Okay so there's a lot of flashbacks in this chapter mostly going more into detail about Izuka's childhood so you don't have to read it if you're not interested.
Over the next few days I've been training and visiting old friends trying to rebuild my old friendships. I walked away from the training grounds wandering aimlessly around the village. As I was walking my eyes landed on a certain spot; the dock on the lake. I walked over to it and sat down staring at my reflection in the water. I had some memorable memories down here.
*Flash back*
"Izuka!" I heard from behind me.
I turned my gaze away from the lake looking over my shoulder seeing five almost six year old Sasuke and eleven year old Itachi walking towards me. I broke out into a smile happy to see my favorite clan members.
"Sasuke!" I shouted standing up and pulling him into a bone crushing hug.
He's just too cute and it's impossible to resist that cute face of his. When I released him, we all sat down on the dock with our feet dangling over the edge enjoying the nice weather.
"How are your missions?" Itachi questioned casting her a side glance while keeping most of his attention on Sasuke.
"Tiring," I replied laying down on my back staring up at the partly cloudy sky.
"Well at least you have some free time!" Sasuke said with excitement.
"Thank Kami; being an shinobi is hard work." I sighed placing the back of my hand over my eyes once the sun started to show.
"You'll get use to it." Itachi reassured placing a hand on my shoulder. "The higher ranking you are the more tiring the missions."
"Nee-chan can you play with us?" Sasuke asked giving me the cutest look.
"Of course I will Sasuke!" I exclaimed sitting back up matching his energy.
"Well that's a good thing," Itachi said giving me a mischiefious look.
"Why?" I questioned scooting away from him.
"Hey Izuka, when was that last time you swam?" Itachi questioned changing the subject.
"Um a few months ago.....Why?"
"Oh no reason,"
Suddenly, I felt a force on my back pushing me into the water. I swam up to the surface looking at the two brothers laughing at me holding their stomachs.
"Itachi!" I shouted with anger but I couldn't stay mad at him for more than a minute. Him smiling was worth it. He rarely smiled and it was always a nice sight to see him happy for once.
"That was priceless! You should've seen your face!" Itachi laughed as he pointed at me trying to compose himself.
I smirked at him.
"Izuka.....what are you thinking?" Itachi questioned giving me a worried look.
"Oh nothing Itachi," I replied innocently.
I swam towards him pretending to get out of the water but grabbed Itachi's shirt pulling him into the water with me making a huge splash. Sasuke was dying of laughter when he saw Itachi's face. I started laughing along with him as Itachi sent me a playful glare. We all were laughing at each other. Itachi and I looked at each other then at Sasuke.
Sasuke's smile faded once he knew what we were about to do. I grabbed Sasuke's ankle and pulled him in with us. He screamed but when he surfaced he started to laugh again. After our laughing died down we got out and laid down on the dock staring up at the sky letting the sun dry us off.
"Mom's gonna kill us," Sasuke said.
"I'll take the blame, she loves me to death." I said.
"Oh yeah I forgot the whole reason on why we came here. Your family is coming over for dinner tonight." Itachi said.
"Sweet; I love family dinners."
*End*
"I really miss those days," I sighed. "Itachi.......why did you do it?"
As I looked up to the sky imagining Itachi's face when we were both still innocent children.
"Who knew such a sweet kid would end up a killer...I guess I'm no better though."
I laid down watching as the moon started to rise above the Hokage mountain. Staring up at the moon always reminded me of Itachi. He always had an infatuation with the moon while I did with stars. Sighing I looked down at my arm which showed my ANBU tattoo. My finger traced over the unique shape as I remembered when I got it.
*Flash Back*
Weeks after the massacre, I had been on bed rest in the hospital. I barely slept unable to get that horrid event out of my mind. Many had tried to visit but I turned them away unable to face anyone at this point. The person I trusted the most had betrayed his village, clan, and me. How could I trust anyone else after that? Once released from the hospital, I had returned to the Hokage still broken from the event.
"Izuka, you should be home resting." The Third scolded when he looked up from his paperwork.
"What home?" My voice was cold with a hint of malice but I only received a sympathetic look from the village leader.
"I have made arrangements for you and Sasuke. I managed to find housing for the both of you, I'm sure with you two being together, it will help."
"I can't Lord Hokage, I can't face Sasuke. I can't face anyone. I don't want a home, I just want to forget. Lord Third, I don't want to feel like this." I couldn't hold it in any longer, my tears spilled over onto my face. "I need to get my mind off of it, I can't stop thinking about everything. Itachi was my everything. My best friend, my fellow clan member, my boyfriend, and my rock. Please send me on a mission or something." I pleaded almost prepared to get on my knees and beg.
"I do have something I can give you but you'll be away for a while." He sighed obviously not wanting to give it to me. "Izuka Uchiha, I want to promote you to ANBU. You will take the ANBU test next week and your first mission will be to study under Danzo in the root and report any suspicious activity directly to me."
"Me, ANBU?" I was surprised and should've felt ecstatic but that was an emotion I couldn't feel right now. "Why am I spying on an elder?"
"Danzo does many things for the village but I believe he takes things too far. This mission is highly dangerous Izuka. I've heard he does extreme training for his ANBU and it can change you. I want you to be prepared for the worst."
"I accept this mission Lord Hokage." I agreed unaware that I had given Danzo my soul.
*END*
I could still remember the pain from the tattoo but nothing was compared to Danzo's harsh training. He seemed reluctant but also pleased to take me in as part of the foundation. Lord Third had been right about the training, I had been beaten and put to near death during my first year under that heartless man.
"Shouldn't you be training Sasuke?" I questioned as I turned my head to look at Kakashi who appeared behind me.
"He's resting for now. Also I wanted to see my best friend." Kakashi replied sitting next to me.
"How'd you know where to find me?"
"This is where you always go to think. I knew that you would have a lot on your mind so I checked here first."
"You know me so well," I chuckled.
"Of course I do Izuka; we've been friends for a long time."
"Ha, you didn't like me in the beginning, you thought I was a hindrance. How's training going?"
"Well you proved me wrong, and Sasuke is improving; maybe I can teach you Chidori also."
"You're teaching him Chidori? Hm that is tempting, maybe I'll sit in on a session."
"So......we're the only ones left..." Kakashi said breaking the peaceful silence.
"Yeah...I miss them too Kakashi....you're not the only one."
"I still blame myself." He mumbled.
"Don't Kakashi; no one could've known that....that he would die...or even with what happened to Rin. Their deaths are not because of you Kakashi."
"I can still remember the day like it just happened."
"Kakashi don't beat yourself up for that.......Obito would've wanted you to move on and not live in regret. If he would see you now he'd have that goofy grin on his face telling you that you're being stupid. You've changed since that day...and with Rin, it was the stupid enemy that killed her. You were only protecting the village and Rin understood that, she's the one who told you to do it."
"My team reminds me so much of how it use to be."
"Yeah...you can defiantly see the similarities......Sakura is Rin.......Naruto is Obito.....and Sasuke.....is you. I can also see the little love triangle going on; just like yours. Rin was head over heels for you but Obito loved her and you had no interest in either of them. This new generation is the same as the last. All of them....they all remind me of their parents. Whenever I look at them I wonder what it's like to be a carefree Genin."
"Yeah, it was much simpler as a Genin. I'd do it all again if I could."
"The same way though?" I questioned already knowing his answer.
"No, I'd make a lot of changes. If I can't change their deaths, there are still things I'd like to change."
"I'd change a lot too. Mostly with Naruto and Sasuke; I wasn't there for them."
"You had your reasons and they survived growing up on their own."
We fell back into a comfortable silence leaving me to my thoughts of my childhood. I haven't thought about Rin and Obito in so long which started to make me feel guilty.
*Flash Back*
"Hey Izuka!" Obito called as he ran towards me.
"Yeah?" I questioned spinning on my heal to face my fellow clan member.
"Let's pull a prank on Kakashi!" He suggested with a devilish smile making me return my own.
"Sounds fun," I chuckled.
Obito got some paint from a store and put it in a tree getting it ready to fall on Kakashi. My job in this 'mission' was to get Kakashi in this spot without Kakashi getting suspicious. I walked towards Kakashi's home to get him. Once I reached his home I knocked on the door a waiting for him to open the door.
Rocking back and forth on my heels I started to hum to myself. Finally, I heard footsteps approaching the door. I jumped up onto the roof ready to scare Kakashi once he opens the door. When he finally opened the door I swung down from my feet.
"BOO!" I shouted as I was face to face with him but he didn't even flinch making me frown. "Awe you're no fun." I pouted.
"Can I help you Izuka?" I could tell he wasn't in the mood but he was always like that; so serious.
"Yeah, I wanted to know if you wanted to train with me. It'll be fun." I said flashing him a smile.
"Sure; just let me get ready. I was just woke up from a nap." He yawned.
"Awe I'm so sorry Kakashi; I didn't mean to wake you. I'll come back another time."
"No it's fine."
"If you say so,"
"Come in; I'll be back in a few minutes."
I stepped into Kakashi's house and sat down on his couch looking around the room. I noticed some pictures on the shelves of him and his father. He looks exactly like him. I smiled at the picture then I heard Kakashi coming back so I stepped away from the pictures. When Kakashi came in I faced him with a grin.
"Ready to go?" I asked.
"Yeah," He replied.
We then started to walk towards the training grounds. Once we reached it I started to lead Kakashi towards the little trap. He stopped a little far from the spot so I needed to find a way to move him over a little bit.
"Hey Kakashi,"
"Yeah?"
I then walked up to him close to his face.
"Um.....uh....Izuka?" He stuttered with a faint blush wanting to take a step back but I grabbed his shoulder forcing him into the splash zone.
"Yeeeeaaaaah?"
I then took a giant step back just as Obito released the paint making it fall on Kakashi. Obito and I started to laugh at the paint covered Kakashi. I saw Kakashi getting red of anger....or maybe it's because of the red paint.
"You guys are so dead!" Kakashi growled.
"Yikes," Obito and I said as we ran away.
*End*
"I wish we could go back to those days," I sighed thinking out loud which caught Kakashi's attention.
"I bet everyone does Izuka."
"It was so much easier,"
"Yeah.......but now we have a lot of responsibilities and have to live up to them. I have Genin now to take care of and we all have the village to protect."
I looked up at the now dark sky watching the dark clouds going across the star lit sky. I looked back to Kakashi seeing him staring out into the distance deep in thought with sadness in his eyes.
"Hey Kakashi, they're in a better place now. I bet that if they were ghosts Obito would be making faces at you and Rin would be staring at you with a blush covering her face."
"Yeah," he laughed, "I have to go Izuka; I'll see you later."
"Bye Kakashi; see you soon."
I watched him walk away wishing I could say more to him. If only I could tell someone what I've been through all these years.
(Itachi's POV *insert fan girl squeal here*)
"Your new mission is to go to Konoha and capture the nine tailed Jinchuuriki." Pein ordered Kisame and I.
"Easy," Kisame said with a toothy smirk.
"You leave in a week,"
"Understood," I said.
"Also, there's another thing. Have you ever heard of the Angel of Darkness?"
"A Konoha ANBU; says to be beautiful but also deadly." I answered.
"Good, find her and find out her true identity. This is a picture of her; sadly no one has gotten a picture of her face so this will have to do."
I looked at the picture of the woman taking note of her dog ANBU mask. The woman was wearing traditional ANBU clothing and had dark black hair which was down to her thighs. The rumors were true...she was beautiful. We then walked out the office and headed back to our room.
"Well this mission will be interesting....eh Itachi?"
"Hn,
"That girl the Angel of Darkness is beautiful though; no wonder she has that name,"
"Now I have a reason to let the elders know that I'm still alive and to leave Sasuke alone," I thought imagining Sasuke's innocent face.
"Let's get going; it'll take a while to get there." I ordered.
Going back to the Leaf will be hard.....but it has to be done. Now that the Hokage is dead I have to protect Sasuke. It's been five years since I killed the clan along with Izuka; it hasn't been easy. I couldn't wait for Sasuke to kill me so that I will leave this world and join the love of my life, Izuka.
XD yayz for itachi POV! even it was short he was still in it ^^