With the distance, the news takes days to reach Konoha - even though it tears through the lands with the speed of a wildfire.
S-rank missing-nin and psychopathic clan-killer Uchiha Itachi, finally slain. Uchiha Sasuke is the alleged one responsible.
They all say the last Uchiha has gotten vengeance. Justice.
Uchiha Itachi is gone. That foolish, dangerous boy will never be a problem again.
Finally. Shimura Danzou feels a weight lift. Even the day seems brighter. Then he turns - and out of the corner of Uchiha Shisui's eye, the Hokage Mountain seems momentarily splattered by old rust-coloured blood.
Just a trick of the light, is what he tells himself...when he should have read the writing on the wall.
That warm summer-night, the Obon festivities light up the village with orange lanterns and bonfires. Long shadows of celebrating passers-by dance and crawl up every wall.
But it is relatively quieter, now.
The sacred Obon fire-dances held by the Uchiha are no more. They would unfailingly pray for gods-blessed sun-lit rain, accompanied by towering taiko drums never heard again.
Well. Sacrifices always need to be made. That mess of bloodstains blanketed by snow has already washed away, by the first winter. Even Itachi will soon be a thing of the past, Danzou remembers assuring his fellow councillors in the wake of the massacre - soon you'll see, that Itachi is easy to forget.
Inevitable, really.
It is not easy to survive as a missing-nin - let alone guard the last known remaining Sharingan against a world endlessly greedy for powerful ruby eyes.
Danzou has seen a hundred such prodigious young arrogant ninja - and all of them die young. All of them think they will be the exception to the rule and rewrite history.
Every single last one of them has proven wrong, in the end.
The clan-killer's days are numbered.
Life goes on.
Itachi does prove almost effortless to forget.
Danzou has thought no more of it, with Itachi gone and loyally silent for almost ten years - until the teenager himself reappears after the loss of the Third Hokage.
He vanishes just as quick, after downing several top jounin with blood-red eyes - wordlessly reminding the council of his last threat, of paper-thin promises extracted over dead bodies.
Transparent. So pathetic. Nothing more than a child, in the end...even if too dangerous for his ROOT Foundation to kill without an overpriced victory.
But now? Itachi nothing, but a mere dead body to join the hundreds he's killed?
Danzou knows he has gotten clean away.
With Itachi dead, Danzou can finally act. There is just one last Uchiha to cull and harvest.
He only regrets that there is no way to take Itachi's body too.
The little volatile Uchiha long gone rabid with hatred must have already destroyed his brother's corpse, or desecrated it to leave the pieces for the rats.
Pity.
That Obon night, in a misty faraway land...Sasuke dutifully lights a lantern for his beloved older brother, to bring his soul safely home.
Itachi, of course, answers every last one of his cherished younger brother's prayers.
(Watch over me, nii-san. I will avenge our clan, clear your name, and make sure our family's tragedy never repeats.)
In the morning, Danzou wakes up to crows cawing in the trees.
Those vermin remind him of Itachi. But that is to be expected. He has watched Itachi closely for potential since the boy was just learning to walk, and seen him blossom in war; he has worked directly with Itachi for years and personally promoted him to ANBU Captain.
He knows Itachi intimately well, and has him on his mind with the recent news. Thus, he easily dismisses the crows flying into the sky.
Just momentary paranoia, before he gets on with work. While Konoha frivolously observes a whole week of Obon, he has a Fifth Hokage to depose.
On the summer breeze, a waft of sweet tri-coloured dango - and comes a faint distant baritone, echoing pitch-perfect in the revelling crowd.
He listens again. It is gone. Trick of the mind, he decides.
Soon, the melodious ringing voices fade as Danzou gains distance from the city centre. He hears only his own footsteps now. That should have been reassuring. But all he can think of is -
(Itachi's footsteps has always, always been silent.)
His instincts stay gratingly restless the whole afternoon. He doesn't stay in his office for long.
Walking through the market crowd - he sees Itachi no less than ten times.
The razor-sharp cut of aristocratic cheekbones across what a second blink tells him is a mere Hyuuga. He blinks. A sun-lit flash of long, dense eyelashes dark as midnight, as some passing woman shares an inside joke with her grinning curly-haired friend.
He turns and spots instantly the deep tear-troughs on a friendly, smiling harmless old man cheerfully hawking paper fans.
Danzou looks away. In the rush of bodies, he catches more familiar glimpses of sculpted lips, piercing dark eyes, compact solid shoulders and flawless pale skin – a lesser man would have felt like Itachi is actually here.
(He is not - )
"I'll wait for you in hell!"
The sudden loud declaration turns every head. Out of the corner of his eye, he spots the culprit instantly. There.
Itachi is there -
No. Just a young laughing girl in that fearless peak of late teens, dashing gracefully through the crowd with long, shining silk-black hair flying behind her -
In every face, he sees Itachi. Itachi is everywhere.
Yet every time he whips around for a second look, Itachi vanishes.
Because Itachi was never there, he calmly reminds himself. Just stress. It happens, sometimes. Such ambitious plans under such a tight timeframe would make anyone see ghosts anywhere.
Nothing he can do about it, but take it with grace.
"Do you think me gone, just because I left?" A ghost leans in near, whisper brushing across his ear.
Danzou wakes. His dissonant dreams evaporate in sunlight.
He doesn't remember dreaming at all.
Outside the window, the crows caw.
They screech all throughout the day he takes the Hokage hat for himself.
It pours.
It pours from dull dawn to colourless dusk. The sky remains utterly flat, empty of even lightning.
(Watch over me, nii-san. I will be ready soon. It feels right, now that I've stopped trying to erase you from my speech and my movements. I know you are with me, with every step I take. Give him no peace.)
Days pass. The swaying grass turns gold. Autumn comes unusually early this year, bringing with it a chill that creeps into his bones.
He can feel it growing all around him. It stays close, even with extra layers. He finds himself shivering even near the crackling bonfires, where the coals now burn Sharingan-red and pinwheels spin in the dancing flames.
Danzou pushes up his plans, retreating to his base on the outskirts. It will not do to be distracted.
At the edges of his vision, he continues to see Uchiha Itachi's face in every place. But Itachi is only mirage and hallucination, and now impossible to trap a second time.
He grits his teeth.
(Watch over us all, nii-san. I promise you that my team will raid every last base he has. I shall take his skull personally in your name. He will regret ever laying eyes on you.)
On the cold hard ground, surrounded by trustworthy teammates he chose and who chose to come with him - Sasuke closes his eyes to midnight.
He dreams of sun-drenched childhood days long past.
As Sasuke curls up in his lap, still small enough to fit - his older brother tells him of myth and history. As generations of Uchiha parents teach their children in their bedtime stories - he teaches Sasuke that there is no stronger prayer than love.
In the dark, Sasuke dreams of sunlight.
On the autumn-wind, memory sings a lullaby long lost but never forgotten: like this, little brother, we show our love by breathing our souls into every sun-blest, sacred fire we make...yes, good, perfect -
It is not yet blue hour, when Sasuke wakes to fireflies and soaring star-sky. If he listens harder...he can still feel Itachi's heartbeat against his face.
For the first time in ten years, while his friends sleep on - Sasuke lays out a row of candles and incense perfectly neat.
Nothing less than perfection, for his perfect older brother.
The last Uchiha closes his eyes, and sees Itachi. Mirroring beloved memory perfectly, Uchiha Sasuke kisses life into his fire.
And he prays.
(Haunt them forever - )
Itachi shows himself in his dreams that night.
Danzou is not afraid, for the boy is nothing now but mere memory.
'You thought I couldn't do it,' is what his accusing stare says, as the blood-soaked thirteen-year-old stands defiantly before them with a decimated clan.
Danzou will rue that his ROOT squads didn't get the combat practice, and that Itachi actually survived carrying out the massacre. Konoha will have to spare the younger son, now.
And there goes any chance of Danzou simply telling Hiruzen that Itachi has, regretfully, snapped under pressure and killed his whole clan, about to go after all of Konoha next - and isn't it fortunate that Konoha had ROOT to take Itachi down?
A waste. Danzou would have wanted to add both boys to the harvest.
But no matter. There will always be more chances.
Itachi's eyes bleed an unnatural over-bright guts-red. It is the only spot of colour on his corpse-white person. He looks like the twisted demonic monster he truly is, and Danzou will never understand why anyone's ever called this thing good-looking.
Soon, Itachi will be out of his Konoha. Permanently.
'You think I don't know what you did,' Itachi's eyes continue to accuse, glittering bitter and furious. The boy then blackmails them, in exchange for his brother's life.
Clever boy. But in the end - not clever enough.
It is all so pathetic, it makes Danzou want to smile. He didn't actually back then, of course. That would have been crass, and unsympathetic.
But this is only a dream. And so, he smirks down at the boy. He reaches out to grab Itachi's wrist, this wraith they said no one could catch -
His hands pass right through Itachi.
He looks back up, and Itachi is an impassive twenty-one, not an anguished thirteen. He looks like he knows what Danzou is thinking.
The ghost shakes his head.
"You can't catch me now - "
'Again,' Sasuke demands excitedly in a fond memory. His older brother laughs.
Last time, alright? Nii-san can't stay; I have a mission...
Embers fall like little stars, on Itachi's gentle exhale as he obligingly breathes love and life into Sasuke's eager, cupped hands.
Like this, little brother. Have faith in yourself. See - your resolve can change everything.
You'll surprise even yourself -
Sasuke opens wet eyes to a white, dazzling dawn.
Danzou wakes to an explosion, trying to blink away the afterimage of Itachi.
His secret base is under attack.
Uchiha Sasuke comes raging all by himself into his stronghold like a rising thunderstorm, his lips cradling Itachi's name.
"You should have been afraid," the boy declares. His hands are sparking.
The fight begins in an explosive flash, Danzou's Wind blades crashing onto pure purple chakra. The earth shakes.
"I am asking," Sasuke snarls, as his purple Susanoo rises taller out of the rumbling earth like a giant corpse resurrected, raising Danzou higher into the sky than he's ever been: " – is it true that you and the council ordered Uchiha Itachi to exterminate my clan?"
When Danzou answers, the Susanoo crushes him to pulp in its hand.
Izanagi whirls into life just in time for Danzou to hear Sasuke say: "Never speak Itachi's name again."
This whelp. Killing Konoha's most important councillor - just for saying Itachi's name? Unbelievable. Danzou can't tell for sure which traitor told Sasuke the truth, that the rabid boy now manically guards his brother's name and lets no one else near it.
Sasuke's face, when Danzou fully rematerialises unscathed on a neighbouring cliff, is priceless.
"Izanagi," Danzou intones, raising Mokuton out of the ground in turn. "You can't kill me. Itachi couldn't. Uchiha Shisui did not even try."
Ruby eyes narrow.
"This jutsu ends when all those eyes close."
"What, you know it?" Danzou is slightly impressed.
"You just confirmed it," Sasuke returns, and Danzou mentally congratulates the child for having half a brain.
"I'll kill you as many times as it takes!"
Big words, but not worth a reply. Even Uchiha Itachi has been a child like that once, full of big empty words.
Susanoo's arm misses his skull by an inch. Danzou is forced to give up the Mokuton, watching it splinter pointlessly on Susanoo. Out of dust and smoke, Sasuke comes in charging.
"How many Uchiha did you kill for that arm?" Sasuke shouts.
Danzou sends a flurry of Wind bullets flying. The earth shatters. The Uchiha boy is forced into the air, relinquishing Susanoo. He breaks form to summon a hawk and catch himself.
And in that, Danzou sees opportunity. Truly, Uchiha Sasuke is not even half the shinobi that Itachi had been at eleven.
"Itachi is the one who killed them," Danzou kindly points out for him.
"You forced him!" Sasuke screams, instantly enraged, leaping off his hawk.
In mid-air, Sasuke draws his katana. In turn, Danzou summons his signature giant shuriken.
"You're wasting your time," he taunts the boy into making a mistake. He knows Uchiha Sasuke's type: possessive, egoistic, ill-tempered and hopelessly irrational.
Danzou knows exactly what to say.
"I've already won!" He shouts, while the clash of metal on metal destroys the ground and surrounding cliffs in an avalanche. "I had your own precious clan heir personally wipe out your whole accursed bloodline!"
In the rush, Danzou catches the whelp by the throat. Sasuke instantly guts him with the blade, but it no longer matters – not with Izanagi Himself on his side.
"He was on his knees for years begging for power and mercy. Did your parents beg him for mercy?"
Sasuke stills. Danzou goes in for the jugular. Ruby eyes flash, glowing from within.
"He was always mine. I've already taken him from you - "
Susanoo's arm comes for Danzou's throat so fast that his head rolls away on the ground mid-sentence.
When Izanagi kicks in one more time, Sasuke is smiling instead of going berserk. Blood-red eyes glint ice-cold.
"All I'm hearing is he really loves me."
"You must be out of chakra," Danzou observes, when Sasuke sheds Susanoo to bring out a storm of shuriken.
"You're transparent," the deluded whelp taunts him in turn. "Pathetic. Nii-san raised me better than that!"
Lightning flashes in a clear azure sky, as though in response.
"Guess who taught me how to fight?"
More electricity chakra, split-second quick and moulded in perfect form. Danzou barely manages to dodge. Too near. Sasuke is too close -
"Guess who taught me to walk."
Everyone knows. The most talented Uchiha since Madara himself, but Danzou doesn't give Sasuke the satisfaction of a reply.
"That all you got, Danzou?" Sasuke sneers, when Danzou tries to block a spin-kick and finds out he can't. The sheer force of it sends him tumbling. Sasuke advances on him, ruby eyes bright.
"Itachi will be so surprised when I send you to meet him in pieces."
Sasuke presses even nearer, forcing back Danzou's Wind-chakra-infused kunai with a sizzling electric-blade. The blade misses Danzou's nose by a millimetre. Danzou is forced to give ground, dodging a blinding ankle-strike that would have shattered his jaw.
"Itachi was always mine," Sasuke declares, almost bisecting Danzou through the stomach. "Not anyone else's - and definitely not yours."
Sasuke jerks Danzou's kunai back with a vicious slash, smoothly spinning his katana back into a flawless high guard.
Suddenly, Danzou can see it. It is true. Itachi is cleanly reflected and refracted in every movement this boy makes. That should not have been a surprise -
Because Itachi did teach this child how to walk.
And if he listens carefully enough - there is even a note of Itachi singing in Sasuke's consonants.
It is like Itachi is back from the dead –
Danzou regroups. Itachi is dead; he has nothing to fear. He manifests every last Summons he has, pushing Sasuke back. In the momentary reprieve, Danzou double-checks his arm. The brat is burning through the Sharingan on his arm with unexpected speed. Still -
"Don't overestimate yourself," Danzou advises. Truly, he doesn't know why Itachi spared this boy. "Let Itachi watch, as I erase his only mistake."
The boy stares up at him. Sasuke then closes his eyes, and breathes. Embers fall from Sasuke's exhale, as his colossal fireball gorges Danzou's summons full to bursting. Itachi's younger brother only jeers at him.
"I am not his 'mistake'. I am Itachi's legacy."
In that face making an uncouth expression Danzou has never seen on the boy's admittedly more-dignified older brother, there nonetheless still rings a pitch-perfect echo of Itachi.
"I am the last thing that remains of him in this world - and it is not me who will be dying today!"
Danzou is a war veteran, and he's been meticulously counting both his deaths and remaining Sharingan eyes. Right now? He's already died twice more than he has eyes left. Transparent, poor pathetic boy...still trying to catch up to his incomparable brother even in death.
Uchiha Sasuke is trying to kill him from inside an illusion like Itachi's signature Tsukuyomi does – and failing.
"Your genjutsu is nothing compared to Itachi's Tsukuyomi," Danzou advises.
Uchiha Sasuke smiles.
Behind Danzou, crows caw.
He knows it must be, is only, genjutsu. But Danzou turns around only to see Itachi in the flesh.
Time freezes.
The image of him is painstakingly perfect, terrible and beautiful as death -
"Die," Sasuke says, in Itachi's lips and voice.
The ghost's eyes flutter close, serene as if in prayer - and his right eye cries tears of blood as Sasuke breathes through Itachi: "Amaterasu."
Calm, just an illusion, even if it burns – Danzou disrupts his own chakra. The world tilts. He blacks out for a moment.
It takes another second for his vision to clear, for him to realise he is nearly out of chakra -
"Chidori-nagashi."
Lightning flows and strikes true. The force of impact sends Danzou flying off the cliff. Sasuke's electric blade impales him, sizzling straight through his spine to the mountain-wall.
No matter. Danzou waits for Izanagi.
Nothing.
He looks back down. There should've been two more eyes –
"No amount of prayer will save you now," Uchiha Sasuke raises his voice to the sky. The sun glints white on his blade.
But no, Danzou realises. Nothing – belatedly, far too late -
There must have been a genjutsu. It must have made him miscount. Uncommon dread clenches inside his ribcage. Beneath him, the rock is staining a fresh new red. He looks back up.
Itachi's ghost stands tall and high on the cliff, unreachable. The revenant watches Danzou dispassionately. Sasuke beside him throws back his head, and laughs at Danzou's impending death.
The sound reaches higher into the sky than Danzou's ambitions now ever will.
"You thought this was the end!"
While Danzou stares down disbelievingly at the sickly-warm rush of blood, head going tell-tale light - he comes up blank. His screeching thoughts sink into discordant white noise.
"You can't. Konoha needs me," he tells the wretched whelp. He did not expect to lose, or to die here - not to some bumbling ignorant brat -
Sasuke is now smiling. Under a blinding sun-white sky, it is starting to rain.
"Itachi loves me enough to let you live? I love him enough to kill you!"
Impossible. This lacklustre second son, about to finish what twelve-year-old Itachi tried and failed after losing Shisui -
Sasuke's left eye bleeds.
Impossibility flips into crystal-sharp reality.
This time, it is for real. Black fire rises: the famed, rare Blaze Release he must have stolen or learned from his insufferable older brother.
"Amaterasu," Sasuke triumphantly, reverently invokes -
And Itachi answers.
Divine black fire rings horizon to horizon. Inescapable.
Danzou finally, finally understands the flames he'd fanned has come back to burn him.
Itachi might have been a spark gone in the wind - but the younger brother he raised is a conflagration, and Sasuke's prayer lights the world on unquenchable fire.
Shoulder-to-shoulder with Sasuke, Itachi's ghost smiles in the glittering sun-lit rain.
"First one down, nii-san."
"No way! Nii-san's a genius."
"I have faith. Surpassing me will be the least of your dreams. You'll change the world."
"Change? To what?"
"I'm sure you'll surprise me."
"...fine. Hmm. Then I'll do that too, I guess."
Story notes:
#happy bd to both uchiha bros have a pwned danzo
song: 'Can't Catch Me Now', Olivia Rodrigo
Thanks for reading! ^^
