iS THIS HOPE
To say getting out of Konoha was easy was an overstatement. Danzo had made it clear that they were not to leave the village. To further prove his power in keeping them inside of Konoha, he had ROOT watch them. The only good thing about hiding an international terrorist and a familicide mass murder was that he had excellent chakra control and knew how to keep himself (chakra wise) hidden. And that meant Danzo only suspected them of trying to bring Sasuke home and not an S-class missing-nin.
Unfortunately, while it would be easy to leave the village, they weren't sure if becoming missing-nin while Danzo was in charge was a good thing. Especially if the man didn't value them as Tsunade did.
They were stuck.
And the Kage summit was coming up and they had to leave before then.
And with the realization that Sasuke killed his blood brother. The only family he had left, there was no telling how insane the boy must be. He couldn't be ok mentally.
Sasuke didn't come home. And the longer they waited the longer Madara could force Sasuke's hand.
And then there was the whole Itachi Uchiha was alive- which they're pretty sure they figured out. When Nagato brought everyone back to life he somehow brought Itachi back. It could be because Itachi's chakra was in Naruto, or maybe Nagato's jutsu hadn't been complete and he brought back more people than intended.
And then Naruto told them that the Fourth Hokage was his dad. His father was the fourth Hokage. Minato Namikaze was Naruto Uzumaki's father and no one had told him.
And if Konoha let the Fourth's son grow the way they had, what else did they do?
She cast a glance at Itachi as they snuck out of Konoha.
He killed his clan but left Sasuke alive- three times, he's respectful, good with kids, is trying to bring Sasuke home, and most importantly he isn't bad-mouthing Konoha- what all missing-nin do.
Is the Uchiha Massacre a cover-up?
Fuck, she thought, it had been so long since Inner called her and she really didn't want to think of it.
Itachi Uchiha murdered his clan, and he admitted to it. Sasuke had witnessed it time and time again-
Itachi killed his clan yes, but why?
Because he's a psychopath!
Inner laughed, please you met him, and you work at the hospital, we know what crazy people look like and he isn't one of them.
He isn't one of them and that confused the fuck out of her. Who was Itachi Uchiha? Reports say one thing yet his previous teammates say another.
And this only further proved Inner, Itachi knew of a secret entrance into Konoha yet he never took advantage of it. All these years they were looking for Naruto and Itachi could have taken him. He also could have killed them a long time ago if he wanted to yet he didn't.
She was confused. And when she looked over at her teammate she knew he was confused too. Naruto was many things but he wasn't dumb- an idiot yes but he was far from dumb. She wished she could pull him aside and tell him everything on her mind and ask the most important question.
But she couldn't, they were on a time limit. It wasn't really hard to trick ROOT into thinking they were still in the village- wait no. It would have been hard if they didn't have Itachi Uchiha working with them…
Working WITH them.
She looked over at Itachi, he was 13. A fucking child. Four years younger than her and at 13 she could never do what he did, not even now.
She cast a glance at her team and found Kakashi glaring at her. She frowned and nodded. She had to pull her head from the gutter. She couldn't let her guard down.
"How did you know of this?" She said breaking formation as she landed next to Itachi. Sure this wasn't the right time but he promised information.
She looked at him and waited for an answer, but he didn't acknowledge her.
Did… did this murderer just ignore us?
Shut up, inner! She impatiently clicked her tongue and slowed to get back in position
"It was the clan's escape option." She paused before quickly speeding back up to him.
"Escape from what?" She asked curiously, looking at him. Nothing about his posture changed and she would have thought he hadn't heard her but she knew she was loud. So she pushed. "From Konoha? The Uchiha was a founding clan, to leave would be dishonoring the Uchiha name."
"It would have." And for the first time, he was looking at her. "Only my father and I knew of the exit."
She bit her lip, "Why would your father want to escape Konoha?" She refused to look at her team, but she could sense how tense they were.
He fell silent again and Sakura realized he wasn't ignoring her he was just a genius and genius tended to have social problems- not that he was uncomfortable around them- he was probably used to talking to people that already knew his antics.
"Oi," Naruto called as he landed next to her. "Is that why you killed them?"
Her eyes widened and she quickly sprung in Naruto's direction, "BAKA!" She shouted and would have hit him if Itachi hadn't intervened.
"The clan's home is Konoha. There was no possibility of leaving."
Sakura frowned but nodded.
"And yet your father showed you it. He wanted you to leave?" Itachi paused, his eyes narrowed as he glanced at her. She stood her ground and didn't back away.
"What." His voice was void of any emotion, but his eyes were intense. She bit her lip.
"He showed you a way out despite the fact that he couldn't leave right?... So even though he couldn't leave he wanted you to have-
"None of this is helping Sasuke!" Naruto barked as he quickly made his way in front of Itachi. "You said Madara had him, and we've been traveling for hours! You owe us information!"
Sakura wanted to scream, wherever Sasuke was they weren't going to get to him in a day, and Sakura was close to figuring out who Itachi was. But she couldn't put that over her teammate.
"Let's get back in formation," Yamato-senpai called. She cast Itachi another glance and found him already staring at her, she blushed and quickly apologized, and pulled Naruto away.
You just apologized to a murderer. Inner called in a laugh.
I would apologize to Zabuza if I could, so you're point?
After a moment of silence, Sakura smirked. There, that shut her up.
The next few hours fell in silence until nightfall when they stopped for the night.
Kakashi-sensei and Yamato-senpai kept glancing at Itachi and she could tell how worried they were. Weird.
"Hey," she said as she made her way to Itachi. "So I'm going to do another session is that ok?" Even though they were being weird she could at least ease their worries.
"I'm fine." He said after he finished his water.
"Ok, so I understand you're stubborn but so am I." She stood behind him and he tensed. Ok, wrong move. She went back in front of him and placed her hands on his chest. "How long have you been sick?" He watched her hands. And her eyes widened when his sharingan sprang to life. She didn't move.
He slowly brought his hand up to her and let his chakra mix with hers. Before she could pull away he dropped them and his eyes were back to onyx.
"Did you just?"
"It's not uncommon to copy jutsu with sharingan."
"Oh" she lamely said and tried to force herself not to blush but failed. She had felt his heart speed up when he summoned the remainder of his chakra to his eyes. She frowned. She would have to readjust his chakra seal.
"I first noticed the symptoms 4 years ago."
"When did it progress?"
"It was gradual." He said dismissing the whole thing, as he gently removed her hands from his chest.
"I need to heal you."
"No, the deal was information exchange for Sasuke."
"You gain nothing from this deal." She said crossing her arms over her chest.
If she thought she knew how to read an Uchiha based on Sasuke she was wrong. Itachi was closed off and had yet to show any emotion aside to Satoshi-
And when you mention his father wanted him to escape…
But she swear she could see a dash of fondness cross his eyes at that.
"Alright, Uchiha now's as good a time as any!" Kakashi-sensei cheerfully said. As everyone began gathering around, Sakura steeled herself to find the truth about the whole ordeal.
"The Akatsuki is a cover for Madara. He wants all of the tailed beasts, and brainwashed Pein-"
"His name was Nagato." Naruto commented.
"-Nagato to gather them for him. I have yet to figure out why."
"He told me his story," Naruto said, "Nagato- I mean. And he wasn't a bad person ya know… Him Yahiko and Konan- they just wanted peace. And they were going about it the correct way dattebane! But then… but then his friend died and he just wanted him back ya know. And he went about it the wrong way- he knows that now. AHH it's like there's that one person who doesn't like peace and just wants power and they fucked everything up! All for power, just why- why do people do that?!" He pushed himself up, "Madara was one of the villains in his story too."
"What do you mean Dickless?"
"There were others ya know! Someone made it seem like the Akasuki killed Ame nin but they didn't and Madara only got in the picture after…"
"The ninja world isn't for the innocent. Good men die, and guilty ones live. The world isn't white and black." Itachi cut in.
"It doesn't have to be that way though." Sakura herself said, "Peace isn't some goal we can only reach in our dreams. We have to fight for peace and then fight like hell to keep it. Tsunade-shisou knew this and has been trying to fix what Konoha previously did wrong."
"It takes more than one person to fix wrongs," Sai said
"Which is why you're assigned teams." Kakashi added, "Teamwork is a big part of ninjas, They don't focus enough on it in the academy."
"Do we think Madara's not working alone?" Sakura's question had everyone pause.
"We know the man claiming to be Madara is working with him." Tenzo said.
"But if Madara's dead then there's no actual way for them to work together." Naruto added
"Unless he isn't." Tenzo replied
"No he's dead I'm sure of it." Itachi said, bringing the attention back to him. "There's a good chance he's working with Zetsu, another member of the Akatsuki."
"What are they gaining?" She asked
"Domination of the world-
"Becoming gods-
"Money and power-
"Immortality-
"Ok I get it, dumb question." She said to her team.
"Peace." She shot Itachi a confused look,
"Peace?" She repeated.
"Madara and Hashirama-sama made Konoha to symbolize peace. When they picked Hashirama-sama to become Hokage it was a mutual decision. Yet Tobirama was suggested to be the second Hokage- and not Madara. One of the founders."
"And that's not it," She said, "Madara had his doubts about Tobirama right? It wasn't an unknown secret that he only put up with the Uchiha because of the First."
He nodded his head, "The Second gave the Uchiha the police force." He reminded her.
"Oh I don't trust you at all but here's a building where you can have a little of the power and respect you so desperately desire." She stated sarcastically. She blushed when she realized everyone's eyes were on her, "Me and Tsunade-sama talk a lot." She said with a shrug.
"Ok but how is Madara fighting the First getting the Uchiha peace?"
"The Uchiha were a founding clan and Madara wanted them to have a strong role in the village. The clan knew this would cause an uproar and couldn't risk following him through. What happens after is irrelevant to this. So Madara goes to the Akatsuki-a group of peace, ruins them and pushes his new agenda of peace onto them."
"Which is what?" Yamato asked
"That I'm not sure."
IS THIS HOPE
A/N: Whew its been a while, thank you all to who's still with me! This story only has four more parts! Since this story has been finished and siting in my drafts for a while, I'm sorry for taking this long to post it. I just got so caught up getting played that I lost the desire to finish posting this story lol. anyways thanks for the read!