Disguised Curses

Remember, when you're done reading this chapter, go read the DC:Outtakes chapter. Please read all notes included. Thank you.

 

 

 

Chapter 47

 

 

 The other shoe dropped.

Tsunade knew it, the instant Kimi walked into her office. There was a loose tension in the hawk’s body, in the way she met Tsunade’s eyes but held herself like she’s ready for a fight, eager to rip and tear and destroy. It’s written in the hunch of Takeshi’s body.

She didn’t quite want to ask, but she will, because Tsunade had been expecting this. Whatever this was, and she had a feeling about that, as well.

It’s definitely going to be the other shoe.

She’s confident it’ll be the man behind the furry face.

She could only hope he’s an ally waiting to happen.

“How can I help you today, Kimi- san?”

 

 

 Before things officially started, Tsunade kicked Kimi out. She’d been watching Takeshi with a disturbing amount of interest, and Tsunade wasn’t going to deal with any more unknown variables. Not until she knew who hid behind the furry face. Ibiki and Kakashi flanked her desk, Sharingan active and kunai out, ready for anything.

Tsunade wasn’t going to ask why the ermine was shivering, tiny muscle spasms that might have been ignored on a human body but were too obvious on this one. But he didn’t look away, managing to hold a trained stillness that screamed ninja, assassin, threat. “Ready?”

The collar dropped easily into her hand when she triggered the clasp, and Takeshi stared at her a long moment from the far edge of her desk. A paw raked through the fur along his neck, and he took a step back and changed.

The flow from animal to man was nothing and everything like watching Kimi and Neji shift forms, rougher and disturbing, without the excess of feathers. But it still doesn’t take long before there’s a naked man kneeling before her desk, Kakashi’s kunai pressed tight against the skin of his throat and his hand cocked, chakra whistling and chirping in the air. “Keep your eyes closed!”

The order made everyone drop eyes to half-mast, except for the man on the floor, eyes tightly closed and lax within Kakashi’s deadly embrace. It’s Itachi Uchiha’s face, tall and scrawny body covered in scars. He opened his mouth but didn’t speak, the blade on his throat deterring any words. 

Kakashi met Tsunade’s eyes over the man’s head. She was nearly squinting, avoiding looking at Itachi’s face. She’d heard what he had done on several occasions with his Sharingan and the genjutsu he could wield. But Itachi Uchiha was supposed to be dead. Killed by his younger brother’s hand.

“Blindfold.”

Better to be safe, just in case. Ibiki pulled a length of cloth from a pouch, one covered with seals. Tsunade was pretty sure it was the same one Sasuke had worn during parts of his first few days when he’d returned to Konoha. He secured it and stepped back about the same time Kakashi relieved the slightest amount of pressure on the kunai.

“Itachi Uchiha, missing-nin, turning myself in. I-” His breath slid to quiet as the kunai returned to full pressure.

“Was reported dead just over a year ago.” Kakashi’s voice rumbled smooth and deep from behind the mask. “You’re just a good fake.”

“Kakashi Hatake.” It’s more lip movement than sound, and the named man had just enough leniency to give the man in his hands room to speak. The chakra signature bothered him since the moment the collar came off, releasing the suppression. “My senpai, first mission to beyond the waves. Pakkun ate a salamander and choked on it. You told me he was your second pup of the pack. Bull was your first.”

The Chidori dispersed from Kakashi’s hand, and he reached into Itachi’s hair to tip his head up, staring down into that blindfolded face. “The last time we saw each other, who was there, and what happened?”

“Kakashi Hatake, Itachi Uchiha, Kurenai Yuuhi, and Hoshigaki Kisame, about four years ago. We came into Konoha wearing Akatsuki robes. You and Kurenai both tried to fight me, using genjutsu. I tried to destroy your mind with the Tsukuyomi.” A pause as Itachi licked at his lip. “I tore your body apart and made you scre-” Itachi gurgled as Kakashi pulled his head farther back. “And I apologized as I released you,” he managed to whisper.

“It’s Itachi.” Kakashi held the man in place but diverted his gaze to Tsunade. “What would you like me to do with him?” There was no pleasure in his voice, no happiness at revealing this man to be Itachi. No joy at having a once ally-turned-traitor kneeling at his feet. Empty voice, blank eyes, red Sharingan aware of every twitch in the room. He was ready for any order, any action and reaction.

“Your memories are back, Uchiha? Fully?” There’s a strange emptiness in Tsunade’s voice, and Kakashi’s body tensed at the tone.

“Every death, every betrayal. Every minute of every day, committed to my memory. As they always were before I nearly died and was dragged back.”

“And where are your loyalties, Uchiha?”

The silence stretched, a tight living thing born of heartbeats and tense muscles. A knife’s edge waited for the wrong word, a slight movement that would spill Itachi’s lifeblood across the floor. Dying under Kakashi’s hand would not be a bad way to go. At least it would be swift and nearly painless.

“Sasuke. Neji. Naruto. Hinata. And Hanabi.”

The small smile on Tsunade’s face disturbed Kakashi. There’s an undertone of something going on and he couldn’t imagine what he was missing about this. This was Itachi Uchiha- and regardless of his compliance and verbal surrender, Kakashi was honestly surprised he hadn’t received a kill order yet.

“Your brother, his boyfriend, and three Hyuga. No loyalties to Konoha, to the Hokage, or anyone from the outside I need to know about?” The little smile on her face was still there, Kakashi knew, because he was looking at it. It clashed with the icy calm in her voice, and he wondered if she’d taken cues from Sasuke. That boy had perfected icy calm for his mask, when he bothered to use it anymore. Itachi stayed still and nearly unresponsive within Kakashi’s hold. “I asked you a question, Uchiha!”

“No. No outside loyalties.”

Tsunade reached down, pulling a thin book from the back of one of her desk drawers. Kakashi didn’t bother hiding the visible parts of his scowl. That book had become glued to Tsunade’s desk the last few months, always shuffled out of attention. He would now bet anything that book was not for keeping records of her debts like he’d joked about.

Tsunade pulled out a single piece of paper, flicked it open. “ ‘Tomorrow the clan will be gone…. I am a ninja first, Sasuke, Uchiha second.’ ” Itachi was quivering in Kakashi’s hands, not visible yet but the vibrations were against his fingers buried in the man’s scalp. “ ‘Tomorrow the clan will be gone and you will hate me for this disaster. Be strong. Uncover the truth and the taint on our name. Don’t forget to truly live, little brother.’ ” Tsunade folded the paper back up. “I can read the whole thing, but I think you remember it word for word, don’t you.”

“Yes.” The word was a sob, a choked, wet word. The blindfold clung, damp over Itachi’s eyes.

“Any last words, Uchiha?” Kakashi tipped the kunai at that, kept it close to the delicate skin. He was ready for the command, ready to fulfill his duty as a defender of Konoha. And he would, no matter that this man had been a former colleague or a current (assumed dead) missing-nin.

“I will stare into death’s face and defy fear. I know my hands are stained and my soul pierced, but my honor binds me and I cannot walk another path. I am a hidden blade, cloaked in shadows and deception. May the fire burn away what I was so I can be born anew.”

The kunai clattered to the floor, followed abruptly by Itachi’s body as he slumped into himself. It was a decade- old code for undercover operators. Kakashi looked down at Itachi’s body and wondered how the hell he hadn’t seen it coming.

“Tsunade- sama?”

“The massacre was a mass assassination executed by a single ninja. It’s one of the few that went completely without real records and fully covered up, but openly known at the same time. With some digging I assumed the role of Akatsuki spy was undercover, but I couldn’t be sure. Sandaime left very few records for me to follow up on, at least about this particular situation.”

 

 

“I went rogue. Sandaime promised he would try to clear things up as soon as he could, but he wouldn’t explain anything. He simply said he’d call me back when things were right again, gave me the code, and cut me loose to find my own way.” Itachi sits up, hands in his lap and blindfold still secure. He hasn’t dared to touch it. “I truly didn’t remember myself when I first came back. But I do now, and I am here. I submit to your judgment.”

Silence turns thick in the room after he speaks, signals and gestures evolving into a whole, wordless conversation. In its center, Itachi waits. It doesn’t matter now if he lives or dies, if he is executed for years worth of crimes against his country or forgiven, released on excuse of undercover operations. His life is written in the scars of his body, the tight coils of muted chakra, the fur under his skin.

His sins hang heavy in the haunting memories that had come flooding back. Eidetic memory, everything captured and stored and refused to be forgotten. Except for those blissful months of uncertainty, of random snippets and vague faces and things that would appear in dreams, only to escape his waking mind. The time of being in Neji’s care and Hinata’s tender ministrations. All of it is petty in the wake of his past, undeserved and yet treasured.

“Officially, Itachi Uchiha died over a year ago.” Tsunade finally breaks the silence. “His crimes are being investigated, per a request made by his younger brother. Unofficially, you owe me quite a few years of information I need from you. I am willing to negotiate with you as a free agent, or a civilian if you so wish it, as soon as you fulfill your last debrief. And I want to know if I can take your blindfold off now or if you’ll slay us all.”

Itachi can’t tell if the last is serious or her weird way of teasing, but he nods his consent. “I won’t do anything.”

The cloth falls away, baring his eyes, and it still takes a long minute before he opens them. He hasn’t looked out of his human eyes but the once, since coming to Konoha. Everything is blurry, full of color but starting to merge together. The Mangekyou Sharingan and the fever from his near- death have ruined his eyes. He can see relatively fine out of his animal’s eyes, but the perception is different, changed from seeing things than he ever has as a human. He can see Tsunade, but her face is blurry, and he can’t tell if she’s studying him or scowling. He doesn’t know if this lack of detail will linger, either.

He drops his eyelids to half closed and keeps them there, and soon enough he can tell Tsunade is, actually, frowning at him. He can feel Kakashi still mostly behind him, just close enough to be a distinct heat without offering warmth, and Ibiki Morino is a shadow on the opposite side, distant and cold.

“Hold still.” Itachi freezes as Tsunade circles around the big desk, hand already shimmering with healing chakra. Part of him wants to bolt- healing chakra can be used to tear people apart as much as put them together, it’s why he never annoyed medic-nins as a youth. But a gentle finger traces along his face, hovers near his eyes; nothing changes but the weight of her frown. “Activate your Sharingan.”

There’s a muted sound of protest but Itachi ignores it. Activating his base Sharingan is as simple as blinking, but he hasn’t used it, hasn’t tried since he got his memories back. And now it doesn’t respond, his chakra swirling under his skin but not linking to his eyes, not changing them to the heightened awareness he once used constantly.

“I can’t.” It’s a bit like a bucket of ice water dumped over his head. He expected to go blind, and is now grateful that he isn’t, but he is Uchiha. The Sharingan has been his since he was young. Stone-blind is one thing. Feeling his chakra reach and knowing it’ll never change his eyes again is another.

Tsunade’s murmuring something about burned pathways and dead nerves, and he ignores her in favor of wondering where all this is going. A discrete cough brings her back to the moment, and she turns back to giving him a once- over. He has scars from head to foot, and not ashamed of any of them. The memories associated with some of them he’s shoved as far back as his mind will allow.

She pulls away and makes notes in a spare scroll, periodically glancing up at him, and Itachi lets himself meet her eyes, knowing he cannot sway her, cannot help choose his fate even with the blindfold gone. He doesn’t want to choose this part, at least. He is still fully resigned to possibly dying.

“You’re gonna pour your mind out for me, Uchiha. I want anything and everything about Akatsuki and the threat they pose us. I want to know if you have any contacts you can use. I want to know what happened to you from the time Sasuke killed you to you showing up here as a fluffy rat. And I need everything you know about the days leading up to the massacre.” He keeps the flinch internal, and if any of it shows she doesn’t acknowledge it. “I have some leads, but if I could have concrete proof… I could clear your name. Give your little brother the satisfaction of knowing his precious big brother didn’t go completely crazy. Catch the bastard that dared strike at this village in such a manner.”

Obviously, she isn’t adverse to using manipulation tactics to get what she wants from him. It’s familiar though, and not completely unexpected. And the hard glint in her eyes when she talks about catching the person behind it all… yes. He will help her, whatever he can do to bring peace to his mind and soul. Anything to help protect the innocents. He doesn’t care about his own name- he did what he had to, what he was ordered to. The reputation of his name is nothing compared to the things that weigh on his mind.

“Yes, ma’am. I will consent to the debriefing.” He hesitates for a moment, long enough to pull himself together to ask a favor. “May I request my brother not be told yet?”

 “Yes, you can ask. No, he won’t be told about you, not yet. When I’m ready for you to make yourself known, then I will let you choose when you want to talk to him. However, considering who you have been living with and your brother’s friends, you may want to be careful how you go about revealing yourself. Sasuke is often short- tempered, and Naruto very defensive. I suggest considering a delicate approach, at risk of the whole village going up in flames.” She gave him a sharp-eyed look. “I doubt I have to tell you I mean literal flames.”

“No.” Itachi could see a young Sasuke, so eager to learn how to breathe the flames before their father had thought him ready. Sasuke had grown stronger in the years they’d been apart. And Sasuke had all but killed him, believed him dead. “Does he have the Mangekyou? I haven’t seen his eyes much…” Not in ways that counted. It was hard to tell fine details like the change in someone else’s eyes at a distance while he had been in ermine form.

Tsunade frowns, glancing at Ibiki. “There was a hint that he has started developing it, probably triggered in times of extreme emotional crisis. However, he’s been banned from complex Sharingan usage and still discouraged from using it outside of defensive purposes. If he has it and has control of it, he hasn’t told me.”

“It will destroy his eyes. I told him where to look for the clan information, during our last battle, but I do not know if he’s found it. But using the Mangekyou will eventually take his sight.”

Tsunade nods. “I’ll keep tabs on him.”

Itachi nods deeply, as close to a bow as he can manage from his kneeling position. He can feel, more than see, Kakashi and Ibiki moving in to flank him. “Morino, I want as this to stay just within this room. No one is to know Takeshi’s real identity, or that anything else related to this. I’m sure you can spare a few hours, let your other guest debate his options?” Itachi shoves the urge to shiver aside and focuses on Tsunade. He’s not eager to see Ibiki’s face at that moment.

“You’re all dismissed.”

Tsunade watches them leave before pulling over some paper and penning a letter to Neji. He deserves to know that his ‘pet’ ermine will be in her care for a couple of days, even if she can’t risk explaining why. He’ll understand.

____ 2946 words ___ this chapter ____

 

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