Hiruzen Sarutobi was a man that had been given many titles and honors throughout his life. He was the Professor, the God of Shinobi, and the Sandaime Hokage. He was amongst the first generation of ninja produced by Konohagakure, and the one that went on to lead the village through all three shinobi wars. He had been the student of both the Shodaime and Nidaime Hokage's, mastered every element, and personally taught the three Legendary Sannin. And yet, for all of that, there were few happier days in Hiruzen's life than when he had passed on his hat to the one man that he was sure would surpass his own extensive reputation.
Then Minato had the nerve to go and blow himself up, rather than deal with the political headaches, endless paperwork, and village crises that Hiruzen had so gleefully passed off to him. The Sandaime Hokage acknowledged that the blonde man had no choice, but that was of little comfort when he was so swamped with work, that he was barely able to see his toddler grandson, much less the lonely blonde child that Minato had died for.
The Dead Demon Consuming Seal was simply too complicated and experimental for anyone but a fuuinjutsu master to use, and Konoha only had four such masters to their credit. Of them, Jiraiya had not been present in the village, Homura no longer possessed the chakra capacity, and Kushina's coils were irreparably damaged from the Kyuubi extraction. In the end, Minato had been pressed to a corner that forced him to make the sole choice available. The brave man had walked to his own death, with the expectation that the people he sacrificed himself for would honor his final wish.
A final wish that now laid still and silent on the hospital bed, as her mind receded to depths beyond where anyone could reach her.
'Yet more proof of my failure to you.' There were four small pictures placed on the Hokage's desk, of the past leaders and his family, and the Sandaime pushed one of them down. Minato Namikaze's rich blue eyes were the exact shape and colour of the coma patient in Room 2B.
Then, the old man turned his attention to another failure standing before his desk.
"Have their bodies been exhumed?" Hiruzen asked, wondering why all of the other Kages seemed so vehemently against maintaining the peace, "Are we sure that they're affiliated with Kiri?"
"Yes, Hokage-sama," Yugao Uzuki reported. Despite the crusted shadow of dried blood on her side, and the exhaustion blanking her eyes, she kept her posture perfectly straight. This determination was born in part from her singular nature, as one of the few kunoichi to reach such high command.
"Then get yourself to medics, and be ready to give a full verbal report tomorrow at 0800 time," Hiruzen ordered, receiving a brief bow before the purple-haired woman left. The Sandaime raised one eyebrow at the two remaining shinobi- one mildly injured, and the other appearing to have been emotionally wrung over.
"Shisui? Itachi? Is there anything that you could not have reported tomorrow?" Hiruzen ensured that a note of reproach entered his tone, for though neither teen bore many physical scars, there was a haunted expression on the Uchiha heir's face. One that the Hokage was intimately aware of; Itachi blamed himself for Miroku's death.
The messy-haired Uchiha looked cautiously at his cousin, before taking a deep breath. "Hokage-sama, we would like to request that this information be kept confidential."
"If it does not prove risky to the village," the Sandaime replied, intrigued.
There was another display of uncertainty, also directed to the younger teen, before Shisui steeled his expression. "Hokage-sama, are you aware of the Mangekyou Sharingan?"
'As if a clan heiress accidentally putting the Yondaime's daughter into a coma wasn't bad enough,' Hiruzen thought, resisting the urge to take out his pipe, "Itachi activated the Mangekyo in response to Miroku's death then?"
"Yes, Hokage-sama," Shisui responded, clearly surprised by the Hokage's knowledge. He shouldn't have been. Hiruzen had been present when Tobirama-sensei ranted at his brother about Madara's Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan and subsequent deceitfulness.
"I see," Hiruzen raised one hand and rubbed at his temples, "You are not to share this information with anyone else, byway of the Hokage's decree."
Because, for all that Itachi Uchiha was a brilliant and loyal shinobi, he was also a thirteen-year-old child, and Danzo would sooner rip those eyes from his sockets than allow an Uchiha to possess them.
"Susanoo is an ability that is available in every Mangekyo," Hiruzen stated, "However, to my understanding, the last two should be unique. Do you know what they are?"
Shisui was too busy gaping like he had never seen his Hokage before to answer, but Itachi was able to reply. "Amaterasu forms inextinguishable black flames from my right eye, and and Tsukuyomi casts an extremely powerful genjutsu in the victim's subconscious with my left eye. I have used neither eye, but am somehow aware of their capabilities."
'Then the knowledge is implanted into the user's mind after the Mangekyo is manifested,' the Sandaime noted, interest in acquiring more information about this rare ability. 'But then, did he say…'
"Itachi, could Tsukuyomi be cast on a coma patient without irreparably damaging the link between the conscious and subconscious minds?" Hiruzen asked, because that had been the main concern of Inoichi. A suitably powerful mind-based genjutsu would neatly avoid that issue, but the ones available in Konoha were all designed offensively, and lacked versatility. A pre-formed impression would be formed on the victim's mind, whereas Itachi's jutsu suggested that any formations would be left at the user's discretion.
The dark-haired teen gave a tentative nod. "I believe so, Hokage-sama."
"Then I would like to solicit a favor from you," the Hokage said, "I am not ordering you, because this is a personal request, and not an officially assigned mission from Konoha. You will need to share the details of your Tsukuyomi ability with Inoichi Yamanaka, so that he can direct you through the task. One of the village's wards, Naruto Uzumaki, is currently in a coma, from the effects of the Mind-Body Jutsu: Inners Pools of Reflection. The jutsu causes her to face her subconscious fears, but hasn't been able to run its course. You may be able to remove her from the coma. Will you accept?"
Hiruzen did not need a verbal answer, as Itachi's eyes rapidly shifted from haunted and guilty to anxious and determined. The genuine concern that his posture demonstrated for the Uzumaki warmed the old man's heart, and reaffirmed his former decision to allow their note-sharing to occur. Even with the added difficulty of the courtship rumor spreading throughout the village, Itachi's impact on Naruto's life had been immeasurably good for the young girl.
"I would be happy to do so, Hokage-sama," the Uchiha heir swiftly replied, "May I start now?"
'Had I not known better, even I would believe those rumors,' the Hokage thought, as the dark-haired teen's expression filled with protectiveness. "Yes, of course. And Itachi? Thank you."
'I leave for less than five days, and she puts herself into a coma.' The callous nature of Itachi's words, were quickly undercut by his almost desperate urge to move past the Yamanaka by the door, and rush to the tiny form buried under the wide expanse of the hospital blanket. It was the memory of Miroku's glassy eyes, and Shisui's gentle push on his back, that caused the Uchiha to break his nature.
"Foolish little girl," the words were barely breathed, and yet deafening in the silent room. Itachi's long, tapered fingers skimmed the sweaty bangs clinging to the blonde's forehead. The teen didn't have particularly large hands, but they dwarfed the Uzumaki's, when he carefully took her right hand. He was blissfully unaware of the other reactions in the room.
'I really need to invest in a camera,' was Shisui's immediate impression.
'A few years from now, and the rumors might not be false anymore,' the Sandaime mused.
'I knew they were together, but it's one thing to rely on hearsay, and a completely different matter to see their love,' Inoichi thought, 'Fugaku's matchmaking may be politically driven, but the Uchiha genuinely cares for the Uzumaki.'
Hiruzen was kind enough to draw the attention away. "Inoichi, can you give me a report on Naruto's condition?"
"I can't measure any brain waves from her, but her vitals remain stable and her heartbeat, to our knowledge, has not spiked once during her coma. In my professional opinion, Naruto Uzumaki is fully immersed within her subconscious mindscape, and does not know how to leave," Inoichi reported, with a grimace. "External interference by a mindwalker could possibly shred the link between the Uzumaki's conscious and subconscious minds, as the Yamanaka jutsu fight against one another for dominance. The Uzumaki's mind doesn't have the training necessary to split her consciousness and employ two Mind-Body jutsu at once."
"Does she have the fortitude to deal with a second consciousness by way of a genjutsu broadcasting a mental avatar?" the Hokage asked.
Inoichi's face showed conflicting emotions- surprise, curiosity, anxiety, and optimism- as he gave a tentative nod. "An additional consciousness should not be an undue burden at her age. It would have to be an A-rank genjutsu, at least though, to break through the mind's natural mental barriers."
"Itachi Uchiha is capable of casting a mental genjutsu with that level of flexibility and strength," Hiruzen replied, drawing a measure of amusement from the shocked look on the Yamanaka's face, "He has agreed to use that jutsu on Naruto, in the hopes of drawing her out of her coma."
"A genjutsu like that could be remarkably useful for mental health purposes!" Inoichi stated forcefully, navy green eyes focused on the dark-haired teens, "I wasn't aware that the Uchiha Clan had such a tool in their possession."
"This is a personal jutsu, Yamanaka-san, and not the property of the Uchiha Clan," Shisui replied, crossing his arms, "Itachi was the one to develop the jutsu, and it can only be used by his eyes."
"At thirteen years old…" the tall man breathed, making Itachi feel uncomfortable by the lie. He didn't want to be praised for an ability that had taken neither skill nor desire to obtain. "I do think that this technique may be the best way to draw the Uzumaki out."
"Good thing that Itachi's here then!" Shisui replied brightly, diffusing the awkwardness for his younger cousin. The messy-haired boy moved closer to the bed, and clasped Itachi's shoulder.
"Remember, you managed to make her fall for you, without your pretty boy looks or the Uchiha name," Shisui murmured, pitching his voice low, "So just do whatever you've been doing up til now. Well, except for the stalking her around, lying about your identity, and doubting her mental stability bits. And, if you're ever uncertain, just think about what I would do!"
"I would like to remind you that half of what you would do, is illegal for someone of her age," Itachi said dryly, "And I haven't made her fall for me."
The messy-haired teen merely offered an indulgent smile, before he stepped back and allowed his cousin to focus on the sleeping blonde. The Mangekyou Sharingan needed eye contact to perform Tsukiyomi, so Itachi gently lifted one of her eyelids as his own irises bled crimson. The ability was instinctive to his line, and the younger Uchiha barely had to speak the technique's name, before his consciousness was pushed forward, and the sight of one glassy blue eye faded away.
'This isn't what I had expected,' Itachi thought, looking up from the blades of grass that he had landed on, 'It's… peaceful.'
The entrance to the forest could have been picked up from within Konoha, with a rich blue sky and yellow-white sunlight dappling the ground. However, the tree trunks were slimmer with youth, the leaves green-gold with nature's first bloom, and the scene picturesque with new life. It exuded a sense of playfulness and welcome- a beckoning to explore- but Itachi was unnerved by the utter silence of his surroundings. There was the sound of wind blowing and water running, but no chirping of birds or movement of wildlife.
'I'm entirely alone here,' the dark-haired boy mused, 'Except for Naruto.'
As though her name held a power of its own, Itachi's mind was suddenly aware of the shortest path necessary to the blonde girl. If anything, this merely increased his anxiety, for this endeavor shouldn't be this easy, should it? He was determined to protect his friend though, before Naruto's glassy blue eye gained the same permanence as Miroku's brown ones, and followed the directions.
The trees became taller and older as Itachi walked on. As ancient as the boughs of the Forest of Death, but serene and protective where their counterparts were baleful and foreboding. The path unfolded like a twisting, crooked, and serpentine puzzle, and more than once, the Uchiha was sure that he had been made to walk in a circle. Clouds, branches, and leaves marred the fallen light, until shadows of foxes, beetles, swallows, and toads were glimpsed lurking in the treeline. Despite this, Itachi had an entirely unfounded confidence that he would not be attacked.
Nevertheless, the Uchiha was relieved when the trees broke into a meadow of flowers, where a blonde girl lied. No, not one blonde girl, but two, both lying on their sides, and facing one another. He didn't think he made a sound, when one of the blonde's looked directly at him, and drew her body upwards. There was the messy yellow hair, the pale gold skin, and the immediate scrunched-whiskers smile at his presence, that caused Itachi to feel a shiver of fear. Because Naruto's beautiful blue eyes now featured crimson irises in pitch-black scleras.
The red-eyed Naruto's movement drew the attention of the other girl, and now a blue-eyed twin was facing him as well. The red-eyed girl said something to the other- too soft for Itachi to hear- and faded away. His attention was solely on the blue-eyed one now, whose expression showed surprise, interest, and, most curious of all, recognition.
When Itachi had gotten within a few feet of her, the blue-eyed girl's mouth opened. "I know you! You're Sasuke's mostly naked older brother!"
The words weren't even halfway through her mouth, before Naruto realized that this was perhaps not the best way to greet an intruder into her mind. Or bring-up the embarrassing underwear heist that she totally, completely, and absolutely did not think about at all, except for maybe once or twice when the boys sparred at the Academy, and she recalled how nicely muscled he was. Only twice though.
"I'm sorry!" That my face has turned into a tomato right now.
Just as with the stomach kick, Sasuke's older brother was kind enough not to acknowledge her mistake. "Hello, Naruto. I'm Itachi Uchiha, and I'm here to lead you out of your mindscape."
"Nice to meet you," the Uzumaki squeaked, focusing very carefully on the tree behind him, "I'd introduce myself, but you clearly already know, who I am." The 'why' was unnecessary. She had broken into his house, and accidentally molested him, after all.
"Will you follow me then?" Itachi asked. Unknown to the Uzumaki, was the dark-haired boy's innate desire to check her body for bruises, and fuss over her, like he would for one of Sasuke's injuries.
"I- I don't know," Naruto hesitated, recalling her mirror-image's final words.
Don't follow him, until he tells the truth.
'But what could an Uchiha be hiding from me?' the blonde wondered. "How did you get here?"
"I used a genjutsu to form a mental avatar to enter your mindscape," was the reply. There was something eerily familiar about the habitual nature of his answer, and Naruto was filled with an immediate determination to uncover the lie, her counterpart swore this teen had made.
"Why did you enter my mind?" the blonde demanded, because that had to be an invasion of privacy.
"You weren't able to naturally end the Yamanaka jutsu on your own," Itachi answered. Then, with a note of reproach, "Why did you use a clan-specific jutsu without adult supervision or the permission of an adult Yamanaka?"
"I wanted to prove that my mother was a Yamanaka," the blonde admitted, blushing, "It wasn't one of my better ideas."
"And is that why you broke into the Uchiha Compound and stole one of my brother's boxers?" the teen asked, the reproach fading.
"Yes," Naruto said, her pulse quickening. Was this the secret? Did he know… "Are you my ANBU"s Uchiha source?"
"Your ANBU?" The Uzumaki didn't have much experience with discerning the introverted boy's facial features, but Shisui would have spotted the hints of a smile immediately.
"I- well- I meant to say-" Naruto spluttered, embarrassment clouding her face again. She wondered if she should find a way to track this boy again. She might be able to trail him around, and see the type of shinobi, he spent time with. The hope that her ANBU was amongst them, made the blonde take a discreet sniff of peppermint-and-ash… Naruto froze.
"You?" Her ANBU… and Sasuke's older brother… who she had seen… and the notes… "You?!"
Because her nose must have been lying to her. He was too young to be an ANBU. He wasn't a Hyuuga. She had called his brother a teme, and described him as a stuck-up pretty boy… "I'm sorry!"
"You often say that around me," the boy who couldn't possibly be her ANBU observed, with a small smile, "I don't think Yosei are supposed to apologize this much."
The reference to her ANBU's very first note, and the only compliment that Naruto had ever received about her hair, already at the forefront of her thoughts during the battle, caused the Uzumaki to make an unintelligible squeak. Her face had reached Hinata-levels of redness, as she considered every note, every Hyuuga denial, and every unexplained piece of knowledge about her school life. Things were making a terrible amount of sense, as the Uchiha teen stood patiently above her.
"Will you follow me?" Itachi asked again, his hand outstretched to the sitting girl.
Her chief emotion being mortification at the moment, did not prevent Naruto from placing her smaller hand in his grasp. "Okay."
Omake:
The Edo Tensei was a great and terrible jutsu. It's use in the Fourth Shinobi War wrecked havoc on battlefields, as some of the most powerful ninja of the previous generation's came back to life and were forced to kill their comrades. It led to heartbreaking moments between kinsman, lovers, allies, and enemies alike. One such example being the battle between Hiashi Hyuuga and his equally-skilled twin brother, Hizashi.
Therefore, Naruto Uzumaki's brilliant plan to wrest control of the revived ninja from Kabuto Yakushi had been heralded with praise and admiration. Especially since to do so, gave their side an immense boost to power, with such famous personages as the White Fang, the God of Shinobi, the Yellow Flash, and the Red Hot-Blooded Habanero.
One person who wasn't entirely thrilled though, was the boyfriend of the Yellow Flash and Hot-Blooded Habanero's only daughter. Especially when said powerful individuals flashed over to see Naruto, and found him standing by her side.
"Itachi-chan!" Kushina shouted gleefully, her loud voice possibly broadcasting to the other end of the camp, as she threw her arms around him. There was a sense of pressure and plenty of red to cover his eyes, before the beaming woman drew back. "It's good to see you!"
"Yes, Itachi," Minato's smile was smaller, as his ice-chipped blue eyes locked onto the Uchiha, "It's good to see you."
The dark-haired man took a step back, and didn't feel any less manly for doing so. "Yondaime-sama."
"Oh, you shouldn't call him by that stuffy name," Kushina scolded, once she had finished hugging her daughter, "We're going to be family one day, after all. Mikoto-chan told me everything!"
"Yes," Minato echoed, that odd little smile still on his face, "Everything."
"She told us how you left those sweet notes to little Naruto-chan," Kushina began excitedly.
"Ignoring your duty as an ANBU to be an objective observer," was Minato's offhanded addition.
"How you gave her scrolls on advanced chakra techniques and the Gale Palm jutsu."
"Teaching my seven-year-old daughter dangerous shinobi skills without proper supervision."
"And even that adorable mishap at your house," Kushina concluded, clapping her hands together.
Minato's smile notched another level of coldness. "Yes, we are fully aware of how you stripped yourself naked, and lay in wait to tarnish my precious only daughter's virginal eyes."
Itachi Uchiha looked from the sweetly-smiling woman, to the serene blonde sociopath currently spinning a Hiraishin kunai as he spoke. Kami, and there were people who swore that Kushina Uzumaki's revenge was the more terrifying of the two?
"May I have ten minutes headstart?" Itachi asked politely, wondering how high his crow summons could fly.
"Five minutes," Minato countered, leaning forward for the hunt, "Tick-tock, Itachi-chan. Your time is running out."
Itachi Uchiha was an intelligent young man. He ran.