With Eyes Wide Shut (Part I)
Come over here and let me hold your hand and hug you darling
I promise you that it won't always feel this bad
There are so many things I want to say to you
You're the [person] I used to be
You little heartbroken thirteen-year-old [chibi]
The so-called Madara made him run at a brisk pace for several hours. The two of them were of course pursued by the village ANBU, and Itachi realized that he recognized them, Bear and Owl. The man, who was looking less and less likely to be the Uchiha ancestor and possibly a blood traitor - an individual that's broken apart from the clan for selfish reasons, the true identity impossible to identify with the gender-neutral garb - would murder them both, undoubtedly.
He couldn't permit that.
Deciding to get on with cementing his allegiance and keep up the charade that he was truly defecting from the Leaf, Itachi removed his tantō from its sheath, Sharingan spinning in his eyes as he quickly engaged Bear first, seeing as she was the most dangerous. Quick and effectively, he moved on silent feet, the blade aimed at her neck, she made a complicated move to avoid the beheading strike, right hand clamping down on his tantō out of reflex, chakra coating her palm. Owl was coming up from behind and likely intended to capitalize on his 'distraction' but Itachi wasn't hailed as a genius for nothing, releasing the sword and his hands flew through the correct hand seals for the Kawarimi no Jutsu, squelching down his sympathy as Bear's fingers were cut off by a mid-level wind jutsu.
If he hadn't been paying attention, that could have been debilitating.
To her credit, Bear didn't cry out. Wanting to end this squabbling with minimal bloodshed, he blocked Owl's second attack, kicking him in the stomach and forcing him back, making another handseal to vanish from his sight only to appear overhead with an ax kick only barely held off. That was the only opening he needed in order to lock eyes with the other, the genjutsu forcing him to fall unconscious, and as he plummeted to certain death, Owl reacted just as Itachi expected, leaping after her teammate to save his life.
Cutting the flow of chakra to his eyes, the Sharingan became his normal dark-colored shade and he resumed his swift fleeing of Fire Country. Ten minutes of running again and the blood traitor seamlessly joined his side again. Luck seemed to be on their side though, as, despite that altercation, he and 'Madara' managed to avoid the border patrol, slipping out of the gates without issue.
It was all terribly easy and Itachi didn't trust it at all. Mentally, he files that information away for further perusal later, it's very possible that Danzō could be collaborating with this unknown, as soon as the thought enters his mind, he rejects it. Danzō despised unknown entities and things (or people) he couldn't control.
'I won't fail. I can't...'
Several days later with only a few breaks to take a rest, Itachi finds himself in Ame and being left with the figurehead of the criminal organization of Akatsuki, Pein. He's shown to his temporary lodgings and abandoned to his own devices, which is exactly what he doesn't want. Now without the adrenaline of fighting for his life pumping through his veins, or looking over his shoulder for some type of ambush, Itachi is left facing the reality of his actions.
'Kaa-san, Tou-san…' The memory of cutting his parents down leaves him feeling cold. 'Sasuke.' Biting his bottom lip, hard, Itachi's body shivers violently as he recalled the mixture of shock, anger, and the beginnings of hatred in his little brother's eyes. '...Kiyomi.' His last memory of the one that he loves so much is tainted with the image of the blood traitor's hand through her chest, how she reached for her stomach in an unconscious movement, unafraid of death personally, but trying to protect the unborn child in her belly.
Technically, he's just a kid himself at thirteen years old and Kiyomi is….she was fourteen. 'There's no use pretending that she survived an attack from behind like that.' Being a father at this age? While it wouldn't have been too out there during the Warring States Era, having a baby during what was technically called peacetime was heavily frowned upon and more often than not, there were complications during the actual delivery of the child.
And yet, even with all his rationality of the impractical situation, Itachi found himself mourning and pondering what if's. He had vowed on Shisui's sacrifice to somehow save both Konoha and the clan, to live a long happy life with Kiyomi.
He welcomed the distraction when there was a knock on the door. But upon opening it, Itachi stared up and up at a member (defecting member?) of Kiri's Shinobigatana Shichinin Shū, Hoshigaki Kisame, the telltale blue skin giving away his identity as the foreign nin with a scratched out Kiri headband smiled unnervingly down at him.
Feeling an impending headache, Itachi stared back stoically.
"E-eh? Saeri is able to leave the baby ward with me now?" Features twisted with shock and confusion, nonetheless, Kiyomi's handling of the child in her arms is, as always by now, careful.
Manabe, who had been told that he had to maintain neutral objectivity, couldn't help that he had formed an attachment to this woman-child and her infant daughter. There were no sexual thoughts (Kami forbid!) and he didn't think it was a paternal instinct he felt but whatever the case, the Iryō-nin felt...protective.
"Mm," Nodding, he smiled. "Little Sae and you can now go home together. Are you excited?"
"The conditions for being able to do so leave little to be desired but overall, I can't really complain." With tender motions, Kiyomi ran her finger feather-light over the babe's cheek, smiling softly as the baby rubbed at her cheek irritably, eyes closed as she was still asleep.
"Sandaime-sama, with all due respect, I don't think it's necessary to live in this house." It was a token protest. Looking over the estate that her mother had left behind, Kiyomi could admit that it was nice to look at on the outside. "I could find another place of residence."
"I seem to recall that you lived in the compound with the rest of the Uchiha clan." Sarutobi phrases the words as gently as possible but Kiyomi grimaced. "While I know that you and your mother weren't particularly close unless you intend to reveal to Sasuke about his niece…"
"It's too soon," Kiyomi interjected. "I've been taking over the extra training with him on the weekends, and his goal of avenging the clan worries me." Shaking her head, she continued. "Yes, I'm angry about what Itachi did. Livid, actually. But I have responsibilities to my daughter first, and Saeri looks a little bit like her patriarch."
The older man was silent as she listed her reasons. "You think that Sasuke will be violent when he realizes Itachi has a daughter."
"He's not rational." Succinct and to the point. "He possibly might even see the child's existence as my way of circumventing his position as the future Clan Head, even though the Council doesn't recognize females very often as competent leaders." The wrinkling of Kiyomi's nose showed exactly how she felt about the way that the Council was made up of almost entirely of men, barring Inuzuka Tsume.
"Or he might see the child as a part of you and family." Hiruzen was all too aware of how flawed the system is and has made many attempts to fix things, but in his efforts, he only further agitated the people who were on the Council, his advisors and the Clan Heads, as well as the Civilian Council, and eventually had to back down. The last time he had fought so hard for was getting the Council to acknowledge Kiyomi as the Acting Clan Head until Sasuke was of age.
"It would be nice if that happened, Sasuke and Saeri interacting as a family should, but I still think that it's too soon." Feeling Harry's, her, magic, begin to move underneath her skin in response to her growing agitation.
Before his death, Harry had been somewhat of an adept practitioner of the Legemens' spell and often dived into the mind of a captured Death Eater or one of their supporters, by relying on a throwback version of Occlumency which involved linking hands and absolute trust between one or two people; he did this often enough with Ron and Hermione, and while Kiyomi didn't dare to attempt such a thing on a shinobi of the Third's caliber since most high profile nin were aware of and resistant to mind manipulation, she had done the technique on a few civilians without ill effects.
By doing this, she was able to glean information about what some of Konoha's citizens thought about the Uchiha massacre, and if she was careful, she could delve back even deeper to see their feelings about the Uchiha prior to the tragedy which had taken place about a month ago.
And thus, this is how the former wizard turned kunoichi realized that to most of the civilian population, the Uchiha either were cold and suffering from a superiority complex, or they just weren't to be trusted. Someone had started the rumor that it was an Uchiha who controlled the Nine-Tails with the Sharingan and almost brought about the destruction of the village. The aftermath of these rumors resulted in all Uchiha being forced to stay in the compound together. With the death of the once-prosperous clan, again, the civilians were of two minds. Some were relieved but others felt guilty about the trauma that Sasuke and Kiyomi had to be dealing with, the sympathy directed more at the former than the latter.
Coming out of her reverie, Kiyomi glanced at the village leader. "Is there something else going on that I need to know about, Hokage-sama, which prompts you to want for Sasuke to know about Sae-chan too early?" Although his poker face was impeccable, and his body language gave nothing away, still, Kiyomi had a lot of practice with picking up on a person's guilty conscious. "I'm not an innocent or naive little girl, sir. Whatever it is, I can handle it."
Closing his eyes and seeming to age right in front of her, the old Hokage opened his mouth.
"Yes, the Council grows too bold," Manabe commented quietly, voice disgusted.
"Most are old enough to remember the older traditions." Kiyomi hid a smirk as her child's personal doctor harrumphed. "Intermarriage was popular among the Clan during Madara's time and brought about many Uchiha with the Sharingan."
"It's a barbaric practice, the Clan Restoration Act."
Both doctor and kunoichi went silent however when the doorknob began to turn…