chapter one. itachi's
path, the pride of the uchiha clan.
“Hey, Itachi, wanna play Assassin?”
“Sure, how do you play?”
“Well, every one gets assigned a person. Then you have to go around
looking for them, and when you find them, you have to kill them-“
A small gulp was heard. “Kill them?”
“Not for real, silly!” A little girl laughed. “You throw a sock at
them, and if it hits them, bam! They’re dead.”
“Oh. Okay.” Itachi started taking off his little sandals, grabbing a
sock in each hand.
“Then when they die, they have to tell you who their person is, then
you have to go after and kill that person. And at the end, only one
person is left, and that person is the winner! Okay?”
“Okay!”
“I’m lucky that you want to play with us, Itachi, because my person is
you! So you better run!”
Itachi let out a yelp and started running away. This was going to be
fun!
The game lasted all afternoon, and at the end there was still no
winner. Still, when there parents came to pick them up, the children
couldn’t very well explain that not every one was dead yet so they
needed to keep playing.
“Did you have fun, Itachi?”
Itachi smiled at his father, grabbing the older man’s hand as they
walked home. “Yeah! No one killed me, and there were only five of us
left! And I was about to kill Hikaru, but then we had to go home.”
“Good.” The elder Uchiha chuckled. “Because starting from tomorrow
you’ll be a student at the academy. You won’t have time for playing
anymore.”
“Will Hikaru and Akiko and Hana and Seiji-“
“No, your friends aren’t ready to become students yet.”
“Oh. Okay.”
“Itachi...” The older man kneeled down to look at his son. “You get to
become a student now because you’re very talented. You know that. Even
for a Uchiha, you’re exceptionally gifted. That’s obvious even though
you’re so young. You should be very privileged to be able to attend the
academy at such a young age. So you must try your hardest to become a
great ninja.”
Itachi nodded. He knew all of this already. He heard it so often from
the adults around him.
“Itachi, take your studies seriously, okay?”
“Alright, father. I’ll become a great ninja. The greatest of all in the
Uchiha clan.”
The elder Uchiha nodded and smiled. His Itachi would be the prize of
the Uchiha bloodline.
* * * * * *
"Shinobi saying 25. A shinobi must keep emotions on the inside, no
matter what the situation. You must make the mission top priority, and
you must possess a heart that never shows tears."
"Shinobi saying 29. A shinobi must exist only for the mission. When a
mission is undertaken, you are only a tool, and will fulfill it at
utmost self expense."
Uchiha Itachi laid his head down on his desk, staring out the window.
Shinobi saying 32... 39... 41... Even as his attention was on the
courtyard outside, Itachi committed the words to memory as soon as his
teacher said them. It was easy for him, the memorization and
recollection of meaningless phrases; well, the memorization and
recollection of anything really. His mind ran on a level that he, only
a seven-year-old boy, could not keep up with. It was a strength of his,
something that allowed him to learn jutsus and new fighting tactics at
an alarming rate, something that had marked him as the genius in an
already genius clan... as the boy who had inherited the Uchiha
bloodline the strongest. His gifts were the reason he was already about
to graduate from the ninja academy, when most of his classmates were
five years his senior. And what he really wanted to do was to play
outside, in the courtyard, with the other children his age.
The teacher stopped speaking and dismissed the class, which started to
gather their belongings and leave. Some were quick to get out of the
room, anxious the do some last minute studying before the exam
tomorrow. Some dallied behind to talk with their friends. Itachi
grabbed his bag and started walking out of the classroom, not even
pausing as he heard some of his peers talking about him.
"Che, that damn Uchiha kid... he thinks he's so great, about to
graduate."
"Yeah, I hope he fails."
"Itachi."
Itachi looked up as the teacher called out to him. "Yes, sensei?"
The sensei had heard the comments, had seen the dirty looks the boys
shot Itachi. "Is everything all right?"
"Everything is fine."
The sensei smiled down at his best student. "I trust you'll do your
best on the exam tomorrow."
"Of course." Itachi didn't wait for a reply, instead he turned and
left. There was no doubt that he would do well. He left the building
and paused at the courtyard, watching the other children his age
playing a game of tag. He had played with them before, just a few years
ago, but that seemed like a long time ago.
"Hey, isn't that Uchiha Itachi? Do you think he wants to play with us?"
Itachi turned as soon as the girl noticed him, hurrying home.
* * * * * *
"Okaasan!" Itachi opened the screen door do his house, calling to his
mother. "I'm home!"
His little brother Sasuke was crawling around on the floor and looked
up at Itachi imploringly. "Foo?"
Itachi gabbed the two-year-old from behind and picked him up, even
though the toddler was perfectly capable of walking, and awkwardly
carried him to the kitchen where he knew his mother was.
"Welcome home, Itachi. How was class today?"
Itachi set his brother down on a chair and made his way to the
refrigerator. "We're out of food that Sasuke can eat."
Itachi went to the cupboard to grab a box of toddler food mix, prepared
to make another batch for his brother as his mother cooked dinner. In
between stirring the mix he had to keep running back to the chair to
make sure Sasuke didn't fall off. Eventually he gave the younger child
a pair of chopsticks to keep him amused and still. When he finished he
sat down next to Sasuke to feed him.
Itachi's mother sighed as she turned around to look at her eldest son.
Every year he became even stronger, and every year he became more and
more withdrawn. He barely talked to her and his father any more,
preferring instead to immerse himself in his studies. He was always
training, or reciting his damned lectures. "Itachi, why don't you ever
smile any more? You used to smile so much."
Itachi recounted the words that he had heard almost every week since
enrolling in the academy. "A shinobi must keep emotions on the inside."
His mother stood there smiling for a second longer before turning back
to the stove. "... yes. I suppose that's true."
Tomorrow, Uchiha Itachi would pass the academy graduation exam as his
class's number one ranked ninja.