Nightfall

Konohagakure, Spring.

It had finally arrived. The first day of the Academy. I knew intellectually that the first couple years were going to be small knick knack things that I could easily learn from a trip to the library, but still, ACADEMY. It would be interesting to see the children that would become a part of the Konoha 12.

'Plus one.' I thought. I didn't know what issues would arise from there being an odd one out. I'd read more on how students were selected for Jonin instructors. Only the top performers, mostly clan kids, got selected to be taught and led by Jonin. The lower bracket of students were trained by either veteran Chunins, or were part of the genin corps for their careers.

'The only Shinobi the series showed were the top bracket.'

There was no way that a Hidden Village with tens of thousands of civilians and a couple thousand in clan numbers could survive militarily if the only Shinobi of Konoha in our year was 8 clan kids and a civi.

'Make that 9.'

Technically, Rin and I weren't "clan kids" in the conventional sense. Children from Shinobi clans are taught the ins and outs of Shinobi life in preparation for their future career. Civilians don't exactly know how to prep their kids for the life.

'I knew how to prep us.' Clan kids would have to be truely incompetent to not be selected by a jonin instructor. It wasn't likely that a civilian would outclass all his clan born classmates.

'Jiraiya the Sannin is an exception... As is Namikaze Minato.'

Orphanages got a stipend from the village funds to have food and shelter for their residents. They received more if the children were attending the Academy. Eventually, it became customary for most orphans to be enrolled. It is no suprise that those without guidance have the lowest success rate of graduation.

'Unfortunate. Damned if you don't enroll. And damned if you do.'

All this made me think. Sakura had the highest grades in the Academy. She was even able to force a draw in a fight against a clan kid, not that it was very impressive to fight Ino. She also had something that caused Tsunade to see her as a worthy apprentice.

Why on Earth was she so incompetent?

Most characters saw improvement. Shikamaru, Choji, Sasuke, etc. Sakura was pretty much like Jiraiya. He started out at a disadvantage. He wasn't a natural intellectual like Orochimaru, nor was he the grandchild of the Shodai and had the best non Uzumaki seal master of their generation as a grand uncle in the form of Senju Tobirama.

The best explanation for why Jiraiya succeeded, and not Sakura, was that one, he didn't let his infatuation with women, or more likely one woman, get in the way of his training. Second, and possibly the biggest one, Sarutobi was a much better teacher than Kakashi.

Kakashi could train a seasoned Shinobi into being an A rank instead of being fodder. He helped to train Tenzo and helped Itachi on his way. He could train those who had a base to build on or the brilliance that matched his. But he couldn't build someone from nothing. Maito Gai trained Rock Lee into being a monster of a taijutsu fighter. No ability to use ninjutsu, no way to cast Genjutsu, only the power of his fists and the fire in his soul.

'Youth.'

I'll never insult the will that would carry a hopelessly incompetent genin in the form of Maito Duy to slay four of the Seven Swordsman of Kiri. It was the same fire that drove me in breaking and bleeding myself to greatness.

'Nothing worth anything is easy.'

My thoughts returned back to the Shinobi who didmake improvement.

'Much of the nightmare abilities were from the late stage war arc. How accurate are these?'

This had plagued my thoughts for some time. Kakashi went from being dead on his feet using Kamui once, to being able to launch it in rapid succession. Hopefully some of the doomsday shit was "Author's Embellishment" by Kishimoto.

'I hope.'

Dropping these thoughts, I turned to Rin. She was skipping as we walked to our first day at the Academy. She looked so happy and full of life. I let myself just relax at the sight.

'Things are good, for now.'

//////////////////////

"First day!" a young girl shouted, her blonde hair flying in her face.

Inoichi smiled at his daughters excitement. It was going to be her first day as a Shinobi student.

'How time seems to keep moving faster.' He thought wistfully.

It only seemed like yesterday when he had taken her home from the hospital, all bundled up in a blanket, her hair, much like his own, showing through the wrapping.

"Ok, Ino," he asked, a broad smile on his face, "do you have your lunch packed?"

"Yes daddy." was her only response, before going back to being excited.

'Will she calm down?' He thought amusedly.

"Then let's go, dear." he said, offering his hand.

She took his hand, before nearly dragging him along for the ride.

"C'mon daddy we don't want to be late."

Chuckling at his daughter's exuberance, he had no thoughts except happy ones.

'I live for these days.'

///////////////////////

Hiruzen was in his robes and at the Academy, waiting for all the students to arrive. He had told Naruto and Rin that he couldn't take the two of them on their first day because it would look unfair to the other kids. The two understood, but Rin seemed to be a little more irritated by it.

'Each year, I do this.' In many ways, he saw this as a symbolic offering of the torch. When he, the keeper of the Flame, the Will of Fire, offered it to the next generation. Something that wasn't alive so to speak, but it still had presence, something that couldn't die.

'But I'm also placing a burden.' He knew that many of the students would fail their exams. Jiraiya had been the dead last of the final year. So many others simply gave up. Most transferring to civilian schools to learn a useful trade.

Many people simply weren't cut out for the Shinobi life. Shinobi were many things. Not all good. They were the creatures that go bump in the night. They're the ones that will deliver medicine through hostile terrain. They're the ones that would steal supplies to weaken an enemy.

They. Were. Human.

They were seen as dangerous because they had power that most people couldn't dream of. Hiruzen had seen the beautiful display of chakra that his student Tsunade had used to save a little boy's arm from needing to be amputated. He saw her restore a little girl's face when she had been struck by an errant fire jutsu.

But he had also seen what it could do in a destructive capacity. His fire jutsu when he, his teammates, and his Sensei were on the run from the hit squad sent to kill the last Senju brother. His jutsu struck one of the squad when they ran. He remembered the screams. He remembered the sizzling of scorched flesh. He remembered the smell.

Man was capable of great and terrible things. Chakra did not change Man's nature. It merely elevated his base nature. It elevated healing and restoring to that of a god. And it elevated the diabolical in Man to that of a god of death and destruction. Those who could heal with their left, and strike down with their right, were seen as gods among men.

'But gods, we are not.'

Gods don't die. They don't wither away. They don't lose family.

'They don't fear death.'

Hiruzen didn't fear what lay beyond the veil of this world. He had fought and bled for Konoha. He had given what was his and gave it to something greater than one person. He gave his youth and his hope of retirement to the village that housed him as a boy. It was a refuge that he built his family in. It was something that emerged from a world of war and destruction.

'But who will carry my burden when I'm gone?'

Hiruzen feared death, but not out of his own demise. He feared that no other would follow. The Fire had to be stoked by the next. He had done so when his Sensei entrusted him with the lives of thousands. Hiruzen entrusted Minato with the fire that had been started generations before, when two boys, two hopelessly naive boys dared to think that they could do better than their fathers. Dared to think that there could be a walled garden from which life could sprout in a ruthless beauty. Where a man could cast aside all armour around his heart, to love recklessly, to embrace his children without fear of them being taken from him, to leave the world knowing that even when your light faded from your children's lives, they could still see.

He was one of the last of his generation of Shinobi. None of his students could replace him. The wars had touched them all. Tsunade lost her entire clan to targeted assassinations from those who feared another like the Senju brothers. Jiraiya was always a free spirit and would feel stifled with the job. And Orochimaru. Orochimaru was the one, when the 2nd Shinobi war began, that Hiruzen saw as his eventual successor. He was brilliant and an amazing leader. But the war changed him. The emptiness in him left by his parents death was so much more noticeable after the three's fight with Hanzo the Salamander. He became obsessed with finding more techniques to prevent death.

He then saw Tsunade after Niwako and Dan's deaths.

His prospective successor as the torchbearer was lost to his own darkness. Jiraiya's student was a godsend. He was everything. Even after the soul breaking loss of two of his students and being forced to slaughter over a thousand people, with his own hands, he still shown as an example.

'All who are strong enough to relieve me are either broken or dead.'

He had only thought of two. Two in the entire village who might be able to succeed him in the future. The first: Uchiha Itachi. Even with the pressure of being clan heir, even with his clan being seen with suspicion, he loved the village. A once in a generation prodigy that loved their village more than themselves was a very rare thing.

The second was one that could potentially go down in history in how much he could change the world with the potential he had. The boy he saw as his grandson. The boy who clawed his way through a mind stifling affliction in order to protect his sister from those who would do her harm. The boy who responded to nearly dying with a demand. A demand aimed at one of the strongest Shinobi in history.

"Train me."

The boy that threw his body into torture after torture so he could be strong enough to save what he held most precious. The boy who seemed to lose all the fire in his eyes when he was told that he must wait a couple years. The boy who he could see just a hundred yards in front of him.

'I see them all in you, my boy.'

He saw Tsunade's fierce love for her younger sibling in Naruto. He saw Jiraiya's determination and sarcastic shenanigans. And he saw Orochimaru's intellect and desire to understand the world around him. He had Minatos' face and his seemingly kind nature.

And Hiruzen didn't know who he'd be. Naruto would look at him with the utmost respect, Rin with unmatched love, Kakashi as a kindred spirit and perhaps older brother. But there were times he had seen Naruto as so cold. He had, after picking the two up from the orphanage to move into their new apartment, seen the caretakers give a look of glee at the thought of the two leaving. Naruto hadn't noticed him staring. He saw the look on Naruto's face. Such hatred shouldn't come from a child.

He had seen the look a couple of occasions afterwards. Everytime it involved people looking at Rin, never did he respond to looks aimed at him, only Rin. He had responded with hostility to Kakashi when Kakashi had tried to gauge how well he would react to a common tactic of mind games that enemy Shinobi engaged in. He never thought that a six year old could be perceptive enough to find a chink in a masked man's armour. Something that would make a man resistant to sessions of accelerated training respond the way Kakashi did.

Uzumaki Naruto had peerless potential. A once in a lifetime.

'If you stay the course, like your father, you will bring the brightest dawn. But if you are lost to your own darkness, like Orochimaru, you will bring the darkest night.'

//////////////////////////

Uchiha Itachi was having a good day, something he hadn't for the last few months. After he had saved the Uzumaki boy, he had been grilled by his father so he could gauge the stability of the Jinchuriki and to see whether the boy was a danger to the clan. Given that the boy was discharged the next day, there likely wasn't any issue.

Itachi had been run ragged. ANBU missions were getting more intense. His father's demands for more inside information on the inner workings of village military was tearing him in both directions. "To stave off any preemptive attack on us." His father had said. But Itachi knew the Hokage would never order the elimination of the Uchiha clan. He wanted to fix things. The Hokage had even mentioned in passing that he, Itachi could be capable of taking over from him in a few years. He had nearly run to his father to tell him the news. It would fix everything. All the hate and suspicion. The division that was occurring between clan and village.

But his father didn't believe it. He thought it was a ruse. To make them lower their guard. These things drove Itachi nearly mad.

But they all seemed worth it when he looked at the reward. He was walking to the Academy with his little brother in tow. His brother barely containing his excitement.

"This is my first day, big brother." he said gleefully, having said it more than once already.

"I know, Sasuke." he replied, a soft smile on his face.

"I'm gonna be just as strong as you." he declared, looking up at his older brother with adoration.

Itachi just looked back at him, smile still on his face. "I don't doubt it." he said softly, "Not at all."

///////////////////////

'Something is not right with him.'

I thought.

Hiruzen was giving his speach to the group of new students this year. Many of them, I didn't recognize.

Civilians and dropouts. Is what I guessed. They would likely be the ones shuttled into the genin corps or might get to train under a chunin if they were lucky. But, back to my thoughts on Sarutobi.

He was giving a speech about us being the next carriers of the Will of Fire. Most of the other children probably saw the speech as the old man, power in his voice, entrusting them with a great honour.

But I knew better. His voice was off. The tiger of ferocity he displayed was a paper one. No one but me, and likely Rin as well, could see that his eyes didn't have the same light in them. His voice didn't have the same iron in it as usual.

'What the hell was he doing today that made him this way?'

I turned slightly to look to my right. So many people I recognized. Hinata, who was giving me a shy smile. Ino who was sat next to Sakura. And Sasuke. Sadly, I didn't get here before Sasuke got here. Evidently, Itachi brought him here on his first day. I needed to speak with him. It was something I wanted to do to help him. Hopefully he would be the one to pick Sasuke up.

///////////////////////////

Itachi returned hours later to pick up his brother. He had spent his day off walking around the village, talking with Shisui a little bit, and eating at the dango shop. The day took a great weight off his shoulders.

Arriving at the Academy, he saw his brother talking with both the Uzumaki twins, the boy being in an in-depth looking talk with his brother. About what, he didn't know. Itachi saw the boy perk his head up when he came within a certain range.

'Sensor.'

He saw Uzumaki lean towards Sasuke to say something. His brother sharply turned his head towards him.

'Yes. A strong sensor.'

His brother started to run towards him, smile lighting up his face. But Itachi wasn't looking at his brother. He was looking at the six year old looking straight at him. This boy had made coded hand signs to him.

ANBU handsigns.

Thank. You.

Itachi was shocked. 

Could he remember my signature after only feeling it once?'

He had to speak with Uzumaki. He needed to know where he learned anbu handsigns.

Giving Sasuke a slight hug, he whispered to him that he'd be a minute. He wanted to talk to some of Sasuke's new friends. Sasuke pouted, saying they weren't his friends.

'Not yet.' Itachi smirked to himself.

Approaching the boy, noticing that his sister went to speak with what appeared to be the Hyuga heiress.

"Hello." Itachi said.

"Hello there." was the reply.

For some reason, the boy grinned slightly, almost as if he were laughing at an inside joke.

"Do you remember me?" he asked quietly.

The slight nod was all he needed.

"Where did you learn those handsigns?"

The boy gave a knowing grin. "From a certain one eyed mutt."

'Kakashi taught him. I wonder why.' Being somebody as important as one of the villages jinchuriki, he'd likely been receiving some training on the side. It would be no surprise that the Hokage selected Kakashi.

"I just wanted to say hello." Itachi said, ready to now take Sasuke home. But before he could leave, he heard the Uzumaki boy speak.

"You're sick." were the only words said.

'What?'

Turning around, he looked the boy dead in the eye. "What did you say?" he was confused, what did he mean he was sick?

The boy shrugged his shoulders. "Something feels wrong about you. I've felt it when old men are coughing horribly. I've felt it when someone is very ill with something. You might want to get yourself checked. You don't want to be caught out in a bad situation and not be at your best."

He stood there for a moment, trying to digest what this boy, who was the same age as his little brother, had just said to him.

'Could I be sick with something and not realize it? Could it be something serious?'

After cataloging it to be addressed later, he nodded a thanks to the boy before walking towards Sasuke so the two of them could go home.

"What did you say to him, big brother?" his brother asked, curious about what he had said.

"Just that he'd better be nice to you." he said quietly. "He wouldn't like me if he hurt you."

/////////////////////////

TIMESKIP: ONE YEAR, SIX MONTHS LATER.

'It's happening tomorrow.'

Hiruzen thought to himself. Plans to speak with the Uchiha clan led nowhere. They continued to draw themselves further away from the village. Itachi and Shisui, before his death, had been giving information to him on what had occurred. He had held out to the end that a peaceful solution could be found. But that changed when he recieved news from Itachi that made his heart sink.

'Fugaku had the means and the will to unleash the Kyuubi and control it.'

A seven, almost eight, year old pair of jinchuriki were next to nothing in a fight of this magnitude. It meant that he was willing to extract it from one of them.

'Fugaku would kill them.'

That was when he called in all the clan heads. This wasn't simply a threat of one clan. It was a threat against the entire village.

"How can we be certain?" Shikaku asked Hiruzen, his voice contemplative.

The meeting between the Hokage, Danzo, the Nara, Yamanaka, Akamichi, Hyuga, Aburame, and Inuzuka clan heads was a very tense one. The subject concerned what was to be done about the Uchiha clan.

"Are we certain that negotiations are no longer possible?" Hiashi asked.

Hiruzen looked at Hiashi, then the rest of the room. "Itachi has informed me that the Uchiha plan to overthrow me and install Fugaku as Hokage."

Shikaku was the one who spoke up. "They wouldn't do this unless they thought they had a guaranteed victory. I don't see how they could." he finished with a frown.

Hiruzen then spoke, his voice missing any positive emotion, "They plan to unleash the Kyuubi."

Silence reigned in the room, before Inoichi broke the silence. "They can't possibly think that won't backfire." he said, shock in his voice. "It would elevate this to a war of annihilation instead of a simple coup attempt."

"It is likely only Fugaku and the inner leaders of the clan that wish to even do this coup." Hiruzen said.

"If they're willing to do this," Hiashi stepped in, "there is no chance of reconciliation. Wipe them out." he finished, a look of anger leaking through his normally stiff visage.

"You can't be serious," Inoichi declared, shocked at Hiashi even considering that level."You can't just kill all of th-"

"My brother died for this village!", Hiashi snarled, all pretenses absent, "I will not let what he died for be destroyed by a couple of petulant bastards who can't take no for an answer." he spat.

"You can't kill innocent people, Hiashi!"

A shouting match occurred between the Hyuga and Yamanaka clan heads. Choza stood ready to step in when Hiashi's eyes subconsciously activated and he was beginning to step out of this chair. Before it got completely out of hand, Hiruzen put an end to it.

"SILENCE!" He shouted, the whole room going silent at his command.

"Now, we are going to be very calm about this," he said, using a tone one would use for a misbehaving child, "and I'm going to ask each person their opinion on the matter. Hiashi, your thoughts?"

Hiashi was still glaring at Inoichi, "Wipe them out for all I care." he spat.

Hizashi was a sore subject for him. This likely aggravated him to the point of saying something that he normally would not have.

"Now, Inoichi," the Hokage continued, "Your thoughts?"

"We'll be no better if we kill off an entire clan." he said simply.

"Can you think of another alternative that would stop it?" the Hokage asked, genuinely wanting to know.

"I," Inoichi started, before slumping into his chair. "I don't know."

"Choza?" The Hokage asked next.

"It's a bad situation no matter how you slice it. I can't think of any good solution." He replied, being at as much of a loss as his blond friend.

"Shikaku, your thoughts?"

Everybody leaned in to this. If there was anyone that could think of a preferable solution, it was Nara Shikaku.

Taking a deep breath, Shikaku voiced his thoughts. "The Uchiha clan did not support Madara. He was their clan head, yet they turned against him when they saw him as a danger to the village. It's unlikely that Fugaku would have informed anyone but a select few that he trusts that he planned on releasing the Kyuubi. The Uchiha clan feared Madara, everyone did. But every single clan was in support of the Uchiha. They knew Madara couldn't take on the whole village. They were just as appalled as everyone else when he returned with the Kyuubi at his command. Fugaku will make no friends if he openly spoke to his clansmen about his plan. He won't want there to be any parallels drawn between him and Madara's behavior." He took another deep breath, "He is likely betting on being installed as Hokage before the clan realizes what he has done. They won't turn against him when they're in the middle of the coup."

"What do you propose to stop it?" Hiruzen asked.

"A public show of support on part of every clan," Shikaku said, "Show the Uchiha that we do not doubt their loyalty to the village, only their leader and elders."

"How will we stop Fugaku from forcing through his plan?" Hiruzen asked, knowing what Shikaku's likely answer was.

"Simple." Shikaku stated, "We arrest or eliminate him. Preferably arrest, as we'd be using Itachi."

The room stayed silent after he said this, contemplating what he had said.

"How would we do this?" Hiruzen asked.

Shikaku took a deep breath before continuing, "We secure the two Jinchuriki, after they've been secured, we move in. Once we have heard that Itachi has arrested his father, we make a public statement on what happened. Fugaku will be seen as Madara reborn. The Uchiha will be seen as victims who were deceived, and Itachi will be seen as a hero. Someone who put the village before his traitorous father. He will be seen as someone who made a great sacrifice to save the village from the Kyuubi."

Hiruzen understood what Shikaku was getting at.

'He wants them to see Itachi as a second Minato.'

After so many years, years of trial after trial, Hiruzen began to hope.

'Is this the dawn I have longed for?'

This could solve everything. Reconciliation with the Uchiha. Innocent lives saved. Another to carry the flame.

"Does anybody have any arguments against this?" he asked quietly.

Not one single hand was raised.

'Thank you Kami.'

"It is settled then." Hiruzen said with finality. "Uchiha Itachi will arrest his father for treason. A statement of support will be sent out by all clans to the Uchiha. Itachi will be installed as clan head, as is his birthright, and we will stop a civil war without a single life lost."

"When should this happen, Hokage-sama?" Shikaku asked.

"Three days," he said. "I will personally handle the securing of the two jinchuriki. Hiashi, send a few of your clansmen to monitor any movement around the Uchiha compound."

"Will that not tip them off?"

"Not when a 'security breach' in the barrier is detected." Hiruzen replied.

There in fact was one, but it need not be mentioned in this current predicament that was in their lap right now.

"Your clansmen will act as a 'temporary barrier' unto themselves." Hiruzen finished.

Hiashi nodded his understanding.

"Now, we have three days to prepare. Begin on your statements, and get some rest. It's going to be a long 72 hours. Dismissed."

With their Hokage's last word, the clan heads departed to head home, not paying attention to the look on Danzo's face.

///////////////////////

He'd failed. Uchiha Itachi thought he could stop it. He told the Hokage that he was ready to stop his father from killing one of the Jinchuriki to take over the village.

'I was ready to kill my own father for the village.'

Fugaku stepped too far. If he targeted the boy, it would destroy the girl, leaving a shattered remnant of what once was. If he killed the girl, he didn't know what the boy could do.

'He'd probably murder the entire clan himself.' Itachi saw the love the boy had in his eyes for his sister, and it was the same he had for Sasuke. If Sasuke were killed, no force on Earth or even Kami would stop his fury from being unleashed upon his brother's killer.

'Uzumaki reminds me of myself.'

He'd listened to Sasuke on his brother's opinion on the Uzumaki twins. He'd watched the boy himself. The last year and a half saw him develop into what would be a truly gifted Shinobi. Most of the students saw him as a hyperactive fool who skipped class with his sister. But they didn't see what he saw. He didn't see them go to the training fields to spar with purpose. They didn't see that most of the skipped classes were book studies, things such as mathematics, history, geography of the Continent. They seldom skipped days when physical training occurred.

'They're studying on their own time.'

Uzumaki intentionally disrupted certain teachers. Explosives in the staff bathrooms, Icha Icha books being left on teachers desks, so many things that caused him, and sometimes his sister, to be kicked out for the day and marked as an absent, with the two getting a reduced grade by that alone.

'Why does he do it? Is he aware of what happens to those perceived as prodigies?'

Shinobi on the front lines that were noticeably younger always got targeted. If an 11 year old could reach ANBU material, what would they be in less than 10 years in the future?

'He does know. He doesn't want to be noticed. A true Shinobi then.' A Jinchuriki prodigy. One who was tutoring his fellow jinchuriki sibling in subjects that he could. They would be labeled "Kill on sight" before they even reached puberty. Uzumaki somehow knew something at age 8 that Itachi didn't realize until a few months in ANBU when he was wading through enemy nin out to kill the "Shortstack ANBU".

'He'd wait till he was strong enough, then he'd kill every Uchiha.'

He would have done the same thing if another clan had killed his brother. He'd have shown everyone why he'd been told he'd reached S rank not long after his thirteenth birthday.

'And my family will find that out tonight.'

Danzo had told him the Hokage and clan heads had reached a verdict. The entire Uchiha clan was to be executed for treason, and conspiracy to unleash a tailed beast inside an area with thousands of civilians. Sasuke would be permitted to live, So long as Itachi did the deed.

'Kinslaying. I'll be a monster.' He knew that the Hokage would have gotten the two Jinchuriki out of his father's reach. Without them, and with every major clan aware of the coup, his clan would not survive. His brother would likely be killed, being seen as the son of the traitor.

'Kill them myself, or damn myself for letting my brother die.'

Itachi had made a decision. He would forgo a happy life in the village. He would give all his hopes and dreams to his brother. His brother will be the clan heir. His brother will be the one the village will see as one of the best. His brother will live when he, Itachi, will be hunted like a beast by the Shinobi world.

Every person he killed. Every swing of his blade. The sound of steel parting flesh. The slight gasps of suprise. The light fading from their eyes. He remembered it with an unforgiving clarity. His Sharingan picked up everything. His eyes were burning as he cut down the father that he had sought to be like as a child. The tears began to fall as he then did the same to the woman who brought him into this world. The one who would console him when he was frightened. The one who would tell him that everything would be okay, even when she knew it wasn't.

"I love you, Itachi."

These were the last words she said to him.

He stood there for a moment, looking at the terrible action that his failure wrought. He could have saved them all, but he failed. He turned to leave, but he heard a voice that felt like a knife in his heart.

"Big brother."

'No.' Itachi thought. 'I didn't want him to see me here.' A failure yet again.

He saw as it happened. The relief on Sasuke's face at finding his brother alright. It turning to confusion. Then to fear.

Fear of him.

Itachi knew he had no time. He needed to do one final thing. He should have used have used his Tsukuyomi to spend a few more moments with Sasuke. To tell him why he did it. Why he had no other choice. That he couldn't let the village kill his clan and baby brother.

But his brother wouldn't hate him then.

He would still love his brother. He would grow to pity him. He would never free Itachi from his pain.

'He will never kill me.' And so he put hatred in his brother's heart. Gave him the fuel to better himself. Gave him a goal to strive to.

The goal to avenge his family.

He saw the terror on Sasuke's face. How it turned to anguish as he screamed, watching as his whole world was torn from him. His unconscious form crumbled to the cold ground.

"I'm sorry." he whispered, the tears now flowing freely.

He only moved a few steps before he staggered and fell to his knees, the blade he held dripping blood onto the ground.

'It would be so easy.' He thought staring at the piece of metal in his hand, the blood of his mother and father still on it. 'Hold it horizontal to my sternum, and just lean forward. I'll be free.' He'd be free from his pain. His guilt.

His mind decided to provide him with a memory he hadn't thought of in a long time.

"Not yet. Not yet. Not. Ready."A boy who had nearly been killed, just been hit with a Genjutsu that showed him his worst nightmare, choking on his own blood, still found a way to be defiant to the end.

Dropping the blade that he had slain so many with, hearing it clatter to the ground, he pulled himself to his feet, a stronger resolve in his stride.

The village would need to know about this organization that was led by a man who claimed to be Uchiha Madara. Sasuke would grow strong in the village. He would be strong enough to defend the village against this enemy.

As he left what was once his home, he turned to see the form of his brother on the ground.

"I will never stop loving you, Sasuke."

//////////////////////

The entire village was in an uproar. The entire Uchiha clan had been massacred in the night. Only one, out of hundreds of men, women, children, and newborns survived.

The clan heads were in shock. This wasn't supposed to happen. Itachi was to only arrest his father. What happened? They all came to the same conclusion.

They had been decieved.

Itachi must have wanted to kill his clan before. He said the issues had risen to an unprecedented level. It was very suspicious that Shisui turned up dead not long before Itachi killed his clan. Could he have been lying about the treachery? Did they decide to not go with the coup, and Itachi killed Shisui to prevent him from telling the Hokage?

They knew something was going down at the Uchiha compound. They had spun a tale that they were repairing an issue in the barrier around the village. The Hyuga couldn't be scouting the village as they usually could. It wasn't safe for them to use their eyes when seal renovations were being done, it would cause irritation in their eyes from the chakra released.

Hiashi had discreetly ordered some trustworthy Hyuga clansmen to monitor the "breach", as the Hokage ordered. Every single one was found dead with their throats cut, a look of shock on their faces.

'They didn't even see him.' Hiashi thought. The thing he demanded in anger be done to stop the Uchiha, had been done. He knew he wasn't in his right mind when he said it. His thoughts were plagued by Hizashi's death, and what a coup would mean for his sacrifice.

'I didn't think me saying something in anger would cause it to happen.'

The clan heir had murdered his entire clan, save for his little brother. Did he do it because he went mad? Because he was tired of being ordered around? He didn't know. But everytime he activated his eyes to see the Uchiha compound. The absence of any chakra signatures, the dark emptiness, he was reminded of the same lack of light he had seen when he looked at his wife's empty eyes.

'What have I done, my love?'

His own daughter, the clan heiress. He had been so demanding. So demeaning. Cruel. Would she grow to hate him? Would her kindness turn to hatred of her own clan? The ones who called her weak?

'Would she kill us?'

Itachi, by all accounts, adored his brother. He tortured him with a Genjutsu for hours, but still let him live. Hinata adored Hanabi. So much love in her eyes when she looked at her little sister.

Would she do what Itachi did? Would the demands, belittling, and borderline cruelty cause her to destroy the Hyuga? The Main house and Branch both? Would all the actions he had justified by telling himself that "It's for her own good. The clan must have a strong heir." Cause the very thing he had dirtied himself to prevent? The fall of his clan? For the first time, Hiashi felt shame for what he had done to his daughter.

////////////////////

"Sweety, are you alright?" Yoshino asked him, her voice full of concern.

He had been nursing a drink in his hand for some time, nearly half the bottle already empty.

"You couldn't have predicted what would happen," she told him softly.

"I know." Shikaku whispered. "But it doesn't change how I feel."

Yoshino just smiled sadly at her husband. "I'll be here if you need me."

"Okay." He whispered.

She then stepped closer, planting a kiss on his cheek. "Don't be up too late." she said to him, looking straight into his eyes, before leaving the room.

Once she had left, Shikaku downed the entire glass in one gulp. Growling softly at the burn of it going down his throat, he set it down onto his table.

It was his plan. A brilliant plan that would be remembered as one of the greatest any Nara had ever devised in history. Ending a civil war before it even began. The establishing of a new hero in the Leaf. A worthy successor to the spirit of the Yondaime.

'And we were lied to.'

He never thought that Itachi could have lied. He trusted that the Sandaime would have noticed any treachery. But they had all been fooled.

His plan had been their own undoing. His brilliance had never been turned against him the way it had been. His brilliance was what helped his squad survive the 3rd War. Even when they were facing against an S rank foe, they were still able to prevail. Even when two had ambushed them, his mind had been able to save his two brothers in all but blood.

The scars on his face were well worth their lives. He may carry that fight with him for the rest of his life, everytime he looked in the mirror. But those scars symbolized what he had gained as well.

He saw his two best friends become fathers. He saw the joy in Inoichi's eyes when he held his newborn daughter for the first time. The celebration when Choji was born, and the hangover after. His wedding day to Yoshino. When his own son was born. All of it was fruits of his brilliance.

But it didn't work this time.

A boy was left broken. His world coming to an end. And Shikaku was the one who gave the world breaker the kunai to do it.

Filling the glass again, he took another gulp, relishing the burn.

Inoichi stared at his sleeping daughter, her expression almost ethereal in how peaceful it was.

'Did I miss something?' He thought.

He was the best mind healer the Yamanaka had. He had been through things in the war that would break lesser men. Shikaku, himself, and Choza brought each other home. But many others minds were still out there. In a field, their comrades bodies finding a final resting place in foreign soil, hundreds of miles from the village that was their home.

'I saved more Konoha Shinobi from themselves than how many enemies I killed.'

Only two men alive today aside from him knew who he treated after the war. The Sandaime knew, and so did Jiraiya.

'Namikaze Minato.'

Nearly all of Konoha and her people saw him as their savior and protector. They didn't see the man. They didn't see him when he woke up from night terrors, trembling and sweating from what he had done. Most of the army killer Shinobi used wide area techniques from a distance to bring their opponents down. Minato teleported to them. He used blade, fist, and his rasengan to end them. One thousand people. One thousand soldiers following orders. They simply had the misfortune of not following their orders as well as Minato did.

He had to talk with the best Shinobi Konoha had alive. Senju Tsunade had been broken by her losses, Konoha could not afford to lose him. So he had talked with Minato, helping him get through it. Kushina was a saving grace for Minato. He recovered. He came back stronger than ever. He took the mantle of Hokage.

'And I had to do the same with their son.'

He had suspected who Naruto and Rin's parents were. The two resembled their parents in looks and temperament. He had to console the son, just as he had consoled the father.

'If I missed something with Itachi, did I miss something with Naruto?'

Inoichi did psych evaluations on each anbu. They had a high burnout rate. Kakashi had been dangerously close to being given forced leave. He'd nearly gotten himself killed in 3 consecutive missions. He'd finally started to be less death happy after a few years.

But Itachi showed nothing like that. he was very well adjusted for an Uchiha his age. The Uchiha had the highest rate of breakdowns for veterans of harsh campaigns. Their eyes caused them to remember every detail from events that are most likely to affect someone's mind.

But Itachi, aside from some stress that could have been related to his mission turnout right, didn't show signs of psychopathy.

'Was he that good of a liar? Or did I miss it?'

He wanted to think Itachi was a good liar. The alternative chilled him. There was another boy that was very much like Itachi. Just as brilliant, but would divert probing questions or suspicions with jokes and eccentricity. He too was someone that Inoichi thought was okay, even if he was a bit quiet when not getting up to his shenanigans.

'Please be a good liar.' He thought. :Naruto won't be him.'

Leaning in and kissing his sleeping daughter on her cheek, he walked out of her bedroom, hoping that his sleep will be as undisturbed as his daughter's.

/////////////////

Hiruzen was at his home, his thoughts those of a dark kind. He had been betrayed by one who was his comrade. He and Danzo were not friends, but they had shed blood together, saved each other. Danzo had his back throughout the wars Konoha was in. When they were both deployed to the front in the First war. His assassination missions that he carried out himself in the Second. And his Root Shinobi doing so in the Third. Root was feared. A secondary shadow to the Anbu.

The Shadow's shadow.

Danzo was the cold pragmatist that could wage a peerless shadow war against foes that surrounded them in the Shinobi wars.

Hiruzen had his trust in him rewarded with betrayal. They had a plan, a good one. Itachi would stop the coup. The dawn would arrive.

And it was taken.

Danzo approached Itachi. Told him they had made a decision. The Uchiha were to be killed. Hiruzen still remembered Itachi's face when he had learned that he had been lied to.

What little light seemed to vanish from him.

Danzo's Root was disbanded, his power limited. He would have been executed or imprisoned if the man didn't have many of Konohas' secret at his disposal. He would leak that he overheard the clan heads scheming to wipe out the Uchiha.

Hiruzen had promised Itachi that he would look after his brother. The last he saw of Itachi was a shadow of his former self. A single dying ember that was once a roaring flame.

"Damn you, Danzo." He growled, no one else to hear him in his home. "You have robbed us of strength in your paranoia. You took a successor from me."

Walking towards his liquor cabinet, he pulled out his pipe to try to light it. His hands were shaking so much from anger that he couldn't even put the tobacco in his pipe.

Snarling at his inability to even smoke, he threw it to the ground, reaching for the cabinet and its contents within. He pulled the door too hard and it broke off completely, causing the contents to spill out on the floor.

Roaring in anger, he shot a fire jutsu at the cabinet, incinerating it and the flammable liquid inside.

The heat from the flames felt warm on his face, but he didn't feel it.

'When will it end? When can I finally rest?'

////////////////////

'How does it feel?' I asked myself, feeling Rin's chakra right in our room, my little sister fast asleep.

I was in the front room of our apartment and I snuck into a merchant shop to steal some alcohol earlier today...

Which I was currently drinking.

The stuff was a shitty brew, but the alcohol content was what I cared about. Even with me drinking a third of the bottle, my eight year old body had only managed to gain a buzz from it because of the fox and me being an Uzumaki.

'It's because of you getting ripped out my mom that this happened.' I thought darkly, almost visualizing Kurama behind the cage. 'And now I can't even get drunk because of you.'

Assuming I would survive, I ducked my head back completely and chugged the bottle, my eyes watering from how strong it was.

I shivered as I finished and wiped my eyes, my hands shaking.

"They died because of you," I whimpered in English, pressing my head against the cheap kitchen table, "You didn't even try."

I don't know if I could've found a way to clue Itachi or Shisui into what was going to happen. Danzo was never around for me to lie and say I sensed that his chakra was different, as in different like the guy who released the Kyuubi. Hell, Tenzo would've been acceptable enough, but he never guarded us.

So, like the extremely cautious person I was, I allowed hundreds of innocent people to die instead of risking my own life.

I let Shisui die. I let Itachi be shattered as he murdered his family, and I destroyed Sasuke's childhood.

'I had to.' I tried to assure myself as I started shaking more. I couldn't accept that I was a coward and my cravenness caused innocents to die. It was unavoidable. It had to be!

All the lives lost to protect me will enable me to protect the village. To protect Rin. It will be worth it.

"But what if tonight were the world's last night?" I could almost hear a voice say that in my mind.

"No," I muttered out loud, clenching my hand as my gut burned from the alcohol, "I know what will happen. Tonight isn't, nor is tomorrow."

Four years before Orochimaru comes, and seven before the Akatsuki make their first moves.

"It's for the good of the world." I said to myself, praying that I could convince myself. "It'll be worth it. I'll make sure of it."

So long as I lived and killed Obito and Zetsu, it will all be worth it. I'll save millions of lives.

'I can imagine no man who will look with more horror on the End than a conscientious revolutionary who has, in a sense sincer-'

"Shut up shut up shut up." I grabbed my head, almost knocked over the empty bottle and I grabbed ahold of it as I buried my face into my sleeve to muffle my sobbing.

I didn't need moral lessons that I cherished and held firm to shattering my resolve. I wasn't saved, I was dropped into this hellscape and now I'm being punished by my own conscience.

'Justifying cruelties and injustices upon his contemporaries for the sake of future generations.'

I was openly crying now, my fingers digging into my head as I gripped my hair tightly. I was just short of begging my own thoughts to stop hurting me like I'd gone insane. I didn't need everyone to think my Yin chakra was destabilized again.

'Generations who, as one terrible moment now reveals to him, were never going to exist.'

I bit back anything I was going to say and sprinted to the bathroom, falling to my knees as I started vomiting into the toilet.

It could've been minutes or hours, I didn't know. All I knew was that I hated myself because I should've done something, even if it was something small.

After vomiting up the alcohol I had ingested and managing to pull myself together, I stood up shakily and slowly went to the couch, wanting to be as far away from Rin as possible.

I let Itachi and Sasuke have their sibling relationship destroyed. I had no right to be relaxed and content that Rin was safe right next to me.

My legs collapsed as I practically fell on the couch, curling up in a fetal position.

Sleep would not come to me, but I still laid there, trying to ignore the guilt that gnawed at me even when I had tried to rationalize it as necessary.

////////////////////////

End chapter.

This was the most painful chapter I've written. So many different characters thoughts, their fears, and their feelings of defeat. It was hard for me to get in the characters heads and make them more than just characters in a book. They have their own fears, loves, and doubts. I'm wanting to give a sense of humanity to them.

Next chapter will probably be another time jump. Maybe two years, I'm not sure. Thanks for reading and good luck.

Raging.