Author's Note: This story is slightly AU (the main way how should be obvious about five paragraphs in). This story will feature numerous OCs, and both heterosexual and homosexual relationships. At this time, I have no lesbian relationships planned, but that may change. Additional notes are in the final 'chapter'. Also, a good knowledge of the manga/TV storyline up to the end of the sannin battle is more or less essential for this fic, because any incidents that occur exactly the same will not be rewritten here. I have enough to do just writing the new stuff.

I want to re-emphasize that this is NOT an Itachi/Sasuke fic. A reviewer complained about the boxers in the first scene, but there is a completely innocent explanation for this coming in Episode Eight. If you think the first scene implies a sexual relationship between those two, well, that's your dirty mind, not mine.

EPISODE ONE: Uchiha and Uzumaki: Destinies Intertwined!

The hallway of the Uchiha mansion felt comforting and familiar beneath Itachi's bare feet. Many months had passed since he'd last been at his home, and Itachi had found that he missed it keenly—so much so that after he'd delivered his terse report to the Hokage, he'd skipped the usual celebratory sake with his team to come straight back here. In the hundreds of missions he'd performed over the years, Itachi had seen almost all the world, and fallen briefly in love with some of its places. His heart, however, remained in this house.

Father will be furious with me, Itachi thought as he passed his bedroom door, his name lovingly painted on the paper panel. Uchiha Nori always wanted a full briefing on the details of Itachi's missions the moment he got back, and Itachi usually at least gave an outline. After so long apart, though, Itachi needed to be with his heart far more than he wanted to deal with his father's persistent questions. He'd gone straight from the armory to the house's residential wing, ignoring the light glowing in Nori's study.

Itachi reached an unadorned door at the end of the hall—the only one in this wing without a carefully calligraphed name on it—and frowned. Mother, probably because of father's interference, still hadn't painted it. Itachi shook his head and pressed his ear up against the rice paper—he could hear the slow, steady breathing of a sleeper within. Silently, he slid the door open and slipped through, closing it behind him.

Almost immediately, Itachi's lips twitched up into a smile. In the heat, the sheets had been kicked down to the end of the small bed, and the pale, black-haired boy lying on it was curled up, wearing only boxer shorts that were several sizes too large for him. Small as he was, he'd definitely grown over the past few months, and his muscles had clearly developed along with his frame. Like all Uchihas, however, he had a wiry body, his strength arising from sharp reflexes rather than bulk. The boy's peers probably thought he was dead sexy.

In Itachi's eyes, however, Sasuke was simply beautiful.

Unable to hold himself back any longer, Itachi crossed the small room—the smallest in the wing—and sat on the futon. With a shaking hand, Itachi lightly stroked Sasuke's cheek, then his forehead.

Eyelids fluttering, the boy rolled over and bumped into Itachi's knee. This woke him completely, and he sat up, staring at his brother. "Ta-chan?" Sasuke asked quietly, the low tenor voice quite a departure from the soprano that had sulkily bid Itachi goodbye a few months back.

"Somebody's voice changed while I was gone," Itachi noted, grinning.

"Ta-chan!" the boy said, and enthusiastically hugged Itachi. "You're back," he continued, his face buried against Itachi's neck, "You're really back."

"Yes, Sa-chan," Itachi replied, returning the hug gently. "I am, for a good long time." He could feel his hands still trembling as he stroked Sasuke's bare back, his heart pounding erratically as the emotions built up inside him. Itachi pressed a kiss against Sasuke's cheek, then another. "I missed you so much, Sa-chan," he whispered.

"I missed you too," Sasuke said, craning his neck up to return one of the kisses.

"Well, you haven't been missing my clothes," Itachi said, tugging lightly at the too-large boxers. He could feel Sasuke's face heat up against his shoulder.

"I wear them at night... so it feels like you're with me."

"Oh, Sa-chan..." Itachi said, and tightened the hug. Warmth filled the elder Uchiha's chest as he held his brother's slight form against it. The pair maintained the embrace for several long minutes before Itachi released Sasuke.

The boy promptly clambered into Itachi's lap, wrapping his arms and legs around the older brother's chest and waist, respectively. Itachi started rubbing Sasuke's lower back with one hand, and buried the other in his brother's messy blue-black hair. Sasuke sighed appreciatively and nuzzled Itachi's shoulder.

"What has you in bed so early, Sasuke?" Itachi asked, "You're usually reading at this hour."

"The Academy graduation exam is tomorrow," Sasuke replied, his voice slightly muffled.

"And you aren't studying?"

Sasuke leaned back a little and mock-glared at his brother, saying, "I don't need to! I know everything in the curriculum, and ton of jutsus outside it, too."

"So, how many replicas can you make?"

"Twenty!" Sasuke replied, pride clearly showing on his face. The expression slid into a shy one, however, as he added, "but... if you stay with me tonight... I bet I could make twenty-five tomorrow, or even more..." He blushed.

"All right," Itachi said—he'd been privately hoping Sasuke would ask for this anyway. Sasuke smiled—a broad grin that lit up his whole face, even making his dark eyes seem bright—and nearly crushed Itachi with a tight hug. "One condition, though," Itachi added, "You must let me perform a sleep jutsu on you. Otherwise, you'll stay up all night asking me questions and do poorly on tomorrow's test."

Sasuke pouted for a moment, but finally said, "Okay." He allowed Itachi to pick him up and lay him down on the bed, squirming a bit when Itachi teasingly ran fingers along his ribs. "What jutsu are you going to use?" Sasuke asked, as Itachi positioned a pillow under his head.

"One I learned on my trip," Itachi said, flexing his fingers. "A mother in the Nation of Grass showed it to me, and I think you'll like it. It's taijutsu." He summoned up the memory of the jutsu and began to move, touching Sasuke's body at a series of pressure points. Then he bent down, whispered, "Goodnight Kiss Jutsu," and lightly kissed Sasuke on the forehead.

The boy whimpered, then sagged in complete relaxation as his eyes fluttered closed. Itachi, smiling, slid into the bed next to his brother and threw an arm over him, pulling him close again. The night was warm, but with this technique Sasuke was sure to sleep for eight hours without interruption, no matter how hot he got. Itachi, for his part, couldn't care less about the heat, not when he had his beloved brother in his arms.

"I love you, Sasuke," Itachi whispered in his sleeping brother's ear, "more than any other person in this world." He shuddered, remembering the dark days of his adolescence, and squeezed Sasuke a little tighter. "You are my heart," he whispered, "You keep me from drowning in the blood I spill... you hold my soul."

Itachi frowned, thinking of the blank door, his father's indifference and hostility... That Sasuke had to face that during the past months, without anyone here to support him, made Itachi's blood boil with anger and unhappiness. I'm not going away for that long ever again, he resolved, lightly kissing Sasuke's cheek. Even if it means I must resign from ANBU, I will not leave him in this place alone.

Akabara Chikako sighed as she stepped out of the Academy Wing of the Hokage Tower and into the summer sunshine of the village street. The small courtyard in front of the door was filled with people; parents and students who had come for the graduation ceremony. She found herself wishing she'd left a few minutes earlier, or decided to stay half an hour later. However, she'd already turned in all her materials, so there was no excuse for her to stay in the building. She bent her efforts to edging her way around the small, but densely packed crowd.

In the confusion, she bumped into someone, and just barely managed to stay standing. Automatically, she reached out and stabilized the other person, noticing only then who it was. "Oh, hello, Sasuke-kun," she said, smiling at the pale boy.

Sasuke looked up at her steadily, his dark eyes, as always, dredging up bittersweet memories. "Good afternoon, Akabara-san," he said politely, "Have you come to see the graduation?"

"No, I'm just finishing up some details here," Chikako said, glancing at the boy's blue-black hair, now held back by a Leaf village headband. "I see you're going to be at the ceremony," she noted. "I'll bet you got the highest grade on the exam."

"I made thirty replicas!" Sasuke said, nodding. The broad, eye-lighting smile he tended to suppress around other adults broke through, and for a moment the resemblance physically hurt, like someone had punched Chikako in the chest.

Hideaki would be graduating, too, if... Chikako savagely broke off that line of thought. No sense dwelling on the past, on the impossible.

Before she could say anything more, though, Sasuke's smile grew even wider and he cried, "Ta-chan!"

In a blur of motion, someone rushed up and lifted the boy into the air as if he weighed no more than a kitten, swinging him around before pulling him into a tight hug. Sasuke plastered himself to the newcomer, wrapping his arms and legs around the other's body. Only after Sasuke had firmly attached did Chikako get a good glimpse of 'Ta-chan'. Other than being taller and better-developed, he looked very similar to Sasuke, but his features were hard and angular where Sasuke's were delicate. His eyes, too, were different—the same dark color, but there was just a hint of crimson in them, and none of the vulnerability that Sasuke's held. Nothing about him reminded her of Hideaki; that was for certain.

The newcomer smiled at Chikako and extended a hand, saying, "I'm Uchiha Itachi."

"A pleasure to meet you, she replied, taking the hand gently. "My name is Akabara Chikako. Are you Sasuke-kun's father?"

Itachi laughed, a warm sound completely incongruous with his hard-looking exterior, but completely fitting the full-body hug he was still getting from Sasuke. "No, I'm not that old," he replied, "I'm just a very proud big brother." Sasuke whispered something into Itachi's ear, probably about the replicas again, and Itachi chuckled and replied, "Did you, now?" He turned his attention back to Chikako and asked, "Akabara-san, are you Sasuke's teacher?"

"Oh, no," Chikako said, "I've been the nurse at the Academy for the past three years, though, so I've seen plenty of him."

"Ah," Itachi said, "So it was you that did that excellent wrapping job on his sprained wrist."

Chikako felt herself blushing, but stayed collected enough to reply, "That and a few other things. A boy like Sasuke, who's very enthusiastic about his studies, tends to acquire—and cause—a number of injuries while in school."

"Well, I hope he hasn't caused too much trouble," Itachi said, thumping the boy on the back. "We should probably go in and get our seats," he continued, "It was a pleasure meeting you, Akabara-san."

"Same," she replied, but the two Uchihas had already disappeared. She stared at the spot where they'd been for a few moments, then turned to start circling the crowd again.

Almost immediately, someone jostled her elbow—blonde Yamanaka Ino, dragging a harried-looking woman who smelled strongly of flowers and plant food. "Akabara-san!" Ino demanded, always imperious these days, "Was Sasuke-kun just here?"

"I believe he went inside," Chikako said, and Ino was gone, leaving only her mother.

"First crush," the elder Yamanaka explained, smiling helplessly, "I wonder if I was as bad at her age."

"I think we all were," Chikako said, "We just try to forget it." Then she caught a glimpse of something through the thinning crowd—a solitary boy sitting glumly on a swing.

Mrs. Yamanaka followed Chikako's curious gaze, then stepped closer and whispered, "Don't stare at him too long."

"Eh?"

"He's that boy."

For a moment Chikako didn't understand, but then the meaning dawned on her. "You mean..."

"Yes. It's just as well he didn't pass the exam; I wouldn't want my Ino being forced to work around... that."

"We should be silent," Chikako warned, "You know the law. He might hear us."

"True. Well, it's to be hoped that he'll leave the town in shame." And then she, too, had disappeared into the thinning crowd.

When Chikako looked back to the swing, it was empty. The Kyuubi's Vessel, she thought, It's strange that I've never seen him before today. Every other student in the school has been in my office at least once, but he... She shuddered at the possible implications.

Perhaps it was for the best that he'd failed.

In the moonlight, Hidden-in-the-Sands village looked like a calm kind of paradise. The still streets and adobe houses shimmered like the stars above them, peaceful and tranquil as their inhabitants slept.

Yet some in the village were still awake.

Sabaku no Gaara turned at the sound of a footstep behind him, more out of habit than any need to defend himself. He nodded at the intruder—one of his father's guests—then turned back to his contemplation of the town. He wondered if anyone had committed a crime recently, something that would give him an excuse to kill again.

"The town looks lovely in the night," the intruder said, seating himself on the edge of the roof next to Gaara. "I can understand why you stay awake to see it."

"I never sleep," Gaara said, glancing at his interlocutor again. He certainly didn't make for an impressive physical specimen—average height, average build, a hint of fat in the cheeks. No ninja, it would seem, yet he wore a protective headband with a quartered circle in the center. Gaara couldn't match the symbol to any village he knew of, but perhaps there was a new one. Yet that would be odd, too, after the so-recent founding of the Sound and Wave villages.

"How marvelous it would be," the man said, "to never sleep. I could see such wonders of the Earth and Sea and Sky..." He brushed some of his long hair—dark brown with a strange hint of green—out of his face. "Though to you, insomnia must seem a curse. I apologize for my enthusiasm."

"I don't care."

"My apology stands, nonetheless," the man said, smiling, "I hate to be rude. Which reminds me, I should introduce myself. I am called Chikakawa Hikaru."

"Gaara," the boy replied, wondering why the man had extended an open hand in his direction.

As if sensing Gaara's confusion, Hikaru said, "In many lands, people clasp hands as a form of greeting." His gray eyes twinkled in the light of the stars.

"You wish... to touch me?"

The man nodded.

Tentatively, Gaara slid his hand into the man's broad palm. Hikaru's fingers folded around Gaara's, completely engulfing the boy's small hand. The contact of skin on skin felt warm, comforting. Something pleasant surged through Gaara, and he felt the corners of his mouth twitching upward.

A moment later, Hikaru withdrew his hand. "You did very well, Gaara," he said, smiling, and the boy felt unaccountably happy to have pleased him. "Could you tell me about this town? Any place that looks so lovely in the moonlight is worth closer examination."

"I... would be glad to..." Gaara whispered.

Hikaru grinned, and Gaara began to reveal all he knew of his home.

"...and last but not least, take that!" Naruto shouted, landing a final uppercut on Mizuki's jaw. The mandible snapped with a satisfying crack, and the teacher went down, already long unconscious. Naruto took a deep breath, the anger flowing out of him as he looked down at Mizuki's broken body. With a mental push, he dismissed his replicas, sighing with relief as their energy flowed back into him.

Then he remembered what had gotten him so angry in the first place and turned around, feeling the first touch of panic as he saw his teacher slumped against a tree. He sprinted over, shouting, "Iruka-sensei! Iruka-sensei! Are you all right?" He desperately shook the man's shoulder, hoping to get a reaction.

The blonde almost fainted with relief when the teacher lifted his head and smiled. "I'll be fine," he said, then tilted his head to look past Naruto and added, "Ah, ANBU-san, I'm afraid you arrived too late."

Naruto, curious, turned and nearly screamed with fright. Standing right behind him was a tall man dressed in black, with some kind of form-fitting armor strapped over his clothes. The flat, almost featureless red mask he wore had no openings for a mouth or nose, and Naruto couldn't see anything but darkness beyond the strange, comma-shaped eyeholes. Only the fact that there was a leaf symbol carved into the forehead of the mask let Naruto relax momentarily, but then he realized what Iruka had said. ANBU... the elite forces... and Naruto was standing there with a stolen scroll.

As if reading his mind, the ANBU soldier said, "You have something that doesn't belong to you, boy." His voice, instead of being muffled, resonated within the mask, losing its tone, but gaining an ominous echo.

Naruto laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head. "Um... here you go?" he ventured, unslinging the scroll from its place on his back and holding it out to the masked man.

Without comment, the ANBU soldier accepted it.

"Do not blame Naruto, ANBU-san," Iruka said lightly, and Naruto felt the reassuring weight of the teacher's hand on his shoulder. "Mizuki misled him to believe that he would pass the graduation exam if he took the scroll."

"This one failed the exam?" the masked man asked. Naruto stared at the ground in shame and pain, feeling very small. After a long pause, the ANBU soldier said, "I dislike being lied to."

"Iruka-sensei ain't a liar!" Naruto shouted, his anger burning away fear and shame, "I failed the test! And... and..." He trailed off, the full enormity of what had transpired hitting him at last. He'd broken the law, stolen a forbidden scroll, and he'd be lucky if they ever let him near the Academy again after that. He'd never become a genin, much less the Hokage. Not only that, but he could have died. Iruka-sensei could have died. The only person to ever show Naruto kindness... gone forever, because of his foolishness.

Naruto turned around and threw his arms around the teacher. "I'm so sorry, Iruka-sensei!" he cried, trying to fight back tears again. "I put you in so much danger! I was so stupid!"

"Don't cry, Naruto," Iruka said, lightly hugging the blonde, "You put everything right in the end." He glanced up at the ANBU soldier, chuckled softly and said, "Close your eyes, Naruto."

Naruto obeyed, lowering his head onto Iruka's shoulder. He felt his goggles being removed, and heard his teacher murmur, "Use mine." Then a heavy piece of fabric was tied around his head.

"Open them again," Iruka ordered, and Naruto saw that his teacher no longer wore a Konoha headband.

Hands shaking, Naruto reached up to his forehead and felt a metal plate, inscribed with the symbol of the leaf. "Really?" he asked, "I really... pass?"

Iruka nodded, and Naruto enthusiastically hugged him. "Thank you, Iruka-sensei," he babbled, "thank you thank you thank you!"

He would have gone on like this for a while if the ANBU soldier hadn't interrupted. "It looks good on you, boy," the resonant voice said, "Wear it well." Naruto turned to see that the elite soldier had the scroll tucked under one arm, and Mizuki draped over his shoulder. "I will return the scroll and take care of the trash," the masked man announced. "Can you make it back?"

"I'll carry Iruka-sensei myself!" Naruto promised, jumping to his feet. "After all, I'm a ninja!"

The masked man chuckled. "Indeed you are, Uzumaki Naruto," he said, and with a rustle of wind, he vanished.

"Hey!" Naruto said, "How'd he know my name?"

"Perhaps he read it on the Hokage monument once," Iruka suggested.

Naruto blushed and scratched his head. With a nervous laugh, he said, "Let's get you home, sensei."

Itachi let his father's hand fall on his shoulder as he entered the main house of the Uchiha compound. He understood without asking what his father wanted to know, what the Hokage had undoubtedly refused to tell him. With age, Uchiha Nori had shifted his focus from ninja arts to politics, and in that kind of warfare, information was the only weapon. The truth about the curious pursuit of Uzumaki Naruto, and its abrupt end, could be a sharp kunai indeed, against the right opponent.

To Itachi, however, information was a tool—one he could use to control his father's interests and attention.

"It has been an eventful day," Nori said.

"Indeed," Itachi replied, "Sasuke graduated with the highest score in his class on the exit exam. The ceremony was quite nice; it's a pity you couldn't make it."

"My duties to the village..."

"You made it to my graduation," Itachi noted calmly, escaping his father's grip with a smooth undulation of his shoulders.

"That was different."

"Only because you perceive it to be. All Sasuke desires from you is to know he is equal to me in your eyes."

"He is not, Itachi," Nori said, his stern face settling into its customary frown. "He does not have your innate skills, and he does not have the Sharingan."

Itachi snorted. "How stupid you are," he retorted, "A ninja is more than just the sum of his abilities... and a son is more than just a ninja."

Nori paled, his jaw tightening just enough to indicate that he was furious. "I will not discuss this with you any further," he said firmly. "Tonight's uproar is of more immediate concern."

"Ah," Itachi said, turning on his heel, "tonight was very interesting. I learned a new jutsu."

"Indeed?" Nori asked, and Itachi allowed himself to feel impressed that the man could keep what must by now be a towering rage from showing in his voice.

"Yes—Shadow Replication."

"The forbidden... who..?"

"Uzumaki Naruto," Itachi replied. He paused at the door to the hallway and turned his head just enough so that he could smirk at his father. "He was the one who stole the Shadow Book, after all."

"The Vessel... learned Shadow Replication?"

"In a single night, no less," Itachi said, turning back towards the hallway. "It seems Sasuke has a very gifted classmate," he added, then stepped through the door.

"Sasuke's classmate..." Nori muttered, his words as clear as a shout to Itachi's trained ears.

Maybe that will keep you interested in your son, you bastard, Itachi thought. He paused by his door for a moment, but then decided to continue on to Sasuke's room. If Nori was unwilling to fulfill his role as a father, then Itachi would show his younger brother enough affection for two men.

Ungrateful brat, Nori thought as he watched his elder son disappear into the depths of the house, My hard work has put you in position to become Hokage in a few years' time, and you repay me with nothing but insolence. Still, the good of the clan had to come first, so Nori would continue to lay a groundwork for Itachi's eventual reign, insolence or no.

Nori snorted, then turned and left the house, slipping on sandals as he walked out into the Uchiha compound's courtyard. The 'good of the clan' had forced him to do a great many things he hated—tolerating Itachi's arrogance, siring that sniveler Sasuke... not to mention what had happened with Hizashi—and he had little doubt that tonight's events would force him to perform yet another odious task for the sake of the family.

With any luck, the crone will just tell me to kill the boy, Nori thought, opening the door to the small hut near the edge of the compound. He carefully picked his way around the bags of grain and pots of herbs, tapping the wall in a precise pattern to open a hidden passage. Certainly slitting the child's throat would put a rapid end to the trouble. Then again, Nori thought as he descended the spiral staircase built into the lower level of the compound wall, If the crone suggests something else, Sasuke might prove useful, for a change.

Ducking through the low doorway, Nori stepped into a small room lit by a single candle. A luxurious bed was pushed up against one wall, surmounted by a figure swathed in dozens of blankets. That girl—the ironically named Ume—was seated next to the bed, but she automatically stood the moment she noticed her uncle. Nori tilted his head towards the door, and she instantly departed, disappearing up the stairs with a clatter.

"Ah, Nori-kun," a papery voice said, emanating from the bundle on the bed. "I thought you might be coming tonight."

Nori suppressed the urge to swear at her. The crone was just as infuriating as everyone else in his damned family, not least because she had the habit of being right almost all the time. Keeping his demeanor icy cool, Nori crossed the tiny room and took the seat the girl had just vacated.

The crone turned her head to look at him and Nori shuddered at the sight of her eyes—blood red through and through, they had no pupils, just the comma-shaped marks of the Sharingan in the center. The Uchiha blood had gone haywire in her, creating eyes that could not see the physical world. Yet they could see other worlds, hidden to ordinary eyes. Thus the crone was a treasured asset of the clan, a secret Nori and the other clan elders had kept even from the Hokage.

"What do you wish to know?" the crone asked.

"The Vessel of the Kyuubi," Nori said, "is one Uzumaki Naruto. Itachi seems to think he has some potential. Is this something we must take into consideration?"

"Uzumaki... Naruto..." the crone whispered, rolling onto her back. She stared up at the ceiling for several minutes while Nori suffered in silence, knowing that if he so much as coughed while she examined the future, she might demand he leave, or simply refuse to tell him anything. Finally, she said, "There are five strands—white, red, blue, green, and black."

Nori nodded, recognizing the usual beginning to the crone's predictions. She continued, "The black strand is power; the white strand is honor. These strands entwine the Uzumaki boy and our clan. As we draw him close, the black and white strands of the Uchiha grow stronger; as we release him, they grow weaker. If he becomes an enemy, our black strand shall snap. We must bind this boy to us."

"Can we not simply eliminate him?"

"A young death, and the blackest of strands, so long missing from the Weave, will return. All the strands of the Uchiha shall break, and our part in the Weave will end forever."

"Very well, then," Nori said, standing. He didn't want to stay down here a moment longer than necessary. With a sharp nod to the crone, he turned to leave the room.

"Nori-kun," the crone whispered, and the master of the Uchiha clan halted and glanced over his shoulder at her. "I will be dead before the year is out. If you have any more questions for me, ask them while you still can."

Nori nodded, and left. He knew he should be worried about the loss of a great asset like the crone, but as he ascended the stairs, Nori could only feel a sense of relief. He would be his own master soon.

"Really?" a tenor voice asked, and Uchiha Tomiko looked up from her book of Ume’s haiku. The first rays of the morning sun were falling on the loose gravel pathways of her favorite garden—a small flower-ringed courtyard, separated from the compound’s main gate by a few paces and a wall of cypresses. From her position on the low stone bench near the trees, Tomiko could lean just a little and see all the traffic entering and leaving the estate, without being seen herself. Unobserved, she peeked through the gaps in the trees to see her sons moving towards the gate, Sasuke almost prancing alongside his older brother.

"That’s right," Itachi was saying, his lips quirked up in a slight smile as he glanced down at the younger boy, "I promised I’d show you some more of my shuriken technique when I got back, didn’t I?"

"You’re the best, Ta-chan!" Sasuke exclaimed, beaming at the older boy.

No, Tomiko corrected herself, Itachi is a man, now... and Sasuke will be one soon. She smiled sadly as she watched two of her children leave the compound. Time had flowed by so quickly, and none of her idle plans to subvert Nori’s machinations had ever come to fruition. As that man had intended, Sasuke had grown up completely dependent on Itachi for affection, and Itachi had developed an extreme devotion to his brother.

And Tomiko had faded out of her sons’ lives. To Sasuke, whom she hadn’t touched in anger or in love since his second birthday, she was completely irrelevant; to Itachi she was nothing more than an object of pity. Tomiko sometimes wondered if she deserved even that. If she had been a real woman, a real mother, she would have fought for Sasuke, defied Nori’s ridiculous decrees.

In the end, though, she loved the man—the more so because he forgave her great transgression—so she abandoned her youngest child to loneliness and pain, in an effort to control her oldest. That both boys had achieved a modicum of happiness was cold comfort, particularly when Tomiko considered Sasuke... particularly when she saw that smile. With the rest of his family, with the rest of the world, Sasuke allowed himself only the restrained grin customary for a noble family... a tight twist of the lips, more a superior smirk than a true smile. Behind such an expression, his true emotions could easily be hidden.

With Itachi, however, Sasuke’s grin grew broad and a fire lit within his dark eyes. With Itachi, the true beauty of Sasuke’s soul showed through in his face. And Tomiko, her relationship with the boy completely ruined, could only see that glorious smile by spying.

Change this clan, Itachi, Tomiko thought, echoing the prayer she’d made every night for over twenty years, Bring them compassion and love. Then, forcing the pain and anger down, she returned her attention to Ume’s haiku.