have cut through glass, and glared at Itachi. Her hands were shaking as she tore Ishi to Senrigan from her obi and threw it to the man's feet. He was probably surprised once more, because he let go of his intent and she collapsed on the ground, frantically filling her lungs with air.

When she got a hold of herself, the tantō was in the deserter's hands. He recognised that weapon – how could he not? "Shisui… I didn't know you had made his acquaintance, Yūhi-san."

"I haven't," she said, her voice hoarse and tired, once her breath had a normal rhythm again. "I wish I had… According to Sasuke, he was incredibly kind. But your brother took me to the land of your clan, some time after the massacre. We took a lot of things from them. Archives, amongst other things. After I read them, I made sure he could never find them, for his safety."

The deserter tore his eyes away from the tantō and looked at her, surprised once more. He probably hadn't expected his young brother to trust someone enough to open the gates of their lands to them, to entrust prised possessions to them.

Her voice now firmer, Hitomi continued. "When we left the Uchiha lands, I was certain of two things: a rebellion against the Hokage had been in preparation inside the clan until it brutally disappeared, and the massacre that wiped it out entirely had been a direct consequence of those plans."

"There was nothing in the archives that could…"

"No, Uchiha-san," she interrupted him, "there was nothing. But I have a number for you, a number that you know extremely well. A hundred and forty-nine. It's the number of men, women and children who died that night. Amongst them, fifty-three were shinobi on active duty." She let silence emphasise those numbers, hoping that he would pick up where she stopped, but he didn't. Behind his impassive features, she could almost see the remorse that, she knew all too well, twisted his gut. To bring peace, he had provoked war, and would live until the end of his time in this world with the weight of that choice on his mind.

"Fifty-three shinobi of all ranks, all in the village at the same time… It's simply impossible, especially considering the fact that, since the Kyūbi's attack on the village, our shinobi work relentlessly to maintain appearances and bring in much needed money. You've killed all those shinobi, Uchiha-san, and the civilian members of the clan as well, but someone made sure they would all be there at the same time to be massacred. And who possesses such power in Konoha? The answer is simple, really: the Hokage and his High Council."

Behind Itachi, Kisame let out a rumbling laugh. She didn't know who, between her or his teammate, amused the Kirijin deserter the most. She didn't care either at that moment, her eyes bound to Itachi's, the knowledge of how easily he could trap her in an illusion of endless suffering clinging to the air between them.

"I don't know which one, or which ones, of them are behind that. I only know that you managed, one way or another, for those people to stay away from Sasuke. The Hokage wanted to leave him to his fate, all alone in the house where he found his parents' bodies. My mom didn't allow that to happen."

"Why… How?"

Hitomi let out a warm little laugh, her features softening to an unashamed expression of love. "Oh, you would have loved it, Uchiha-san. The rumour still runs through the village today that she pinned him to a wall with one hand, all the while screaming loud enough in his face that all the ANBU in the building heard. And didn't dare approach her."

The shadow of a smile danced on Itachi's lips. As for Kisame, he burst out laughing, throwing his head back, even though he didn't know the people this story concerned. A gust of wind blew away the tension in the air, so Hitomi took a deep breath and stood back up, shifting her weight as discreetly as she could against Hoshihi's shoulder. "There are so many things you want to know, Uchiha-san. I saw you with your brother, before the massacre. If your memory is as good as mine, you know I never forget anything. I couldn't forget the sheer love in your eyes."

The young man in front of her got totally serious once more. There was a kind of pining in his eyes, something that told her he would have given anything he had to take back that horrible night and never leave Konoha. Hitomi wished there was a way. She sometimes regretted having been brought to her time, and not several years before. Had she been older, she could have prevented this event – and could have had more time to prepare for the other reefs standing in her path.

"I don't have time to give you all those answers aloud, Uchiha-san, but I can show you. I know you have a genjutsu that can enter the mind of people, I read about it in a scroll Sasuke and I got from the Uchiha lands. Please use it on me. I won't fight it, I promise." As if she could even do such a thing. As if she was strong enough to resist him.

It was probably the first time someone asked the deserter to be the target of any of his techniques, but a lot of Hitomi's fear had disappeared. She kept her eyes on Itachi's, and not on his hands that, after a moment of hesitation, formed the necessary hand seals for the technique. She felt his warm and curiously agitated chakra disturb her own, and then she was in her Library, before the cage where her perceptions floated like ribbons cut from pure light.

Next to her stood Itachi; she realised that, for the first time in this realm, she had a body too. Usually, her trips to her Library gave her a vague and certainly not human shape. But she needed a body to guide the Uchiha through her domain; that much was clear. A discreet smile touched her lips when he started looking around, a spark of utter fascination in his eyes. No one could forget that Uchiha Itachi was a genius, just as intelligent as a Nara, and it showed in the way he searched the place, and for an explanation, with his eyes.

"It's the first time I see anything like this," he whispered, his voice itching with bewilderment.

"I've never met anyone who can do this, except for myself. I've not talked about it with the Yamanaka, though, so I couldn't swear I'm the only one. I think the combination of my eidetic memory and chakra gave shape to this place. Please follow me."

Her gait almost ethereal, she guided him through the rows upon rows of shelves. Since she had realised in which world, exactly, she had come back to life, she had rearranged the place to feature all her memories about the universe she now lived in into the ground floor. She walked past the sections about politics and fūinjutsu without stopping, then she found the one about family. The higher shelves were all about Kurenai and Nara Shikano, her father, then there was Shikamaru, Shikaku and Yoshino, then Ensui, and then… Sasuke. Sasuke was there, in thousands of memories and as many books. Without a word, she pulled the first one that would interest Itachi to her hand with a mere thought. She opened it and the memory unrolled in the air between them, as shown by the pages it emanated from.

She showed him the funerals, how Kurenai had invited Sasuke to become part of their family, and all the nights he had joined Hitomi in her bed because of a nightmare. She showed him healing slowly, never quite forgetting his hatred, but never allowing it to consume him either. She showed him intelligent and lively, brilliant, First Genin in the Academy. She showed him forming a team with Naruto and her, year after year, until graduation made them official.

She showed the survival exercise during which he had awoken his Sharingan and the pride in her mother's eyes when she had come to pick them up at the Academy and seen the forehead protectors on them for the first time. She showed him the mission in the Land of Waves that could have turned bad in so many ways but had ended up being a success on all fronts. She showed the other, meaningless and yet essential missions that had allowed Sasuke to grow up and settle in the village.

Then it was the Chūnin exam. She showed him during the first stage, as he used his Sharingan to carve his way to success, then during the second, in the Forest of Death. She showed the fear, the anguish, the despair, the crushing power Orochimaru held, the constant struggle Sasuke had opposed the Sannin with until he was harmed; she showed the aftermath, the way she had sealed the Cursed Seal with what she had on hand, terrified and wounded herself. She showed him the days in the Tower, the efforts they had both made so he would be ready to face whatever came next.

She showed him, finally, the preliminaries and the beginning of his tournament fight against Gaara, and the memories after the invasion, when he had come home safe and sound. She closed the last book and put it back in its place on the shelf. She had started crying somewhere during the memories of the Forest of Death and, when she looked up to Itachi, she realised she wasn't the only one: thin damp lines rolled down his pale cheeks. He stumbled as he tried to step towards her and leaned against a shelf to steady himself.

"I have… I have to enter Konoha," he said, his voice so hoarse it had to hurt. "Hiruzen isn't there to protect him anymore, I have to…"

"No, Uchiha-san. You don't have to do anything. Nara Shikaku is Hokage for now, until we can find Tsunade of the Sannin. You know how the Nara are about their family, their clan, their youngs, don't you? Shikaku-ojisan considers Sasuke his nephew. They aren't close, they don't spend much time together, but adoption and wardship ties matter just as much as blood ones to us. My uncle will protect him, I can promise that with my life."

Itachi's eyes became truly expressive for the first time. He looked tortured, caught between the devil and the deep blue sea, like someone who didn't dare to believe, to trust, but wanted it above anything. Slowly, Hitomi walked to him and put a hand on his shoulder. She didn't feel anything, since the bodies in her Library only looked solid, but it seemed to bring his focus back to her. How long had it been since he'd let anyone approach him, touch him, even in spirit? The massacre had happened almost six years ago.

"It's okay, Uchiha-san. I took care of everything so far and I'll continue. Sasuke found his place in the village, in the Fellowship, in our team, in our family. We'll defend and protect him. If my peers and I aren't enough, we'll entrust my uncle, my mentor, my mother and Kakashi-sensei with the matter, and they'll turn mountains to dust if it's what it takes to protect us. Sasuke is safe, I promise."

A long time passed in the peaceful silence of her Library. The pale light emanating from everywhere and nowhere all the same sometimes cast strange shadows on Itachi's face, which Hitomi watched closely. She hadn't let go of him either, maintaining the empty touch of her immaterial hand on his ghostly shadow as if she knew he needed it to anchor himself in the shaken world that she'd made his.

"I would… I would like to stay informed…" His voice was but a hoarse, tormented whisper, a strange twinge of vulnerability audible in the astonished inflexions of his tone. Hitomi smiled, as reassuring as she could feign to be. Not once had she lied to him, and yet the fear she wouldn't be enough shredded her chest from inside.

"I planned on this too, Uchiha-san. Can you please interrupt the illusion spell? I have a way to keep in touch with you, a way that cannot be intercepted."

In a single breath, her Library dissolved around them and the forest was back. The sun had climbed several degrees in the sky, but not so much time had passed that Hitomi's team, friends or family would have started looking for her. Her limbs stiff with prolonged stillness, she activated a storage seal hidden in one of her sleeves. In her open hand fell one of her communication notebooks, its cover an unassuming brown – perfect for it to be hidden in plain sight.

As she handed the object to Itachi, she explained how it worked and promised to write often. For now, she wouldn't ask for anything in return, but she let him understand that the day would come where information would flow both ways. He accepted without protest, but the quick glance he threw to her face made the girl aware that he had caught the meaning of her words. After thanking her with a slight bow that secretly amazed her – she'd made the Uchiha Itachi bow to her, for fuck's sake – he walked back to Kisame, who had stayed a few steps behind and stood watch all this time.

"Aren't we killing the little girlie? I thought you wanted to wreck a little bit of havoc in Konoha."

"Not today, Kisame. Come, we have places to be. I'll explain everything."

A blink later, the two nukenin were gone. A few seconds passed in perfect silence, then the birds started singing again, a wild instinct making them understand that the threat that had kept them silent was just a bad memory. On the bank of the river, Hitomi fell to her knees once more, with relief this time. She hid her face in her hands, took several deep breaths. She had a hard time believing what she had just managed and oscillated between the need to burst into tears and laughter, unable to choose the one she needed more.

Next to her, Hoshihi sat down and started licking one of his paws. "Did you really make a criminal run with the power of your mind?" he deadpanned. "I can't wait to tell Sunaarashi, she won't believe it."

Just like that, hilarity won; the girl collapsed and giggled like she was still six years old and just as carefree as she'd been back then. She laughed with relief and euphoria until her ribs ached, thrown back into it each time she glanced at her familiar, who did his best to look dignified. After a while, he walked away with a brush of his tail against her face to go get himself a nice fat rabbit and she was able to calm down, to wipe the tears off her cheeks and straighten her outfit. She went to get Ishi to Senrigan back from where Uchiha Itachi, S-ranked criminal, had carefully leaned it against a tree.

When she had definitely got a hang of herself, she went back into the village the same way she had left it, without getting seen. Ironically, after an invasion, patrols weren't a priority. Watch was reduced to a minimum so all the shinobi freed from that specific duty could focus on missions. The village needed money more than it ever had before. It needed to replace the equipment, to repair the buildings and to attract civilians from the rest of the country so they could pick up work from those who had died. It was a cruel, cold-headed vision, but probably the best to follow.

After a light meal, Hitomi signalled her availability to one of the mission posts open everywhere in the village. There was so much cleaning and fixing to do that she immediately got to work, very careful not to think about the cruel fate she had just escaped. She didn't want the anxiety to come back to her now that it had left.

She did a quick cleaning mission then was deployed to the Academy, where she was tasked with overseeing and protecting a group of first year students who couldn't go home right away, either because their parents were away for a mission and their guardians unavailable until they were done with work, or because they had wished to stay with their friends. Amongst them were Aburame Sugi, Shino's younger brother, and Hyūga Hanabi, Hinata's sister.

At first, Hitomi watched the two children from afar. She had summoned her six ninja cats and entrusted them with mingling with the students. Classes were interrupted at the Academy but the parents still needed a place to put their children while they were away on a mission, or while they were working their civilian jobs. Teachers weren't available either, since their field skills were needed. Most shinobi working at the Academy during these challenging times were General Forces and volunteer Genin like Hitomi. The officers in the mission boot hadn't had any problem with her overseeing a group, not when her last mission at the Academy, months ago, had been so nicely handled.

Several students dared to approach her, to ask questions about the invasion. A lot of them had lost a parent, a friend, an acquaintance. She stayed evasive about the violence and the fights, but she explained the politics behind it all, why Shikaku had been picked as temporary Hokage and why he couldn't stay in that role for long. Sugi and Hanabi were amongst the curious. Hitomi was surprised to see them so close. They exchanged long, meaningful looks and held hands when they thought no one was watching, keeping away from the other students. With a little wince, Hitomi remembered something Shino had said in the tower in the Forest of Death: Nara Anosuke had been the first friend Sugi had ever brought home. The missing boy was probably close with Hanabi as well.

After carefully considering her options, the girl decided to walk to the two kids. She crouched next to Sugi, who she knew a little better. A soft and sad smile appeared on her lips. The boy looked so much like his brother, with his dark chestnut hair and the efforts he made to hide his face. Nasty gossips said that the Aburame hid their faces because they were sly. Hitomi knew better: they were modest and shy. Neither, in her opinion, was a true flaw.

"Sugi-kun, thank you for visiting Hinata at the hospital. My mom said she sees you there quite often. I'm sure Hinata is very happy to see you."

The boy, behind his sunglasses, glanced at Hanabi. The girl was impassive, but her big, lilac eyes didn't leave Hitomi's face for a moment, as if she was trying to make her understand something.

"You both know Anosuke-kun, right? Shino told me you were friends with him, Sugi-kun, and seeing how you two stick together, I guess it's your case as well, Hanabi-chan. Did someone come to you and make sure you were coping, after the announcement that he was missing?"

She had changed the subject on purpose, to throw them off-balance. She saw Sugi shift to shield Hanabi without looking too obvious while the little girl frowned and the muscles at the corners of her eyes tightened, as if she was trying to turn sadness to anger. Hitomi had done the same too, sometimes. She shifted from her crouch to a seiza position on the ground.

"No one asked us anything," Sugi admitted after a while. "They're all busy with their duties, they don't have time for us."

Hitomi tried to soften her inquisitive expression as she turned her eyes to Hanabi, who held her stare for a few seconds before lowering her eyes and answering as well. "Same at my place. They didn't even tell me my friend was missing, I was only told about it today when Sugi arrived. I-I just thought he was busy or maybe at the hospital, but not… not missing."

With any other child, Hitomi would have shifted closer, offered a hug, but Hinata had told her enough about her and Hanabi's upbringing for her to refrain. For the Hyūga, any sign of weakness was undignified. That the girl was opening up surprised the Yūhi heiress already.

"It's terrifying not knowing what happened to him, where he is, if he's okay," Hitomi said. "As soon as they can, the Nara will send people to look for him. I can't promise that we'll find him or that he'll be okay, because I don't know about any more than you both do. The only thing I can promise you is that we'll do our best, not only because he's one of our own, but also because we've always pledged to protect our young and because we've failed him."

The two children welcomed her declaration and the sharp edge in her voice with silence. Something uncoiled in the line of Hanabi's shoulders, then the girl nodded as Sugi shifted towards her. Hitomi wanted to reassure them, but she couldn't do it without lying to them. She sighed and flexed her fingers inside her wide sleeves, brushing her fingers against two storage seals. "What you can do for him right now is work, give your very best to become exceptional shinobis. If he's found, if he's alive, he'll need you as strong as you can possibly be."

"Shino-nii says you're very smart," Sugi said after a moment of silence. "Do you have any idea how we can do that?"

"Yes, I have. I created a card game for my friends at the Academy, one that would help them study." She activated the seals and, when she showed her hands, both contained a complete deck of cards, bound together by a red ribbon. "I can teach you to use them, so you can spend less time studying and more time training. Interested?"

The two kids nodded eagerly. While she still kept an eye on the other students, Hitomi launched herself into the rules of the game. She couldn't find their friend, couldn't give them the power to do it themselves, but what she could do was push them towards progress and fulfilment. In fact, for whatever reason, she even felt as if she owed it to them.

And she always paid her debts and accomplished her duty, no matter the cost.