The Foundation mansion, Danzo’s living room.
“I’ll do it.”
The only one who heard Itachi’s words was Danzo. He stood up from the chair behind his desk, and approached Itachi with heavy steps.
“I felt certain you would say that,” he said. The hand he put on Itachi’s shoulder was ridiculously cold. “Don’t worry about your brother. Even after you disappear, the village will take care of him.”
Itachi was going to slaughter his clan. Even if it were a mission, it was the sort that could never be made public. To the outside world, Itachi would be a criminal who had gone mad, and murdered his entire clan. Naturally, he would not be able to stay in the village. At that point, he had no choice but to believe even the words of a man like Danzo.
“The day will be the day before the planned date of the coup. How does that sound?”
Itachi had correctly understood his intentions. The mission this time was a surprise strike. A sneak attack, to wipe out a clan that suspected nothing. The night before the coup, the members of the clan would refrain from going out, in order to build up their courage and make their preparations. It was easy to see what they would do. Additionally, their thoughts would be full of the next day’s action, so it shouldn’t even occur to them that they would be ambushed.
“Understood.”
“I’ll tell Hiruzen you’re desperately trying to reconcile them with the village.”
Itachi had made his decision, and he had no intention of continuing this chat with Danzo. He had some ideas about his brother, too. Everything was after this mission was over.
He would take on the crime of murdering his clan for the sake of peace in the village. He despaired at himself for not being able to come up with any other way. This whole time, he had been thinking about how he would ever be able to apologize to Shisui, after his friend had entrusted him with the future.
A decision born of failure … That was the truth. Nothingness …
No matter how he dug around in his heart, no emotions appeared. Whatever he saw, whatever he heard, his heart was dead.
“What will I do about Uchiha Kagen?” The person from the clan who Gozu and Mezu played.
“Oh.” Danzo opened his mouth, looking as though he had just remembered them. “One of them will have to die. If you see Kagen, go ahead and kill him.”
“Are you sure?”
“The ninjas of the Foundation do not fear even death for the sake of their missions. Gozu and Mezu would both gladly die. Do not hesitate. If anyone other than you is missing from the Uchiha clan, your actions will have been for naught. At that time, I won’t be able to guarantee your brother’s life,” Danzo added threateningly. He apparently had serious doubts about Itachi’s determination. The almost pathetic suspicions of a man who did not know the word “trust.”
“Understood.”
“Good.”
Itachi turned his back to Danzo, and started walking. When he put his hand on the door, he heard a voice from behind.
“Best if we do not meet again before your mission is complete. This is the last time I will speak with you as a ninja of Konohagakure. You have worked hard for the village up to now. I thank you.”
Ignoring Danzo’s uncharacteristic words, Itachi slipped through the doorway, and closed the door behind him.
“I will be a Konohagakure ninja until I die,” he murmured to himself in the hallway, gloomy even at midday.
Hiding from the monitoring cameras of the Anbu, Itachi stared at the grounds of Nakano Shrine, visible below him from one of the trees in the grove. He chose one with a good shape, so as to hide himself among the dense foliage.
The coup d’état was drawing near. Three more days. There was something he absolutely had to take care of before then. Itachi had been watching over Nakano Shrine ever since he left Danzo, and he had the feeling he was about to see the fruits of that labor.
The door to the main building opened, and a man stepped out, and scanned the surrounding area. He had white hair.
“Yashiro.” Itachi murmured the name of the man walking furtively toward the gates.
Without waiting for him to disappear, Itachi came to stand in front of the closed door. He easily opened the lock, and stepped inside so quickly the cameras couldn’t see him.
Don’t go anywhere just yet, he prayed silently to the man who was his target.
He deftly pulled up the seventh tatami mat from the far right, revealing stairs that led to the basement. The secret meeting place. He ran down, and pulled open once more the door he had closed a few days earlier, the hateful voices of his brethren raining down on him.
“Hm?”
In the very back of the meeting hall, there was a stone monument with the history of the Uchiha clan carved into it. The man he was after was standing in front of it. A man in an orange mask.
“Uchiha Itachi.”
“It’s been a while.” It was their first meeting since the time Tenma was killed.
“Four years since then. You’ve grown quite a bit,” the man in the mask said, spreading his arms.
“Did you instigate them?”
“That’s no way to talk to someone. I simply taught them a little thing about the history of their clan.”
“What are you up to, Uchiha Madara?”
“Oh, ho!” The man in the mask put his hand to his chin. “You never know when someone’s going to come down here. And the compound is watched by those fellows in the village. How about we go somewhere else, and talk a little?”
“All right.”
Hearing this, the man’s body was sucked into the holes in his mask, and reappeared behind Itachi.
“Follow me.” The man climbed the stairs up to the main shrine, and went outside. Perhaps he knew the precise locations of the clearly hidden cameras; he headed straight out of the compound as if choosing a path in their blind spots, and then easily slipped past even the eyes watching the village, to step beyond it.
Once they had gone a little ways from Konohagakure, the road that led to Sunagakure came into view. There was a small shrine in one corner, and a vast forest spread out as if to guard it. Once he had cloaked himself in these woods, the man stopped running.
The moon hanging above the grove of cedar trees was slightly distorted, on the verge of being a perfect circle.
“How do you know who I am?” the man in the mask asked, putting his hands on his hips. Behind those words was the acknowledgement that he was indeed Madara.
“You … You made it past the Konoha guard, and were looking at the secret stone of Nakano Shrine. Only the Uchiha know its location.”
He had first noticed the man’s existence when he was on duty monitoring the clan for the Anbu. Since then, Itachi had seen that shimmering in space within the compound any number of times. It was of the exact same nature as what he saw when Tenma died. Which is how he knew that the man before him was interfering.
“I looked into you … I took the opportunity to investigate what kind of person you were, how you thought.”
As a result of which, Itachi had learned that the man before his eyes was Uchiha Madara. Seventy years ago, Madara had supposedly died after a fierce battle with the first Hokage, Senju Hashirama, but no one had actually confirmed that death. With the attack on the daimyo of the Land of Fire four years earlier, and his sniffing around the clan compound, Itachi had sensed Madara had an attachment to the village that was related to the Uchihas. And then, that evening, he had learned that Yashiro was meeting with him, and Itachi’s suspicion turned into certainty.
“Well then, this will go quickly,” the man in the mask started. “So, you know I am a member of the Uchiha clan, and I harbor hatred for both Konoha and Uchiha.”
Uchiha Madara had resolved to fight back against the Senju clan when they tried to discriminate against the Uchihas. However, the people of the clan had ostracized Madara, who sought battle, and betrayed him, although he had been their leader. Struck by despair, Madara had fought Hashiramu alone, and then allegedly died. He would no doubt have had held an extraordinary grudge against both Konoha and Uchiha. If he had indeed been pushing Yashiro and the radical faction toward a coup d’état, it would have been to get revenge on Konoha.
However, Itachi could not allow him to take this revenge on Konohagakure.
“I have conditions.” He cut through Madara’s arrogant attitude. “I help you get revenge on the Uchiha clan. And in exchange, you don’t lay a hand on the village. Or Uchiha Sasuke, too.” He would force the point of the spear turned toward the village back toward the clan.
Madara laughed slightly, unable to hide his surprise at Itachi’s forcefulness. “And what if I were to refuse?” he asked, his masked head cocked to one side.
His face devoid of all expression, Itachi offered the answer he had prepared. “If you refuse this request, then you and I are enemies.”
“Could you kill me?”
“It’s not a matter of whether or not I could. I will kill you.” He had already taken a step down a road that would not allow him to turn back. He did not hesitate.
Silence enveloped them. There was no bloodlust in either of their auras. They were exchanging dangerous words, but they both acknowledged each other as opponents.
“You seem to have the wrong idea. That brat is not a friend, or anything of the like,” Madara said, raising his palms to the heavens. “That brat” was Yashiro. “I tossed several stones. It just happens that one of them landed in a very good place. It wouldn’t be a bad thing to change my mind now. Actually …” The small openings of darkness in the mask caught hold of Itachi, and did not let go. “Choosing you seems more interesting than those small fry in the village.”
Small fry … Itachi agreed in his heart that perhaps they were small fry; in the next instant, Sasuke’s face popped into his mind, and he felt a sharp pain in his heart.
“I like this tale you tell. I’ll come along for the ride.”
Itachi shifted his eyes as if to ignore the hand that was extended.