Chapter 1 :
How it ends how it begins :
There was a burning pain in his chest. His eyes were on fire. The whole of him hurt, but his eyes and his chest were a special torment. He felt thick tears running down his face, and he knew they were blood. The world was dimmed, and he could barely see his brother's face.
Sasuke. Poor little Sasuke. The world would only ever use him, and Itachi had started that vicious cycle. How terrible was he, wretched, traitor brother of the poor little Sasuke.
Then he fell, words slipping past his lips and bloodied fingers sliding across Sasuke's face. The red smear was livid, like a fresh wound across the precious little brother's face. Itachi fell, hitting the ground with a spike of pain so bright he must still be alive. Then it faded. He was gone, slipping away from everything. His eyes weren't closed, but he couldn't see anything.
Uchiha Itachi died.
Itachi opened his eyes, eyes that burned, and looked across the room as a wall he knew so well it hurt. He was covered in a soft banket and lying on a soft bed.
He was back. He was home, and he could hear his father's voice down the hall. He gasped, and it hurt. Tears pricked his eyes, and it was agony.
Itachi screamed and pressed his hands to his burning, bleeding eyes.
-How The Child Breaks-
So lock all your doors,
And put your child to rest,
It's quite in the street now,
It's screaming in your head.-Hey Now-Augustana
Fugaku, Mikoto, Shisui, and Shogo all sat in the kitchen, drinking tea and eating some sponge cake Mikoto had baked. It looked like a companionable family gathering, and it was. Mikoto was fond of her old cousin Shogo, and Shisui was more like a son to Fugaku and Mikoto, given all the time he'd been over to play with or watch Itachi or Sasuke. The words they spoke back and forth, though, were not typical of a happy family gathering.
"This is taking too long," Shisui complained softly.
Fugaku took a long sip of tea and looked at his cousin. "No one ever said the change would be instantaneous. Give it some time."
"We may not have time. Aiko and Kenji had to use force to bring in one of the ninja yesterday. Aiko got her arm broken. We shouldn't have to do that. We're the police. They should listen to us. They should respect us, but they don't anymore. It's dangerous for us, and it's dangerous for them," Shisui almost growled. He gripped his tea cup and glared at it. "How are we supposed to do our job if every time we turn around we're being second guessed or undermined?"
"I know. I see the reports of officer injuries just like you do." Fugaku raised an eyebrow at Shisui, and it spoke volumes. He was the Chief of Police, after all, and the head of the Uchiha. "This isn't going to be easy."
"It feels impossible." Shisui's shoulders slumped. "What did we do wrong? Why do they corral us in here like rabid dogs, Fugaku-sama? The Uchiha have always served Konoha well, so why do they treat us like criminals now?"
Fugaku hummed softly, and turned his cup in his hands. "This may be partially my fault. The Uchiha have been losing favor for years, mostly because we had so much power and that made people suspicious and wary. After the fox attack, however..." The man gave an eloquent shrug filled with unsaid words. "Perhaps I should have been less complacent with the village elders. I expected this paranoia to go away in a few months or a year, not to grow as the years dragged on."
"No one can predict the twisted minds of the Konoha elders," Shogo nodded his wizened head. He looked across the table at Fugaku. "If the Yondaime were still alive..."
Fugaku gave a sad smile. "If he were still alive, many things would be better. I grieve for him more than anyone, Shogo-san. Minato was more than a Hokage to me, and if he were here, I'm certain he'd put things to right."
"It was probably due to him some of this happened," Mikoto put in. "If you hadn't been so close to him, people wouldn't have been so eager to put us down after his death. Your influence over him always made them nervous."
Fugaku shook his head. "I had no more influence over that man than anyone. I hardly thi-"
There was a high, terrified scream.
Shisui jumped to his feet, sloshing tea over his hands. Shogo looked up, alarmed. Fugaku didn't jump. He simply lowered his eyes and pressed his lips into a firm line. Mikoto glanced down the hall, eyes worried. She caught Shisui's pants leg.
"He has nightmares sometimes," Mikoto explained softly. Shogo nodded, but Shisui stayed standing. He looked down the hall, and Fugaku couldn't tell if the boy was mad, or about to cry. He slowly sat down, wiping the scalding tea off his hand. Waking up screaming was bad enough when one had a fragile sense of dignity, but having to acknowledge someone knew about it would be worse. At least, that was how it would be with Itachi.
"I'll keep trying on my end," Shisui spoke softly, slowly sitting back down. "There've been few results, but we'll try anyway."
"Thank you," Fugaku gave his cousin a small bow over the table. "You honor me greatly with your persistance. If all could be like you, we'd have no problems."
Shisui smiled a bit. "You flatter me, Fu-"
There was another scream. This time it was shriller. Shisui bolted to his feet again, followed an instant later by Fugaku. Fugaku hesitated, but Shisui took off down the hall. One scream could be discounted as a night terror, but two couldn't. There was another scream, almost a keening noise like an animal in pain.
Fugaku entered Itachi room seconds after Shisui, and found Shisui trying to keep Itachi's hand from his face. The boy fought and writhed like a snake, all the time making a terrible keening noise. His eyes were screwed shut, and Fugaku saw the glint of something wet on the boy's face. Mikoto entered with a candle to light the dim room as Itachi threw his head back, trying to bash his cousin's nose in and get loose.
In the candle's flickering light Fugaku saw that the wet on Itachi's cheeks wasn't tears as he'd thought but blood. Mikoto gasped, and candle flame lurched. Fugaku surged across the room and caught his child's small hands. They knotted together, and Itachi managed to catch Fugaku's finger in between some of his own. For a moment moment Fugaku thought his finger might break.
Shisui wrapped his arms around Itachi chest and Mikoto moved in to pin the boy's legs. Shogo held the candle now, and moved closer to the tangle of people on the room. Shisui had his head tucked against Itachi's neck to keep the boy from hitting his cousin with his wildly thrashing head, and there was a smear of blood in Shisui's hair. Fugaku tightened his grip on Itachi's hands, and the boy made another keening noise, small mouth open and gasping for air.
"Itachi!" Fugaku snapped the name out finally. Itachi's eyes flashed open, blood red and spinning madly. Fugaku felt something snag at his mind, trying to pull him down into...something. It was almost like genjutsu, but wrong and twisted and desperate, and it had a lot to do with those spinning eyes. Fugaku dropped Itachi's hands, which went immediately to his eyes, pressing into them and smearing blood everywhere. Fugaku reached forwrd and placed his hands Itachi's temples. A concentrated spike of chakra went through the boy's skull, and the Itachi's eyes snapped back to grey.
He screamed again, body jerking , and then he went limp. Shisui looked up at Fugaku, eyes wide and sharingan red.
"What," Shisui asked in a voice that was soft as a breath. "What was that?"
Fugaku looked at his child, and the blood trickling out from under his closed eyelids. It was caught in his eye lashes, and it looked kabuki paint for a horror play on the child's pale face. Fugaku touched the tacky blood on Itachi cheek and shook his head.
"I don't know." Fugaku pulled his hand back and looked at the limp form of his child in Shisui's arms. His face darkened.
"Outou-san, Okaa-san, what's wrong?" A soft, tremulous voice asked from the door. Fugaku shifted and made sure he was between Itachi's face and Sasuke.
"Your brother had a bad dream, Sasuke, that's all," Mikoto lied with the practiced ease on a ninja. She stood up gracefully and took the candle from Shogo. "Come with me, dear, and I'll put you back to bed. It's far too late for you to be up."
"I wanna say good night to Nii-san." Sasuke looked almost petulant, and he looked over at his brother.
"Not right now, he's sleeping. We don't want to wake him up," Mikoto reached down and took Sasuke's hand, leading him from the room. "Come one now, back to bed. You've got class tomorrow." Sasuke followed his mother out, but glanced back with a confused scowl on his face. Fugaku watched them go and then turned back to Itachi.
Even in the lessened light, he could still see the dark blood on his face. Fugaku gently took his son's limp body from Shisui. "Go get Genzai-sensei, and tell him it's urgent."
Shisui nodded, and instead of standing he flipped through signs and was gone. Shogo, wise old man that he was, left the room as softly as his stiff joints would allow. Fugaku sat on the floor and held his child like he hadn't for years. He didn't even care that his shirt was getting smeared with blood.
Mikoto came in and sat down beside him. She reached out and pushed Itachi's hair back from his face. Fugaku looked at his wife and wondered if he has the same look of sick dread on his face.
Genzai washed off his hands and carefully wiped them dry. He looked over at Fugaku and Mikoto. Shogo had gone home, since the hour was late, but Shisui was still there. He was with Sasuke, making sure the boy stayed asleep.
Itachi's face had been wiped clean of blood, and he was lying unconcious still on his futon. His hair was mussed by his earlier struggles, and there was still a trace of blood in his lashes and in the lines on his face. Mikoto had smoothed his hair back from his face while Genzai had examined the boy.
"Overuse of the sharingan, most likely," Genzai concluded. He looked at the boy and shook his head. "I've never seen anyone's eyes bleed from that, but Itachi-kun is a special case."
"So you don't actually know what's wrong?" Mikoto asked stiffly. She was frightened.
Genzai shook his head. "I can find nothing physcially wrong with him right now. Let him rest, and don't allow him to use the sharingan for a few days. If he feels fine tomorrow, count if off as a freak happening. I've never seen the sharingan so well developed in one so young, and it might just be taking an unexpected toll on his body. Don't worry about it too much, unless it happens again."
Fugaku nodded. "We'll be sure he rests."
"Has he been on any missions lately?" Genzai peeled back the lid of Itachi's eyes, revealing a blood shot white.
"He returned from one yesterday," Mikoto replied, still stiffly. It was nearing dawn now, so the boy hadn't been home more than twelve hours.
Genzai nodded and reached into his bag. "I'll take some blood and test it for poisons, just in case." Fugaku and Mikoto watched in grave silence as the man drew some blood from Itachi's arm, and carefully bandaged the sight back up. He took enough for two vials and carefully stored them away. "One, I will test, and the other I will ask the hospital to test. I should know by noon. When he wakes up, please come get me. I'd like to check him again."
Fugaku stood as the doctor did. "Certainly, and thank you for coming so quickly."
Genzai smiled wryly. "If I hadn't, Shisui-kun would have carried me here over his shoulder, and how could I not? Itachi-kun isn't just one of my patients, but a great member of the Uchiha clan. It would be a shame for anything to happen to him."
Fugaku knew he was right. Itachi wasn't just Fugaku's son. He was the Uchiha genius. He was possibly the next in line to be head of the Uchiha clan. He was a hope, a light, and he was never just Itachi, brother and son and nothing else. He had to be a ninja at all times, and the Uchiha genius. What a burden for a child.
"All the same, thank you," Mikoto added her thanks and stood. "Let me make you some tea before you leave."
The doctor nodded. "That would be most welcome. Someone should stay with Itachi-kun until he wakes up."
Fugaku nodded. "I'll be here, and I'll ask Shisui to watch him while Mikoto takes Sasuke to the Academy tomorrow." Genzai nodded and followed Mikoto out.
Fugaku sat in the still room, watching Itachi breath just to make sure he still was. He stayed until his work pulled him away, but as he sat he could still hear the shrill screams of his child, and he remembered the wide, panicked look he'd gotten from his son. Fugaku didn't think the fit was because the child was overtired, but what it was he had no idea.
Fugaku kissed his son on the forehead, and Mikoto, watching at the door, didn't say a word.
How it ends how it begins :
There was a burning pain in his chest. His eyes were on fire. The whole of him hurt, but his eyes and his chest were a special torment. He felt thick tears running down his face, and he knew they were blood. The world was dimmed, and he could barely see his brother's face.
Sasuke. Poor little Sasuke. The world would only ever use him, and Itachi had started that vicious cycle. How terrible was he, wretched, traitor brother of the poor little Sasuke.
Then he fell, words slipping past his lips and bloodied fingers sliding across Sasuke's face. The red smear was livid, like a fresh wound across the precious little brother's face. Itachi fell, hitting the ground with a spike of pain so bright he must still be alive. Then it faded. He was gone, slipping away from everything. His eyes weren't closed, but he couldn't see anything.
Uchiha Itachi died.
Itachi opened his eyes, eyes that burned, and looked across the room as a wall he knew so well it hurt. He was covered in a soft banket and lying on a soft bed.
He was back. He was home, and he could hear his father's voice down the hall. He gasped, and it hurt. Tears pricked his eyes, and it was agony.
Itachi screamed and pressed his hands to his burning, bleeding eyes.
-How The Child Breaks-
So lock all your doors,
And put your child to rest,
It's quite in the street now,
It's screaming in your head.-Hey Now-Augustana
Fugaku, Mikoto, Shisui, and Shogo all sat in the kitchen, drinking tea and eating some sponge cake Mikoto had baked. It looked like a companionable family gathering, and it was. Mikoto was fond of her old cousin Shogo, and Shisui was more like a son to Fugaku and Mikoto, given all the time he'd been over to play with or watch Itachi or Sasuke. The words they spoke back and forth, though, were not typical of a happy family gathering.
"This is taking too long," Shisui complained softly.
Fugaku took a long sip of tea and looked at his cousin. "No one ever said the change would be instantaneous. Give it some time."
"We may not have time. Aiko and Kenji had to use force to bring in one of the ninja yesterday. Aiko got her arm broken. We shouldn't have to do that. We're the police. They should listen to us. They should respect us, but they don't anymore. It's dangerous for us, and it's dangerous for them," Shisui almost growled. He gripped his tea cup and glared at it. "How are we supposed to do our job if every time we turn around we're being second guessed or undermined?"
"I know. I see the reports of officer injuries just like you do." Fugaku raised an eyebrow at Shisui, and it spoke volumes. He was the Chief of Police, after all, and the head of the Uchiha. "This isn't going to be easy."
"It feels impossible." Shisui's shoulders slumped. "What did we do wrong? Why do they corral us in here like rabid dogs, Fugaku-sama? The Uchiha have always served Konoha well, so why do they treat us like criminals now?"
Fugaku hummed softly, and turned his cup in his hands. "This may be partially my fault. The Uchiha have been losing favor for years, mostly because we had so much power and that made people suspicious and wary. After the fox attack, however..." The man gave an eloquent shrug filled with unsaid words. "Perhaps I should have been less complacent with the village elders. I expected this paranoia to go away in a few months or a year, not to grow as the years dragged on."
"No one can predict the twisted minds of the Konoha elders," Shogo nodded his wizened head. He looked across the table at Fugaku. "If the Yondaime were still alive..."
Fugaku gave a sad smile. "If he were still alive, many things would be better. I grieve for him more than anyone, Shogo-san. Minato was more than a Hokage to me, and if he were here, I'm certain he'd put things to right."
"It was probably due to him some of this happened," Mikoto put in. "If you hadn't been so close to him, people wouldn't have been so eager to put us down after his death. Your influence over him always made them nervous."
Fugaku shook his head. "I had no more influence over that man than anyone. I hardly thi-"
There was a high, terrified scream.
Shisui jumped to his feet, sloshing tea over his hands. Shogo looked up, alarmed. Fugaku didn't jump. He simply lowered his eyes and pressed his lips into a firm line. Mikoto glanced down the hall, eyes worried. She caught Shisui's pants leg.
"He has nightmares sometimes," Mikoto explained softly. Shogo nodded, but Shisui stayed standing. He looked down the hall, and Fugaku couldn't tell if the boy was mad, or about to cry. He slowly sat down, wiping the scalding tea off his hand. Waking up screaming was bad enough when one had a fragile sense of dignity, but having to acknowledge someone knew about it would be worse. At least, that was how it would be with Itachi.
"I'll keep trying on my end," Shisui spoke softly, slowly sitting back down. "There've been few results, but we'll try anyway."
"Thank you," Fugaku gave his cousin a small bow over the table. "You honor me greatly with your persistance. If all could be like you, we'd have no problems."
Shisui smiled a bit. "You flatter me, Fu-"
There was another scream. This time it was shriller. Shisui bolted to his feet again, followed an instant later by Fugaku. Fugaku hesitated, but Shisui took off down the hall. One scream could be discounted as a night terror, but two couldn't. There was another scream, almost a keening noise like an animal in pain.
Fugaku entered Itachi room seconds after Shisui, and found Shisui trying to keep Itachi's hand from his face. The boy fought and writhed like a snake, all the time making a terrible keening noise. His eyes were screwed shut, and Fugaku saw the glint of something wet on the boy's face. Mikoto entered with a candle to light the dim room as Itachi threw his head back, trying to bash his cousin's nose in and get loose.
In the candle's flickering light Fugaku saw that the wet on Itachi's cheeks wasn't tears as he'd thought but blood. Mikoto gasped, and candle flame lurched. Fugaku surged across the room and caught his child's small hands. They knotted together, and Itachi managed to catch Fugaku's finger in between some of his own. For a moment moment Fugaku thought his finger might break.
Shisui wrapped his arms around Itachi chest and Mikoto moved in to pin the boy's legs. Shogo held the candle now, and moved closer to the tangle of people on the room. Shisui had his head tucked against Itachi's neck to keep the boy from hitting his cousin with his wildly thrashing head, and there was a smear of blood in Shisui's hair. Fugaku tightened his grip on Itachi's hands, and the boy made another keening noise, small mouth open and gasping for air.
"Itachi!" Fugaku snapped the name out finally. Itachi's eyes flashed open, blood red and spinning madly. Fugaku felt something snag at his mind, trying to pull him down into...something. It was almost like genjutsu, but wrong and twisted and desperate, and it had a lot to do with those spinning eyes. Fugaku dropped Itachi's hands, which went immediately to his eyes, pressing into them and smearing blood everywhere. Fugaku reached forwrd and placed his hands Itachi's temples. A concentrated spike of chakra went through the boy's skull, and the Itachi's eyes snapped back to grey.
He screamed again, body jerking , and then he went limp. Shisui looked up at Fugaku, eyes wide and sharingan red.
"What," Shisui asked in a voice that was soft as a breath. "What was that?"
Fugaku looked at his child, and the blood trickling out from under his closed eyelids. It was caught in his eye lashes, and it looked kabuki paint for a horror play on the child's pale face. Fugaku touched the tacky blood on Itachi cheek and shook his head.
"I don't know." Fugaku pulled his hand back and looked at the limp form of his child in Shisui's arms. His face darkened.
"Outou-san, Okaa-san, what's wrong?" A soft, tremulous voice asked from the door. Fugaku shifted and made sure he was between Itachi's face and Sasuke.
"Your brother had a bad dream, Sasuke, that's all," Mikoto lied with the practiced ease on a ninja. She stood up gracefully and took the candle from Shogo. "Come with me, dear, and I'll put you back to bed. It's far too late for you to be up."
"I wanna say good night to Nii-san." Sasuke looked almost petulant, and he looked over at his brother.
"Not right now, he's sleeping. We don't want to wake him up," Mikoto reached down and took Sasuke's hand, leading him from the room. "Come one now, back to bed. You've got class tomorrow." Sasuke followed his mother out, but glanced back with a confused scowl on his face. Fugaku watched them go and then turned back to Itachi.
Even in the lessened light, he could still see the dark blood on his face. Fugaku gently took his son's limp body from Shisui. "Go get Genzai-sensei, and tell him it's urgent."
Shisui nodded, and instead of standing he flipped through signs and was gone. Shogo, wise old man that he was, left the room as softly as his stiff joints would allow. Fugaku sat on the floor and held his child like he hadn't for years. He didn't even care that his shirt was getting smeared with blood.
Mikoto came in and sat down beside him. She reached out and pushed Itachi's hair back from his face. Fugaku looked at his wife and wondered if he has the same look of sick dread on his face.
Genzai washed off his hands and carefully wiped them dry. He looked over at Fugaku and Mikoto. Shogo had gone home, since the hour was late, but Shisui was still there. He was with Sasuke, making sure the boy stayed asleep.
Itachi's face had been wiped clean of blood, and he was lying unconcious still on his futon. His hair was mussed by his earlier struggles, and there was still a trace of blood in his lashes and in the lines on his face. Mikoto had smoothed his hair back from his face while Genzai had examined the boy.
"Overuse of the sharingan, most likely," Genzai concluded. He looked at the boy and shook his head. "I've never seen anyone's eyes bleed from that, but Itachi-kun is a special case."
"So you don't actually know what's wrong?" Mikoto asked stiffly. She was frightened.
Genzai shook his head. "I can find nothing physcially wrong with him right now. Let him rest, and don't allow him to use the sharingan for a few days. If he feels fine tomorrow, count if off as a freak happening. I've never seen the sharingan so well developed in one so young, and it might just be taking an unexpected toll on his body. Don't worry about it too much, unless it happens again."
Fugaku nodded. "We'll be sure he rests."
"Has he been on any missions lately?" Genzai peeled back the lid of Itachi's eyes, revealing a blood shot white.
"He returned from one yesterday," Mikoto replied, still stiffly. It was nearing dawn now, so the boy hadn't been home more than twelve hours.
Genzai nodded and reached into his bag. "I'll take some blood and test it for poisons, just in case." Fugaku and Mikoto watched in grave silence as the man drew some blood from Itachi's arm, and carefully bandaged the sight back up. He took enough for two vials and carefully stored them away. "One, I will test, and the other I will ask the hospital to test. I should know by noon. When he wakes up, please come get me. I'd like to check him again."
Fugaku stood as the doctor did. "Certainly, and thank you for coming so quickly."
Genzai smiled wryly. "If I hadn't, Shisui-kun would have carried me here over his shoulder, and how could I not? Itachi-kun isn't just one of my patients, but a great member of the Uchiha clan. It would be a shame for anything to happen to him."
Fugaku knew he was right. Itachi wasn't just Fugaku's son. He was the Uchiha genius. He was possibly the next in line to be head of the Uchiha clan. He was a hope, a light, and he was never just Itachi, brother and son and nothing else. He had to be a ninja at all times, and the Uchiha genius. What a burden for a child.
"All the same, thank you," Mikoto added her thanks and stood. "Let me make you some tea before you leave."
The doctor nodded. "That would be most welcome. Someone should stay with Itachi-kun until he wakes up."
Fugaku nodded. "I'll be here, and I'll ask Shisui to watch him while Mikoto takes Sasuke to the Academy tomorrow." Genzai nodded and followed Mikoto out.
Fugaku sat in the still room, watching Itachi breath just to make sure he still was. He stayed until his work pulled him away, but as he sat he could still hear the shrill screams of his child, and he remembered the wide, panicked look he'd gotten from his son. Fugaku didn't think the fit was because the child was overtired, but what it was he had no idea.
Fugaku kissed his son on the forehead, and Mikoto, watching at the door, didn't say a word.
