About two months had passed since Itachi joined the Anbu, but his monotonous days continued unchanged. His main duties were guarding the Hokage’s office and practicing with his comrades; he still hadn’t been given any missions that would expose his life to danger.
“You couldn’t exactly say the village was at peace if we were out on assassinations and dangerous missions all the time. The fact that we’ve got nothing to do is proof of peace,” Kakashi had said, and laughed easily.
The village is at peace …
And yet, Itachi wondered. If the village was supposed to be at peace, then why was his heart in such turmoil? Why did he feel like things were so urgent?
Because of his clan. In the shadow of the tranquility of the village, the Uchiha brethren were seeking chaos. This was the main cause of the disquiet in Itachi’s heart.
Whatever happened, he had to at least prevent a coup. But he couldn’t come up with a concrete plan to do that. He had said he would move with Shisui, but the two of them could stand side by side with their arms spread out, and they still wouldn’t be able to completely hold back the clan’s eagerness for destruction. The fact that he couldn’t find a way to break this deadlock had Itachi panicked.
“Wah, ha, ha, ha!”
An earsplittingly loud voice pierced his ears on his way home from work. Unconsciously, his feet stopped, and he noted the little park ahead of him. It was already late in the day, evening. The sun had long ago slid off to the west, and a gloom was descending on the area.
A boy, likely the one who laughed, was standing on a swing, staring out at three human shadows running off. Probably his friends.
“I’m telling you, you guys don’t have a chance against the great Uzumaki Naruto here!” the boy on the swing shouted.
The shadows didn’t turn back toward him, but left the area, chatting to each other about something, seemingly friendly with each other. Staring after the three, the boy who had named himself as Naruto sat down sadly on the swing. His earlier words had clearly been a show of courage. Itachi had understood this, once the boy named himself.
There was no one in the village who did not know Uzumaki Naruto.
The boy before him had been involved in the Nine Tails incident that had terrified the people of the village. The child with the Nine Tails inside him. When he walked along the road, everyone lowered their voices. There was only one person who did not know that the Nine Tails lived within his body.
That was Naruto himself.
He was unaware of the calamity in the village; it was sealed up in his body, and he lived with people in fear of him. Naruto couldn’t understand why people persecuted him. And both of his parents were already gone from this world. He had no one to shower him with unconditional love.
Itachi turned his feet toward the park. He advanced quietly toward the swing with the boy, moving weakly back and forth. He sat down beside Naruto, whose face was turned to the ground.
“Whoa!” Noticing Itachi’s sudden appearance, Naruto nearly fell off his swing in surprise. He flapped his arms and legs more than absolutely necessary, and managed to stop the swing before turning suspicious eyes on Itachi. “Don’t go scarin’ me like that.”
“Sorry.”
“So, like, who are you?” Naruto stared at him with wide eyes.
Pumping the swing, Itachi turned his gaze forward. “It doesn’t matter who I am, does it?”
“My mom says I’m not s’posed to talk to strangers.”
“She’s gone, though?” Itachi said.
A bashful smile spread across Naruto’s face as he threw his right hand up to the back of his head. “So, you know that?”
“Uzumaki Naruto is a famed prankster.”
“Am I that famous?”
“In a certain sense.”
“Heh, heh, heh!” Naruto laughed happily, unable to understand Itachi’s sarcasm.
“Your friends ran off.”
“If they don’t get my pranks, then they’re not my pals.” Naruto’s voice was excessively bright, like he was trying desperately to act cheerful so that his loneliness wouldn’t be seen.
Everyone knew Naruto’s true self.
For the village, the Nine Tails incident had left a scar deeper than any other. Suspected of having controlled the Nine Tails, the Uchiha clan was also still trapped under that cloud. Itachi himself had been slandered more times than he could remember because of it. There was probably not a single person in the village willing to have any meaningful contact with the boy who housed the source of that trauma in his body.
In other words, Naruto was the greatest victim of the Nine Tails incident.
Itachi didn’t know how the Nine Tails came to be sealed in the boy’s body. But he thought that anyone who would seal the embodiment of disaster in a baby was not in their right mind. Perhaps they hadn’t considered how the child would be persecuted.
The details of the Nine Tails incident were a closely guarded secret in the village. The truth was hidden in darkness, and only Naruto was left. Naruto was one part of the darkness of the village. The village had been built sacrificing people like Naruto. The village officials had sealed the disaster in Naruto, and directed the dissatisfaction of the people somewhere else with their persecution of the Uchiha clan, in order to skillfully keep the village running.
Deliberately producing a darkness to hide their own darkness …
And now Itachi, too, was one part of the darkness in the village. Because the Anbu itself was the true darkness of the village.
“Bro!”
“Hm?”
Naruto widened his eyes next to him. “You just got real quiet all of a sudden. You all right?”
“I’m fine.”
“All right, good.” Naruto looked up at him, with worry in his eyes.
“It’s probably time for you to be getting home.”
“I can go home, but it’s not like there’s anyone there.” Naruto’s mouth twisting downward, he put on a show of being tough.
“Then I’ll go home.”
“What?!” Naruto cried in exaggerated surprise when Itachi stood up.
“Keep fighting,” Itachi said, words he thought offered no real peace of mind.
But Naruto seemed happy, and chuckled to himself as he rubbed his nose with a finger. And then he leapt forcefully off the swing, stood tall, and pointed his index finger at Itachi. “My name’s Uzumaki Naruto! I’m gonna be Hokage someday!”
“You are? Hokage, huh?” A flame blazed up in Itachi’s heart. Even as he carried the burden of the village’s darkness, this boy was not giving up on his own destiny. Not resenting the village, not hating the people, he believed in his own dream, honestly and wholeheartedly. “I hope you are.”
“I’m totally going to be Hokage. Remember me ’til then, Bro.”
Smiling in response, Itachi turned his back to Naruto, and started walking.
The heavens above glittered with stars.
Danzo called him in. He sat in his chair with a sour look on his face. Next to the master of the Foundation was Sugaru, supposedly a member of Team Ro. “How’s the Anbu?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“An honest answer. You’ll no doubt have any number of experiences from now on that you could only have in the Anbu. Until then, polish your skills,” Danzo said, almost as if he were Itachi’s boss.
But Itachi was in the Anbu, which was under the direct control of the Hokage, with no connection with the Foundation. In terms of work, Danzo and Itachi basically had nothing to do with one another.
“I called you here today for a reason.”
Itachi nodded silently.
“I’ve heard that the Uchiha clan compound has been particularly strict with outsiders lately.”
It was true that in the last few months, the compound had taken on an air of exclusivity. It seemed that his father giving voice to the word “coup” had given the compound itself a will.
“You are also going to the regular meetings?” Danzo asked, point-blank.
The Uchiha clan was monitored twenty-four hours a day by the Anbu. It was only natural that Danzo would be aware of the meetings.
“Yes,” Itachi answered honestly, preparing himself for the worst, knowing that there was no point in hiding anything.
Danzo nodded deeply, seemingly satisfied. “I’ll be frank. I want you to report the details of those meetings to me.” His voice slammed into Itachi, containing indescribable pressure. “If things continue as they are, the Uchiha clan will fall. Your power is needed to stop that from happening.”
“Are you telling me to betray my clan?”
“You’re not betraying them. You’re saving them.” Danzo rested his elbows on his desk and set his chin in intertwined hands. The hollow of his left eye, a deep, dark cavern, peered out at Itachi. “Betrayal is an act that brings about a disadvantage to the betrayed. The act of reporting the details of the meetings to me is to prevent the explosion of your clan, and as such, it is advantageous to them. Thus, it cannot be said to be betrayal.”
A neat bit of rhetoric.
Danzo likely intended to complicate his thinking and blind him, but Itachi was not fooled. No matter what the result was for his clan, telling Danzo what happened at the meetings was nothing other than betrayal.
Danzo had misread him. Itachi was not fixated on the word “betrayal.”
“I understand.”
“Given that you hate fighting more than anyone, I thought you might say that,” the master of the Foundation said, in a voice that did not reveal his emotions.
Itachi hated it, but it was just as Danzo said. He still hadn’t been able to come up with a concrete plan to stop the coup d’état. Danzo’s request, coming at such a time, had an irresistible appeal.
They had been able to gain the cooperation of the third Hokage, thanks to Shisui. And Itachi’s decision here might turn into an opportunity to use Danzo’s power. He would prevent his clan’s implosion by connecting it with the center of the village.
“I don’t want to do anything to rob your clan of dignity. I leave the selection of information you bring to me to you.”
“Thank you.”
“I’m counting on you, Itachi. The fate of your clan rests on your decisions.” Danzo’s voice weighed heavily on Itachi.
But Itachi’s resolve was not so weak that it could not withstand that weight. He took a deep breath, deep enough to reach the pit of his stomach, as if realizing the heavy responsibility he had been saddled with.
It smells like blood somehow …