Danzo's office was dark. He had chosen a room deep in the bowels of the Hokage Tower's basement as a commitment to his role as the Shadow Hokage; the environment needed to fit the occupation, after all. He had no windows nor any mode of glancing out at the outside world and the only light in the space came from the feeble orange glow of an ancient overhead lamp. Despite the bleak environment, Danzo's office was impeccably guarded by countless wards and seals. In Minato Namikaze's brief tenure as Hokage, Danzo had specially requested unbreakable security seals that warned him of any approaching chakra signature as soon as the person was within jutsu range. They worked perfectly. Not even Shisui Uchiha–the prodigy whose skills had proven so wonderfully useful–could evade the sensing capabilities of those seals and Danzo was perfectly confident that no one ever would.
Even after his soft-hearted contemporary, Hiruzen's, death, Danzo remained in his office. He would venture up to the official Hokage's office on occasion to make formal announcements, but the picture windows and more-often-than-not open door would never fit his needs. So for most hours of the day, Danzo resided in his office, ruling Konoha as it always should have been: with an unrelenting iron fist.
Just as on any typical day, Danzo only sensed the chakra signatures of his ROOT agents milling around the lower levels of the Hokage Tower and nothing else. That, though, failed to explain the incipient figure opposite his desk, a curved mask manifesting just before his eyes. As a well-trained shinobi, Danzo did not flinch, his hand instead flying to the scroll beneath his desk that alerted his ROOT agents of danger.
"I would recommend against that," the figure said, body fully manifested.
A man stood before Danzo, clad in a long black cloak, his stance relaxed. An unruly mess of black hair was visible from behind his curved, orange mask which revealed only one eye.
"We both want the same thing, I assure you." The man remained perfectly still, waiting for Danzo to move his hand from the warning scroll. "I assisted Itachi in the Uchiha Massacre, after all."
Danzo did move at that, clasping both his hands and placing them on his desk as a motion of good-will.
"Ah, so the boy was assisted after all," Danzo mused. As a shinobi, conversation was just another battlefield and betraying emotion with your voice left yourself open for an attack. Danzo was a master of both the physical shinobi arts as well as the psychological. He left no openings. "Then you too are an Uchiha, are you not?"
Danzo's disdain for the Uchiha was no secret. He subscribed to his sensei's view on their capricious and proud nature and he believed that his decision to order the Uchiha Massacre was one of the better things he had done for Konoha. That being said, he was not above using Uchiha as pawns; once they were dedicated enough to a cause, Danzo could twist them in any way he wanted, as made evident by both Itachi and Shisui. He was able to manipulate Shisui's absolute adoration of Itachi perfectly and he gained his most powerful weapon from it. Itachi had been more difficult and continued to prove so as time went on. His love for Sasuke had been both a point of manipulation as well as a point of danger for Danzo. Now with Sasuke out of the village, Danzo could not be sure of the control he had over Itachi. This new man might have to be his next Uchiha pawn.
"I am sure you are wondering who I am," the man said, beginning to pace slowly in front of Danzo.
Danzo crinkled his visible eye in some semblance of a smile. "If you wanted me to know, you would tell me," he replied. "If you did not want me to know, I would simply find out myself."
"You are quite confident." The man's tone seemed to humor Danzo. "I am Madara Uchiha. I suspect that may change some of your plans with me."
Danzo frowned. Madara Uchiha was long, long dead–a fact that Danzo was particularly pleased about. He had been the root of Uchiha madness, after all. But the shinobi arts were an ever-growing field and surely someone as awfully powerful as Madara could find a way to extend his lifespan. That being said, his entire persona could be a bluff. Masquerading as Madara Uchiha was bold to the point of being ludicrous, but its absurdity made it genius. Regardless of if the man was Madara or not, he had already managed to do something Danzo had previously considered impossible: get through his seals undetected. The man was, without a doubt, powerful.
"If you truly are Madara Uchiha, then you must know that we don't see eye-to-eye," Danzo said, considering triggering his warning seal again. "My duty is to Konoha as the Senju intended."
"Both you and I know that you aren't telling the truth," Madara chuckled. "Konoha as ruled by the Senju is Hashirama's Konoha, or better yet for you, Hiruzen's Konoha, and we both know what you thought of the man. No, you and I see far more eye-to-eye than you'd think. We both want strength for the village and nothing more. We both know that pathetic hopes for peace mean nothing but weakness. Why else do you think I supported the Uchiha Massacre? They were a liability and needed to be disposed of."
Danzo knew that Madara could easily be lying to him. He had no reason to trust an Uchiha. Still, Madara had assisted in the Uchiha Massacre, which at least united them on one common cause.
"What did you come here to ask me?" Danzo decided to cut to the chase. As entertaining as it was to trade enigmatic phrases with Madara Uchiha, Danzo wanted to know what the man sought.
"I believe we may have both lost a pawn in Itachi Uchiha," he stated. "He defected from my organization and has joined his brother who seems to have escaped Konoha."
Danzo raised an eyebrow. "Yes, Sasuke Uchiha is currently out of the village with his genin team and sensei. They all know far too much about the Uchiha Massacre and the secrets surrounding it and are likely too dangerous to be allowed back into the village. I had planned to have them all killed."
"You'd never succeed now that Itachi is with them. I came to offer you an alternative to sending your ANBU on a suicide mission. Instead of killing the three genin, Kakashi of the Sharingan, and Itachi Uchiha, I suggest you allow me to capture Sasuke. I have plans for the boy and I can promise him to you as a pawn as well. I know you can use Kotoamatsukami to bend him to your will."
"If you can promise me Sasuke as a pawn, you are insinuating that our ideals align. If you truly are Madara Uchiha, you surely want to see the village burn."
"Don't be simple." Madara waved off Danzo's statement with a flick of his hand. "I never wanted to see Konoha burn, I simply wanted a strong Konoha unlike Hashirama."
"Yes, that is what you claim, but others have labelled your dispute with Hashirama as more of a lover's quarrel than anything else."
That had been a low blow, Danzo knew. He was not incorrect; it was well established that Madara and Hashirama had been romantically involved prior to their falling out, but trivializing their final epic battle served only to irritate Madara.
Madara exhaled in something Danzo might consider a chuckle. "Do you accept my offer or not?" he said, bringing them back on topic. "I am not trying to interfere with your rule."
Danzo knew that both he and Madara were most likely lying through their teeth in an attempt to manipulate the other. That being said, Danzo sorely wanted Sasuke as a pawn, especially after Itachi's possible betrayal. With Sasuke in his clutches, he could control Itachi, the jinchuuriki, and likely Kakashi. As much as he despised the Uchiha, he needed them as weapons. If Danzo was anything at all, he was a master at backing out of agreements that no longer benefited him. This man would not take advantage of him regardless of his identity.
"Do what you will," Danzo replied with a dismissive wave. "All I ask for is my end in the bargain."
"And that I will give you." Madara's chakra signature began to flicker, as if he was losing corporeality. "And a word of advice: kill the genin girl on Sasuke's team. I know that she is far more trouble than she looks."
With that, Madara disappeared without a trace, leaving Danzo once again alone in his office.
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Sakura found Itachi already ready for the day by the time she awoke; he sat cross-legged by the river, eyes shut in meditation. He had coiled his hair into a tight bun at the nape of his neck in order to keep cool in the hot summer sun. Sakura readied herself soundlessly behind him, not wanting to interrupt his moment of mindfulness. She had incredible respect for shinobi who trained their minds as well as their bodies: it always made more human fighters, if that phrase was not too much of an oxymoron.
Itachi noticed her presence, of course. He did not so much as turn his head, but Sakura sensed his chakra shift from something perfectly still to its typical ebb and flow.
"Good morning, Sakura," he said, still facing the river. "I see none of your teammates are awake yet."
"I've always been an early riser," Sakura replied easily. It was a lie, of course, but she could not explain to Itachi that she was physically incapable of waking up past dawn thanks to years of fighting in a war.
Itachi nodded in acknowledgement, slowly rising to his feet. He ambled towards the center of their campsite and reached for his water bottle, taking a quick swig.
"I hear you have an aptitude for genjutsu?" Itachi's gaze was perfectly neutral. He seemed to simply observe Sakura without passing any form of judgement. His eyes were on her, yes, but everything about his thoughts remained inscrutable.
"Yeah, that's what I've been told," Sakura said, smiling. "I didn't start working on genjutsu until recently, but I would say it's come fairly easily to me."
"Good. I will help you improve, then." Itachi glanced to his left, spotting movement from the circle of sleeping bags. Sasuke had just woken up. "Long range, precise attacks like genjutsu are incredibly useful for those of us who lack massive chakra reserves and they are still quite lethal in battle. My mother apparently took full advantage of genjutsu's deadlier side in the Third Shinobi War."
"Mom fought in the war?" Sasuke asked, joining the conversation now that he was fully awake. "All she ever told me was that she was a jonin at some point."
Itachi's lips curled into a small smile. "Yes, mother did fight up until she became pregnant with me. In fact, she was labelled the strongest Uchiha in the Konoha army during her service."
"Mom?!" Sasuke gawked at Itachi. He knew his mother had been a fairly good shinobi at least; she had been able to teach him shurikenjutsu, after all, but he knew nothing of her true prowess. He had grown up thinking that his father held all the Uchiha strength and that his mother was wonderful, kind, beautiful, and loving.
"I believe the elders requested that she keep her shinobi reputation on the downlow as soon as she became a mother, so I doubt you'd find much unless you did extensive research on the individual battles in the war."
"Damn, Mom was a lot different than I thought," Sasuke muttered, a dark shadow passing over his face for a moment.
Itachi knew when to stop. His and Sasuke's family was obviously an incredibly sensitive topic for the both of them and he did not want to push the topic so much that Sasuke had an outburst. Though he would never show it, speaking about his parents–especially his mother–hurt Itachi as well. It hurt him so deeply, he could not begin to articulate it. Though he had harbored secret resentment for his father from a young age, that infinitesimal amount of anger did nothing to ameliorate the crushing guilt he felt for plunging his tanto into his father's beating heart. His mother's death, on the other hand, had brought him to the brink of utter despair. She had been the one to teach him how to use genjutsu; she had been the one to assist in his sharingan training; she had shown him support where his father never would have dared. But Kushina's death drove her to hatred of Konoha and left Itachi with no choice; he had barely been able to look at his mother that night without vomiting.
"Thank you for offering to train me though, Itachi-san," Sakura said, interrupting Itachi's spiral. "It's a real privilege to learn from the best genjutsu user in the world."
Itachi nodded his head at that and turned back to the campsite, watching as Kakashi ambled over to join him.
"I'd wake Naruto up, but he looks so comfortable," Kakashi said, motioning to Naruto's sleeping bag. "We don't need to pack up and leave until later today, anyway."
Sasuke shook his head in mock-exasperation. "That idiot's gonna miss breakfast and then he's gonna complain about being hungry until lunch," he said.
Sakura nodded in agreement. "Well you can wake him up if you want to, but I'm not interrupting his beauty sleep."
A malicious grin came over Sasuke's features. "Hey Sakura, can you give me your water bottle?"
"Oh he's gonna kill you." Sakura handed Sasuke her water bottle without hesitation.
"I'd love to see him try."
"It'll be good training, at least," Kakashi sighed, reaching into his pack for breakfast rations. As much as he wanted a nice, hot breakfast, he knew that such luxuries were well beyond him. Life as a shinobi during peacetime had spoiled him.
A high-pitched shriek resonated through the clearing. Naruto threw his sleeping bag off of himself and leapt to his feet, immediately lunging at Sasuke. Sakura hurried over, her laughs loud enough to be considered a cackle.
"I'm gonna fucking–" Naruto was interrupted by a quick swipe to his head which he barely managed to dodge.
"Come on Naruto, you've gotta stay alert!" Sakura instructed, sweeping at his feet with her leg. "A shinobi is always aware of their surroundings!"
"Oh come on! Not you too, Sakura-chan!" Naruto leapt back and raised his hands, crossing his fingers in the hand-sign for the kage-bunshin jutsu. Countless clones appeared beside him in a puff of smoke, each of them lunging for either Sakura or Sasuke. Sakura ducked and weaved beneath Naruto's erratic attacks, dispatching as many clones as she could. Pivoting on her heel, she came face-to-face with Sasuke. With a smirk, she levelled a side kick at his abdomen. Sasuke stumbled out of the way just in time, eyes widening in surprise.
"Hey!" he exclaimed, ramming his elbow into one of Naruto's clones. "Whose side are you on?"
"Every shinobi for themself!" Sakura chuckled, reaching for Sasuke's wrist. She managed to grab the edge of his sleeve, but it was just enough. With a quick tug, she pulled him towards her and flipped him over her shoulder sending his body flying behind her.
Sasuke rotated enough in the air to fall vaguely on his feet, though he had to roll upon landing to ease the impact. As he rose to his feet, Sakura caught the signature red glare of his sharingan, though he was grinning all the same. Sakura met Sasuke's gaze for just a second too long; immediately, she felt her chakra flow stutter, as if a foreign force had grabbed hold of it. Her surroundings changed almost imperceptibly, and if she were any other shinobi, she likely would not have noticed. Breathing to center herself, she spiked her chakra flow, throwing off Sasuke's control with ease.
"Come on, you're going to have to try harder than that," she teased, spinning around to dispatch another one of Naruto's clones. "I'm no genjutsu amateur."
"It was worth a try," Sasuke grumbled. In the blink of an eye, he rushed towards Sakura, his movements blurring with speed. Sakura barely had time to deflect the blow to her abdomen, but she stepped to the left at the last second. Regaining her balance, she jumped backwards and readied hand-signs for one of the few earth-style jutsus she knew. With his sharingan active, though, Sasuke saw the move coming moments before Sakura even executed it. He vaulted himself forwards, leaping well out of the range of the rapidly sinking earth. Quicker than Sakura could even see, Sasuke was in front of her, engaging her in a fierce taijutsu battle. The two danced around each other, limbs flying with pinpoint precision as they managed to strike glancing blows on their opponent, but nothing solid. Several minutes passed with the two locked in a fierce spar; Naruto had stepped back to watch, jaw slack in amazement.
"Alright, that's enough, you two," Kakashi said, waving his hand to signal the end of the spar. "Can't have you tired out before we even officially start training."
Sasuke and Sakura leaped backwards, putting a few feet of space between them before they flashed a quick unison sign and relaxed their posture. Itachi came to join Kakashi from his spot at the center of the campsite, a look of contentment on his face.
"I'm impressed," he said and every word sounded perfectly sincere. "You all show immense amounts of promise."
Sakura heard Sasuke's breath catch.
"And you, Sasuke," Itachi continued. "You've shown quite a mastery of the sharingan. I could not be more proud of you."
Itachi was not quick to impress. He was not adverse to showing his pride, unlike his father had been, but he did not dole out compliments like some of the Academy teachers. Sasuke had received compliments from Itachi before, though they had often been small and far-between. His brother was not only impressed by him, but he was proud. It nearly brought Sasuke to tears.
"I believe I promised to train you, did I not?" Itachi ambled over to the three genin. "Do you have any suggestions for me, Kakashi-senpai?"
Kakashi waved his hand to dismiss Itachi's formality. "Please, just call me Kakashi," he said. "You're so big now, the 'senpai' sounds weird. As for advice: I'd say you take Sasuke and Sakura and I'll take Naruto. Naruto, I know that Jiraiya briefly introduced you to the rasengan, so I should probably finish teaching it to you since we don't have contact with him right now."
"Aw man, I kinda miss Ero-Sennin," Naruto whined. "Even though he was weird and a little mean."
"Once we deal with all this, I'll be sure to find him again," Kakashi assured. "He's obligated to train you at least a little and all that."
Naruto pouted, crossing his arms. "Yeah since he's my shitty godfather, he should do at least that."
"I'm sure he will. Now Naruto, come with me. I'm going to teach you a really powerful jutsu."
Naruto pumped his fist in the air and jogged after Kakashi. "Hell yeah! Suck it, Sasuke!"
Sasuke just shook his head and turned towards Itachi, a look of expectancy in his eyes. Itachi stood in a relaxed stance, his hands resting on his hips as he looked at Sasuke and Sakura with an inscrutable gaze.
"I have a good sense of both of your taijutsu abilities now," he said. "You are both in very good shape for shinobi of your age, so I think I will work with you both on ninjutsu, genjutsu, and in Sasuke's case, dojutsu. By working on your genjutsu, we can also train Sasuke's sharingan, thus feeding two birds with one bun."
"Isn't the saying "kill two birds with one stone"?" Sasuke asked, raising an eyebrow.
Itachi exhaled in a quiet chuckle. "Yes, but why would you ever want to kill a bird? They are such beautiful creatures."
Sasuke shrugged and awaited further instructions. He had forgotten a lot of Itachi's idiosyncrasies, but he found them particularly endearing now.
"Right, so I suggest that you two engage in a genjutsu versus sharingan spar. Sakura, you will have to get creative with your genjutsu if you want to get past Sasuke's sharingan, and Sasuke, you will work on both your attentiveness with the sharingan as well as your stamina. Do you two have any questions?"
Sasuke and Sakura shook their heads, stepping back to begin their spar. As soon as they flashed a unison sign, Sasuke's eyes glinted red, three tomoe spinning in dizzying circles. Sakura was careful not to meet his eyes, her gaze fixed firmly on his feet and the muscles in his legs. She danced around him for a moment before turning her back for a second so that Sasuke could not see her run through hand-signs. Despite the near-prescience of the sharingan, it did no good if you could not see what your opponent was doing. Hand-signs completed, she pivoted on her heel to face Sasuke. With a spike of chakra, she completed her jutsu, disappearing into the earth below her. Sasuke dropped into a defensive stance, turning his head as his sharingan did its best to detect Sakura's presence. He knew that the sharingan could see through some obstructions, but a thick layer of earth was too much for Sasuke's yet to be fully mastered eyes.
Several seconds of tense silence passed as Sasuke continued to scan his surroundings, sharingan straining in an attempt to identify Sakura's chakra. The meadow seemed perfectly still, the only signatures coming from Itachi and Naruto and Kakashi who were standing far away. Suddenly, he sensed a presence right beneath his left ankle. He knew that Sakura was merely centimeters away from him, but he managed to stumble backwards just quick enough that Sakura could not grab his ankle. Fully emerged from the earth, Sakura pulled her fist back and levelled a punch right at Sasuke's face. Sasuke stifled a gasp of surprise and ducked underneath her fist, hearing as the speed displaced the air above his head. If it had hit, he knew his entire face would have collapsed in the impact.
"I thought nii-san said that this was a genjutsu and dojutsu battle," Sasuke said, ducking into a roll to put space between him and Sakura.
"He did," Sakura agreed, meeting his gaze for less than a second.
Sasuke furrowed his brow in confusion before paying attention to his chakra flow. It had been disrupted, but so slightly that he would not have noticed it unless he specifically checked. Sakura was subtle. He could not even tell what Sakura had changed about his surroundings. With a flare of chakra, he tried to disrupt Sakura's genjutsu, but she held on strong.
The two engaged in a battle of wills, with Sasuke desperately trying to free his mind from Sakura's control while she tried to maintain her hold on his consciousness.
"That's enough," Itachi said, stepping between Sasuke and Sakura. "I have a good sense of what to work on, now."
Sakura nodded and released her genjutsu. Sasuke's vision swam for a second as he came back to reality. With Sakura's genjutsu dispelled, he found that she had completely mirrored the meadow, though she had obviously done it so gradually that he hadn't noticed the changes.
"I would argue that you starting your genjutsu before the match had officially started was cheating, Sakura, but I will give you credit for your ingenuity," Itachi commended. "That being said, if you can find a way to truly get genjutsu through a sharingan, you will become one of the best non-Uchiha genjutsu users there are."
Sakura knew that "non-Uchiha genjutsu users" meant everyone but Itachi and Sasuke, so earning that title meant she would be quite formidable. Itachi nodded to himself before raising his hands in the sign for the kage bunshin jutsu.
"One of my clones will continue to work on genjutsu with Sakura," he said, a picture-perfect replica of himself stepping towards Sakura. "And I will go train Sasuke's sharingan near the river. Any questions?"
Both Sasuke and Sakura shook their heads again. Itachi seemed to ask for questions a lot during training, as if he had often been in a situation where someone did not understand his instructions.
"Good." The real Itachi walked off with Sasuke, leaving Sakura with the clone. "Would you mind if I show you an example of a genjutsu?"
Sakura's breath caught for a moment. She was torn between wide-eyed excitement towards witnessing the work of the foremost genjutsu user on the continent and underlying fear of Itachi's sheer power. She knew that he wouldn't hurt her–or at least she desperately hoped so. Itachi had proven himself to be incredibly kind and peace-oriented since she met him, but the knowledge that he had killed his entire clan did not leave her easily. Regardless, she knew that he was only trying to help her improve her genjutsu abilities.
"Of course," she replied with far more confidence than she felt.
Before she could continue, she noticed a slight tug at her chakra system–something so subtle that she was only able to identify it due to her mastery of her own chakra. Itachi had already placed the genjutsu. She raised her hand in a ram seal and flared her chakra, but found that the genjutsu held strong. If she did not already know that she was in an illusion, she might have assumed that Itachi had not cast anything on her since she was unable to break through anything. Crouching down into a defensive stance, she scanned her surroundings, attempting to pick up on a difference. Once she identified something, the illusion would be that much easier to break out of.
But everything was right. The smooth wood of her kitchen table cooled her fingertips as she waited for her mother to enter the dining room with a pitcher of iced tea. A gentle summer breeze wafted in through the window bringing–nothing. Absolutely nothing. Sakura clung to that discrepancy; she knew the smell of summer and she knew that despite the perfection of every other aspect, she could break out of the genjutsu with that.
As she gathered her thoughts and focused on the hole in the illusion, everything began to feel wrong. What was she doing in her dining room? Had she not been in the middle of a clearing deep in the Fire Country forests merely seconds ago? Nothing about the illusion was right yet it had felt perfect. Her mind continued to peel back the layers of illusion as she slowly wrenched her chakra system back into her control. With one final spike of chakra, the last layer fell away and Sakura was left to stumble backwards into the bags near the center of the campsite.
Her footing failed her and the ground grew closer, her hands flailing for purchase among the soft canvas of her teammates' bags. She hit the ground with an unceremonious thud, something hard lodged behind her back. As she pushed herself into a crouch, she reached for the item beneath her, brandishing a small pill-bottle. She knew those pills. They were incredibly powerful cough suppressants and were only prescribed to those with acute respiratory illnesses. Before she could read the prescription or dosage, Itachi was in front of her and the bottle was suddenly out of her hands. He pressed a finger to his lips in order to silence her.
"We can discuss that at a later date," he stated, leaving no room for argument. "We will continue our training now."
Sakura's eyes widened in surprise. She had no desire to challenge Itachi, though she was quite worried for his health. What he had was no simple cold; no doctor prescribed something as powerful as that to someone with a cold. From what she could glean from the size of the pills in the bottle, Itachi had been prescribed a high dosage. A cold weight settled in Sakura's stomach. Itachi could be dying. She would confront him later, she told herself.
Instead of bringing up the issue of the pill-bottle, Sakura merely nodded and rose to her feet, shaking off the disorientation of the genjutsu.
"Tell me what you learned from my genjutsu," Itachi instructed as if there had been no interruption at all. "How was it different from the ones that you have learned to perform?"
Sakura turned her thoughts back to the genjutsu. It had truly been incredible. Itachi wove a nearly impenetrable web of deception and she knew he had barely put any effort into it. For him, that had been a low-level genjutsu he threw around as a teaching opportunity. She paled upon thinking about what his higher-level illusions looked like.
"You didn't just alter the image of my surroundings," she said, remembering the feeling of complete normalcy she had while in the illusion. "You altered my entire perception of where I should be and what I should want to see. I fully believed that I was in my dining room at home and that it was where I was supposed to be. The only failing in the illusion was the fact that the summer air had no scent."
Itachi nodded. "Good. Genjutsu clouds the senses. Often, we use it just to alter the target's vision by showing them a scene that does not match their reality. Simple genjutsus like that are faulty as any other sense will conflict with the visual input and the target can easily break through. A good genjutsu targets as many senses as possible in order to create an environment and a feeling. The feeling can convince the target of normalcy or of comfort which deters them from breaking free of the illusion. As for the senses, it is easy to manipulate sight and sound. Touch is harder, but doable if you are adept at genjutsu. Taste and smell are incredibly difficult. Often, genjutsu specialists who can replicate tastes and smells are relegated to only those senses in genjutsu as managing the other three is far too difficult. I did not bother to include smell in my genjutsu and that is how you broke free–that was quite ingenious, by the way. If need be, though, I am more than capable of manipulating all five senses."
The last sentence sounded like a boast, but Sakura knew that it was merely a simple truth from Itachi. No one else on the continent could cast genjutsu with the ease that Itachi did. He was notorious for altering his enemy's perceptions entirely, trapping them in an illusory world that they could not help but break free of. On occasion, the sheer fear of his illusions stopped hearts. His power was a deadly one.
"I think I understand," Sakura replied. "How should I go about targeting multiple senses at once? I have successfully convinced people that they are drowning, but I was really only manipulating sight and touch. If I could get them to smell the salty air and taste the sea water, I could possibly drown someone on land."
Itachi raised an eyebrow. "You want to know how to kill someone with an illusion alone?"
Phrased that way, her question sounded heartless and cruel, but she was a shinobi, was she not? Murder was the job description and it did her no good to beat around the bush. She already paid back the blood she spilled by being a healer. It was more than Itachi could say, after all.
"I do," Sakura concurred. "I am a medic, so I know the human body inside and out. I know exactly what to target to kill someone. If I could fully trick someone's mind into thinking that their heart stopped, would that kill them?"
Itachi thought for a moment. "As much as it hurts me to teach a technique like this, I understand your point. I'm sure you know better than I, but humans have no conscious control over the beating of their heart. That being said, genjutsu can influence the subconscious though not easily. I encourage you to reflect on whether you want that power or not, then we can talk about the plausibility of the technique."
Itachi's words weighed heavily on Sakura. If her question abhorred even Itachi Uchiha–clan killer Itachi–what was she getting herself into? Yes, the idea of killing someone with just a thought was terrible, but was it truly worse than the destructive capabilities of Naruto and Sasuke from her timeline? Sasuke's mangekyou had nearly the same abilities, after all.
"I will think about it." Sakura dipped her head in acknowledgement. "But I do have another question. You know very little about me. How did you create an illusion that was so specific to my memories?"
Itachi's lips curled upwards at that. "Those were not your memories," he said. "If you think back on it now, you will find that you were not sitting at your own dining room table, but mine from my childhood. A good genjutsu can convince you completely that something entirely wrong is right."
Sakura imagined the table again. She could remember the cool wood, but it had been far lower than her own, hadn't it. Her parents had not opted for a traditional dining room while designing their home; her mother wanted a taller table with raised chairs because she had seen the design once on a merchant trip to another continent. Yet the room she remembered from the illusion had been perfectly traditional with a low table and four cushions surrounding it. She could even remember the rub of a tatami mat below her foot. That had not been her dining room in the slightest, yet in the moment she could have sworn that it was.
"That is terrifying," Sakura admitted, shaking her head. "I have so much to learn."
Itachi nodded. "You have all the potential you need. Not to mention, you have far more knowledge than I would expect from someone your age."
Sakura nearly tensed at that. She could not tell if Itachi's tone was one of suspicion or of mere speculation; she did know, though, that he was a genius, and that she could not risk carelessness in her façade as a thirteen year old around him. She had already presented herself as serious and intelligent, but she knew that she could not show off any more skill than she already had.
"Thank you," she replied, offering Itachi a gentle smile.
Before Itachi could continue in his lesson, Sakura heard Sasuke's voice carry over the meadow. He sounded utterly terrified, his voice cracking as exclaimed.
"Get away from me!" Sakura heard Sasuke cry.
Itachi's shadow clone disappeared in a dull poof, leaving Sakura alone in the center of the clearing. She hesitated for a moment before racing towards the site of the sound, already suspecting what had happened. As she expected, Sasuke stood in a crouch a few feet away from Itachi, his sharingan burning red, tomoe spinning. Itachi faced him, brow creased in concern, though he made no move to approach.
"Sasuke, please," Itachi murmured, still rooted to the spot. "I am not going to hurt you."
Sasuke's chakra spiked dangerously, the tomoe of his sharingan spinning even faster. Sakura did not dare make eye-contact. Several moments of tense silence passed before the tomoe in Sasuke's eyes slowed to a languid crawl and eventually faded back into black. He fell heavily back into a sitting position, his head resting on his knees. After he struggled to control his erratic breathing, he lifted his head and pushed the heels of his palms into his eyes.
A quiet sigh escaped him. "Fuck."
Itachi looked once more at Sasuke before heaving in an unsteady breath and walking away. Sakura could swear that she saw his shoulders shaking slightly.
"I think I know what happened; you don't have to tell me if you don't want to," Sakura said, easing herself down beside Sasuke. "I'm sorry we made you do this all so soon."
"It was just as soon as he activated his sharingan," Sasuke muttered, curling tighter into himself. "It's like I could feel the killing intent again."
Sakura could hear anguish raw in Sasuke's voice. Seven years may have been more than half of his life, but it did little to erase the sheer trauma of Itachi's actions. Despite a few days of reconciliation, Sasuke could not unlearn years of fear towards his brother, no matter how much he wanted to.
"I don't want to be scared of him," Sasuke continued, his voice barely louder than a whisper. "And he looked like he felt so bad too. I just–" Sasuke let out a shaky breath. "I don't know what to do."
Sakura nodded, taking everything in. As much as she appreciated Sasuke's willingness to confide in her, she had to admit that she was a bit out of her depth here.
"You can take your time, you know that?" she said. "No one expects you to get used to all of this immediately. Naruto and I will do whatever we can to help you, okay? Just say that word."
Sasuke nodded, exhaling again and rising to his feet. "I'm going to train on my own a bit," he said, wandering over to the bank of the river.
Sakura let him go, watching as he began to run through katas, his eyes closed in concentration.
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Sakura did not see Itachi for the rest of the afternoon. Without him there, she decided to practice chakra control exercises; they were mind-numbing in their simplicity and perfect for reflecting. Just as the sun began to inch below the horizon, Itachi reappeared, meeting Sasuke, Sakura, Kakashi, and Naruto in the center of the clearing. He looked perfectly impassive, his expression a paragon of neutrality.
"I was going to have us find a new campsite today," Kakashi said, rolling his shoulders in slow circles, "but we should be fine for another night and I'm too tired. Who wants to get firewood?"
"I can go," Itachi offered, noticing how Naruto's eyes drooped with exhaustion.
"I'll come as well," Sakura said, already moving to follow. She had important questions to ask Itachi, after all.
"Alright, have fun then," Kakashi said, shooing the two off towards the forest.
As soon as Itachi and Sakura were out of earshot of the rest of their companions, Itachi sighed.
"I know why you came," he said, an uncharacteristic weariness to his tone. "Before we speak, you need to swear that you will tell no one about this. I can not risk Sasuke finding out."
Sakura had heard similar requests from many ill shinobi in her time. No shinobi wanted to admit to sickness. As long as she could heal Itachi, she would not breach confidentiality.
"I promise," she replied earnestly. "Now, what exactly is wrong?"
A/N: wow so this took a while longer to write....senior year is ALREADY kicking my ass and I'm two weeks in, oh boy. Anyway, this chapter was a bit of a struggle to write, since I wasn't sure exactly how much I wanted to set up here, but it ended up being a little more filler than plot (the beginning of the chapter excluded, of course lmao)
A lot of this chapter was written right after I took my SAT (I have been trying to take that test for 7 months but it kept getting cancelled ;–;) so if anything sounds particularly braindead, that's why. Anyway, I really love Itachi if you haven't noticed and I also REALLY love Mikoto so it's a real shame that she's dead in this timeline :( that being said, I'm just going to keep mentioning her because I can lmaoo ALSO hashimada is canon in the Zaman universe for the reason of I want it to be :)
Anyway, I've been thinking and End of Love by Flo and the machine is totally and Itachi/shisui song because I said so. I've just been thinking about itachi/shisui a lot in general I love those dudes.
Alrighty, please read, comment, vote, and all that jazz!!! I really love reading through all of y'all's comments!