Let's start this from the beginning
Genin Days
VII
"Once again, thank you for your help," Mei said. "Who knows if we would have been able to rescue all the children alive without you. Winning the battle, sure, but saving everybody?" She shook her head.
"There is no need to thank me. Saving the orphans was part of our mission. It should be me who thanks you for allowing us to end this mission successfully."
"Speaking about the orphans," Anko chimed in. "What happened to them? Especially the children that weren't from the orphanage, but were kidnapped from elsewhere."
Mei gave her a small smile. "We arranged for all of them to be brought to the orphanage that you told us about, no matter if they were originally kidnapped from there or not. We have regrettably not enough resources to keep all of them under our protection, and the situation in this country will turn much more violent very soon. That's no place for children, especially not orphans." She made it a point not to look at him when she said that part, but Itachi ignored it. After all, it wasn't as if he disagreed with her.
"We also informed all our people on this island about you, so you should have no problem reaching your destination. You only need to run west until you reach the coast, which you should be able to do within two or three hours, and then continue running over the water for another two to reach land."
Itachi and Anko nodded their thanks at that.
After a moment, he started speaking again. "Regarding what I asked you about..."
"We will try, but I can't give you more than a week. We can't spare even just one man any longer than that."
"I understand."
One week should just about be enough for his plan, so there was no need to worry.
"It was surprisingly nice meeting you, given your background," Mei said then in good humor. "But I'm afraid our time is over now. I have important duties to fulfill, after all. But rest assured, I will not forget what you have done for us."
With that, she vanished with a shunshin.
They had been running for nearly two hours when Itachi finally decided to break the silence.
"You seem to be in a bad mood. Everything went well, didn't it?"
He had expected some sassy comment or at least an annoyed glare in response, but Anko only spared him a glance before returning to look forward with a pensive expression on her face. "It's just... I was pretty useless, wasn't I?"
Itachi eyes involuntarily rose a bit. "Why would you think that? Both of us would be dead if you hadn't killed—"
"I'm not talking about the mission as a whole!" she snapped before he could finish. "From the moment we stranded on this island, I did nothing more than follow you around and accept your decisions. I haven't contributed anything noteworthy while we were here, but you somehow managed to get ourselves in the rebels' good grace. Meanwhile, I... I was useless!"
Itachi hesitated. He could be truthful and risk hurting her feelings, or he could try to soothe her to cheer her up...
"You're right." He decided to go with the first option. "After we arrived on this island and we were put in a situation where your fighting prowess didn't matter, you didn't contribute anything to our continued survival."
Anko didn't explode, but she started clenching her fists.
"However," he continued, catching her attention, "that's not the case because you're useless or dumb. You simply didn't think things through."
"What do you mean?" she demanded.
"I mean are an impulsive person who lets her emotions dictate her actions far too easily—to the point where your evident intelligence doesn't matter, even. While you manage to stay calm and focused in battle, outside of it, you lose your calm all the time. I do not doubt that you would be an amazing kunoichi rather than just one with great potential like you're now if you had better control over your emotions."
Who knows? Perhaps telling her the truth in such a blunt fashion might be enough to make her actually think about it and improve herself.
Anko hadn't time to answer, though, as both of them felt a presence closely in front of them. It didn't feel like a shinobi or even like an adult, but more like...
"A child," Anko hissed out what he was thinking.
Silently agreeing on a plan of action, both of them closed on to the position from where they could feel the child's presence.
A second later, they were crouching on a tree branch, only a few metres above from where they had sensed the child, looking down on it.
It was a girl that couldn't be older than four or five, wearing tattered and dirty clothes. It was obvious at the first glance that she was too thin, a sure sign that she had lived on the streets or at least her own for some time now and had problems in finding enough food.
Nodding to each other, he and Anko appeared a few metres away from the spot under the tree where the girl was sitting and walked in her direction. There was no reason to scare her by just appearing in front of her out of nowhere, after all.
She didn't notice them until they were basically right in front of her, but instead of reacting startled or scared when she did like Itachi had expected, she only looked at them for a moment before giving them a serene smile.
"Hey," Anko said softly, crouching down in front of her to be on her eye level while still keeping enough distance to dodge should she be attacked. "Are you alright? You're not hurt or anything, are you?"
The girl shook her head but didn't speak up.
Itachi hated to see children in such a state. They, more than anyone else, were innocent and didn't deserve to live like this. Children were supposed to live peaceful lives with enough to eat, with friends to play with, and a home with loving parents they could return to in the evening after running around with aforementioned friends all day.
Putting a friendly expression on his face, he crouched down next to Anko. "My name is Itachi, and that"—he pointed at his teammate—"is Anko. What's your name?"
She frowned at him for a moment as if puzzled that he would ask her such a strange thing before her smile returned. "I'm Haku. Nice to meet you, Itachi-nii, Anko-nee." Afterwards, she held out her hand, inviting him to shake it.
He hesitated for only a moment, too brief for her to notice, in which he considered whether this was a trap and if she could be a threat before he decided that this was not the case. Also, it wasn't as if she could hide any weapons in her sleeves as her top didn't even have sleeves.
"Are you two shinobi?" Haku asked once he had shaken her hand, tilting her head to the side in askance.
He and Anko shared a short glance before Anko focused back on the child. "Well," Anko drawled, giving a credible imitation of being amused when in truth both of them tensed up the moment the little girl recognized them for what they were. "Aren't you a clever one? What gave us away?"
"Your eyes. They look like those of a shinobi. You saw death, right? Just like I did."
Itachi deliberately didn't outwardly react to that statement.
The girl must be pretty attentive to notice something like that. Of course, neither Anko nor him had really tried to hide their profession, seeing that their commoner clothes and non-existent equipment would usually be enough to fool a mere child, but to instantly recognize them was still impressive.
It was also important to note that even the most talented actors often forget to show 'real' emotions with their eyes during their acts. Well, either that or they were just unable to fake them convincingly. This was also one of the most common mistakes Genin made in the beginning that needed to be corrected by their instructors before they could be sent on undercover missions. The only reason that Haku could see something in their eyes was that they hadn't bothered with an innocent expression.
"Ohh~? So you could see right through us? Impressive!" Anko said with a grin that Itachi absently noted did reach her eyes.
Haku reacted to that praise with not more than a simple nod before asking another question. "Are you from Kirigakure?"
"No," he said, seeing no reason to lie about that. "We're from Konoha. We came here by accident and are now on our way home."
Her eyes got wide, marking this as the first time she had any sort of strong reaction since the start of their conversation. "Konoha? That's on the mainland, isn't it? You must be really strong, then!"
Itachi wasn't sure how she came to the conclusion that they were strong solely on the basis that they were from the mainland, but he still smiled and nodded in thanks.
"You bet we are, kid!" Anko exclaimed while flexing the muscles in her arm with exaggerated enthusiasm, though Itachi was pretty sure that this time, the pride in her eyes was actually real. She really liked it when people praised her skills, after all, even if the person praising her was just a homeless child. Before she could say anything else, however, there was some sort of growling noise.
Itachi's senses instinctively sharpened, reaching out in all directions in search for the slightest sign of an animal having managed to somehow sneak up on them, but barely a heartbeat later, he had already calmed down again, recognizing the sound for what it actually was. He gave the now blushing girl an amused half-smile before he grabbed for his supplies and subsequently handed her some bread. Hard and dry it might be, but he doubted the girl was be very picky. "Here, you must be hungry."
She looked at the offered food, visibly unsure if she should accept it, before she finally took it and began to wolf it down. It wasn't healthy to eat so fast, especially as she probably hadn't eaten so much in some time, but he let her do it anyway. He hadn't the heart to interrupt her right now. When she had finished it and looked up, she saw more food, offered by Anko this time, and this time she didn't hesitate before grabbing it.
"Haku," he said softly once she finished eating. "You said you saw death too. What did you mean by that?"
Of course he could make a reasonable guess. After all, bandits weren't an unusual sight in a country on the brink of war. It was also possible that some Kiri-nin or even rebels had some 'fun' in some random village and eliminated the evidence afterwards. He wasn't knowledgeable enough about these lands to know for sure, but if some survivors from a clan with a Kekkei Genkai had felt to this ostensibly unimportant island, she might even be a survivor of one of the Mizukage's purges.
The young girl looked at him indecisively before tilting her head, seemingly having come to some kind of decision. "If you're shinobi, you can do tricks, can't you? Can you show me?"
He saw Anko momentarily furrow her bows in wonder before she smoothed them again and gave the other girl another grin. "Sure thing! Watch me, I'm gonna show you something really cool!" she said before proceeding by walking up a tree until she stood head over on a branch right above the girl. Needless to say, Haku was sufficiently impressed. While the tree climbing practice was one of the most basic techniques for shinobi, it still looked quite amazing for civilians—something Haku seemed to be if her reaction was anything to go by. At least this ruled out the possibility of her being from some ninja clan, seeing as she would be used to this sight already if she were.
"And you? Can you do something too?" Haku asked him now.
Deciding to follow Anko's example and keep things simple, he looked right into her eyes and activated his Sharingan, resulting in her letting out a surprised yet delighted gasp. "These eyes are something that only my family has," he told the surprised girl. "They're called 'Sharingan'."
"A bloodline...?" Haku whispered to herself before she nodded resolutely. Then, she held out her hands and stopped moving otherwise, only staring at her hands in concentration. She stayed like this for several minutes during which Itachi and Anko only remained silent because they could actually feel the slow but steady stream of chakra flowing into her hands, but then, finally, when he had already begun to wonder if she could pull off whatever it was she was attempting to do in the first place, dozens over dozens of water drops seemed to be pulled from the area and formed a cone-shaped structure above her hands.
And then it froze.
Haku smiled, the expression carrying several emotions that ranged from sadness to wonder to pride. "I have one too."
Well, he thought with slightly widened eyes. It seems I was wrong about her not being from a clan. She might not have grown up in one, but she at least descended from one.
"Why do I need to carry her the entire time..." Anko grumbled to herself, just barely loud enough for Itachi to hear.
"It would be physical more taxing for me, seeing as I'm not much older and thus not much bigger than her," Itachi answered her with a smile that might have been just a tad too amused, making her glare at him.
"We're shinobi! Use your damn chakra to enhance yourself or something!"
He didn't reply to that, pointedly changing the topic instead. "We shouldn't need much longer until we reach the coast. Only about ten more minutes. From there, we should reach the orphanage in less than an hour."
They were currently running across the water that separated the Land of Water from the mainland. It was fortunate that the distance between the Land of Woods and the island they had landed on was quite short, barely two hours of running across the water for a shinobi, and that the sea was relatively calm. It would have been much more complicated to get home were that not the case.
Itachi shot a short glance at his two companions and suppressed the anger he felt at the thought of Haku's fate, just as he had when she told them her story. He had a personal history with a person—him—killing their family, so a father murdering his wife and trying to kill his child only for aforementioned to kill him first hit home closer than he would have liked. Shortly after, Anko and he had decided to take her with them to bring her to the orphanage where their mission had started. Making sure that the young girl had a better future was the least they could do, especially when it wasn't even a bother in the first place.
Haku herself seemed to enjoy the experience, at least. He supposed being carried over the open sea was quite a spectacle for a little girl.
He sighed.
Itachi wished he could enjoy himself as easily as that as well, but his mind was plagued by far too many things right now to even think about relaxing. Just thinking about how he would need to explain his decisions to the Hokage was exhausting, and if he thought what his family must be thinking right now, it made shivers run down his spine. He didn't doubt that his sensei had followed the standard protocol and, after not finding either him or Anko after a day's worth of searching, had returned to Konoha in all haste to inform the Hokage so that he could send a professional search team for them. In view of the dim likelihood of two fresh Genin surviving such an experience, however, his family must assume he was dead.
It was of course theoretically possible that his sensei and Yukio had been killed by the enemy shinobi and thus had never had the opportunity to return home and report their disappearance, but considering that he and Anko had fought the only high-level opponent their enemies had, he doubted that this was the case.
At least he could look forward to seeing Sasuke again very soon.
"How did that happen?" Anko asked angrily. "We were told this orphanage was under your protection! You should never have allowed matters to reach this point!"
The shinobi she was talking to, one of the rebels responsible for transporting the children that had been rescued earlier to the orphanage, was visibly not amused at being talked to like this by a girl barely into her teens, but despite that, he didn't lash out in anger. Itachi thought that, judging by the flash of guilt in his eyes, he agreed with her even if he didn't like being spoken to like that.
"The building was already burned to the ground by the time we arrived, there was nothing we could have done. Believe me, kid, I too wish we could have arrived earlier to intervene, but no power in the world allows you to change the past"—Itachi felt like the gods were laughing at him right now—"and it's better to accept the situation for what it is than to cry about the unfairness of it all. We should be grateful that there are as many survivors as there are. If it hadn't been for the caretaker who noticed the fire early on, even more children would be dead."
Itachi nodded. He might not like it, but he agreed with the sentiment. "What will happen to the survivors now?" he asked.
The man turned his eyes upon him. "Some of my men are currently scouring the area to find a place where we can build a new orphanage. We're not many, our leaders need most men for the fights to come, especially now that the war begins for real, but we will use the limited time we have to help the kids as much as we can. It's the least we can do.
"The people of a nearby village already agreed to help with the rebuilding efforts as well and even want to support the survivors with food and water. I think a few might even adopt a child or two—horrible as accidents like this are, the pity that follows often has at least some positive side-effects. Still, it will not be easy for them to go through the next winter, even with the villagers helping them..." The man sighed. "I guess all we can do is to hope for the best
Itachi saw honest determination and no deception in the man's eyes, so he was willing to believe him.
Anko turned to look at him once they had given their farewell to the man. "If food is as difficult to get by as he claims, every additional mouth to feed will cause problems," she said. "And it will also reduce the probability of survival of every child as there will be even less food for each individual."
"Anko," he tried to interrupt her half-heartedly. "What do you—"
"Konoha has orphanages as well," she went on unperturbed, "so we will bring Haku with us and take her there."
He didn't argue.
He, Anko, and an oddly happy Haku had travelled for roughly a day when they were found by one of Konoha's patrols. It was honestly a relief; at this point, he just wanted to return home and see Sasuke and the rest of his family again.
Itachi hadn't argued when Anko told him they would take Haku with them, and he didn't regret this decision. After all, she had been right when she said every additional mouth to feed would cause problems for everyone else. He didn't want to ever be responsible for another child's death again if he could help it.
Still, taking a civilian child—and that's what Haku was regardless of her heritage—slowed them down considerably. So when the team finally found them, his first thought was about how much faster they would reach Konoha now that one of the adults could carry her.
"It's a relief to see both of you alive and well," the Sandaime repeated his initial words after they finished their report. "We feared the worst when Tanaka and Yukio returned without you, but it seems you made the best of your circumstances while split from your team."
Both Itachi and Anko were currently standing in front of the Hokage's desk in silence, having just finished the summarized tale of the events that had happened after they were separated from the rest of their team.
"I expect a written report from both of you, but taking into account that this was the first time for both of you to went missing in enemy territory, and since there doesn't seem to be anything that demands immediate actions, it will suffice if you hand them in two days from now. Use the time to rest and recover."
Accepting the obvious dismissal as what it was, both of them bowed before leaving the room.
Or at least that was what seemed to happen.
A figure stepped out of the shadows of one of the corners in the room just a second after the door had closed.
"So, Itachi, do you care to elaborate why you offered this Mei Terumi the possible aid of Konoha for their rebellion against their own kage?"
Itachi had created and hid a Kage Bunshin the moment he had stepped inside the office and noticed the missing presence of any ANBU guards, knowing full well this meant that there would be an in-deep discussion about his decision during the mission.
"Mei Terumi will become the Godaime Mizukage at some point within the next few years. She was chosen for her contribution during the rebellion against the Yondaime Mizukage, being considered one of the main reasons for their success, as well as her outstanding prowess in battle. I made the decisions I did because I think an alliance with her, and with Kirigakure through her, would conform with our long-term plans regarding Konoha's future."
The old man looked at him and took the time to puff on his pipe before he finally answered. "You will explain to me every single detail; everything you know about Mei Terumi, the people she surrounds herself with, her leadership style, about Kirigakure and the Land of Water after the end of the rebellion, and whatever else you think is important for me to know to make a decision. You will explain to me why exactly you think allying with her would benefit Konoha and why you think these benefits outweigh the downsides of potentially being discovered as to having meddled with the leadership of one of the Five Great Nations, and finally, you will explain to me how you imagine I should handle this situation and what decisions I should make. Then, after you finished, I will decide what to do."
That will be a long day, Itachi thought.
Itachi was confident in his ability to look through whatever mask his mother put on, in always being able to see her true thoughts and emotions even if she tried to hide them. When he finally arrived home, however, she didn't even try to hide her relief and took him into her arms as soon as he stepped through the door.
If he were forced to take a guess, he would say that, considering he saw no surprise in her expression, someone had already informed his parents about his safe return.
"I'm so glad you're alright, Itachi. When your sensei returned without you, we thought..." she paused for a moment to swallow. "We expected the worst."
She didn't cry as she would never allow herself to cry in front of either him or Sasuke, but it was definitively a close thing.
"Don't worry, Kaa-san. Anko and I just got a little lost, nothing serious happened."
At least if you thought about helping rebels in their attempt to overthrow their legal kage as 'nothing serious', that is.
"You must have strayed far off course to arrive so late, then," a voice other than his mother's replied, and he didn't even need to turn around to know that it was his father. He just wanted to gently pull himself away from his mother's embrace when he was surprised by his father joining them instead.
Despite his father clearly feeling just as awkward at the gesture as Itachi, he didn't make to release him anytime soon.
"Try not to get lost again, you hear me? Not knowing if my son is still alive or not is not a very pleasant feeling, and I would prefer not to experience it again."
Now it was his turn to swallow. He could remember a few times in his early youth where his father hugged him, but it happened less and less over time until it had ultimately stopped altogether, and with it, open admissions such as that.
"I will try, Otou-san."
This was the best he had to offer. Both his parents were Jōnin in their own right, so they knew what the world of shinobi was like. All he could do was to try his hardest to stay alive.
They stayed like this for only a minute or two before they were interrupted.
"Nii-san?"
Hearing the voice, he finally pulled back to turn around and find his brother standing in the doorway, rubbing his eyes with one hand while holding his plush toy in the other. In addition to that, he was also wearing his pyjamas, making it obvious that he had just gotten out of bed.
Itachi couldn't quite suppress the giddy feeling inside his chest at seeing his brother. He had gotten used to seeing Sasuke every day since he woke up in the past, and even a few days without that had felt like an eternity. He knew he would get only busier from now and that he needed to get used to this again, but this knowledge didn't help him right now.
He crouched down and gave his little brother a big, honest smile. "Hello Otouto," he said. "I'm home."
Sasuke didn't need any more encouragement than him spreading out his arms to jump into his embrace.
Itachi wasn't comfortable with how close he had come to dying on this mission.
Sure, he could have used his Mangekyo to kill Taro if the situation had gotten truly out of hand, but if he needed to depend on this to survive every time he encounters a dangerous foe, he would be blind before he turned ten. No, he needed to improve himself, and he needed to do it fast.
Unfortunately, there wasn't any real shortcut he could take to get stronger even faster than he already did. In fact, he was cheating thanks to his memories of the future as it was.
Still, he needed to make sure that he wouldn't die anytime soon.
He didn't want to leave his loved ones behind again, not now after he had been granted a second chance. The odds of there being a third were certainly not in his favour. And there was still so much for him to do, too; things he needed to do to stop Akatsuki and its true leader.
There was only one thing he could do for now to guarantee his survival besides training himself to get stronger.
It was this one thing that had led him to where he was right now, standing in front of the big building in the middle of the night after he had sneaked out of the house when everyone else had long since gone to sleep.
With determined steps, he entered the Naka Shrine.