Naruto 1. Chapter 1

** I do not own Naruto!**

**xXXXx**

Dream: a succession of images, sounds or emotions that the mind experiences during sleep. It takes sensory memory and provides feedback senses, resulting in hallucinations inside the mind. It can use feelings as stimulation, sometimes positive feelings, and sometimes negative feelings, which can cause nightmares.

Shisui had dreamt before. He could recall that strange numb feeling you had while dreaming, that you only noticed you had felt after you had woken up. He was feeling numb at the moment, but he couldn't tell if it was the same dreamy state. Maybe he would know if he woke up.

He had dreamt of ridiculous things, like rock climbing the hokage monument while reciting kana tables, or running about the Uchiha compound, catching loose flamingos. He had attempted lucid dreaming a few times, interested with the idea, but never could seem to get it and decided casting a genjutsu on yourself would be easier.

He had had his fair share of nightmares, too, but that came with being a shinobi. He had redreamt missions he would rather never go on again, he had dreamt different, more gruesome outcomes if he had messed up on an important mission. He had dreamt of all the lives he could have screwed up if he failed to keep someone alive or kill another.

But now, Shisui couldn't tell if he was dreaming or not.

It must have been a dream, because even though Fugaku acted like a bastard in front of everyone, he loved his family. He would never do anything like this, he would never kill Sasuke. Or leave Itachi alone.

There wouldn't be three bodies, three slit throats. Fugaku wouldn't have done that to his family. The man was convinced it was a horrible way to die, to feel your skin, jugular, and throat sliced open. To desperately gulp for air and breathe in the blood that's slowly leaving your body, feeling your limbs run cold as the blood pours and you eventually drown in it. Some people thought it was a quick way to die, but when you were dying, everything was slower. It was like your body was acknowledging the fact that you're leaving the world, and took in everything slower, just to experience it for the last time. Fugaku always hated finding comrade's bodies that had this done to them.

If this was a real, there wouldn't be the cliche rain falling and darkening the already somber mood, even though it was sunny earlier. There wouldn't be a pie cooling in the window, sitting innocently as if it was made just an hour ago. Now it was soaked with the sudden storm, rain water pooling in the plate it was resting on. Shisui wouldn't be smelling it from where he was, even though it was definetely ruined. Maybe it was his imagination, but he couldn't help but inhale the apple and cinnamon. Mikoto always made it when Itachi came back from a gruesome Anbu mission, to try and lighten his mood. It was his favorite, even though he never said it, but she knew. She called it her 'Mother's intuition'.

And Itachi.

He wouldn't have showed up just as they were bringing out the body of his _dead little brother_, both siblings _covered_ in blood. He wouldn't have stood there, staring, as they zipped up the corpse in a body bag. He would have run over and saved his little brother, by any means possible, even if it meant using a forbidden jutsu to bring him back to life. He would have killed the bastards for even thinking about acting as if his brother was dead.

He wouldn't have that panic and helplessness and confusion and fucking _pure agony_ completely filling his eyes. He wouldn't be shaking, as if his legs were about to give out, he wouldn't be pale as a sheet even though the blood's contrast with his skin made him look pale anyways.

And he certainly wouldn't have completely swept his face of all emotion, so much that it was different from his normal mask of indifference. He wouldn't have turned around and started walking towards the clan's training grounds as if he hadn't seen what was happening at his house in the first place.

If this was real, Shisui wouldn't have just stood there and watched his baby cousin walk away without trying to consol him in any way.

But even so, as he watched Itachi trudge up the road, with Mikoto's and Sasuke's and Fugaku's body behind him, he knew he had just seen Itachi die as well.

If only he were dreaming.

_Moonlight and dew-drenched blossom, and the scent_

Of summer gardens; these can bring you all

Those dreams that in the starlit silence fall:

Sweet songs are full of odours.

While I went

Last night in drizzling dusk along a lane,

I passed a squalid farm; from byre and midden

Came the rank smell that brought me once again

A dream of war that in the past was hidden.

~ Siegfried Sassoon

Itachi was in the training grounds like Shisui expected.

He was currently practicing taijutsu on a dead tree, which was already worn down from years of abuse. The younger Uchiha showed no sign he sensed the other's presence, only continued on battering the defensless trunk. Shisui didn't say anything when he arrived, he just sat down against a tree off to the side, letting Itachi continue. Itachi went on as if he wasn't even there, going through different forms in different fighting styles, and then going through nearly every jutsu he knew, even ones he perfected, until his fingers were bruised from making so many different handsigns repeatedly. When he had gone over everything twice, he went back on to attacking the tree, until his legs were heavily bruised and scratched from kicking and his knuckles were bleeding from punching. His eyes were devoid of the Sharingan, dull, emotionless. Shisui wondered what was going through the teens mind, having killed god knows how many people on an S-rank mission and then coming home to all of his immediate family dead. But he couldn't tell, because Itachi was still silent, beating up his own body more than the tree now with every strike, not even wincing when a new wound formed on his skin. Shisui needed to stop this.

He stood up, quickly walking towards Itachi and catching a punch that was aimed at the tree. His hand moved backwards slightly, and he wasn't surprised Itachi's hands were bleeding from how much force he was putting behind his punches.

Itachi looked up at him, his face still emotionless, his eyes still dead. Shisui winced.

"Stop," he pleaded. Itachi made no move to get his hand back, nor did he show any emotion, but his gaze traveled to the tree. Shisui's eyes narrowed slightly. God, was this going to finally break him? Shisui knew from experience that hiding your feelings could be counterproductive. He found himself completely destroying the very ground they were standing in one of his fits of pent up rage, and had, multiple times, been on the recieving end of Itachi's own breakdowns. It's why they were so close; they knew the pressures of being a genius and shinobi of a clan that was already known for being perfect.

"They were killed this morning," Shisui told him. Itachi's expression didn't change, but he flinched slightly. The older Uchiha didn't know whether to go on or not. The rain was coming down harder, and Itachi had taken his Anbu armor off, which was most likely making him colder since he was now only wearing a short sleeved thin shirt made for summer wear and thin pants made for flexibility. He was shivering.

He wasn't going to walk away from this unscathed.

So now the question going through Shisui's mind was; would it be better for someone to tear down the dam and let the water drain, so that other people could keep them from sinking? Or keep up the walls and drown?

"Fugaku slit their throats."

Itachi flinched so hard it was like he almost cowered away from Shisui, and he angled his face so that it was hidden. The lack of noise coming from Itachi unnerved him, pressing him to go on further. If Itachi wouldn't do it, Shisui would tear down the walls himself. Even though it had pained him, he had the police officers there relay anything they knew to him. He didn't want them to tell Itachi in that dull and ruthless voice that said _it didn't really matter, they lived in a world where people dealt with this everyday._ And it made Shisui want to scream, since he was doing the exact same thing he tried to keep his cousin away from.

"He stabbed himself with his father's katana afterwards-"

"Shut up!"

The sudden exclaimation halted Shisui's words, and he stared at Itachi as the ragged pants from the younger became louder, and the slight trembling Shisui confused with being cold earlier escalated into violent shaking.

"This is a nightmare..." The whisper was so quiet that Shisui had to strain his ears to hear. But then it was repeated, and Shisui felt his heart sink. He wished it was.

"They're dead, Itachi," Shisui whispered almost as quietly. "You saw them."

The older Uchiha didn't know what happened, time moved so fast to him, but suddenly Itachi was kneeling on the ground, face turned down into his knees, clawing at the hand still holding his wrist. He looked younger than he usually acted, curled in on himself like that. So much younger. He looked his _age_. Shisui blinked in surprise, his brain still registering what was happening. Why couldn't his mind keep up? He looked down at his broken cousin, and remembered the emotions swirling around in his eyes when he saw his family's bodies. All of that was still bottled up inside that small thirteen year old boy, and Shisui wasn't doing a damn thing.

He kneeled down beside him, and Itachi's hand shifted so that he was holding onto Shisui's hand as if he would shatter if he let go. Shisui stared at him still, seeing how his forehead was pressed against his knees and how his eyes were squeezed shut as he tried to even out his breathing through clenched teeth. Holding on to Shisui like this was Itachi's reminder that someone was watching him, so he couldn't break down. He had to be perfect.

Shisui leaned forward and wrapped his free arm around Itachi's shoulder, pulling the younger one closer to him.

_But it was getting so damn hard to. _

Shisui shifted their positions so that the rain wasn't beating down directly on Itachi, and noticed how his shaking decreased slightly. The hand wrapped around the younger's shoulder rubbed against his arm, trying to warm him in some way.

"You can let it out, you know," he told him, leaning down so he could hear him over the roar of the downpour. "I won't think any less of you, 'Tachi."

There was a moment's pause, as if Itachi were actually thinking about it, before the grip on Shisui's hand tightened even more if possible and Itachi pressed the side of his face into Shisui's shirt, even though both were completely sopping wet from the rain. The warmth from Shisui was welcome in the freezing temperatures and the arm around his shoulder comforted him in such a way that he knew he wasn't going to shatter, even as his shoulders were heaving with the sobs he tried his best to keep quiet.

Was this misery? Was this agony, lonliness? He couldn't put a name to some of these emotions, he had kept so many concealed for such a long time. He couldn't describe it in any ways other than it felt like his chest would cave in, like his stomach was trying to jump out of his mouth, and he thought he would be happy to die right then and there. At first he thought it still might have been some cruel joke- Kami, his body wouldn't stop fucking shaking. There's no way his father would do any of that stuff. But then he felt the slight trembling coming from the body he was pressed against, and glanced up to find Shisui taking measured breaths, his eyes closed tightly as droplets the younger knew weren't rain ran down his face. And then he knew this wasn't a joke, because Shisui would never cry in front of others. He would just smile and try to cheer people up. It wasn't in his nature to cry, not when he recieved a near fatal and painful wound that had other men begging for death, not when his own bottled up emotions got the better of him. Not even when his brother's team brought him a hitae ite in place of their missing teammate during the war. He didn't cry then. He just clutched the worn down leaf symbol to his chest and tried to calm his mother down with a carefully blank face. He didn't cry at the funeral a week later for Obito and his mother, who had died the day before from blood loss and slit wrists.

He never cried in front of someone. So why was he crying now? The answer left a throbbing sharp pain in his chest. They really were dead.

Kami, he was never going to see them again. He was never going to train with his father again, something he enjoyed even though he hated at the same time. There wasn't denying that fact that he had actually had fun, even though he knew he was just being pushed to kill faster. He noticed that proud and exhilerated look in his father's eyes as they sparred. He was never going to hug his mother again, even though it was her who always initiated the hugs, while he secretly enjoyed them. He was never going to play with Sasuke again.

Oh Kami, he was never going to see Sasuke again. The death of his parents was something he would have been able to deal with, but now that Sasuke's gone...Ever since that night he came home from a mission with bloodstained hands, which Sasuke saw but still hugged him, he had subconsciously made it a goal to try and keep that innocent light in his face as long as possible. Itachi had seen what life really was like far too soon. He was almost surprised that Sasuke had made it so far as to eight without seeing a dead body when was living in a compound full of lethal shinobi, in a world where people were paid to kill others daily. Itachi had thought that maybe he was just paranoid, that it was maybe even post traumatic stress from the war.

He had almost _tried_ to be the best at some point, so his father would look at him instead of Sasuke and push _him_ instead to kill and kill and kill. But then he would see how Sasuke would feel neglected, and the guilt it brought on would hamper his ability to accomplish everything and anything. He didn't know what to do at one point. He knew Sasuke would be subjected to killing one day or another, but _God_, he didn't want Sasuke to be like him.

But now it didn't matter. Sasuke was dead.

Shisui kept his arm around Itachi for a while longer, but how Itachi was still shivering and how he was on the verge of being too cold convinced him they needed to leave. Itachi was more composed now, but his eyes still had that frighteningly blank look in them. Crying never really was Itachi's thing, even when he was miserable.

"We'll get sick," Shisui told him. The rain was still coming down, but not as hard as before. Without a word, Itachi pulled away and stood, waiting for Shisui to stand as well. He didn't meet Shisui's eyes. It was almost as if he was ashamed by his display of emotion.

Shisui stood up as Itachi retrieved his Anbu armor and dumped out the water that had pooled in the chest plate. He was already shivering again, though obviously trying not to, and Shisui rubbed his own arms.

"I got dango at my house," the older of the two offered. He knew that the police were still investigating the crime scene at Itachi's house, and going home to that was one of the last things Shisui thought would be healthy for his cousin.

Itachi gave a small nod, and paused for a second until Shisui had reached him before walking alongside him in the direction of Shisui's house, walking closer to him than he usually would. Shisui noticed, of course, but acted like he didn't for the sake of Itachi's pride, which he knew was already damaged from the earlier breakdown.

Shisui decided that he was going to make sure Itachi made it through this, even if he was put through hell because of it. After a long, hot shower and comfort food, of course.

**xXXXx**

Mmm, I thought it would kinda longer... Oh well.

YES, this is a yaoi. YES, this is my first one, so please don't hate too much T.T Constructive criticism is appreciated! :D And if there are spelling mistakes, please excuse them T.T I don't have a beta and don't normally notice my mistakes until someone points them out.

TBC! 


	2. Chapter 2

** I do not own Naruto!**

**xXXXx**

Even though Shisui had wanted to avoid the police for Itachi's sake, there was one waiting at his door for them. A scowl quickly slipped onto his face. The police officer raised his chin defiantly in response, turning in such a way so that the Police insignia was clearly visible.

"We have a few questions for you," the officer said, pointedly looking at Itachi. Shisui narrowed his eyes and stepped in front of Itachi. This was _not_ something his cousin needed to be dealing with right now.

"Back off," Shisui warned, even going as far as activating his Sharingan when the Officer took a threatening step towards him with his own Sharingan activated. Shisui was not afraid to use the powers his bloodline gave him if it meant getting Itachi safely through that door.

A hand touched Shisui's arm, and he looked at it in surprise.

"It's fine," Itachi's quiet voice told him as the shorter Uchiha by a few inches stepped forward. Shisui hesitated, and Itachi looked up and met his eyes. Shisui winced. He looked so tired, it was obvious to see, and he looked like he just wanted to get this over with. The older couldn't argue with the look in those eyes, so Shisui backed down, frowning. Itachi attempted a small grateful smile for him, but it came out as a grimace.

_'Like this,'_ Shisui found himself thinking, smiling like Itachi had tried to. This time Itachi managed the smile, and the hand still on Shisui's arm gave a small squeeze as if to tell him it was alright for now.

"What do you need to know?" Itachi asked the officer. His voice was soft; not like he was trying to be nice to the officer, but more like he simply couldn't find the energy to put more effort in his voice. The officer backed down more when faced with the Uchiha prodigy, even though Itachi's voice couldn't have been quieter and the paleness of his skin made him look frail.

The officer gulped. "We need to know if you've noticed anything weird about... Fugaku in this past few days or so. All the evidence points to what he did, but with how he did it..." Shisui almost stepped up then, about to ask the officer if he was _really_ going to put Itachi through this, but Itachi shot him a look over his shoulder. Shisui frowned and shut his mouth. Itachi looked back at the officer.

"I didn't notice anything off the last few times I saw him," Itachi stated. Shisui thought he even sounded tired. "But I've been gone on a mission the past few days, so I wouldn't know if anything happened after I left... _Did_ something happen?" Itachi turned to Shisui after the officer shrugged.

"Nothing happened at clan meetings," Shisui said slowly, shrugging sadly. "...If it was family issues I would have heard about it through my dad..." Itachi pursed his lips, and to Shisui's eyes he almost seemed to deflate a little. But when the Uchiha prodigy turned back to the officer, Shisui saw something unknown flare in his eyes as he turned.

"There's an investigation, isn't there?" he asked, his voice hard. Shisui widened his eyes at the sudden change in Itachi. Instead of slouched, like he had been, he was more tense and standing straighter. The officer must have noticed the change, too, because he widened his eyes and corrected his own posture, almost as if he was facing a higher-ranked officer instead of a chuunin at least ten years his junior.

"We're still sweeping the scene for evidence," he reported.

"Any other evidence suggesting murder-suicide? Is there a note?"

"There isn't a note, but the kunai we found had both the victim's blood on it and the only finger prints were Fugaku's." Shisui winced for his cousin when he showed no reaction to his father's name.

"Have you interrogated the neighbors?" Itachi went on. Shisui knew why the officer was acting like this now, even going as far as calling Itachi 'sir'. Itachi was almost the spitting image of his father right now.

"Yes, sir. The Atsushi family was out that day, but Kazuo-san said he heard yelling. He knocked on the door, but no one answered, and when he checked again later and there was still no answer he got worried. He said the lights were on, so they couldn't have been out, but it was too early for all of them to be asleep."

Shisui began listing suspects in his mind as Itachi continued talking with the officer.. He knew all evidence they had pointed to murder-suicide, but Fugaku would _not_ have slit their throats.

Kazuo was off the list; he was too old and had back problems. So were the Atsushi's; the husband wasn't as strong as others in the clan, so he couldn't have taken on Fugaku _and_ Mikoto, who could fight even though she had the appearance of a normal house wife. He also knew about Fugaku's views on killing, so he wouldn't have been stupid enough to kill them like that. The wife wasn't from the clan, and she was a civilian. Their son was still in the Academy.

_It must have been someone from the clan..._ Shisui thought, even though the idea made him sick. No one else could have taken on the head of the Uchiha clan and his wife without the Sharingan and left the house in one peice.

But even of they did have Sharingan, the house wouldn't have been perfectly immaculate. It must have been someone of Anbu level who had slipped inside the house and made quick work of them, then arranged the bodies to make it look like murder-suicide.

So who was Anbu level in the clan who wasn't close to Fugaku?

The only people of Anbu level in the clan he knew of were him, Itachi, Fugaku, and Inabi. He knew Itachi wouldn't have done it, that was pure common sense, and Inabi practically worshipped the ground Fugaku walked on. He couldn't rule out Inabi completely, though, but it was unlikely- hold on. Something didn't match.

_Perfectly imaculate...?_

"Wait," Shisui said out loud, making Itachi and the officer stop talking. Shisui glanced at Itachi, frowning at the careful mask he had on, before looking at the officer. "How clean was the house?" The officer blinked once in confusion at the sudden question.

"... Completely clean except for the murder scenes," the officer- Shisui just remembered his name was Seiji- answered. Shisui frowned.

"It doesn't make sense..." he mumbled, averting his eyes in thought. Itachi turned to him.

"What do you mean?" he asked. Shisui looked at him.

"You were always telling me Sasuke made messes faster than Mikoto could clean them," he stated, feeling a pang in his chest when Itachi couldn't keep his mask perfect enough to hide the wince at Sasuke's name. "That pie in the window was only a few hours old, so if Mikoto had her hands full with that then there's no way the house should be perfectly clean." Itachi's eyes widened in realization as Shisui explained.

"So you think someone killed them and then cleaned the house to get rid of evidence?" Seiji asked. Shisui nodded.

"So it couldn't have been someone close to Mikoto, because she rants about the cleaning often and her friends would know." _Ranted,_ he corrected himself in his mind. But he didn't didn't say it out loud, knowing it wouldn't do Itachi any good, even though the expression on Itachi's face proved he was already thinking about that. "But it must have been someone at least Jounin level to be able to accomplish what they did and leave the house unscathed." He tilted his head to the side. "I don't think it was a normal shinobi."

"Was it someone from a clan?" Seiji asked. Shisui grimaced.

"I'd hate to say it, but..." He hesitated. "I think it's someone from our clan."

Itachi's eyes widened in shock and Seiji started to look slightly nauseous.

"I've sparred with the Hyuuga head..." Itachi began, slowly. "He was good, but I had more trouble fighting...father, than I did him. With Sharingan you'd have a better chance of blocking blows and keeping the surrounding area clean than you would with Byakugan." Both Seiji and Shisui winced at the way Itachi almost wilted in front of them. "The Ino-Shika-Cho team was with me on the mission I just returned from. It would make sense if it was someone from the clan."

"What about Hatake Kakashi?" Seiji interrupted quickly. He obviously didn't want to suspect anyone in the clan. "He has Sharingan." He briefly scowed when he said this.

Something in Shisui snapped, and he glowered at him with unrestrained fury as the officer shrank in on himself. Itachi just glanced over his shoulder and back at Shisui with a tight expression. The clan had been in such an uproar over the fact that Obito had given a person outside the clan his Sharingan. That debate was how Shisui vented most of his feelings over the death of his mother and brother, defending Obito's decision vehemently. Some of the clan though Kakashi had stolen it from him and killed him, but Shisui countered them with the fact the Rin was a witness to Obito's death and Shisui knew from the story they were told that Obito would have done exactly what they told him he did, because that was just how he was. Some of the clan actually _wanted the eye back,_ and Shisui disagreed still. It was Obito's last wish that Kakashi lived their lives for the both of them, and damnit, he was going to do it.

Itachi stood by his side the entire time, because he honored Obito's wishes too, and he knew from filling in Obito's place on a few missions that Kakashi was a good man. And Shisui knew that was true, too. He couldn't remember how many times Kakashi had visited them, apologizing repeatedly and looking so weighed by guilt, that by the time their mourning for Obito was over Shisui and Kakashi were close friends.

"Shisui," Itachi murmured quietly. Shisui felt his anger drain, being replaced by a pang of guilt in his chest as he looked into those onyx eyes. He had no right to be getting emotional about what happened six years ago. Not when Itachi's parents and brother died not twelve hours ago.

"Sorry..." he mumbled, averting his eyes. Itachi reached out and touched his shoulder.

"It's understandable," he told him as Seiji tried to regain his composure. Looks like having the clan's second strongest kid give him a look that seemed like a death treat left quite an impression. Itachi caught Shisui's gaze. "You have a right to be angry," he went on, "And as much I know it's not true and hate to think about it, there is a possibility of Kakashi doing it. We investigate based on facts, not opinions." Shisui let out a sigh, but nodded, composing himself more. Itachi nodded back and turned back around.

"Are we finished?" the prodigy asked. The officer hesitated, looking like he wanted to ask a few more things, but then decided against it. Seiji knew when he was pushing his luck or not, and he knew he was walking on thin ice after the comment about Kakashi that seemed to take a good chunk out of both Shisui's and Itachi's patience. He nodded and turned to walk away.

"We might find you again in a few days," he told them, giving a small wave.

_Good,_ Shisui thought. Itachi needed time to actually mourn before they started shoving the case down his throat.

Itachi relaxed slightly when the officer turned the corner, turning back to Shisui with his own version of a sigh as he stuffed his free hand in his pocket. Belatedly, Shisui realized Itachi was still cold and lugging around his Anbu armor.

"Come on," he told him, pulling out his key as he walked to his door and unlocked it. The civilians of the Uchiha clan normally didn't lock their doors, but to the Shinobi of the clan it was habit. Even though locks were only a minor set back to someone who wanted to get through, they would either have to pick it or kick it in, which was definitely louder and provided more warning.

Leaving their shoes in the front of the house, they wandered down the hallway to Shisui's room where warm, dry clothes and a shower awaited them.

"Hey, Pops?" Shisui called out, not having to speak very loudly. They found Tamotsu Uchiha and Shisui's little sister, Akane, in the living room.

Akane was more of the princess of the clan, as to Itachi being the prized jewel. Since Mikoto and Fugaku only had sons, the clan needed a daughter for arranged marriages and the like. Tamotsu was Fugaku's younger brother, so their family was one of those cliche'd 'shoved out of the way cuz they weren't born first' familes. But their blood was just as good as Fugaku and his sons, so that meant Shisui and Akane could fight just as good, but Akane was just taught at home.

"Hey, kids," Tamotsu stood from his spot hunched over on the couch and walked over to them, giving them a sad smile as he ruffled Shisui's hair. Shisui definitely looked like his father. The same facial features, the same coal-black hair that seemed to be a normal trait for those in the clan, and the same onyx eyes. Though Shisui's mother had been the child of an Uchiha and a civilian, and so the onyx eyes skipped Shisui, giving him an odd navy color instead.

Tamotsu's eyes shifted to Itachi and that sadness deepened. "Itachi..."

Itachi shifted his eyes, uncomfortable with how everyone was looking at him. Tamotsu was just staring, probably seeing bits and pieces of his brother in him, Shisui was trying to gouge his reaction and decide if he needed to hide his younger cousin or not, and Akane was just plain confused. Still, he almost felt he had to say something.

"It was...unexpected," he finally managed to murmur, not able to control the pain that flashed through his eyes. Shisui cringed and reached for him, fully prepared to drag him away from seeing eyes in case he broke down again. If anything, Itachi _hated_ showing his emotions to anyone that didn't have what seemed like special clearance that only Shisui, Mikoto, and Sasuke have.

...Had.

But before Shisui could reach his cousin, Tamotsu had already reached out with one arm and pulled Itachi into an awkward hug. Itachi had stiffened, of course, because he was already feeling emotional and contact from someone who pitied him was not helping.

"I'm sure you already know from Shisui, but you're always welcome here," Shisui's father told him. Itachi took note of how the hug was tighter than normal, even though he wasn't exactly an expert in the subject, and it dawned on him that Tamotsu was mourning, too. He had lost a brother, today; something none them were apparently allowed to have.

_He smells like him..._

Itachi found himself relaxing into the emrace and his eyes slipping closed as he silently inhaled Tamotsu's scent. Even though he was usually never close enough to Fugaku to actually smell what kind of cologne he used, his study seemed to just have that smell; the same one Tamotsu had. If Itachi wanted to, he could have imagined he was in his father's study, and it was Fugaku hugging him instead, though for some odd reason.

Akane asking her brother what happened in what she thought was a quiet voice jolted Itachi out of his memories at the rememberence of what had happened. He pulled away, and Tamotsu let up at the first sign of resistence. Itachi kept his eyes averted.

"I got called in," Tamotsu said, reading the reluctance in Itachi surprisingly well. Patting both boys on the shoulder as he walked past, he picked up the police vest sitting on the kitchen counter. He turned to Shisui. "You don't mind keeping an eye on Akane?" Shisui shook his head and Tamotsu gave a grateful smile. "See you guys later, then," he offered, giving a small wave that only Akane returned and leaving through the front door.

And then it was silent again. Shisui seemed like he didn't know what to do at the moment, looking between his sister, Itachi, an the door. And then Akane jumped up from the pile of toys on the floor and ran to give her brother a hug, even though his clothes were sopping wet.

"Okairi, Nii-san!" she said brightly, not knowing why everyone was so sad.

Shisui widened his eyes in almost panic, looking over at Itachi to see his reaction and mouthing 'tadaima' back out of pure habit. But Itachi had turned his head away from them, their interaction no doubt bringing back memories. Akane followed his line of sight, and, frowning, let Shisui go to go give Itachi a hug.

_No!_ Shisui reached to stop her, but as slow as he was that particular day, she was out of his reach in a second. She ran into Itachi, making him jump in surprise and look down at her. She looked up and smiled at him.

"Okairi, Itachi-nii," she welcomed.

And Shisui _knew_ how much Akane and Sasuke looked alike, and how many times they had been mistaken for twins, and knew that Itachi was definitely seeing his younger brother in Akane.

Shisui quickly jumped forward and quicky but carefully removed Akane's arms from around Itachi's waist, grabbing Itachi's trembling hand. He pulled him to the security of his room, leaving an even more confused Akane in the leaving room.

Itachi was almost hyperventilating by the time Shisui closed the door, his eyes wide and glistening as he gasped for breath. Shisui grabbed the blanket off his bed and wrapped it around him, because _damn_ it was cold, and reached out and crushed Itachi to his chest. Itachi, though he almost wanted to hold Shisui back, kept his arms in the warmth of the blanket and was fine with just pressing his face into Shisui's shoulder and allowing himself to be held as he tried to calm down. He felt himself stop shivering eventually from the heat emanating from Shisui, but the trembling from trying to hold back tears remained.

Shisui didn't know what to say. 'Everything's gonna be okay?' But what if that was a lie? What if things weren't going to be okay? He would not tell Itachi to stop crying, because that wasn't going to help anything, and he was not encouraging Itachi to hide his emotions. He frowned at his uselessness, rubbing Itachi's back in hopes that the friction would heat him up faster.

But he guessed saying nothing was fine, because Itachi's breath was evening out and the trembling had almost stopped by now. Surprisingly though, Itachi hadn't pulled away yet, even though he usually tried to avoid contact. So Shisui just held him, pressing his cheek against Itachi's forehead and running his fingers through the damp hair of Itachi's ponytail.

When Itachi shuddered lightly, Shisui frowned. "Cold still?" he asked.

"Y-yea," Itachi murmured, pulling away and looking almost embaressed.

"You can borrow clothes from me," Shisui offered, nodding to the shower. "Take as long as you want. I'll be getting some supper in Akane." Itachi nodded, taking the blanket wrapped around him and laying it on the bed. He turned to Shisui, looking slightly hesitent.

"Will you tell her I'm...sorry?" he asked. Shisui frowned in confusion at him as he went to get his own change of clothes. "I probably...confused her," Itachi explained. Shisui frowned again but nodded, opening the door to the hallway. He paused, and then shot a smile over his shoulder.

"I'll have that dango ready for you when you get done," he stated, and Itachi felt his mouth water involuntarily. Damn his weakness for sweets. Shisui must have read the expression on his face because he laughed, and gave a final smile before shutting the door behind him with a resounding click.

When he was gone, Itachi's eyes fell closed and he let out a shuddering breath, quickly wrapping his arms around his torso to try and keep that warmth Shisui had left him with as he slowly made his way to the bathroom.

He couldn't help but see Sasuke in Akane. Their faces were almost completely identical; same black eyes, same black hair (though Akane's hair was long and she kept it braided over her shoulder). The same pale skin, the same childish roundness in their faces, that gleam in their eyes when something makes them happy, the way the corner of their mouths twitch when they wanted to laugh.

Itachi felt his eyes water as he shut the door behind him. _This needs to stop..._ He scowled, peeling the wet clothes off of his body as he was racked with shivers. _What kind of shinobi cried like this?_

_But, still..._ A part of him argued. He was alone right now; no one would know except himself. And with that simple thought, the tears he had tried to keep away fell as he turned on the water whether he wanted them to or not.

_Fuck it,_ he ran an angry hand through his bangs, heaving a frustrated, yet shaking sigh. _Might as well get it out of my system._ With the shower on, even he couldn't hear his heavy breathing, and he would have liked to pretend the scalding hot water falling on him disguised the salt water falling from his eyes.

Oh, Gods, he missed them.

He leaned against the cool tile, temporarily letting the misery wash over him and almost hoping that the empty cavity in his chest would just collapse and the rest of him would fall in.

**-xXx-**

"Nii-san...?" Akane asked slowly, standing at the doorway to the kitchen. Shisui looked at her from his spot in front of the stove questioningly, finger still in his mouth from tasting the spagetti sauce. Akane bit her lip. "...Did...I do something wrong...?" And then his eyes widened, and he wiped his finger on the washcloth hanging on the oven door and went to kneel in front of her.

"You didn't do anything wrong," he told her quickly. "It's just..." It's just what? He didn't know what to tell her. He didn't want to be the one to tell her that Sasuke and her aunt and uncle were dead, but he knew she wouldn't believe something like 'he just doesn't like being touched,' especially when she had hugged him like that before and he had smiled in return. "...It's just...Sasuke and Aunt Mikoto and Uncle Fugaku went somewhere very far away, and they aren't coming back again." Her eyes widened, and he had to steady his breathing for a second. "And...you know how much you look like Sasuke. Itachi was just...sad."

Two small streams ran down Akane's face, and she covered her mouth just in time for a sob to escape. Shisui's eyes widened in confusion, and he ran over his words in his head to make sure he hadn't given too much away as he tried to calm her. "Akane-?"

"I know what it means when someone dies, Shisui-nii," she hiccuped, and Shisui's eyes widened even more. "Daddy was crying, too."

He couldn't help but reach for her then, and she didn't object when Shisui pulled her close to his chest tightly, tears pricking the corner of his eyes as her sobs grew louder.

"They were happy, right?" she asked between sobs, her voice muffled against his chest. "They didn't die sad, like Mommy did, right?"

"_Gods,_" Shisui hissed, squeezing his eyes shut as old wounds were reopened. Kids her age should _not_ know these things. It was reserved for War Kids, damnit; it was not what he and Itachi had worked so hard for.

Looks like keeping Akane and Sasuke in the dark for as long as they could didn't work at all.

Trying not to let his voice betray him, though the occaisional tear slipping from his eyes did plenty of that, he couldn't bring himself to tell the truth. "Yea, they were happy." The words felt like acid on his tongue.

"Good," Akane whispered, clinging to him tighter. Shisui pressed his cheek against her hair. He felt his chest clench painfully when he imagined living without her. He knew it wasn't possible. He knew it was selfish, but even if his father was still alive, the day Akane died was the day Shisui would, too.

But then Shisui backtracked. As long as Akane and Itachi were alive, he could keep living. He wouldn't leave Itachi alone, but he knew Akane and his cousin would not be leaving him alone.

The sound of the boiling water spilling over brought both of their attention to the burning supper. Shisui gave Akane a last tight squeeze before letting go of her to turn the heat down and stir the sauce. She made those hiccup noises you made if you cried too hard, making Shisui's heart clench as she tried to wipe her tears from her face.

"...I'll make Itachi's dango," Akane said, and Shisui shot her a thankful smile as he broke the spagetti over the pot.

**-xXx-**

Itachi opened the door to smell what was no doubt Shisui's famous spagetti. His mouth watered involuntarily again, leaving him to wonder when Shisui had gotten so good at cooking. It had only seemed like a few years ago that they had been banned from the kitchen altogether because of them managing to bring mashed potatoes to life.

Itachi lightly chuckled as he thought back on it. How had they managed to blow it up was beyond even him, but he didn't deny that it was one of his fondest memories. His mother's- Itachi winced slightly- expression had been priceless when she ran to the kitchen after the loud explosion to find Shisui and Itachi covered in potatoes, of all things. And then, right in front of her, Shisui had wiped a peice of potato off Itachi's cheek and ate it, claiming it 'needed more butter.'

Itachi smiled slightly as he walked in the kitchen to find Shisui piling spagetti onto a plate and Akane carrying the plates and forks to the living room. Shisui looked at him, and Itachi notice the dot of spagetti sauce that had somehow gotten right above his eyebrow. Itachi's lips twitched up. Just because Shisui could cook didn't mean he wasn't messy.

"We're eating in the living room," Shisui offered with a grin, probably knowing Itachi was noticing all the other places Shisui had managed to get spagetti sauce on as his cousin's eyebrow rose more with each stain he spotted.

Akane came to him meekly, and Itachi blinked down at her as she offered a plate of mitarashi dango to him.

"Thank you," he told her, taking the plate from her. He frowned at how she kept her face angled down, and looked at her older brother questioningly. Shisui just shrugged- spoon still in one hand, mind you, so he dropped a rather large splatter of sauce onto the floor. Itachi looked back down at Akane and took one of the skewers of his dango and tapped it against her lips. She looked up questioningly, automatically licking the sauce off her lips.

"Chin up, Akane," Itachi told her with a smile, still holding the dango out. "Bite?" Blinking in surprise, she bit on of the dango and Itachi slid the skewer out of it, raising it to his mouth and biting another to slide it off in a similar way.

Shisui slung an arm around Itachi, grinning when his younger cousin frowned slightly. As amusing as it would be watching Itachi try to get out of the shirt without getting sauce on him later, his movie was starting!

**-xXx-**

Grgh, typing all the codes so you can upload stories from an iPhone is time consuming...

But anyways, I am happier that this chapter is like, way longer than the first :D I'm still working on trying to make the chapters I post in stories longer, since I have a tendency to stop at around 3,000 words... (I have another account on this site).

And I am trying to get past all this angst, and I can't wait until it's at least a little happier (because _dang,_ this story is depressing), but the angst is a big part in this story Dx

TBC! 


	3. Chapter 3

** I do not own Naruto!**

**xXXXx**

Itachi's eyes fluttered slightly when he faintly heard the front door shut and he tensed automatically. Recognizing Tamotsu's chakra even in his half-asleep state, he allowed himself to relax again. He buried his face into the crook of his elbow in retaliation to the glare of the sun and tried to sink deeper into the couch that, for some reason, seemed to be generating it's own warmth.

But then his couch moved, and he felt his brows slightly furrow. Couches did not move. Or make there own heat, for that matter. Or mumble something incoherent and throw and arm around him to get more comfortable. He cracked open his eyes and glanced up to see who the hell he was laying on and saw Shisui had fallen asleep leaning against the arm of the couch. He remembered watching a lot of movies with Shisui and Akane and all of them eating heaps of Shisui's spagetti. When it started to get late Tamotsu got home and, thankfully, didn't say anything about where he just returned from and proceeded to watch movies with them. And then they must have fallen asleep, because Itachi didn't remember going to the guest room and that would explain why they were in the living room. He only felt Shisui's chakra in the house, so he figured Tamotsu had gone to take Akane to school.

Though he enjoyed the warmth, Itachi sat up and stretched, wincing at the ache in his back from laying at such an odd angle but then sighing a little when his spine popped and relieved some of the pain. Shisui grumbled in disapproval, mumbling something along the lines of 'stop taking the blanket,' and Itachi noticed Shisui would have a back ache too if he slept like that.

The younger Uchiha blinked tiredly and looked around at the mess they had made. Shisui must have gotten popcorn, because there was quite a bit randomly strewn throughout the room, and a few empty cans of soda sat on the coffee table as well as empty plates. The tv was still on, though the volume had been muted, and was playing reruns of a popular drama.

And arm curled around his shoulders, making him tense, before he was pulled down onto the older Uchiha's chest.

"Shisui," Itachi protested, words slightly slurred from sleep and muffled by the material of Shisui's shirt as he weakly tried to sit up again. "Le' go." But Shisui's arm didn't move, and Itachi sighed, his head thumping down on the older's chest. "Shisui, wake up."

"I am awake..." came the mumbled reply. Itachi looked up to see Shisui's eyes still closed. "But it's only...eight o'clock... Sleep in for once, kay...?" And then Shisui relaxed more, seemingly going back to sleep with Itachi still laying on him.

The younger's eyes started to drift shut at how surprisingly comfortable he was, letting himself relax as he brought an arm up closer to his face so he could block the light. A small throb of pain made him flinch slightly in surprise, and he cracked open his eyes to look at his hand and wrist and wonder where the small cuts and multiple bruises came from.

Like being struck by lightning, memories of events of the day before came crashing down on him, leaving him wide-eyed and gasping for breath. Shisui immediately looked up in concern as if he hadn't even been asleep.

"Itachi?"

_OhGodohGodohGodohGod-_

He remembered it was raining, and Shisui was crying, and Sasuke's face as they zipped him up was covered in _so much blood..._

"Nightmare?" Itachi gasped, looking at Shisui pleadingly.

_Pleasepleaseplease-_

Shisui felt his heart break again as he looked into those agonized eyes and winced. Fully awake now, he sat up and slipped his arms around Itachi's torso, shifting Itachi into a more comfortable position in his lap. Unable to find his voice to answer Itachi, he shook his head.

"No...?" Itachi croaked, and Shisui bit back a shaky gasp. That one word was filled with so much pain, and his voice was so unsteady that Shisui felt tears in the corner of his eyes again.

"Sorry, 'Tachi," Shisui murmured, tightening his arms around the younger, shaking teen. "It's not a nightmare."

Itachi's pants started becoming louder and more frequent, as if he couldn't catch his breath, and soon he was almost hyperventilating. He pressed his face into Shisui's chest, and Shisui could feel a small dot of wetness forming through his clothes.

"Hey," Shisui told him, alarmed when Itachi slightly swayed as if he was dizzy. "Calm down, Itachi, you gotta breath slower, okay? Look, copy me, alright?" He started loudly breathing evenly in and out, and Itachi, still shaking, tried to copy him. When Itachi finally started to get it, Shisui ran a hand through the raven locks held back by a hair tie in encouragement. But Itachi was still shaking, and the wet spot on Shisui's chest was growing.

"I-I'm never gonna...s-see them...again," Itachi mumbled against his chest. Shisui blinked back tears as Itachi wrapped desperate hands around Shisui's torso. "I m-miss them..."

"I hear ya," Shisui tried to soothe him, pressing his cheek against Itachi's forehead. "I miss them, too..."

Itachi shuddered in his arms. It was so cold. Why was it so cold? Itachi tried to press himself more into Shisui, tried to reach more of the warmth coming from him. Shisui was so warm...

Shisui tightened his hold on the younger Uchiha almost painfully, and Itachi fit in his arms so well that it was almost as if Shisui was trying to block the cruelty of the world from reaching his cousin, though he knew they both had already experienced it. Itachi gave no objection to being held as tightly as he was, even pressing his face into Shisui's neck.

A sudden knocking on the door made Itachi tense, and Shisui glanced to the door with furrowed eyebrows, trying to place the slightly familiar chakra. Itachi moved to sit up, but Shisui wouldn't let him leave his arms.

"Wait for me in my room, kay?" he murmured when Itachi tried to put himself back together enough to be seen. Itachi nodded, face carefully blank, and then the younger Uchiha stood and was quickly out of sight. Shisui stood after he was gone, stretching his arms up and hearing his back pop as he was watching Itachi leave. The knocking sounded again, and Shisui scowled. "I'm comin', I'm comin'!" he snapped, and the knocking ceased. He tried to straighten his clothes somewhat and ran a hand through his disheveled hair as he stalked to the door. "What do you- Anko?" he asked in surprise, stopping himself at the sight of the dark-haired kunoichi when he opened the door. "What are you doing here?"

Anko glanced past him, crossing her arms. "Uchiha Itachi is here, right?" she asked, though Shisui knew she could most likely feel his chakra.

Shisui stepped aside, motioning for her to come in. "What of it?" She shook her head.

"I'm only here for few seconds," she replied. "Hokage-sama wants to see him immediately." She frowned when she said this.

"This early?" Shisui asked, scowling. Her frown deepened.

"Yea, I'd make him wait, too," she stated angrily, brown eyes flashing, before her expression softened. "..I heard what happened..." she said awkwardly. "Is...he okay...?" Anko and Itachi had been on several missions together, and they knew each other enough to call each other friends. Not to mention their obsession with dango. They had been to the dango shop together plenty of times after missions and Shisui had often teased Itachi about being with her, difference in age be damned.

Shisui sighed and glanced behind him towards his room. "I hope so," he admitted. Anko sighed as well, before looking up.

"Well, I'll be hanging around the hokage tower, filling out my mission report," she stated before giving him a hard look. "I don't expect to see Itachi around there for at least another hour, and if I do, I'm coming after you with something sharp. And tell him we need to go for dango soon!" Shisui's lips twitched up.

"Will do," he replied, waving back at her when she raised her arm in farewell and disappeared in a puff of smoke. He grimaced at the spot she had just been in. He had nothing against Anko, it's just...'the bearer of bad news'...

He shut the door and turned back around, knowing Itachi would be mad at him later for not telling him but also needing the Hokage to know that calling Itachi in this soon was just plain cruel. He padded to his room, and frowned when he felt Itachi's chakra moving around in his room. Opening the door, he was met with a half-ready Itachi grabbing a shirt from Shisui's closet and looking like he had just showered. Shisui wondered why and how the hell he managed to do that in the minute or so Shisui had left him, but then he remembered just how thin the walls of the compound houses were.

"Damnit," Shisui sighed, running a hand through his hair. "You heard, didn't you?" Itachi just shot him a look, taking the hair band from his wrist and gathering his hair at the nape of his neck. "Are you seriously going to go now?" Itachi paused in working with the hair band, frowning slightly. He gave away no hints at all that he had just been crying.

"I'm...not too keen on it," he admitted slowly. "But it may be urgent. I can't refuse him because of personal problems." His hands dropped.

"'Personal problems?'" Shisui scoffed. "Your freaking family died yesterday, you deserve a break!" Itachi flinched and Shisui mentally punched himself, cursing his ignorance. "I'm sorry," he winced.

"It's fine," Itachi said quietly, walking to the door. He felt himself tense up at what he knew he was about to face, unconsciously stopping before he went through the door. He frowned at the unusual but strong urge he had, slightly turning back to Shisui.

The older Uchiha hummed in confusion when his cousin hesitated at the door, an apology still in his navy eyes. "Itachi?" Itachi pursed his lips, glancing to Shisui's eyes before looking away. Shisui blinked a few more times before understanding dawned on him and he gave a small smile, going to wrap his arms around his cousin. "I'll see you later, kay?" Itachi hummed in agreement, his eyes having closed in contentment before he stepped away from that warmth reluctantly. Shisui laughed and ruffled his hair, making Itachi frown briefly. "Don't be like that; I'll still be right here when you're done, alright?" Itachi nodded and ran his fingers through his bangs to make them look less messy before closing the door behind him.

**-xXx-**

The Hokage tower stood out amongst the other buildings around it, the many roads leading to it making it seem like the village was built around it, similar to how a designer would design an entire room around a certain peice. The layout of the village made the tower seem more important. It was a reassuring presence to the civilians of Konoha, but to Itachi, it was a place to generally avoid. It reminded him of missions he would rather not take, of killing, and of the meetings he had with the Hokage and the village council discussing how he was to kill everyone he was even remotely close to.

With a sigh, and gracefully dodging a child running too fast on the road, Itachi walked through the outer gate surrounding the tower. He felt the familiar yet unwelcome sensation of someone watching him and glanced up at the top of the tower to see an ANBU leaning against the railing.

He must have been off duty, Itachi thought. Otherwise he wouldn't appear to be so relaxed. And he must be new, because apparantly no one told him that ANBU are not to be seen, on duty or not. Itachi could make out shoulder length auburn hair and a feline mask twisted halfway off his face, showing a dangerous amount of skin. He held what looked like a juice box and was chewing on the straw, curiously looking down at Itachi with bright green eyes.

Itachi pursed his lips in annoyance. Who was the captain in _charge_ of this man? He was violating so many rules at the moment that Itachi was tempted to go up there, slap the box out of his hands, fix his mask, and write him up for every violation. Itachi was a strict ANBU Captain who kept his team in line, and because of that they were known as the best ANBU in the village. Just by looking at this man he felt annoyed, and as if sensing that, the man smirked down at him. Itachi's eyes narrowed at him and he walked inside the tower, resisting the urge to glare at the man.

The receptionist gave him the go-ahead as soon as she saw him. Itachi kept thinking about the man he saw, finding that thoughts about him were less nerve-racking than thinking about what the meeting would entail.

He stopped before the Hokage's door, taking a deep breath to calm himself. He didn't know how long this meeting would take (he never did; sometimes he's be stuck in here for half an hour and others for nearly two), but this time he thought he just might jump out the window.

"Hokage-sama." He lightly knocked on the door, carefully schooling his expression. He could feel more than one presence on the other side of the door, and his eyes narrowed slightly. Looks like the council was already there.

"Come in, Itachi."

The Uchiha pushed open the door and walked in. The Third Hokage was sitting at his desk, leaning his elbows on it with his hands folded in front of his face. He was sitting rigidly in his seat, his eyes closed as if he was trying to calm himself down. Itachi looked at Koharu and Homura sitting on a couch that had apparently been brought in specifically for them. They looked like something had made them angry but they were trying to keep it in. Danzo stood behind them, an equal expression of hidden anger on his face.

"...You requested me?" he asked slowly, an idea of what had happened before he arrived already implanted in his head. The Third let out a heavy sigh, moving one hand to massage his temples as Itachi moved to stand in front of him. Sarutobi looked up at Itachi with a knowing expression.

"We heard of what happened," he began slowly. Already expecting the words, Itachi's expression tightened.

"Yes, I'm sure he knows that already," Koharu said impatiently. "And I'm sure he wants to be here about as much as we do, so let's get this over with." Sarutobi shot her a glare, but Itachi was almost slightly grateful (he never would be entirely grateful of her unless they changed their mind about their militant way of dealing with the coup de tat).

Instead of saying anything he knew would most likely only cause an argument, Sarutobi sighed and turned back to Itachi. "I suppose you do know why you are here, then." Itachi held back a sigh as he eyes closed for a few seconds to try and block out the feeling of being watched by nearly everyone in the room.

_Stop watching me, stop watching-_

"I don't know what my clan is going to do," he admitted. "With the leader of the coup gone we lost a major part of our forces." He did sigh this time, trying to force down the lump in his throat at the mention of his father. "They're most likely running around in a panic right now. There will be a meeting soon to discuss what we will do and probably nominate candidates for the position of Clan Leader, but I'm not sure when it will be." He attempted to ignore the guilt settling in his gut, nearly making him need to throw up. Damnit, he was like this everytime. He knew stopping the coup was important, he knew it was very important, but what they were _asking_ of him-

The lump in his throat grew, though it wasn't from trying to hold back tears. He let out a gasp as his stomach suddenly lurched, and he quickly raised a hand to his mouth while the other went to wrap around his torso.

"Itachi?" Sarutobi asked, his brow furrowing in concern and slight alarm, "Are you alright?"

"Excuse me," Itachi gasped as his dinner tried to leave him. "I'm not...feeling well." Sarutobi stood up then, looking towards the council and Danzo.

"Meeting's over," he told them sternly, ignoring their surprised expressions. He went over to Itachi, who had hunched over slightly.

"We still have things to-" Homura tried to object, but the Third cut him off with a glare.

"_Not now_," he hissed, motioning to Itachi, who was still trying to keep his meal down.

"Just because one kid has a stomach bug doesn't mean we should cancel the meetings that discuss the possibility of the fourth war-" Danzo argued. Sarutobi turned and glared.

"The coup is seventh months away, that is saying they didn't change it to a later date, which I'm sure they will if not cancel it altogether. They know something like this will get out given enough time, and seven months is pushing it." Danzo tried to object again, but Sarutobi rose his hand in a silencing gesture. "He already said he doesn't know how things have changed. What I'm saying is we have plenty of time, and his family died just _yesterday._ Let him mourn!" Then he turned back to Itachi, not checking to see if they left or not. He sighed in relief when he heard the door click. "Come sit on the couch," he coaxed, not waiting for a reply and gently pulling the Uchiha to said couch.

"I'm fine," Itachi tried to object, but didn't resist. "I'll be okay in a few seconds, you don't have to cancel the meeting-" He knew it would just be resceduled then, and he wanted to get it over with. He sat on the couch and the Third kneeled beside him.

"I want them here about as much as you do, Itachi," Sarutobi interrupted. Itachi's brow furrowed.

"But they're your team," Itachi stated, trying to swallow the lump in his throat.

"Head between your knees," Sarutobi murmured absently as Itachi did so. "We are close, but we think differently," he admitted. "Trust me when I say our values have gotten us into arguments long before this." Itachi made a small noise just to show he was listening as he tried to calm down. He concentrated on taking careful breaths, and almost wished he had a glass of water. The nausea receded eventually and he sat up carefully, hand pressed to his mouth just in case it came back. If he weren't so concerned about replacing his dinner onto the Hokage's robes, he would be embaressed. He hadn't shown that kind of weakness to anybody, ever, save for his mother and possibly Sasuke.

He felt the nausea come back again and had to calm himself all over again.

"You're free to go home," Sarutobi told him when the sickly palor of Itachi's skin changed back to something more normal. The Uchiha nodded gratefully and stood carefully. "You're on paid leave for the next two weeks." The Hokage smiled when Itachi's head whipped sideways to look at him. "You can come back whenever you'd like, but not until one week is over." Itachi blinked a few times in confusion and surprise.

"But I-"

"No buts!" Sarutobi smiled, but then widened his eyes as if he'd forgotten something serious. "Speaking of work, I need you to henge into your uniform." Itachi's brow furrowed in confusion but did as told, making a quick henge to make himself look like he was in ANBU uniform instead of civilian clothes. His crow mask looked back at the Third blankly.

"Kuma from your squad was injured fatally and won't be able to go on missions with you anymore," Sarutobi told him somberly. Itachi grimaced behind his mask and kept silent. Kuma, though he didn't know her personally (no one in ANBU knew each other personally unless they met while off duty), was a good fighter and followed commands well. It was upsetting that Konoha and his team would be losing her.

"...Then who is replacing her?" Itachi asked, still upset slightly over the loss. He knew Sarutobi must have had someone in mind by now, because his team would be missing two people if not. Though people were usually chosen for missions regardless of their team, usually it was a single team that was chosen to go on specific missions because they worked best together. Only half of his team being able to fight would not do.

"He's knew," Sarutobi said, knowing Itachi would be grimacing just about know. "His name is Kurohyou. He's a refugee from the Rain Country and came here about three years ago. He specializes in tracking, like Kuma did."

"You call?"

The sound of a kunai flying through the air faster than most thought possible filled their ears, and Sarutobi whipped around to see an auburn-haired man sitting innocently in the window. His mask was twisted to the side, and he was grinning as if Itachi's kunai wasn't deeply embedded in the wall not two inches from his head.

"Have you been listening to us?" the Third Hokage demanded, and Itachi's hand twitched towards the kunai pouch on his leg that wasn't part of the henge. The Uchiha's mind was reeling, and his heart was beating fast. If the man had heard what they were talking about, then the secret would get out and either the clan would start the coup now or the Hokage would be forced to commit genocide. Either way, people were going to die and this man held their lives in his hands.

_Kill him before he tells, kill him now, kill him, kill him, killhimkillhim**killhim-**_

"I overheard from about where kiddo there was getting paid leave to where you started talking about me," the man said nonchalantly, neither of the other men in the room aware of Itachi coming close to having a panic attack.

The Uchiha was behind Kurohyou, pressing a kunai into his exposed neck and cutting through the skin tight shirt. His Sharingan spun dangerously as Kurohyou's eyes widened in shock.

"Are you lying?" Itachi growled out, applying more pressure to the kunai. He would _not_ let this man kill so many people.

Kurohyou would be lying if he said Itachi wasn't scaring the fuck out of him at the moment, and with a slightly shaky voice he replied, "No." His grin had disappeared when the kunai had pressed into his skin and he felt blood, knowing that this kid was serious and could kick his ass if he wanted to.

"Step inside the room." The kid's voice was cold and promised excruciating pain if he did not comply, so without a word he slid off the window sill, mindful of the kunai that moved with him but was still pressing against his neck. The kid pushed him until he stood in front of the Hokage and moved to stand beside him.

Itachi was tempted to use his Sharingan on him to see if he was lying, but that would only give him away if the man hadn't noticed the Uchiha symbol blazing on his back when Itachi arrived at the tower.

"You will not interupt any of Hokage's meetings unless given permission," Itachi began coldly. The Third stood calmly, fully aware that Itachi could take care of Kurohyou even though he was a full head shorter. "You will not be seen in uniform while off duty. You will wear your mask _straight_ and at all times while in uniform." Itachi's eyes narrowed. "And you will stand attention before the Hokage."

"Who is this kid?" Kurohyou asked the Hokage, seeming to ignore everything Itachi told him except for the last part, straightening his posture. He shut up when the knife pressed even more into his neck and Sarutobi sighed. The new recruit would eventually learn that underestimating Itachi because of his age was something he should avoid.

"_This kid_ is your Captain," Itachi replied stonily. "And you _will_ follow my commands."

Kurohyou's jade eyes slid over to Itachi and narrowed slightly, not in retaliation, but more like he was assessing the person he was to serve under. His lips pursed as Itachi met his scrutiny dead on, careful to deactivate his Sharingan before he could see them. If Kurohyou stayed on his team long enough, he would eventually find out the Itachi used Sharingan, but until then he was a threat in Itachi's eyes and could not be trusted.

Stifly, Kurohyou moved to fix his mask. "Better, Taicho?" he asked almost sarcastically. Itachi's eyes narrowed. He did _not_ like this man. "Or what should I call you?"

"You will call me by rank or Karasu," Itachi stated. "I will not stand for 'this kid', but you are welcome to try and call me that again." Key word, 'try'.

"Yes, Taicho," Kurohyou replied, dangerously close to being sarcastic again. And though his words sent annoyance burning through Itachi like glowing embers, the Uchiha couldn't help but feel slightly satisfied that he had someone on his team who didn't overestimate him.

**-xXx-**

When Itachi opened the front door he heard Shisui in the kitchen. The tv was on and he could hear a popular kid's show on, so he figured Akane was home, too. Leaving his shoes at the door, he made his way to the kitchen and noticed the house was considerably cleaner.

"Cooking again?" he asked dryly as he walked through the door. Shisui groaned from his spot at the sink and shook his head.

"I don't think I can eat anything for the next week," he complained before thumping his wet fist against his chest and burping. Itachi grimaced at him as he sat in one of the chairs at the rarely-used table. "'Scuse me. The rest of the spagetti wouldn't fit in the fridge, so I had to eat leftovers to make room. Akane wouldn't help me, so the leftovers with all the food I ate last night made me afraid of food for the time being." He lifted a plate from the sink and began washing it. Itachi perked up.

"Need any help?" he offered. Shisui shot him a grin.

"Nah, this is the last dish. Thanks, though." Shisui set the disk on the towel beside the sink and turned the water off, drying his hands on his pants. He looked like he had something on his mind, and Itachi frowned in confusion.

"Is something wrong?" he asked. Shisui blinked in surprise, and he wondered when Itachi had gotten so good at reading facial expressions.

The older Uchiha turned around and bit his lip, hesitating for a moment. "...Seiji came by again," he finally told him. "He said there was a meeting tonight. At the Nakano Shrine." Itachi's heart began to pick up slightly as he remembered his own meeting with the Hokage. He wondered what Shisui would do if he found out about how Itachi was betraying them all. Would he hate him? Itachi was sure the rest of the clan would, but they didn't know him like his cousin did. Would Shisui listen to his reason?

Itachi nodded mutely, and Shisui nodded back, before he perked up. "Speaking of, how did the meeting with the Hokage go?" he asked, obviously trying to lighten the mood. Itachi appreciated the attempt, leaning back in his chair to try to relax after the nerve-racking meeting with the Hokage and putting up with his new teammate.

"He gave me two week's paid leave," he admitted quietly, wanting to change the subject again before he was reminded of why he was getting paid leave. "...I think something was wrong with your spagetti. I got nauseated halfway through the meeting." Okay, so it wasn't the spagetti that made him nauseated, but still it was fun to poke at Shisui's buttons.

Itachi's lips twitched up when Shisui sputtered indignantly and began their daily bout of teasing/arguing. Itachi liked these conversations; it was a nice distraction from the more serious things in his life.

**-xXx- I get the feeling I didn't get Anko's character right at all. *sigh* Oh well, I don't think I'll be using her much in this story. Nothing much happened in this chapter... D; sorry. I just wanted the next thing to happen start in a different chapter, soo... How do you like Kurohyou? That's not his real name of course, I'm still deciding on that. Review, please! **


	4. Chapter 4

The house was still taped off to the public, and it seemed as if the whole street had been darkened permanently by the events that took place here. There were still a few rain puddles in the road and Itachi took care stepping around them as he walked. Seiji held up the police tape for Itachi and the younger ducked under it, stepping into the familiar foyer he had walked through so many times.

Itachi's heart was clenching painfully as he looked around, and he knew that if Shisui had found out about his cousin visiting this house, he would have thrown a fit. Itachi took a steadying breath; he could do this. He had seen worse.

Even so, he couldn't help but clench his hands as he turned to Seiji. "Where were they?" he asked quietly, barely resisting to urge to throw up. Seiji frowned and nodded towards the living room.

"Fugaku was in the living room. Mikoto and Sasuke were in their bedrooms." Itachi nodded to him and took another deep breath. If the deaths were murder-suicide, then the order of killing would have been Mikoto, then Sasuke, then Fugaku. If Fugaku was the murderer, then it would be safe to assume he was not in his right mind when he did it, especially with how he did it. Therefore his chakra would have been fluctuating oddly, Mikoto would have grown concerned and gone to see him. He kills her, and then goes to kill Sasuke.

Itachi gagged.

If he had gone to Sasuke first, Mikoto would be even more alarmed with Fugaku's odd chakra and Sasuke so close to each other and she would have rushed to them. Mikoto and Sasuke would have been killed in the same room.

So the pattern must be Mikoto, Sasuke, Fugaku. Murderers tend to get more nervous as they kill; if someone was attempting to kill the clan head they would have been extremely paranoid. They would have made mistakes as they killed and would leave more evidence or a more violent kill. So if Mikoto's murder scene was more violent than Sasuke's, it wouldn't make sense. Mikoto wouldn't have had as much warning as Sasuke would have, and Sasuke would have put up a better fight. He was younger and with more energy, and though Mikoto was strong, she was getting old.

"Do you have the folder?" Itachi mumbled. Seiji handed it to him without a word; he knew Itachi was thinking.

The first thing he saw when he opened the folder was a picture of his father laying dead on the ground, and he had to slam his eyes closed and take deep breaths in order to keep calm. Seiji quickly gave him a water bottle he had and Itachi thankfully took a swig to wash the vile taste down his throat.

"...Is this how you found him?" Itachi asked after he had slipped his emotionless mask on again. Detach yourself from the situation; it's not you there. You're seeing through another person's eyes. He opened the folder again and looked at the pictures in his father's section.

"Before we moved anything, yes," Seiji answered. Itachi flipped to the injury report. It showed where Fugaku had been injured when he was found. Stitches in his arm- Itachi knew about that; it was one of their sparring sessions and one of his shuriken had gotten past his father's defense. Impaled directly through the heart; Itachi winced. His femoral artery was cut.

Itachi closed the folder and took a deep breath. The living room was first. He started walking towards it and Seiji followed.

"Have you cleaned up anything?" he asked before he built up the courage to open the door.

"We've just removed the bodies so far," Seiji replied. Itachi nodded, calmed himself (or attempted to), and pushed open the door.

It was miraculously clean for a murder scene, Itachi noted, even as he was screaming on the inside. This was where my father died, this is where he took his last breath.

As a matter of fact, it was too clean. Itachi looked around the room, his brow furrowed.

"Where's the blood?" he found himself asking. Seiji looked at him, confused. Itachi rose an eyebrow. Even Akane knew this (unfortunately).

"His femoral artery was cut," Itachi reminded him. "An average person would bleed to death in ten minutes." He gestured to the dried blood on the floor next to the white outline of a person. "Put that kind of wound together with a direct stab to the heart, the person would have bled out completely. That," he looked at the dried puddle. "...is not six quarts. The report said Sasuke cut his artery." Sasuke had been found with a kunai from Itachi's room in his hand with Fugaku's blood on it. Itachi gestured between the stairs and where the outline was. "There's no trail of blood, and Sasuke was killed in his room." Itachi had to take a pause after he said this, but Seiji said nothing about it. "Plus..." he looked towards the katana hanging on the wall by itself; it's identical twin was most likely in the posession of the police. "That sword is longer than my father's arm-length. In order to stab himself in the heart with it, let alone stab himself in the torso at all, he would have had to grasp the blade. The injury report said nothing about any cuts on his hands. My father didn't kill anyone yesterday. These are all murders." Seiji's eyes were wide, but Itachi could see relief in them. Itachi's eyes narrowed. Suicide was considered _cowardly_ in the Uchiha Clan. They were more worried about their reputation than about the fact that there might be an Ihoukira* still out there.

Even without the obvious evidence, it was obvious it was a murder. It had killed Itachi to look at the rest of the pictures in the file, but he did. Sasuke didn't hold kunai like that first of all, and he was not right-handed. In Mikoto's position her body had been found in, she was reaching for a kunai, that Itachi knew should not have been there, in a dresser six feet away. There was a dagger hid in the bedframe right beside her head. Mikoto made a point to remember where every weapon in the house was (she didn't want to injure Sasuke or Itachi if she hugged them and had a kunai stashed somewhere on her), so there was no way she would have forgotten it was there.

Staring down at the hallway table that had been moved recently (there were scratch marks on the wooden floor that hadn't been there before. Someone must have run into it), Itachi thought over the facts he had. He was exhausted from the day, though they had only been there three hours, but he wanted to solve the case. It was his duty.

Someone Anbu level, like Shisui had said, someone with Sharingan, and someone who didn't know Itachi's family at all. Itachi sighed. No-one really fit that description except for Kakashi, who really only knew Shisui's family, and...

No, Itachi shook his head. We have a deal. No matter how evil that bastard is, he's honorable and keeps his promises.

Someone entered the house and he heard Seiji talking to what sounded like Inabi, catching him up on the things Itachi noticed that they didn't (No, my mother did not fall and hit her head on the bedframe, there would be blood on the frame if that happened. No, you idiot, my brother did not somehow stab himself in the back with the kunai he had when he can't even reach that part of his back. You can tell from the wound that the kunai had been completely horizontal when it stabbed him, and it's not physically possible for anyone to stab themselves there, like that, without dislocating their shoulder). He made his way to the living room in case they had questions, eyes straying to the ceiling and staring at a spot of blood.

His father would have been horrified by how they're handling this investigation.

Seiji and Inabi were going over notes Seiji had written down and discussing. Inabi looked downright miserable in this room, and Itachi had half a mind to tell them to go to the kitchen. He glanced around the room, wondering if there was anything he had missed. Inabi finally voiced his discomfort and Seiji apologized for not noticing, and they moved to the kitchen.

Something caught Itachi's eye, and he looked to the bookcase in confusion. Though it most likely didn't mean anything, one of the books was sticking out by maybe an inch. He wouldn't have thought anything of it if it weren't for the fact that no one ever touched those books, not even his father. It was when he moved close enough to read the title of the book that he grew wary.

_'The History of the Uchiha Clan'_ was printed on the spine. Pursing his lips, Itachi walked closer and picked it up. There was a crease along it's spine, as if someone had opened it and put it down. It's cover was faded, but the edges weren't bent. Itachi had never seen this book before, but he figured whoever bought it had done so a long time ago and had taken good care of it.

There was an odd gap in the pages when closed, and Itachi noticed a page was dog-eared. He quickly opened it to the page and his blood ran cold.

If it wasn't how the page was the beginning of a chapter titled _Uchiha and Senju_ and Senju was scribbled out violently that gave the killer away, it was the small peice of paper that fluttered down to the floor.

_'Deal's changed, Gaki. Have fun at the funeral!'_

Itachi couldn't tell if he was actually tasting the sadism in the letter or if it was the blood in his mouth from biting his tongue too hard. All he could see was red, and he was probably scaring the men in the other room the way his chakra was flaring violently. He didn't care.

He wanted to kill him. He wanted to hear him scream in agony over and over again. He wanted to pluck those precious eyes of his- no his brother's- and crush his only source of light in his hand. He wanted him to suffer.

"**_Madara_**," Itachi snarled, Mangekyou Sharingan spinning wildly.

**-xXx-**

"You seen Itachi?" Shisui asked Seiji as he took his spot beside his father. The secret room in the Nakano shrine was filling up quickly and filled with chatter. The spots where Fugaku, Mikoto, and Itachi stood were empty and the council stood to the side, waiting for the meeting to begin and naturally being intimidating.

"I'm not sure," Seiji replied, frowning in concern. "After we left his house he went somewhere. He was really upset." His eyes widened and he clamped a hand over his mouth, but the damage was already done.

"What?" Shisui hissed. Seiji pressed his lips together, giving him a look that basically said 'I'm not supposed to tell.' Shisui sighed and sat back, running a hand through his black unruly hair. "Shit. No wonder he's missing." Seiji frowned guiltily.

"I...could go find him," Seiji offered. Shisui sighed again and shook his head.

"I'll do it," he said, clapping a hand on Seiji's shoulder. "He probably doesn't want to be seen right now. Take notes for me if I miss anything important, kay?" Seiji frowned but nodded, and Shisui told his father he'd be right back. Tamotsu told him to get back soon.

There were still people making their way to the shrine when he was out, and, grumbling, he realized he had most likely just lost his seat. There would be more Uchiha attending this meeting to decide who was going to be the clan head so it was going to be more crowded. The obvious choices for clan head were Itachi and his father, but who knows what the council was thinking.

"Where would he be...?" Shisui wondered aloud. Might as well check the obvious places first. The training grounds, Shisui's house, on the Hokage monument. If he were a better sensor, Shisui might have tried to find his chakra signature, but he was rather weak in that particular field.

When Itachi had left this morning after he came back from the Hokage's meeting, he said he was going to go train. Shisui let him go by himself, because he knew Itachi needed some time to himself, but apparently the younger Uchiha had gone to the crime scene first. And helped them quite a bit, if Inabi's rambling in the meeting meant anything. Inabi said they stayed there for three and a half hours, and it was eleven now, so he must have been gone for about nine or ten hours.

_What could he be doing?_ Shisui wondered, growing concerned. Yea, Itachi would disappear at times when he was stressed, but never for this long. He would always be back before Sasuke could start to worry.

Shisui was checking his house first. If Itachi had been by, then Akane might have seen him or felt his chakra (unlike her brother, Akane was scary good as detecting chakra, and was actually better than than a skilled genin even though she was only seven). Then, if he knew Itachi, he would either be in the training fields venting or sitting on the Hokage monument, trying to cool down. Luckily Seiji was taking notes for him, because this was most likely going to take a while-

His thoughts stopped dead at the sight of the Itachi's still form laying on his doorstep. He wouldn't have been as worried, because this was Itachi and there's no way he could be hurt; maybe he was locked out and had fallen asleep waiting for someone. But no, 'worry' was an understatement. Itachi's skin was pale for a whole different reason and that scent in the air was definitely blood.

"Itachi!" Shisui gasped, flickering to his side and falling to his knees beside him. Itachi's eyes stayed closed, but Shisui felt a pulse in his neck- "Thank Kami," he gasped- and he realized the younger was just unconscious.

"Akane!" Shisui barked, loud enough for her to hear even if she was sleeping. She must have heard the urgency in his voice, because he heard a thump and then the pitter-patter of her feet running to the door.

Shisui turned Itachi onto his side to try and see exactly where he was hurt. The smell of blood was stronger now and Shisui held his breath before he could gag. Lifting up Itachi's shirt, he saw a gash in his side about four inches wide that looked like it would need stitches. Shisui immediately pressed a hand to it to stop the bleeding. The door slid open and revealed Akane.

"Nii-san?" she gasped, eyes widening in horror when she looked down at her cousin.

"Everyone's at the temple," he told her quickly. "Go tell father I'm taking Itachi to the hospital." Shisui knew Itachi couldn't be taken care of here. He carefully picked him up bridal style as Akane darted down the road barefoot.

Shisui thought about flickering to the hospital, but the jump would most likely just cause his cousin pain, so he decided he'd just run. Itachi seemed smaller in his arms, and it almost made Shisui want to cry that his expression seemed more peaceful while unconscious and _dying_ than it had in a long time.

**-XxX-**

_Itachi barely had enough control of his chakra to get past the guards at the gate without getting caught. Luckily, though, he managed to put a lock on his emotions until he was far enough away._

He had never been this angry before in his life. He almost felt like he was someone else. But wasn't that required to stay sane in the shinobi world? To detach yourself from the situation? It had worked so many times in Itachi's short but long career so far, but now... Even though he felt detached, he felt so very far from sane. It was like that empty cavity on his chest had filled with something dark and toxic, and it was fueling and controlling the body that was supposed to be under his control.

"**Madara!**" his body roared as he approached the small shack. He remembered when he first discovered Madara was staying in it. He was more surprised at how close it was to Konoha, only a few kilometers, than it's size, because he eventually found out there was an entire underground base below the shack. It had apparently been Uchiha property when the village was founded, but it was long since forgotten.

"Oh, Itachi," a light voice stated, seemingly surprised. Itachi turned to see a white and red mask framed by obsidian hair. A single hole allowed Madara to see, and his Sharingan twinkled mischievously. "I didn't expect you so soon. What's the occaision?"

"How dare you," the younger Uchiha snarled. "We had a deal!" The playful aura around Madara disappeared, leaving a more sinister one.

"And I ameliorated it," Madara replied stonily. "You were to kill them because you were running out of time to negotiate before the coup, weren't you? Now, when they're running around like headless chickens, it's been put off and you have plenty of time."

"And what's in it for you?" Itachi snapped. The reasons he listed were about how it was better for Itachi, but Madara must have had some personal gain from it. Otherwise he wouldn't have changed it.

"I get to watch you run around like headless chickens," he said mockingly. Itachi could tell he was smirking behind his mask and scowled. "And I strongly doubt the negotiations will work. If not stubborn and haughty, Uchihas are only killing machines. I hate both the clan and the village; there would be no limit to my satisfaction watching them destroy each other."

"Bastard," Itachi hissed. Madara chuckled.

"I would have enjoyed killing them with my own hands, though," he mused. "Watching their death freeze their faces into an agonized expression. It was rather satisfying," he stated, looking Itachi dead in the eye, Sharingan filled with sadistic amusement. "Watching the betrayed look on your family's faces as I killed them in your form."

The anger in Itachi's chest was replaced with horror. His family had died...thinking Itachi killed them.

"Kami-" he gasped, raising a hand to his mouth and squeezing his eyes shut. Madara must have seen the agony on Itachi's expression, and he tilted his head to the side.

"Though I apologize for killing your brother," he stated seriously, almost sounding slightly disappointed, "I was hoping Sasuke would have been out that morning." Itachi's eyes snapped open, and almost like a switch, that dark stuff in his chest boiled over.

"Don't you dare speak his name!" he hissed, Mangekyou spinning into existence. "You will never have the right!" Madara's visible eye widened at the sight of his student's new doujutsu. He smirked at the killing intent radiating off his descendent.

"I've taught you well," he noted.

Kunai clashed, and the pure hatred in Itachi's eyes showed Madara exactly what was brewing in the younger Uchiha's heart.

"I'll send you to hell," Itachi smirked coldly. "I'll laugh as my father tears you apart. And when I die..." The smirk grew, but it was so dark that even Madara was slightly alarmed. "I'll come find you and show you an even darker hell..."

**-XxX-**

Shisui never liked waiting rooms in hospitals. He always felt useless just sitting there when someone he loved was injured. He knew Itachi wasn't in critical condition; the doctors were just setting a broken bone in his arm, stitching him up, and binding his torso. But he couldn't help but feel nervous. Who could have done that to the 'Uchiha prodigy'? By the way Itachi was just left on his doorstep unconscious, it was obvious that it wasn't a friendly spar. Shisui wondered if it had been the man who killed Fugaku and his wife and youngest son. He knew the killer had to be strong to kill Fugaku, but strong enough to put the Itachi in the condition he was in?

There was no doubt nearly all of the shinobi and nurses in the lobby had gaped at the site of Itachi covered in blood that was actually his. They were silenced the nightmarish glare they received from Shisui though, daring them to say anything

A hand on his shoulder broke him out of his thoughts, and he looked up in surprise to see Hana Inuzuka standing beside him with a worried brown eyes. Her hair looked like it had been thrown in a ponytail quickly and her clothes were disheveled. One of her dogs were at her side, sitting patiently.

"How's the brat?" she asked almost breathlessly, as if she had been running. Shisui gave her a humorlous smile.

"Physically or emotionally?" he asked dryly. Hana frowned.

"Both," she answered seriously. Shisui pursed his lips and sighed, turning to sit straight in his chair again. Hana sat down beside him, keeping a hand on his arm for comfort. Kokuen, one the Haimaru brothers, obediently went to sit at her feet.

"He'll live through the injuries," he muttered. "I don't know about the murders."

"So they were all murders, huh?" Hana asked quietly. Shisui nodded, grimacing at what Itachi had to go through, walking through that house again. "...Has he cried yet?" she asked then. He glanced at her, wondering if Itachi would be okay with her knowing.

"...Twice," he replied soberly. Itachi and Hana were friends and she would weasle it out of him sooner or later. "That I know of. You know how he is with his emotions."

"True," she acknowledged. Itachi would only show his emotions when he was at his very limit, which they all knew to be very high.

Hana had been in Itachi's year at the Academy when they first started. They only had class together for a few months, of course, but they had grown to be friends and continued to be even after Itachi had graduated prematurely. Hana wasn't as smart as Itachi, but she was still considered the number-one rookie of her class when she graduated two years early. She was a nice girl and was calm when need be, but she could be almost as hyper as Shisui and as mischevious as her younger brother when she felt like it. She was currently training under the head nurse at the hospital to be a medic nin and then learning from her aunt how to be a vet. With a relieved sigh, Shisui realized she must have heard about Itachi from the other nurses, then. He had tried to keep off the more public roads if he could, because being seen while injured like that would definitely upset Itachi.

"Uchiha Shisui?" Said person's head snapped up to see an unfamiliar man in a white coat.

"Yea," he replied, standing up quickly. The man rose an eyebrow at his jerky actions, but then smiled assuringly. He had unruly brown hair and light blue eyes.

"I'm Doctor Natsure," he introduced. "Itachi's doctor." Shisui stood up and Hana followed, carefully nudging Kokuen to the side so she wouldn't trip over him.

"How is he?" Shisui asked worriedly. Doctor Natsure smiled.

"He's perfectly fine, now," he replied. "Though he actually lost quite a bit of blood, but not enough to keep him overnight. His right humerus was fractured and is in a splint since he refused a cast. He has three broken ribs, but the breaks are clean and they should heal fine." Shisui let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding, and Hana clapped a hand on his shoulder with a grin that Shisui returned. She turned to the doctor.

"Wouldn't you keep him overnight anyways?" she asked. "In case he has any more injuries you haven't noticed?" Doctor Natsure gave a nervous laugh.

"Well, we normally do, but he was very...persistant about leaving," he admitted. Both the teens had to keep from laughing at the threats Itachi most likely threw at the poor man. "So if you notice anything off, just brinf him back."

"He hates hospitals," Shisui grinned. "Is he awake?"

"Yes, and he is free to leave whenever he wants," Natsure replied with a smile. "Just, please...check out first?" He sighed. "We've had so many shinobi just up and leave that we actually have to send a nurse to check a room to see if it's really taken before we start having to treat people in the hallways."

"We will," Hana assured. "I work here, so I won't forget."

"I thought you looked familiar!" the doctor exclaimed, before a nurse over at the desk waved him over. Before he left, he said to the younger two, "Well, I have more patients, so have a good day. And make sure Uchiha Itachi rests well!" And then he rushed over to the desk where the nurse gave him a clipboard, and he quickly walked down another hallway.

"Come on," Hana said to Shisui when Natsure was gone, tugging his arm. Kokuen trailed behind her. "He's in room 1202." Shisui grinned and eagerly went with her.

Itachi's room was relatively close to the lobby, so finding his room wasn't much of a problem. Hana paused to knock politely on his door, but she had only tapped her knuckle against the door once before Shisui, being Shisui, barged in.

"I oughta stop making you dango," he declared loudly, and his cousin, sitting on the side of the bed unhappily, looked up in surprise. "You scared the hell out of us!"

"Shisui, we're in a hospital," Hana reminded him, rolling her eyes. "Stop yelling."

The corner of Itachi's mouth twitched up slightly at Shisui's antics, but the almost smile didn't reach his burning eyes.

"My apologies," he said calmly. "Good afternoon, Hana."

"Sup, squirt," she grinned at him. "I bring yummies!" And she held up a plastic bag filled with assorted sweet things, making Itachi's expression visibly light up.

"Where were you hiding those?" Shisui asked, bewildered. He was _positive_ that hadn't been in her hand when he first saw her.

"I'm a ninja, idiot."

He rolled his eyes. "No shit."

"Stop bickering," Itachi interrupted, holding his hand out to Hana imperiously. "I demand sugar."

"Yes, your highness," the kunoichi replied sarcastically, tossing Itachi a bag of konpeito.

"Oh, I want some!" Shisui grinned.

"Mine."

Shisui whined, and Itachi reluctantly threw a piece of the rock candy at him. After they had all settle down in various spots around the room (Itachi was reclining on his be, Shisui was cross-legged at the foot of said bed, and Hana was sitting on the back of a chair leaning against the bed with the candy on the bed between them), the other two in the room started drilling Itachi.

"So, what happened?" Hana asked, tearing her beef jerky into two peices to give a half to Kokuen. Shisui looked at Itachi expectantly, and Itachi, who had been calmly sucking on a peice of rock candy, pursed his lips as he quickly came up with an excuse.

"Someone attacked me while I was walking home," he said a little reluctantly, the fury still in his chest making him see red for a second. "I was distracted, so he caught me off guard." By the way Shisui frowned, Itachi could guess his cousin knew what had been 'distracting him' and he frowned in return.

"Did you see who attacked you?" Hana asked, confused by the exchange between the two.

"No," Itachi replied, choosing not to look at his closest friends as he lied to them. He reached for more candy. "He had on a mask."

"Anbu?" Shisui asked, slightly alarmed. Itachi shook his head and bit on a pocky stick.

"Different style of mask. And he wasn't in uniform."

Hana seemed to hesitate on her next question, but Itachi caught it and nodded for her to continue.

"Do you think it was...the same man that..." She trailed off at the frown she got from Shisui and how Itachi's eyes seemed to cloud over. There was an uncomfortable silence for a few seconds and Hana almost regretted asking the question.

"...Possibly," the younger Uchiha replied quietly, though in his mind he knew. Madara may have beaten him this time, but Itachi would not give up until his kunai was dyed red with his ancestor's blood and he stood over Madara's cold, decaying body.

**-xXx-**

Madara hissed when the man beside him pulled too tightly on the bandages.

"Watch it," he growled.

"Wanna do it yourself?" the hooded figure snapped back, pulling the bandages on purpose this time. "I know you think you're all that, old man, but the only medical thing you know about is eyes. You couldn't tell me what muscle the one I'm working on is. Hell," the figure grimaced down at the several deep cuts on the Uchiha's arm, courtesy of Uchiha Itachi. "_I_ couldn't tell either by how much you fucked your arm up. How old is this kid again?" A glowing, violet ringed eye looked at Madara condescendingly.

"I gave you Rinnegan," Madara warned, quickly losing his patience. "You want me to rip it out?"

"You can try when both your hands aren't useless," the man sneered. Madara scowled. As much as he hated to admit it, the man was right. He wasn't in a very good state to fight in after he and Itachi were finished with each other. His mask had been smashed in- he was pretty sure his nose had been broken- his arm had been sliced to hell and back when he had tried to wrap his hand around Itachi's throat, and his hands had been caught in an Amaterasu. Luckily though, Itachi had been as surprised as Madara when the black flames shot into existence, and as he slammed his eyes shut against the pain, the flames died out and Madara took the opportunity to hit the pressure point on the younger Uchiha's neck. It made Madara slightly nervous that Itachi could wound him so much; he shuddered to think how strong he would be when he was older.

"How much did you find out?" Madara asked the figure, deciding to change the subject. The man rose an eyebrow at him, but decided against arguing this time.

"The village hasn't taken much action yet," he stated. "I don't think they noticed you. The coup was put off for a few months and the new candidates for Uchiha Clan leader are Tamotsu Uchiha, that kid you just knocked out, and one of the elders. I don't remember his name and frankly, I don't care." He paused. "Uchiha Itachi has a new teammate on his Anbu team." Madara smirked behind his ruined mask.

"That's interesting..." he mused thoughtfully. The hooded figure frowned.

**-xXx-**

*Ihoukira- ihou means illegal I think, and kira possibly means killer. Whatevers :P I came up with this term because I figured it would be a pot calling a kettle black if a shinobi called someone a murderer. So, if I use Ihoukira, it means the person didn't have permission from the village to kill whoever they killed.

So anyways, introducing Hana! :D since she was close to Itachi's age, I figured they would know each other, and I wanted Itachi to have at least one friend who was his age. Shisui's two years older than Ita-kun by the way, if i haven't said it already.

Kurohyou isn't in this chapter! D: I've grown fond of him, too...might put him in the next chap though :D

R&R and TBC! 


	5. Chapter 5

The house was still taped off to the public, and it seemed as if the whole street had been darkened permanently by the events that took place here. There were still a few rain puddles in the road and Itachi took care stepping around them as he walked. Seiji held up the police tape for Itachi and the younger ducked under it, stepping into the familiar foyer he had walked through so many times.

Itachi's heart was clenching painfully as he looked around, and he knew that if Shisui had found out about his cousin visiting this house, he would have thrown a fit. Itachi took a steadying breath; he could do this. He had seen worse.

Even so, he couldn't help but clench his hands as he turned to Seiji. "Where were they?" he asked quietly, barely resisting to urge to throw up. Seiji frowned and nodded towards the living room.

"Fugaku was in the living room. Mikoto and Sasuke were in their bedrooms." Itachi nodded to him and took another deep breath. If the deaths were murder-suicide, then the order of killing would have been Mikoto, then Sasuke, then Fugaku. If Fugaku was the murderer, then it would be safe to assume he was not in his right mind when he did it, especially with how he did it. Therefore his chakra would have been fluctuating oddly, Mikoto would have grown concerned and gone to see him. He kills her, and then goes to kill Sasuke.

Itachi gagged.

If he had gone to Sasuke first, Mikoto would be even more alarmed with Fugaku's odd chakra and Sasuke so close to each other and she would have rushed to them. Mikoto and Sasuke would have been killed in the same room.

So the pattern must be Mikoto, Sasuke, Fugaku. Murderers tend to get more nervous as they kill; if someone was attempting to kill the clan head they would have been extremely paranoid. They would have made mistakes as they killed and would leave more evidence or a more violent kill. So if Mikoto's murder scene was more violent than Sasuke's, it wouldn't make sense. Mikoto wouldn't have had as much warning as Sasuke would have, and Sasuke would have put up a better fight. He was younger and with more energy, and though Mikoto was strong, she was getting old.

"Do you have the folder?" Itachi mumbled. Seiji handed it to him without a word; he knew Itachi was thinking.

The first thing he saw when he opened the folder was a picture of his father laying dead on the ground, and he had to slam his eyes closed and take deep breaths in order to keep calm. Seiji quickly gave him a water bottle he had and Itachi thankfully took a swig to wash the vile taste down his throat.

"...Is this how you found him?" Itachi asked after he had slipped his emotionless mask on again. Detach yourself from the situation; it's not you there. You're seeing through another person's eyes. He opened the folder again and looked at the pictures in his father's section.

"Before we moved anything, yes," Seiji answered. Itachi flipped to the injury report. It showed where Fugaku had been injured when he was found. Stitches in his arm- Itachi knew about that; it was one of their sparring sessions and one of his shuriken had gotten past his father's defense. Impaled directly through the heart; Itachi winced. His femoral artery was cut.

Itachi closed the folder and took a deep breath. The living room was first. He started walking towards it and Seiji followed.

"Have you cleaned up anything?" he asked before he built up the courage to open the door.

"We've just removed the bodies so far," Seiji replied. Itachi nodded, calmed himself (or attempted to), and pushed open the door.

It was miraculously clean for a murder scene, Itachi noted, even as he was screaming on the inside. This was where my father died, this is where he took his last breath.

As a matter of fact, it was too clean. Itachi looked around the room, his brow furrowed.

"Where's the blood?" he found himself asking. Seiji looked at him, confused. Itachi rose an eyebrow. Even Akane knew this (unfortunately).

"His femoral artery was cut," Itachi reminded him. "An average person would bleed to death in ten minutes." He gestured to the dried blood on the floor next to the white outline of a person. "Put that kind of wound together with a direct stab to the heart, the person would have bled out completely. That," he looked at the dried puddle. "...is not six quarts. The report said Sasuke cut his artery." Sasuke had been found with a kunai from Itachi's room in his hand with Fugaku's blood on it. Itachi gestured between the stairs and where the outline was. "There's no trail of blood, and Sasuke was killed in his room." Itachi had to take a pause after he said this, but Seiji said nothing about it. "Plus..." he looked towards the katana hanging on the wall by itself; it's identical twin was most likely in the posession of the police. "That sword is longer than my father's arm-length. In order to stab himself in the heart with it, let alone stab himself in the torso at all, he would have had to grasp the blade. The injury report said nothing about any cuts on his hands. My father didn't kill anyone yesterday. These are all murders." Seiji's eyes were wide, but Itachi could see relief in them. Itachi's eyes narrowed. Suicide was considered _cowardly_ in the Uchiha Clan. They were more worried about their reputation than about the fact that there might be an Ihoukira* still out there.

Even without the obvious evidence, it was obvious it was a murder. It had killed Itachi to look at the rest of the pictures in the file, but he did. Sasuke didn't hold kunai like that first of all, and he was not right-handed. In Mikoto's position her body had been found in, she was reaching for a kunai, that Itachi knew should not have been there, in a dresser six feet away. There was a dagger hid in the bedframe right beside her head. Mikoto made a point to remember where every weapon in the house was (she didn't want to injure Sasuke or Itachi if she hugged them and had a kunai stashed somewhere on her), so there was no way she would have forgotten it was there.

Staring down at the hallway table that had been moved recently (there were scratch marks on the wooden floor that hadn't been there before. Someone must have run into it), Itachi thought over the facts he had. He was exhausted from the day, though they had only been there three hours, but he wanted to solve the case. It was his duty.

Someone Anbu level, like Shisui had said, someone with Sharingan, and someone who didn't know Itachi's family at all. Itachi sighed. No-one really fit that description except for Kakashi, who really only knew Shisui's family, and...

No, Itachi shook his head. We have a deal. No matter how evil that bastard is, he's honorable and keeps his promises.

Someone entered the house and he heard Seiji talking to what sounded like Inabi, catching him up on the things Itachi noticed that they didn't (No, my mother did not fall and hit her head on the bedframe, there would be blood on the frame if that happened. No, you idiot, my brother did not somehow stab himself in the back with the kunai he had when he can't even reach that part of his back. You can tell from the wound that the kunai had been completely horizontal when it stabbed him, and it's not physically possible for anyone to stab themselves there, like that, without dislocating their shoulder). He made his way to the living room in case they had questions, eyes straying to the ceiling and staring at a spot of blood.

His father would have been horrified by how they're handling this investigation.

Seiji and Inabi were going over notes Seiji had written down and discussing. Inabi looked downright miserable in this room, and Itachi had half a mind to tell them to go to the kitchen. He glanced around the room, wondering if there was anything he had missed. Inabi finally voiced his discomfort and Seiji apologized for not noticing, and they moved to the kitchen.

Something caught Itachi's eye, and he looked to the bookcase in confusion. Though it most likely didn't mean anything, one of the books was sticking out by maybe an inch. He wouldn't have thought anything of it if it weren't for the fact that no one ever touched those books, not even his father. It was when he moved close enough to read the title of the book that he grew wary.

_'The History of the Uchiha Clan'_ was printed on the spine. Pursing his lips, Itachi walked closer and picked it up. There was a crease along it's spine, as if someone had opened it and put it down. It's cover was faded, but the edges weren't bent. Itachi had never seen this book before, but he figured whoever bought it had done so a long time ago and had taken good care of it.

There was an odd gap in the pages when closed, and Itachi noticed a page was dog-eared. He quickly opened it to the page and his blood ran cold.

If it wasn't how the page was the beginning of a chapter titled _Uchiha and Senju_ and Senju was scribbled out violently that gave the killer away, it was the small peice of paper that fluttered down to the floor.

_'Deal's changed, Gaki. Have fun at the funeral!'_

Itachi couldn't tell if he was actually tasting the sadism in the letter or if it was the blood in his mouth from biting his tongue too hard. All he could see was red, and he was probably scaring the men in the other room the way his chakra was flaring violently. He didn't care.

He wanted to kill him. He wanted to hear him scream in agony over and over again. He wanted to pluck those precious eyes of his- no his brother's- and crush his only source of light in his hand. He wanted him to suffer.

"**_Madara_**," Itachi snarled, Mangekyou Sharingan spinning wildly.

**-xXx-**

"You seen Itachi?" Shisui asked Seiji as he took his spot beside his father. The secret room in the Nakano shrine was filling up quickly and filled with chatter. The spots where Fugaku, Mikoto, and Itachi stood were empty and the council stood to the side, waiting for the meeting to begin and naturally being intimidating.

"I'm not sure," Seiji replied, frowning in concern. "After we left his house he went somewhere. He was really upset." His eyes widened and he clamped a hand over his mouth, but the damage was already done.

"What?" Shisui hissed. Seiji pressed his lips together, giving him a look that basically said 'I'm not supposed to tell.' Shisui sighed and sat back, running a hand through his black unruly hair. "Shit. No wonder he's missing." Seiji frowned guiltily.

"I...could go find him," Seiji offered. Shisui sighed again and shook his head.

"I'll do it," he said, clapping a hand on Seiji's shoulder. "He probably doesn't want to be seen right now. Take notes for me if I miss anything important, kay?" Seiji frowned but nodded, and Shisui told his father he'd be right back. Tamotsu told him to get back soon.

There were still people making their way to the shrine when he was out, and, grumbling, he realized he had most likely just lost his seat. There would be more Uchiha attending this meeting to decide who was going to be the clan head so it was going to be more crowded. The obvious choices for clan head were Itachi and his father, but who knows what the council was thinking.

"Where would he be...?" Shisui wondered aloud. Might as well check the obvious places first. The training grounds, Shisui's house, on the Hokage monument. If he were a better sensor, Shisui might have tried to find his chakra signature, but he was rather weak in that particular field.

When Itachi had left this morning after he came back from the Hokage's meeting, he said he was going to go train. Shisui let him go by himself, because he knew Itachi needed some time to himself, but apparently the younger Uchiha had gone to the crime scene first. And helped them quite a bit, if Inabi's rambling in the meeting meant anything. Inabi said they stayed there for three and a half hours, and it was eleven now, so he must have been gone for about nine or ten hours.

_What could he be doing?_ Shisui wondered, growing concerned. Yea, Itachi would disappear at times when he was stressed, but never for this long. He would always be back before Sasuke could start to worry.

Shisui was checking his house first. If Itachi had been by, then Akane might have seen him or felt his chakra (unlike her brother, Akane was scary good as detecting chakra, and was actually better than than a skilled genin even though she was only seven). Then, if he knew Itachi, he would either be in the training fields venting or sitting on the Hokage monument, trying to cool down. Luckily Seiji was taking notes for him, because this was most likely going to take a while-

His thoughts stopped dead at the sight of the Itachi's still form laying on his doorstep. He wouldn't have been as worried, because this was Itachi and there's no way he could be hurt; maybe he was locked out and had fallen asleep waiting for someone. But no, 'worry' was an understatement. Itachi's skin was pale for a whole different reason and that scent in the air was definitely blood.

"Itachi!" Shisui gasped, flickering to his side and falling to his knees beside him. Itachi's eyes stayed closed, but Shisui felt a pulse in his neck- "Thank Kami," he gasped- and he realized the younger was just unconscious.

"Akane!" Shisui barked, loud enough for her to hear even if she was sleeping. She must have heard the urgency in his voice, because he heard a thump and then the pitter-patter of her feet running to the door.

Shisui turned Itachi onto his side to try and see exactly where he was hurt. The smell of blood was stronger now and Shisui held his breath before he could gag. Lifting up Itachi's shirt, he saw a gash in his side about four inches wide that looked like it would need stitches. Shisui immediately pressed a hand to it to stop the bleeding. The door slid open and revealed Akane.

"Nii-san?" she gasped, eyes widening in horror when she looked down at her cousin.

"Everyone's at the temple," he told her quickly. "Go tell father I'm taking Itachi to the hospital." Shisui knew Itachi couldn't be taken care of here. He carefully picked him up bridal style as Akane darted down the road barefoot.

Shisui thought about flickering to the hospital, but the jump would most likely just cause his cousin pain, so he decided he'd just run. Itachi seemed smaller in his arms, and it almost made Shisui want to cry that his expression seemed more peaceful while unconscious and _dying_ than it had in a long time.

**-XxX-**

_Itachi barely had enough control of his chakra to get past the guards at the gate without getting caught. Luckily, though, he managed to put a lock on his emotions until he was far enough away._

He had never been this angry before in his life. He almost felt like he was someone else. But wasn't that required to stay sane in the shinobi world? To detach yourself from the situation? It had worked so many times in Itachi's short but long career so far, but now... Even though he felt detached, he felt so very far from sane. It was like that empty cavity on his chest had filled with something dark and toxic, and it was fueling and controlling the body that was supposed to be under his control.

"**Madara!**" his body roared as he approached the small shack. He remembered when he first discovered Madara was staying in it. He was more surprised at how close it was to Konoha, only a few kilometers, than it's size, because he eventually found out there was an entire underground base below the shack. It had apparently been Uchiha property when the village was founded, but it was long since forgotten.

"Oh, Itachi," a light voice stated, seemingly surprised. Itachi turned to see a white and red mask framed by obsidian hair. A single hole allowed Madara to see, and his Sharingan twinkled mischievously. "I didn't expect you so soon. What's the occaision?"

"How dare you," the younger Uchiha snarled. "We had a deal!" The playful aura around Madara disappeared, leaving a more sinister one.

"And I ameliorated it," Madara replied stonily. "You were to kill them because you were running out of time to negotiate before the coup, weren't you? Now, when they're running around like headless chickens, it's been put off and you have plenty of time."

"And what's in it for you?" Itachi snapped. The reasons he listed were about how it was better for Itachi, but Madara must have had some personal gain from it. Otherwise he wouldn't have changed it.

"I get to watch you run around like headless chickens," he said mockingly. Itachi could tell he was smirking behind his mask and scowled. "And I strongly doubt the negotiations will work. If not stubborn and haughty, Uchihas are only killing machines. I hate both the clan and the village; there would be no limit to my satisfaction watching them destroy each other."

"Bastard," Itachi hissed. Madara chuckled.

"I would have enjoyed killing them with my own hands, though," he mused. "Watching their death freeze their faces into an agonized expression. It was rather satisfying," he stated, looking Itachi dead in the eye, Sharingan filled with sadistic amusement. "Watching the betrayed look on your family's faces as I killed them in your form."

The anger in Itachi's chest was replaced with horror. His family had died...thinking Itachi killed them.

"Kami-" he gasped, raising a hand to his mouth and squeezing his eyes shut. Madara must have seen the agony on Itachi's expression, and he tilted his head to the side.

"Though I apologize for killing your brother," he stated seriously, almost sounding slightly disappointed, "I was hoping Sasuke would have been out that morning." Itachi's eyes snapped open, and almost like a switch, that dark stuff in his chest boiled over.

"Don't you dare speak his name!" he hissed, Mangekyou spinning into existence. "You will never have the right!" Madara's visible eye widened at the sight of his student's new doujutsu. He smirked at the killing intent radiating off his descendent.

"I've taught you well," he noted.

Kunai clashed, and the pure hatred in Itachi's eyes showed Madara exactly what was brewing in the younger Uchiha's heart.

"I'll send you to hell," Itachi smirked coldly. "I'll laugh as my father tears you apart. And when I die..." The smirk grew, but it was so dark that even Madara was slightly alarmed. "I'll come find you and show you an even darker hell..."

**-XxX-**

Shisui never liked waiting rooms in hospitals. He always felt useless just sitting there when someone he loved was injured. He knew Itachi wasn't in critical condition; the doctors were just setting a broken bone in his arm, stitching him up, and binding his torso. But he couldn't help but feel nervous. Who could have done that to the 'Uchiha prodigy'? By the way Itachi was just left on his doorstep unconscious, it was obvious that it wasn't a friendly spar. Shisui wondered if it had been the man who killed Fugaku and his wife and youngest son. He knew the killer had to be strong to kill Fugaku, but strong enough to put the Itachi in the condition he was in?

There was no doubt nearly all of the shinobi and nurses in the lobby had gaped at the site of Itachi covered in blood that was actually his. They were silenced the nightmarish glare they received from Shisui though, daring them to say anything

A hand on his shoulder broke him out of his thoughts, and he looked up in surprise to see Hana Inuzuka standing beside him with a worried brown eyes. Her hair looked like it had been thrown in a ponytail quickly and her clothes were disheveled. One of her dogs were at her side, sitting patiently.

"How's the brat?" she asked almost breathlessly, as if she had been running. Shisui gave her a humorlous smile.

"Physically or emotionally?" he asked dryly. Hana frowned.

"Both," she answered seriously. Shisui pursed his lips and sighed, turning to sit straight in his chair again. Hana sat down beside him, keeping a hand on his arm for comfort. Kokuen, one the Haimaru brothers, obediently went to sit at her feet.

"He'll live through the injuries," he muttered. "I don't know about the murders."

"So they were all murders, huh?" Hana asked quietly. Shisui nodded, grimacing at what Itachi had to go through, walking through that house again. "...Has he cried yet?" she asked then. He glanced at her, wondering if Itachi would be okay with her knowing.

"...Twice," he replied soberly. Itachi and Hana were friends and she would weasle it out of him sooner or later. "That I know of. You know how he is with his emotions."

"True," she acknowledged. Itachi would only show his emotions when he was at his very limit, which they all knew to be very high.

Hana had been in Itachi's year at the Academy when they first started. They only had class together for a few months, of course, but they had grown to be friends and continued to be even after Itachi had graduated prematurely. Hana wasn't as smart as Itachi, but she was still considered the number-one rookie of her class when she graduated two years early. She was a nice girl and was calm when need be, but she could be almost as hyper as Shisui and as mischevious as her younger brother when she felt like it. She was currently training under the head nurse at the hospital to be a medic nin and then learning from her aunt how to be a vet. With a relieved sigh, Shisui realized she must have heard about Itachi from the other nurses, then. He had tried to keep off the more public roads if he could, because being seen while injured like that would definitely upset Itachi.

"Uchiha Shisui?" Said person's head snapped up to see an unfamiliar man in a white coat.

"Yea," he replied, standing up quickly. The man rose an eyebrow at his jerky actions, but then smiled assuringly. He had unruly brown hair and light blue eyes.

"I'm Doctor Natsure," he introduced. "Itachi's doctor." Shisui stood up and Hana followed, carefully nudging Kokuen to the side so she wouldn't trip over him.

"How is he?" Shisui asked worriedly. Doctor Natsure smiled.

"He's perfectly fine, now," he replied. "Though he actually lost quite a bit of blood, but not enough to keep him overnight. His right humerus was fractured and is in a splint since he refused a cast. He has three broken ribs, but the breaks are clean and they should heal fine." Shisui let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding, and Hana clapped a hand on his shoulder with a grin that Shisui returned. She turned to the doctor.

"Wouldn't you keep him overnight anyways?" she asked. "In case he has any more injuries you haven't noticed?" Doctor Natsure gave a nervous laugh.

"Well, we normally do, but he was very...persistant about leaving," he admitted. Both the teens had to keep from laughing at the threats Itachi most likely threw at the poor man. "So if you notice anything off, just brinf him back."

"He hates hospitals," Shisui grinned. "Is he awake?"

"Yes, and he is free to leave whenever he wants," Natsure replied with a smile. "Just, please...check out first?" He sighed. "We've had so many shinobi just up and leave that we actually have to send a nurse to check a room to see if it's really taken before we start having to treat people in the hallways."

"We will," Hana assured. "I work here, so I won't forget."

"I thought you looked familiar!" the doctor exclaimed, before a nurse over at the desk waved him over. Before he left, he said to the younger two, "Well, I have more patients, so have a good day. And make sure Uchiha Itachi rests well!" And then he rushed over to the desk where the nurse gave him a clipboard, and he quickly walked down another hallway.

"Come on," Hana said to Shisui when Natsure was gone, tugging his arm. Kokuen trailed behind her. "He's in room 1202." Shisui grinned and eagerly went with her.

Itachi's room was relatively close to the lobby, so finding his room wasn't much of a problem. Hana paused to knock politely on his door, but she had only tapped her knuckle against the door once before Shisui, being Shisui, barged in.

"I oughta stop making you dango," he declared loudly, and his cousin, sitting on the side of the bed unhappily, looked up in surprise. "You scared the hell out of us!"

"Shisui, we're in a hospital," Hana reminded him, rolling her eyes. "Stop yelling."

The corner of Itachi's mouth twitched up slightly at Shisui's antics, but the almost smile didn't reach his burning eyes.

"My apologies," he said calmly. "Good afternoon, Hana."

"Sup, squirt," she grinned at him. "I bring yummies!" And she held up a plastic bag filled with assorted sweet things, making Itachi's expression visibly light up.

"Where were you hiding those?" Shisui asked, bewildered. He was _positive_ that hadn't been in her hand when he first saw her.

"I'm a ninja, idiot."

He rolled his eyes. "No shit."

"Stop bickering," Itachi interrupted, holding his hand out to Hana imperiously. "I demand sugar."

"Yes, your highness," the kunoichi replied sarcastically, tossing Itachi a bag of konpeito.

"Oh, I want some!" Shisui grinned.

"Mine."

Shisui whined, and Itachi reluctantly threw a piece of the rock candy at him. After they had all settle down in various spots around the room (Itachi was reclining on his be, Shisui was cross-legged at the foot of said bed, and Hana was sitting on the back of a chair leaning against the bed with the candy on the bed between them), the other two in the room started drilling Itachi.

"So, what happened?" Hana asked, tearing her beef jerky into two peices to give a half to Kokuen. Shisui looked at Itachi expectantly, and Itachi, who had been calmly sucking on a peice of rock candy, pursed his lips as he quickly came up with an excuse.

"Someone attacked me while I was walking home," he said a little reluctantly, the fury still in his chest making him see red for a second. "I was distracted, so he caught me off guard." By the way Shisui frowned, Itachi could guess his cousin knew what had been 'distracting him' and he frowned in return.

"Did you see who attacked you?" Hana asked, confused by the exchange between the two.

"No," Itachi replied, choosing not to look at his closest friends as he lied to them. He reached for more candy. "He had on a mask."

"Anbu?" Shisui asked, slightly alarmed. Itachi shook his head and bit on a pocky stick.

"Different style of mask. And he wasn't in uniform."

Hana seemed to hesitate on her next question, but Itachi caught it and nodded for her to continue.

"Do you think it was...the same man that..." She trailed off at the frown she got from Shisui and how Itachi's eyes seemed to cloud over. There was an uncomfortable silence for a few seconds and Hana almost regretted asking the question.

"...Possibly," the younger Uchiha replied quietly, though in his mind he knew. Madara may have beaten him this time, but Itachi would not give up until his kunai was dyed red with his ancestor's blood and he stood over Madara's cold, decaying body.

**-xXx-**

Madara hissed when the man beside him pulled too tightly on the bandages.

"Watch it," he growled.

"Wanna do it yourself?" the hooded figure snapped back, pulling the bandages on purpose this time. "I know you think you're all that, old man, but the only medical thing you know about is eyes. You couldn't tell me what muscle the one I'm working on is. Hell," the figure grimaced down at the several deep cuts on the Uchiha's arm, courtesy of Uchiha Itachi. "_I_ couldn't tell either by how much you fucked your arm up. How old is this kid again?" A glowing, violet ringed eye looked at Madara condescendingly.

"I gave you Rinnegan," Madara warned, quickly losing his patience. "You want me to rip it out?"

"You can try when both your hands aren't useless," the man sneered. Madara scowled. As much as he hated to admit it, the man was right. He wasn't in a very good state to fight in after he and Itachi were finished with each other. His mask had been smashed in- he was pretty sure his nose had been broken- his arm had been sliced to hell and back when he had tried to wrap his hand around Itachi's throat, and his hands had been caught in an Amaterasu. Luckily though, Itachi had been as surprised as Madara when the black flames shot into existence, and as he slammed his eyes shut against the pain, the flames died out and Madara took the opportunity to hit the pressure point on the younger Uchiha's neck. It made Madara slightly nervous that Itachi could wound him so much; he shuddered to think how strong he would be when he was older.

"How much did you find out?" Madara asked the figure, deciding to change the subject. The man rose an eyebrow at him, but decided against arguing this time.

"The village hasn't taken much action yet," he stated. "I don't think they noticed you. The coup was put off for a few months and the new candidates for Uchiha Clan leader are Tamotsu Uchiha, that kid you just knocked out, and one of the elders. I don't remember his name and frankly, I don't care." He paused. "Uchiha Itachi has a new teammate on his Anbu team." Madara smirked behind his ruined mask.

"That's interesting..." he mused thoughtfully. The hooded figure frowned.

**-xXx-**

*Ihoukira- ihou means illegal I think, and kira possibly means killer. Whatevers :P I came up with this term because I figured it would be a pot calling a kettle black if a shinobi called someone a murderer. So, if I use Ihoukira, it means the person didn't have permission from the village to kill whoever they killed.

So anyways, introducing Hana! :D since she was close to Itachi's age, I figured they would know each other, and I wanted Itachi to have at least one friend who was his age. Shisui's two years older than Ita-kun by the way, if i haven't said it already.

Kurohyou isn't in this chapter! D: I've grown fond of him, too...might put him in the next chap though :D

R&R and TBC! 


	6. Chapter 6

**If I owned Naruto, Itachi would be alive and Shisui would have more screen time :D**

-xXXXx-

Mother Nature was not as kind the next morning as the day before. As the light bled into the city, the clouds painted themselves across the sky and brought with them not the question of 'will it rain,' but more like 'when?'

The team was currently standing at the gates of the Capital, waiting for the ambassador and Kakashi to arrive. Itachi was enjoying the cool air and in a much better mood thanks to the three hours of sleep when he surprisingly slept like the dead, therefore Shisui was in a good mood and became more talkative. Standing off to the side, though, Gio was silently pouting. He felt cheated because the next two days were supposed to be completely sunny, and now he had to spend the next week or so under constant cloud-cover (he had been around rain long enough to tell that this storm, when it started, would not let up anytime soon and that it was moving in the direction they were travelling). Shisui noticed something was bothering him and asked about it, but Gio just shook his head and stood straighter when he saw his captain and the ambassador approaching.

The ambassador was the epitome of a stereotypical politician from the capital. Round from stuffing his face with food paid for by the peoples' taxes, a holier-than-thou look about him, decorated with extravagent clothes. Gio hated him already. Though it wasn't a personal issue (he was sure he would hate any other politician), he knew what it was like to be poor enough to where fifteen percent of your family's income completely screwed you over and took away your food for the next week. And here were people like this guy, more worried about what he's going to wear to tonight's party than selling himself for the night so he and his mother can have a meal for once, and hoping _so much _that the drunk man three times his age who keeps looking at him doesn't have any kind of STD's.

Gio forced himself to not scowl at the man as he approached on his horse and Kakashi gave a slightly confused look at Gio's tense posture. Itachi and Shisui stood at attention as Kakashi cleared his throat.

"This is Ambassador Kanto, as I'm sure you know," he introduced. Kanto gave a smug smile as if he thought everyone should know his name. Gio twitched. Kakashi faced Kanto and gestured to the team. "Ambassador Kanto, this is Katsumi Gio, Uchiha Shisui, and Uchiha Itachi. We will be escorting you to Amegakure."

"Uchiha Itachi, huh?" Kanto mused, stroking his beard. Shisui saw the corner of Itachi's mouth barely twitch down at the immediate scrutiny. "I'm glad Konohagakure is so concerned for my well being that they would send their precious prodigè." He gave Itachi another appraising look, much to the teen's discomfort. "... Even as injured as he is."

"You have my word that my injuries will not affect my performance, Kanto-sama," Itachi stated lowly, and both Shisui and Gio heard the distaste in his voice. Gio refrained from grinning.

"See that they don't," Kanto said dismissively, as if now bored with the conversation. Shisui furrowed his eyebrows at Kanto's behavior, but Kakashi glanced at him and Shisui shut up.

"All politicians are like that," Gio muttered to Shisui when Kanto's attention was on Kakashi again.

"He's an ass," Shisui muttered back.

Itachi rolled his eyes at them. "Behave."

"Yessir," Gio drawled.

"We're leaving," Kakashi said pointedly, and the three turned to look at him. Kanto examined his nails. "We'll travel until lunch time, and then continue on until dinner. It will take three days for us to reach the border, and then one more day to reach Amegakure." Kakashi paused here, and from what Gio could tell it looked like he was trying to repress a sigh as he glanced at the expensive-looking cloth draped over Kanto and his horse. "We'll need to watch out for more bandits, as well."

"They always seem to go after the rich ones," Kanto sighed. "Sometimes it's surprising how they can always tell a politician from a normal man."

_It's your gods damn clothes, you fat fuck_, Gio seethed internally with a light scowl._ How the hell do you expect us to get there without any confrontation when you're wearing fucking sewn gold?_

Is he that dense? Shisui wondered incredulously.

Itachi pinched their hands discreetly and they recomposed their expressions.

"I'll lead the way until we get the border," Kakashi went on. "Itachi and Gio will follow on either side of Kanto-sama and Shisui will take up the rear in the trees to keep an eye out." The copy-cat nin fixed his gaze on a certain red-head, wordlessly telling him to not act recklessly. Gio frowned.

A unanimous, "Hai."

"...Then let's mosey!" Kakashi said rather cheerfully, ruining the almost serious effect the situation had as he smiled behind his mask.

"...Seriously?" Shisui asked.

"He's odd," Itachi explained.

"And proud of it," Kakashi retorted smugly. "I bet you can't look as good with hair like mine."

"But aren't you, like, thirty-something?" Gio wondered aloud.

"I'm twenty-two!" Kakashi sputtered indignantly.

"Are we going?" Itachi asked pointedly. Gio apparently felt like being in a sudden friendly mood and swung an arm over his shoulder with a grin. "...Do you enjoy your organs fully functioning?

Kanto was chortling at them, which earned him quite a few cold looks. (Not that he noticed, of course.)

**-xXx-**

By some miraculous reason, they did not encounter any bandits in the first few hours. They were, however, annoyed by the fact that they were expected to stop for a few hours when lunch rolled around.

"I understand stopping for lunch," Gio muttered quietly into his canteen, sitting with Shisui and Itachi in a small circle a few yards away from Kanto and Kakashi, who were chatting. Gio pursed his lips in annoyance. "But _three damn hours?_"

"He's not used to how we shinobi operate," Itachi muttered in Kanto's defence, managing to eat his small lunch perfectly fine with one hand. His other arm was still in it's sling, slender fingers idly messing with the hem of his shirt, though the splint had been taken off as Gio had healed it quite a bit the previous night before any of them had gone to bed.

Shisui shrugged his indifference, mouth full of rice.

"True, but even civilians can't eat for three hours straight..." Gio's gaze was drawn to the flash of skin shown as Itachi fiddled with his shirt. With the rim of his canteen still pressed to his lips, Gio thoughtfully chewed the inside of his cheek as he watched the younger Uchiha. His legs were folded neatly under him and the small bento sat on his knees. Another flash of skin, and Gio watched his fingers roll up the hem of his shirt a few times before unrolling it. Itachi seemed to not even realize what he was doing and continued eating. Though he wasn't showing much skin, the peek that Gio got was enough to see a glimpse of an angular hip. The pale skin almost made the red-head want to run his hands over it to see if it was as soft as it looked. His gaze travelled to Itachi's other arm, watching the repeated process of raising and lowering as the young Uchiha ate. His arms were just as pale as his hips and again Gio refrained from reaching out and touching him. His wrist was thin, but not unnaturally so, and his fingers were long. He moved with such fluidness that made even the simple task of eating look graceful on him.

Shisui's eyes looked up at how Gio's sentence had trailed off, and he saw the red-head watching his cousin. Shisui's eyebrows furrowed slightly as he looked to Itachi. The long-haired Uchiha was silently chewing whatever he had raised to his mouth, eyes closed and unaware to the scrutiny he was receiving.

Shisui's eyes shifted back to Gio and he unconsciously narrowed them. He felt a spike of some dark emotion, surprising him, but the surprise wasn't able to stop him before he barked out Gio's name.

"Katsumi."

Gio's eye slowly slid to him as Itachi opened his eyes to look at him in surprise at the hostility in his voice. Shisui felt himself almost glaring at the red-head, navy eyes meeting emerald.

Gio seemed to read his eyes for a moment, before a small smirk graced his lips. He moved the canteen in a way that Itachi couldn't see his lips before mouthing, 'Jealous?'

The effect was instant. Shisui jerked back, eyes widening in shock as if someone had slapped him. Gio's smirk widened, and Itachi glanced between the two confusedly.

"Shisui?" the younger Uchiha asked.

Shisui eyes flickered to his cousin, catching the subtle changes in his expression that showed he was beginning to get concerned. He moved his gaze back to Gio, and couldn't help but smirk at what he saw.

His gaze lowered back to his food, raising his chopsticks to his mouth again after saying a pointed, "Your water," just as a splattering sound reached their ears.

Gio looked down to see that he had poured his water on himself, right on his crotch area.

"Fuck!" he said eloquently.

Itachi's mouth had tilted up slightly. Shisui's shoulders were shaking with controlled laughter. Kakashi and Kanto looked over just as Gio stood up and was swiping at the spot as if trying to brush off dirt.

"Katsumi?" Kakashi asked.

"Yeah?" the red-head asked, turning slightly to look at him. The copycat nin raised an eyebrow at him.

"Couldn't wait to get to a bush?" he asked dryly.

Gio flushed. Shisui was laughing out loud now, and Itachi had soft chuckles escaping him.

"That's not it!" Gio complained. "I spilled my water!"

"Uh-huh," Kakashi replied noncommitedly, turning back to his lunch.

"It's true!" Gio huffed.

Shisui's mirth had been restrained to snickers and he looked at Itachi just as the younger Uchiha looked at him, his shoulders shaking slightly from his silent laughing and a smile on his face. His onyx eyes were shining with something Shisui hadn't seen in them since before the murders and the answering smile that bloomed on his own face made Itachi's smile grow.

_He looks..._ He cut that sentence off before he could even begin to wonder what he had just almost thought.

_...beautiful?_

"Alright," Kakashi called, standing up. Itachi's eyes were drawn to their leader, not catching how Shisui's face changed from amusement to shock. Kakashi looked them over, raising an eyebrow at Shisui's expression. "We'll go, now."

"Already?" Kanto exclaimed in surprise.

"Kanto-sama," Kakashi began, looking to the man who had been eating what looked to be very expensive food. "We've been here for an hour and a half. I understand that you aren't used to this kind of schedule, but we are on a time limit and we usually do not spend even an hour for lunch."

Kanto seemed to ponder this before sighing and nodding. Gio was internally whooping. Externally he was still pouting, of course.

Itachi had put the remains of his lunch back in his bag, and then turned to his cousin, who hadn't moved. He frowned at the dark contemplating look on his face as Gio walked over to Kakashi and tried to save his dignity by arguing.

"Shisui?"

Shisui snapped out of whatever daze he was in, blinking at Itachi as if was surprised he was there. He noticed the others behind Itachi.

"Oh, we're leaving," he mumbled, seemingly not all there yet. He started packing his things. Itachi frowned again.

"Shisui, tell me what's on your mind," he told the older Uchiha as he stood.

Shisui stood as well, "It's nothing."

Itachi pursed his lips, unhappy about being brushed off like that._ Why is he..._ "Shisui, what's wrong?"

"Me," the other Uchiha mumbled lowly, but Itachi's ears picked it up.

"You?" he asked sharply. Shisui cursed under his breath and walked past him. "Shisui," Itachi demanded, reaching out with his good hand and grabbing his arm.

Both paused at the sudden warmth that jolted through their bodies. Itachi blinked in surprise and almost pulled his hand back, but the feeling was so pleasant that he left it.

"What...?" he murmured in confusion.

"I don't know yet," Shisui replied to his earlier question, and Itachi felt for some reason disappointed that Shisui didn't seem to notice the warmth. His cousin wasn't looking at him. "Just let me think, okay?"

Itachi's lips pursed, unhappy that Shisui wouldn't talk to him. "Fine," he said, and only Shisui would have been able to pick out the reluctance in his voice, had he been listening. Itachi let go of his arm, frowning as Shisui walked off towards the rest of the group. He looked down at his hand, curling his fingers as he wondered what the warmth was. He didn't see Shisui lightly rubbing the spot where Itachi grabbed him as his cousin wondered the same thing.

**-xXx-**

"Why are they pouting?" Gio mock-whispered up ahead to Kakashi, loud enough that Itachi heard. The Uchiha glared at him. "_Ooh,_ scary."

"I'm not sure," Kakashi stage-whispered back, loud enough this time that even Shisui heard. The Uchiha behind them cocked his head to the side in confusion. "But isn't it cute when they try to look mad?" Itachi turn his glare to him, seeing as he was the only one who was angered at all (Shisui was just brooding), and the older Uchiha raised an eyebrow. Kanto had actually fallen asleep on the horse, and was slumped forward on it, snoring obnoxiously loudly. Itachi's brow twitched in annoyance when the ambassador let loose a loud snore right in his ear and took a noticable step the other way. Gio snickered at him.

"It's probably just an Uchiha thing," Kakashi sighed, not even trying to whisper now. There hadn't been any conversation between the cousins for the last five hours, and though Itachi was usually quiet, most of the time Shisui was easily able to goad him into conversing. Also, the tense atmosphere was starting to tick him off. "Always so pissy." A kunai flew past him and cut a few strands of hair, thunking into the ground in front of him.

"I wonder what that was," Shisui mused innocently from above them. Itachi's mouth twitched in amusement, then fixed into a frown as if remembering he was upset with Shisui.

"Well it's dangerous to just leave it there," Kakashi said aloud, picking it up and casually throwing it over his shoulder. "Someone could get hurt." Shisui yelped as he dodged to the side to avoid getting cut.

"Ass," he accused.

"Don't start what you can't finish," the silver-haired nin stated smugly.

"Seriously, though, make up or something," Gio complained. He frowned at the two Uchiha. "It's so quiet and I can only talk to Hatake here for so long." He looked at the masked-nin. "No offense, of course."

"None taken," Kakashi called back lightly with a smile. "I can only talk to myself for so long, too."

Gio inched away from him warily. "Right..."

"Why is everyone crazy?" Shisui muttered.

"It must be a rule," Itachi surprisingly spoke up. "All the strong shinobi are bat-shit insane."

"Here, here!" Gio laughed.

"You're not insane," Shisui replied, grinning at Itachi. His cousin looked back at him and he smiled in apology for his earlier actions. Itachi smiled softly in his own apology.

"I wonder," he mused, turning back to look where he was going.

Shisui made a face and Gio laughed.

And then suddenly Itachi's back stiffened slightly, Shisui being the only one to notice it. He was instantly on alert, moving to the more shaded part of the trees along the path and activating his Sharingan. He scanned to treeline, looking for the telltale glow of chakra. He saw it, about twenty-four meters ahead on the left of the trail. He took out a senbon, thinner than most and therefore not easily seen unless up close, and threw it over Kakashi's left shoulder. Kakashi didn't react to the signal as expected and continued on as if nothing was wrong. Gio watched the road, aware of the assasin.

Shisui didn't even have to make a handsign to flicker beside the enemy shinobi. By the time the shinobi had turned to look at who had caught him, he was trapped in Shisui's gaze and it was too late.

"Don't you think you should give up?" the Uchiha murmured, staring the man in the eyes as he weaved his genjutsu using his words alone. In his hand he held a kunai, held in such a way that it would be easy to slit the man's throat.

"You're an Uchiha," the man breathed in shock, eyes widening.

"I am," Shisui confirmed quietly. He quickly felt the area for any more chakra signals before returning his attention to the man in front of him. "And there is another Uchiha down there, as well as two Anbu. You know you won't stand a chance." The man hadn't heard of him, that was for sure, because he didn't seem to be aware that Shisui was using his persuasive ability on him. Shisui gestured down below them to his team. "Give yourself up. We might not kill you that way."

The man nodded dumbly, before slowly standing and leaping down to the ground, taking a breath before he walked out into the road with his hands held up in surrender.

"That's convenient," Shisui heard Gio comment as the man was instantly tied up. He smirked as he scanned the forest for any more chakra signatures before deeming the area safe and turning his attention to his team.

"Who sent you?" Kakashi demanded, holding a kunai up to the man's throat. The enemy was nervous, that was much, and he looked up at Shisui, seeing nothing but twin glowing orbs of red in the shadows.

Shisui dipped his head in a nod, adding another layer to the persuasion, and the man turned to Kakashi and spilled his guts.

He was a rogue nin from a village on the edge of the fire country. He claimed to have been on a mission for his village when he suddenly blacked out and found himself near the capital with knowledge that he had a new mission, to assassinate the ambassador.

"Shisui?" Kakashi asked when he was done explaining.

"He was in a genjutsu," the Uchiha explained. "My persuasion knocked it out of place. He shouldn't feel the need to carry out his mission anymore."

"Please," the man begged, eyes wide and face pale. "I didn't know I..."

"You don't know who placed the genjutsu?" Shisui asked. The man shook his head.

"...I say he's relatively innocent," Shisui stated, leaping down to look the man in the eye. "Kakashi?"

"You're going with what he _thinks?_" Gio asked Kakashi incredulously, motioning to Shisui, who frowned at him.

"You obviously haven't worked with Shisui," Kakashi stated. "He can easily claim to be the best genjutsu user in the entire Fire Country, maybe even in all the Great Countries."

"I wouldn't go that far," Shisui muttered modestly. Itachi raised an eyebrow at him, clearly agreeing with Kakashi.

"What I'm saying is, Shisui convinced this guy to tell the truth with genjutsu, and Shisui's good enough that we know he is being completely honest."

Gio raised an eyebrow in distaste at the shinobi. "I say we kill him before he runs and tells his boss." The man paled considerably.

"Katsumi," Shisui began. "Shut up."

Gio raised an eyebrow. "Bite me."

"_Katsumi_," Shisui started again, this time looking at him with Sharingan. "Shut up."

And Gio found himself looking away, muttering, "Fine."

"Shisui," Itachi protested with a light glare. Gio widened his eyes when he realized what Shisui had done.

"You little shit!" he accused, scowling at the smirking Uchiha.

"Believe me, now?" Shisui asked smugly.

"_Shisui_," Itachi pressed.

"Both of you stop," Kakashi commanded, glaring at each. "Shisui, don't use Sharingan on your teammates. Gio, trust your teammates a little more, would you?"

They both frowned, looking away from each other. Itachi let out a barely noticable sigh.

"Sorry," Shisui muttered.

"Same here," Gio sighed.

"Good," Kakashi stated. "Shisui, tell this guy to go home and forget this ever happened."

Gio didn't protest this time as Shisui looked back at the man.

"Hold on, gotta take off the previous layers," Shisui muttered, staring into frightened brown eyes. He imagined it in his head; a stack of several strips of paper with writing on them, and then himself peeling off a layer and letting it turn to ash in his fingers. He removed the 'surrender' layer and replaced it with 'flee.' The layers with 'honesty' and 'submit' stayed and he added 'forget.' For safety measures he added 'immune' in case this nin was caught in another genjutsu and attacked them again.

"Layers?" Gio asked in confusion.

"Shisui's genjutsu is an onion," Kakashi replied dryly.

"Kakashi," Shisui glared at him, finished with the persuasion. He cut the ropes binding the man. "Go." The man quickly left and none of them spared him a second glance.

"I don't like to make one big genjutsu," Shisui explained, deactivating his Sharingan. "I can make several smaller ones faster. It makes it easier to change something in it without digging through the whole thing to find the one command. It's like comparing a bento to stew or something." Gio raised an eyebrow at him. Shisui frowned. "What?"

"Interesting metaphores," he pointed out with a chuckle.

Shisui pouted. "The visualization helps me weave the illusions. Sue me."

Kanto snorted suddenly, jerking up on the horse and looking around wildly. "What'd I miss?"

"Nothing at all," Gio replied, scathingly sarcastic. Kakashi rolled his eyes but didn't correct him. Kanto didn't notice the hostility directed at him and yawned.

_It's easier,_ Shisui agreed mentally.

Itachi just shook his head.

**-xXx-**

They travelled for a few more hours before coming to a town and deciding to stay the night. Kanto wanted only the best hotel, which required them to spend extra money as well to stay in the pricy hotel. Which had Gio spitting fire, of course.

"Calm down," Kakashi sighed again before reaching up and forcefully pulling Gio to sit down on the bed. "The Hokage set aside money for this kind of situation, so you won't end up with a hole in your wallet 'as big as that fatass' as you so eloquently put it."

Gio blinked at him. "Oh, okay." And then he promptly threw himself back and fell asleep.

"Yep, insane." Shisui stated from the couch, one leg dangling over Itachi's because he felt like annoying the poor boy. Itachi was ignoring him in favor of attempting to meditate.

Kakashi raised an eyebrow down at the lightly snoring red-head. "I guess he's not taking first watch..."

"Not it!" Shisui quickly called.

"Not it," Itachi quietly replied, proving that he was listening the whole time. The poor masked-nin groaned.

"Since when do you play 'not it?'" he asked Itachi defeatedly. Itachi raised an eyebrow at him.

"Since I had a shitload of cousins and realized 'not it' could save me a lot of trouble." He shrugged and closed his eyes again. "Didn't you and other shinobi in your age group play 'not it' to see who would be the new genin teachers...?"

"Little brats need to learn to respect their elders..." Kakashi muttered, reminded of an orange ball of hyperness that pranked whoever got within twenty feet.

"So you _are_ old?" Shisui asked impishly.

"I'll cut you," Kakashi stated bluntly. Itachi lightly smirked at them before grabbing Shisui's knee and pressing his thumb into a certain spot.

"Ow, ow, _ow!_" Shisui quickly removed his leg from his cousin's vicinity and Itachi stood up. "Abusive!"

"I'm going to bed," he stated plainly before leaving to go to the room he shared with Shisui.

"He'll wake up if I come in there later," Shisui muttered, rubbing his knee. He stood as well, giving a half-hearted wave to Kakashi. "Night."

"See you tomorrow," Kakashi replied, already opening his pouch on the bedside table to bring out a familiar orange book.

Shisui snorted at him, "Perv." Kakashi gave a noncommital wave, his visible eye glue to the page as Shisui closed and locked the door behind him.

When Shisui walked into his and Itachi's room, the younger Uchiha was already laying down, the lights off. Shisui walked over to the bed and kicked off his sandals, rolling over the blankets as he decided it was too hot for them.

"Night," he murmured.

"Goodnight," was the quiet reply. Then it was silent, and Shisui focused on relaxing enough to fall asleep, knowing he would be woken in a few hours to take his shift.

And it only seemed like a few hours when Gio stumbled into the room, shaking him awake and mumbling something like 'your turn.' By then even Itachi was awake and glaring at Gio with red eyes. The red-head said something else about a 'possessed bitch' before leaving the room the same way he came.

"Go back to sleep," Shisui muttered, stifling a yawn as he sat himself up and forced himself awake.

"Hn," Itachi grumbled, turning his face into his pillow. Shisui heaved a sigh and took to observing what he could see of the room in order to stay awake. It had only been a few minutes (and Shisui began counting how many times Kanto choked in his sleep from snoring too hard; he got to twelve) before Itachi shifted next to him, letting Shisui know he was still awake.

"Shisui," the younger Uchiha mumbled, and said person glanced down at him.

"Yea?"

"Earlier today," Itachi quietly began, "During lunch..." Shisui winced, actually hoping Itachi would have forgotten about that until he had gotten his thoughts into a straighter order. "Did I...do something?" Shisui's eyebrows furrowed as he looked down at his cousin.

"No," he immediately replied, confused. "Why would you think that?"

"I thought you were mad at me," Itachi admitted.

"I wasn't," Shisui stated, wincing as he remembered how he had brushed Itachi off. "I'm sorry I made you think that. I was...kind of confused."

"About what?" Itachi asked softly, almost as if he were falling asleep again. Shisui looked down at him to see half-closed eyes blinking up at him. He brought his knees up with a sigh and rested his arms on them, looking up at the ceiling. He had no clue whether or not he should tell Itachi. Yes, he was nervous, because he knew it would make him the shame of the entire clan. He knew it would make Itachi uncomfortable around him, and that was the last thing Shisui wanted.

"You're gonna hate me," Shisui admitted, feeling his heart racing. Itachi frowned at him before sitting up to look at him.

"Nothing you could do would make me hate you," he stated seriously, trying to catch his eyes. Shisui avoided his gaze, opting to just close his eyes instead.

"I'll be the laughing stock of the clan," Shisui laughed bitterly.

Itachi frowned. "I won't tell anyone if you don't want me to."

Shisui looked at him then, seeing the honesty in his eyes, before letting out a huge breath.

"I think I might be gay," he quickly stated before he could give himself any more time to doubt. He kept his gaze away from Itachi's face, not wanting to see the disgust he knew would flash across it. And then Itachi would tell him how he was messed up, that he was a joke, and would get up and leave him here to rot.

"...That's all?"

Shisui whipped his head to face him so fast his neck popped a few times. "'That's all?'" he repeated with unbelieving eyes. "What do you mean, 'that's all?'" Itachi rose an eyebrow.

"I don't see anything wrong with it," Itachi replied honestly. "Gender shouldn't affect who you love. I don't care if you're straight or not, Shisui. It's not like it changes you as a person." Shisui was gaping, eyes wide. Itachi's brow rose higher. "You didn't think I was going to throw a fit or something, did you?"

"You mean you're not disgusted?" Shisui asked hopefully. "You don't think I'm a joke?" Itachi's brow furrowed together, then.

"I could never," he responded sincerely.

Shisui's shoulders dropped, relieved, and he let out a shaky breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "Thank you," he smiled at Itachi. "Thank you." He was surprised when he felt his eyes water slightly at how strong the relief in him was. Itachi didn't hate him. He wasn't going to shun him.

Itachi tilted his head at the reaction from his cousin. "...That really scared you, didn't it?" he asked quietly. Unable to speak in fear of his voice breaking, Shisui merely nodded as he continued to tremble.

His eyes widened when he felt a smaller form press against his and arms wrap loosely around his shoulders.

"Thank you for trusting me," Itachi murmured into his hair. "I won't push you away." Shisui smiled, feeling his eyes water even more.

"You are gonna make me cry, though," he croaked. He felt, rather than heard, a chuckle reverberate through Itachi's chest.

"You can let it out, you know," Itachi told him. "I won't think any less of you."

"Way to use my own words against me," Shisui muttered with a smile. But he never liked crying, so he reached up and brushed his eyes so that the tears wouldn't fall. He didn't push Itachi away though, because like _fucking hell_ was he gonna reject a hug from him, especially when_ Itachi _was the one to initiate it!

Though, Itachi seemed to be falling asleep on him, so Shisui laughed and made him lay down. He made to run his fingers through his hair out of habit, but stopped just inches from his head before pulling back with a frown, figuring it would make him uncomfortable.

"Shisui," Itachi muttered almost angrily. The older Uchiha looked down in surprise to see him scowling into the pillow with his eyes closed. "I told you that you don't and won't make me uncomfortable, now _pet my goddamn hair_."

Shisui laughed outright and conceded, knowing he would never get a request like that again. He had forgotten that a sleepy Itachi is a pissed Itachi.

He knew he was lucky that Itachi didn't ask about who he might like.

-xXx-

The next two days of travelling went perfectly fine, despite the fact that it started raining the second day and both Gio and Kanto complained constantly (which only spurred Gio to complain more because someone as 'evil' as Kanto was agreeing with him). Soon they were close to the border between the Rain and Fire Countries, where they would have to be even more careful of ambushes and where Gio knew God and His angel were waiting for them to arrive.

-xXXXx-

** I'm _so_ sorry about my hiatus... I don't think I've ever had this long of a break... But yea, I had my reasons, but they're personal so I won't say. I guess I can just say I'm lucky I don't have to make up a Mangekyou design for Shisui. (Thank you, Kishimoto!) By the way, did you know Itachi is fucking badass in the new chapter? Or in any chapter, really. Can you tell he's my favorite character, yet? xD**

So, yea, I'm playing with the idea of getting the other Akatsuki members in this story... After this whole Ame mission and a time skip, maybe, but at least you know you'll get Pein and Konan, right?

Review or chibi!Gio will cry. He is mine, btw, but I'm totally going to admit I based his appearance off of Genesis from Crisis Core... So yea, review? :D *whispers: chibi!Gio! Now!*

Chibi!Gio: *cute little puppy dog face* Pwease review? :3

Tbc! 


	7. Chapter 7

**I own Naruto about as much as I own 20 billion dollars, the rights to Taco Bell, and that one province in that one Country. Yea. **

**-xXXXx-**

The Rain Country was exactly what its name entailed; rainy. Not a light drizzle, either; a flood causing, heavy, loud downpour. What was odd was that it suddenly started raining like this almost exactly when they stepped over the border and went through customs. Gio actually threw a curse to the sky and flipped it off, and nearly a few seconds later a rumbling thunder answered, almost like mocking laughter. Kakashi's gravity-defying hair had lived up to its name and kept on defying. Shisui was laughing or at least smirking the whole time because Itachi kind of looked like a drowned cat and was _not_ happy about it. (Shisui was grinning also because his wet clothes clung to him in ways that should have been illegal. Needless to say, Shisui was pointedly blocking Gio's view of Itachi until they got to a hotel to change and dig out their rain coats, previously unneeded since the rain had been light enough.)

And now they were making their way over the lake that surrounded Amegakure, with their rain coats barely keeping them dry. They were taking a ferry since Kanto couldn't just walk over the water, but none of them were complaining since they now had a relatively dry shelter for the hour or so it took them to get to the city.

"Heads up," Gio started. Shisui and surprisingly Itachi were involved in a game of cards with Kakashi, but looked up at the red-head. Kanto sat on a bench, stuffing his face with food they had gotten at a small store before they boarded the ferry. Gio was looking at the city with an unreadable expression, and after a few seconds he turned to them so it was easier for them to hear him over the downpour.

"Like you know, there's been a civil war here for the past few decades. It's almost over with, but there are still a few resistance groups. The fact that we weren't attacked proved that the number has gone way down." He sighed then, and glanced back at the city. "My point is that the leader has personally wiped out almost all resistance. Single-handedly. Do not talk about anything he would find unpleasing. He _will_ find out, even if you think you are alone. I can promise you that."

"Wouldn't he find out about you telling us this, then?" Kakashi asked thoughtfully.

"Hm," Gio mused, looking out at the rain. He held his hand out, letting the droplets hit his hand. "Probably. But the people of the city consider him a God. They won't hesitate to report you if they suspect you are doing something wrong. If there's nobody to meet us when we dock, there's a chance we'll probably get arrested on sight."

"Arrested?" Itachi asked sharply.

"This whole arrangement was made by him and his right-hand kunoichi. They don't run the police force, and I can gaurantee the civilians won't be too happy seeing us," Gio shrugged and frowned at the city.

"You don't seem too happy returning home," Shisui noted. Gio gave a dry smile but said nothing.

**-xXx-**

"Hey, Itachi..." Shisui began. They had finally reached the city and were waiting for everyone to unload. Itachi, his arm no longer in its sling thanks to Gio, looked at Shisui questioningly.

"Hn?"

Shisui didn't take his eyes off the sky, which was almost blocked by the tall skyscrapers towering above them. "This rain is...weird." Itachi looked up as well, red eyes widening at the light purple tint to the clouds.

"The clouds have chakra in them," he murmured. "This rain is forced...?"

Gio, who was unloading the horse, gave them a short look. Kanto was being helped off the boat by Kakashi. "Don't talk about it too much," the red-head warned.

Shisui grunted in acknowledgment, looking down from the sky when something caught his eyes. Two inches from his face, a small white moth fluttered about, and he backed up to get better look at it.

"Origami?" Itachi asked in confusion, his brow creasing. The moth moved to dance around his face for a few seconds before it flitted away into the city.

"You are one of the few people to notice the rain right away," a woman remarked calmly, and the Konoha shinobi turned to her. She stepped out of the alley the moth flew into. Indifferent, hazel eyes looked at the Uchiha cousins. "But then again, Sharingan sees chakra as colors, yes...?" She had blue hair with a white rose pinned into a bun. A dark cloak with red clouds was draped over her, and she looked to be around her thirties.

"My name is Konan," she began, nodding her head forward in a slight version of a bow. "I am here to show you to your hotel and then to escort you to the meeting with our Leader."

"A change of clothes would be nice," Kanto agreed, stepping forward. "I am ambassador Kanto of the Fire Country, and these are my bodyguards." He gestured to the shinobi around him. Konan's eyes flickered to each as if memorizing them before settling on Gio.

"Welcome home," she told him. Gio gave a deep bow.

"Tenshi," he murmured in greeting, earning himself a few confused looks.

Konan looked back to Kanto. "I will now show you your rooms. Please enjoy your stay in our city."

And though it was wet and dreary, Amegakure was a magnificent city. Skyscrapers, some at least a hundred floors high, towered into the sky, and a shocking white light let the Leaf Nin know there were lightning rods on the towers. The fact that the skyscrapers were almost all a dark shade of black or gray added effect to the colorful neon signs advertising all along the roads. The villagers, seeming not too bothered by the downpour, were shocked by the sight of people from the Fire Country walking with their Angel. The ones that weren't frozen in shock or anger bowed deeply as Konan passed. The Leaf nin wondered about this, but Gio seemed unaffected as he followed her. Konan stopped before the entrance to a smaller tower.

"This will be your hotel. If you would like, you can change here now. I will be waiting for you to finish." She was speaking as if she was bored again, and the Leaf nin gladly left the slightly akward atmosphere for the shelter of the inn.

"Three rooms again?" Gio asked as Kakashi picked up their keys.

"Complimentary," the copy nin interrupted before he could blow a fuse. Gio rolled his eyes. Shisui had stayed behind to find a place to keep the horse during their stay.

Kakashi handed the keys out, figuring Itachi and Shisui were rooming again. He stopped the two before they could leave for their rooms, though, and told them, "Only Ambassador Kanto and I will be going to the meeting."

"What?" Gio complained, grimacing. "I wanted to meet Leader."

"We're not here to intimidate or show we distrust them by having a full team present," Kakashi explained, shrugging. "You can walk around if you want, but I'd rather you not since people here don't like us much."

"Just wear rain coats and take off your forehead protectors," Gio suggested. When he got a hesitant grimace from the other shinobi he ammended with a frown, "Or just wear it around your neck, jeez. The collar of your rain coat will hide them."

"Well, we should get ready now," Kakashi stated, turning to follow the way Kanto had gone. "Stay out of trouble." And he shot a look directly at Gio.

"Why are you looking at me?" the red head asked indignantly.

"Because Itachi apparently is the only one who knows proper etiquette out of you three."

"Hey!" And then a slightly smirking Itachi recieved a half-hearted glare. Kakashi disappeared behind a corner and Itachi and Gio were left standing there.

"...So," Gio drawled after a while, giving Itachi what almost seemed like a flirty smile. The Uchiha rose an eyebrow, unimpressed. "Wanna sight-see?"

"With you, hardly," Itachi stated, walking to the doorway of the inn and peering out for Shisui.

"Ouch, cold," Gio hissed. Itachi heard him walk up behind him and jumped in shock when hands grabbed his hips, dangerously low, and _pulled their bodies flush together._ "I know all the good places, though..."

Itachi jerked around and punched Gio square in the jaw, knocking the red-head away from him. He straightened up and made a show of irritably brushing at the places where Gio had touched him as the other sat up from the floor, lightly touching his jaw with a wince.

"You will _not_ touch me," Itachi spat, fixing a scathing flare on the red-head. "_Especially_ in such inappropriate ways."

"Alright, alright," Gio surrendered, holding his hands up, palms forward. His one green eye looked up at Itachi slyly as he smirked. "...Though you _are_ pretty fucking hot when you're mad."

Itachi flushed lightly at the comment, but still had the perfect '_what_ _the fuck?_' face just in time for Shisui to open the door and trudge in, dripping wet from the rain.

"Hey, guys," he greeted, then paused when he took in the scene. "Um..."

"Pay no attention to him," Itachi stated indifferently, holding up the key to their room. "Let's go."

"Wait, wait," Shisuu interrupted as Itachi started walking and Gio picked himself up off the floor. He looked between his cousin and the angry red mark on Gio's face surprisingly the size of Itachi's fist. "...Did you just _punch_ him? When I wasn't here to _see it?_"

Gio continued rubbing his jaw, opening it wide a few times to try to work out the soreness. He smirked. "He's a feisty one."

And then his head snapped back when he was punched _again._

"Stop hitting me!" Gio whined, voice muffled since he was holding his nose with both hands, and Shisui grinned at the scene.

"Stop being inappropriate," the younger Uchiha shot back.

"Yes, sir," Gio pouted, then turned and waved at the shocked inn keeper. "Happens all the time, ma'am, no need to worry."

"For your sake, it better _not_ happen all the time," Itachi muttered as he stalked to their room.

"What did he _do_?" Shisui asked, resisting the urge to laugh. The last time Itachi had been this irritated was when one of their clients on a mission had mistaken him for a girl.

"Hn," the younger Uchiha grunted. Shisui shrugged, still grinning at seeing Itachi punch Gio. They arrived at their room and locked the door behind them, noticing that this room was much smaller than their previous rooms had been, though they apparently had enough space to fit in two beds along with a table and t.v. stand.

"The city's on an island, so they probably don't have much space to begin with," Shisui guessed as they kicked off their sandals.

"That explains the numerous towers," Itachi muttered. "They most likely build up instead of out." He walked towards the two doors at the end of the room and checked out the closet and bathroom, nodding in approval when he realized it wasn't as bad as you would think for a hotel with rooms this small. "We're not going with Kakashi and Kanto," he stated, setting his pack on the floor beside the bed he was apparently claiming and digging out the scroll he sealed his clothes in.

"I figured we weren't," Shisui shrugged again, digging out his own scroll. Two small pops sounded as the desired clothing appeared, both sets merely copies of their current clothing. "It's a nice-looking city, though, despite all the rain."

"It is better than I thought it would be," Itachi agreed. "Though we've only seen part of it so far, so I could not properly tell."

"We could take a look around after-"

Shisui stopped talking and blushed hard when Itachi turned slightly and calmly stripped off his soaking shirt, revealing the smooth expanse of pale skin beneath it. The older Uchiha turned before Itachi could see his face and distractedly began taking his own clothes off.

"Shisui?" Itachi turned to look at his cousin when he stopped in the middle of his sentence, and blinked in surprise when he was met with the sight of Shisui's bare back. He paused, his hands frozen in the act of balling his shirt up, to stare at the body before him. Shisui turned slightly as he tossed his shirt into the bathroom sink through the open door, the movement causing a few drops of rain water to run down his back.

Shisui made a noise of questioning as his hands moved to fiddle with the buttons of his pants as Itachi's eyes trailed the drops to his waistline. A slow red crept up Itachi's face and he found himself unable to turn away. Shisui's hands moved to the edge of his pants, pushing down slowly and revealing angular hip bones and even more tan skin...

"Yea, Itachi?" Shisui asked, looking over his shoulder. Itachi jerked around, his blush deepening even more as he prayed Shisui hadn't noticed him staring. He squeezed his eyes shut.

_Gods, what is _wrong_ with me...?_

"Itachi?" And then he opened his eyes and leapt back, his blush darkening to an almost comical color because Shisui had been _right_ in his face, dark blue eyes staring into his with concern. "Are you alright?" the other Uchiha asked with worry, placing his hand on Itachi's forehead. Itachi thought he was going to faint with embarrassment.

"I'm fine," he said quickly, moving away from the hand. Shisui frowned.

"Then why are you so red?" he challenged.

On the inside, Shisui was battling the need to grin. He was almost giddy with pleasure because he _had_ caught Itachi staring at him. And because it was adorable, really, watching his crush squirm with embarrassment and blush like a virgin on her wedding night.

"It's nothing!" Itachi pressed, backing up when Shisui stepped forward. He put his hands out to press against Shisui's chest, then paused and proceded to blush an even _darker_ red that drifted all the way to his _chest_ when he realized where his hands were.

Shisui began to feel a genuine twitch of concern when Itachi squeezed his eyes shut. He was so red that looked like he was close to _fainting._ "Hey, maybe you should sit down for a second," he started with a frown, backing off. He took Itachi's wet shirt and held it to his forehead to cool him off, grabbing him by the shoulder and steering him to sit down on one of the chairs at the small table in the corner.

Itachi let him, his blush slowly fading but not disappearing. He felt his lips twitch into a small smile as Shisui dabbed his soaked shirt on his face, the cold a nice change from the burning heat on his cheeks. He listened only a little as Shisui started rambling on about some completely unrelated subject, mostly watching his expressions and adding the few necessary comments.

Shisui laughed, and Itachi smiled because it was nice to see Shisui smile, and he decided he liked Shisui's laugh. The older's thumb rubbed circles into his shoulder, the action seeming unconscious, and he decided he liked his touch, too. The way he said his name was nice, the way he made it seem so easy to make him smile...

An expression of shock came over his face when he suddenly realized _how_ he liked the other teen before him. He stared at Shisui, incredulous that he had evoked this type of emotion in him. Shisui paused in dabbing at his face, lowering the cloth since all that remained of the blush was a small dusting of red on his cheeks.

"...Have an epiphany?" he asked, flashing a grin. Itachi was struck dumb again by the surprising charm of it before registering the question.

"...Maybe," he admitted, finally looking away from those navy eyes. He didn't even think he _liked_ men...!

_Well..._ he thought, onyx eyes flickering up to the older teen for a moment. _It's not that I'm not attracted to women. It's just that Shisui is...Shisui._

And that shock back on that day! The memories ran through his mind. _But such a cliche thing couldn't possibly be...!_

Shisui tilted his head curiously when Itachi wouldn't elaborate. "..Am I gonna get to hear it?" he asked. He blinked in surprise when another light blush appeared on Itachi's face as the younger looked down again.

"...Maybe." he repeated. Shisui pouted and the corner of Itachi's mouth twitched when he saw it.

"Can I get a hint...?" Shisui begged with a grin. "Because you looked like you had a life-changing moment right there. It was actually kind of funny."

Itachi hesitated for a moment, wondering if he should tell him or not. He actually dreaded Shisui finding out and reacting badly, but he knew that Shisui was too smart to not figure it out eventually and that it was only a matter of time before it was out in the open.

Swallowing the sudden feeling of panic, he faked a small smile and pretended to think for a moment, deciding to go along with Shisui's game as the older bounced slightly in anticipation.

_Ah, guessing games were his favorite, weren't they?_ he wondered, watching his eager cousin.

"...Three words," Itachi stated softly. "It can be summed up into three words."

"Aww, I can't do anything with that!" Shisui complained. "Give me another one!"

"No."

"No?" Shisui pouted again.

Itachi smirked slightly. "No. Not until later."

"'Tachii," the older Uchiha whined.

"No," Itachi repeated. Shisui then sighed dramatically and sat down on the floor with his legs crossed.

Itachi watched him think, knowing it shouldn't take too long for him to figure out the other clues and get more hints from them. He enjoyed games and puzzles that made him think, because to create a genjutsu as detailed as his usually were then you would need the brain to do so. He regularly found puzzles to keep his mind active, and when he didn't have any more problems to think about he would ask someone to play 'Guess' with him.

"Well, you turned pale and then blushed after you realized whatever it is you realized," Shisui began.

Did he? Itachi tilted his head. He hadn't realized.

"...I didn't blush," he muttered after a second.

"That's a lie and we both know it," the older Uchiha declared happily, then went on. "So, things that make _you_ blush... You embarassed yourself in front of someone and just realized it," Shisui held up one finger, "You...'had a random heat flash,' is what your answer would most likely be in reply to whatever I guess..." They both grinned at that as Shisui held up another finger. "Or...you realized you had a crush on someone." After the slight grimace at his own words (which sounded slightly ridiculous now that he thought about it, because, come on, it's _Itachi_), Shisui proceded to gasp and scoldingly say, "_Itachi!_ Miss Konan's like, twenty years older than you!"

And Itachi _had_ to laugh at the ridiculousness of the statement. "It's not her," he objected, still smiling. Shisui gave a wicked grin.

"But it _is_ someone," he stated, and Itachi flushed slightly and scowled at his mistake. Shisui chuckled mischeiviously, but the whole while he felt like he had been kicked in the gut. "Oh, who is she?" he asked eagerly, composing his disappointment. "Is it Hana? That Yugao chick in Anbu? Anko? Oh it_ is_ Anko! I _knew_ it!"

Itachi gave an exasperated smile and resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "None of those."

"Can I get a hint?"

Itachi paused for a moment, before looking away. "You know this person." He cut Shisui off before he could respond. "And that's all for today. You'll have to wait until tomorrow for any more clues."

Shisui puffed out a sigh in disappointment, and Itachi smiled again. He felt like he had been doing that around Shisui more often lately.

Suddenly he paused and shivered, drawing a confused look from the other teen.

"I forgot we were changing," he admitted, rubbing his arms for warmth. "Holy _Gods_, it's cold."

And then Shisui erupted into laughter, and Itachi couldn't stop himself from following.

**-xXx-**

On the rooftop of the tallest tower in the city stood a man, staring out into the clouds thoughtfully. A woman appeared next to him in a flourish of papers, looking at the rain with him.

"And?" she asked. The man moved his ringed gaze down to the city, looking at the hooded figures scurrying about in an attempt to stay at least partly dry. He yearned for the day when peace came and he wouldn't have to constantly drench his beloved country in an attempt to keep an eye out for it.

"...They do not plan on trying to attack us," he stated. "They are indeed here for strictly diplomatic purposes."

"And the boy?" the woman asked. Though she was as drenched as the man beside her, the paper flower in her hair stayed as perfect as if it were dry.

"It's only by chance that he came here as well," he stated. "He is still a shinobi loyal to Konoha, Konan. We cannot recruit him until Madara finishes his plan." Konan only nodded in reply, before her head moved slightly to glance behind her.

"The Fire ambassador and Hatake Kakashi are here, Pein." Pein nodded as well, turning with one last glance at his city to attend the meeting he frankly found unnecessary.

**-xXXXx-**

**Alright, I know, the chapter's short and late. Blame writer's block and school... D: *hides from torches and pitchforks* **

**And I've decided that I'll try to make my chapters slightly shorter, to see if that will help me prevent getting invaded by Mini Elmer Fudds in search of "Pwot Wabbit Season."**

**In response to the people wondering if there will be a lemon in this story, there's good news and bads news. Good news: yes, eventually, I plan on having multiple lemons. Bad news: not before some kind of time skip or something, because unlike other authors who are fine with it, I am not comfortable writing about a 13 year old having sex because I do not think 13 year olds should BE having sex. Not trying to start anything here, btw, just stating my opinion. :D**

**So, yea, I'm going to try harder to get the chapters out faster, but just so you lurkers know, reviews give an author a kind of boost and encouragement when writing ;) Hint, hint! **

**It's 12:00 a.m. here, btw. Don't you love me for staying up this late to finish the chapter tonight?**

**Ciao! **


	8. Chapter 8

**I don't own Naruto  
**

**-xXXXx-**

"Itachi!" Shisui hissed.

Said person, after shifting around for a moment, blearily opened his eyes to glare at the person speaking.

"...Why you bother whispering when your goal is to wake me up anyways is beyond me," he huffed eventually. "What is it?"

Shisui, leaning over him, grinned excitedly. "Get up. We're going out."

Itachi, sighing as he realized he wouldn't be getting anymore sleep, pushed himself into a sitting position. He rubbed his eyes tiredly. "...Out where?" he mumbled.

"To sight-see," Shisui replied cheerfully. Itachi frowned up at him. "Oh no, no matter how cute your pouting is you're not getting out of this. Come on, we're the first Leaf nin to be allowed in this city since the war! We can't just waste our time sitting around and meditating."

Itachi blinked before stating, "I'm not pouting. And I don't meditate that often."

Shisui rolled his eyes. "And my hair is green. Now, come on, up, up!"

Itachi resisted the urge to groan and let his head thunk back on the wall as Shisui, already dressed, dug through his backpack to find his wallet. After a minute of staring boredly at his cousin, he finally stretched and moved to stand up, grabbing his headband from the dresser.

A hand caught his before he could tie it on, and Shisui took it away from him and threw it in Itachi's bag. "No headbands. You know it might cause trouble. And besides," Shisui grinned, "We're off duty." The younger belatedly realized Shisui wasn't wearing his headband either and shrugged, too tired to care much.

"...Okay," he sighed.

**-xXx- A Few Hours Later -xXx-**

Itachi slammed the door to their room behind him in a rare display of anger, ripping his cloak off and throwing it in the general direction of the bathroom.

Shisui opened the door after him and closed it much more quietly, looking like he would either bust out laughing or dive behind the bed to escape Itachi's wrath.

"Do I really look that similar to a girl?" Itachi ranted, yanking his wet shirt off and looking for a spare in his bag. Even with the raincoats, they had still gotten soaked.

He looked warningly at his cousin for his input. Shisui, who had been changing in a much more calm manner, shook his head quickly.

"It can't be the long hair," Itachi went on. "I know plenty of men with hair as long as mine. And my eyelashes! I do not wear makeup! It is natural!"

"Really?" Shisui mumbled under his breath, surprised, but when Itachi rounded on him he quickly emended his mistake, "I mean, really, how do they see it?"

They had gone out to eat and generally wander, and several times Itachi had been mistaken for a girl. Shisui's girl, no less. Their "date," as the waiter at the restaurant had called it, had been filled with hidden laughter (and slight embarrassment) on Shisui's part, because Itachi's reaction to being referred to as his girlfriend three times in one day was hilarious. For Itachi, though... Lets just say he was lucky Shisui had mistaken the flush on his face for one of anger.

"Come on," Shisui began, holding his hands up as if to placate an angry animal. "Let's just-"

"I'm not going out again," Itachi snapped.

"Never said you had to," the older grinned. Itachi narrowed his eyes at him.

"...You think this is funny."

Obviously. Shisui scratched his head nervously. "Sorry, but, yeah, it kind of is."

Itachi stared at him for a few more seconds before turning his back to him, and Shisui was alarmed to see his shoulders shaking.

"Hey!" he gasped, rushing forward. He didn't think he would cry! "Come on, Itachi, I'm sorry, you know I'm just playing-"

"That actually worked?" Itachi asked incredulously as he straightened up, perfectly fine. He smiled at Shisui's jaw dropping. "Oops."

"That's not fair," Shisui pouted. "You know crying girls are my weakness."

He didn't say anything after getting punched in the face.

**-xXx-**

"So, can I get today's hint?" Shisui asked with a forced grin, hanging his head off the end of the bed so that he was looking at Itachi upside down. Now, after drying off, the two had decided they would rather just stay indoors for the remainder of the day.

"Hint?" Itachi asked, looking up from his book. He was leaning against the wall on his own bed.

"Your crush, duh," Shisui answered, loving the blush that immediately spread across Itachi's face.

"...Ask away, then," the younger mumbled as he glued his gaze to the book in front of him.

"Well, I can't think of many girls that we both know," Shisui mused. "And if it's my sister, oh my _God_, I'm beating the ever loving _fuck_ out of you."

"_No_!" Itachi answered quickly, appalled. "Shisui, she's _seven. God_, no."

"Good," Shisui sniffed. "So, then... That one nurse from the hospital that treated you that one time? What's her name? Kiko?"

Itachi made a face, "_Who?_"

"Guess it's not her," Shisui snickered. "Jeez, this is hard."

"...I never said it was a girl..." Itachi said quietly. Shisui's jaw fell open and Itachi's blush darkened.

"Woah," the older of the two blinked, feeling his hopes soar at the one piece of information. "I didn't know you were into guys."

"I'm not," Itachi said quickly, embarrassed. "Just...this one guy."

Shisui rolled over so he could rest his chin on folded arms. "What's he look like?"

Black hair... No, it would give it away. "Blue eyes," he mumbled, tilting the book so that it was covering his face more.

"How long have you known him?" Shisui's voice was surprisingly gentle, Itachi thought. Shouldn't he sound more hyper?

This reply took longer than the previous one. "...Since I was born." The blush had now disappeared entirely, replaced by a paleness that showed his fear. He tightened his hold on his book so that his hands wouldn't tremble.

Shisui's eyes were wide with shock as the clues fell in place, leaving him breathless. He sat up on his knees, watching Itachi hide behind his book.

"Itachi," he mumbled. "Look at me."

Itachi shook his head, cringing behind his book. Shisui got up and walked over to his bed to sit in front of him, tugging at his wrists to try and move the book.

"Look at me," he pleaded. "Itachi, I'm not gonna hurt you, please? Look at me?"

The book moved slightly and two anxious onyx eyes looked up at him. Shisui met and held his gaze.

"Is it me?" he asked softly. Itachi ducked back down behind the book, and his silence answered for him. Shisui sat back again, heaving a shaky breath that made Itachi cringe.

"Hey," he whispered. He didn't know why he felt the need to, it just happened. "Itachi, I'm not mad. Look at me, yeah?"

Itachi glanced up at him again, hesitantly, expectantly. Shisui gave him a reassuring smile.

"It's obvious I don't care about incest," he assured. "If that's what you're worried about. I mean, come on, we're Uchihas. We intermarry all the time. Our grandma was our grandfather's second cousin. And you know I don't care for girls at all," he tugged the book farther from Itachi's face with a smile, "Don't be so scared, okay? To be honest, I...kind of like you, too."

Itachi's eyes widened, filling with relief, and then the blush was back with full force, causing him to duck his head to try to hide it.

"Hey, don't do that," Shisui laughed, pulling his face back up. Itachi was biting his lip to try to stall the grin threatening to split his face, and his onyx eyes were shining with a light Shisui hadn't seen in quite a while. "Don't do that, either," Shisui smiled, running his thumb over Itachi's lips to stop the abuse.

"How long have you...?" Itachi asked, sounding a little breathless.

"Liked you?" Shisui finished for him, moving to sit beside him. "I realized it that time at lunch a few days ago, when we were still in Fire Country. What about you? That time yesterday?" he teased. Itachi elbowed him gently with an embarrassed smile.

"Yes," he admitted. "It was rather suddenly, too. Did that happen with you?"

"Like a sudden epiphany?" Shisui hummed. "Yea. Like a punch to the stomach." He grinned.

"Hey, guys!" the door burst open and Gio stuck his head through it with a grin, oblivious to what he was interrupting. "Guess what! Negotiations went well, and we're leaving tomorrow!" He stopped when he finally noticed the dark glares fixed on him. "What?" he asked innocently.

And then, with a surprising ferocity, Itachi hurled his book directly at Gio's head.

"Holy-!" He slammed to the door shut to block the deadly projectile. "Fucking insane little-" His curses were muffled through the door.

"He's so annoying," Itachi growled, still scowling at the door. Shisui was grinning at him, looking as if he was about to laugh, before he leaned in and pressed an innocent kiss to his cheek.

"You're awesome, just saying," he chuckled as Itachi flushed brightly.

**-xX****XXx-**

**Ugh, yea, I lied, go ahead and hate me. Really short, sucky chapter, I know, but I've written myself into a hole and I'm trying to get out of it. (In my defense, I've started just writing instead of agonizing over every little line since it's supposed to help with writer's block and I must admit it's kind of working.)**

**If you're still following this story, I commend you on your ability to withstand torture. :)**


	9. Chapter 9

**I do not own Naruto or any of these characters aside from Gio!**

**Excuse typos~  
**

**-xXXXx-**

"You know what I don't get?" Shisui asked, squinting down at the sheet of paper before him.

Itachi, leaning against the kitchen counter in Shisui's home, grunted, "Hn?"

"Hn?" Akane copied playfully, grinning at her brother. She was super excited they were finally home, mostly because she was having so much trouble with her homework that even her Daddy couldn't solve.

Shisui glared down at the ridiculously easy problems before him. "How I'm so used to calculus that I can't explain something as simple as this in third grader language. Help, Itachi?"

Itachi rose an amused eyebrow at his best friend-turned-boyfriend. "It's simplifying fractions, Shisui."

"Yea, but I can't remember how I used to do it," Shisui pouted his blue eyes at him. "And I can't explain."

Itachi sighed dramatically as he rolled his eyes and went to stand by Akane. "Do you know how to divide?"

"What's that?" she asked cluelessly. Itachi paused for a second and stared at the paper before pursing his lips in confusion.

"See?" Shisui demanded.

"Well, I guess there's no harm in teaching her now," Itachi said, leaning over the table.

"You're gonna break her brain," Shisui whined.

Itachi rolled his eyes but ignored him. "Akane, use your fingers and hold up six." She did as told. "Now, how many times can you put down two fingers?" She looked at him in confusion before he held his own hands out and demonstrated. "One...two...three."

"Ohh," Akane said, and then went ahead and finished the rest of the problem.

"Simplifying fractions is just something you'll have to remember," Itachi told her. "Using your hands at first will help you, but sooner or later you'll have to grow out of it, okay?"

"Okay," Akane said brightly, grinning up at Itachi. "Thank you, Itachi-nii!"

Itachi smiled at her. "You're quite welcome."

"You make me feel incompetent," Shisui complained as he gestured for Itachi to follow him into the living room to give Akane some silence.

"You're not incompetent," Itachi told him with a small smile as they sat on the couch together. "I've just had practice from Sasuke."

Shisui looked up sharply at the mention of the late young Uchiha, to gauge Itachi's reaction. Itachi seemed just as surprised as he was, but he couldn't help the light tremor that swept though him. He noticed the other's look and give Shisui an empty and so obviously forced smile.

"I'm alright," he said quietly. Shisui frowned and reached for his hand. When their fingers intertwined together, the first spot of color since Ame appeared on Itachi's face.

Shisui had been worried. When they got back from the rainy country, almost as soon as the village gates had come into sight, Itachi had gone through a change. The smiles he had been wearing- the blushes, the light in his eyes, the things Shisui thought were beautiful on him and was overjoyed over- all dwindled down into nothing. It was like a switch had been flipped, and Shisui could barely get any kind of reaction out of him. There were a few times, where he was distracted enough, when Shisui could get a smile or even a chuckle out of him, as small as they may be, but those moments were few and far between.

"You sure?" Shisui asked, and he leaned in and put his forehead against Itachi's temple. Itachi closed his eyes and sighed shakily at the contact, feeling the anxiety and panic stir at his insides, so close to boiling over.

"No," he answered honestly.

The wake was tomorrow. The funeral was the next day. He felt the panic rise.

"No, I'm not," he said then, and squeezed his eyes shut. Shisui threaded his free hand through Itachi's hair and kissed the corner of his eye. "Distract me?"

Shisui didn't even ask questions, just dropped the hand in Itachi's hair to wrap around his waist and pull him so that they were leaning against the back of the couch. Itachi leaned against his chest and breathed a deep sigh.

"Right, well, last night after Dad ordered take out, when you were asleep on the couch," Shisui began, lightly tracing patterns onto Itachi's back in case his story wasn't enough of a distraction, "...Akane came out of the kitchen with her hands on her hips, looking all bossy and whatnot, and she says to me, "Shisui! Go clean up your mess!" But I'm watching tv, and you were just so adorable that I didn't want to stop petting you," Shisui paused to grin at the flush on Itachi's face, "So I told her that it was Dad's food. But Dad got all pouty on me, and I told him I would eat the rest if he didn't put up his leftovers. So he went to put them up, and I'm sitting in here, still watching tv, whatever, and I hear a bunch of crinkling coming from the kitchen. I think, "oh, he just got out the tin foil, whatever," and go back to watching tv. But then the crinkling starts getting really loud, and there's alot of it, so I finally get up to go see what the hell he's doing." Shisui started shaking with supressed laughter and Itachi had an expectant smile on his face. "I look in the kitchen, and Dad's got his hands on each corner of a piece of tin foil, and he unrolled the piece to where it's nearly as long as he is tall, just for one to-go box that has a lid." Shisui was laughing out loud by now. "I ask him, "what are you doing?" and he says he's trying to put up the food, and I don't know, I guess he wanted to make some type of alien spacecraft with it or something, because that was a lot of metal."

Itachi was chuckling, now, and Shisui beamed down at him. "Your family is strange," Itachi said, looking up at him with a smile.

"You love us," Shisui declared arrogantly, and Itachi's smile grew.

"I do," he admitted.

Shisui smiled and leaned down to press a kiss to his cheek, and though it ended up being much closer to Itachi's lips than he meant it to be, he was fine with it and pulled back to play with Itachi's hair some more.

"We love you, too," he said gently. Itachi, ever the shy one, was, of course, blushing, but he smiled warmly anyways.

**-xXx-**

If they were to have gone by tradition, Itachi would have been the one required to arrange the wake and funeral. Luckily for him, Itachi thought as he sat in the front row, waiting with Shisui's family on the left side of the room and his mother's family on the right side, the council had put together everything for him. It wasn't so much as an act of kindness as it was just Itachi being absent on his mission and otherwise unwell enough to plan something like this.

Itachi sighed, his eyes darting up to the front of the room where three caskets lay, each facing north as was tradition. He quickly looked away, unable to bear the sight of them more than he absolutely had to. No, he wouldn't have been able to organize a funeral.

He was sitting on the right most seat in his row, and next to him sat his uncle. Akane sat between Tamotsu and Shisui. Itachi thought he would have preferred Shisui sit next to him, but it made sense for it to be his father's brother. They were all wearing traditional mourning clothes; mostly black in Shisui and Akane's case, but completely black in Itachi and Tamotsu's. They could hardly be called comfortable, but wearing anything else would be disgraceful.

The only bright color in the room would be the light kimonos his mother and Sasuke had been dressed in, the splash of colorful flowers near their caskets, and the bright green stuffed dinosaur in Itachi's lap, carefully cleaned of any bloodstains.

"We're about to start," Tamotsu whispered to Itachi, glancing back behind them. The rows were almost completely full and the number of people standing was rapidly dwindling. The clan priest made his way up to the front of the clan, and once he had the full attention of each individual in the room, he began talking.

He talked of their lives, of the people they each had helped, of how Fugaku and Mikoto had been excellent leaders for the clan and how Sasuke had been an excellent child. Itachi could barely bring himself to pay attention, mostly keeping his eyes on the green toy in his hands.

The priest finished with a few prayers that they all bowed their heads to. Itachi was the first to go. Tamotsu squeezed his knee for support before Itachi unsteadily rose to his feet, Sasuke's toy clutched tightly in his hand.

Walking to the coffins for what seemed like several minutes actually took just a few seconds. Itachi could hear his heartbeat pounding in his ears as he neared what he knew to be his father's casket.

Itachi finally came to a stop beside it and drew in a sharp breath. Aside from the deathly pale palor of Fugaku's face, he could have been sleeping. The hard lines of his face and the almost constant grimace had all but disappeared, making him look nothing like the man he had known to be his father. He had been dressed in his best kimono, which was a dark green color, and the right side was folded over the left alternatively to the way living people wore their clothes.

Itachi, unable to help himself, reached forward and spread his hand out over his father's cheat. Beneath the expensive silk, he could feel the numerous stitches over his father's heart. He briefly remembered the numerous times Fugaku had pushed and pressured him into being stronger, into gritting his teeth and pushing his way through, into keeping his temper under control and his head held high, into being more; the best he could be.

"You made me stronger," Itachi murmured, staring at his father's closed eyes. He removed his hand and took a slow step back before he bowed deeply. "Thank you, father."

To his father's right was his mother. She was dressed in a gorgeous white kimono; her wedding one, in fact, if Itachi recognized it from the pictures he had seen. Several delicate flowers had been laid around her, framing her soft features. There was a white cloth lightly wrapped around her neck, hiding the stitches Itachi knew to be there.

"Mother," he whispered, picking up the hand her wedding ring glimmered brightly on and pressing a kiss to the back of it. He released a shaky breath as he replaced her hand, and, as a last thought, curled her fingers around a lily he had taken from one of the ones surrounding her.

"As beautiful as always," he told her softly. He leaned in and kissed her cheek, and her scent- someone had sprayed her perfume on her, the scent he had grown up with and always associated with safety- made him falter. He hesitated, leaning his forehead against hers, and his dark eyes stared imploringly at her still face with all the desperation of a child without his mother. His eyes began to sting and he closed them tightly before forcing himself away from her before he could act on his instinct to crawl into the coffin and lay down next to her.

He stepped back and looked hesitantly at the last coffin, this one on Fugaku's left and so much smaller than the other two.

Sasuke had been put in a deep blue kimono Itachi hadn't even known he had. As his eyes raked over it, he couldn't help a pained smile. Well, it made sense that he had never seen him in it. Sasuke would never stand to wear something that fancy for more than an hour. A dark colored cloth similar to the one his mother wore was wrapped around Sasuke's neck.

He placed the stuffed animal next to his brother's torso, lifting one limp arm to curl around it. Had Itachi been alone, he might have entertained the idea that Sasuke was just sleeping; that his mother would tell him to wake up and get ready for school; that his father would be sitting at the table with his pipe and newspaper.

But he was not alone, and yet he still did not let that control his actions. He leaned over, smoothing the unruly hair out of Sasuke's face, and pressed a kiss to the cold skin there.

"I'm sorry, Sasuke," he whispered. "This is the last time."

And he had to bite his lip nearly to the point of bleeding to keep from sobbing out loud. With a last kiss to his little brother's forehead, he turned and quickly walked to the exit, unable to prevent more tears from falling down his face even in front of his entire clan.

He stood on the empty deck that surrounded the back part of the Nakano shrine, leaning against the railing that overlooked the river. His arms wrapped tightly around himself, he kept one hand clapped over his mouth to prevent him from crying out. He couldn't stop the tears now that they had started and his jaw ached with the effort of clenching it closed. He didn't know how long he was by himself, but it seemed like ages until Tamotsu had appeared, looking just as upset as Itachi.

"Oh, Itachi," he sighed, and rushed forward to drag him in to an embrace. Itachi trembled, his pitiful control on his emotions shuddering at the physical contact.

"It's never easy," Tamotsu whispered to him, tightening his grip on his nephew. "It will be very hard. But I promise," and then he pulled back enough to look Itachi in the eyes, "It will get better. As long as you try to be happy, you will be. I swear." Then the sound of the door sliding open made them both look over.

"Daddy," Akane wailed,dragging an equally tearful Shisui behind her out of the temple. "I wanna play with Sasuke!"

"Come here, baby," he said roughly, reluctantly letting go of his nephew to deal with his sobbing daughter.

"Hey," Shisui soothed Itachi as he approached, wiping the tears off his face but forgetting about his own. His cousin merely leaned into him, wordlessly asking to be held, and Shisui complied with his request despite the growing number of relatives making their way onto the deck.

After it seemed like the deck could not take anymore people, Tamotsu lightly touched his son on the arm.

"We're going back to the house," he said softly, leaning in so Shisui could hear over the murmuring. Akane was sitting on his arm, her eyes closed and pressed into a large wet spot on his mofuku.

Shisui nodded distractedly, preoccupied with stroking Itachi's hair and face.

"We'll be back sometime tonight," he murmured. "I'm gonna take him somewhere."

Tamotsu watched his boys with sad eyes before leaning over and pressing kisses to both of their heads, careful not to jostle Akane too much. "We'll see you later."

"Aa." Shisui watched as his father maneuvered his way through the crowd, and removed one hand from Itachi's person to wave back to his sister, who had opened tired eyes and waved goodbye to him. When he couldn't see them anymore, he looked back down at Itachi. "Do you want to leave?" he asked quietly.

"Yep, please," Itachi whispered, still pressed against him and drawing looks but not caring at all.

Shisui wrapped his arms securely around Itachi's waist, and he used the body flicker technique to jump them away from the shrine. Itachi wrapped his arms around Shisui's neck tightly until he felt them stop, and he opened his eyes to see that they were on the dock overlooking the compound's small lake.

"We could go get normal clothes," Shisui suggested, tilting his head so that his dark blue eyes met Itachi's. He tugged on the uncomfortable mourning attire pointedly.

Itachi looked up at him, his pale face still tucked against his neck, and glanced over longingly at the water.

"In a few minutes...?" he pleaded.

Shisui rolled of his eyes and threaded his fingers through Itachi's hair. "We can stay however long you want, Itachi."

Itachi looked up at him gratefully before pulling away slightly, keeping his hand in Shisui's and tugging him to sit with him at the edge of the dock. The water was too high for them to hang their legs off the edge and stay dry, so they sat with their legs crossed and looked over the edge.

"...Did you train here, too?" Shisui asked after a silence, looking out across the lake.

Itachi looked up too and a nostalgic look came into his eyes. "Who didn't?" he asked with a small trace of humor.

Shisui smiled a little. "I nearly caught this on fire," he said, tapping the wood of the dock.

Itachi gestured over his shoulder with a jerk of his head to the tree near the dock. "I nearly caught that on fire."

Shisui blinked incredulously at Itachi and the tree. Itachi smiled slightly. "How? It's way the heck over there!"

Itachi's smile widened a fraction and he turned back to the lake. "It was windy," he said with a shrug. Then he sighed, a trace of pain leaking into his expression. "...Father's clothes had to be replaced, though."

Shisui surprised him by letting out a loud snort. "You caught him on fire?"

The darkness in Itachi's expression lessened as he looked at his cousin. "The wind was blowing really hard," he defended with a slight pout. Shisui grinned at him and he found himself smiling back.

Shisui scooted closer to him and tugged him over so that Itachi was leaning against him. He rested his head against Itachi's and closed his eyes contently with a hum.

"... I watched Sasuke training here," Shisui said somewhat hesitantly. "Sitting in the tree you nearly caught on fire."

As expected Itachi tensed. But Shisui draped his arm over him and pressed his fingers into the tight muscles of his back to try to force out some of the stiffness.

"He didn't get it on the first try," Shisui went on, slightly encouraged by the fact that Itachi hadn't broke down completely in his arms. "But then again, none of us did. He had a pretty good spark going, though." He shrugged, jostling Itachi as he did so.

Shisui turned his head and kissed the side of Itachi's head. "He was good," he said. "Took him only a week of nonstop practice, even though he had Academy classes. Poor kid wore himself out." Shisui shook his head fondly, aware of how Itachi was now playing with his fingers and was no doubt listening intently. "But it all payed off. At the end of the week, his fireball was bigger than the one your father had shown him, and he could hold it for a pretty damn long time."

Itachi's face changed, and Shisui glanced down to see a rare proud smile. Shisui felt himself smiling as well. "Your father had that exact same expression on his face," he said, touching Itachi's cheek. "After the shocked look though. That was actually pretty funny."

Itachi looked up at him, and Shisui was surprised to see that the smile had morphed into something much warmer and... adoring.

"Shisui," he said, and then just shook his head and leaned forward. Shisui, though surprised, found himself automatically leaning forward to meet him, their eyes slipping closed as their lips met in a warm and wet kiss.

At the risk of sounding cliche, Shisui felt the world stop while he and Itachi shared this simple act. They pulled away from each other with flushed faces, dark grey eyes meeting dark blue, and their foreheads touched.

"I'm glad you're with me," Itachi murmured, relaxed in his arms.

"I could say the same," Shisui smiled, tucking a piece of hair behind Itachi's ear.

**-xXXXx-**

**BTWs, for ****those of you who disagree, guys can _totally_ wear kimonos, too. They're just a lot more plain than the ones the girls wear.**

**And yes, admittedly, I did forget about this story. *wears the cone of shame (yea, I saw that recently Q.Q)* If it wasn't for Danizaraki, there's no telling how long this break would have been. O.O So thank her! I command thee!**

**And now, as this chapter has depressed the shiat out of me, I will go hide under a rock and cry. Also, I love my parents, no matter how much of a pain they can be, and my siblings are absolutely darling. My little sister is my life. I don't think you understand the emotion an author can have writing something like this O.O We have the entire scene played out in our heads and we put ourselves in the character's position, and if I could express said scenes more efficiently, I'm sure you guys would be as emotional as me.**

**I took the ACT today. That crap was easy, but I didn't finish cuz they gave us like, no time.**

_**Vale**__**te!**_

_****_**Edit: I'm helping convert a fangirl into a yaoi fangirl. *cackles evilly* I have corrupted you!  
**


	10. Chapter 10

**I do not own Naruto or any of these characters aside from Gio!**

**Excuse typos~  
**

**-xXXXx-**

Itachi could see the light which filtered through the trees flicker over his closed eye lids, making him see red and blue-green colors. The branch he was sitting on wasn't that comfortable, but the person he was leaning against definitely was. There was no sound save for the rustling of the wind blowing through the trees and their breathing, along with the rythmic thud of a heart in the chest pressed against his back. He sighed contendedly, relaxing more into the body behind his, and felt arms flex and tighten around him. Shisui rested his head against Itachi's, breathing out a sigh as well.

It had been a month, and as Itachi and Shisui grew closer Shisui had managed to bring Itachi out of the dark depression he had fallen into. It was a painstaking process for the first few days after the funeral, but now Itachi was at the point where he could talk about his late family with a smile. He still had nightmares and his small bouts of depression, but those were steadily growing few and far between, as well as lessening in intensity. Shisui's family had gladly welcomed him to live in their home in the spare bedroom, though most nights either Shisui or Itachi found themselves in the other's room just to be with each other. Shisui had been accepted into Anbu, after a long assessment which took several days, and an "informal introduction," as his new superiors called it, which he thought was really just hazing. He wasn't placed in Itachi's team, unfortunately, though usually they went on missions around the same time so they never missed each other.

After quite some debate among the clan, Tamotsu had finally been named the Uchiha clan representative, with much of the clan swaying to his side when it was made known that Itachi was fully supporting his uncle. His first order of business, which pleased Itachi very much, was the removal of the more corrupt members of the Uchiha's council, along with some of the more disagreeable parts to Itachi's heir status. No longer was the council filled with nothing but bitter old men who preached nothing but the excellence of the Uchiha Clan. Instead there was a mixture of those who saw the Uchiha as great, to keep the pride of the clan intact, and those who saw them as humans, to remind them that while they are great, they are not Gods. Also, no longer did the council have any say in Itachi's life, whether it be who will house him, who will train him, or who he will marry. Most of the elders in the clan disagreed with the way Tamotsu was handling things, what with being so used to being firmly attached to old traditions, but the new generations of the clan were heavily for the direction the clan was being led in.

The coup de tat had been delayed indefinitely. Not cancelled, as even some of the less loyal clan members were unhappy with the vilage's treatment of them, but its date was not set in the immediate future. Plans had to be reconsidered, with the loss of their main leader and the reluctance to fight of the new leader.

Now Itachi and Shisui were just spending time together, each having no missions that day. Itachi was really content to just lay there with Shisui, all day if possible, but of course, all good things must come to an end.

He twitched when he felt something brush his nose, and he turned his head so he could itch his nose on Shisui's shoulder. The breathing he could feel against the back of his neck fluttered for a moment before normalling out, and he started dozing off again. A couple minutes later he felt something touch his nose again, and he peeked his eyes open to see what it was before he quickly moved his head forward and lightly bit down on the fingers in front of his face.

"Ouch!" Shisui laughed softly, quickly pulling his hand back.

"Stop that," Itachi mumbled, yet he snuggled deeper into his embrace.

"We gotta get up," Shisui murmured in his ear, moving his arms to wrap around his waist.

"No we don't," Itachi argued. Shisui pinched his side and he frowned and squirmed away from the offending hand. "Leave me be."

"I'd love to," Shisui grinned. "But we kind of told Dad we'd be back by now. He has to go out, remember?"

Itachi finally looked up at him with a baleful expression, and Shisui laughed at him. "We can come back tomorrow," he promised.

Itachi frowned down at the trees, though Shisui saw it as more of a pout.

"I'll make you something sweet..." he bribed.

Itachi sighed. "Fine. Something strawberry."

"Your wish is my command," Shisui chuckled. He poked Itachi's side and smiled when he twitched again. "You have to let me up, though."

Itachi sighed again, though much more dramatically, and did as told, then taking the hand offered to him and pulling himself up.

"I'll race you..." Shisui said with a slow grin.

"You'd win, because I am not running right now," Itachi replied, jumping down to the ground below and starting to walk at a leisurely pace. Shisui watched him for a moment before shrugging and going to walk next to Itachi so he could hang off him.

**-xXx-**

"Did you not sleep last night or something?," Shisui asked, managing to trip Itachi so that he fell onto the bed. He had a feeling Itachi had let him because, come on, it's Itachi. "You've done nothing but sleep today."

"Mmph," Itachi mumbled in reply, his face shoved into the pillow. He turned slightly so he could speak properly and watch Shisui move about the room to do light cleaning, a smirk pulling at his lips. "I couldn't sleep last night," he said. "You snore."

"I do not," Shisui argued, pausing in picking up a few dirty clothes.

"Okay, you don't," Itachi acceded. Shisui rolled his eyes as he passed and leaned down to kiss him on the lips.

"Thought you could fool me." Shisui grinned at Itachi's blush and went and tossed the clothing into the hamper.

"That's cheating," Itachi accused, unable to not smile back. Shisui glanced at him as he approached before leaning down over him and bracing his hands on the end of the bed.

"Then I will never play an honest game in my life again," he said and leaned forward to issue another, longer, kiss.

Itachi breathed in deeply through his nose, pressing back with just as much eagerness. The smooth and wet sliding of another's lips against his was still something that felt foreign to him (he and Shisui didn't get many opportunities to make out, to put it bluntly), though he felt that if it was with Shisui he could get used to it very quickly. Shisui raised a hand to cup the back of Itachi's neck and pull him closer, and Itachi let his arms wrap around Shisui's waist.

"The others...?" Itachi asked breathlessly past Shisui's lips, raising a hand to tangle in his hair.

"Nn, grocery shopping, remember?" Shisui mumbled back, eyes closed. "Jus' left."

Itachi sighed in relief before he grabbed a handful of Shisui's shirt and yanked him closer. He used more strength than he had meant to and Shisui fell ontop of him, making them both fall back onto the bed.

"Oops," he panted.

"You did that on purpose," Shisui accused with a smirk, raising his head to properly look at him. Itachi's eyes traced his kiss-swollen lips, mussed-even-more-than-usual hair, handsome smile and flushed cheeks, and he felt himself wanting to do nothing but sink into this perfect being.

What does he do to me? Itachi's mind sighed pleasantly.

"I might've." Itachi said out loud and raised his chin imperiously. "But did I say you could stop?"

Shisui rolled his eyes with a chuckle Itachi could feel, their chests being pressed together. "I suppose you did not," he acceded, and leaned back down to press their mouths together again. Itachi happily reciprocated, perfectly content to lay there with him all day if possible. He let out a pleased sigh when he felt Shisui dip his hand under his shirt to smooth over the skin there, and eagerly opened his mouth to welcome the tongue probing at his lips.

His heart was pounding, and he could barely think past Shisui's mouth and hands on him, and he thought his heart might burst out of his _chest_ when he felt Shisui tuck two fingers under the waistline of his pants.

The doorbell rang suddenly, startling them into stopping and yanking their hands away from each other. They looked at each other with wide eyes and heavy breathing before they heard the bell again, and then both simultaneously groaned.

"I suppose I should go get that," Shisui muttered, absolutely loath to leave Itachi when the younger had just been sucking on his tongue like that and nearly purring.

"I guess," Itachi sighed, and Shisui's head dropped down on his chest with another groan. He had been hoping Itachi would convince him to forget whoever it was at the door. Kami knows Shisui wouldn't have even tried to resist.

"Be right back," Shisui mumbled, leaning in to give Itachi a chaste kiss on the mouth before getting up with exaggerated reluctancy.

"Slam the door in their face," Itachi called as he made his way to the front door.

"I probably will," he assured. He opened the door to see a fast food delivery man waiting for him.

"Pineapple pizza and breadsticks?" the person said boredly, holding up said items of food for unnecessary emphasis.

Shisui grimaced at him. What the actual fuck. "I didn't order pizza."

The guy looked at his notepad, popping the gum in his mouth obnoxiously, "Well it says here-"

"_I didn't order pizza_," Shisui repeated more firmly, scowling now. "I don't even _like_ pineapple. Why the _hell_ would I put it on pizza?" And then he took Itachi's advice and slammed the door in his face.

"Who was it?" Itachi, who had moved up so that he was laying properly with his head on the pillow, asked when he walked back in and habitually closed the door behind him.

"Wrong address," Shisui grumbled, walking forward and moving to lay beside Itachi on the bed. He pointedly pressed his lips to the other's after a small 'oh' came from them.

They easily started getting more passionate in their kisses and touches, and it took until Shisui had rolled over to lay on top of Itachi and between his legs for the older Uchiha to hesitate and pull away.

"Hm?" Itachi hummed dazedly, tracing patterns along Shisui's now bare back.

"... Hold on," Shisui said quietly, moving to pull away. Itachi made a dissatisfied noise but let him up and pushed himself to sit up as well.

"What is it?" he asked, watching Shisui stare off to the side. Shisui pursed his lips, and Itachi tilted his head in confusion. "Shisui?"

"We need to talk," he said slowly, and Itachi blinked in reply, feeling the inescapable feeling of unease at the words.

"Okay," he said, shifting to a more comfortable position. He looked up patiently at Shisui. "What did you want to talk about?"

Shisui glanced up at him before moving to sit closer to him and taking a steadying breath. "I think we should set a few boundries," he said somewhat hesitantly.

Itachi blinked in surprise at the request before frowning and immediately going over his actions in his mind. "Did I do something-?"

"No, not at all!" Shisui quickly assured him, reaching forward and grabbing his hand. "I just..."

Itachi tilted his head to the side and laced their fingers together, the confused expression having not left his face. "You don't have to be nervous, Shisui. Nothing you could say would make me unhappy with you."

Shisui gave him a grateful smile before he scooted up to sit beside him and leaned against the headboard. "It's just, earlier, if that doorbell hadn't interrupted us, I don't know what would have happened." At the questioning look he clarified sheepishly, "How far we would have gone. We were really into it."

Itachi leaned his head against the wall, his eyes locked with Shisui. "That makes you nervous?" he guessed.

Shisui gave an embarrassed shrug, looking down and picking at the comforter. "... I don't think we should do anything... serious. At least not for a long time."

Itachi blinked in surprise, flushing a little at the subject. "Because... of my age, right...?"

Shisui nodded and looked up at him hesitantly. "Does that make you mad...?"

Itachi blushed again, but he leaned forward to give Shisui a short kiss. "It's a bit unfortunate," he admitted. "But I don't want you doing anything you don't want..."

"I don't mean everything," Shisui quickly said, allowing his arm to slip around Itachi's waist. He flushed at what he had just said. "I mean, uh-"

Itachi smiled at him. "Nothing too big?" he supplied.

"Yes," Shisui smiled embarrassingly, giving him a grateful look. "Is that...okay...?"

"Yes," Itachi said, kissing his collarbone.

"Good," Shisui sighed, running his fingers through Itachi's hair. His eyes lidded with pleasure as Itachi continued mouthing the skin on his neck.

"I have a question, though," Itachi mumbled against his jaw.

"Hm?" Shisui hummed. He made a small surprised noise when he was suddenly pushed onto his back, but pressed back against the kiss he was given all the same.

"Does this count as too much?" Itachi asked, and he straddled Shisui's hips.

**-Missing-**

Both lay breathing heavily for a while, before Shisui pressed a series of soft kisses to Itachi's face.

"Shit, I think we need a change of clothes," he chuckled when he shifted and felt a sticky unpleasantness in his pants.

"Do you kiss your sister with that mouth?" Itachi wondered, resting his head on Shisui's shoulder.

"I kiss you with it," Shisui stated impishly before leaning his head forward and doing just that.

Itachi smiled at him and gladly accepted the kiss. Then he frowned. "Mm, I need to change, too. But my room is too far away."

"Oh, I would love it if you wore my clothes," Shisui said excitedly. "You know what? Nope, not even gonna argue. I'll get you some clothes after I work up the energy to get up."

"Why do you want me to wear your clothes so much?" Itachi laughed.

"Shows you're mine," Shisui said simply with a grin. Itachi rolled his eyes with a fond smile as he got up so that Shisui could get clothes.

"If you say so."

Shisui paused in front of his drawers and shot Itachi an incredulous look. "If I "say so?"" He narrowed his eyes mischievously, smirking. "I could always give you a big ol' fat hickey. Riiight here." And then he pointed to the side of his neck to demonstrate. He turned back to the dresser with a grin while Itachi chuckled at him before he suggested, "I could make it match the one on the other side of your neck..."

"You didn't!" Itachi gasped, immediately leaping out of the bed to go to the bathroom and look in the mirror. "Shisui!"

"Oh, yes I did!" Shisui laughed evilly.

"Not fair!" Itachi accused, returning from the bathroom and narrowing his eyes at him. "Your turn."

"No way!" Shisui spluttered, whacking him with a shirt when he approached.

"Yes way," Itachi stated before he grabbed the back of his neck and pulled their lips together. Shisui immediately stopped at the feel of Itachi's soft lips on his and proceeded to enjoy the moment. He didn't even pull away when Itachi pulled away and started placing a series of licks and kisses along his neck.

"I'm not a piece of candy," he pointed out.

"Taste like it," Itachi said simply, now starting to focus on a specific spot. "And you know how much I love sweets."

"You know what?" Shisui mumbled as he relaxed back against the dresser, letting his arms rest around Itachi's waist. "This is nice. I should just let you do this all day."

"But I'm done," Itachi said, popping his head up to kiss Shisui on the lips once before going to sit on the bed with a Cheshire grin. "And you have a very short attention span."

"What?" Shisui complained, just as the sound of the door opening reached their ears.

"Hey, guys! Come help!" Tamotsu called to the back of the house. Itachi grinned wider before standing up and going to Shisui's dresser. He reached around Shisui, his lips tantalizingly close to the other's, and grabbed a scarf and a set of clothes that had been behind him. He laughed at the 'what the hell?' look on Shisui's face as he went to the bathroom and changed quickly.

"You'll catch flies," he stated when he came out, tapping his own chin, and Shisui closed his gaping mouth with a pout.

Shisui heard his lover and father greet each other, with Tamotsu asking if Itachi was cold and Itachi replying that he just felt a little under the weather, and he shook his head with a fond smile, grabbing his own set of clothes to go change.

He paused when in the mirror he saw himself and a red spot the size of a nickel on his neck. "Damnit!"

From the kitchen, he heard Itachi laughing.

**-xXx-**

**Guess who got a 30 on her ACT on her first tryyy~~  
**

**Also, on the (not really) new Naruto chapter,_ KABUTOYOUWHORE_  
**

**Ahem. 'Scuse me.  
**

**This chapter turned out to be like pure fanservice. You're welcome. (I got tired of angst, therefore timeskip!) BUT there will be more angst in like, two chapters. Including a terrible cliff hanger. Ohh, I'm a terrible person.  
**

**Did you see the new pretty review button? :D Don't you want to try it out?  
**


	11. Chapter 11

**I do not own Naruto nor any of Kishimoto's characters.**

**-xXXXx-**

"Shisui, we went to the last one," Itachi sighed, pouting up at his older lover.

"Don't tell me I'll have to dress you," Shisui teased with narrowed eyes. He looked through Itachi's closet contemplatively with his arms crossed. He was dressed in a simple dark navy yukata he liked because it made his eyes look brighter. "Because I will turn into a total queer on you."

Itachi laughed, sitting on his bed. "How so?"

Shisui smirked back at him, then grabbed the several yukata Itachi had and threw them on the bed.

"You're putting that up," Itachi grumbled.

"You are_ not_ wearing black to a festival," Shisui began, and tossed the said color aside. "Nor any shade of grey." And there went half of Itachi's selection. "You know you can't wear this shade of red, you're too pale for it. Why do you even have it?" He picked it up and tilted his head to the side, ignoring how Itachi was chuckling at him. "It might could work if it was a shade darker, or if you wear it with dark gold, but..." He glanced in the direction of Itachi's closet. "It appears, even after knowing of your vast vocabulary, "yellow" is just too much for your poor little brain to comprehend." And so he tossed the red one aside. "I'm wearing that color, and no, you cannot have it." So a dark blue was tossed to the rejected pile, leaving only a deep blue one. Shisui crossed his arms, humming at it.

"I have one other," Itachi offered, raising an amused brow at Shisui's antics.

"Where?" Shisui demanded.

"It was too big when I originally got it," Itachi said as he got up, going to dig into the deep recesses of his closet. "So I just shoved it in the back... I had completely forgotten about it, but I found it while I was going through my things before I moved over here." And he pulled out a dark shade of green, which immediately had Shisui pouncing on him.

"Yes!" he said immediately, and Itachi held it out. "It better fit. That's perfect."

**-xXx-**

"It feels weird," Itachi muttered, picking at the fabric.

"That's because you haven't worn it before," Shisui told him, smiling as he held both of Akane's hands to lift her down the step at the front of the house. He **glanced** back at Itachi slyly. "... Also maybe because you've tied the belt ridiculously tight."

"Do you think for one moment," Itachi replied, narrowing his eyes, "that I would be as foolish as to wear something that can be undone with a light pull of a rope around you again?"

Shisui grinned broadly, snickering. "That was one time."

"Twice."

"Second time was an accident."

"Was _not_."

"Was too!"

"Children," Tamotsu warned as he appeared in his own dark brown yukata, rolling his eyes.

Shisui grinned at him and Itachi looked away innocently.

"Come on, Akane," Tamotsu said, holding out a hand for his daughter.

"Daddy, can we catch a fish?" Akane asked excitedly as they walked out the door.

"Sure," Tamotsu agreed, smiling at her. "We might want to wait until we get ready to leave, though. We wouldn't want something to happen to it."

While they walked, Shisui started lagging behind, and Itachi walked a few more steps before noticing.

"Shisui?" he asked, and said person grabbed his hand and intertwined their fingers.

"We can get away easily," Shisui whispered in his ear as they walked, keeping an eye on his father and sister ahead of them. "Dad wouldn't mind if we went off." He nudged his shoulder against Itachi's, smiling. "It can be just us."

Itachi smiled slowly as well. This could turn out to be more enjoyable than he thought.

**-xXx-**

"My, my, hasn't it been a while?" a familiar voice drawled, and Itachi found himself twitching in irritation while Shisui growled an obscenity that had Itachi looking at him in surprise and pinching him. They both looked over at an unimpressed Gio raising his one visible brow at them, and an obviously bored Kakashi with his nose stuck in a book.

"Nice to see you too," Gio deadpanned.

Kakashi glanced up at them and waved. "Yo."

"I didn't really think you were the kind of guy to hang out in festivals," Shisui said to Kakashi. He and Itachi had managed to get away from Shisui's father, and had just been starting to enjoy themselves.

"Without a reason," Itachi added. Shisui nodded.

Kakashi shrugged, sighing, and gestured to Gio. "I'm here because of him."

Itachi narrowed his eyes immediately at Gio. "I let you go on _one_ mission outside my squad. _What did you do?_"

"Oh, it's a terribly long story which can wait till the meeting tomorrow," Gio said quickly, grabbing Itachi by his shoulders and steering him towards the stand he and Shisui had been walking towards. He didn't notice the thunderous expression on Shisui's face.

"I'll pay," Gio offered, dropping a few coins onto the counter.

Shisui's hand slapped over them before the vendor could pick them up.

"We got it," Shisui said shortly, sliding Gio's money away and laying his own down. Itachi grinned briefly. The vendor looked confused for a moment, before giving a small, heavy ball to both Shisui and Itachi. He instructed them to hit the red targets, and Shisui eyed the side of Gio's head.

"Red target, huh?" he muttered, and Itachi huffed an amused breath.

"Don't start a fight in the middle of a family event," he requested just as quietly.

Gio suddenly smirked, and, with a fox-like look on his face, leaned over Itachi's shoulder. His arms snaked around his torso, his palm pressing into his stomach, dangerously low.

"I'd go for the second to left one," he murmured into the Uchiha's ear, much to Itachi's embarrassment and Shisui's fury. Kakashi, surprisingly, watched the two with thinly-veiled irritation.

Itachi elbowed him away roughly, throwing a glower over his shoulder. "Stop that. I know how to throw something."

"Sorry, sorry," Gio said with a grin, holding his hands up placatingly.

"Excuse him," Kakashi said, walking over to the teen and clapping a hand on his shoulder. "I decided keeping him away from the festival was too harsh. Apparently, I should have thought more."

Itachi narrowed his eyes at Gio while Shisui turned the other way because he couldn't hide his smirk. Gio shrugged helplessly and Itachi looked at Kakashi. "I'm assuming you're in charge of him right now?"

"It was my mission he screwed up on," Kakashi said flatly. "I was asked to make sure he reports to his... trial this evening."

"Trial?" Gio choked out, paling.

"I wouldn't call it that," Itachi said flippantly. "Just more of a... Come-to-Kami meeting with the Hokage. You, however," Itachi glared at Gio. "Will be going through some rather intense training for a few weeks, as I'm assuming your temper got you into this."

Gio blew a lock of hair our of his face. "Well, you see-"

"I don't want to hear it now," Itachi grimaced. "You can save it for the meeting tomorrow."

"I think he's done with you," Kakashi drawled, looking quite pleased with that fact for some reason, and Gio stuck his tongue out at Itachi's turned back.

"I'll cut it off," Itachi warned, throwing his ball and not even looking at Gio. Shisui snickered and threw his. Both got perfect, and the vendor proceeded to complain because apparently he always lost all his merchendise in ninja villages.

Gio pouted at Itachi and skulked off, a lazy Kakashi following him.

"You have no idea how hot you are when you're assertive," Shisui muttered, smirking, and Itachi grinned and elbowed him. Itachi glanced back at Kakashi and Gio, frowning thoughtfully for a few seconds before Shisui noticed.

"What is it?" he asked, grabbing their candy.

"I'm not exactly an expert in these things," Itachi mused, tilting his head as he watched Gio somehow weasel enough money out of Kakashi to buy a snack. "... But I think Kakashi might have a thing for Gio."

"What?" Shisui balked, looking after the two as well and tossing the candy in their bag. "No way, they're totally different."

Itachi rose an eyebrow and shrugged. "_We're_ totally different. They're actually kind of similar... in very few aspects, sure, but there are some."

"Hitting on you better not be one," Shisui muttered dangerously. Itachi rolled his eyes and gently elbowed him.

"You know he thinks of us as little brothers," he said. "He wouldn't dare."

But Shisui suddenly frowned at Itachi, and the younger Uchiha tilted his head in confusion.

"Shisui-?" he asked.

"You're contaminated," Shisui said unhappily. He grabbed Itachi's wrist and proceded to drag Itachi through the crowd.

Itachi smiled and rolled his eyes, letting himself be pulled. "Where are you taking me?"

Shisui suddenly stopped in a busy intersection, causing Itachi to almost run in to him, and looked around thoughtfully. "That is a damn good question." Itachi laughed quietly.

He apparently found his place, a rather old cafe that only had more customers because there was a festival. Still dragging Itachi, he ducked into the shop, satisfied that most of the people were too busy oggling a fire juggler (whose techniques Akane could have done, come on) to notice them make their way to a small, unlit, secluded alcove in the back which seemed to have not been used in a while.

"There are people around," Itachi protested with wide eyes when Shisui tugged him behind the wall and out of sight.

"Aw, come on, Itachi," Shisui grinned. "You know me better than that."

Itachi slowly smiled. "Genjutsu?"

"But of course!" Shisui smirked. "Unfortunately, I did not have the time to weave a better one, so this is the type that will unravel as soon as you know its existence."

Itachi frowned. "So not too loud?" he guessed, sighing.

"Good luck to you," Shisui gloated.

Itachi rose an eye brow. "And not to you?"

"My mouth will be busy," he explained mischievously, and moved forward to renew the red mark on the side of Itachi's neck.

"I had almost gotten rid of that," Itachi complained, his pulse already starting to quicken, but he tilted his head nonetheless.

"Oops," Shisui mumbled noncommittally, finishing a strong suck with gentle movements of his lips and tongue that Itachi would never admit felt so much more enjoyable than he let on.

Shisui continued a line of kisses up his jaw. Itachi hungrily sought his lips out, but Shisui danced around his mouth.

"Shisui," Itachi mumbled in protest, closing his eyes as his lips skimmed over his forehead. They moved down his temple, across his cheekbone and down the tear-troughs on his face, but yet again completely skipped his lips.

"Shisui," Itachi huffed impatiently, grabbing the fabric on Shisui's arms.

Shisui chuckled, that deep chuckle that drove Itachi crazy, and used one hand to tilt Itachi's chin back and to the left so he could lightly bite down on his earlobe.

"Kiss me," Itachi demanded, breathing heavily.

"I am," Shisui smiled.

Itachi growled, "_Shisui_."

Shisui grinned briefly before finally doing as told, kissing Itachi sweepingly and fully on the mouth. The passion felt through the kiss made Itachi weak-kneed, and he helplessly tried to reciprocate but found that Shisui's hands smoothing over his chest and sides were too much of a distraction.

**-Missing-**

"Pervert."

"I am not a pervert!" Itachi objected hotly.

"Oh, there is no way you can deny that," Shisui said. He leaned in, smirking impishly. "I have discovered that one, you are a exhibitionist; and two, you enjoy someone talking dirty to you," he murmured, his voice low with what could only have been lust.

"And I have discovered that you are a superb sex deviant when you're horny," Itachi muttered back, flushing.

Shisui grinned briefly, nuzzling his cheek with his nose. "You're a tease. I can't help it."

"I haven't done anything," Itachi protested, shifting in his spot. "If anything, you're the tease."

Shisui noticed him shifting and the light goosebumps that had risen on his skin, and glanced down in surprise to see that Itachi's problem hadn't been resolved in the slightest.

"Damn, babe," he said, wincing in empathy. "I guess I got you too wound up, huh?"

Itachi's heart thrilled a little at his apparent new pet name, but on the outside he frowned bitterly. "How am I supposed to go around like this?" he complained.

Shisui flashed an amused grin at his pout. "We don't have much time before they start looking for us," he said rather remorsefully, looking at the door. "Just... Tuck it in the waist line of your pants until it goes down? The yukata will hide it enough..."

Itachi frowned in distaste before he fixed his clothing, sighing in relief when, after his yukata was correctly in place, he did look perfectly normal and unaroused. He glanced down at Shisui, pursing his lips when he saw that Shisui was having a problem similar to his.

"What about you...?" he asked.

Shisui waved his concern off. "I'll deal."

Itachi muttered, frowning, "That's not fair to you..."

Shisui smiled and kissed him, laughing when Itachi grimaced in reaction to the taste of himself. "Germ freak. What we have is not about being fair," he said, kissing Itachi anyways. "I wanted to do that to you. Actually letting me do it, especially here of all places, was payment enough." He paused. "Oh God, I shouldn't say it that way. I sound like a whore."

"If you say so..." Itachi said hesitantly, the corner of his mouth twitching up.

Shisui grinned. "Besides, you only have to wait a few more hours till everyone's home and asleep. I have a place I want to take you." He stood, bringing Itachi up with him and dangling his arms loosely around the younger's waist. "I'll take care of you, babe."

Itachi flushed, closing the eye Shisui had gone to kiss and pressing his own lips to Shisui's neck. "Will we...?"

Shisui picked up on the question and shook his head. "I still don't think..."

"Stop making our age difference so apparent," Itachi complained quietly, burying his face partway into Shisui's shoulder so that his voice was slightly muffled but he could see ahead. "It's only two years. It won't matter when we're older."

Shisui sighed, leaning his head against Itachi's. "Yeah, when we're older. Age doesn't really matter, then. But when you're young... every year, every minute is important."

"And what if I know I want to spend every minute I can with you?" Itachi asked. He pulled back so he could press his forehead to Shisui's.

Shisui watched his eyes, knowing that Itachi wasn't going to let this matter drop.

"Do you really want to?" Shisui asked softly. Itachi kissed him gently.

"You never know if you'll live long when you're in the profession we're in," he stated despondently. "Especially Anbu. You never know when one of us will get called out to a mission and won't come back. I've learned to enjoy what I have as much as I can for as long as I can." He closed his eyes when Shisui's hand slid up his neck to tilt his head so he could more easily kiss him, humming his grattitude at the silent reassurance. "I'm not saying we have to tonight, or even within a week or month or two... But doesn't a few years seem as long to you as they seem to me...?" He stared imploringly at his lover, and Shisui stared intently back at him.

"You have a point," he sighed eventually, relenting. He tilted his head, navy eyes inquisitive. "Let me think about it?" Itachi smiled.

"That's all I ask," he assured.

Shisui smiled then. "Alright!" he said, giving Itachi a final kiss. "What say you we go show off our devilishly handsome Uchiha looks and rub it in everyone's faces that we're off limits?"

Itachi chuckled, rolling his eyes. "I say let's find your father before we're accosted by any more coworkers."

"You and your big words," Shisui said fondly, dragging him out into the cafe by his hand, then switching the placement to his wrist once they were in the public eye.

They found Tamotsu and Akane over by one of the goldfish catching stalls, at which Tamotsu could not, for the life of him, catch one of the goldfish for his daughter.

"This is rigged," he pouted, and the vendor gloated proudly that he wasn't losing all of his products to ninja.

"Got it!" Akane shouted happily, jumping up from her spot at the next tank and carefully keeping a fish on the paper net. Tamotsu gaped at his youngest child and Itachi smiled.

"Shown up by an eight year old," Shisui sighed, patting his father on the shoulder while Akane's prize was bagged.

"It's because she's my kid," Tamotsu sniffed. Akane ran back to them, proudly brandishing her new pet.

"I did it!" she said excitedly, grinning up at her older brother and cousin.

"Good job," Shisui grinned. "We better pick up some stuff for it on the way home."

Akane suddenly drooped. "Oh, yeah, I'm going to Kimi's tonight."

"Oh, you are?" Shisui blinked.

"Oh, yeah," Tamotsu spoke up. "Shisui, I was going to ask you if you could take her to Kimiko-chan's house? I have that meeting tonight."

Itachi, unnoticed by the other two Uchiha, sighed, and Shisui shot him an apologizing smile.

"Yeah, I got it," he said to his father.

"I'll take care of the fish supplies," Itachi offered. Well, he'd be waiting for a while, anyways. Shisui nudged him with his knee.

"I won't be long," he promised when Tamotsu and Akane weren't looking.

"You better not be," Itachi muttered, smiling.

**-xXx-**

"And?" one Uchiha Madara asked, sitting regally in the chair at the head of the table. His Sharingan gleamed menacingly at the Rinnegan staring back at it.

"Turns out he and that Shisui guy are romantically involved," the hooded man said. "They're pretty damn into each other too, if you ask me. Both are very protective."

"Hm," Madara hummed, leaning forward. "That will be fun to tear apart..."

The hooded man rose a fiery-haired eyebrow. "What do you want me to do?"

"Trick them," Tobi said shortly, a cruel lilt in his voice. "I want to see if Shisui will be as protective when he knows everything about the boy he oh so loves."

**-xXx-**

Itachi was sitting on the back patio, merely enjoying the cool night air. He tilted his head back, watching the night stars, and released a calm sigh. Shisui was taking Akane to her friend's house. Tamotsu was still at the clan meeting.

Itachi smiled. Being with Shisui that day had been nice. It was unfortunate that they had to pretend they were only friends, in case word get back to the rest of the clan, but seeing how Shisui had reacted to Gio flirting with him made him feel almost giddy inside and definitely made up for it.

Shisui would be taking him out again later after he returned. For a ridiculously cliche and cheesy picnic, of all things. A real date, Shisui had cheerfully described it as when they had a few seconds to exchange private words. Itachi bit back a grin. He would be getting the stuff he needed after he dropped off Akane.

A sudden, somewhat familiar presence made Itachi tense, and the smile was wiped clean off his face. He tiled his head enough to see the dark, shadowed corner of the patio and the masked, cloaked man barely visible from around the corner.

"Hebi," he acknowledged without any movement.

"Uchiha Itachi," the man dipped his head. This Anbu, one Itachi suspected may also be in the Root division, was the only other person aside from Itachi himself and the village council who knew of Itachi's true role in the village. He had been bound to absolute secrecy, and quite literally. There was a seal placed on him, so that if he should even mutter the words "coup de tat" or any form of the word he would be paralyzed until the Hokage himself removed the seal.

"Am I required?" Itachi asked.

"No, sir," Hebi said. He moved from behind the corner so that he would be more visible. "I was sent to ask for a report."

Itachi narrowed his eyes. "Couldn't this wait?"

Hebi shook his head. "I have limited time and Hokage-sama will be away for a while as of tomorrow. Is this place secure?"

Itachi looked at him sharply. "Why haven't I heard of the Hokage leaving until now?" he demanded.

"He is secretly meeting leaders of other nations for reasons which you do not have the clearance to know," Hebi replied with just as much hardness in his voice. Itachi narrowed his eyes. "Is this place secure?" Hebi repeated.

"I'm expecting someone to be back soon."

"Then make it short."

Itachi grimaced. "There is a meeting right now-"

"And you're not there?" Hebi asked.

"Don't interrupt me," Itachi warned darkly, glaring. Hebi was acting almost as bad as Gio when they first met, which was strange. "You're trying my nerves right now. Do not forget I am your superior."

Hebi's posture showed that he felt sufficiently cowed, and he said, "My apologies, Uchiha-san."

"As I was saying," Itachi began with a hard tone. "There is a meeting right now, which has only to do with the small trivial matters of the clan and which will decide when the next meeting discussing the coup will be. As of now, there are no changes, and we still do not have a set date for the coup."

Hebi raised his head, and Itachi saw a flash of purple in his eyes. His Sharingan slowly activated. Something wasn't right. Someone...

"The Hokage knows of your... closer affiliations with some members of the clan." Itachi felt his pulse still before picking up at a much faster rate. "He wishes to know if you would still be willing to eliminate the clan should the need arise. Even the previously mentioned members."

"Be careful of what you say at such a high volume," Itachi warned, his eyes scanning the trees. He felt a sick lurch in his stomach at the man's words.

That was something he hadn't thought about yet.

"I am running out of time, Uchiha-san," Hebi pressed.

Itachi glanced at him and, very conscious of the self-loathing bubbling inside him, said very quietly, "I am willing to do whatever he asks of me."

The back door to the house suddenly slammed open, and Itachi immediately leaped to his feet in alarm. Hebi disappeared, and Itachi was left trembling at the unadulterated _fury_ on Uchiha Shisui's face.

**-xXXXx-**

**Ohshit!  
**

**I have the rest of the first part of this story finished. I'll post the next chapter in a week or so, and the next two chapters a few days later simultaneously. (The chapters are rather short, so I'm posting them quicker.)  
**

**We just had a power outage. The power came back on a few minutes ago. :) Yayay  
**

**You people are amazing. If I could hug every one of you, I would.  
**

**And now, I will go laugh at Facebook drama. Toodles!  
**


	12. Chapter 12

**Of course, I still don't own Naruto. Blah.**

**IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE. AND THEN THE NEXT CHAPTER BECAUSE IT IS AGAINST THE RULES TO PUT JUST AN AUTHOR'S NOTE AND NOT A CHAPTER. YEAH.**

**I wouldn't have posted this so soon, as I said, what, was it Thursday? Idk, I'm on vacation right now. I'm also doing this by phone, so I will correct any mistakes in this chapter later when I have an actual computer. Anyways, I know I said I'd post this Friday or so, but alas, circumstances do not agree. I felt I should tell you now, instead of waiting several days.**

**If you were to look back at my story, you will see that any explicit scene has been removed. You will also see that one of my oneshots, Moods, has been deleted. I will not be putting them back up, and there will be no more lemons or limes or whatever the hell in my story.**

**On this site.**

**If you have no idea what the hell I'm yarping on about, I advise you to read the new announcement on the main page of Fanfiction. **

**They are cracking down on Rating Rules and Guidelines, and they are letting terrible people weed through the stories and report them, so that the story is deleted and the account is suspended. The terrible part about it is... they are bullying the authors. They are, in reviews, telling authors their work is a "piece of shit," or "toxic," and, and I quote, "God, this is a bigger piece of shit than I was expecting. Do you try to suck this hard or is it a natural talent?" There is a difference between giving constructive criticism and outright being an asshole. This is not professional. At all.**

**But maybe I shouldn't have bothered editing my story. I'm, what, one out of hundreds of thousands of authors on this site. What's the chance of them finding me? **

**Quite large, because if I hear any more of this damn bullying I'm going to fucking do something about it, and getting myself suspended because of my stories would be rather stupid. I'd much rather do it by verbally ripping them a new asshole.**

**I will be posting the full chapters on another site. I don't know which yet. If going to another site is too much if a hassel for you, which I know it can be a rather pain, then feel free to PM me your emails, and I will personally send them to you. Those who have this alerted, well, you'll already be getting an email. Why not the full chapter.**

**And now, after my rant, the new chapter. Which, luckily for us, happened to be free of any explicit material anyways.**

**Now please excuse me while I go change the name of my FF7 story. I have a feeling the poor little dearies' mothers would be quiet upset and in an uproar over the scandel that is me subjecting poor, little innocent children to the word "hell." which, if they're in a bad mood, will probably be the equivalent to "fuck."**

**Speaking of**

**FUCK FUCKITY FUCK FUCK FUCK**

**This story is rated M, and I CAN fucking do that.**

**-xXXXx-**

"The fuck do you mean, "eliminate the clan?"" Shisui snarled, stepping forward with a deadly expression on his face. Itachi paled in absolute horror, a strangled noise escaping his throat.

"What have you been planning, Itachi?" Shisui asked darkly, crossing his arms and looking for all the world like an impenetrable wall. "What has our beloved Hokage been planning?"

"Shisui," Itachi choked, "Shisui, I-"

"Don't you dare say my name like that," the other Uchiha hissed. Itachi flinched back, eyes wide and hurt, before he started speaking softly.

"The coup," he whispered. "I couldn't let it happen. Think about it!" His voice started increasing in volume and strength at the malevolent look on Shisui's face. "It would have started a war, Shisui! You know it would have started a war!"

"We have things planned out," Shisui said with a dismissive movement of his head. "It would have been quick and easy."

"Are you all even thinking?" Itachi nearly shouted, desperate to get his point across to Shisui. "Do you think the Hokage's tower won't even be guarded? Half of our offensive movement would be wiped out before we could even get through the front gate!"

"A small child could get through that security," Shisui scowled. "There are hardly any Anbu on watch."

"A child can get through because they let them," Itachi pressed. "Do you honestly think they'd waste their time dealing with children who couldn't even scratch the Hokage? And then there's also the fact that the village, shinobi included, won't exactly be happy with us assassinating their beloved leader. How do you expect the Uchiha to rule them?"

"We won't be "ruling them,"" Shisui stated, grimacing. "We're removing a corrupt power from the government. It's not like we're establishing our own Hokage."

"But the people that do run for Hokage will be either too scared of us to be a proper ruler or will be a proper ruler and turn the village against us," Itachi said shortly. "There is no way this can work out, Shisui. The Leaf's government will be shredded by the end of the coup. Think about it!" he shouted when Shisui scoffed. "The Lightning has had a grudge on us ever since the Hyuuga incident, and Rock wouldn't hesitate to join them in attacking us while we can hardly assemble any forces. Do you know how many smaller countries there are between the three of us? It would cause another Shinobi War! Goddamnit, Shisui, do you really want to see another one of those!"

"Well it seems like if I want to live, I have no choice!" Shisui yelled right back. "Would you really kill all of us just to prevent something that might happen?"

"There's no "might" about it! The Raikage isn't stupid, he would be a fool to pass this chance up!"

"But would you really kill all of us to make sure that doesn't happen? What about the people who don't even want the coup? What about my Dad, or Old man Teyaki or Granny Uruchi?" Itachi stood stock still, lips pressed together tightly. "Or what about the children? What about my little sister? What about Sasuke, if he were alive? Would you have killed him? Would you have killed me?"

This time Itachi jerked violently, eyes closed in a pained grimace and still pursing his lips. "It would have been my mission-" he began weakly. Shisui snapped, pain shining in his expressive eyes now.

"Do you have no heart?" Shisui raged, at a volume which made Itachi flinch. "Your fucking brother! Your family! What good would killing innocent people do!"

"Either way innocent people are going to die," Itachi argued softly. "You can't get away from it."

"But we wouldn't be murdering children in their sleep, now would we?" Shisui seethed. Itachi flinched again, bringing one hand up to lightly cover his mouth. "Don't you dare act like you have feelings now," Shisui hissed. "Not after what you've been planning."

"Do you think I want this?" Itachi asked, choking on the tears that were threatening to fall. "Shisui, I'd rather die than hurt any of you!"

"Then I guess it's a pity you didn't come home a few hours earlier that day," Shisui spat. "We wouldn't dare to start a coup without both you and Fugaku."

Itachi stood frozen, eyes wide and shining with disbelief and utter agony. Shisui grimaced when felt a pang of regret but it was smothered under his own hurt and fury. He scoffed and turned around to leave, and tensed when he felt a light touch on his back.

"Shisui-"

"Don't touch me," he bit out, not even turning around. "I don't want to look at you, let alone be near you."

And then he was gone with the slam of the front door, and Itachi crumpled to the ground, too broken to even sob.


	13. Chapter 13

**I do not nor will ever own Naruto**

**-xXXXx-**

_Goddamnit, Goddamnit, Goddamnit, Goddamnit!_

Shisui agitatedly paced the length of the dock, fingers roughly rubbing his face and slithering up to tangle and yank his own hair.

Itachi. Fucking _traitor_.

"God_damnit_!" he howled at the water. It echoed back, and he ignored the few lights that flickered on in the houses after his outburst.

His mind was blank with rage. He couldn't think past trying not to rip his own hair out and not to bite his tongue to the point of cutting it.

And _Itachi_.

Fucking _Itachi_.

"How _dare_ he?" he hissed, nearly putting his foot through the wood when he turned.

Children. He wanted to kill even the _children_.

"We're not trying to ruin the village," Shisui snapped to the silent air. "They're corrupt. We're helping the village."

_But that isn't how it will work out, is it?_

"No," Shisui bit out. "It's simple. Kill the Hokage, kill the council, take down the people who stand between us."

_But really, that would be the majority of the village, wouldn't it?_

"We're not trying to hurt the village!" Shisui growled. "They're _militant_. They're untrustworthy. _They're_ the ones who would start a war."

_Because the Uchiha would start one with them._

"We're _not_ trying to start a war."

_They wouldn't be planning genocide otherwise_.

"Then what are we supposed to _do_?" he groaned. He kneeled down, harshly pushing the palms of his hands into his eyes. "Just lie down and _take_ all this shit?"

_What about Itachi's way. The peaceful way._

"You call that peaceful." Shisui grit his teeth.

_The massacre is the Hokage's way. Think of Itachi. Itachi hates violence. Ever since the war, he's tried to avoid it. What does that say, that he's considering wiping out the whole clan?_

Shisui bit his lips to the point of bleeding to contain the brief surge of fury.

There are no other options for the Uchiha.

"But how are we supposed to live like that?" Shisui muttered, clenching his eyes shut. His fingers knotted more tightly in his hair. "Under all this oppression? They have us herded in this compound like lambs waiting for slaughter! The shinobi can't get good jobs, they don't trust us enough to give any of us high-rank missions or promote us past jounin. It will get worse, like it has been doing. We didn't cause the Kyuubi attack. The coup's the only way to stop it."

_Because that will definitely show them we aren't traitors_.

"They betrayed us first."

_But what if it does start a war?_

Shisui stilled, gritting his teeth.

Hokage elections will take time. The council won't be there to select a stand-in. The Raikage is not a fool, and _will_ act fast. Who will protect the village? With the leader of the Fire Country shinobi force dead, who will lead the shinobi to protect the country?

A war is inevitable. A terrible one, at that.

"_Goddamnit, Shisui, do you really want to see another one of those!_"

Shisui clenched his fists.

Did he?

Did others deserve to see that hell? The innocent people of the village, of other countries? Innocent like he and Itachi had been? Innocent like Akane was now?

No.

Even the corrupt and wicked ones?

Shisui sighed harshly. No, not even them. No one deserved to see war.

Was that enough, though? Which was the lesser of two evils? A full-scale war, a hell, for everyone in the entire elemental nations to experience, or the Uchiha's own personal hell? Would it be better for a hundred people to die, or for thousands? Hundreds of thousands?

Shisui, even though it made him sick, knew his answer. The Uchiha Clan wouldn't give up. The Hokage had enough reason; he wouldn't let a war be started. Unless the coup was stopped in its tracks, the clan would be massacred. But the Uchiha clan was an unstoppable force when it wanted to be; how could he stop the massacre? How could he stop the coup?

Should he tell his father? No, that might even speed up the coup, therefore the massacre. Should he tell the Hokage he knew what he was planning? No, it could even cause the massacre to happen right then and there. If he didn't say anything, the plans for the coup would be completed eventually. They would all be slaughtered eventually.

"What do I do?" he whispered, clutching his head.

God, he was so scared.

"Fuck," he sobbed. "What do I _do_?"

So many peoples' lives were at stake here. His sister. His father.

How could he stop the Uchiha Clan?


	14. Chapter 14

**I do not nor will ever own Naruto**

**-xXXXx-**

_No, no, no, no!_

Itachi stumbled into the living room, clutching wildly at his own chest and shaking with sobs.

Shisui knew. Shisui _hated_ him.

"He wants me dead," he whispered disbelievingly, filled with nothing but pain.

Searing _pain_. It made him absolutely sick. The loathing, the absolute _disgust_ for himself roared up in him, and he tangled his fingers into his own hair and pulled harshly.

Shisui.

His Shisui.

"What do I do?" he mumbled, falling onto the couch. "Gods, what do I _do_?"

"_Then I guess it's a pity you didn't come home a few hours earlier that day_."

"I never wanted this," Itachi cried, pushing his hands into his eyes. "I never wanted to hurt _any_ of you."

_Nice way of showing it._

"What else do I _do_?" Itachi asked, biting his lip to the point of bleeding. "I can't let a war be started!"

_You didn't try hard enough_.

Itachi sobbed. "But I did! Gods, I tried _so hard_ to help negotiations. Why wasn't it _enough_?"

_There's no hope for the Uchiha._

"Isn't there?" Itachi whispered. "Is this really it?"

_Why are you resigning yourself to it?_

"What else can I do...?"

_Keep trying_.

"I've already tried."

_Try **harder**._

"For _what_?" Itachi shouted, tearing into his own skin with his nails in frustration. "Negotiations have failed, what else is there! I can't just stop the coup, the Uchiha won't just sit with the way they're being treated!"

_Try harder with Tamotsu. He's peaceful. The coup's been delayed, you still have time._

"But I _don't_," Itachi mumbled, shaking his head. "Shisui knows. I have to act now."

_What will you do?_

"I don't know." He clenched his hands.

"_Then I guess it's a pity you didn't come home a few hours earlier that day..."_

Itachi stilled, his breath shuddering. The words ran over in his mind.

Was... Was that the only other way...?

_Not the only other way, but it is one_.

"It's that easy?" Itachi breathed. He slowly looked up, out the window. The sky was as dark as ever. The meeting was still in session.

"... I have nothing here anymore..." he said, looking back down. What's the point in staying...? Sasuke's dead. Shisui wants him dead. He'll tell the clan council; they'll probably have him killed tonight. He won't let him near Akane or his father again. What did he have left...?

_Remember, not the only way, but it is one._

"It's the easiest," he said, standing up. He swayed for a moment until he could feel stable enough to walk, and he slowly made his way towards the door.

_You call this easy?_

"It's easy," he murmured to himself, closing his eyes as he closed and locked the door. "Easy," he repeated. "Easy as walking." He sighed deeply, shakily, willing his limbs to stop trembling.

_Easy as lying to yourself...?_

And when he opened his eyes again, he had wiped his mind of every thought, and his eyes spun blood red with his Mangekyou Sharingan.

"Easy," he muttered, beginning to walk down the road he knew would lead him to the gates of Konoha.

He had to find Madara. They had a deal to finish.

It was easy.

He could stop the Uchiha Clan.


	15. Chapter 15

**I do not nor will ever own Naruto**

**-xXXXx-**

"I don't have all day," Uchiha Madara said darkly, standing in the doorway to Itachi's family's house. The young Uchiha pursed his lips.

"I'll meet you at the gates in a few minutes," he mumbled. "Don't let anyone see you."

"Don't take me for a fool," Madara snapped, his Sharingan gleaming fiercely behind his mask. "I'll give you an hour. Any longer than that and I'm starting without you."

Itachi narrowed his eyes. It would raise unnecessary alarm. "I'll be done before an hour," he muttered, and, with a final glare and swirl of his mask, Madara disappeared.

Itachi turned back to his empty house. The still silence permeated through every inch of the once-lively home. He felt wretched, having let the murderer of the house's occupants just _stand in the doorway_, but he didn't let it show on his face. He knew he couldn't pick a fight with the Uchiha here. Especially because he would _lose, _despite the damn good fight he would put up. Itachi eyed the dusty floors. He supposed that, after he was gone, the place would be ransacked. He stepped forward, frowning. He couldn't take much, but at least...

"Itachi?"

Said Uchiha widened his eyes, feeling his heart stop for a moment. His controlled facade cracked.

"...Shisui," he said in recognition, steeling his expression. He slowly turned around.

Shisui stood in the doorway where Madara had been, looking at the black and red cloak Itachi now wore in confusion. He looked as worn as Itachi felt, with pale features and heavy movements, and the younger felt a harsh stab of guilt. When he looked up to Itachi's face his eyes widened, and he clenched his fists. The indifference Itachi was showing could have fooled anyone, but for Shisui...

"I..." he began, his voice no louder than a whisper. Itachi watched the other male warily. Shisui knew he would bolt at any minute. He closed his eyes in a pained grimace when he remembered what he had _said_ to him. Feeling absolutely _wretched_, he whispered, "I'm sorry..." He looked up at Itachi. The younger Uchiha had frozen, and shock had broken through his carefully schooled expression. "I... I wasn't thinking." He shook his head. "I shouldn't have said... what I said."

Itachi pursed his lips, lowering his gaze. He felt weak. His chest hurt. "...Everything you said was true," he mumbled, shaking his head. "The things I've been planning-" His throat tightened suddenly and he swallowed to clear it. "... Even with you and Akane," he whispered. He closed his eyes. "I don't know... if I would have been able to do it or not. But I would have had to take the mission." He started trembling as Shisui's hands curled into fists.

"Even _her_...?" Shisui asked, looking up at him with hard eyes.

"No survivors," he muttered painfully, eyes still closed.

"And _you_...?" Shisui then hesitantly asked, his face paling in alarm.

Itachi released a shaky breath. "No survivors," he repeated.

"They'd make you...?" The information seemed to horrify Shisui more than anything else for some reason, Itachi thought. Maybe it was just this added to the pile.

He looked off to the side, not wanting to meet Shisui's eyes. "...Even if they didn't, I would have done it anyways."

"But _why_?" Shisui demanded. Itachi stood silent, unable to organize the thoughts flying around in his head in his distress. "Why even her?" Shisui asked, gesturing harshly out to the compound. "Why even _you_?"

After a tense moment of silence, Itachi shrugged. He didn't even know anymore. _Why_ even them?

"Damnit!" Shisui bit out. Itachi looked back up at him. Shisui ran his hands through his hair helplessly, looking around the room with teary blue eyes as if searching for inspiration, and Itachi felt his own eyes sting in response. "Is there nothing we can do? Are we just... _subject_ to this? Eventual imprisonment or _dying_?"

"...No," Itachi murmured, shaking his head. "There is always a compromise. It's never one option or the other. It's never just black or white. You... Tamotsu is a good man. He can lead the clan in the right direction. Seek reform diplomatically... If you push, you will succeed. Tell them that the Uchiha Clan was not responsible for the Kyuubi attack... Tell them..." Itachi swallowed. "Tell them it was Uchiha Madara." Shisui furrowed his eyebrows. "There are many things possible in this world, Shisui. Immortality is one. Sandaime-sama knows how true that is."

Shisui fixed him with a stare. "How... do you know it was him...?"

Itachi's gaze lowered. "He told me. I've... met him."

"You..." Shisui shook his head. "Why do you want _me_ to tell them? What... are _you_ going to do?"

Itachi's head lowered as well. His pulse was racing frantically. "I'm leaving." He'd never thought it would be so hard to say. Shisui's eyes widened. "You were right. The coup can never happen without me. And, well..." He paused briefly, sighing deeply, tiredly, helplessly. "Neither can the massacre."

Shisui looked for everything like he was about to object, shaking his head in denial, eyes shining much brighter than normal.

"You can't change my mind, Shisui," Itachi shook his head, blinking away his own tears and stepping back when Shisui stepped forward. "I _don't want to kill_. I've done _enough_ of that. Madara will be the last one, and I'm going after him. I'm _leaving_."

Shisui looked shattered, wounded so deeply that it was etched across his face and swimming in his dark eyes.

"_Don't_," Itachi pleaded, taking another step back. _Because if you try to stop me, I just might listen._

Slowly, resignation spread through Shisui's expression. He closed his eyes, a sob nearly escaping him.

"That's..." he began in a whisper, shaking his head in defeat, "...probably for the best."

Itachi swallowed, unable to keep back the tears now. He stepped forward, hesitantly raising a hand. He rested it on Shisui's chest, flinching when Shisui's own hand shot up to grab it. "...Take care of Akane. Cherish her. And your father." He attempted to smile encouragingly, but couldn't. Not with Shisui staring at him through his wet eyes that way. "Keep that promise we both made about the Akane and Sasuke. I can't anymore but... Please, keep yours."

And though it slowly took every inch of Itachi's control, he forced himself to pull his hand from Shisui's and turn away.

Madara was waiting.

"No, wait," Shisui choked out, and he grabbed Itachi's hand and yanked him back. He kissed Itachi, pouring everything he could into the kiss, and Itachi, flinchingly, hesitatingly, tried to do the same.

"I _do_ love you," Shisui muttered into Itachi's lips when he pulled away, mournful navy eyes staring into agonized red. "That never changed. It never will."

"Why do you have to make it so much _harder_?" Itachi whispered, crying in earnest now and clutching tightly onto his arms.

"Because I'm stubborn, remember?" Shisui joked weakly, trembling almost as bad as Itachi. He kissed his mouth again, once, twice, pressed a kiss to his hair, each time murmuring, "I love you."

"I love you," Itachi mumbled in response to each, "I have to go. I love you."

And then he was gone, and Shisui, for the first time, _selfishly_, cursed his own clan for driving him away like this.

**-xXXXx-**

**Fast updates because everything's already written and I wanna get this over with so I can focus on my other multichap O.o  
**

**One chapter left of this part, guys.  
**

**Happy late birthday to Itachi. God, I am such a bitch.  
**

**As always, you guys are amazing for following such a depressing story. In my defense, it IS filed under Hurt/Comfort/Angst.  
**

**Also, I have remembered that I have a LiveJournal account. Link's at the top of my bio, and I'll eventually get around to posting SMFTN. You must have patience with me though, I never bothered to learn how to operate on that site xP I'm working on it, though!  
**

**Toodles, my dearies.  
**


	16. Chapter 16

**I do not nor will ever own Naruto**

**-xXXXx-**

"Uchiha Shisui," the Sandaime Hokage began morosely, looking up at the seated teen and his father past steepled fingers. "I have called you here to discuss with you the desertion of Uchiha Itachi."

Shisui stared blankly at the ground ahead of him, seemingly unaware of the conversation he was being included in. It was like his ears had been stuffed with cotton, but at the name mentioned, his felt his pulse jump and twitched.

"Shisui, when did you last see Itachi?" Sarutobi asked, leveling him with a stern, but kind gaze.

Shisui glanced up at him, and Sarutobi thought he saw Shisui's eyes flicker red.

Tamotsu's hand came down hard and tightly on Shisui's shoulder, and the teen quickly looked back down, murmuring an apology as he deactivated his doujutsu before answering:

"Yesterday."

"And what did you talk about?" Sarutobi then asked, warily watching the, for some reason, rather hostile boy.

Shisui lamely shrugged, refusing to lift his gaze. "... Dunno. A lot of things."

"Did anything seem odd about him to you? Did he happen to make any reference to where he was going?"

Shisui looked up at him suspiciously then, frowning. "...Why? Are you sending a retrieval team after him?"

The tension in the room suddenly escalated. Sarutobi was silent. Tamotsu had narrowed his eyes, and Shisui could feel his own worry building up. Then the Hokage sighed deeply, eventually meeting Shisui's eyes.

"Itachi is a member of Anbu. A highly-ranked one, at that. I'm afraid... the normalities don't follow him. He has too much information on the inner workings of the village, and as such will be pursued and terminated by hunter nins."

Shisui's face paled in horror and in less than a second he was on his feet despite his father trying to calm him.

"He hasn't done anything!" Shisui raged. "You can't- he's just trying to-!"

"What?" Sarutobi asked sharply. He waved away the Anbu operatives that had appeared at Shisui's outburst. "What is he trying to do, Shisui?"

Shisui glared at the man, but then Tamotsu forcefully made him sit in his chair. Shisui looked up at his father to object, but was immediately shocked into silence by the warning glower on his face and that his father had actually activated his _Sharingan_ at him.

"Hiruzen, I have sent my nephew on a mission," Tamotsu announced, turning his gaze to the Hokage. Shisui was, again, silenced by the aggressive behavior of his father.

Tamotsu hadn't deactivated his Sharingan. Shisui could feel the Anbu on the edge of his senses, each chakra pulsing in reaction to the blatant challenge issued by the Uchiha Clan head and eager to rectify the situation.

The Hokage looked just as shocked as Shisui at Tamotsu's behavior, but his wide gaze eventually narrowed into a much more dangerous one.

"Uchiha Tamotsu, you do not have the right _nor the authority_ to issue a mission to a Konoha shinobi," Sarutobi's intimidating voice boomed throughout the room. It left Shisui's ears ringing and reminded him _exactly_ who he had been foolishly shouting at.

"Clan Faction Policies on Alien Matters, Clause 17, of Konohagakure's constitution says I very well can," Tamotsu replied smoothly, in a voice that was much quieter but for some reason still had the same effect as the Hokage's. Shisui looked up at his father with wide eyes. What was he playing at?

Sarutobi narrowed his eyes further. "As I have said before, the same rules do not apply to Anbu Operatives."

"If I was allowed to _look_ at the laws governing Anbu, as I should have been when I was named Itachi's _guardian_, as well as when my own _son_ was inducted into Anbu, I would have known." Tamotsu glared. "Unfortunately, I was denied that right. Both times. As is, I have sent him on an infiltration mission to get close to and eradicate a renegade Uchiha Clan member." Shisui opened his mouth to talk, but Tamotsu dug his fingers almost painfully into Shisui's shoulder as a warning. Shisui shut up.

"And what member would that be?" Sarutobi asked dangerously.

"Uchiha Madara."

The Hokage blinked in outrage for a moment as Shisui's head snapped up to stare at his father. "If you are playing some kind of _joke_, Tamotsu-"

"I assure you I am not," Tamotsu said quietly, angrily. "I have seen the man myself."

"He is long dead," Sarutobi pressed.

"Many people remember the exploits of a certain Sannin, Hokage-sama, and I am fairly sure you remember it much more clearly than any others," Tamotsu said harshly. "Immortality is not impossible." Shisui felt his heart pound as Tamotsu said the words which were almost the exact same Itachi had said.

Sarutobi grimaced at the older Uchiha. "Fine, then. Saying that this man is, in fact, _alive_, why have you sent Itachi to kill him?"

"Itachi is the most qualified out of any other clan member," Tamotsu said flatly. "As for why I want to kill Madara..." His grip on Shisui's chair tightened. "He is responsible for planning the Kyuubi attack nine years ago and shifting suspicions onto my clan."

Sarutobi's eyes widened, and Shisui's breath was knocked out of him. _How did he...?_

The Hokage caught Tamotsu's knowing, challenging gaze, and pressed his lips together as understanding dawned in his eyes. Tamotsu's stare didn't waver.

"Tamotsu," Sarutobi began tensely.

"That is _not_ the issue right here, Sarutobi," Tamotsu interrupted, his voice chilling. "But I will have you know that despite my clan's current indecision on the coup-" he ignored Shisui's horrified whisper of "Dad!" and then utter shock as Tamotsu's eyes slowly morphed into what could only have been...

"_Mangekyou_," Shisui whispered, eyes wide.

"- _if it comes to the point of genocide_," Tamotsu snarled, glaring _murderously_. "_I will **raze** your armies to the **ground** for my family_."

Sarutobi stood slowly in reaction to the open hostility, and Shisui looked between the two in alarm, his breathing heavy and his pulse pounding as the silence went on for minutes. Eventually Tamotsu grimaced, forcing his posture to relax somewhat.

"I personally believe the coup is a ridiculous idea," he said in order to pacify the Hokage. "Forgive me if the talk of killing a boy I think of as my son has put me in a foul mood. I wouldn't kill you. I highly doubt I have the power to, anyways."

Sarutobi slowly narrowed his eyes. "What do you propose we do, then?"

Tamotsu sighed, forcing himself to relax and release his deathgrip on the railings of Shisui's chair. His Mangekyou, a design of three marquise extending out from the iris, faded into the normal Sharingan, then into the original dark color of his eyes.

"I just want to talk," he said honestly, sighing deeply. "My clan council doesn't believe it will work, but..." he shrugged. "There is a reason I am the clan head and they are not. They can get over it."

The Hokage, though he seemed to try to resist it, smirked slightly. "Fugaku didn't think it would work, either."

"My brother had a bunch of old croonies still living in the Second Shinobi War influencing him and no patience," Tamotsu deadpanned. "He wouldn't think sitting down and talking could get you anywhere."

Sarutobi's mouth twitched up more, but then he sobered. "What will you do?"

Tamotsu frowned. "I'd like to continue peace negotiations with you. Alone. I wouldn't dare tell my clan yet, as they would understandably be quite upset."

Sarutobi dipped his head. "Thank you."

"It's not for you," Tamotsu said flatly. "Forgive me, but I don't exactly like you at the moment."

The Hokage frowned. "Understandable," he acknowledged, "But back to the issue at hand."

"Itachi?" Tamotsu asked.

"Yes." The Hokage sighed. "Are you certain this man is Uchiha Madara?"

"It was the same masked man the fourth Hokage fought," Tamotsu said quietly. "I know the Yamanaka clan has a jutsu which can go through the mind of a corpse, depending on how degraded the body's brain is. You should know the masked man I am talking about."

Sarutobi grimaced, no doubt being reminded of the harsh way his wife had been killed. "Yes, I do. We just never had a name."

"Whether he is an Uchiha or not," Tamotsu said, "He is the one who has placed the blame of the Kyuubi attack on my clan. I'm sure you can agree that I was right to send Itachi after him."

Sarutobi stared at Tamotsu for a while, before reluctantly shaking his head, "I can't call back the hunter-nin squad."

"You-!" Shisui began, glaring, but Tamotsu made him sit still.

"But if Itachi is with the man you say he is with, then they could be on the other side of the Earth Country by now. The hunter nins will never catch up." Sarutobi pursed his lips, and both Tamotsu and Shisui knew that the hunter nins would be the test. If Itachi was with the man Tamotsu said he was with, he would be fine. If not... well. "It mustn't be made public, as I'm sure you know, but...I support the mission."

**-xXx-**

"What the hell was that?" Shisui burst out when they were finally home, after a tense and silent walk from the Hokage tower to their house.

Tamotsu rose an eyebrow at him, kicking off his shoes. "What was what?"

"Wha-?" Shisui began, incredulous and gesturing in the general direction if the tower. "_That!_"

Tamotsu sighed. "That," he said. "...was politics. Scary, isn't it?"

Shisui sputtered for a moment, pacing and rubbing his hands over his face, before he suddenly stopped and released a large sigh. "...How did you know...?" he asked hesitantly.

Tamotsu watched him for a moment. He released a sigh of his own and looked away. "You and Itachi weren't exactly quiet last night."

Shisui froze, wide eyed. "You were _there-_?"

"Someone was in the compound who shouldn't have been," Tamotsu explained quietly. "I followed the presence to the house and..." He shrugged weakly. "I overheard you two. The man had disappeared before I could do anything, and I had no idea where he had gone. I stayed after you had gone, trying to decide if I should confront Itachi or not, but before I could decide, he was going somewhere. I followed him. I saw him talking with that masked man, and I heard his decision, and... I agreed." He shook his head sadly.

"So Madara was _here?_" Shisui asked, disbelieving. "Why didn't Itachi kill him_ then_...?"

"Shisui, you don't understand..." Tamotsu said. "That man... He's strong. _Very_. I don't think, and maybe Itachi didn't either, that he could have fought him, especially if he were to take into account how close the village was..."

Shisui frowned, his gaze falling to the ground. "Oh..."

Tamotsu watched his son hesitantly, debating whether or not he should speak the next part. "I... followed them to his house. I was hoping I could overhear where they were going. Madara left, said he was waiting for Itachi, and only a few seconds later, you came..."

Shisui paled, feeling his insides twist up. "You saw...?"

Tamotsu shuffled his feet awkwardly, releasing an explosive sigh. "Well, if you mean you eating Itachi's face..."

"_Dad_!" Shisui burst out, horrified, and he flushed all the way to his chest.

Tamotsu cracked a grin, and reached over to ruffle his son's hair. "Aww, my boy's growing up! Into a person of rather questionable tastes, but hey, at least you aren't a drag-queen!"

"Dad, what the _hell_!" Shisui cried, knocking his hand away. Tamotsu laughed, dragging him forward into a hug.

"I've seen the effect you have on each other," he said, smiling warmly. Shisui stilled. "How can I not approve of that? You're good together."

"Dad..."

Tamotsu's grip tightened, very conscious of the trembling form in his arms. "I'll make sure he comes home, Shisui. I promise you that."

Shisui inhaled sharply, tears streaming down his face. "Yeah," he whispered, clenching his eyes shut.

**-xXx-**

"These will be your rooms for now," said Konan, seeming so much colder than the last time he had seen her, motioning to the door ahead of her. Itachi's eyes caught the ring on her right middle finger, so similar to the one now weighing his hand down on his right ring finger. He moved his gaze the the plain door, walking through to an even plainer room.

"Someone will come to get you when your partner gets here," she said flatly behind him, and he didn't turn around to look at her. "I advise you to not leave the city for a few days. Your old village may still be looking for you."

Itachi knew it was more of a command than it was advice, and merely dipped his head in response. She left, shutting the door quietly, and Itachi was left standing without a single idea of what to do.

He went to the wide widow, staring down into the city. It seemed so much more darker than when he saw it with...

He leaned against the glass, tracing the designs of the neon signs into the fog his breathing made on the glass. There were a lot less signs. Where were all the people? What had happened, in the span of nearly five months...? Ame should be prospering, not looking even more dreary.

His hand went to his pocket, feeling the headband he had taken off and the Konoha Leaf etched into the metal. He should have just left it behind. His fingers pressed into the curving grooves, and then glided over the deep cut a few inches away. He hadn't been able to slash his headband. He didn't think he would _be_ able to.

His eyes, darting over the landscape he was shown, closed despondently when he found nothing of what he had been looking for.

_A teasing smile. "It appears, even after knowing of your vast vocabulary, "yellow" is just too much for your poor little brain to comprehend..."_

There wasn't any yellow in Ame.

**-xXXXx-**

**Aaand that concludes the first part of this story. I don't know if I'll post the next part as a new story or not, though I do not think I will.**

**You all have been amazing and I love you!  
**


End file.

Naruto, Angst, Hurt-Comfort