I usually don't post my author's notes at the beginning because they tend to detract from the reading, like getting to watch an ad before getting to your Youtube video, but this is serious and, whomever is actually interested in the fic, might want to read.

After wrapping up Act 1 of this fic, which continues for roughly another six chapters, I won't continue posting on this site. You're still free to find me on the other major fanfiction site and on the place of patrons, but the reviews here have been fairly negative, and the site was already fighting me every step of the way.

A part of me also pettily hopes that by placing this fic in the "Complete" folder once the Act 1 is over, it'll gain more attention than before. That would be neat.

PS. To that one guy who complained about ROOT in particular: There is a veritable wealth of shinobi from clans in ROOT, especially from the Yamanaka and Aburame clans if you care to look for them. Moreover, at the current point in time, but even five years prior to current moment which is when it actually happened, ROOT is still an official faction of the Konohan ANBU, they are just led by Danzo instead of the ANBU Commander. I don't know who shit in your cereal, and everyone is welcome to complain that the fic sucks, but at least get your facts straight if you're trying to clown on someone.

From the moment the Kyubi attacked, Itachi's life was changed irrevocably. Some of the changes were obvious; though he'd long grown past it, losing his house so easily had been a shock through his system, informing him that even what seemed like a point of stability in his life could easily disappear in the face of overwhelming power.

From then on, the Uchiha were moved to a different compound, separated both physically and socially from the rest of the village. To outsiders, the Uchiha might still have been a prominent clan, but to those on the inside, it was clear that they were distanced.

That gap was only further pressed by Itachi's natural skill; in only one year, he had graduated from the academy, his classmates either taken with some sort of hero worship or despising him for being ahead of the curve. Different. Uchiha. To be blamed for everything that happened within Konoha, because the Nine Tails destroyed their village; never mind the fact that it destroyed the old compound too.

Of course, Father could only approve of such a thing; the resentment the village felt towards their clan, the source of which Itachi did not yet understand, was mutual. It wasn't a strong, explosive feeling; rather it showed in the quiet interactions, behind closed doors, where others could not see.

At least Itachi wasn't wholly alone. Shisui was his brother in all but blood, cheerful and teasing when Itachi was brooding, and yet there when Itachi needed someone close to him, both in strength and in thought.

Little Sasuke, so joyful and innocent, represented a new possibility, bereft of all the things Itachi had suffered in life. Every sacrifice Itachi made, every hardship he endured, he knew that it was one less thing that was piled onto Sasuke's future plate.

Izumi was… pleasant, in ways Itachi didn't yet fully understand, but he liked her company nonetheless. Even as she grew, despite not being as talented as he was, despite awakening to the Sharingan much earlier, she was untainted by the hatred that permeated the village. Burdened by the need for power, but innocent in her pursuit of it.

Lastly, Tomo. The girl that appeared in Itachi's life with the Kyubi's assault.

Itachi never told anyone, but running through Konoha, he was pretty sure he saw a vision of her broken corpse, buried by rubble, in the streets as he ran home. The fact that later on she appeared, sheltered amongst them, had confused him, but he must've seen wrong. The girl continued to be an enigma even as the years moved forward.

At first she'd appeared a petulant child- mature for her years, as many of the children who experienced the Kyubi were, and with a surprising intelligence but little more. She constantly challenged him with no real grounds to do so, eventually swearing that given one year, she'd become even stronger than she was despite him being older than she was.

Then, she disappeared for several months. Itachi thought that given her history, her uncle had finally wisened up or returned from a mission and separated her from the "evil" Uchihas she was associating with. It seemed reasonable. When she returned, she did so daunted. Broken. For some reason, a five-year-old child had been drafted into ANBU, to fight on the Kiri front despite there not being a war going on. However, said ANBU training clearly had paid off.

Still, when Tomo returned, she did so with a renewed hunger for power. She had already been a training nut, but now? She would go entire weeks training any random shinobi skill she felt she was lacking until she felt that she was "good enough" in it, before throwing herself at another one. It was as admirable as it was clearly suicidal. Was this how he looked from the outside?

And yet, he found himself also inspired. Whatever Tomo had seen out there being a ninja for the village had clearly frightened her even more than she already had been. And when they fought, Itachi realized that in an actual combat situation, she would have killed him. If she was so frightened, then he ought to be even more so.

And so, they trained. Even through being called a once-in-a-generation genius, acquiring a team, and performing missions with Team 2, Itachi never allowed himself to grow complacent, never let his training slip, Tomo and Shisui helping him in turn, the three of them sharpening each other like kunai. Even if his sensei did not allow him to take the Chùnin exams, rank was the only thing about Itachi that was not growing as time went on.

Unfortunately, Tomo then hit a plateau. She was still slowly but surely getting better, learning new jutsu, becoming more accustomed to fighting… but she didn't meet Itachi's pace as she did years prior, especially because she was being held back in the academy. While Itachi found that unfortunate, he was still advancing for himself. His muscles grew stronger, his chakra reserves grew larger, his tactics got smarter, his legs became faster.

Not fast enough.

"Ho? That there would be anyone that managed to dodge my genjutsu, hm? Two of you, in fact." The masked man spoke, clownly behavior replaced by intelligence.

Itachi's breath caught, realizing that he wasn't the only one who'd managed to resist it. A chakra signature raced next to him. "What did you do!?" Itachi shouted, before realizing that his teammate was recklessly charging the man, only giving Itachi a glance. "I specialize in genjutsu. A technique so weak would never catch me!"

"So weak, huh?" the man muttered. It sounded almost more like an amused chortle to Itachi.

"Itachi, this guy will only take us a second to beat if we both go at him!" his teammate confidently called.

"Tenma! We need to be careful, not let our guard-!" Itachi shouted, slowly following but still positioned between the man and their entranced teammates, but by then, Tenma had thrust the kunai through the man's throat.

"A shinobi who cannot properly assess a situation…" the man murmured.

"W-what?" Tenma startled, and with good reason. His arm had gone through the man's head, as though it had smashed through. But the man wasn't uncomfortable, and there wasn't a drop of blood on him.

"Is as good as dead."

Itachi's senses kicked into high gear. In another place and time, Itachi would not have been fast enough to intervene, and his mind would have been frozen by indecision.

This Itachi… he flickered through the air, speed carrying him through as he smoothly transitioned his grip into holding a kunai.

"I'm sorry, Tenma!" he cried.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" The piercing wail of his teammate cut through the air, and with one deft movement, he cut off Tenma's arm at the shoulder, tackling him away from the masked man. Barely a split second later, the man's hand had been extended with speed that somehow had even outmatched Itachi's body flicker, as evidenced by the smacking on the left side of Tenma's ribs. Even as Tenma's shout was interrupted as he coughed blood out from his ribs being crushed, Itachi carried him forward and away from the masked man.

"Oh? You were even fast enough to partially stop my attack. Not fast enough to save your teammate, but definitely faster than I imagined." As Itachi looked down in horror, he saw Tenma's eyes wide and drifting around in a panic, choking on his own blood as his ribs penetrated his lung as his arm spluttered blood like a fountain. "Those who rush forward recklessly in an attempt to make themselves known die young. That is the reality of the shinobi world." The man looked down at Tenma. "You've learned that far too late, hm?" With that, he shook his head, letting the severed arm that had left behind inside it fall to the ground.

"But you, of course, did not fall either to my genjutsu, did you?" he turned to Itachi, who was hastily trying to perform a tourniquet on his teammate's arm. "And you did not charge me blindly either, managing to assess the difference in strength between us. Marvelous, Uchiha Itachi."

The masked man was far too powerful. Itachi understood, on some level, that no amount of training could have made him fast enough, strong enough to beat him.

But he could have saved Tenma if he had just been a little faster. Tenma died in Itachi's arms, choking on his own blood, not even lucid enough to understand what was going on. He had begged Itachi to spare him, as though he had been the one that killed him. In some sense, he felt that was the case.

Itachi didn't feel like he had the right to etch his former teammate's name into the Memorial Stone, but he had been asked to nonetheless. Each stroke of the chisel he'd been handed felt like a line Itachi was gouging into his own skin, a reminder of his failure.

And so, he trained more. He strained his eyes, never allowing the red of his vision to waver. He engaged in constant battle with Shisui, and even during the breaks, he constantly flickered his Sharingan on and off, to help himself grow accustomed to the strain.

And so, through the Sharingan, he was able to see in the distance the figures of two girls rapidly approaching the scene. Itachi snapped out a hand signal, pausing Shisui's assault, the both of them turning around to stare at the girls, Itachi's breath coming out in ragged pants as he slowly let the two-tomoe Sharingan fade from his vision.

Tomo's chakra felt like a razor blade. Her wind nature was partly at play for this, but it was also in the way that she carried herself. She was sharp in a way that made one naturally tread carefully around her- and he could feel that sharp intent directed towards him for a moment before turning to Shisui.

"If you decide to live up to your moniker instead of talking to us right now, Shunshin no Shisui, I am ending your bloodline," she growled in an uncharacteristic display of anger. Shisui's eyebrows simply shot up, but when he glanced at Izumi, he only received a grimace, and turning to Itachi, all the boy could do was shrug in confusion.

"O...kay, Tomo-chan? What's up?" Shisui asked in confusion. "How'd you even find us here?"

"I threatened your clone. Now, can we get to the matter at hand?"

"What is the matter at hand in the first place?"

Izumi spoke up, uncertainty clear in her tone. "We, um… think that you're taking the training with the Sharingan too hard."

"What my dear, lovely sister is too polite to say is that you-" she pointed to Itachi. "Are being a suicidal idiot, and you-" she turned to Shisui. "are enabling his tendencies."

Itachi's eyes narrowed slightly at her, wondering what her angle was. After a moment, he shook his head, however, deciding that it was best to not let this distract him. "I appreciate the concern, Tomo-san, but-"

"No, this is not a suggestion or me asking you. You don't need to get stronger, right now, you need rest- and I'm talking to both of you, Chakra Exhaustion no Shisui- and a therapist. You need to go play with Sasuke, give your mother a hug, not fill your head with perfect memories of beating the shit out of your best friend."

"Father-"

At that, Tomo took a threatening step towards him, fist clenched. "Your father may be a good man to his people, but he is a shit father and a prideful bastard of a man who would rather declare war on Konoha than just have us leave peacefully! You know, the plan that the bastion of sanity and good ideas Madara Uchiha had?" She mocked, Izumi, putting a hand on her shoulder to stop her. Itachi felt ice creep in his veins expression schooling into one worthy of a shinobi at the insults to his family.

"Regardless of what you think, I cannot stop now. Izumi-chan, please rein in your sister." Itachi scoffed.

"Itachi-kun..." Izumi breathed. "I don't think that what you're doing is a good idea. Trying to bury the regret under training will only make it feel worse." She quietly replied.

"Please leave." he closed his eyes, before reopening them with the strain of the Sharingan under them. His chakra reserves were becoming pretty low, but he was still good to go for a bit. "You two may be content with your lot in life, but we are not the same. I will not settle for weakness and mediocrity."

The Sharingan allowed him to perceive the most minute changes in the others' expressions. The worry lines that were already etched in Shisui's face only deepened, his eyes creasing in worry. Izumi's eyes widened in confusion, surprise, and hurt, the faintest bit of wetness appearing in her eyes before being chased away as her forehead creased. Tomo's eyebrows curled inward in shock and disgust before her pupils grew smaller and her mouth twisted into an angry snarl.

"Make me."

"What?" Itachi raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"I said, make me. Come here, and make it so that I stop bothering you. You can do that much, can't you, Uchiha?" For a moment, Itachi thought to himself that it wasn't worth it. To just leave, conserve his chakra, and go back to sparring with Shisui.

Something else stirred within him, however. The powerlessness, the anger, and the grief all crystallizing into something more than himself.

And so, Itachi put Tomo in a genjutsu. Her eyes went milky white for a moment, unseeing and incomprehensive; when she managed to flare her chakra to free herself of it, he was already rocketing forward, kunai in hand.

She barely snapped her arms up, but from them, she drew a katana out of the palm of her hand, barely stumbling back before she brought her arms forward in a series of blocks that left him unable to continue his offense. In a moment, she turned on him, the larger weapon swatting aside his kunai, but as he ducked under a swipe, her hand came off of the weapon as it disappeared into thin air and snatched his wrist, her strength suddenly growing to a vice grip that he didn't think he could escape from - impressive, to be honest, as he expected the genjutsu to leave her incapable of defending.

"What, not using Chakra Enhancement or Shadow Clones?" Tomo grinned savagely, much to Itachi's chagrin. He was much weaker than he could normally slash with his kunai, but he and Shisui had been fighting all day. He was tired, and Tomo right now was using both her clan technique and enhancing her strength with chakra to just about triple her own strength. "Perhaps you should rest up, Itachi. You're getting sloppy."

"I don't understand why you're doing this." Itachi tried to remain calm and reason. "We are no longer children, Tomo. I can't afford to be coddled anymore."

Her eyes softened slightly. "Making sure to remain healthy isn't coddling Itachi. Even weapons, which we aren't, need good maintenance. You're disregarding your own health."

"I'm perfectly functional, Tomo-san. The only thing that's bothering me right now is you interrupting my training." With that, he brought up his elbow to hit her in the torso, but she only twisted around his arm, preventing him from landing a good blow.

"Liar. You're not even that physically well- you've got a scar running down your nose that hasn't got time to heal." She paused. "But maybe you won't be content to recover mentally unless you also have to recover physically. I can work with that."

With that, she only squeezed his wrist harder, his response was to wordlessly go through hand seals with his free hand while at the same time snagging her in another genjutsu to blind her- by the time she caught on, she could only leap back to avoid the Great Fireball that Itachi had produced from his mouth, gaining some much-needed distance. Briefly having turned off his Sharingan to not blind himself with the chakra release, he reached for his kunai to throw them through the fire cloud at her, but a small, made his eyes widen.

"I...ta?" Sasuke's little, fragile voice, was burnt by the flames and hit by several of his kunai. For a moment, his brain froze. Little Sasuke opened his mouth, and Itachi saw through the deception.

But the moment was all Tomo needed, a sudden rush of wind breaking through the Great Fireball and his weapons' barrage, and a moment later slamming into him. He was already flipping through hand signs, however, and managed to substitute himself with one of the pieces of debris near Tomo.

A kick landed to her midsection interrupted the wind jutsu and knocked her into a tree and out of the Henge. Itachi's eyes widened, however, at what he saw- the burns and kunai that had been embedded in the Henge weren't fake, the transformation revealing that he had actually hit Tomo with both fireball and kunai.

"Tomo!" he and Izumi shouted at the same time, but as he turned on his Sharingan to confirm what he was seeing, Izumi was already skidding to the ground in front of him, kneeling in front of her sister. "Oh kami, this is bad! The femoral artery"

"'tis but a flesh wound," Tomo murmured. "Still, glad to see that at least someone here has their priorities straight."

Shisui was staring at him, wide-eyed. Itachi himself couldn't believe what had just happened. How- why didn't she dodge? Shisui would've dodged, Itachi could dodge if Shisui did something like that to him-

But Tomo wasn't a Uchiha. Not only couldn't she sense the chakra forming for the Great Fireball, but she also couldn't see through the genjutsu. She had been escaping blind.

"Kami fucking damn it, this sucks…" Tomo closed her eyes. For a moment, Itachi was worried she would die then and there, but then she brought up her hand to her own thigh. "Itachi, get your sorry ass over here and watch. You might as well learn something useful with your Sharingan. Okay, someone slowly remove the dagger from my thigh, please. I don't really feel like dying."

Itachi reached forward to try and help, as he had caused the situation, but Shisui intercepted him. "Your hands are shaking. Let me."

With that, she began flipping through hand signs, green chakra pouring through the wound and closing it. It still left behind a scar, but thankfully the burns also slowly got less red and angry. After a good ten minutes of her performing the technique on repeat, her injuries were sealed up.

"...well, fuck." Tomo sighed. "There go four of my hard-earned points in VIT. You fucking suck, Itachi."

Shisui pinched the bridge of his nose, as Izumi sighed before giving him a side eye, and Itachi's eyebrows scrunched up in confusion. "What?"

"You know Tomo has been sandbagging for a while since Mom wouldn't allow her to graduate from the Academy early. She's been sitting on her 'Growth'" she made air quotes "for a while now. If she gets hurt too bad, they automatically go into making her not be hurt as bad."

Itachi wasn't too familiar with what the term sandbagging meant, but he could gather from the context with a small "oh". At that, Tomo cracked one eye open. "But you didn't know this, did you?"

Itachi flinched. "I didn't mean-"

"I know. But you're not well, Itachi." Itachi's stomach twisted into something unpleasant at that. On the one hand, he was filled with relief that she was alright- on the other, it felt indignation, like she had been setting up for this exact moment. But, well, what could he say about that? He had been the one that would have killed her by accident. She didn't exactly jump in front of his kunai.

He turned to Shisui. "You were in the know too?"

The older boy avoided his eyes for a moment, wincing. "I didn't know that she was coming here any sooner than you did, but I knew she wouldn't die, so I didn't interrupt. Then again, considering what she just pulled, maybe I should've."

Tomo's face suddenly scrunched up in outrage. "Hey!"

"Nope." Shisui karate chopped her in the head. "I don't care what you have to say; while you were right, you chose the most stupid way possible to go about it. I don't know what the source of your anger issues towards Itachi is, but now it's time to let cooler heads prevail. Literally. Your face is a hot mess." And with that, he scooped her up off the ground. Turning towards Itachi, he winced again. "Itachi… look, I'll admit. I don't think they're wrong. I'm happy to help you, and I wanted to make sure that whatever you chose, I could ensure I was there to catch you when you fell." When you fell. Not if. "With that being said, I think Izumi might have some things to say to you. I'm not the best role model to follow right now, I'm afraid- I awakened the Mangekyo immediately, as opposed to going through the step-by-step process as she did." He smiled awkwardly. "Just give her a listen, and I'll be back in a little while." he looked down at the girl in his arms. "You've made your point, Tomo-chan. Now it's time to let your sister talk."

And with that, before Tomo could protest, Shisui disappeared in his signature technique, leaving Itachi and Izumi alone. After a brief shudder, her eyes trailing down to the generous amounts of Tomo's blood that was on the training ground, she sighed, leaning against another tree.

"Izumi-chan, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-" Itachi moved closer, but she snapped up her hand.

"It's fine." she closed her eyes for a moment. "Okay, it's not fine, but… we're shinobi now. You and Tomo have been at this with Tomo since we were children. I guess it's better that she received this lesson now rather than later out there, in the field.

"I feel like a terrible sister. And a terrible friend, honestly." Izumi muttered, sliding against the bark of the tree she was leaning on. "Sure, I was feeling bad for both you and Tomo-chan there, but… when the moment was over, the first thing that came to mind was that it was nice to see for once that you two were human. That even you could flinch at the sight of something terrible, that neither of you are just invincible boogeymen."

"You're not terrible for feeling that way." Itachi immediately disagreed, drawing her attention. "I honestly felt much in the same way when Shisui first returned injured from a mission. It felt like he was untouchable before. Out of reach." With that, he sat next to her under the tree, adrenaline giving way to tiredness.

"Yeah…" she sighed. "To be honest, it makes me happy to hear you say that. Makes it feel like we have something in common." At Itachi's inquisitive look, she huffed. "You've much more in common with my little sister than me, 'tachi."

"I hope not." He huffed, still feeling disgruntled from earlier, drawing a giggle out of Izumi. She smiled at him, but it turned sad after a moment as her own eyes swirled into red, three tomoe swirling into them.

"Power won't bring your teammate back," she muttered quietly. "The Sharingan is pretty awful, in that regard. It gives us its power only after we need it most, never before."

Itachi flinched. "Maybe not him… but if it happens again-"

"And then you say that you don't want to sound similar to Tomo-chan." she let out her own huff. "You both get drawn too much into your own hypotheticals. I did that too for a bit, once I learned that the Kyubi was still in the village, but… I'm already training to be a shinobi. My mom said it best. Sure, we could put our money into an anti-Kyubi underground house. But then if we begin at the Kyubi, why stop? There's a million other things out there that can kill us."

Itachi frowned. "But that is exactly why I'm training, Izumi-chan… so I can be ready for all these other things. It's the shinobi's way."

"Maybe it is," she muttered in reply before her eyes turned back to black. "But why?"

Itachi recalled something that he was told years ago. "...because people are afraid of each other," he repeated. "And everyone is rushing to make the pre-emptive strike."

"I don't want to be afraid," she replied. "Maybe it's naive of me to still think this way… but I want to be strong for my friends and my family. There are some things worth fighting for, but fear is not one of them."

"...but what if this happens again?" Itachi breathed. "That masked man-"

"'tachi." Izumi reached out to grab his hand. "I asked around a bit… a bit more than is probably permitted, honestly." She giggled sheepishly. "about your mission and what went wrong with it. The Sharingan couldn't have helped you there any more than it could've helped me save my dad. What I've found actually helps is being with my mom, and Tomo, and living life at my best in spite of what happened, rather than because of it." her smile turned wry. "I could be your sharingan senpai."

"How can you say it so easily?"

At this, she looked to the side, uncomfortably. "I guess it doesn't hurt as bad anymore. I still miss the ones I lost terribly, but… I don't think avenging them is even an option. I don't think they'd want me to anyways." Her gaze turned to Itachi. "Does that make me a bad person?"

"No." he denied.

"Then stop beating yourself up over it." For a while, they simply sat together under the tree, pondering each other's words before Izumi turned to him again. "Hey, Itachi. Will you take me too, next time the clan meets to plan the coup?"

At this, Itachi startled. "How-"

She snorted, before her eyes widened. "I- it's not funny, the coup, it's just… you get surprised by the oddest things. Even if Tomo hadn't basically shouted it a few moments ago, I already knew that something had been brewing with all of the adults."

"You shouldn't get involved." Itachi denied it immediately.

"Shouldn't I?" she contested. "I'm a shinobi now too. And this is more of the same, with the adults being afraid of Konoha. We should help."

"I… fine." Itachi sighed. "There's just no winning with you pushy girls, is there?"

The smirk that came over Izumi's face was almost sinister. "Good. Mom does say that a man who learns this fact early is a good, wise man." After a moment, Izumi's face suddenly turned very red, though Itachi wasn't sure why.

After that, they just stayed like that for a while, resting as the sun went down.

…

…

Itachi felt himself be jostled by something. As his eyes snapped open, he found that he was being carried bridal style, by Shisui. "Who?"

The older boy was grinning. "Well, well, well. I guess even right now you don't feel much either way about Izumi, huh?"

"I- what?" Itachi murmured. Shisui simply nodded his head to the side. As Itachi turned, he saw that a Shisui clone was carrying a sleeping Izumi… and that their hands were still clasped. Itachi instinctively let go, and the girl's hand hung as Itachi's face burned like he was still performing the Great Fireball.

Shisui just laughed at him, as the clone dutifully split off to carry Izumi to her home.

"I can walk." Itachi protested.

"Sure. But… well, I realize that I haven't been very good to you lately. So allow me to baby you for a bit." he grinned jovially. "Besides, I think that if I stop moving right now I will totally collapse after having made yet another clone."

"Shisui… why didn't you tell me you were this tired?" Itachi blearily asked.

"Just wanted to do what I felt was right by you." Itachi looked at him quizzically, but Shisui shrugged. "That's all there is, really. I wish things were always this simple. That being said, I think we may have messed up, and I've gotta say sorry for it. Just because I came out fine dealing with it on my own, in hindsight, doesn't mean that it was a good idea for you to follow in my footsteps."

As Shisui walked through Konoha, he glanced at the sky. "It's probably a Uchiha thing. We burn with Amaterasu's flames within us, after all. But maybe it's better not to burn ourselves out too quickly."

"Did you talk to Tomo about it?" Itachi asked.

"Yeah. Gave me an earful too. Still…" Shisui trailed off. "She's really afraid of people in positions of power. And she's afraid both for you and of you because of it- that as Clan Heir you may be forced into making hard choices. That's why she's so hard on you in particular."

"Hnn." Itachi made a noise of discontent, not wishing to talk about the Fuma clanswoman. With a nod, Shisui changed the topic.

"Well, I'd say this was a success for the worst of reasons, all in all. We've gotta get you more dates with this Izumi girl, now that I know that's what you're going for. I thought you were going for Tomo, but now, we've gotta change your style of approach, since…"

Itachi sighed, his head already beginning to filter out the rambles of his best friend.

...

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