Chapter Text
A child not even reaching adulthood had been given a choice. Could one really call it a choice when it was given to him by someone who was supposed to protect him, his village, his family and everyone. A child thirteen years old wouldn't really have any other choice than to obey for the sake of his precious people, the village and the peace he desired so vehemently.
He deluded himself by thinking it for greater good however his conscience wouldn't let him. After all in an evening he had killed anyone who crossed his sight, his clansmen including children, men ,women, elderly, his own parents, his whole life and everything he had. He had finished everything with his own hands, yet he couldn't harm his brother. He loved him far too much to hurt him. As if to be Contradicting to what he felt he ended up hurting his only family member left both emotionally and mentally. He couldn't bring himself to look at what he had done. He regretted it with his entire being yet he couldn't turn it back, he couldn't do anything now. He cursed his existence, wished he hadn't been born cause that was the only thing he could do. Even though he wished for things to be different he didn't know what he could have done to make things different than they were now. No, he was certain he would only bring misery and misfortune to people.
On the other hand if it was him he could have done something, he would have made a change however small it may be. At least then things wouldn't have turned out the way they did. He was sure Shisui could have changed things, but the fool chose to trust him and sacrificed his life and again Itachi managed to somehow disappoint him. If shisui was alive he would have hit him while calling him out on his behaviour, he was like that never fearing the consequences and going for what he thought was right.
The thought of shisui only brought a greater sense of grief over the things he had lost. Everything turned to nothing yet he had to move on for the future. He had a duty to fulfill even if it left him broken. His path outside the now desolate Uchiha compound which once used to hold the prestigious clan now held only one survivor was short courtesy of the compound being at the edge of the village. He thought the path would remain quiet for the road until he had left the village after all precautions were taken so no one would run into the Uchiha traitor. However despite his sound knowledge of the fact the commotion up ahead told him otherwise.
He swiftly and silently crossed the path as it was expected of a killer trained for years. He examined the scene which was bloody not very dissimilar to the Uchiha compound. Some kunai and shuriken were littering on the ground making the scene much clear to the watcher. Then he saw two men standing with weapons in hand while sneering with an annoyed look at a small child. A child close to Sasuke's age however not someone Itachi knew. They had beautiful bright red hair which should have felt unnerving to him because of the blood he had been seeing this whole night, on Contrary he found the colour beautiful.
It was an uncommon colour not only for konoha but all five nations. It wouldn't have been this uncommon if Uzushio and Uzumaki had not fallen. After all it was the same vibrant red hairs that made the Uzumaki's known throughout the whole shinobi world. Their hair suddenly started growing and parting in nine sections while rising up, defying the rules of gravity he knew.He wondered if this was what the nine tailed foxes tails looked like.
He felt intrigued and a bit fascinated until he saw the men charging at the child with an intent he was all too familiar with, one that shouldn't be used on a civilian much less a child. It was an intent shinobi showed while killing someone. Before he knew he was standing in front of the shinobi with a katana drawn and slashing them in swift motion. When they noticed his presence it was too late to do anything. They dropped to the ground with a dull thud. He sighed, two more people were added to the list of people he had killed in just one night.
Just then a low whimpering caught his attention. he turned around to face the unknown child, he noticed their hair now wasn't defying the gravity and a faint glow of something golden was surrounding them. As he moved closer he could see that glow was emitting from chains which extended from the child's abdomen. It looked quite painful even to him, who was more or less used to pain. The child looked directly into his eyes and his breath hitched, body going rigid in moments, tongue going numb and throat drying. Suddenly everything felt too quiet, too bizarre and too much to handle.
The child which he thought was unknown was someone he knew but the appearance wasn't what he was used to seeing. He saw the child often enough to know what he looked like with his eyes closed. He was certain the child wasn't a redhead and was now sleeping in his thoroughly protected apartment. Everything was going through his head at a breakneck speed. Everything he knew about the child, every open secret and every unsaid implied thing, every single thing he heard from his mother about the child. He could see a pattern but couldn't complete the puzzle just yet.
"Are you going to hurt me?" The voice was much smaller and subdued than the one he knew. It broke him out of his thinking.
"I....I am really thankful that you saved me but just kill me instead of touching me like that. I... I swear I won't fight back just make it quick" the child said all while looking deep into his eyes as if gauging his reaction.
His heart broke a bit more at the words. It was just a child, an eight year old child and people were doing things like this. More than the sorrow he felt anger, rage towards the hokage for allowing this to happen when he took in the child. He was responsible for him when he refused to give his mother the god mother of the boy custody yet here he was asking for a quick death. Itachi quickly forced all the thoughts aside and knelt in front of the child. Keeping is body language open and not allowing himself to show the rage that was boiling his insides. He had to calm down to talk to the boy, scaring the little boy wouldn't get him anywhere.
"I will neither kill you nor touch you" he firmly stated while keeping his hands in sight of the child as if to say, see I won't.
"But you killed them" said a broken voice. He couldn't refuse it, he had just killed two men in front of the child even if they were trying to hurt him. Thus the distrust was expected however it wasn't as if expected things didn't hurt just as much if not more.
"But you also saved me and looked after me so that people couldn't hurt me" the child said as if he could see everything he was feeling, as if he was reassuring him.
"So I'll trust you.....just ...just don't leave me alone" He heard the words loud and clear and he knew he should have turned down the child then and there but he couldn't. He couldn't let the child suffer anymore than he was, after all he knew how the village treated him and this incident just made his resolve firm.
"If that is what you want.... However I won't be here, I am leaving the village and will probably never come back" he told the child giving him one last choice to make the decision.
"It's okay I don't have anyone here" for the first time the child looked away from his eyes and to the ground while saying the words. The precautionary words he was about to tell the child died before he could verbalise them. He opened his arms carefully towards the child keeping his movements as slow and steady as he could manage so the child could track them. He gently cupped the child's face and wiped the tears.
The whiskers under his touch felt as smooth as the rest of his skin unlike the rough texture he had imagined them to be. The child leaned into his touch feeling relaxed and calmer. The limp chain lying on the ground vanished and the golden light was gone. The sudden darkness that enveloped the pair was something both seemed used to. Which was quite a terrifying thought, for an eight year old child to be used the darkness and loneliness wasn't right even for an orphan.
"Come on We'll be on a long trip Naruto" he softly told the child.
Taking in his appearance now that he had the time to Itachi noticed the many tears in the shirt, the burned edge of the shorts and the bare feet. He had blood on his clothes on closer inspection Itachi could see the pinkish scars from the tears. His blue eyes were still the same mesmerizing blue but with a hint of purple in them. His hair, which used to be short sunshine blond was now longer ruby red. For a moment Itachi thought if it was the influence of the kyubi however dismissed it just as quickly. He had felt the malevolent chakra of kyubi himself and the chakra he now felt wasn't anything alike he had felt before. This chakra was warm and comfortable it almost felt like home.
"Thank you" Naruto said in a whisper and held his both hands cradling his face.
Itachi offered him a small smile, small but a real smile. which very well could have been his first smile in months. The consequences would be damned if he could just let this precious child have a little hope and security that he deserved. Itachi wasn't sure if he could make Naruto happy however he was certain he could keep him safer.
"Can I pick you up? We'll have to cover long distance before anyone notices" Itachi said while still crouching in front of the child.
"Ummm.... Yes" Naruto said shyly while rubbing his neck. A nervous tick Itachi filed in the back of his head. Itachi picked up the much smaller looking child than his brother despite them being the same age. he noticed the weight difference the moment he picked up Naruto. He made the child comfortable in his hold and started running.
Naruto was too small and light to be an eight year old, Itachi knew that yet chose to keep his silence over letting out thoughts and questions plauging his mind. Afterall Letting the child take proper rest after this emotionally and mentally exhausting night was the priority. He picked up his pace and started running as fast as he could while holding the child safely. Hopefully the Uchiha masscare would be sufficient enough for people to be distracted from the young jinchuriki. Someone would eventually come to notice that Naruto was missing but he hoped it would be after he had crossed sufficient grounds so people won't be able to track them down.
The chances of them being discovered while on run were low if they made it through without being noticed for two more days. Then again even if people noticed that Naruto was missing it wouldn't be a big deal for a few days as the child was capable of hiding even from seasoned anbu's and it was a frequent occurrence for people to care. The only one capable of finding Naruto had been an anbu with a hound mask, and as if luck had been on his side the hound anbu was away on a long term mission. It didn't take much for Itachi to realise why the child was found in such a state at the middle of night, it was because hound that was guarding Naruto even after the anbu protection had been removed wasn't in the village.
The more he thought the more he understood why Naruto had been soo eager to leave with someone he didn't know. It was the fact that he had saved him that made him so trusted in the eyes of the child, who was used the withering stares and negatively whispered words, he hadn't expected for anyone to protect him.
Naruto had been much more aware of his life than Itachi thought him to be. All the things Itachi observed till now pointed at the child being mature and smart enough to understand things unlike the rumours of the blond being a knucklehead idiot. Which begged the question of how much did Naruto understand. Did he notice things from the villagers behaviour, the blantat avoidance, ignorance, hatred, mistreatment were all a give away but he wasn't too sure on that reason. After all these were all familiar things for him and Naruto had a certain grasp on the way he was treated since he was four years old, Itachi had seen the understanding in his eyes on a certain incident.
Itachi had watched the child since his birth. Had known his mother's longing for the child and seen the helplessness when she couldn't intervene to save the child from harm. From then on he had tried to help from the shadows thus he knew how the child was fairing. However when watching on Naruto a few things had caught his attention. Whenever Itachi or any other anbu was on watch Naruto seemed to repeat a set of patterns. Itachi had watched Naruto long enough to figure out the repetitive patterns. He seemed to switch from one to another from time to time. Sometimes he would run around the village screaming he'll be the strongest hokage other times he would play pranks.
Itachi had taken a notice of that because for a child who loved doing loud things the awareness of people he had carved into his instincts had been alarming for Itachi. Naruto would always know from where someone with malicious intent was coming and would change his path swiftly, to anyone who hadn't noticed his behaviour, they would think of it as nothing other than a child's whim. Perhaps if people paid enough attention they would have noticed these things yet none did.
Another thing he noticed was how the hokage treated Naruto. The third treated him like a grandson. He would pay him monthly visits with money, would spend time with him and Naruto was always allowed to barge into the hokage's office. Itachi had seen lord third interact with Naruto and had seen many high ranking shinobi linger around Naruto yet none approached him. These things made Itachi question why this child was treated so differently. Surely it wasn't just his jinchuriki status, it made him absolutely positive that there was something he had overlooked all these years.
Naruto Uzumaki a blonde haired blue eyed child who was now a redhead. There weren't enough people with blonde hair except the people of the Yamanaka clan who possessed pale blonde hair. The only person other than Naruto with the same shade of yellow was the fourth Hokage. In his mind he could picture an image of the fourth Hokage with that of blonde haired Naruto and he could see the similarities. Not just similarities Naruto was almost a mini clone of fourth Hokage with whiskers. The sudden realisation had him stumble on a branch, quickly he regained his footing and stabilized himself as not to drop the sleeping child.
A laugh left him and in just a moment he was laughing a full blown maniac laugh so much so that the sleeping child in his arms jerked awake. Naruto looked at him then around him to see why Itachi was acting weird. Confusion was clear on Naruto's face yet he lifted his right and softly touched Itachi on his cheek. Itachi looked at the look of concern clouding the sleepy child.
"Are you okay?" Naruto asked while his other hand came to hug him. It was an awkward position to hug yet Itachi didn't say anything. He just leaned into the warmth.
Naruto removed his hand from Itachi's cheek to his head and started patting him on the head. Small gentle hands running through his hair made him somewhat calmer. All the thoughts were forgotten to the moment of comfort. Itachi knew he was pathetic for seeking comfort from a child much smaller than him nonetheless he stayed like that for a moment longer.
"I'm fine now you can go back to sleep" Itachi told his companion after he was out of the hug.
Naruto stared at him longer than what was considered normal then with a nod to himself he readjusted himself on Itachi's back with some help and went back to sleep. It had been some time since someone looked at him like this and comforted him. Maybe it had been like this since Shisui died. For all it was Shisui who took care of Itachi. Shisui taught him things that the adults would never or just couldn't, he thought him the ugly thing that was the ninja world. When his father took pride in the sharingan he unlocked Shisui was the one to look at the gaping wound it left with the death of his teammates. It was Shisui who cared for him and it was also him who broke him first.
Itachi shook his head to rid of his thoughts. He had other things to worry about after he impulsively took a child with him on a run, a child that was village jinchuriki and for whom people were out there to catch. He sighed a long, exhausted sigh. Things were getting troublesome or rather things had gotten troublesome the moment he took the child with him. He couldn't go to Akatsuki as his initial plan was to begin with, not when Naruto looked soo much like Naruto atleast. However things could work out very well if no-one could tell it was Naruto with him. no-one would guess that the nine tails jinchuriki would be in the very base of Akatsuki, the organisation hunting him or rather the beast inside him.
It was a risky indeviour but one that could save Naruto if it worked out well. However for that plan to work, things needed to be done. Afterall the kyubi's chakra was something that anyone could notice and he couldn't take the child there untill the chakra was suppressed. Naruto would need to be more prepared too. Itachi in his right mind couldn't leave the child uninformed or with only half information. First thing of all was he needed a place to take Naruto to and a place that would provide enough knowledge for him to know how to suppress the chakra. A place abundant in knowledge yet scarce on population.
Only one place came to his mind. Yet he wasn't sure if he could really find anything there or if he could even enter the place to begin with, afterall the after the fall of Uzushio no-one could enter the place or had seen head or tale of the place. All the knowledge left in the tombs that sealed the place to outsiders. Still he decided to take the bet, it was worth the shot. Even if he couldn't enter the place, it was enough to throw the trackers off guard. After all who would expect him or a child 8 years old who supposedly knew nothing about his parentage to go to Uzushio. After a few more minutes of deliberation, he made his final choice to visit the whirlpools, the Uzumaki's took pride in. Naruto could also use some knowledge of his clan and one side of his parentage. And if Naruto learned a thing or two about the seals it would be beneficial for him.
Itachi ran the whole night to create some distance into them and the village. As the morning crept he the still sleeping Naruto into a cape and transformed himself into a fifteen years old boy with dirt brown hair and honey brown eyes. He entered a nearby village with a sleeping Naruto in his arms. It was still early in the morning thus they received less attention. He quickly brought food supplies, few civilian clothes and things that would be required for both himself and Naruto.
The journey to Uzushio was long and visiting villages affiliated with great nations wouldn't do them any good hence the sudden shopping trip. He sealed all the things and necessities into a sealing scroll and left the village. After running quite some distance from the village he stopped at a clearing and carefully placed Naruto down. He dropped the transformation jutsu. when Naruto finally stirred awake. The morning light directly hitting his face annoyed him.
Itachi could hear the annoyed grumbling and slight hissing noises. As much as amused the raven felt, they had no time to dwindle around so close to Human civilization. He urged Naruto awake and ushered him to the river nearby to freshen up and to change clothes. Reluctantly Naruto stood up and went to the river still grumbling, Itachi couldn't understand. Itachi had given up on understanding Naruto quite some time ago. He went on with preparing food for them. After some time he saw Naruto walking into the clearing with a few fishes and what seemed like edible fruits. Despite the achievement he adorned a scowl at his features.
"You went to the village and didn't wake me up" the redhead shouted, disturbing animals nearby them. Itachi winced at the tone internally.
"We didn't have enough time for that Naruto and we still don't" Itachi sternly replied while gesturing Naruto closer for food.
Again the grumbling started and this time Itachi could understand a few words saying morning, didn't sleep, grumpy old people, never listening and many more, yet he could understand nothing. The raven left the redhead to his own devices and began eating the fruits and the rice balls he had made. Soon enough Naruto was eating his food while chattering about the big fishes he caught and nice nature was. In between somewhere Naruto found himself with a bunch of animals surrounding him. He gave nuts to the squirrels, few rice grains to the small birds and the last few fruits to a fox.
Naruto patted the fox with affection and played with it for a bit. Itachi who was preparing the fish saw the scene and couldn't help but find it troubling. He thought of the fox that Naruto contained. And knowing the fact, the fox had killed his parents and was the reason behind the hatred he received, could change his perspective of the foxes. He quickly shook the thought of his head and finished preparing the fishes. They quickly packed up and left. Itachi let Naruto run for a while when his energy was too much to contain, however soon regretted his decision. Naruto would stop every two steps and ask about the plants and the trees covering the area, would stop once in a while to give some food to animals.
Itachi still hadn't discovered where all the food came from. Other than that they had no trouble while passing the forests. Rather Naruto seemed much used to forests and was comfortable with camping in the forest for days. Till the day they reached the ocean they hadn't found anyone following them or any news about Naruto going missing, which was approximately six days ago. They had reached the land that was said to be closest to Uzushio. How close? Itachi had no idea. Yet the view of turbulent waters ahead suggested not so close after all.
They needed a boat to cross the waters yet no boat was ready to sail. Water walking wasn't an option either, they couldn't cross the waters without any idea about where Uzushio stood. It could certainly mean death for both of them. Yet Naruto insisted that the land was close by and he could just water walk while carrying him. Itachi had on other choice than to agree with him. He carried Naruto and started walking on the waters, it was harder than he thought. The water currents were violent and Itachi felt as if one wrong step and they would be swallowed. Itachi didn't know where to go but Naruto certainly did. He pointed Itachi as if there was a fixed path in the water. As long as he followed Naruto's words he wouldn't be drinking water which made him suspect if there indeed was a way that only an Uzumaki could see.