[III] 2/3

A thought occurred.

This thought was something he'd pondered years ago but had never thoroughly considered until now. And that was- What was his goal?

It was odd to consider since he already had a goal. To protect his family and push them to greater heights. That didn't feel like a tangible goal though, but more like an ambition. The difference between 'I want to be the strongest' and 'I want to learn this technique'. One was workable and once attained, was glaringly obvious. The other was far away and for lack of a better word, blurry.

But it was thinking about Itachi's future that spurred his thoughts into a spiral of confusion. After all, he had to ask himself the same question any person who knew about the massacre had to ask themselves.

Could he stop it? Should he?

To that first one… probably not. He had no power. No physical power, no chakra levels. No political power and he wasn't particularly intelligent. Some might confuse him for a prodigy, but that was because of his mental age. In all aspects of being a person, he was average.

It was a tragic and completely avoidable loss of life, but he couldn't do anything if he tried. And if he did try anyway, ignoring his lack of power, he'd damn his family to investigations. Investigations would bear no fruit and likely hinder or even end his family altogether.

Danzo was a right bastard, and Hiruzen was too damn passive.

And so he was at a crossroads again. One that wasn't likely to be positive either way.

He either took a chance to save the Uchiha, guaranteeing the destruction of his own family. Or he did nothing and became a bystander to the deaths of innocent men, women, and childr-

"Ow!" Haruki flinched, taking a step back as his mother plucked him straight on the forehead, knocking him out of his thoughts. Indignant, he looked up at her. "What was that for?!"

Mebuki looked down at him, unamused. "Where are we right now?"

"Huh?" He paused at the non-sequitur and took a quick look around. They were in the middle of a grass field without a single building in sight. The only things he could see surrounding him were trees and a large gate.

Not once had he ever been here before. But that didn't really matter.

"What's that got to do with anything? I can't see anything either way when you do that super speed jutsu." He argued. That jutsu was obviously the Body Flicker, but it'd be suspicious if he suddenly knew its name without anyone telling him.

His mom squinted down at him with a frown. "I walked, but sure, let's go with that logic. So you have a girlfriend now?"

"...What."

"I asked you earlier if you got a girlfriend at school today and you hummed in agreement. Then I asked if you were sure and you explicitly said yes."

"Why would you even ask me that? I'm six!"

"Because you ignored all my normal questions. Something is clearly bothering you, I want to know what. Is someone bothering you already? Is it because of your hair?"

"No! My hair's fine, I just-" Sighing, Haruki looked off to the side, avoiding eye contact.

He didn't know how to say this without alerting her of several things. Ever since he saw him Haruki couldn't stop thinking about the future. Contemplating his game plan. His next action. The implications that came with knowing about the future of Itachi Uchiha.

One side of him was scared of even trying to interact with the kid. Didn't he join the Akatsuki as a teenager, managing to defeat and scare off a Sannin just to get an open spot? To put it simply, Itachi terrified him.

On the other side, he pitied him. Itachi had done so much hard work despite his monstrous talent to push himself to the peak of what power meant in this world. And yet he failed to do anything he wanted in the end. Even his last wish, making Sasuke a hero who defeated the big bad Itachi, failed in the end. Sasuke became a complete villain against humanity, and without Naruto, he would've been its downfall.

So young was he forced to witness and be scarred by war. To realize how cruel the world is before being able to see how beautiful it could be.

Looking at his life from the outside was… heartbreaking.

It made Haruki want to help Itachi as much as he could, to prevent the massacre at the least, but that right there was the problem. The question of whether he should even attempt such a thing.

Haruki looked up in thought, before looking back at his mother's concerned face. There was a way to phrase this without making it clear what he was referring to, he just had to try.

"I know it's only the first day but… well, to put it frankly, there's a lot of indoctri-"

He was dead.

Completely freezing mid-sentence, Haruki abruptly wide-eyed at his mother. The hairs on the back of Haruki's neck rose as the feeling of his inevitable demise washed over him. His skin crawled as in that moment, it felt as though there was nothing he could do against his fate. A complete and direct denial of his right to live.

What the hell… was that?!

Across from him, his mother was staring him in the eyes with the most serious face he'd ever seen on her. There were no emotions to speak of, just blankly staring at him with utterly dead eyes.

Was she… warning him? Was that killing intent? But what was she-

"Is there something wrong?" Even her voice had no inflection to it. That didn't even sound like a question. "Maybe you should try rephrasing that. That sounded like a pretty long word for a child."

Oh.

If he helped Itachi, he was likely going to get his own family hurt or killed. And that didn't seem like a fair trade. Even if it was selfish, the lives of those people and even Itachi himself mattered much less than his own family.

He was going to ask her what she thought about sacrifice. About the Will of Fire and how they teach ninjas to treat the entire village as their family. And then he was going to ask her what choice she would make between the lives of hundreds of 'family' and actual family. Of whether she would risk her family just for innocent people she didn't know.

But they lived in a ninja village. He couldn't just call out blatant indoctrination like that and expect to get away with it.

She was sending a warning. Either they were being watched, or she didn't know and couldn't confirm so it was better to not say anything incriminating. Likely the latter since she peaked at Genin. Any Jonin or Anbu would easily escape her notice.

Taking a deep breath, he tried again, cognizant of potential spies.

"Would you rather save hundreds of people you're familiar with or your family?" There. It was a simple question that didn't hint at anything. And at that same time, she could just lie to him to save her ass. He wouldn't judge her either way.

She blinked, raising an eyebrow at him before closing her eyes in thought. "I told you before that I became a kunoichi to improve myself. In essence, being a shinobi was my life. Although I was comfortable as a genin, I did strive at one point to become greater than that.

"Yet I gave all that up. I gave up my life when I realized I was going to become a mother. What does that tell you?"

They both paused, blankly staring at each other for a long moment as the meaning of those words settled in the atmosphere. She didn't back down, staring deep into his eyes without blinking. Meanwhile, he took a moment for the implications of what she'd said to sink in.

Then, it clicked. And with it, Haruki brightly beamed in response.