Utterly Unexpected: It started like this...

Itachi was stunned. Somehow, this... this had never been an expected result. In fact, it was so incredibly anticlimactic he was left floundering.

Madara was dead.

He was dead because he had, for whatever reason, decided to wake the twenty one year old in the dead of the night without his mask on. This had had the rather unfortunate, for him that is, side effect of Itachi coming up with a kunai in his fingers out of a nightmare. After all, he'd learned years before to stay still in his sleep even in the midst of one, however, he had thought, somehow, that a ninja would know not to startle another ninja awake.

Thus, complete bewilderment that the hit, however panicked and subconscious, had hit was entirely warranted.

Drawing his sheet a bit further up his chest to swipe at the blood he felt on his skin, he eyed the contrast intently. Yes, that was really blood. Leaning over the side of the bed, he stared down at the body next to him. Yes, it was really a body.

Easing sideways out of the bed, he nudged the body with a foot. That moved like a dead body. It was, sadly, a very distinctive and familiar movement. Still a bit too in shock to really process what was going on, he leaned down and turned the head. There was a kunai sticking out of one dark eye, the other utterly sightless and dead.

Madara was dead.

This was a Big Deal.

Finally, suddenly, he realized with stunning clarity what this meant. He was free! With... absolutely nowhere to go. Well.

Stepping around the body, he dug through his pack and finally pulled a storage scroll out, looking from it to the man dead on his bedroom floor for a moment. Yes, that might work. Nodding to himself, he sealed the body into the scroll and brought it up to eye level, frowning at it.

"Why couldn't you have done this to yourself years ago? You I would have gladly helped with assisted suicide." It was a dark mutter, and a moment later he stuck the scroll back into his bag, starting to gather his things.

He may have had plans to go let Sasuke find him soon, but that would just have to wait a bit longer. First he had to go to Konoha and talk to a certain Senju.

After all, if Madara was dead, the threats to Sasuke were going to be coming from an entirely different direction.

He just... had to come up with a plan first so they didn't execute him practically on sight. That's all.