Chapter Twenty-Four
Loyalty

No one would tell him where Itachi was. Sasuke watched, through the gap in the sliding door, as his mother cried her eyes out, sitting down. The old man, the one so old and round and bald he strongly resembled a turtle was comforting her, gently. He had a hand on her back, and his voice was too low to understand what he was saying, but it was gentle, soothing.

Sasuke didn't know what to do. Itachi hadn't come home last night, and neither had Father. Mother had, but she refused to speak about anything. Shisui was away on a mission, or else he might have asked him.

There was no one else to ask.

He padded softly into another room of the empty, quiet house, and laid down on the bed. He almost wished he'd gone to the academy today, just to have something to do. That Naruto kid would have bugged him, if nothing else, and he would be thinking of something that wasn't this - this horrible not knowing, not being told, this horrible waiting.

The girl sat, in the white room.

There was something implacable about her expression, even as she sat, covered in blood and burns. Her clothing was in tatters, her hair burnt, and her eyes had dried blood running from them, following tear-tracks. The bandages visible in a thin line, over one breast, crossing her collarbones, up her neck to her jaw were particularly striking.

"Ibiki-san, you said she was doing well?" Yamanaka Inoichi asked, mildly.

"Her performance has been exemplary," he agreed. "I could not ask for a more ideal employee."

"And you recommended her for T&I, to… relieve stress," Inoichi continued, looking at Hatake.

"Yes, Yamanaka-san." Hatake didn't even have his book open.

"Why?"

"Because I couldn't trust her alone. I tried to stop her, but she was mutilating both herself and others. Couldn't let her out of my sight on assignment without targets vanishing." He made an aborted gesture, like he wanted to grab for his book, but stopped himself. He tilted his head, eyes crinkling.

"So she was torturing people?" Inoichi had a deep frown on his face, the furrow so deep it looked like a head wound.

Hatake shrugged. "Not on my watch. That was the thing - she kept it out of sight, where she could. But she didn't stop - didn't seem to be able to. So if she was going to do it, it would be better for her to do it while someone was watching - Morino-san, for instance. Better for that to be in the service of the village, no?"

Cynical, but that wasn't a surprise. Hatake clearly had something of a soft spot for a girl who'd graduated almost as early as he had.

"So she stopped after the transfer?"

"Unless she managed to fool me, yes."

"And the gender?" Ibiki asked. "Was she better after it came out that she was female?"

Hatake blinked at him, curiously. "Before. Sending her to T&I was before. Came about about the same time, actually."

"Hmmm," Ibiki grunted. "So you would describe her as emotionally stable?"

"When she left my command, yes. But she was promoted at the request of Shimura Danzou."

"I don't know the man, Hatake-san," Ibiki said. He'd heard rumors, but he did not care for hearsay.

"I make no promises for her under his guidance," Hatake explained, lightly.

"Her reports warned of instability. Weak leadership," Inoichi put in. "An ANBU Mole was observing her."

"Oh yes, I'm sure," Hatake replied, snarling. "I'm sure the lackey he assigned to watch over her shoulder said all the right things to get her command revoked."

That was particularly hostile. "Would you care to explain, Hatake-san?"

"It's happened to me before. Loyal subordinates get promoted before they're ready, against my recommendation. And when they struggle, they're demoted again, and reassigned." He ran his hand through his hair, and turned to Ibiki. "With me, she wasn't unstable. But she's thirteen. ANBU Captain is a hard position, with a lot of pressure. Maybe that was too much."

"I don't like that explanation," Ibiki said, folding his arms. "What? She just snapped? Just one day up and decided to slaughter half her clan?"

"She's got a history of sadism," Inoichi replied, tightly. "Of excessive brutality. I would hardly call this totally unexpected."

"A history of sadism, yes," Hatake replied, hands fisted tightly in his pockets. "But she didn't torture anyone last night, did she? My team was first on the scene, and she didn't mutilate anyone - I saw a lot of clean beheadings. I know Itachi-san's work - this was her in mission efficiency. She's brutal, but she doesn't carve people up when there are threats around."

"Reading these reports, I would call her a psychopath," Inoichi replied. "I've not seen or heard anything to contradict that."

"She was a genin at seven," Hatake hissed. "Fuck, by that logic, I'm half a psychopath myself. It certainly emotionally cripples a person. I'm not denying that. But this isn't her snapping. This isn't what that looks like. This is way too messy, way too obvious. Hell, she marched right up to me and surrendered."

He rubbed a hand down his face, exhaling. "Uchiha Itachi was ashamed of torturing people. She wasn't ashamed last night."

"I appreciate your insight, but she was under your command for less than two years, Hatake-san," Inoichi replied, hands clasped tightly together, like he wanted to punch something. "There is a procedure for this type of behavior, and, frankly, I'm not sure you did the right thing by covering for her the way you did."

"Respectfully," and the words were spoken in a tone that implied that they were anything but, "there's nothing textbook about tossing a girl into a ninja life before some kids even join the academy. There's no procedure for asking a twelve year old to murder children. There's no guidelines for emotional support for a girl who's pretended to be a boy her whole life because of politics." He snarled the last word, harshly.

"What about the father?" Ibiki asked. He didn't blame Hatake. Not if he was being honest with himself. He was protective of his subordinates - Ibiki couldn't blame him for that. He was protective of Itachi too.

"Kunai to the throat. Messy. Out of character," Hatake snapped.

"Hmmm," he mused. "If the clan had said anything, this would have been much simpler. But none of the survivors will utter a word. I'd be almost impressed, if it wasn't interfering with us finding the truth."

"The truth is that Uchiha Itachi is a good shinobi," Hatake protested. "Who's given far more than the village has a right to ask of anyone."

"That may be true," Ibiki said, gently. "But that doesn't change the fact that she killed twenty-three people, most of them active-duty shinobi."

Hatake looked ready to protest, but then, the Hokage and Shimura Danzou walked in, stepping into the room with careful, steady gaits.

"Morino-san," the Hokage said, prompting him to report.

"Subject is Uchiha Itachi, thirteen years of age, female, registration number 012110. ANBU captain under Shimura Danzou, and part-time member of T&I, under my supervision. Killed twenty-three Uchiha clan members, including her own father, in an extended confrontation in a hidden chamber underneath the clan's shrine."

"Good." The Hokage looked tired, far more old and wizened than he had looked in a long time. Next to him, Danzou was quiet, an old man's wise silence. Ibiki wondered what he had said to the Hokage, but he didn't truly know.

"I will question her," Yamanaka Inoichi said. "As Morino-san is here in a purely advisory capacity, due to his relationship with Uchiha-san."

The Hokage nodded, gravely. "I have perused the reports, and Danzou-san has informed me of the situation. Please, continue."

Danzou, again, said nothing. It seemed his words had all come before, when he and the Hokage were alone. Yamanaka went to the door, and stepped through. Itachi looked up, face implacable as always.

There was something about the way she sat that Morino Ibiki did not like. For a girl who was accused of killing twenty-three people, including her own father, she looked wrong.

A mass-murderer was an odd beast, so perhaps it was unfamiliarity with that particular breed. Rarely did a person slaughter that many people in one night. Her many, obvious injuries made sense, and her obvious exhaustion did, too - she had been awake all night.

But something about her tickled him. She wasn't calm enough. She was slumped, hands resting on the table, her posture almost casual. Normally, Uchiha Itachi was a cold little robot, posture perfect, polite and pleasant and almost expressionless.

Today, she looked like she had, the first time they'd met. When she'd blushed, avoided eye contact, and corrected him. He hadn't thought much of it - she had been listed as male, when he checked later, but before he had a chance to ask her about that, he'd heard the rumor that her father had concealed her gender to strengthen her claim as clan heir.

Not completely unexpected, no, but the kind of clan politics that left a bad taste in his mouth. He'd just thought it was that - she acted oddly, because it was an odd situation. But now, he considered that she had been happy to correct him. It was a relief. A small thing, sure, but she had relaxed, once he'd accepted her correction.

That was what she looked like now. That kind of relaxation - the fact that she showed real, human emotion. Tiredness. A loose posture.

He couldn't say, exactly, but he doubted that she had done it because she was insane. It looked rather like it was a weight off her chest.

She straightened up for Inoichi, though, and that was what made him realize how tired she looked.

"Uchiha Itachi," he said, coldly.

"Yamanaka Inoichi-san," she returned, mildly. It made sense that the wouldn't send Ibiki.

"Report," he ordered.

"Last night, during a clan meeting to plot the overthrow of the Hokage, I challenged my father for leadership of the clan. We fought. I won. I killed every other strong proponent of the coup, and allowed those who would be willing to back down."

She held his eyes, carefully.

"What coup?"

"The Uchiha have - had - been plotting against the village for months. Meeting in secret, they made plans for a hostile takeover and instillation of my father as Hokage. I was to have seven cousins, who were to help me fight the ANBU. Shisui had a similar group, for the jonin. My father was to fight the Hokage personally," she explained.

His eyes were wide, and his fists tight. "Did anyone else know of the coup?"

"The Uchiha. And the Hokage."

"You told the Hokage?"

"Yes. I came to him months ago, when I failed to persuade my father against the coup. The Sandaime asked me to observe. I did not feel confident in his solution, so I took action myself."

Yamanaka sighed, and Itachi folded her arms, leaning back.

"And no one ordered you?"

"As an ANBU captain, I am told that I have the authority to make judgement calls while on missions. This was not a mission, but I had orders from the Hokage. I overstepped, yes, but this was the best path left to me."

Yamanaka folded his arms, now, as well. "What about Shimura Danzou-sama? Did you tell him of your plans at all? He was your superior, as an ANBU captain. Did he not deserve to know?"

Itachi met his eyes, evenly. She could not back down, here.

"I did not believe that he would have the Uchiha's best interests at heart," she said. "So no, I did not consult him. I feared that if I told him that there was a coup, he would order me to kill the entire clan. He already made one attempt at stealing a sharingan."

"That's a serious accusation against a respected member of Konoha," he replied, sharply. "Explain the incident."

"Danzou-sama ordered my cousin Shisui to a room underground, alone, and bespelled him with genjutsu. It was only the clone I had tasked to follow him that kept his eyes from being stolen."

"Can anyone verify this story?"

"Shisui."

He was carefully smug, as he asked his next question. "Did you enjoy it?"

"What?" she asked, thrown.

"Did you enjoy killing your father? Your aunts, your uncles, your cousins?"

She reeled, caught off guard. "No!"

"Hmmm. I doubt that. I think you liked it. It made you feel powerful, special. Your old captain tells me that you liked that sort of thing." He leaned forward, grinning nastily. "Killing for fun."

"I had to," she told him. "There was no pleasure in it."

"I don't believe you."

She leaned back, and made a show of lounging in the chair. "Enter my mind. I have nothing to hide. I am loyal."

He leaned forward, stretched out his hand, and did as she asked.

Inoichi stepped back into the room, frowning.

Hatake was calm, unflappable, but years of reading people meant that Ibiki could tell the roiling fury under his skin.

The Hokage, too, looked old and wounded. Danzou looked as unruffled as ever.

"She was telling the truth as she understood it, but she is - her mind is strange."

No one quite knew what to say to that, until Danzou spoke up.

"I do not believe that she is mentally well."

"I'm sure you don't," Hatake snapped. "Awfully convenient for you that the person who accuses you of bloodline theft is not sound of mind."

"Hatake-san," the Hokage reprimanded, gently.

"Was there truth to that?" Ibiki asked.

"Yes, but - it was strange. Not all her memories are… clean, for lack of a better word. I don't trust them. Her reporting to the Hokage, for instance."

"She did report to me, a few times," the Hokage said. "I thought extermination too harsh, if all it was was talk."

"I deny the accusation," Danzou said, finally. There was something about the set of his mouth that made Ibiki wary. "As I have told Hokage-sama, I believe that the frequent use of Uchiha-san's clone technique has degraded her mind. She has lost the ability to discern between delusion and reality. The coup, the attack on her cousin, all of these things are entirely within her own mind. One of my subordinates, a skilled medic-nin, compiled this."

He drew from his robes a file, and handed it to Yamanaka. Yamanaka perused it, silently.

"I have seen no evidence of this, in her term at T&I," Ibiki told them.

"Of course not," Danzou agreed, magnanimously. "I believe that she uses the act of torture to center herself. It is, quite likely, the time when she is most sane."

"Then what about last night?" Ibiki countered. "If she was delusional as you say, then maybe she was in her right mind as she killed them."

"Ah, but the methodology is important, Morino-san. She did not torture anyone last night. In fact, she was out of the village for her last shift at T&I, so undoubtedly her perceptions were altered."

Ibiki folded his arms. "I do not agree with this conclusion," he declared.

"I do not either." Hatake had his arms folded aggressively, his jaw set in defiance. "As her ANBU captain, I observed her first uses of the technique. She used it at my direction, frequently. I saw no evidence of mental instability, and no correlation between her awareness of reality, and the times she tortured people. What I saw was a large decrease in stress, around the time she started working at T&I."

"This instability developed over a long period of time. You might not have been a party to most of it."

Hatake bristled, stiffening up like a cat. "I was with her for two years. How long was your agent working with her? Five weeks, at most."

"Five weeks at her most unstable, yes. But I have been observing her for a long time," Danzou replied, gently. "She is not well. Delusional, and psychopathic."

Ibiki cleared his throat. "Danzou-sama, one of the symptoms of psychopathy is an absence of delusion," he clarified.

Danzou turned, and nodded. "Of course, Morino-san. You are the expert."

"No, but that's not quite true," Inoichi said. "Psychopath isn't always an accurate term. It is an extreme, and there are many who qualify for some middle ground between neurotypical and psychopath."

"This degeneration is not natural," Danzou suggested. "Therefore, is it not possible for it to coincide with a different condition?"

Ibiki sighed, and frowned. "It is also possible that she is unwell, as you suggest, and still justified in killing her clan. Mental instability does not always mean that the things a person sees are untrue."

"Is there no one else who will corroborate this coup?" the Hokage asked. "Uchiha Shisui, for example."

"Uchiha Shisui is on a long-term assignment, in the Land of Wind," Danzou said. "He is not available to answer questions."

"No one else?" Hatake asked.

"No. All the Uchiha who were there that night have categorically denied any knowledge of the coup," Inoichi said.

"And the mother?" Ibiki asked.

Inoichi sighed. "Refused to acknowledge that she had two children."

The rest of the room winced.

The Hokage let out an enormous, tired sigh. "Alright, Inoichi-san. I've heard all I think I'm going to hear. Your final verdict?"

Inoichi rubbed his temples. "This is a hard decision," he said, gravely. "Whatever the truth is, Uchiha Itachi believes that she was doing the right thing. Whether that was entirely in her mind or not - that is the question. And from what I've seen inside her mind, and what I've read, and heard from everyone, I'm not sure she ought to be an active-duty shinobi, without a serious psychological evaluation. Therefore, I recommend that she be detained, for the time being."

The Hokage nodded, gratefully, and Hatake stalked aggressively to the wall, pulling out an Icha Icha novel. Danzou looked grave, and solemn.

"Then she is to be remanded to the hospital, until further notice," the Hokage ordered. "Under guard."

Hatake snapped his book shut, prowled up to the Hokage, and spat, "You're making a mistake. Uchiha Itachi deserves more than a cell, for her sacrifices. If that girl is unwell, then it is on your shoulders. Hokage-sama." And then he left the room in protest.

Ibiki let out a long, tired sigh. "I do not think that she is unwell," he repeated, softly, and then left too. He couldn't stand to be in there any longer.

Kane turned, as Yuugao stepped through the doors of the house they shared. Katsu-sensei's house. He had almost stopped agonizing over it, almost stopped thinking of his mentor every time he curled into bed, or saw the arranged weapons on the wall.

"Yo, nerd, have you talked to Itachi lately?" she asked, collapsing onto the couch beside him, her naginata clattering to the floor.

"No." He regretted talking to her like that. He just - it was just weird. He hadn't understood, and he hadn't been kind about it. He should have been kinder, because he hadn't talked to Itachi in months.

"Huh," she said. "I heard from one of the girls in ANBU, Salamander, that Itachi's been arrested, or something."

"What?" Kane asked, shocked. "Itachi? What did she do?"

"Killed a whole lot of her clan, apparently. They were saying she snapped, and the Hokage is burying her."

"I - that's insane," he said, half to himself. "Itachi? She - I - it's just… Itachi."

"I know, right? I tried to see if I could see her, but they weren't letting anyone in. Salamander said something about her old captain, who was raising a big stink about it. I told her I wanted to speak to him. She said she would be in contact."

"Okay," he said, smiling. "I'm in. We'll get her out, right?"

She smirked, tossing her hair back. "Of course."

Shisui stepped carefully through the dark wood, eyeing the corps. There was a silence in the air, as his teammates had melted slowly away.

"Stork? Tortoise?" he called. No response. He turned, whirled, and slipped into his sharingan. There was no movement, in the dark wood.

He wondered, then, whether this was Danzou. Itachi had been so paranoid about them, but he'd chalked initially up to just one of those Itachi things, one of those eccentricities that he just took in stride.

But Danzou had shown himself to have a grudge, and a thirst for the sharingan. And Itachi worried about him intervening in the coup.

And, when he'd sent on a patrol mission, he suspected foul play, but there was no way to defy the order. When his patrol had been extended, he knew there was foul play.

It was, however, a direct order, and he was powerless against such a thing. His new teammates were dull, taciturn, and incredibly suspicious.

And when Beaver turned up dead, there was nothing else to it - this was a hit.

He caught a movement out of his eye; he brought his tanto up to knock the kunai away. He could see a dark shape in the woods, far off. He didn't hesitate - he stepped into a shunshin, striking out as he moved.

The blade bit into flesh. Tortoise barely had time to react, as he was punctured by Shisui's blade. Tortoise's own blade dropped from nerveless fingers, and he staggered. Shisui followed it up with more slashes, until Tortoise was bleeding on the ground.

He turned, hearing the rustle of wind and a strange, skittering noise. Once, he'd rotated on chuunin teams with an Aburame, so he knew what this was. He moved, again, stepping into another shunshin, as smooth as glass.

Shisui moved again, searching, to keep ahead of his pursuit. None of the bugs touched him.

And then, he caught it - a dark shape, moving through the trees. Enemy shinobi rarely had the reflexes to beat Shunshin no Shisui. It was true for Stork, as well, as his head fell from his shoulders.

Like a good teammate, he destroyed all the corpses before he turned, and left for home. They might have been traitorous dogs, but they were still Konoha shinobi. He would kill Shimura Danzou before he let anyone put their hands on any of his family - especially Itachi.

Itachi waited. They had confined her to a hospital, ostensibly for her protection. She had been told that the Hokage believed her mentally unwell, and that someone would be by to evaluate her soon.

They had bound her wrists and ankles, with chakra seals, but they had not bound her eyes. She wondered if that was deliberate. They had taken her things, as well, and a part of her raged at that. Her father's eyes - if they took them, she would kill every last one of them.

What a reward, for a girl who had averted a war.

Still, there was nothing to do but sit, and wait. Her meals were delivered through small slots, and her wounds were mostly healed. There was little else to do, in this prison. They called it a hospital, but that was merely a euphemism.

She amused herself with experimenting with the mangekyo. It was a strange ability - that web that appeared, on the night of her semi-massacre was easy to recall. It overlayed the room, still and silent. Her cell was cold, and sterile, and there were no living things to sing for her eyes.

The other ability was far less obvious - it seemed to have no real use. It was a muscle that flexed nothing, and made her bleed for it. It was only when she felt for her chakra did she feel it - a little bit, thick and viscous, like oil, had seeped into the pure water of her chakra. The eye only allowed her a little bit at a time, and the new chakra needed to be carefully balanced, or else it did strange things to the activation of her sharingan - her vision would go blurry, and she stopped immediately, before she damaged something.

What else was there to do? For three days straight she played with the ability. The chakra, when fed into her hands, did strange things with the seals. They wavered, like leaves blown in the wind. They would retreat, and briefly, she could use her hands again, and then they were back, as rigid as ever.

It wasn't long, but it was enough.

Enough for when Danzou finally came for her. There was a scuffle at the door, and then a squad of blank-masked shinobi came in.

The leader, who was tall and intimidating, spoke. "You are being transferred. Come with us."

She stood, stretching slightly in the plain clothes they'd given her. Most of her wounds had healed, by now. The burn on her neck was still painful, but she was not worried about that. The Hashirama cells were powerful, in more ways than one.

She allowed herself to be grabbed - they did not physically restrain her, but they did blindfold her. The world moved away, and they guided her carefully out of the hospital. They took a purposefully circuitous route.

Itachi could have escaped, then and there, but she did not. She wanted to see if they were taking her to Danzou. Taking her directly to her revenge.

They walked in silence, taking a circuitous route designed to confuse her. She wasn't worried, though. She knew where she was going.

Finally, she was shoved forward, and bashed behind her knees, driving her to the ground. A gentle click of a cane came into her hearing, and she activated the mangekyo. Oh, how lucky.

The web swam into view, even through the blindfold. Looking at Danzou was like looking at a wound, in the web. His subordinates were surprisingly hard to discern, as their presences were muffled, quiet ripples.

"Take the blindfold off," he said.

The minion did so. He slipped it off, and revealed the lotus-shaped, eight-sided flower sigil in her eyes, red on black.

Danzou looked into her eyes. It was his first mistake. The trickle of blood dripped down her left eye, as the senjutsu surged through her system. The seals on her wrists and ankles fluttered away, dispersed by the sage chakra, and then she was moving. The chakra, and the cells gave her an unholy strength.

Her first blow shattered the big man's skull.

She ducked down, beneath a thrust blade, and her second crushed a second man's windpipe.

Another dodge, easy with the warning the web gave her, and her third caved in a third man's chest.

Her fourth was a sweep, and the Root agent was dispatched with an axe kick which pulverized his ribcage. A fifth.

Then, she looked back at Danzou, who was still struggling with the perfectly real illusion of a vengeance-filled Itachi, who had two slashing fans and was casually de-limbing him - as far as he could tell.

She was next to him, in an instant, and while he was strong and spry for his age, he was nothing compared to her rage. She had his face in her hands, as the genjutsu faded. Her nails had hardened into long, black claws, and she found that she didn't care.

He opened his mouth to say something, and she twisted, until his head was facing the wrong way. He dropped, dead. Hashirama cells or no Hashirama cells, he was dead.

More Root agents busted into the underground room - it was large, but not so large that they weren't in range.

She didn't hesitate. She had already been doomed the second that Danzou went behind the Hokage's back.

Itachi was tired. There was no big plan here, no clever ruse. She was killing these mindless drones, subjugated by a selfish man's ambition because they were in the way. She had no more fucks left to give.

She'd given everything to the village, and this was how they chose to repay that. Itachi could deal. She was strong enough that she'd be fine on her own.

Her only real regret was Sasuke, but she wasn't going to leave him without saying goodbye, no matter how many Konoha ANBU she had to kill.

The chakra flow was a strange thing - her eye was a valve, and it filled her with that slick, oily chakra. As she stood still, the flow stopped, and the Root dashed towards her, silently.

She reached for her chakra - there was only so much that she could hold, at one time. She wondered if it was a proportion of her own chakra.

She had never had a stupendous amount of chakra, even as a child. The infusion of Hashirama cells had increased it, but that put her on average, with others of her age group, if not her skill level.

Itachi was still thirteen, after all, and that was not always an enormous impediment, but her chakra wasn't done growing yet.

Still, she had it in abundance, for her usual stores, and she flashed through a quick set of hand signs, eyes on the Root members. They showed only their approach, towards Itachi, in the web. A few threw kunai, but she had no problem moving out of the way, with a few seconds' warning.

She slashed her hands through the air, and jets of white, dense fire shot out, like a scythe culling wheat.

The Root members were neatly bisected, almost as a group.

Only one managed to survive, a thin, young boy around Sasuke's age.

If she was reading him correctly through the mask and the web, he was half-full of shock.

"Go," she told him. "Run. Your order is dead, your master is dead, but you need not die with it."

He stared, for a second, before he jerkily stood, and charged. Itachi wanted to laugh. But she didn't - she met him in the middle, hand around his neck, her other hand slapping away his thin, tipless blade. He smashed into the ground, and she leaned over him.

"You are nothing," she hissed, hands tightening around his neck. "I could kill you in an instant. But I'm tired. So I won't. Your life is yours. Take it." She forced him to meet her eyes, and stuck him in a genjutsu - this one had spikes pinning him to the ground, in his legs, and arms. That should keep him occupied for a while.

She stood, and went to leave, when a thin whistling pop, sounded, and she whirled.

It was Obito, the masked man. He stood, in that long black cloak with red clouds, and surveyed the room.

He whistled. "Sorry to, uh, interrupt your no-doubt justified rampage, but, uh, hi."

"Hello," she returned, feeling oddly out of sorts.

"Hey! You've got a mangekyo! That's, uh, oh, oh no. That's not a good thing, actually."

She couldn't help it. She laughed. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, I heard about a lot of dead Uchiha, and I, uh, wanted to make sure no one made off with any sharingan in the night." He sighed, ruffling his hair in a nervous gesture. "Except me, of course."

Itachi laughed again. "I'm sure you'll use them better than my family ever did. But not my father's eyes. Those are mine."

He put his hands up in a nervous gesture. "Okay, no touching the clan head's eyes, that's cool."

"Has Root already stolen them?" she asked. "Or are we going to raid the morgue?"

He started. "Wait, why would you help me commit mild bloodline theft?"

Itachi laughed again, but this time it wasn't out of amusement. She folded her arms. "Fuck the clan. Fuck the Hokage. Fuck this entire village. I saved my clan from annihilation, and they repaid me by lying to make me seem delusional, to get themselves out of any punishment. An old fuck who just wanted my eyes stole me from under the Third's nose, and only the mangekyo saved me." She splayed her hands out, thin in the loose, too-large hospital shirt. "Fuck Konoha."

"Oh, well, that's uh, I can't blame you for that. Hey, you remind me of me at your age."

She just eyed him. He shrugged, sheepish.

"My anger was fueled by an insane old man and turned out to be way less justified, but hey, I can understand the rage."

She nodded, finally. "I will help you. And then, well, I'll figure it out."

"You know," he said, faux-casually. He had a strangely open body language for such a skilled shinobi. "I was just thinking about asking you and Shisui to help me with an international criminal organization part-time. But the gig can be full-time, if you're interested?"

"Fine. Sell me on it."

"Let's kill and talk," he said, stepping out into the hall. "So, yeah, back when I was all evil, before your cousin used his super-genjutsu and turned me back into, like, a real human, I was running this criminal organization, called Akatsuki. The point was to collect and seal all the bijuu into a concerningly sinister statue, and use it to cast a giant genjutsu onto the entire world, so I could have my dead girlfriend back," he explained.

She followed him through dark halls, as he talked. When he looked at her, she hummed her agreement. Another Root agent popped up, and she put her fist through his chest.

"Okay, so, they're sort of still going, so I was going to try and like, I dunno, aim them in a less megalomaniacal direction. And I can't fight them all at once. Some of them are pretty dangerous people. So some outside backup, I think. If you're in, we can do it together." He smashed another Root into a wall, with a root.

"What do I get?"

"Something to do? A stable job? Some semi-legitimate support, which is hard to get as a missing-nin. Oh! Here we are." He opened a door, and they stepped through into a low-ceilinged, chamber done in white tile. A number of bodies were laid out, and a number of men in blank masks and medical scrubs were picking at corpses.

"Oh no you don't!" Obito shouted, and launched himself forward. Itachi activated her own eyes, and dashed to the other coroner. He went to stab her with a scalpel, and she easily side-stepped and did her level best to lop off his head with her bare hands.

It didn't quite work, unfortunately, but he crumpled anyway.

Obito had rooted another one, and the third dropped his scalpel and tried to run. Another root caught him around the ankle, tripped him, and then smashed him into the wall, cracking the tile.

"Right, right," he said. "So the eyes should be in this room here." He tossed her a scroll. "If you seal the ones that are already out, I'll go and browse for ones they haven't gotten to yet."

She did so. "I still need my father's," she called.

"He's Fugaku, right? I know what he looks like. If we can find him, his eyes should be in here."

"They're in one of my scrolls, so we need to find where they took my stuff," she said. "I don't know if Root took them when they kidnapped me."

Obito stopped, and looked at her, through that weird mask. "Wait, what?"

"He gave me his eyes when he died. For the mangekyo. So I took them when…" She choked off the sob, eyes wet. "When I killed him."

"Oh! I see. We'll find those next." He turned away, back to his business of inspecting corpses.

Itachi forced herself to seal the glass jars, containing sharingan. She appreciated him being quiet, and unobtrusive, for her feelings.

She had finished up, when he turned and deposited a bunch more eyes into jars, and started sealing them himself.

He finished in silence. "Right. None of your stuff is here. Let's finish checking this base before we go back to that hospital where you were."

"Right," she agreed, nodding.

He led the way out to the hall, and she found it comforting, that he was an easy partner to murder hapless Root shinobi with.

Three doors later, and they found Danzou's office, which had a pile of her clothes, and her scrolls and seals, which contained a great deal of useful things, including her father's eyes.

She scooped them up, bundling them together, and Obito asked, "Right. Got everything?"

"Yes," she said. "Thank you, for this. I think I'll come with you, for now. But I want to visit Sasuke soon."

"Okay," he agreed, brightly. "That's totally fine! We can do that. I can transplant those eyes, too, if you want."

"I would." She had already put her life in his hands once. If they were going to be partners in this Akatsuki thing, that would be okay, too.

He held out his hand, and she took it, allowing herself to be taken in by his strange, whirling jutsu.

AN: Consider this the end of "Part 1" of BL. As always, thanks to the lovely AlmostElectric for her tireless beta work.