Uchiha Itachi
The first time Itachi meets Hitomi is afterwards the Kyuubi incident. His mother has taken him and his brothers because Kotarou is of Sasuke’s age and he is too young to be without a mother figure.
(His mother has always been a kind woman; Itachi has always respected and loved her for it...and now, looking back, he’s very glad that she had taken them in.)
The first thing that he notices about his cousin is that he has darkness inside his eyes; one that he has seen on his own eyes when he sees himself in a mirror. During the first weeks he’s suspicious of the older boy and he never lets him anywhere near Sasuke if Mikoto isn’t there as well.
Hitomi gaze at him with an amused, knowingly, look most of the time and just accepts the boundaries Itachi creates without a word.
He’s very...kind. That’s the second thing Itachi notices. Hitomi is always careful and affectionate with his own brothers, loving, sweet. But he doesn’t treat them the way grown up do. He doesn’t treat them like they dumb or weak.
It’s a kindness Itachi is not used to see.
He’s a prodigy, that’s what everyone else says. Not a child anymore, more of an adult than any four year old has any right to be. He’s treated with glove hands one way or another. By all, but Hitomi.
His cousin, Tenka, is his own age but they are as different as they could be. Still, they’re friends. Because Hitomi is kind and helps to create a safe space where Itachi could be as odd as he pleased; being childish and grown up at the same time.
Itachi grew to like Hitomi a lot before he could be aware of it. One moment, he glared at him when he got close to Sasuke, and at the next, Hitomi was helping him to feed his little brother.
Hitomi starts helping him train and becomes a mentor figure. Then, as the time passes, Hitomi becomes like an older brother. Just like Shisui. Actually, the cousins are like a set and one you get one, you get both of them.
Itachi is seven when he notices the thing that would threaten to rip apart his relationship with Hitomi; a truth he didn’t want to face, so he let himself to be trapped by the honeyed smiles and the sincere affection his cousin shows at him.
And never let's himself to think about it until that terrible night.
Never let himself to understand the darkness that hides inside Hitomi’s eyes.
That nigh…
He's thirteen and hurting.
He’s thirteen and scared.
He’s thirteen and Shisui have just been murdered by an elder, the same elder that ordered to kill his entire clan or Konoha would do it themselves.
He’s thirteen and he’s trapped on a nightmare he can’t escape when he’s forced to face his cousin, knowing very well that he or Madara will be killing Kotarou and Tenka, when he realizes that Hitomi doesn’t know mercy.
And that the darkness he had seen years before, is now fully present in his cousin gaze, and it's all directed at him.
“I will kill you.”
Hitomi’s eyes are deathly; his tone calm and collected, sweet, even. He’s past the hurt and anger, there’s only a deep hate, a monster using the face of one of the persons that Itachi had loved with all his heart.
It’s a serious promise.
Itachi shivers at the knowledge that his cousin would rip him apart -and enjoy every second of it- if he was able to. But Madara reclaims his attention and allows him to slip, moving to continue his mission and end his clan before Sasuke gets home.
Is not until he's away from the village that reality hits him: He has killed all his family. All but his little brother.
They're all gone.
And he laughed, he laughed and laughed, because crying wouldn't do anything.
.
.
.
.
He's surprised at the sharp satisfaction when he saw the deep damage on Madara’s body and felt the anger and frustration emanating from the man.
He felt a deep sense of pride; shattered pieces of him returning to live when he saw Hitomi’s mark all over their late patriarch.
Hitomi was a monster, that was the truth he had been refusing to see. But then, wasn’t he a monster too?
Itachi’s smile was an echo of Hitomi's and form the way Madara winced, he was pretty aware of it.