1

Results beyond reproach. Physical jutsu, ninjutsu, individual, team, battle technique: Sasuke was top of his class in all five subjects. If the early graduation system had still been in place, he would no doubt have been a candidate.

Sitting on the veranda, Itachi closed his little brother’s report card, and looked out at the garden. The Uchiha clan crest was proudly drawn on the wall fencing off the grounds. Sasuke stared at it, sad somehow.

“’Keep this up, and you’ll be just as amazing as your older brother,’ he said.” Sasuke muttered their father’s words dully. His negativity toward their father bled into his lifeless tone.

No … 

Those feelings were toward Itachi.

Sasuke had simply wanted their father to recognize his achievements. But rather than understanding this, Fugaku had compared him with Itachi. For the child Sasuke, “like your older brother,” no matter how well intentioned, could never be praise. He was at an age where more than anything, he wanted to be noticed. How upset was he with his big brother? Not having an older brother himself, Itachi couldn’t truly understand how Sasuke felt.

Which was why he had decided to simply ask him.

“Are you upset with me?” he asked, a smile rising up on his face as he looked up at the evening sky, visible above the square wall.

Sasuke’s eyes grew wide in surprise, as though Itachi had read his mind. His reply was apparently wordless. He silently turned an upset gaze toward his brother.

“That’s fine,” Itachi started, gently. “I mean, it is true ninjas live hated by other people.”

Itachi himself didn’t remember how many he had killed. Those countless dead had had families and friends. For those people, he was a loathsome foe they would always hate. What happened to Kohinata Mukai’s sick child? he wondered suddenly.

“I-I don’t think …” His little brother faltered again. Sasuke was upset with his brother, but that wasn’t all of it. Sasuke’s honest and innocent eyes told Itachi there was also a love that won out over the bad feelings.

My own abilities torment my brother … 

After all, Sasuke was plenty talented himself. He certainly wouldn’t get stuck looking backward. Even so, the enormity of Itachi’s existence threatened to crush him.

“Ha, ha. It’s tough being the best.” He smiled as well as he could, and looked at his younger brother. “Having power means being isolated, and it leads to arrogance. No matter how high people’s hopes were for you.”

The Uchiha clan wanted Itachi’s genius. But when he didn’t do what they wanted, they were annoyed, until finally, they ordered Shisui to watch him. If he had been a little more ingratiating, perhaps he could have built a friendlier relationship. It was Itachi’s own vision that would not allow that.

Rid this world of fighting … 

A dream everyone had, that no one actually took seriously. But Itachi would not allow any compromises on the road to realizing this dream of his, because it was such a grand dream that if he permitted himself even a tiny compromise, he would never be able to make it come true. Which was why he couldn’t go along with them.

And as a result, Shisui … 

Sasuke looked at his brother with worried eyes, concerned that Itachi had suddenly stopped speaking.

Itachi took a deep breath. “But … it’s just the two of us. I’ll always be there, like a wall you need to climb over.”

Tell him what you’ve decided about him … 

“Even if it means being hated, that’s what big brothers are for.” He looked at Sasuke with feeling in his eyes.

His little brother opened his mouth, but his words were wiped out by the sound of the door being flung open.

“Itachi, you there?! Come out! We need to talk to you!!” Yashiro’s voice thundered from the entryway.

“It’s all right,” was all he said as he left his brother on the veranda, and turned his feet toward the front door.

On the right, Inabi; on the left, Yashiro. Behind them, Tekka stood at the ready. His father’s trusted retainers.

“What is it? What brings you all here?” Itachi asked coolly, faced with the dreadful light in their eyes.

“Only two people didn’t show up to yesterday’s meeting.” It was the long-haired Inabi who spoke first. His gaze was nothing other than hostile. “Where were you?!”

The roundabout way of speaking got Itachi’s hackles up.

Only two people didn’t show up to yesterday’s meeting … 

Itachi and Shisui.

These three already knew about Shisui’s death. And on top of that, they first had to ask Itachi why he himself had been absent. Such a circuitous, pompous route to what they really wanted.

“Since joining the Anbu,” Inabi continued, glaring at the still-silent Itachi, “you’ve pulled us through many situations. We understand that. Your father said so, too, and he’s trying to defend you, but …”

Yashiro picked up where Inabi left off. “But we can’t make exceptions.” With these arrogant words, he placed himself above Itachi. His words existed in this series of events solely for that purpose.

Imbecile … 

Itachi held back a sigh. And then he managed to spit out words, carrying the weight of his heavy heart. “I understand. I’ll be careful from now on. Now, are we done here?”

If he said anything more, his rage would boil over. And if that happened, Itachi wasn’t sure that he would be able to stop himself.

“Almost,” Yashiro said, lowering his voice slightly. “We do have a few more questions.” He was finally getting to the real point of this visit. “It’s about Uchiha Shisui. He threw himself into the Nakano River last night, and killed himself.”

Here we go … 

“Shisui was the other person who didn’t show up at the meeting,” Inabi added. “And we know you adored him, like he was your own brother.”

And yet, knowing that, who exactly was it who ordered Shisui to watch me? Itachi pushed back the violent feelings that threatened to turn the voice of his heart into words; it was like swallowing a steel ball. And then he selected inoffensive words, packaged in the proper appearances.

“Is that so? I haven’t seen him at all lately … but what a terrible tragedy.”

Their meeting alone on that cliff was a secret that no one could ever know. He had no intention of telling men as shallow as these.

At this response from Itachi, the three policemen fell silent, still glaring at him as though he were the enemy.

“Well, the Military Police Force has decided to begin a full investigation.” Inabi’s extremely official-sounding words broke the silence.

“… Investigation?!”

“This is Shisui’s final note.” Yashiro pulled out a piece of paper folded in two, and handed it to Itachi. “A handwriting analysis was conducted. There’s no doubt Shisui himself wrote it.”

“If there’s no indication of murder, then what’s the investigation for?” Itachi asked.

“For a sharingan user, copying handwriting is easy,” Inabi replied.

Itachi took the note, and opened it.

“The content of his suicide note is all here on this tiny piece of paper,” Yashiro remarked.

Shisui’s suicide note … 

The note that Itachi had written and secretly left in Shisui’s room that night, ordered to do so by the dying Shisui himself. He had only been apart from it for a dozen or so hours. Even now, he had the text of it memorized. He didn’t even need to look at it.

I’m tired of these missions.

At this rate, there’s no future

for Uchiha.

Or for me.

I can’t run counter to

the Path any longer.

What was the “Path” Shisui mentioned?

It was the path that each member of the clan who saw this text had in mind. He was tired of missions. The Uchihas had no future. He couldn’t run counter to the Path. These sorrowful words spelled out Uchiha Shisui’s pained cry, his hope to ease his clan’s rage by even the smallest amount.

But it appeared his message did not reach the brethren.

“He was one of the most talented of the clan,” Yashiro said. “And the best ever at teleportation. He was always the first to take on any mission for the sake of the clan.”

Any mission … Did he mean monitoring Itachi?

These were the men who had handed down the cowardly order to watch one of their own, and yet they forgot their own guilt. They applauded Shisui as a capable man, but Itachi could see, behind these fine words, that they thought of him as nothing other than a useful pawn. The flames of rage burned even more fiercely within him; their behavior was the ultimate in cowardice.

Unable to even sense this turmoil in Itachi, Inabi picked up where Yashiro left off. “It’s hard to believe a man like that would leave a note like this, and kill himself.”

Always thinking of yourselves … 

“You shouldn’t judge people by appearances or preconceptions.” This was sarcasm, and also referred to himself. But there was no way these three would understand that.

“We’ll leave the note with you, for the time being,” Inabi continued, as though Itachi hadn’t spoken. “Take it back to the Anbu, and request their cooperation in the investigation.”

“Understood.”

The three men turned their backs, and Itachi was relieved. If the conversation had continued even a moment longer, he probably wouldn’t have been able to control his rage.

“Hopefully, we’ll get some sort of lead,” Yashiro spat when he crossed the threshold.

Without looking back, the silent-so-far Tekka told Itachi, “We have alternate information channels into the Anbu. If you destroy the note, we’ll know.”

That’s it … Itachi clenched the hand clutching Shisui’s note. “Why don’t you just say it?”

About to pass through the gates, all three men stopped. When they turned around, their eyes were shining crimson. A desire for murder filled the air between the four ninjas.

He wanted nothing more.

“You think I did this?” Itachi’s field of view was dyed red.

“In fact, we do, you child.” Inabi said through clenched teeth.

Yashiro faced Itachi again. “Listen, Itachi,” he said, murderously. “If you did indeed betray the clan, you will pay.”

Itachi’s body was faster than his voice, faster than his thoughts. He launched a kick at Yashiro’s throat, caught Inabi in the face with his arm as he whirled around, and plunged his knee into the pit of Tekka’s stomach. As he whirled around to face forward again, the three tumbled clumsily to the ground, and Itachi stood tall in the middle.

“Like I said, don’t judge people by appearances or preconceptions.”

Hit hard in vital points, the three men remained doubled over, unable to move.

“You misjudge me completely if you think I have patience for you.”

Trembling, Inabi finally just barely managed to lift his head, and glare at Itachi.

“The clan … The clan … ,” Itachi continued. “You babble on, but you overestimate your abilities. And you have no idea of the depth of mine, which is why you’re crawling right now.”

On all fours, trying desperately to stand up, Yashiro looked over his shoulder at Itachi, and spat, “Shisui … had been watching you recently … It’s been six months since you entered the Anbu … What you’ve said and done since then is too strange to overlook. What on earth are you thinking?”

“You cling to your organization, to your clan, and to your name … You limit yourself, you arbitrarily decide on your capacity. Disgusting … and then, you fear and despise what you can’t yet see … still don’t know … Sheer idiocy!!” Itachi replied.

Making his father bear the brunt of it, ordering Shisui to do dirty work, hiding themselves in the shadows, squirming around in secret. Men like these did not deserve to live. And if this vanguard of the radical faction were to die, that foolish plan might also lose some of its power.

Die … 

“Itachi, stop it!!”

He was about to fly at them once more, when a fierce voice from behind stopped him. He looked back to find his father standing stock still, a stunned look on his face.

“That’s enough. What’s wrong with you?” Without looking at the three men on the ground, his father walked straight toward him. “Itachi, I’m worried about your behavior of late.”

Itachi dropped his head to avoid the visual axis of his father’s sharingan. “There’s nothing to worry about.” It’s your behavior that’s worrying … He crushed the words in his heart with different ones. “I’m busy with work … That’s all.”

“Then why didn’t you show up last night?” His father waited silently for Itachi’s answer.

“… I needed to achieve the next state,” Itachi murmured.

“What are you talking about?”

He couldn’t exactly say, I killed Shisui and got the Mangekyo sharingan. He was angry with himself for choosing his words even in a situation like this, and that anger made his hand take up a kunai. Without even looking in that direction, he tossed the blade off toward the wall to the right. The cold tip plunged into the center of the Uchiha clan crest drawn crisply there.

Sweat sprang up on his father’s brow. He turned his eyes on his son, a restless energy radiating from his body.

Itachi lowered his face. “My ability’s been repressed by this pathetic clan.”

Had Shisui worked so desperately, and died, to save people like this? Was this clan really worth saving? Itachi didn’t know.

“Obsessing over worthless things like the clan, you lose sight of what’s really important.” Peace in the village. Wasn’t that more important than the clan’s resentment? “Premonition and imagination … You can’t achieve real change as long as you’re bound by regulations and restrictions.”

If the clan only broke free from the fetters that bound them, they could live in harmony with the people of the village. It was pride that drove the clan, the desire to protect their small world. His father and the others couldn’t see that.

“What insolence!!”

His father could only hear insolence in the cries of Itachi’s heart. Once more, he was stunned by how far apart they were. So then, they would never understand each other. In which case … 

In the back of his mind, a hazy image of an ominous future rose up.

“Enough!” His father glared at him, as he held the crouching Yashiro by the shoulders. “If you continue to speak this nonsense, you’re going to prison!”

Nonsense … 

The memory of a distant day popped into his head. The first day of class at the academy. The teacher had asked about their dreams, and Itachi had announced his to the class: “I want to be the greatest ninja ever, great enough that I can erase all fighting from this world.”

Everyone had thought it was nonsense. But he was still earnestly pursuing that dream, even now. Erase all fighting from this world … People could laugh, they could think it nonsense, but that was all Itachi truly wanted.

But his father could not see the way he suffered for this dream. Fugaku pulled his men to their feet, almost embracing them, and then they stood in front of Itachi.

“Well, what’re you going to do?!” Inabi spat fiercely. “This will not be tolerated. Captain, give the arrest order!!”

Itachi could not be captured there. The four ringleaders of the coup d’état were assembled before him. Now that he had arrived here at the end of the line, all he could do was stand firm.

Shattering his resolve was his brother shouting, almost shrieking. “Itachi! Stop it!”

My brother’s watching … 

Sasuke had heard all of this.

Like a marionette with its strings cut, Itachi’s knees folded, and he crumpled onto the stone paving of the path. He quietly put both hands on the ground, and bowed his head deeply.

I can’t kill someone in front of my brother … It was his pride as the older brother. And the single-minded desire not to hurt his brother.

“I did not kill Shisui … But I apologize for my inappropriate remarks … I’m very sorry.”

It was not an apology from the heart. His father likely knew that. But, as if carefully considering his son’s pain, Fugaku replied, calmly, “Lately, the heavy mission load for the Anbu seems to have tired him out.”

“Captain!!” Inabi cried, as if reproaching Fugaku for his weakness.

“The Anbu is under the Hokage’s direct control,” his father continued. “Even we can’t arrest him without a warrant. As for my son … I’ll take responsibility for him. Please …” His father’s voice was hoarse, as he bowed his head to his subordinates.

“… Understood,” Inabi said, sounding displeased.

“Itachi, inside.” His father turned, and slipped through the gate.

Still on his knees, head bowed to the ground, Itachi stared after him. What do you know?

The flames smoldering in his heart had not been quenched. His feelings became a torrent of chakra pouring into his eyes. Itachi felt his sharingan transform.

Mangekyo … 

For an instant, he met his little brother’s eyes.

Alone, Fugaku considered the incident of the previous day. Listening to the raindrops beating down on the roof, he sat with eyes closed and arms crossed.

He was off duty. Itachi had left on a mission, and Sasuke was at the academy. His wife had also gone out, to do the shopping. The only person in the house was Fugaku.

When they passed each other in the hallway that morning, Itachi had not greeted him. His son hadn’t so much as glanced at him as he passed by, and Fugaku regretted that he hadn’t been able to reach out to Itachi then.

His dealings with Yashiro and the others, together with the kunai that had scarred the clan crest, made Itachi’s position clear.

My son is with the village … 

Fugaku was planning a coup d’état; this was a complication that had to be prevented at any cost. A ninja of Itachi’s caliber going over to the enemy was enormous. The success or failure of the coup rested on which side could claim Itachi as its own. But Fugaku couldn’t decide if it was right to force his son to bow to him.

What must Yashiro and the others have thought of a boss like him? No one would accept a captain who couldn’t even make his own son fall into line. And there was still the lingering doubt about Shisui’s death, further deepening Itachi’s isolation within the clan.

“Excuse me?” A girl’s voice interrupted Fugaku’s thoughts.

A visitor … Standing up slowly, Fugaku stepped out of his room, and headed toward the front door.

“You …” He tried desperately to remember the name of the girl folding a wet umbrella, and looking up at him with eyes on the verge of tears. He was certain she had been in the same class as Itachi at the academy. He’d also seen her several times at the meetings.

“My name’s Izumi. Uchiha Izumi,” the girl said, in a forlorn voice.

He remembered now. She was the daughter of Uchiha Hazuki, who had returned to the clan after losing her husband in the Nine Tails incident. He was fairly certain that Hazuki was two years younger than he was.

“Itachi’s out on a mission. I don’t know when he’ll be back.” His words were too curt; even he thought he sounded surly.

His girlfriend?

It was hard to believe his son would have a girlfriend, given that he thought about nothing but missions. But the girl standing before his eyes was hanging her head with a pained look on her face, as though she had heard about the incident the day before. She looked as though she were devoted to his son.

“Oh, he’s out? All right, I’ll come another time.” The girl Izumi turned around and took a step toward the door.

“Er.” It was a pathetic call to stop her. Almost like he was a teenager again.

Confused, Izumi turned around.

It was all fine and good to stop her, but he didn’t know what he should say. The only reason he spoke at all was simply because he felt he couldn’t let her go home like that. As if to hide his discomfort, Fugaku scratched his cheek with a fingertip and told her honestly, “He’s gruff, but he is kind.”

“I know,” Izumi replied, in an unexpectedly strong voice.

Awed by her eyes gazing directly at him, he continued. “He has few allies. I’d ask you don’t abandon him.”

Izumi’s eyes widened.

She’s a beautiful girl, he thought.

“Please.”

“Don’t worry,” Izumi said clearly, and bowed deeply before turning her back to him, and crossing the threshold. “Sorry to have bothered you.” She closed the door, and disappeared into the rainy village.

Left alone once more, Fugaku was touched by this girl’s strong heart and her feelings for his son, and he couldn’t stop something warm from dampening his cheeks.

2

“Itachi’s twelve now. It’s about time you did it.” Danzo looked down on Hiruzen, sitting at the Hokage’s desk. “With Shisui’s death, the only pawn we have against the Uchiha is Itachi. We can’t have him spending his days burdened with all these random missions as a member of the Anbu under your control.”

“Promote him to team leader, hm?”

“It’s just as I said before. Raise his official age by a year, and the issue of the rules resolves itself.”

Sighing, Hiruzen stretched his hands out on his desk, picking up his pipe and bringing a flame to the bowl. Purple smoke drifted up into the air. The creases around his eyes deepening, Hiruzen looked at Danzo, and said, “I can’t stop feeling sorry about Shisui’s death. That a ninja of his abilities would commit suicide …”

Danzo snickered in his heart. The poison Sugaru had used disappeared in the blood, so that there was no trace of it when the murder was later investigated. It was a technique befitting a member of the Foundation, where the bulk of their work was assassination. A group as dim-witted as the Military Police Force would never notice Danzo pulling strings behind the scenes.

If he had one worry, it would be Itachi. There was a possibility that he knew. The note Shisui left before he died bothered Danzo. It was hard to believe Shisui had had so much time that he had been able to leave a note in his room before throwing himself into the river. The most likely scenario was that Itachi had copied Shisui’s handwriting, and written the note. Still, Danzo could use Itachi’s desire for peace to handle even this situation.

He turned to the man who was meant to be his old friend. “The Uchiha were quiet for a time because of Shisui’s death, but recently, they’ve started to move again. We won’t be able to avoid an explosion.”

“I know that.”

“So, then?”

“I’ll approve Itachi’s promotion.”

The corners of Danzo’s mouth naturally curled up. “Then I’ll go ahead with the paperwork.”

“But this is at most a special case.”

Danzo responded with a nod. “When the dissatisfaction of the Uchiha clan is eliminated, I’ll release Itachi.”

“Once they settle down, there’s no need of Itachi. After that, you do what you want.”

Would that day actually ever come? In his heart, Danzo sneered at Hiruzen’s softness.

“In name, it’s the establishment of a new team due to the increase in the number of Anbu missions. And with a new team comes a new team leader. A position you were selected for,” Danzo recounted dispassionately, sitting tall before Itachi in the office of the Foundation mansion. Sugaru was standing behind Danzo, in his usual white tiger mask. “I’ve asked that the members of this new team come from the Foundation, and I’ve obtained Hiruzen’s approval.”

“So then, will I belong to the Foundation?” Itachi asked.

“You won’t be under the Hokage’s direct command, nor will you belong to the Foundation. Let’s just say this will be a special team, independent within the Anbu.”

“I don’t really understand what that means,” Itachi said firmly.

A smile crept onto Danzo’s face. “I’ll spell it out.” He stopped there, and stroked the area around his right eye, covered with a bandage. “The formation of a new team is just the official line. There are no new personnel. It’s simply something we came up with, to allow you to move freely. Even so, I think we’ll give you a couple of men.”

“For the sake of the Uchiha?”

“Precisely.” Danzo stood up, and walked around his desk. He came over to Itachi, and looked down on him with a lightless eye. “Saying the new members would be from the Foundation is also a means to keep the Anbu from becoming suspicious. Just like Uchiha Shisui worked for Hiruzen, you will work for me from now on.”

Danzo uttered the name of Itachi’s good friend, and in his smooth attitude, Itachi could see the depth of the darkness in the man standing before him. These two men had killed Shisui. Itachi had heard this directly from the dead man himself, so there was no mistake.

“Why did you kill Shisui?” Itachi asked, the pattern of the magatama popping up in his eyes.

Danzo took the sharingan in calmly and did not move, smile still on his face. “So, you did know?”

“Shisui was trying to stop the clan’s coup d’état for the sake of the village. Just as he was about to do that, you interfered, and he died.”

“Do you really think Shisui’s actions could have stopped the coup?”

Itachi, at a loss for a reply, was ashamed of himself for faltering.

“His actions would have gotten in the way of my own plan to prevent the coup. But Shisui of the Body Flicker … even if I had ordered him not to go forward, I doubt he would have been willing to listen, given that I’m not his superior.”

“And that’s why you killed him?”

“It is.”

Bloodlust glittered in Itachi’s eyes. In an instant, his right hand was clutching a kunai, and he was thrusting it at Danzo’s throat.

The man in the tiger mask blocked his way; Itachi’s kunai pierced Sugaru’s palm.

Over the shoulder of his loyal subordinate, Danzo started speaking. “You must have already realized it?”

“Shut up.”

“How can we protect the peace of the village? And who will do what needs to be done?”

“Did you not hear me tell you to shut up?”

“If you want to kill me, then go ahead and kill me. But killing me won’t stop the clan from exploding. In fact, once I’m gone, and no longer in their way, the clan will likely get more and more carried away. And the moment you kill me, a village official, you become a criminal. Even if you were to make it out of this house, you would be pursued until you were dead. You will not be able to help your clan like that. You’ll only be able to watch over the terrible spectacle from outside the village. If you wish to choose that foolish path, then go ahead and kill me.”

It was a clear provocation. Danzo didn’t have the slightest intention of dying. The only other person in this room was Sugaru, but scores of Danzo’s people were in hiding all around them. Even if Itachi did manage to kill Danzo, it would be very nearly impossible to take all of them on, and escape from the mansion.

“Every second we stand here like this, the window of opportunity to kill me shrinks. You don’t have time for questions and answers. Once decided, a ninja shifts to immediate action.”

Sugaru slowly pulled out the kunai and rotated his body. He positioned himself with one leg in front, and Danzo stood tall behind him.

“May I take your silence as your answer?”

I know … 

Killing Danzo would solve nothing. Quite the opposite; the situation would most certainly deteriorate. Itachi had a bigger ambition that he had to put ahead of his personal grudge, and his desire to get vengeance for his friend. He tucked his kunai away in his vest.

“Now then, Uchiha Itachi.” Danzo nodded, seemingly satisfied. “Shall we return to the issue at hand?”

“I’m leaving,” Itachi said, and turned his back to Danzo.

“You can’t bear to listen to any more? So it appears you do see it, then.”

Itachi started walking toward the door.

“If someone from outside the clan did that, there would certainly be lingering ill will toward the village. Other clans would fear the Uchiha end, and one would inevitably become the next Uchiha. Which is exactly why …”

Ignoring the man, Itachi reached for the door.

“Someone from the clan must do it,” Danzo continued. “A mentally deranged young person of the clan. If this is what everyone believes, then peace can come to the village.”

Itachi opened the door with a trembling hand, and glared at Danzo over his shoulder.

“You are the only one who can fulfill this role,” Danzo asserted.

As if to reject Danzo’s declaration, Itachi left the room.

He walked out of the Foundation mansion, and walked along the village road at the foot of the Hokage Monument.

The sound of wings. Insects.

“Don’t play this stupid game. How about you just show yourself already?” Itachi announced to the sky, sunlight spilling through the trees. The branches above his head shook, and a human form dropped down before his eyes.

“Hello,” Sugaru said lightly.

“What do you want?”

“I wanted to talk to you for a minute.”

“On Danzo’s orders?”

“It is on my own discretion.” Sugaru put a hand on his white tiger mask. As Itachi watched silently, he quietly pulled it off.

“So it is you, then.”

“Yes, it is me.”

He had seen this face before, with that smile creeping across it. When Tenma died and Shinko quit being a ninja after the mission to guard the daimyo of the Land of Fire, they had been replaced. One of those replacements was a girl who talked a lot. And the other was a boy who never spoke at all.

“I forget your name from that time.”

“Yoji.”

“That’s right.” The man before his eyes was the genin, Yoji.

“Just ten from the Foundation cover the entire population of Konohagakure. And another two for the Uchiha clan,” the unmasked Sugaru noted.

“What are you talking about?”

“Monitoring. Separate from the Hokage’s Anbu, there is a monitoring division through the Foundation solely for the Foundation.”

It was only natural that Danzo’s organization would have such a division in place.

“A total of twelve people are required to monitor the people of the village. With just that number of personnel, we can know the movements of the village.”

Itachi couldn’t believe Sugaru had stopped him to boast about the excellence of his own organization. He was not done speaking. Itachi stayed silent, and waited for Sugaru to continue.

“There is one more person who has been ordered to monitor.” Sugaru’s index finger thrust up into the air, rotated slowly in space, and pointed to his own chin. “Me.”

“And what exactly are you monitoring?”

“You. Ever since you started at the academy, I have been watching the person known as Uchiha Itachi.”

Itachi wasn’t surprised. He’d had a strange feeling since the day of his graduation ceremony, when Danzo spoke to him. Something like déjà-vu, the feeling that he’d known the man for a long time. If Danzo had started watching him when he entered the academy, then this feeling made sense.

“Lord Danzo has used twelve people to monitor the village. The fact that I was devoted to you alone is proof of just how much he has favored you.”

“I’m not exactly pleased to have that man favor me.”

“It seems I misspoke. You are already in the palm of Lord Danzo’s hand. You won’t be able to escape from his darkness.”

“Did you come all this way just to tell me this nonsense?”

“My father was an extremely terrible man, you see?”

The conversation had suddenly flown off in another direction, but Itachi simply waited for Sugaru to continue.

“He was jealous of the fact that his son excelled. He was a man who could only show off his own power by hating, and causing pain. He would assault me for any reason, or no reason, so I knew how to forget pain from before I can remember.”

The hard quality of Sugaru’s voice as he indifferently told this tale was excessively disturbing.

“It was my fifth birthday. I accidentally fell off my chair, and spilled juice on the clothing of my father, sitting in front of me. That day, my father was likely in a terribly bad mood. ‘Your apology sounded cheeky,’ he said, and slit my throat.” His voice gradually grew heavier and darker. “It was then that I killed someone for the first time.”

“Is your voice an after-effect of that?”

“No,” Sugaru said, waving his right hand. “Because of my father, I completely lost my voice. It was only after Lord Danzo took me in that I learned how to speak by making the insects I keep on my body make a small noise in resonance.”

The rustling voice was the product of combining the quiet noises of insects.

“People have darkness within them. I learned that when I was five years old. However, the darkness I carry is still slight, compared with that of Lord Danzo. My darkness is a personal darkness. But his darkness is the darkness of this village. If you kill him now, the darkness that fills that body will spill out all at once, into the village. And if that happens, this village will not be able to remain sane.”

“So, you’re telling me not to kill him, or something?”

“Right now, you could not kill him.”

“I won’t know unless I try—”

“I know.” Sugaru cut him off, as if to beat him to the punch. “You are not sufficiently ready.”

Itachi said nothing.

“You are prepared to shoulder the darkness of your clan.”

They glared at each other, neither moving an inch. Only the dry conversation went back and forth in the space between them.

“Do you know a child called Naruto?”

“The jinchuriki for Nine Tails.”

“Though imperfect, he is the son of the fourth Hokage. Don’t you think it strange that because Nine Tails is housed in that body, everyone in the village treats him so cruelly?”

“Danzo?”

“Yes.” The narrow eyes on Sugaru’s pale face bent into bow-like arcs as he smiled. “Human beings are cowardly creatures who obtain their own emotional stability as they sympathize with or slander people lower than themselves, foolish people.”

“Are all human beings—”

“I know,” Sugaru said simply, cutting Itachi off. And then, he continued matter-of-factly, faint smile still on his face. “Someone like you, born under a warrior star, is different. You’d best not think that everyone is as strong as you are.”

Itachi wanted to be strong, he wanted to be a warrior, but he had never once thought that he was.

“Lord Danzo did one thing. He simply made it known that the Nine Tails that plunged the village into terror was housed in the body of that child. The people of the village then made their own judgments, and decided on their own to discriminate against Naruto. With this terrifying child as their just cause, they shifted responsibility to someone else, and now the people turn a cold shoulder to Naruto. And by looking down on the poor child, they maintain their emotional equilibrium. Your clan fulfills a similar role to Naruto. Isn’t that so?”

“Are you saying that Danzo’s pulling the strings behind the discrimination against the clan, too?”

“That is an enmity from before Lord Danzo was born. It’s not good to make everything his fault.”

Itachi was forced to move with the slippery Sugaru. He might try to change the flow of the conversation, but he couldn’t catch hold of an opening.

“Sacrifice Naruto’s life, and reduce dissatisfaction in the village. Sacrifice the Uchiha clan, and maintain public order. The dissatisfaction of the various people that arises in the village accumulates in Lord Danzo himself. All responsibility lies with him. That man is prepared to shoulder the darkness of the village. Are you prepared to do that much, at least, Uchiha Itachi?”

Prepared to shoulder the darkness produced through sacrifice … For Itachi at that moment, those words were heavier than anything else. Had he actually taken on the darkness produced by the sacrifice of his friend’s death?

“All the same, you cannot kill Lord Danzo. And you most certainly cannot escape him.” Sugaru’s words dragged Itachi into the darkness. “Remember this—at any moment, I am watching you.”

Sugaru’s body transformed into countless insects, and flew upward. An infinity of black dots bled into the light filtering through the trees, which had started to take on a crimson hue.

Once the insects had disappeared, Itachi turned his head to the sky. “Shisui. What should I do?” He had never prayed for the existence of God like he did at that moment.

“Answer me, Shisui.”

His friend’s spirit did not begin speaking to him, nor did the hand of God reach down to save him.

3

In the small, dark room, a man in a monkey mask was sitting in front of Itachi. He carried out his duties matter-of-factly, processing the mountain of documents piled on the desk. Papers covered in dense text, papers that looked like blueprints. There were also some pages with photos of faces attached to them. All were documents related to the Uchiha clan.

Itachi was in the room given to him in the Foundation mansion.

“It’s been a year since then. Time flies, hm?” the man in the monkey mask said. His voice sounded like he was still just barely twenty.

Itachi had known the face under the mask since he was little. He had seen it any number of times since the Uchiha clan was forcibly moved to the compound on the edge of the village.

Uchiha Kagen. Itachi had only learned his name once they started working together. Kagen was an unremarkable man, in a logistical operations division in the Military Police Force. His rank was genin, and he didn’t have any particularly spectacular techniques. At the meetings, he never voiced his own thoughts, but rather, always followed the opinions of other people.

Or that’s what I thought, anyway … 

The man before his eyes was a member of the Foundation. The real Kagen was dead. The man before him had a twin, a little brother with the same physique and chakra. The two had both been given Kagen’s face. These twins were the Foundation members Sugaru had said were investigating the movements of the clan.

The fact that Kagen worked in a logistics division meant that he hadn’t had any opportunities to activate the sharingan. Thus, due to the fact that during his lifetime, he had been thoroughly unremarkable, and the fact that he had no close relatives, no one suspected anything when he was secretly replaced. The roots of the village reached that deeply into the Uchiha clan.

The real name of the man in the monkey mask was Gozu. His younger brother was Mezu.

The “since then” Gozu was talking about was the death of Shisui.

“Because Shisui died, the radical faction was forced to revise their plan, and postpone the day of action. So his death delayed the coup d’état, which is a bit of irony, hm?” The older Gozu was using a more polite form of speech because Itachi was his superior.

The subordinates given to Itachi after Danzo made him an Anbu team leader were Gozu and Mezu. Isolated from the other Anbu teams, Itachi’s role was to watch the Uchiha clan very closely, along with these two men.

“They were going to use Shisui’s teleportation to charge the Residence and abduct the third Hokage. That was the basic idea. So, I suppose it is only natural that Shisui’s death would slow their movements.”

“Quit babbling, and do your job,” Itachi said, running his eyes over Yashiro’s revised plan for the coup d’état.

Just as Gozu had noted, one of the key elements of the plan put together by his father and the others was the abduction of the third Hokage. The Military Police Force would strike a blow against the village ninjas by kidnapping their leader. Those ninjas would attack them, and they would fight back, buying time and forcing the village to accept the demands of the clan. That was the overall concept of the coup.

Their demands were four: Uchiha participation in the center of the village, dismantling of the compound, the freedom to choose where they lived, and Uchiha Fugaku named as the fifth Hokage.

Itachi couldn’t believe the village would accept such impossible demands, but the members of the radical faction seriously intended to push them.

“As noted in the revised draft you are reading, Team Leader, it seems that they have come up with an idea for abducting the Hokage that doesn’t require Shisui. They should start to move again soon, yes?” Gozu said calmly, not bothered in the slightest by Itachi’s rebuke.

Itachi lifted his eyes from the document in his hand, and glared at his subordinate. “Such impertinence.”

Silly monkey mask in place, Gozu shrugged his shoulders exaggeratedly, like a clown.

“Team Leader!” A shrill cry came from the door.

“Hey, Mezu! How was your watch?” Gozu asked the man in the doorway.

On Mezu’s face was a monkey mask just like Gozu’s. The only difference was the color of the markings. Gozu’s were red, while Mezu’s were blue. In the compound, one of them would pretend to be Kagen, and watch over the clan. Gozu being here meant that Mezu had to be in the compound.

“No time for that. They’re moving, Team Leader.” Mezu’s tone was somewhat rougher than Gozu’s, as he turned his monkey mask to Itachi and began to speak. “There’s a clan meeting today, and apparently, Fugaku’s going to tell everyone the date of the action and their assignments.”

“Did you know that, Team Leader?” Gozu’s asked, and Itachi shook his head from side to side.

The time to come has finally come … 

This was the thought that replayed in Itachi’s mind. Shisui’s death had only put off the coup. At some point, the clan would begin to move again. He wasn’t alone in thinking this; Gozu and Mezu were with him there; Danzo and the other village officials also shared his view.

As Itachi kept his two subordinates in check with his eyes, his lips trembled faintly. “I knew that there was a meeting today, but I didn’t know what it was about.”

He had barely spoken with his father since the incident with Yashiro and the others, and he had stopped showing up at the meetings. Itachi honestly knew nothing, other than what he discovered here with his team.

“You’re the one going to the meeting, right?” Mezu said, looking at Gozu.

The monkey mask with the red coloring nodded.

“I see.” The words abruptly slipped out of Itachi’s mouth. “Time to move, then.” Up to that point, he had deliberately run from it. From facing the clan head on.

This was his last opportunity.

Itachi steeled himself, and opened the door. All eyes turned to him at once.

“Why are you here?” a man sitting deep inside the room asked, in a voice filled with malice. Yashiro.

“I came to talk.”

“What do you have to say at this late date?” Beside Yashiro, Inabi stood up and faced Itachi. “Hm, Itachi?”

The room fell silent. Looking out into that quiet, he found Izumi. She was staring at him with a look on her face like she was about to start crying.

“Stop this foolishness,” he said, honestly.

As Inabi glared at him, Inabi’s right eyebrow shot upward and twitched. “And what foolishness is that?”

“The coup d’état.”

Everyone started talking at once. The only person in the room looking at him with cool eyes was Gozu, now Kagen.

Following Inabi, Yashiro also stood up. “You don’t even come to the meetings. Nothing you can say will change anything now.”

“The village is not as soft as you think it is.”

“We’re not kids like you.” A blue vein popped up on Yashiro’s forehead. “We’re more than well aware of the fact that the village is not soft. That’s why we’ve endured this situation for as long as we have.”

“If you fight them, you’ll lose.”

“Quiet!” his father roared, still seated at the front of the room. The room froze instantly at his tremendous rage. “Anyone who says they will lose without even trying is not qualified to be a ninja. Leave this place.”

As if rejecting his father’s words, Itachi stayed where he was.

“Out!” The roar also did not yield.

“Do you really believe you can win, Father?” Itachi asked calmly.

After a brief silence, his father began speaking, choosing his words carefully. “You are still young. You do not know the true face of this world. There is a reality that cannot be changed, no matter how one might struggle in the face of it. You still do not understand just how empty life is, when you must simply continue to endure something until death.”

“If that reality is so empty, then change it.”

“That’s exactly what we’re trying to do!!” Yashiro interrupted the exchange between father and son.

“By relying on a foolish plan that doesn’t even examine the possibility of failure?”

“How much of a fool must you try to make of us before you’re satisfied, Itachi?! You think too much of yourself. Show some respect! However talented you might be, I will not permit any further mockery!”

“Be quiet a moment, Yashiro.”

“Captain!”

“I am speaking with my son.” Fugaku—“Wicked Eye”—glared at Yashiro with a murderous sharingan.

His hot-blooded subordinate sat, trembling, a look of dissatisfaction on his face.

“Itachi.” Taking the opportunity of Yashiro’s silence, his father began to speak once again. “Winning or losing is secondary; the fact that we acted is key. When we act, the people of the village will know the discrimination we Uchihas have been subject to. Then they will fear us, and the village will change.”

“You are already feared. That’s why the clan was gathered together in one place, and driven to the edge of the village.”

“That was the vague fear of the Nine Tails’ attack; this time, it will be a fear accompanied by real pain. The nature of it is different.”

“That’s splitting hairs.”

“Why won’t you understand?” A deep crease of sorrow was carved out between his father’s eyebrows. “I am acting for you, and for your children. My generation will change the way the Uchihas are currently ostracized.”

You … He meant Itachi and Sasuke. And their children would be his grandchildren.

“If you’re thinking about us, then why would you do something this foolish—” Itachi’s voice was choked, while his ears picked up hard words muttered by the group around him.

“Traitor sure talks big.”

“Get out.”

“Right. Get out!”

In the blink of an eye, the angry voices joined together to form a massively powerful wave. All of it hatred, focused on Itachi. His father could no longer do anything to stop the vortex of anger that had become the consensus of the clan.

Itachi lost the will to say anything else.

It’s come this far, then … 

He slowly turned his back to his father. And then he walked lifelessly toward the door he himself had left open.

“Wait!” Izumi’s voice came at Itachi from behind.

Although he stopped, he couldn’t muster the energy to turn around.

Running over to him, Izumi came around to stand in front of him, and grabbed his shoulders. “It’s all right. It’ll be all right,” she said desperately, her eyes shining red.

“If you don’t go back, they’ll think you’re a traitor too, you know.”

“I don’t care what anyone thinks.”

Izumi’s voice held a sob, and he felt it only too painfully.

“Talk to them one more time. If you really talk to them, they’ll understand.”

“It’s no good.”

“But it’s just, like this …”

Itachi stepped back, peeling her shaking hands off his shoulders, and started walking again without looking at her.

“They’re already where they are.”

“Itachi …” She didn’t come after him again.

He walked home alone on a road shrouded in darkness. The compound was silent, since the majority of the clan was taking part in the meeting.

A man was leaning against the wall he could see out of the corner of his eye.

Monkey mask … Mezu’s, with the blue coloring.

Itachi stopped when he was in front of Mezu, his eyes still turned toward his destination.

“End of the line …  That’s it, huh?”

Itachi continued to stare straight ahead, not responding.

“I wonder exactly how they’re gonna pin down the third Hokage aka the Professor, huh? Heh, heh, heh …” Mezu’s mean laughter drifted off into the night; then, apparently discomfited by the unresponsive Itachi, he cleared his throat, becoming serious. “Isn’t it about time we have to report the results of our investigation to the senior officials?”

“I know,” Itachi replied, briefly, and started walking again.

Among all the stars glittered in the heavens, only the moon was not visible.

4

“This can no longer be tolerated!” The first to open her mouth after hearing Itachi’s report was Utatane Koharu.

An interrogation room in the Hokage Residence, used when the four ninjas who comprised the village executive were receiving critical reports. Four black chairs were set up at the long table, and seated in them, from right to left, were Mitokado Homura, the third Hokage, Utatane Koharu, and Danzo.

Itachi had requested an emergency meeting to report on the current clan situation, which he had been investigating together with Gozu and Mezu in the year since he had been made team leader, as well as the details of the incident at the meeting the previous day.

According to Gozu, who had remained at the meeting after Itachi left, the details of the plot had been made known.

The date for the coup d’état is ten days from now … The plan was to begin with the Hokage attack team led by Yashiro.

“If they are calling for revolution, and intending to usurp the government, then we will be forced to declare the Uchiha traitors to Konoha.”

“Koharu, stop! Don’t get ahead of things,” Hiruzen chided the imperious older woman.

Danzo stared at him with a cool gaze. “But, Hiruzen,” he said, quietly. “The Uchiha clan can no longer be stopped. In which case, in order to avoid chaos, we must strike as soon as possible … That also means the children, who know nothing of this plot.”

“That is not something to be said in front of Itachi!” Hiruzen snapped, as Itachi simply watched. The fox mask on his face looked out into empty space.

On the surface, Hiruzen’s words could have been taken as a kindness, but hidden in them was also proof that the Hokage was thinking the same thing as Danzo. Hiding ugly things from people’s eyes like this was the true nature of this village.

“And if it comes to civil war with the Uchihas, it will be no simple matter,” Hiruzen continued. “We must have some kind of plan.”

Exactly how seriously has he thought about the Uchihas?

Itachi had his doubts about Hiruzen. Despite his concerns of civil war, he hadn’t once come to speak directly with Fugaku and the others. And it was Hiruzen who had removed Shisui from his regular duties, and allowed him to maneuver in secret. On the surface, he spoke as if from the heart, but in making Itachi independent as a team leader, so he could continuously monitor the clan, Hiruzen was doing the same thing as Danzo.

The discussion continued.

“It is a race against time.” Danzo around looked at the others. “We must strike first, before they can act. If you and I join together, along with our Anbu, for a surprise attack from behind, it will soon be over.”

“The Uchiha were our comrades-in-arms … Rather than force, I’d like to try talking with them.”

Why didn’t you show that determination sooner? It’s too late now, Itachi murmured to himself.

“I’ll think of a plan,” Hiruzen told Danzo, and then abruptly turned his eyes on Itachi. “Itachi. Buy us as much time as possible. Every little bit helps.”

Wasn’t there a man who had already given his life to buy that “as much time as possible?” The old people here had simply wasted the year Shisui traded his life to produce, instead of working out some concrete plan. The coup was in ten days. What would buying any more time for these old people accomplish?

“Understood.”

“We’re counting on you, Itachi.”

Distress bleeding into it, the hoarse voice of Hiruzen, forced to go against his own true feelings, sounded hollow to the ears of Itachi.

“Hiruzen might have said all that, but when push comes to shove, he’ll protect Konoha. He’s that kind of man. And when push does come to shove, he’ll have to take firm measures as the Hokage,” Danzo told Itachi quietly, as they stood in the courtyard of the Foundation mansion.

Danzo’s soul hadn’t stopped shaking since hearing Itachi’s report.

The coup, in ten days. The time had come at last. He would finally be able to remove the biggest obstacle threatening the security of the village. Danzo trembled with glee at being able to personally put an end to the history of enmity that went back to the founding of Konoha.

Itachi listened silently. He was a clever boy. In the interrogation room, he had seen it in Hiruzen’s attitude, so replete with self-righteousness and hypocrisy. He had already grasped Danzo’s true intentions. Or rather, the idea had sprouted in Itachi’s own heart when his brethren accused him of the death of his good friend Shisui. That idea was now simply overlaid on the image Danzo had spent long years drawing.

Yes. The two of them standing in that spot at the moment were of one mind.

“Whether it turns into a war or not,” Danzo began calmly, looking at the silent Itachi, “at the moment the coup occurs, the fate of the Uchihas will be annihilation.”

The plan the Uchihas had put together was simply too crude. Swept away in a flood of emotion, they overestimated their own power. To him, their plan was like a sad little poem written by a sentimentalist despairing of this world, and ending his own life.

He did find it a little sad that the genius Itachi had been born into such a sorry clan. But no one could escape fate. At the moment he was born an Uchiha, Itachi’s path was set.

The path of destruction … 

Danzo readied himself to scatter the bait. “Including your little brother, who knows nothing of all this. But if it’s before the coup, there is a way to save your brother, at least.”

Itachi might have done it even without the bait. That was how strong the faith of the boy in front of him appeared. He had tried so very seriously to realize his outrageous dream of eliminating war from this world. That sentimentalism was the Uchiha clan. Given that he held this anti-war conviction so firmly, perhaps Itachi would have accepted Danzo’s proposal even without the bait of his younger brother’s life. But Danzo was the sort of man who took every precaution. And Itachi’s brother’s life, in compensation for the extermination of the Uchiha, was too good of a deal.

What on earth did Itachi think of a cowardly act like threatening his younger brother? His face was frozen, impossible to read; the boy did not so much as twitch.

This was the time to strike. If he had the leeway to inquire into Itachi’s mental state, then he must strike without stopping.

“Once it actually happens, your brother will learn about everything. If he sees his clan obliterated by the ninjas of Konoha, he will come to nurture a desire for vengeance on the village.” First, focus Itachi’s thoughts on Sasuke. Then turn Itachi’s eyes away from his brethren’s obliteration, and give him a just cause, in the name of saving his little brother’s life. “Once that happens, there’ll be nothing left but to have your brother die.”

“… Is that a threat?” Itachi was indeed not to be dealt with by ordinary means.

“No. I want you to choose.” Push it. “Will you side with the Uchihas, carry out the coup, and be destroyed with your clan? Or will you side with us in Konoha, and obliterate the Uchihas before the coup, leaving only your brother alive?”

From Itachi’s actions up to that point, it was unthinkable that he would side with the clan. So then, why was he in such conflict over it? Was even a man of Itachi’s caliber afraid of the infamy that would come with killing his clan?

“Whatever we have to do, we must get this situation under control before things descend into chaos, for the sake of the village. This mission can only be given to a double agent for both Uchiha and Konoha. There is only you, Itachi.”

Itachi himself would have known that. If someone from outside the clan were put to the task of annihilating the Uchihas, the other clans in the village would be dissatisfied with the village officials. If people started to suspect that whole clans would be purged if they were determined to be a liability to the village, the situation would become untenable. Which was exactly why the annihilation of the Uchihas needed to be done by someone in that clan. A mentally troubled boy killing his family, and his clan … this was the way to get the situation neatly under control.

“Itachi, this is likely a painful mission for you. However, in exchange, you will be able to make sure your brother survives.”

Since the Hokage Residence, Itachi had said almost nothing. Even at that moment, he was staring at Danzo in silence.

Anguish … Even as he had the thought that this was not a fitting word for this boy, Danzo felt in Itachi’s silence a surge of emotion that could even have been sorrow.

“I feel the same as you about the village.” Danzo took a small breath before uttering his final words. “Will you … accept this mission?”

As if no longer able to endure the feelings that threatened to crush him, Itachi closed his eyes and stuck his chin out slightly. He turned his back, and started to walk.

Danzo stared, without moving a single muscle, until the departing Itachi disappeared from sight. As if to pour his own passions into him … 

Itachi pressed his forehead to the place on the cliff Shisui had leapt from, and pressed his eyes tightly shut. In his field of view, now shrouded in darkness, visions popped up and disappeared.

Corpses … 

Rain … 

Father … 

And me … 

Itachi was four years old. As the enormous conflict known as the Third Shinobi World War was drawing to a close, he had faced the battlefield his father brought him to. He still remembered clearly the mountain of dead bodies, no longer identifiable as ally or enemy. None of the corpses had been seeking their own death. Faces frozen, stretched out in terror or sadness, they seemed on the verge of calling out the futility of it. The young Itachi could do nothing. He had simply stood in the middle of the countless ninjas who had met untimely deaths, and cursed his own lack of power.

Ever since that day … 

His thinking had changed completely.

Fighting was foolish. War must never happen. No matter how the darkness of people tried to darken him, this thinking had turned into light to illuminate the path he was to go down. It was why Itachi had made it this far.

Even after the blow to his heart after learning of his father’s plot, and the clan’s desire for battle. Even when his best friend had faced his own untimely death, torn between the village and the clan. Even if he ended up bringing about the demise of the clan with his own hands … 

“Hngh.” A sob slipped out from between his clenched teeth. Trickling along his closed eyelids, tears spilled out, and wet the dry rock. The tears he had never shown anyone.

Itachi had lived his life with the vow in his heart to become the best ninja in the world, and for him, the act of crying was an act of defeat. Eliminating all fighting in the world was synonymous with becoming the best ninja in the world. He had no need of weakness on the road toward his outrageous dream. His dream was too big to be realized unless he was always strong, always facing forward, always walking intently toward his goal.

And yet, his tears would not stop.

Twelve years of life in this world. Itachi had almost no memories of crying. He had been a reasonable child from the time he was very little, so he didn’t cry and trouble his parents. He hadn’t cried when Tenma was killed, and he had activated his sharingan.

Memories of crying … 

Four years old on the battlefield, and one more. The day he had killed Shisui. That time, too, it had been in this place.

“Shisui …” Itachi wondered what on earth Shisui would have said if he had been alive there.

Obliterating the clan … 

Would Shisui have forgiven him? Probably not.

Shisui would have tried to protect the clan to the end. In which case, they would have ended up enemies. Maybe it was fortunate that they parted that day as friends.

Right … Itachi had already made up his mind. He had had a feeling, somehow, that this time would come, from the moment his friend died a year earlier, and he lost hope in the clan—from the instant those evil feelings sprang up in his heart.

The insurrection of the clan, chaos in the village, and then civil war … 

Other villages would invade to take advantage of the ruined Konohagakure. Fighting begat fighting, and a new Shinobi World War would break out. At the center of this chain of hatred was the Uchiha clan.

“You should stay true to your thinking. Fight, be confused, be lost, and come through that to find your answer. And once you find it, make your decision, and do not waver from it. Find your answer, and be ready to follow through. That is determination.”

His father’s words came back to life in his mind. Determination. The decision he was about to make was a parting from the clan. And … 

A parting from his father.

He wavered. He had been lost all this long time. He had also always stared at Shisui’s back, and regretted his own foolishness. Maybe there was a better way.

But … 

“This is the best move,” Itachi murmured, as if to convince himself. The chill in his own words made his heart constrict painfully. A lamentation wet the darkness.

When he returned home that day, his family was already asleep.

5

The Foundation mansion, Danzo’s living room.

“I’ll do it.”

The only one who heard Itachi’s words was Danzo. He stood up from the chair behind his desk, and approached Itachi with heavy steps.

“I felt certain you would say that,” he said. The hand he put on Itachi’s shoulder was ridiculously cold. “Don’t worry about your brother. Even after you disappear, the village will take care of him.”

Itachi was going to slaughter his clan. Even if it were a mission, it was the sort that could never be made public. To the outside world, Itachi would be a criminal who had gone mad, and murdered his entire clan. Naturally, he would not be able to stay in the village. At that point, he had no choice but to believe even the words of a man like Danzo.

“The day will be the day before the planned date of the coup. How does that sound?”

Itachi had correctly understood his intentions. The mission this time was a surprise strike. A sneak attack, to wipe out a clan that suspected nothing. The night before the coup, the members of the clan would refrain from going out, in order to build up their courage and make their preparations. It was easy to see what they would do. Additionally, their thoughts would be full of the next day’s action, so it shouldn’t even occur to them that they would be ambushed.

“Understood.”

“I’ll tell Hiruzen you’re desperately trying to reconcile them with the village.”

Itachi had made his decision, and he had no intention of continuing this chat with Danzo. He had some ideas about his brother, too. Everything was after this mission was over.

He would take on the crime of murdering his clan for the sake of peace in the village. He despaired at himself for not being able to come up with any other way. This whole time, he had been thinking about how he would ever be able to apologize to Shisui, after his friend had entrusted him with the future.

A decision born of failure … That was the truth. Nothingness … 

No matter how he dug around in his heart, no emotions appeared. Whatever he saw, whatever he heard, his heart was dead.

“What will I do about Uchiha Kagen?” The person from the clan who Gozu and Mezu played.

“Oh.” Danzo opened his mouth, looking as though he had just remembered them. “One of them will have to die. If you see Kagen, go ahead and kill him.”

“Are you sure?”

“The ninjas of the Foundation do not fear even death for the sake of their missions. Gozu and Mezu would both gladly die. Do not hesitate. If anyone other than you is missing from the Uchiha clan, your actions will have been for naught. At that time, I won’t be able to guarantee your brother’s life,” Danzo added threateningly. He apparently had serious doubts about Itachi’s determination. The almost pathetic suspicions of a man who did not know the word “trust.”

“Understood.”

“Good.”

Itachi turned his back to Danzo, and started walking. When he put his hand on the door, he heard a voice from behind.

“Best if we do not meet again before your mission is complete. This is the last time I will speak with you as a ninja of Konohagakure. You have worked hard for the village up to now. I thank you.”

Ignoring Danzo’s uncharacteristic words, Itachi slipped through the doorway, and closed the door behind him.

“I will be a Konohagakure ninja until I die,” he murmured to himself in the hallway, gloomy even at midday.

Hiding from the monitoring cameras of the Anbu, Itachi stared at the grounds of Nakano Shrine, visible below him from one of the trees in the grove. He chose one with a good shape, so as to hide himself among the dense foliage.

The coup d’état was drawing near. Three more days. There was something he absolutely had to take care of before then. Itachi had been watching over Nakano Shrine ever since he left Danzo, and he had the feeling he was about to see the fruits of that labor.

The door to the main building opened, and a man stepped out, and scanned the surrounding area. He had white hair.

“Yashiro.” Itachi murmured the name of the man walking furtively toward the gates.

Without waiting for him to disappear, Itachi came to stand in front of the closed door. He easily opened the lock, and stepped inside so quickly the cameras couldn’t see him.

Don’t go anywhere just yet, he prayed silently to the man who was his target.

He deftly pulled up the seventh tatami mat from the far right, revealing stairs that led to the basement. The secret meeting place. He ran down, and pulled open once more the door he had closed a few days earlier, the hateful voices of his brethren raining down on him.

“Hm?”

In the very back of the meeting hall, there was a stone monument with the history of the Uchiha clan carved into it. The man he was after was standing in front of it. A man in an orange mask.

“Uchiha Itachi.”

“It’s been a while.” It was their first meeting since the time Tenma was killed.

“Four years since then. You’ve grown quite a bit,” the man in the mask said, spreading his arms.

“Did you instigate them?”

“That’s no way to talk to someone. I simply taught them a little thing about the history of their clan.”

“What are you up to, Uchiha Madara?”

“Oh, ho!” The man in the mask put his hand to his chin. “You never know when someone’s going to come down here. And the compound is watched by those fellows in the village. How about we go somewhere else, and talk a little?”

“All right.”

Hearing this, the man’s body was sucked into the holes in his mask, and reappeared behind Itachi.

“Follow me.” The man climbed the stairs up to the main shrine, and went outside. Perhaps he knew the precise locations of the clearly hidden cameras; he headed straight out of the compound as if choosing a path in their blind spots, and then easily slipped past even the eyes watching the village, to step beyond it.

Once they had gone a little ways from Konohagakure, the road that led to Sunagakure came into view. There was a small shrine in one corner, and a vast forest spread out as if to guard it. Once he had cloaked himself in these woods, the man stopped running.

The moon hanging above the grove of cedar trees was slightly distorted, on the verge of being a perfect circle.

“How do you know who I am?” the man in the mask asked, putting his hands on his hips. Behind those words was the acknowledgement that he was indeed Madara.

“You … You made it past the Konoha guard, and were looking at the secret stone of Nakano Shrine. Only the Uchiha know its location.”

He had first noticed the man’s existence when he was on duty monitoring the clan for the Anbu. Since then, Itachi had seen that shimmering in space within the compound any number of times. It was of the exact same nature as what he saw when Tenma died. Which is how he knew that the man before him was interfering.

“I looked into you …  I took the opportunity to investigate what kind of person you were, how you thought.”

As a result of which, Itachi had learned that the man before his eyes was Uchiha Madara. Seventy years ago, Madara had supposedly died after a fierce battle with the first Hokage, Senju Hashirama, but no one had actually confirmed that death. With the attack on the daimyo of the Land of Fire four years earlier, and his sniffing around the clan compound, Itachi had sensed Madara had an attachment to the village that was related to the Uchihas. And then, that evening, he had learned that Yashiro was meeting with him, and Itachi’s suspicion turned into certainty.

“Well then, this will go quickly,” the man in the mask started. “So, you know I am a member of the Uchiha clan, and I harbor hatred for both Konoha and Uchiha.”

Uchiha Madara had resolved to fight back against the Senju clan when they tried to discriminate against the Uchihas. However, the people of the clan had ostracized Madara, who sought battle, and betrayed him, although he had been their leader. Struck by despair, Madara had fought Hashiramu alone, and then allegedly died. He would no doubt have had held an extraordinary grudge against both Konoha and Uchiha. If he had indeed been pushing Yashiro and the radical faction toward a coup d’état, it would have been to get revenge on Konoha.

However, Itachi could not allow him to take this revenge on Konohagakure.

“I have conditions.” He cut through Madara’s arrogant attitude. “I help you get revenge on the Uchiha clan. And in exchange, you don’t lay a hand on the village. Or Uchiha Sasuke, too.” He would force the point of the spear turned toward the village back toward the clan.

Madara laughed slightly, unable to hide his surprise at Itachi’s forcefulness. “And what if I were to refuse?” he asked, his masked head cocked to one side.

His face devoid of all expression, Itachi offered the answer he had prepared. “If you refuse this request, then you and I are enemies.”

“Could you kill me?”

“It’s not a matter of whether or not I could. I will kill you.” He had already taken a step down a road that would not allow him to turn back. He did not hesitate.

Silence enveloped them. There was no bloodlust in either of their auras. They were exchanging dangerous words, but they both acknowledged each other as opponents.

“You seem to have the wrong idea. That brat is not a friend, or anything of the like,” Madara said, raising his palms to the heavens. “That brat” was Yashiro. “I tossed several stones. It just happens that one of them landed in a very good place. It wouldn’t be a bad thing to change my mind now. Actually …” The small openings of darkness in the mask caught hold of Itachi, and did not let go. “Choosing you seems more interesting than those small fry in the village.”

Small fry … Itachi agreed in his heart that perhaps they were small fry; in the next instant, Sasuke’s face popped into his mind, and he felt a sharp pain in his heart.

“I like this tale you tell. I’ll come along for the ride.”

Itachi shifted his eyes as if to ignore the hand that was extended.

6

Itachi carefully took his shoes off in the entryway. His mission that day would seriously change his life. He wouldn’t be taking his shoes off here anymore. The peaceful times would also end that day.

That’s fine … He was prepared to bear the weight of the crime.

“Itachi.” Sasuke stopped Itachi as he was about to step up into the house with an almost innocent cry, as if to keep him here in this house, in this clan.

Itachi decided to stay just a little longer in this peaceful place. Once he took that step forward, he would never be able to come back here. He moved his feet back into the entryway, and turned toward his brother.

“Help me with my shuriken today, please …”

A request he would never be able to grant again. If he was honest with himself, all he wanted to do was help Sasuke forever and ever. He had prayed for the day when his little brother would become a full-fledged ninja, and they would go on missions together. That, too, was a wish that could no longer be granted.

Struggling for a reply, he managed to give voice to a polite lie. “I’m busy …  Why don’t you ask Father?”

“But you’re better at shuriken. Even I can tell that.” His brother pouted, arms crossed behind his back, head hanging slightly.

Now that Itachi thought about it, he had used being busy as a pretext to distance himself from his brother. He wished he had spent more time with him, but what was done was done.

“Why do you always treat me like I’m such a pest?”

No … That’s what he wanted to say. But that was a word he definitely could not give voice to, because soon, his little brother would hate him for the rest of his life.

Still silent, Itachi beckoned with his hand. Not suspicious in the slightest, Sasuke trotted over. As if to check that force, Itachi jabbed him in the forehead with his index and middle fingers.

“Sorry, Sasuke. Maybe next time.”

“Ow!”

His little brother pursed his lips and puffed out his cheeks, and Itachi saw that his forehead was just a bit red. When he was little, it had hurt Sasuke so much when Itachi poked him; his little brother was growing up, a fact that almost pained him.

If he stayed there like that, he wouldn’t be able to get up again. Steeling himself, Itachi took a step with heavy feet. And then, without looking at his little brother, he said, “I don’t have time for this.”

“You always say ‘Sorry, Sasuke,’ and jab me in the forehead. And you never have time. It’s always the same story.”

Itachi left his grumpy brother, and opened the front door. Sorry, Sasuke, he apologized from the bottom of his heart, the moment he crossed the threshold.

The cliff where I promised Shisui … 

Six hours had already passed with him sitting on the edge in contemplation. No matter how he chased his thoughts off, the ideas that appeared one after another would not go away. Moments from the twelve years of his life flickered into existence and disappeared, disappeared and flickered again.

Memories of his boyhood when all he wanted was to get stronger. Days fighting as a ninja, troubled by the conflict between his comrades and his brethren. And the many bonds that dragged him into the darkness.

Beyond good and evil, beyond emotion, his memories became confused and washed away his thoughts like a muddy stream. Itachi could only give himself over to the torrent. It was too late for regret now. Still, it wasn’t as though his feelings were crystal clear, either.

The karma Itachi would be burdened with was not something simple that could easily be reasoned away. It was something that went beyond preparation, worry, hesitation, determination, all of it. Which was why Itachi himself couldn’t predict what kind of person he would be once that day was over. The only thing he knew for certain was that this day, “today,” would indeed end, and that when it did, everyone in the clan other than his little brother would be dead.

Almost like how everyone knew that the day of their own death would come at some point.

“Haah …” Itachi took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. Through his slightly open eyelids, light the color of sunset shone into a field of view blanketed by long eyelashes.

It was almost time. The preparations had already all been made. Once Itachi moved, Madara would also move.

There was no one other than the people of the clan in the compound that day. It was a clever bit of work from Danzo and the Foundation. And dressed as that work was in the disguise of chance, no one noticed Danzo’s trickery.

And it wasn’t just one trick.

First, the early return of the Military Police Force. Starting that evening, contractors were coming in to build the new facilities for the headquarters, so an order was issued by the village for the police to go home early. Naturally, this was a fake order devised by Danzo. But dead men tell no tales. If everyone involved were dead, then there would be no one to say a fake order had been issued. And for the police, who had a coup d’état the next day to consider, getting to go home early was a nice turn of events.

And the final trick … 

That was to make his brother return home late. That day, a teacher at the academy would be training with him in shuriken. This teacher was a fake, a member of the Foundation. In a disguise so clever Sasuke, who was not yet even a genin, would never be able to see through it, the Foundation ninja would deceive him.

The table was set so that all Itachi had to do was head toward the compound.

“All right, I’m going,” Itachi announced to empty space, as he stood up. He saw a vision of Shisui before him.

It would all end that day. The fate of the Uchiha clan, and Itachi’s peaceful life … 

Itachi held his breath, and listened to the bright voices from across the hall. The room illuminated by the flickering glow was the dining room. The voices were those of two women. He knew one of them very well. The other was her mother.

He kicked the garbage can at his feet, and deliberately made some noise.

“What was that?” the voice he knew asked the mother.

“I don’t know.”

“I’ll go look, all right?” Tension crept into her voice as she announced this to her mother, and then her aura slowly approached Itachi.

So that she wouldn’t sense him, he ran down the hallway, and hid in the room next door. And then, once he judged that her aura had passed by him, he slipped into the dining room, and before the mother had a chance to shout upon noticing him, he knocked her out with the sharingan. Once he had soundlessly put her to sleep, he waited silently for the aura to return.

“Mom, it was just the garbage—” Having gotten this far, Uchiha Izumi stopped herself. “Itachi?” Glancing over at her mother on the floor, Izumi stared dumbfounded, not understanding what was going on. “Wh-why …”

He couldn’t stand to listen to Izumi’s voice any further. He concentrated his chakra in his eye. The Mangekyo sharingan.

“Tsukuyomi.”

Izumi froze in place.

Itachi focused his thoughts on his own genjutsu. Tsukuyomi allowed him to completely control time, space, and matter. It was a power he had gained when he activated the Mangekyo sharingan. The time that passed within this genjutsu was one one-hundredth of one one-thousandth of one one-millionth of that of the real world.

Itachi drew out a clear image. Peace in the village of Konoha, the clan tranquil. His own form, freed from all trouble.

And Izumi beside him, smiling.

Izumi becomes a chunin, as if chasing after him. At that time, Itachi is already a jonin.

He hands a pouting Izumi an engagement ring.

Izumi retiring as a ninja.

Marriage.

Childbirth.

Child-rearing.

The children setting out.

Izumi growing old together with Itachi.

Seventy years since they met.

The hair on both of their heads is white.

Izumi’s illness.

He takes care of her.

Her last years … 

The Mangekyo sharingan consumed an enormous amount of chakra, and so placed an equivalent burden on the user. Shoulders rising, Itachi took a deep breath, as if crawling up from the depths of the ocean. Before him, Izumi’s knees gave out under her, and she collapsed, smiling.

Sliding over, Itachi held her up, tightly gripping her slender shoulders.

“Thank you.” Izumi’s voice sounded like that of an old woman past eighty years of age.

“Me, too. Thank you.” He squeezed her shoulders more tightly, and could say nothing more.

With a broad smile on her face, Izumi took her last peaceful breath.

The mind and the body were indivisible. If the mind decays, the body also falls apart.

Izumi died, joyful.

After gently laying the now motionless Izumi down on the floor, Itachi staggered to his feet. The intense expenditure of chakra made his body shake.

I decided that Izumi would be first … 

By killing her himself, he wiped away the last of his hesitation—the hesitation borne of unfinished business with the clan, of bonds of emotion.

“Thank you, Izumi.” Itachi slowly turned around. There lay her mother, knocked unconscious by the sharingan.

When he stepped out of Izumi’s house and onto the road, the space behind him abruptly shimmered.

“So you’ve begun?” Madara said evenly.

Itachi didn’t look back over his shoulder at the man, but simply felt his aura. The blanket of dusk was starting to fall in the sky before him. The evening star that heralded the coming of night looked excessively bright.

“I will take care of the women and children as far as possible.”

Madara’s concern annoyed Itachi.

“I’ll take the west side of the compound, you’re the east. We do this just like we planned from the start.”

“Don’t push yourself,” Madara said.

“Shut up.”

“You’re still young. If you take on too much darkness, it will break you.”

I’ve already been broken for a long time … 

Itachi swallowed the words that popped into his head and turned around to look at Madara. There was no way to know what emotion was on that face, covered as it was by a mask. His body, cloaked in a black coat that reached his shins, exuded a sinister chakra that resembled bloodlust.

“You don’t need to worry about me.”

“I’m not worried. It’s a natural arrangement to properly execute our mission.”

“Don’t patronize me.”

“It’s precisely because I think so highly of you that I do not want you to expend excessive effort. My role, given my ability to use time and space ninjutsu, should be to take on the women and children, who will cry and shout and run about. I do think that will prioritize efficiency?”

They had to finish everything before Sasuke returned to the compound. He didn’t have time to glare at Madara here.

“Whatever you want.”

“I’ll see you again once it’s all over,” Madara said, and disappeared into empty space.

Itachi took a small breath. Close your eyes … He moved forward in the darkness, seeking a new target.

Inabi’s wife died before she even understood what was happening. Shaking off the blood that wet the blade of his sword, Itachi turned his eyes to his gasping target, Inabi.

“D-do you understand what you’re doing?” Inabi shot off foolishly.

Without replying, Itachi slowly closed the distance between them. With each step he took, Inabi retreated.

“How about you just prepare yourself?” Itachi suggested gently, and Inabi shook his head from side to side. “What are you afraid of? It’s only the inevitable coming to you now.”

“Tr-traitor.”

“You all always distance yourself from everything like that. And that’s why you’re about to be killed by me, like this.” He kicked powerfully at the floor. The distance between them closed.

Inabi tried to weave signs. Fire Style.

Too late.

Before the flames could gush out of his pointed lips, Inabi lost his own head.

Itachi put his hand on the front door. Inside the now-quiet house, only one chakra shimmered.

At the end of the hallway. There was an aura in the room at the very end of the hallway. He put his hand on the sliding door.

“Who’s there?” He heard the voice from inside the room, and slid the door open. “You?”

The man was sitting upright, grim look on the face that stared at Itachi. The black spot on his forehead was unmistakably Tekka’s. “Chakra is shaking all over the compound. So you’re the culprit, Itachi?”

Even among the Uchiha, Tekka was a leading sharingan user, and his ability to sense chakra was excellent. It wasn’t at all strange that he had shrewdly grasped that some calamity had befallen the village.

“You’re here. So why does chakra still shake elsewhere?”

“This isn’t the time to be worrying about that.”

“I see.”

“Why didn’t you move, if you sensed something strange in the village?”

“You got here before I could. That’s all.” Tekka moved to stand up.

Knife in hand, Itachi stepped in close. The man rose up, and caught Itachi in his gaze.

Sharingan.

Without flinching, Itachi squarely accepted the surge of chakra emitted by Tekka’s eyes.

“Wha—” Shock crept onto the face of his target. He appeared surprised that his visual jutsu didn’t work. And then, in the next instant, he saw the pattern in Itachi’s eyes, and the look on his face changed to one of chagrin. “I-impossible! Mangekyo!”

Tekka’s stomach swallowed Itachi’s blade. He thrust it in deeply, all the way to the hilt guard. No blood gushed out, not with the sword still in place. Their faces were so close that their noses were almost touching.

“You all have the bad habit of underestimating your opponent’s abilities.”

“Itachi …” Blood flowed out from between Tekka’s clenched teeth.

As Itachi leapt back, he yanked his sword free. An ocean of blood wet the tatami mats; he was not caught by even a drop of splash-back.

Right hand thrust up, clawing at empty space, Tekka collapsed. “Th-they won’t forgive you, Itachi.” Those were Tekka’s last words.

Itachi turned his back on the body, and sheathed his sword. “I wasn’t asking for forgiveness.”

In the single room of the one-person apartment, there wasn’t even a bed; the small room didn’t have the feel of having been lived in at all. A man sat with his back against one wall.

“Just hurry up and kill me, Team Leader.”

From his careless manner of speaking, Itachi knew the man blanketed in darkness was Mezu. Anyone who looked at him would only see Uchiha Kagen.

Itachi dragged heavy feet to stand in front of him.

“You don’t kill me, and everything you’ve done so far’ll be meaningless. Nothing to get hung up on—just hurry up, and finish me off.”

“Are you all right with that?”

“I’ve been ready for it since the time Lord Danzo took us in.” A sad smile spread across Mezu’s face, formerly Kagen’s. “And a little brother, you always want to be useful to your big brother, you know?”

Itachi plunged his blade into the chest of the still-smiling Mezu, without so much as flinching.

It had already been an hour since he put Izumi to sleep. He had murdered too many of his brethren to count, but Itachi still kept running.

His heart had long since frozen over. He had also forgotten to keep in mind that it was all for the sake of the village. He simply continued to single-mindedly swing his sword.

The target’s father and mother, and then his wife. When the boy, old enough to have just started at the academy, stopped moving, he heard a shriek behind him. The voice was familiar.

The man fled down the hallway, the sound of his feet almost exaggeratedly loud. He jumped down into the entryway, and ripped open the door.

Itachi went after him. He came out onto the road.

The man looked awkward in flight. His throat stiff with fear, perhaps, he didn’t even scream. Although there was already no one else left in the area. He could cry out all he wanted, but no one would hear him.

The man slipped through a stone gate on the edge of the road. Beyond it was a park. Playground equipment was set out on the square site. The man pushed past the swings so desperately, it was almost pitiable; he had made it to the center of the open space, when he fell headfirst.

Itachi stood a sword-length ahead of him, looking down on the man as he tried to find his feet. “Give up.”

The man’s white hair shook at Itachi’s cool words. Yashiro.

“K-killing me won’t solve anything, you know. There’s another leader. Even Lord Fugaku doesn’t know about him. I was being controlled.”

“Even now, at this late stage, you’re still trying to hide in someone else’s shadow?”

“You have to believe me. I was just trying to do what he wanted. He’s the one who—” Yashiro’s eyes grew wide and froze on a spot behind Itachi. “Y-you …”

“Been a while, hm? Although I guess I did just see you two days ago.”

Yashiro began trembling, eyes still fixed on Madara. “Why?”

Madara laughed, exasperated at the childish question. “Don’t call me for this sort of trivial thing, Itachi.”

They had decided in advance on a way to join up in an emergency. If Itachi kept an image of Madara in mind and emitted chakra, Madara would use his space-time ninjutsu, and appear before him.

“Sorry, but I chose Itachi. That’s all,” Madara said smoothly, and it appeared that Yashiro, still gaping up at him, had lost the will to say anything further. “Well, it’s probably no use, but you should try to resist as best you can.”

“H-hold on a—”

“I’ll leave the rest to you. I’m going to keep working,” Madara said to Itachi, and disappeared once more into thin air.

“The feeling when something you believed was absolute is made to crumble. Do you understand it a little too, now?”

“Hngh!”

Because of these men, Shisui had despaired for the clan, lost everything, and died. I hope this at least can be comfort to you, Itachi said to his friend.

“So, what are you going to do?” he asked, thinking it was pointless to ask, even as he waited for Yashiro’s answer. If Yashiro were the kind of man who would acknowledge his own crimes, he wouldn’t struggle so vainly like this.

“I-I really do understand how you feel. We’ll call off the coup d’état. S-so please …”

“Begging for your life?”

“Please! Itachi! Uchiha Itachi!”

Yashiro was beyond pathetic. He was conceited enough to think he could stop the coup at his own discretion. If he hadn’t been spurred on by Madara, the clan might have been able to go down a different path. When Itachi thought about this, a desire to kill so powerful it was strange even to him rose up in his heart.

“Stand up.” Itachi’s voice was emotionless, and Yashiro looked up at him, opening his narrow eyes as wide as possible. “You’re a ninja. How about standing up and fighting?”

Yashiro said nothing.

“Have you forgotten your pride?”

Trying to somehow rein in his fear, Yashiro yanked himself to his feet, shaking his head all the while. “Don’t underestimate me.”

“Show, don’t tell. How about you just come at me already?” Itachi said flatly, while before him, Yashiro’s eyes shone red.

Not moving to defend himself, Itachi looked straight at the sharingan.

Yashiro’s chakra became a spider’s thread called “visual jutsu,” and raced into Itachi’s body.

“Fire Style!” Yashiro shouted, took a very deep breath, and puffed out his cheeks. He panicked when nothing but air came out.

“What happened to the fire?”

“Huh?!” Yashiro cried out in honest surprise.

Itachi watched coolly. “You make my movements dull with the sharingan, and release Great Fireball Technique. Because you probably anticipate that I’ll leap out of the way, you bring me down in that defenseless moment with a kunai or something. Once you get the drop on me, now it’s time for close combat, so you use your sharingan one more time, and get one step ahead. That’s about it, right?”

He took a step toward Yashiro, who was rooted to the spot.

“Being good at getting along in the world and being good at being a ninja are two totally different things.”

“Ah, ah, ah.” Unable to produce words, Yashiro simply stood still, and waited for the approaching Itachi.

“Your brain was so controlled by fear that you didn’t even realize you were caught in my visual jutsu when you fell.”

Hearing this, Yashiro became aware for the first time that Itachi’s eyes were colored crimson.

“I told you to fight so you could truly feel your own powerlessness.”

“Ah, aah.” Saliva drooled out of Yashiro’s open mouth.

“You misjudged me to the bone.” Itachi’s sharingan changed. Mangekyo. “Tsukuyomi.”

The second Mangekyo sharingan of that night invited Yashiro into an unnatural darkness. Crucified on a cross standing in the center of a dark ocean, he whirled his head around in confusion.

The surface of the dark water rose up at points all over, and these gradually took on human form. Infinite Itachis. In their hands, they gripped ninja swords.

“This is a world I control,” Itachi murmured, his hand stretching out toward Yashiro.

“Ngaaah!”

His blade plunged into Yashiro’s stomach. The Itachi who thrust it disappeared into the dark ocean.

“I won’t let you die so easily.”

One blade after the next pierced Yashiro’s body. He became a silver hedgehog, and went limp, motionless. As Itachi returned to the ocean, the swords disappeared from Yashiro’s body. A look of relief rose up onto his face, until a herd of Itachis once more blanketed his field of view.

“The real pain starts now.”

Yashiro’s stiff face was transformed into a smile that was already beyond terror.

Over a span of time that wasn’t even a few seconds in the real world, the two faced each other silently. That moment would have seemed like several days to Yashiro. In the genjutsu space produced by the Mangekyo sharingan, swords were endlessly plunged into his body, over and over. By the time he was released to the real world, Yashiro’s mind was destroyed.

“D-death … D-d-d …” Yashiro trembled and grinned.

Itachi looked down on him, as he slowly drew his sword.

Yashiro was already beyond the capacity to hear his voice. And Itachi had nothing he could say to him at this stage.

His sword flashed mercilessly, and the pitiful man’s head flew up into the moonlit sky.

Itachi returned to the area near the entrance to the compound. There was just one family in the Uchiha compound left alive. Only Uchiha Fugaku’s family … 

Sasuke would be back soon. Although he felt the pressure to hurry, Itachi turned the feet that should have returned him to his house toward the entrance to the compound. He squatted on top of an electrical pole, and looked down at the world. He could clearly see the compound’s large front gates from there.

Behind them, the moon was full, almost frighteningly large. Devoid of any sense of people, the town was wrapped in silence. He could hear a crow cawing off in the distance. The melancholy echo called up the image of a raven separated from its group, drifting.

Someone slipped through the front gates. A boy carrying a bag on his shoulder. His beloved younger brother.

I should have talked so much more with him, Itachi thought, as he watched his brother running below him. He had so many things he wanted to say. Exactly how much of it would he be able to tell his little brother? One or two—no, he couldn’t tell him a single thing about the truth.

In amongst all the uncountable words in his heart, Itachi felt there was just one thing that he absolutely had to tell his brother.

Locking away in his heart the feelings he could not give voice to, Itachi flew toward his own house, leaving his little brother racing along the road home.

There were two auras in the room. As if lured by them, Itachi walked down the familiar hallway without taking his shoes off. Immediately after opening the door, he saw the figures of his parents sitting together.

He stood behind them soundlessly.

“I see. So you sided with them,” his father said in a controlled voice, without turning around. In his voice was a philosophical tone, as though he had understood everything.

“Dad …” Itachi was surprised at himself for automatically calling his father that. He had called him “Father” since the time he graduated from the academy. It was a distinction he drew for himself as a full-fledged ninja. And then, that name had gradually become natural, and he forgot even that he had ever called him “Dad.”

Why would he use that old way of referring to his father now?

When I was little … 

Back then, when there weren’t the obligations of the clan, the contradiction of the village, the loneliness, the discouragement; back when his feelings about his family could be simple, might have been the happiest time in Itachi’s life. And now that the parting with his family was before him, he was yearning for those old days.

“Mom …”

“We understand, Itachi.” Her voice was kind, understanding everything, and still trying to envelop him in a hug.

“Itachi,” his father said. “Promise me one thing.” His voice was straightforward, containing not a hint of resentment. “Take care of Sasuke.”

They both understand everything … 

He felt it instinctively, and the feelings he had suppressed since parting with Izumi bubbled back to life. His father and mother understood everything: how much Itachi had suffered and struggled, and also the fact that this had most certainly not been an easy decision. On top of that, they were going to quietly accept the fate that had befallen them.

His father hadn’t the slightest intention of crossing blades with his son. And if his father had turned his sword on him, his mother would have given her own life to protect Itachi. The love they felt for the son who was about to kill them radiated from them.

Why didn’t I realize it sooner … 

Why did it have to come to this … 

He had decided that he would not regret anything, he was supposed to have readied himself, and yet the figures of his mother and father pained Itachi’s heart so much he could hardly stand it.

“I will …” Tears spilled out of his eyes, and wet his cheeks. The hand holding his ninja sword shook.

“Don’t be afraid. This is the path you decided on.”

In the back of Itachi’s mind, the conversation he’d had with his father right after he joined the Anbu—their first in a long time—came back to life.

“You should stay true to your thinking. Fight, be confused, be lost, and come through that to find your answer. And once you find it, make your decision, and do not waver from it. Find your answer, and be ready to follow through. That is determination.”

“Determination … ”

“Yes. There are few people in this world who live their lives with their own determination. They leave their decisions to others, and avert their eyes from responsibility. You must not live like that at least. Move forward in your life, making your own decisions.”

This was the difficult, painful path he had decided on. He must not be afraid. That had been his father’s teaching.

“Compared with you, our pain will end in an instant.” His father was faced with death, and yet, was thinking about the life his son would lead after this. It was as though he were trying to teach Itachi with his own life just what love was.

“Maybe I was too hasty,” his father admonished himself. “I should have believed in you more. Perhaps I should have believed in you, got the clan in check, and waited.”

“Dad?” His voice was shaking with his tears. His mother and father had probably noticed that he was crying. The tears were the first he’d ever let anyone else see.

“You might have been the first Uchiha Hokage. You could have wiped away even the darkness of the clan, broken through the prejudice of the village, and forged a destiny with your own power—” His father cut himself off. Itachi could tell from his shaking back that he was trying to get his emotions under control. “I stole your future from you.”

Itachi couldn’t find anything to say in response. Or rather, if he said anything, his feelings would break completely free.

“But it’s too late for anything now.” His father took a deep breath through his nose. “Even if we think differently, I’m proud of you.”

My father’s pride … 

He had wanted to hear those words out in the sunlight. How happy would he have been to be wearing the Hokage’s hat in front of the people of the village, and hear that from his proudly smiling father?

Another dream that won’t come true now … 

He couldn’t waste any more time. His little brother was coming home.

He thrust the sword into his mother’s back. A jolt of intense pain raced through Itachi’s heart.

Pulling the sword out, he turned the tip toward his father.

“You’re actually such a gentle child.”

He lowered his head and leaned into his father, as if to press his face to that broad back. Almost like a child begging for a piggyback ride.

Now that he thought about it, his father had never spoiled him like that.

Itachi had never been selfish and troubled him, and he had never been spoiled or cried, either.

If only I had spent more time with him. Tears spilled endlessly from Itachi’s eyes. Without mercy, they continued to wet the hand clutching the sword.

The slight vibrations that were coming to him through the blade stopped completely. Once he felt that his father’s life had ended, he slowly pulled out his sword. Even at a time like this, he was thinking about blood spattering. He hated the Itachi that had the mindset of the ninja dyed into the marrow of his bones.

His hand wouldn’t stop shaking, but he managed to somehow get the sword back in its sheath.

One final job was left. Itachi wiped away his tears, and waited for the moment.

7

The sound of footsteps racing down the hallway stopped outside the door. “Father! Mother!” his brother shouted.

“Sasuke … You must not come in!” the father he had thought was dead shouted to the other side of the door. And then this time, he really did stop moving.

The door slowly opened. Spotting the figures of his mother and father collapsed on the ground, Sasuke flew into the room.

“Father!! Mother!!”

Itachi showed his brother a face hidden by the moonlight.

His little brother’s face was damp with sweat, and his eyes were twisted in fear. “Itachi!”

Sasuke took a step on trembling legs, and began to speak desperately, spreading both arms wide. “Itachi!! Itachi!! Father and Mother are—!! How?! Why?! Who would do such a—”

Itachi flung a kunai into the door behind Sasuke.

“Ngh!” A narrow cut appeared on the boy’s shoulder, exposed by the rip in his clothes.

“Foolish little brother … ” His final job. He would never be allowed to go back now.

Mangekyo sharingan … 

“Aaaaah!!”

Father … 

Blood spray.

Mother … 

Itachi … 

The Uchiha crest ripped apart.

Two people covered in blood … 

All the hatred he would leave behind, so his brother could live.

Crawling on the ground, almost licking it, Sasuke turned just his face toward Itachi. “Why … did you … ?”

“To measure my capacity.”

“… Measure your capacity? You … You killed them for that?”

“I had to.”

“What’s …” Power came back to his little brother’s body. “What’s wrong with you?!”

Unable to move properly after being caught by the Mangekyo sharingan, Sasuke simply leaned forward as if to start running, and fell over. Before him was the face of their father, the spark of life gone.

In that instant, his little brother got up, and flew from the room. He ran out of the house, and fled onto the street.

Fleeing showed an attachment to life. It was proof of a desire to live.

Finish it … 

He stood in front of his brother.

“It’s not true. My brother wouldn’t do this. Because—”

“Pretending to be the kind of brother you hoped for … was to determine your ability.”

Live.

“You will be an opponent to test my abilities. You have that potential in you.”

Live.

“You felt anger and hatred toward me. You’ve always hoped to surpass me, so I’ll let you live.”

Live.

“… For my sake.”

Live.

“Just like me, you have the power to awaken the Mangekyo sharingan. But there’s a catch.”

Sasuke stayed silent.

“You have to … kill your closest friend.”

Sasuke’s eyebrows shot up.

“Just as I did … ”

Sasuke’s eyebrows threatened to shoot off his forehead.

Live.

“That was you … You killed Shisui?!”

“And now I have the eyes.”

Live.

“In the main hall of Nakano shrine … Under the seventh tatami mat from the far right, there’s a secret clan meeting place.”

“What?!”

“There, you’ll find the true secret of why the visual jutsu of the Uchiha clan exists, and for what purpose.”

Sasuke’s face was full of questions.

“If you awaken it, then there will be three people who have the Mangekyo sharingan, including me. If that happens … heh, heh. Then I’ll be right in letting you live.”

Live.

“Right now … ”

Sasuke looked alarmed.

“You are not even worth killing.”

Live.

“Baby brother, you’re pathetic.”

Survive.

“If you want to kill me, settle for hating me! Hate me and live like the coward you are! Clinging to life without honor!”

Please.

“And someday, when you have the same eyes as I, come to me.”

Live through this reality that I’m leaving you … 

Trembling, his brother collapsed as though his strings had been cut.

Sasuke stuck his right leg out to brace himself, the eyes he looked at his older brother with filled with a crimson light.

Awakening.

And so, Sasuke gained another power to live. The timing was appropriate.

Itachi leapt up into the sky, about to disappear.

“Stop!!” His little brother flew up into the sky after him, and threw the three kunai that had appeared in his hand at some point.

Itachi held his breath at that sharpness. He dodged two. But he couldn’t completely get out of the way of the last one. He tilted his head slightly, and took it on his forehead protector; the force of the kunai undid the knot where it was tied. The kunai plunged into the ground, and Itachi’s forehead protector tumbled down next to it.

As his little brother charged him from behind, breathing hard, shoulders heaving, Itachi slowly picked up his forehead protector. Already using up the last of his strength, Sasuke wouldn’t be able move from the spot.

But Itachi didn’t have the luxury of worrying about the positioning of his forehead protector. With the Konoha mark facing off to the right, he tied it roughly. He wanted to get away from there as soon as possible.

Because Itachi was crying.

His feelings, supposedly frozen, were shaken by the figure of his little brother desperately, clumsily, awkwardly clinging to him. Sasuke was mustering every last ounce of strength he had to try and stop his big brother; Itachi loved this Sasuke so much he could hardly stand it. He even had the impulse to run away with him. But under no circumstances could he do that.

Sasuke had to walk in a place where the sun reached as a ninja of the village. Itachi’s life from that point on would be in the darkness. They would never live in the same place again. Not until Itachi’s final days. Only then would a chance meeting in their lives be permitted.

The hero who killed his older brother, an evil criminal, and took vengeance for their clan. That was the glory that Sasuke would be given. For that purpose, Itachi would come face to face with his little brother one more time.

He would be killed by his brother. That was the form of Itachi’s death. To that end, he could not allow Sasuke to see him crying.

He pressed his forehead protector onto his head, and steeled himself.

Farewell for now.

Itachi’s body moved faster than his thoughts. Before he knew it, his little brother was in his field of view. At that moment, he understood for the first time that he was looking back. His desire to burn the image of his brother into his mind had moved his body.

But that was another thing he could not be permitted.

A mistake … 

Because Itachi could feel the hot tears streaming down his cheeks. He quickly turned away from his brother, and resumed his jump. The aura of Sasuke collapsing behind him, he leaped into the moonlit night, not bothering to wipe away his tears.

The full moon, full of such beauty he wanted to rip it to pieces, was so hateful to Itachi he could hardly stand it.

Not even an hour had passed since Itachi’s departure, when the Anbu convened in the village to collect the bodies.

Danzo walked down a road covered in corpses. He had just left Hiruzen. Upon learning of Itachi’s evil act, the Hokage was furious, and he turned the brunt of that on Danzo. Before he made it out of the Hokage’s office, he had been dismissed as councilor, and made to promise to dissolve the Foundation.

But now that the tragedy of the annihilation of the Uchiha clan had been achieved, there was no reason for him to cling to the role of councilor. And even if the Foundation were officially dismantled, it was still more than possible for them to go underground and maneuver in secret, away from Hiruzen’s eyes. In the end, Danzo got what he wanted.

“Lord Danzo!” A man wearing a fox mask with red markings on it.

“What’s wrong, Gozu?” Danzo called his subordinate by name.

Gozu was silent.

The instant he saw the two openings in the mask hidden under a hood, Danzo gasped.

Red eyes with a pattern like three magatamas mixed together in the center … 

“You!”

“I’ll always be watching,” Itachi—dressed as Gozu—said. “If you lay a hand on Sasuke, I’ll leak all the village’s secrets to enemy lands.”

“You should know what that will bring down upon the village, Itachi.”

“I’m outside the village now.”

“I thought you were a capable pawn …  It does seem that I misjudged you.”

“If you lay a hand on Sasuke, I will destroy you. Carve that into your soul.” Itachi turned into countless crows, and vanished.

“Don’t take your eyes off of him,” Danzo muttered to no one; in his ears, he heard the sound of insect wings.

“Sneaking all the way in here without anyone noticing. You really are a capable ninja.” The third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, smiled as he sat up in his futon. “So, I suppose you determined that no one will be able to hear us in here?”

“Yes,” Itachi replied, kneeling in front of the futon.

“I’ve already marked your name down in the Bingo Book as an S-rank criminal. You shouldn’t be able to infiltrate the village, much less sneak all the way into my bedroom. Will you tell me what you wanted to talk with me about that you would go to such lengths?”

“It’s about Sasuke.”

“No need to worry. That child’s done nothing wrong. We will take care of him as one of the children of the village.”

The Hokage’s strong words eased Itachi’s heart. “Thank you. But … ”

“Is it Danzo?”

“Yes.” Itachi was grateful to the Hokage’s powers of insight, as sharp as the sharingan. On the other hand, he also hated them.

If Hiruzen was so gifted at reading the minds of others, then why couldn’t he have managed to find a way to cooperate with the Uchiha clan? Itachi did have the urge to press the older man about the issue, but he knew it would do no good thinking about that now.

It wouldn’t change the fact that Itachi was an S-rank criminal. The entire Uchiha clan, with the exception of the brothers, Itachi and Sasuke, was destroyed. That was reality.

“No need to worry about Danzo. He’s been formally dismissed as councilor, and I also ordered him to disband the Foundation.”

“Will he meekly follow orders?”

“He has already stepped down as councilor. The Foundation has been disbanded, on the surface. But I cannot deny the possibility that he is cultivating it in secret somewhere. I ordered the people who were watching the Uchiha clan to monitor him now.”

There was no longer any need to monitor the Uchiha clan. The third Hokage’s words dug into Itachi’s heart.

“Fear not, Itachi. I will not allow him to lay a finger on Sasuke.”

“I appreciate that.” Itachi bowed his head deeply. “Well, then … ” He stood up, and turned his back to the Hokage.

“What will you do now?”

“There’s an organization I’m interested in,” Itachi replied, eyes still on the door.

“So, you’ll join them?”

“Yes. I’ll watch them from the inside, and if it looks like they’re going to act out, I will do whatever I have to to stop them.”

“Even leaving the village, you are still more than anything a ninja who loves peace, hm?”

Itachi felt that he was still a ninja of Konoha, even then. The village of Konohagakure, where Sasuke lived, was Itachi’s home. Even if he wanted to abandon it, he could not.

“What’s the name of this organization?”

“Akatsuki … ”

“How about you show yourself?” Itachi muttered to no one in the middle of the deserted woods. His voice had not even faded away, when a small flame flickered to life in the empty space. It burned ferociously for a moment, before quickly growing smaller and disappearing. Only a faint scattering of ashes remained. Among the ashes dancing in midair was a piece of a transparent wing. “You’re here, aren’t you? Aburame man.”

“I called myself Sugaru before you, yes?”

A myriad of small winged insects came together in the forest, where there had previously been nothing, to create an enormous dark form in empty space. The buzzing of their wings layered together to form words that reached Itachi’s ears.

“You’re not interested in giving up on watching me, and going back to your master?”

“You also understand that such a thing would not be permitted, don’t you?”

“No, huh?”

The insects gradually took on a human shape. A man wearing a white tiger mask appeared out of the ether, and floated in midair accompanied by the sound of countless tiny wings.

“I don’t plan on being Danzo’s pawn forever.”

“He does not care about your desires. For him, the most important things are what he should do, and how he should be.”

“So, a stalemate.” Itachi looked up at Sugaru. “Then there’s only one way to resolve this.” His sharingan glittered.

“That sort of thing has no effect on me.”

“Not on you.” Itachi concentrated his chakra, and boosted his sharingan to the Mangekyo sharingan. He was conscious of the eyes of the insects in Sugaru’s body, too many to count.

He felt a dull pain in his right eye. It was because he had been overusing the sharingan ever since that night.

“You said that you’re always watching me. But you’re only one person. You eat and sleep. So who’s watching me, then?”

“No need to speak in such a roundabout manner …  Oh … ”

“It seems you’ve noticed.”

Something seemed to be wrong with Sugaru, floating in space. It looked like he was desperately fighting something, his body jerking and twitching.

“Did you think I hadn’t noticed the insects watching over me?”

“Impossible …  The Mangekyo sharingan on my kochu insects … ”

“By sharing your chakra, you assimilate what the insects have seen into your own experience. It’s a more effective method than Shadow Clones.”

The sound of wings disappeared from within Sugaru. At the same time, his body, suddenly gaining gravity, was sucked down to the surface of the earth. Unable to control his body, Sugaru plunged into the ground headfirst, incapable of even landing.

“Ngh. Unh unh unh.” Sugaru’s injured vocal cords emitted a real groan.

Itachi looked down on him coolly. “This is for Shisui.”

“W-wait … ”

“Amaterasu,” he murmured.

A black flame sprouted on Sugaru’s shoulder. The strange blaze spread, in the blink of an eye, to swallow his entire body. As if trying to abandon their burning host, the insects fled from every hole, but they were all caught up in the dark blaze.

“This fire will not go out until whatever I’m looking at has completely burned up. I won’t let even one of the insects nesting in you escape.”

Sugaru’s cries of agony rang out through the forest. Around him, insects buzzed and fluttered, shrouded in dark flames. They looked almost like black fireflies that bloomed in the daytime.

“I still can’t believe it,” her former teammate said, staring into the teacup in her hand; Shinko let out a sigh, turning a sympathetic gaze her way. “I mean, that that Itachi would do something like that.” A tear spilled out of Himuka’s eyes, and a small ripple rose up on the surface of the light green liquid in her cup.

“I can’t believe it, neither, but facts’re facts.”

“But, senpai!”

“I’m not yer senpai no more! Quit with calling me that already.”

“It’s just—”

“C’mon, have a dumpling and feel better.” Shinko offered Himuka one of the sweet bean dumplings set out on the bench.

“Thank you,” the other girl said, as she took a skewer of the tiny round treats, opened her tiny mouth as wide as she could, and stuffed a dumpling in. “It’s really good,” she said, smiling.

Shinko smiled back as she turned toward the road, and looked up at the sky. A single bird danced in the clear blue. It was a strange bird, carving out circles in the sky like a hawk or an eagle.

“So, like, I sorta kinda get it, ya know.”

“What’s that?” Himuka asked, popping another dumpling in her mouth.

“That kid mighta been six years younger ‘an me, but he was way more grownup,” Shinko answered, still looking up at the sky.

“I know what you mean. I mean, I’m older than him, but I just naturally ended up calling him ‘Master Itachi.’”

“An’ he had all kinds of annoying things he was carryin’ around, so I think maybe he just reached his limit, yeah? I mean, I heard he even killed that cute girl he brought here that one time. He’s not the sort of kid to do that. Not that Itachi.”

If they kept talking, she’d start crying, too. Shinko desperately pushed back the hot thing welling up in her chest.

“I suppose you’re right. So, he did have a girlfriend, after all,” Himuka murmured, head hanging.

As if to banish her tears, Shinko turned around forcefully. “So, like, that mean you fancied Itachi, then?”

“N-no, that’s—”

“Not gonna be straight with me, hm?” She sprang at Himuka, and poked her in the side.

Her former junior teammate began laughing.

Shinko murmured, too quietly to be heard, “It’s all right. I get it … ” She was casually wiping away the tears that leaked from her eyes once more, when she heard the voice of the owner calling from inside the shop.

Whatever happened, life still went on.

“Did you take care of that little annoyance?”

Itachi nodded silently at the man sitting on the enormous stump. They were on a rocky mountain near the border between nations. The trees around them were neatly felled, revealing the bare earth. The wind gusted ceaselessly across the desolate landscape. Withstanding these gusts that threatened to blow him away, Itachi stood facing the man in the mask.

“So, then, what will you do?” The mask covering the man’s face, patterned after a vortex, turned toward Itachi. The round hole in the area of the man’s right eye stared at him.

Uchiha Madara.

“I’m an S-rank criminal. No matter where I go, people will be after me.”

“Did you think about what we talked about before? I should think it would be quite convenient to protect a wanted man like you.”

“Right … ”

“I’ll introduce you to a truly interesting man,” Madara said, and turned his face toward empty space.

“Right. Call him.” He appeared to be talking with someone via chakra. “It’s been a while, hm? There’s just someone I want you to meet. Right. Oh, go through Pain, and send your chakra here. Align your chakra with Pain.”

Madara looked at Itachi once more. “He’s here.”

A rainbow-colored wave rose up in the nothingness next to the stump Madara was sitting on. It shimmered and shook fiercely for a while, but then gradually took on the shape of a human, until finally becoming the clear figure of a man. A man Itachi had seen before.

“Oh my, it’s been a while, hm, Itachi?” the rainbow-colored vision uttered in a creepy voice that sent a chill up his spine.

“You … ” Itachi murmured.

Madara raised his voice. “One of the legendary Sannin … Orochimaru.”

“Strange for you to be so sarcastic about it.” The corners of the rainbow phantom’s mouth curled up slightly.

“Perhaps I’m a little overexcited at the situation.”

“Heh, heh, heh. That’s not like you.”

“I suppose.”

As he listened to this conversation between the two, carried on in the familiar tones of old friends, Itachi’s thoughts drifted elsewhere.

Orochimaru was a serious criminal who performed forbidden experiments on people before he was chased out of the village by the third Hokage. And together with Jiraiya and Tsunade, he had been named a “legendary Sannin” in the Second Shinobi World War, where he had been feared by many ninjas. Uchiha Madara was a ninja of legend from the founding of Konohagakure. Both were so powerful that there wasn’t a ninja in the world who didn’t know their names. And these two had joined and maneuvered in secret with the organization Akatsuki. What on earth were they planning?

He couldn’t simply let this go.

“We met any number of times while I was in the village. I suppose it’s been nine years then, Itachi.”

He hadn’t been particularly close with the man. Back when Orochimaru was still in the village, Itachi knew him well enough to say hello. They were not friendly enough for the intimate way Orochimaru spoke to him.

“You left the village six years ago.”

“Oh my, is that so? I’ve been reborn once since then. Using forbidden jutsu, of course.”

Orochimaru had been doing experiments on people from the time he was in the village, so Itachi wasn’t especially surprised that he had managed to be reborn.

“This jutsu, in exchange for offering the user eternal time, slightly dulls your perception of time. You’ve had the experience of not being sure if you ate a certain meal yesterday or the day before that, haven’t you? For me, ten years is no different from ten days ago.”

Itachi stayed silent.

“Heh, heh. None of that matters, though, does it? This man brought you and I together for an altogether different reason, yes?” The phantom’s lips stretched out to the sides, like a snake’s mouth. “If you were to join Akatsuki, I too would find it heartening.”

“Are there any other ninjas who were in Konohagakure?”

“Me and this man, and if you join, that will be just three.”

“I see.” From Orochimaru’s words, he assumed there were also ninjas from other villages in Akatsuki.

A darkness was beginning to squirm in a place beyond the villages.

“That village could only maintain its peace by eliminating our clan. And the ninja is a creature that can only make its presence known by forcing others to yield. I wouldn’t mind seeing what kind of measures they come up with against your organization.”

“That answer is very you.” Orochimaru laughed mysteriously.

Madara ignored him, and stood up. “Welcome to Akatsuki.”

Itachi took the proffered right hand. It was frightfully cold, a hand in which no trace of blood could be felt, so cold he almost wondered if the leather glove that covered it was frozen.

“All right, then. I’ll take my leave. We’ll meet again, Itachi.” The phantom of Orochimaru disappeared into thin air.

“Shall we go, then?”

“Where?”

“First, the village of Amegakure, where our base is.” Madara’s eyes, peering out from behind his mask, shone red.

Suddenly, Danzo’s words came back to life in Itachi’s mind: “Chaos will follow you throughout your life.”

At that moment, Itachi was about to step into the vortex of the people trying to create chaos. That night, he had lost the light of hope, along with his clan.

Be the best ninja, ascend to Hokage, use that position freely to lead the world to peace, and then … 

Rid this world of all fighting.

That was the path of hope he had envisioned. He had lost everything.

But.

Even if hope was lost, the dream remained. Even if he didn’t walk down the path of hope, he could still chase after his dream of ridding the world of fighting. If he was the possessor of bad luck, then so be it. If it was Itachi’s destiny to constantly call chaos, he would use that to his full advantage.

He would draw all the fighting and disaster and hatred of people in this world into his heart. He trusted that he would be able to realize his dream by positioning himself in the center of the vortex. Fight, fight, fight through, and beyond that … 

His little brother awaited him. In the world of peace that would come, once he had swallowed the chaos. In the center of it stood Sasuke, the hero who struck down his older brother—the personification of great sin.

The darkness is my dream’s partner … Itachi ran after Madara. Above his head, a single bird flew, as though accompanying him. Spreading out before him was an eternal darkness. Even so, on Itachi’s mouth, a divine, sublime smile rose up.

His little brother was at the end of this path.

“I’ll be waiting for you, Sasuke.”

Itachi’s last journey was beginning.

Was the world truly saved by sealing away Otsutsuki Kaguya?

No, it wasn’t. If the Infinite Tsukuyomi was released, and people returned to their old way of living again, they would no doubt make the same mistakes.

What’s truly terrifying is not enormous evil. It’s the little evil nesting in the hearts of people … 

My older brother knew that. He bore these evils in himself, and died a criminal who wanted peace more than anyone else.

So then, what should I do?

Only the truly strong can see the weakness in the hearts of people, take in their evil feelings, and continue to live despite that.

Only I can do it … 

So then, I will. I’ll walk down the path that my brother gave his life to show me.

“Revolution.”

masashi kishimoto

Author/artist Masashi Kishimoto was born in 1974 in
rural Okayama Prefecture, Japan. Like many kids, he
was first inspired to become a manga artist in elementary
school when he read Dragon Ball by Akira Toriyama. After
spending time in art college, he won the Hop Step Award
for new manga artists with his story Karakuri. After
considering various genres for his next project, Kishimoto
decided on a story steeped in traditional Japanese culture.
His first version of Naruto, drawn in 1997, was a one-shot
story about fox spirits; his final version, which debuted in
Weekly Shonen Jump in 1999, quickly became the most popular
ninja manga in the world. The series would also spawn
multiple anime series, movies, novels, video games and more.
Having concluded the series in late 2014, Masashi Kishimoto
has kept himself busy this year with the sidestory Naruto: The
Seventh Hokage and the Scarlet Spring and writing the story
for the latest Naruto movie, Boruto: Naruto the Movie both
of which focus on the title character’s son, Boruto.

takashi yano

Takashi Yano won the Shosetsu Subaru Newcomer Award
in 2008 with Jashu. He has published a number of
works since then as an expert on period dramas. He
is also active in a number of other places, including
writing the story for the Assassin’s Creed 4 manga.