Madara inwardly smirked as he watched the confusion on Sasuke’s face. He had the boy right where he wanted him. And there was no Itachi to stop him. Even Taryn hadn’t gotten in his way. Things were turning out perfectly. He slowly lowered his mask… And Sasuke’s Sharingan activated on its own. When Madara saw the form it took, he gasped. ‘No way,’ he thought. He ducked right before Amaterasu could hit him. He dropped his mask and retreated in the shadows. The back flames had scraped his right arm and he groaned in pain.
           In the bed, Sasuke grabbed for his eyes. He panted. Slowly his Sharingan retreated until it had turned back to his normal eye. “What… was that?” He glanced at the shadows.      

          “That was Amaterasu, which Itachi seems to have implanted in you,” Madara’s voice returned and he stepped back into view. His mask was back on. “Leave it to Itachi to set a post-mortem trap. I can’t believe how well he plans ahead.”
Sasuke narrowed his eyes in suspicion. “What are you talking about?”
       “In order to kill me,” Madara said, “Itachi planted a jutsu in you… or at least to keep me away from you. He probably set it so that the Amaterasu would automatically activate when you saw my Sharingan.” He paused a moment. It was a good thing that Itachi hadn’t know everything about him or he would have been dead. “So that was Itachi’s last trick huh. Too bad it didn’t work.”
“What are you talking about?” Sasuke asked still confused.
“Itachi must have done something to you before he died… At the very end he transferred his own ocular power to you.”
“What are you saying?” Sasuke asked, “what is your point? Why would Itachi do such a thing?”
 “Don’t you get it?” Madara asked, “it was to protect you.”
         Sasuke could only stare. For a moment he was completely stunned. “Protect? Protect me? Are you kidding?”
“I repeat,” Madara said calmly, “you do not know everything about your brother.”
       “You’re lying,” Sasuke said, “I’ll kill you.”
“You’re not making this easy are you? Understandable. You don’t trust me. You don’t know me. But hat I’m about to tell you is the truth. Itachi did mention it, did he not? He was not alone that night? I am Uchiha Madara.”
      Sasuke’s eyes widened. Madara continued unfazed. “I know everything about Itachi… even Itachi himself did not know I knew so much.”
Sasuke’s hand grabbed the blanket tightly. “Shut up!” he shouted, “none of that matters! Get out of here!”
       “No,” Madara said firmly, “you’re going to listen to me. You must hear me out. It is your obligation! For it is about the life of your brother, Uchiha Itachi… who risked everything for the shinobi world, for Konoha and most of all for you! His little brother!”

***

Taryn stood at her window and stared out over the village. As she had done me so many times before. Her fingers played with the necklace that had belonged to Itachi once and was now tied around her own neck. She wished he was here. She sighed. In the village, everyone treated her like she was something fragile. As if she could break down any minute. The words she had shouted at Kakashi still burned in her mind. At that time she had meant them. Taryn narrowed her eyes. ‘Konoha…’ That village only brought misery. She wished she had never set foot there. No, that was not true. Taryn closed her eyes. She still had trouble accepting the truth. Worst of all was that the Third Hokage had known all about it. She had trusted Sarutobi. She had believed him to be a better man than her father. He had used Itachi. Had he used her too? Of course he had. Had he laughed behind her back when she came back to Konoha? Because of her ignorance? But he had taken care of her too.

“No matter what path you choose.. never forget to protect those that are precious you.”

She had believed he was talking about her at the time, but perhaps he had been talking about Itachi too. He had promised to protect Sasuke after all. ‘Sasuke.’  She wondered what he would make of all of this.

“He must never learn the truth. Promise me Taryn that you’ll never tell him.”

“I promise,” Taryn whispered.

“Madara will try to get to him. He must never get his hands on Sasuke.”

She started to tremble.

“Promise me…”

‘Why? Why couldn’t you just run away with me?’

“Promise me…”

Taryn put a hand over her eyes.

“Little brothers are sacred…”

Taryn fell to her knees. ‘What have I done?’

***

“Do you know why Itachi inserted the Amaterasu into your eye?” Madara asked. Sasuke didn’t answer, He still had trouble breathing right. Whatever it was that had happened just now, it had taken a lot of energy. Energy he didn’t have in the first place. “It’s because Itachi never wanted us to meet, to talk,” Madara continued, “listen to my tale and you’ll understand… Only Danzou, The Third Hokage and the two councilors Homura and Koharu knew the real truth. With the Hokage dead, only the three elders are left who know the secret. And none of them are likely to tell anyone. I think not even Taryn will spill it. So Itachi’s actual mission will disappear into eternal obscurity. Which is what Itachi himself desired.”
           He watched Sasuke for a moment. When he didn’t receive a reaction he continued. “But I also know the truth about Itachi. Although, like I said earlier, he died without realizing how much I knew. But ultra cautious as he was, it seems Itachi didn’t trust me anyway. And just in case I did know, he planned to silence me with the Amaterasu… anticipating that I would show my Sharingan in order to get you to trust me.”
         “What are you saying?” Sasuke asked in shock. He was still processing Madara’s first few words. “Protect me? And what truth?”
           Madara edged closer. “Recall it,” he urged, “think back and remember Itachi… your kind and gentle older brother.”
         “But... he tried to kill me,” Sasuke countered, “tried to steal my eyes!” He gasped in pain and started coughing.
“Calm down,” Madara said soothing and reached out to the boy, “take slow, deep breaths.”             

          “Don’t touch me!” Sasuke batted his hand away. All kinds of images flashed through his mind. His brother smiling, his brother covered in blood before he died. His brother’s cold eyes that night… He panted and tried to regulate his breathing, but didn’t succeed. His heart was racing. And he blacked out.

***

“Will you stop staring at me like that?!” Taryn snapped at her students, “I’m not going to have a breakdown.”
       The boys didn’t flinch. After all this time they had gotten used to their sensei’s temper. “We’re a team, sensei,” Daro told her, “that means we take care of each other. Whether you like it or not.”
       Taryn glared at him. “Brat,” she muttered, but her eyes held a soft glow. “You should worry about yourself,” she said, “you’re wide open.”
        Daro gasped when one of her kunai daggers pierced his shoulder. He fell to one knee and groaned. Taryn ran up to him to examine the injury.
        “Idiot,” she scolded him, but there was no anger behind her voice, only concern. The other two boys stood silently beside him.
        Daro’s cheeks turned red. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled.
Taryn sighed. “No. I’m sorry. I was the one that threw the knife.”
        “You didn’t mean to hurt me. I blocked too late.”

“Come,” Taryn said, “you should have this checked. It’s not a deep injury, but I’d feel better if you had a medic look after it.” She stood up. “Training is over for today.”
       “I can still fight,” Daro protested, “it doesn’t hurt that mu… agh.”
“If you force that shoulder now, it will only get worse,” Taryn said firmly, “you can do a few days without training. There’s enough time before the Chuunin Exams.” She looked at Kuro and Hiro. “You two continue. I’m taking Daro to the hospital. Hiro, I want you to work on your summoning jutsu. Find a way to use it to strengthen your water jutsu. Kuro, focus your genjutsu at him. Let’s see if you can keep him trapped in an illusion without being attacked by Kera. I’ll be right back to check the progress.” She motioned for Daro to follow her. Focusing on training her team and preparing them for the upcoming Chuunin Exams was her way of dealing with Itachi’s death. It didn’t stop her thoughts form returning to Sasuke.

“Promise me…”

Taryn sighed. What did Madara want with Sasuke anyway?

“He must never know the truth. I won’t start the next Great War. And that is what will happen.”

Taryn bit her lip. What had Itachi been trying to say?

***

“Awake again?” Madara asked when Sasuke shifted. “Sorry,” he continued, “but I took the liberty of tying you up, since it didn’t seem like you would listen meekly to my story.”
       Sasuke shifted his eyes towards Madara. “He… Itachi was the enemy,” Sasuke said, “he killed my mother and father… slaughtered our clan… he was a rogue shinobi and an Akatsuki… he was despicable. And my goal…”
           “That night… it is true that he slaughtered the entire Uchiha clan,” Madara said, “And he fled the village.”
“Then…” “But he was ordered to do so by Konoha.” Sasuke’s head snapped up. “And that is just the beginning of the truth about Itachi,” Madara continued.
       “A mission you say?” Sasuke breathed.
“That’s right,” Madara nodded, “Itachi completed his assignment that night by slaughtering everyone.” He eyed Sasuke. “You seem calmer now,” he noted.
     “But I still don’t understand,” Sasuke said suspiciously.
Madara sat down on a low table. This was going to take a while. “In order to explain Itachi’s story, I must go back to the beginning. Itachi ended up being a sacrificial pawn in a long-standing power struggle. A problem that harks back to the very origin of the founding of Konohagakure. This determined the path of Itachi’s life.”
       “Sacrificial pawn?” Sasuke questioned.
Madara nodded. “That’s right. It’s going to be a long tale, but everything I am about to tell you is true.”
“On what grounds should I believe you?” Sasuke growled, “you’re untrustworthy.”
        “I don’t have any evidence I can show you,” Madara answered, “so you’ll just have to decide whether you believe me or not… after you listen to the entire story.”
Sasuke glared at him and then sighed. “Fine… talk.”
           Madara smiled content behind his mask. This was gong perfectly.
“It all started long ago. Back then the world was full of endless battles, an area of warring states. Nations were fighting over their rights to exist and expand their borders. In that time of strife, shinobi organizations only consisted of single clan mercenary units. Various clans would be hired by various nations to participate in their conflicts. And among all those numerous shinobi clans were two that were feared the strongest.
One was the Uchiha clan… and the other clan was known as the Senju clan. We of Uchiha possessed exceptional chakra and the Sharingan. Excelling in all types of warfare, we became know as a battle clan.
       And then I was born… possessing particularly powerful chakra, even for an Uchiha. You could say that me surviving this long is proof of that. Back then, I spent every day on the battle field. In an era were power was everything, and at the cost of my friends and younger brother, I continuously sought more power. But thanks to that I was able to fully awaken the Mangekyo Sharingan… and became Uchiha’s leader. And with that power I fought the Senju clan countless times.
       Of course, I inevitably faced Hashirama, the head of the Senju clan. Senju, “wood style” Hashirama, the future First Hokage. The shinobi who stood at the top of te ninja world and the person I respected most. Lead by him, the Senju clan ws acknowledged as the fiercest and most feared by every other shinobi clan. Whenever Senju made a move, Uchiha moved as well. For our clan was pretty much the only one who could take them on. If a nation hired Senju, their opponent would hire Uchiha. We ended up being rivals. The more I went up against Hashirama, the more my name became known as well.”

            “You stole your brother’s eyes,” Sasuke said, “merely to heighten your reputation?”
“I did steal them,” Madara agreed, “but it was to obtain the strength necessary to protect my clan.”
“To protect your clan?”
“As Uchiha’s name increased prominence, so did the number of our enemies,” Madara continued, “amidst ferocious battles it was an unavoidable sacrifice to protect the clan from external foes, staring with the Senju clan. It wasn’t for selfish reasons. And my brother was fully aware and agreed to it. In fact, he volunteered his eyes to me.”
            Sasuke eyed him thoughtfully. Madara sighed. “but then one day,” he said, “the Senju clan proposed a cease fire to Uchiha. And Uchiha concurred. The majority of people on both sides were tired of the endless conflict. They’d reached their limit. I was the sole dissenter to the cease-fire. ‘Where did all our mutual hatred go?’ I asked. For what purpose had my brother sacrificed himself? Uchiha and Senju were always like oil and water. I couldn’t help fearing that the Uchiha clan would one day come to be oppressed by the Senju clan. However, the rest of my clan desperately desired peace. So as their collective leader, I acceded to their will.
It wasn’t too long afterwards that our alliance forged an agreement with the land of Fire, which wanted to stabilize the borders. And thus the power system of one shinobi village to one nation came to be. That was Konohagakure and the land of Fire.
            Other nations quickly followed suit and one by one the number of wars diminished. Instantaneous peace. But due to a certain incident, Konoha’s peace was short lived.”

            “Incident?” Sasuke asked.
“It was the battle over te seat of village leader, the Hokage,” Madara told him, “as you know, Senju Hashirama attained that position. Both the village and the land of Fire selected him. It was clear that Uchiha was being more and more displaced from power struggle. I decided to advocate for an Uchiha leader in order to protect the clan… a path I knew would lead to a confrontation with Hashirama. Unfortunately, not a single Uchiha sided with me. My followers shunned me for trying to rekindle the flames of war. They betrayed me.
I was not only accused and betrayed for having personal ambitions, but scorned as a selfish brother who stole his brother’s eyes in order to save his own. What man willfully hurts his brother?
I swore I only wanted to protect Uchiha. I left Konoha… having been betrayed by all.”

            He paused to measure Sasuke who held a thoughtful expression. “I returned as an avenger,” Madara then said, “and declared war on Konohagakure, using the Nine Tailed Fox. I was defeated… at the spot that has come to be known as the Final Valley. I was said to have died there… I’m sure Hashirama thought so. I was erased from history and people’s memories. In order to prevent the rise of another traitor, Hashirama’s younger brother, the second Hokage… bestowed upon Uchiha a special responsibility as proof of his trust. The establishment of the Konoha police force. But the hidden truth is that it removed Uchiha from the governing body of the village… and placed the entire clan under close scrutiny in one full swoop.
There were finally some Uchiha who discerned their motive. But it was too little too late. Time passed, the leadership stayed in Senju’s hands and the once proud Uchiha clan was reduced to being Senju’s lackeys. It was just as I had feared. And then a certain other incident sealed Uchiha’s figurative demise… the reappearance of the nine tailed fox spirit sixteen years ago.”
            “What do you mean?” Sasuke asked.
“Only Uchiha ocular powers can tame and control the Nine Tails,” Madara explained, “the Konoha elders surmised that the incident was the doing of an Uchiha. But it was a spontaneously generated natural disaster. Completely unrelated to Uchiha. And yet, unjust suspicions persisted that Uchiha was trying to raise an insurrection to take over leadership. ANBU were assigned to run surveillance on Uchiha. And the clan’s living quarters were relocated to one corner of the village. It was an isolation tactic. Ironically, the Third Hokage alone raised objection over the segregation, but Danzou and the councilors overruled him. The Uchiha clan was simply not trusted.
That was the beginning of discrimination against us. Their distrust gave rise to bad blood. And suspicious eventually turned into reality. The Uchiha clan started plotting an upraise to take over the village.”

            Sasuke’s eyes went wide by hearing those words. He was stunned at what he heard. But the next few words stunned him even more.
            “So Konoha’s leaders sent in a spy to watch the Uchiha clan. That spy was your elder brother, Itachi. And that’s when this odyssey began.”

            Sasuke gasped. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “An upraise? And Itachi a spy?”
“You may have been brought up by Uchiha, but you were told nothing, because you were so young. But it’s all true. In fact, your father Fugaku was the mastermind of that anticipated coup. And Itachi was a spy who entered the ANBU on your father’s orders.”

            Sasuke gasped when he remembered his father’s words from long ago when he had eavesdropped on a conversation. “Itachi, you’re the pipeline between the clan and the village nerve center. You understand that ,don’t you?” Only now those words made sense. He looked up when Madara continued.

            “However, it was quite the opposite. Itachi was supplying the village with information on Uchiha. In other words, he was a double agent. You can’t even imagine what a heavy burden that is to bear.”
“So why?!” Sasuke shouted, “Why would Itachi betray Uchiha?”
“Since you personally never experienced war,” Madara said, “you may not understand. But Itachi was only four when the Third Great Ninja War took place and Itachi witnessed the death of many people. He should’ve never had to experience war at such a young age. War is hell. That trauma made Itachi into a conflict hating, peace loving man. One who always had the peace and stability of the village foremost in mind and action. A shinobi who loved his village, irrespective of clan identity and history. And the Konoha leaders used that. They assigned Itachi a top secret mission. An eye for an eye. For a fellow Sharingan is needed to face Uchiha.
“He watched as Sasuke’s face turned sad. “That’s right,” he said, “that mission was the eradication of the Uchiha clan.
            Sasuke winced at those words. His expression became one of pain. He would never lose the images of that night. But Madara wasn’t finished.
“I can’t even begin to imagine what he went through emotionally when he heard that. Itachi was faced with a terrible choice. The decision to raise his hand against his fellow clansmen was probably an unbelievable struggle. But if shinobi of the caliber of Uchiha were to revolt… both Konoha and the land of Fire would be shaken tremendously. Other nations would take advantage of the situation and invade. It could easily become the trigger to the Fourth Great Ninja War. The self-centered act of the Uchiha clan would lead to many deaths, including that of innocent people unrelated to te shinobi world. If you were Itachi, what would you have done?”

            Sasuke closed his eyes.

“So Itachi made his decision,” Madara said, “that he himself would drop the curtain on his own clan’s history. So he didn’t betray Uchiha out of hatred. It was just unavoidable. The discrimination that arose from the villagers prosperity and the price of discord… he shouldered all that by himself and he sacrificed himself. No one can reproach him or his decision. But…  a problem occurred.”
            “A problem?” Sasuke questioned, “what problem?”
“Taryn,” Madara said.
            “She found out,” Sasuke guessed. Madara chuckled.
“No, she never knew until Itachi himself told her and that wasn’t too long ago. No, she got banished from Suna and moved to Konoha. She had gone through something similar and she had chosen to live with shame to protect what she believed in. Taryn Desertstorm, an excellent shinobi and Itachi’s equal. They were close. Her presence in the village almost made him waver. So he chased her out.”
            “Itachi chased her out of Konoha? But… I always thought…”
“You thought they were working together, did you? I can understand why, but that was not the case. Not then.” He eyed Sasuke for a moment. “At the same time, I had also been plotting a war. For I held grudges against both Senju lead Konoha and Uchiha. But Itachi had even picked up on that. He of all people knew of my existence. Itachi sought me out and made me a proposal. In exchange for letting me carry out my revenge against Uchiha, I was to leave the village alone. And he would aid me against the clan.
The Third Hokage actually tried to resolve the situation through other means. He tried to open negotiations with Uchiha to reach some sort of compromise. But time ran out. And his efforts failed… leading to that night. It was a mission… to become known as a criminal who murdered his own clan… bear the burden of disgrace and become a rogue shinobi. All of it was planned. And Itachi brilliantly discharged te plan, his mission. Except for one little mistake…”
He paused a moment. Sasuke had been quietly listening to the entire story, getting more and more confused. Madara knew his next words would do the trick. He looked at Sasuke intensely. “He couldn’t kill his little brother.”

            Sasuke’s breath stocked and the trembled slightly. Madara smirked content. “Afterwards, Itachi appealed to the Third Hokage, beseeching him to protect you against Danzou and the councilors. He fled Konoha after threatening Danzou that if anything were to happen to you, he would leak all of the intelligence he had on Konoha to unallied nations. He worried about you above all else. And yet he couldn’t tell you the full truth, so he told you as much as he could. He gave you a reason to seek revenge against him and hoped it would make you stronger. He wanted you to believe that Uchiha was a proud clan. He begged the Hokage to make sure you would never find out the truth. And from the moment he fled the village, he had resigned himself to battle you to his death, in order to bestow on you new power… That is Itachi’s truth.”
            Sasuke sat there wide-eyed. He couldn’t believe what he had just heard. It couldn’t be true. Itachi had killed his entire clan, their parents… It had to be a lie. He was a criminal… wasn’t he?

***

Naruto followed Kakashi through the village with a confused frown. Why had he been summoned by Tsunade? They had only just returned from Suna. Was there news about Sasuke? Is eyes lit up by the thought that they could be reunited soon.
            When they reached the Hokage’s building, Naruto looked up surprised when he saw a large toad outside. On its head was a smaller toad. “Hey,” Naruto said, “what are you doing here? Did something happen?”
            “Actually,” the small toad said, but the big toad cut him off.

“Be quiet. Let the boss and Tsunade take care of it.”

            Naruto blinked and looked at Kakashi questioningly. “What was that about?”
“It’s not important,” Kakashi said, “let’s go.” They entered the office. More toads were inside and also Sakura and Sai. Why were they all so serious? The old toad was the one to speak first.
            “So, this is little Jiraya’s apprentice huh.”

“Yes,” Tsunade nodded, “this is Uzumaki Naruto.”

            “Are you one of the old man’s toads?” Naruto asked , “what’s going on?”

“Watch your language, Naruto,” Tsunade said, “this is Fukasaku, one of the two great Sages of Myobokazan. He came all this way to speak with you.”
            “So, what does he want with me?” Naruto asked.
Fukasaku sighed. “Where should I begin? Well I guess I’d better start with this… Jiraya died in battle.”
            For a moment Naruto was too stunned to speak. The words slowly sunk in. He stared at the toad with a startled expression. “What?”