Itachi’s body moved faster than his thoughts. Before he knew it, his little brother was in his field of view. At that moment, he understood for the first time that he was looking back. His desire to burn the image of his brother into his mind had moved his body.
But that was another thing he could not be permitted.
A mistake …
Because Itachi could feel the hot tears streaming down his cheeks. He quickly turned away from his brother, and resumed his jump. The aura of Sasuke collapsing behind him, he leaped into the moonlit night, not bothering to wipe away his tears.
The full moon, full of such beauty he wanted to rip it to pieces, was so hateful to Itachi he could hardly stand it.
Not even an hour had passed since Itachi’s departure, when the Anbu convened in the village to collect the bodies.
Danzo walked down a road covered in corpses. He had just left Hiruzen. Upon learning of Itachi’s evil act, the Hokage was furious, and he turned the brunt of that on Danzo. Before he made it out of the Hokage’s office, he had been dismissed as councilor, and made to promise to dissolve the Foundation.
But now that the tragedy of the annihilation of the Uchiha clan had been achieved, there was no reason for him to cling to the role of councilor. And even if the Foundation were officially dismantled, it was still more than possible for them to go underground and maneuver in secret, away from Hiruzen’s eyes. In the end, Danzo got what he wanted.
“Lord Danzo!” A man wearing a fox mask with red markings on it.
“What’s wrong, Gozu?” Danzo called his subordinate by name.
Gozu was silent.
The instant he saw the two openings in the mask hidden under a hood, Danzo gasped.
Red eyes with a pattern like three magatamas mixed together in the center …
“You!”
“I’ll always be watching,” Itachi—dressed as Gozu—said. “If you lay a hand on Sasuke, I’ll leak all the village’s secrets to enemy lands.”
“You should know what that will bring down upon the village, Itachi.”
“I’m outside the village now.”
“I thought you were a capable pawn … It does seem that I misjudged you.”
“If you lay a hand on Sasuke, I will destroy you. Carve that into your soul.” Itachi turned into countless crows, and vanished.
“Don’t take your eyes off of him,” Danzo muttered to no one; in his ears, he heard the sound of insect wings.
“Sneaking all the way in here without anyone noticing. You really are a capable ninja.” The third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, smiled as he sat up in his futon. “So, I suppose you determined that no one will be able to hear us in here?”
“Yes,” Itachi replied, kneeling in front of the futon.
“I’ve already marked your name down in the Bingo Book as an S-rank criminal. You shouldn’t be able to infiltrate the village, much less sneak all the way into my bedroom. Will you tell me what you wanted to talk with me about that you would go to such lengths?”
“It’s about Sasuke.”
“No need to worry. That child’s done nothing wrong. We will take care of him as one of the children of the village.”
The Hokage’s strong words eased Itachi’s heart. “Thank you. But … ”
“Is it Danzo?”
“Yes.” Itachi was grateful to the Hokage’s powers of insight, as sharp as the sharingan. On the other hand, he also hated them.
If Hiruzen was so gifted at reading the minds of others, then why couldn’t he have managed to find a way to cooperate with the Uchiha clan? Itachi did have the urge to press the older man about the issue, but he knew it would do no good thinking about that now.
It wouldn’t change the fact that Itachi was an S-rank criminal. The entire Uchiha clan, with the exception of the brothers, Itachi and Sasuke, was destroyed. That was reality.
“No need to worry about Danzo. He’s been formally dismissed as councilor, and I also ordered him to disband the Foundation.”
“Will he meekly follow orders?”
“He has already stepped down as councilor. The Foundation has been disbanded, on the surface. But I cannot deny the possibility that he is cultivating it in secret somewhere. I ordered the people who were watching the Uchiha clan to monitor him now.”
There was no longer any need to monitor the Uchiha clan. The third Hokage’s words dug into Itachi’s heart.
“Fear not, Itachi. I will not allow him to lay a finger on Sasuke.”
“I appreciate that.” Itachi bowed his head deeply. “Well, then … ” He stood up, and turned his back to the Hokage.
“What will you do now?”
“There’s an organization I’m interested in,” Itachi replied, eyes still on the door.
“So, you’ll join them?”
“Yes. I’ll watch them from the inside, and if it looks like they’re going to act out, I will do whatever I have to to stop them.”
“Even leaving the village, you are still more than anything a ninja who loves peace, hm?”
Itachi felt that he was still a ninja of Konoha, even then. The village of Konohagakure, where Sasuke lived, was Itachi’s home. Even if he wanted to abandon it, he could not.
“What’s the name of this organization?”
“Akatsuki … ”
“How about you show yourself?” Itachi muttered to no one in the middle of the deserted woods. His voice had not even faded away, when a small flame flickered to life in the empty space. It burned ferociously for a moment, before quickly growing smaller and disappearing. Only a faint scattering of ashes remained. Among the ashes dancing in midair was a piece of a transparent wing. “You’re here, aren’t you? Aburame man.”
“I called myself Sugaru before you, yes?”
A myriad of small winged insects came together in the forest, where there had previously been nothing, to create an enormous dark form in empty space. The buzzing of their wings layered together to form words that reached Itachi’s ears.
“You’re not interested in giving up on watching me, and going back to your master?”
“You also understand that such a thing would not be permitted, don’t you?”
“No, huh?”
The insects gradually took on a human shape. A man wearing a white tiger mask appeared out of the ether, and floated in midair accompanied by the sound of countless tiny wings.