Her legs were still shaking at his mere presence. Immediately, she shifted herself around so that she was now fully facing him at the front. She took long, staggered breaths, trying hard to keep her composure. She had to remember that this man was ruthless and is capable of anything.
"Itachi." She said his name out loud in a defiant tone, the syllables sounding weird on her tongue now that she was actually matching it to a face. Suddenly, she took a moment and paused. Wait. How does he know my name already?
"How do I know your name?" The elder Uchiha says, startling her by practically reading her mind. He slowly inched his way towards her until he was only a meter away before he slightly leaned into her, causing her to push herself behind. "I always know the name of the person I'm going to kill next."
Sarada let out a brief gasp and took a large step back, allowing her legs to give in as they crashed to the ground. She used her arms to hold her body up as her eyes stared at Itachi as if she were a deer in headlights.
"Kidding." The elder Uchiha suddenly said, his expression still nonchalant. He continued to stare at her, and saw that she had a rather confused look on her face. "I kid. Sometimes, when I'm not running around on a massacre, I attempt humor."
"Is this some kind of joke to you?" Sarada spat out of her gritted teeth. She narrowed her eyes further, studying his face more closely. God, he looked too much like her father.
Come to think of it, the more he spoke, the more he sounded familiar. Has she met him before?
No, it's..
"It's you." She whispered, coming to a realization as she slowly helped herself up from the ground while Itachi's eyes followed her movements meticulously. ".. You're the creep inside that white space. How? What-" Sarada stopped, interrupted by a wave of questions. "You already know me. Are you from the future? You're still alive?"
She earned no response to satisfy her curiosity. A bit frustrated, she continued to press. "You are my uncle, aren't you?"
"We can talk somewhere else, Sarada." Itachi finally said, raising an arm once more and causing the Uchiha heiress to instinctively shut her eyes as he shifted into a different Genjutsu.
--
The Uchiha heiress darted her eyes open, noticing that the two of them were now at a completely different place. Contrary to the previous Genjutsu, this one was much more bright and life-like. They were in a tall, forest area with a large riverbank flowing in front of them. The water was sparkling from the sun's rays hitting the surface, and the fish were swimming rapidly as they moved along with the crashing waters against the rocks.
Sarada paid little attention to the scenery, despite the fact that it was rather beautiful. Her gaze immediately shifted towards her uncle, who was already making himself comfortable by sitting on a large log in front of the river.
"How do you know me already?" She asked again. "Why are you in the white space?"
Before she gave him a chance to reply, she started to observe his features once more. He looked tired, and worn out. Instinctively, she noted the dark circles under his eyes.
".. You look old." She said with no hesitancy.
The elder Uchiha remained nonchalant, but slightly offended. "Sasuke was right. I don't know where your tongue comes from if not from your mother."
"You met with dad?" Sarada pressed, raising her voice at the question. "Did he come find me? Is he here?"
"Stop asking so many things at the same time." Itachi chastised. His eyes wandered and noticed that Sarada was still maintaining a defensive composure. "You can relax. I'm not going to try and hurt my only niece."
"You only have one mom and one dad." Sarada retorted harshly. "And aunt, uncle, cousin... So can you say that about the rest of your family?"
Itachi narrowed his eyes. Right off the bat. It looked like they weren't going to start off soft. "Okay. You've made it clear that you're here for a reason." The elder Uchiha moved one of his hands beside him and placed it on top of the log in a subtle motion. "Sit down. You don't have to put up a fight, because I'm going to answer all of your questions."
Sarada stared at her uncle in both suspicion and relief. She shifted her eyes from his hand on the log and his face, back and forth. Despite the fact that he could still be dangerous, there were just too many things that didn't add up.
"Okay." She sighed and took a deep breath, finally complying to take the seat. She made her way over to the spot and sat herself down, but leaving a considerable gap in between her and her uncle.
She stared at her feet, which were hanging loosely from touching the ground. Without making eye contact, she started talking. "Then, tell me first what happened to our clan."'
--
The atmosphere was thick as Sarada waited for an answer. The river continued to make loud, rushing noises, and the Uchiha heiress' attention was shifted back to her Uncle as soon as he began to speak.
"I assume you know about the tailed-beasts." He said. Sarada nodded, beginning to listen intently.
"A long time ago, there was an attack on Konoha by the nine-tailed fox." Itachi began. "There was a lot of damage, a lot of lives lost. And in the end, the leadership of Konoha believed that the Uchiha were behind the attack because of the Sharingan's ability to apparently control the beast. Ever since then, we were segregated into a corner of the village and were closely under surveillance by Konoha's people."
"That's crazy." Sarada interrupted under her breath, and finally, she darted her head to face her Uncle. "They had no proof!"
Itachi closed his eyes, and she took it as a message to keep listening.
"Your grandpa is Fugaku Uchiha. Your grandma is Mikoto." He noted how Sarada was mouthing the names to herself. "Fugaku was the leader of our clan. And of course, the treatment of the Uchiha's caused an outrage."
This time, the elder Uchiha turned to look at his niece. Sarada searched his eyes, trying to anticipate what he was going to say, but she couldn't read him at all.
".. That was when he, along with other members of our clan, planned a coup d'etat to overthrow Konoha."
Immediately, Sarada's eyes widened. A Coup run by the Uchiha?
She had no idea everything was a lot more political than she'd thought, or that her family had such a tense affiliation with the officials. It was no wonder she was so famous back in her Konoha.. All those whispers and compliments, they were for a reason.
"Then?" she whispered, urging him to continue.
"Fugaku ordered me to enter the ANBU to act as a spy.. But what he didn't know was that I was also leaking the Uchiha's plans to Konoha." Itachi said. "A compromise-"
"So you didn't agree with it then?" Sarada interrupted again, this time more abrupt. Her eyes were serious in anticipation, her two black orbs digging deep into his own. "The coup.. You didn't want to do it?"
She sounded as if she had expected a right answer from him. Her eyes held onto him, and he could tell that she was hoping it wouldn't be otherwise.
Itachi let a few moments pass before he finally answered. "I didn't believe in it."
Immediately, Sarada let out a large sigh, almost as if she had been holding her breath. For some reason, she felt relief.
"The Curse of Hatred meant nothing to me. I lived by the Will of Power; a coup would only lead to a full-scale war resulting in too many sacrifices."
"Curse of hatred?"
"The Curse of Hatred," Itachi started again, "is what's responsible exclusively for the Uchiha's savage ways. When we experience something immensely painful, ourlove immediately turns into a strong hatred that could spiral into ultimate darkness, thus creating the most advanced form of Sharingan."
Sarada's thoughts ran back to when her father had almost killed her in that past time-point. It was still hard to believe that the dad who would hold her to sleep on nights where she was too awake and is always on journeys doing good deeds for Konoha could turn into someone so unfamiliar. It wasn't long before she was able to put two and two together. This was definitely because of the Uchiha's curse.
"The curse was originally shown by our ancestor, Indra, and was considered counterpart to the Will of Fire. Eventually, it went down generation by generation, continued by its descendants." Itachi explained. "The Uchiha clan was always at heads with the Senju clan over these two ideals. It's what ultimately lead to the wall between our clan and Konoha."
But, she had activated her Sharingan too, didn't she? If that was true, why hadn't she experienced it through that same hatred?
Sarada began again. "So if you followed the Will of Fire, then why did the massacre happen?"
"When I entered the ANBU as a spy, they didn't know that I had been leaking the Uchiha's plans to Konoha's side at the same time. I was essentially a double agent."
Itachi continued. "An elder of Konoha, Danzo, suggested to eliminate the entire Uchiha clan. He gave me an ultimatum. I could either let the coup happen, risking Sasuke's life.."
He took a long pause before finishing his sentence. But he didn't have to.
".. Or kill them yourself.. And spare dad. " Sarada's mouth hung wide open, but she was quick to finish his sentence. Her brain was working fast. "You did this for dad."
The elder Uchiha gave a small nod.
"That night, I ran into who I thought was Madara, a legendary leader of the Uchiha who was betrayed by the clan, rival of the head of the Senju. He had plans for Konoha on his own, but eventually we went on to kill every single one of our people."
Sarada bit her lip at her uncle's words. She couldn't even imagine the depths to which he went through. As a double agent, shouldering all the burden onto himself, having to kill his family..
"It must've been hard." She said, almost in a small whisper. "Seeing everybody go, at your own hands."
Itachi closed his eyes, as if he was replaying the moments of bloodshed in his head.
"Sasuke's bore an immense hatred ever since then.. And he planned to release it all on me."
Sarada thought back to what her mother had told her before they left for the Akatsuki hideout. It's no wonder he had left the village, with the goal of killing his brother.
"That's why he went rogue." She confirmed aloud. ".. But how did you ever live after something like this?"
"I encouraged Sasuke to get stronger, to come after me for revenge." Itachi said. "I really hoped for an answer other than what I had to do. But in the end, if anyone was going to kill me.. It had to be him."
"What happened after the massacre, then? Did people find out about it?"
"No," He continued, "I went to see the Third Hokage. He eventually covered up the story so that the Uchiha's coup was completely sheltered from the villagers. To this day.." He paused. "It's not something that's publicized, at all."
Sarada felt her heart drop. It made sense, but it was so wrong at the same time. Immediately, she started to feel upset for him "And you?"
".. I acted alone. That's what they said."
That's terrible. The Uchiha heiress thought, continuing to feel waves of pain for both her family and her Uncle. There was simply no justice served for him.. He was a pawn on both sides, but he was a lot more noble than she'd thought.
"After that, I joined the Akatsuki. Little does the group know that I'm monitoring their actions from the inside, as well."
"So does dad know the truth now? About everything?"
Itachi managed a tiny grin at the mention of his brother. "Yeah, he does."
It was undeniably hard to digest. The fact that she had an entire clan that she had never met, and now, there were only so few of them alive. She thought about the fact that Itachi must have really loved her dad. Despite everything that was going on, he made him one of his top priorities.
"Just remember this, Sarada." Itachi started again, taking note of her pondering face.
"In the end, no clan treasured love more than the Uchiha. Even if they didn't do it the right way."
At this, Sarada managed to pull up a smile.
"You didn't kill our family." She said in a low voice, earning Itachi's attention. "Ideology did. If anything, you're admirable, Uncle Itachi."
Itachi took a moment to absorb her words, but soon, a larger grin showed itself at the corner of his lips.
In a sudden motion, Sarada plopped herself off from the log and peered out onto the riverside. Itachi's eyes followed her in question.
"Don't worry, Uncle Itachi, because I have plans for myself." The Uchiha heiress said, shifting herself around and walked over so that she was now directly facing her Uncle. "I'm going to become the 8th Hokage. And when I do, I'm going to run Konoha exactly the way you would've liked it to be."
She waited for some kind of reaction from him, but received nothing in return. Little did she know, Itachi was shocked. At this very moment, she was like a light shining through the darkness, breaking all the hatred that ever boiled in the Uchiha. For a split second, he swears he could have seen the Will of Fire burning inside her chest.
Nothing made him more proud than the fact that his brother had such a wonderful daughter.
Trapped in his thoughts, Itachi still couldn't resist his automatic grin. "It's not the one who becomes Hokage that gets acknowledged by all," He decided to give his niece a word of advice, the same thing he once told Naruto. "It's the one acknowledged by all who becomes Hokage."
Immediately, Sarada understood Naruto's words from earlier. "My kid is going to live in a world much better than mine, than this. And I'm going to make it for not just him, but all of Konoha's people."
Everything started to come together. The reason why her uncle murdered the entire clan under the grip of ideology, the reason why her dad always goes on missions.. He, too, is trying to make a better world for her.
Sarada broke her train of thought as she remembered something that was off.
"Wait, you said that the Uchiha are bounded by the Curse of Hatred," She started, earning the attention of her uncle. ".. Doesn't that mean I should've been the same? I've activated my Sharingan, as well."
"Did you?" Itachi inquired rhetorically, "And how did that happen?"
Sarada thought back to the time where she and her father first met eachother. "Well, it was the first time I've ever seen dad."
At this, Itachi closed his eyes in acknowledgment "You're definitely my brother's child."
The Uchiha heiress raised an eyebrow. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Sarada. You activated your Sharingan through love."
The girl with the red glasses immediately flushed red. It was true, she was really happy to see him at that time, despite the fact that he mistook her as an enemy and was definitely ready to kill her.
"Did he leave for a long time?" She continued to ask, on the subject of her father. "Do you know when he came back to Konoha?"
Itachi paused for a long second before answering. He didn't know how to respond. ".. That's something you have to ask him when you get home. As well as his side of everything."
Sarada pouted. "I don't know if he'll tell me."
"I've heard my brother has become quite the man of few words." Itachi said. "He was very active and talked way more as a kid."
"I can't ever imagine that!" Sarada replied, giving a small chuckle to herself. "Dad? Playful and cheery? He's too serious all the time!"
"I'll tell you a secret, Sarada." He leaned over to his niece's ear and whispered something under his breath. After hearing it, Sarada widened her eyes in surprise and laughed. "I didn't know that! I'm going to try that next time-"
Immediately, her expression turned sullen. ".. Nevermind. I don't know if dad will even be home by the time I get back to the future Konoha."
"What do you mean?"
"He's never home." The elder Uchiha could tell that this was something she was deeply bothered about. "He does come home from time to time, but he always leaves for long periods to do important work."
"How inappropriate. Next time then, when he comes home, you should try what I've told you." Itachi chastised, earning a nod while she frowned.
"But knowing him, he's doing his own things to protect Konoha. I'm sure you know that."
Sarada managed to form her mouth into a smile. Two years ago, she would've still been complaining everyday about how her father never gave a damn about his family. But now, she knew. And it was true.
As time passed, the two of them continued to make themselves comfortable at the riverside of Itachi's Genjutsu, watching the sky that had quickly tinged-pink over the span of their talk.