Crow's feathers - Naruto fanfiction

Chapter 34 Forsaken

Taryn stared out over the desert, but she wasn’t seeing anything. She was thinking. She tried to remember everything Itachi had ever said to her. Somehow she’d have to be able to figure it out. She took her notebook and flipped through it, reading every entry she had ever made regarding Itachi since he had sent her with Orochimaru. ‘Itachi is ill… and he wants Sasuke to kill him.’ That statement was important somehow. It was the key to the solution.

“Little brothers are sacred. Those were the words he spoke to me when I came to Konoha. Little brothers are sacred. Then he told me he had killed his entire clan. To measure his capability. I don’t believe him. There’s something he won’t tell me. I know it is something else. He didn’t kill Sasuke. There is a reason for that. I’ll figure it out, even if he won’t tell me.”

 

“The Third Hokage died in battle. There was an attack on Konoha during the Chuunin Exams. Orochimaru… After the funeral, Itachi showed up in the village. When I asked him why he was here, he told me it was personal matters. How personal can it be when it’s not about Sasuke? The elders questioned me again when I returned and again I told them nothing. Why does Danzou keep giving me these looks?

 

She skipped ahead a few entries.

“Orochimaru told me I should ask Itachi after Danzou’s reasons to kill Sasuke. Does that mean he knows something? He always did know more than he let on about a lot of things. Sai came to Orochimaru with a message from Danzou. Does that mean they’re in league? Could Danzou have something to do with the attack on Konoha?”

 

A few pages back.

“When Itachi fought Sasuke in the inn, he didn’t go easy on him. ‘Little brothers are sacred’ he said. But he didn’t treat Sasuke as something sacred at all. It seemed as if he was really serious. Why would he spare Sasuke’s life while he killed the rest of his clan and treat him like this now?”

 

It was like the game connect the dots. Only these dots were one big mess and she couldn’t see the bigger picture. “Why did he sent me with Orochimaru that time? Why did he ask me to keep an eye on Sasuke if he treats him like that, that day at the inn?’
She remembered something he had said when she had run across him in the land of Storms. It had been right after Sasuke had left Konoha. ‘It has begun then.’ He had said. Had he been talking abut the approaching fight? Had he been planning to let Sasuke kill him already? She turned to another note.

“When he  visited me in Suna after Gaara… I was too angry to  really listen to him, but he said it would be better if I hated him. Why would he say something like that? Itachi always believed hate to be the worst emotion. He spoke a lot about hate that night. I do not understand. He said Akatsuki seeks to achieve world peace. What peace could ever come from hate?”

 

There was something else too. She remembered it now. It hadn’t seemed to be important at the time, but now she wasn’t sure. There had been that moment in Konoha, at Final Valley, he had seemed troubled by something. He had asked her if she missed the desert. She had told him she had no regrets. After that, something had changed in his eyes. Not long after that he had chased her out of Konoha. That was it. That was the answer. Something she had said then had lead to this. She wanted answers. And she was going to get them. It was time to confront Itachi and she wouldn’t take no for an answer this time.