Genin Days (XV).

"Why do I need to carry her the entire time..." Anko grumbled to herself, but Itachi heard her anyway.

"It would be physical more taxing for me as I'm not much older and thus not much bigger than her," he answered her with a smile, making her glare at him.

"We're shinobi! Use your damn chakra to enhance yourself or something!"

He didn't reply to that and changed the topic instead. "We shouldn't need much longer until we reach the coast, only about ten more minutes. From there, we should reach the orphanage in less than an hour."

They were currently running across the water. It was fortunate that the distance between the Land of Woods and the island they had landed on was quite short, less than an hour of running across the water for a shinobi, and that the sea was relatively calm. It would have been much more complicated to get home were that not the case.

Itachi shot a short glance at his companions and suppressed the anger he felt at the thought of Haku's fate, just as he had when she told them her story. He had a personal history with a person -him- killing his family, so a father murdering his wife and trying to kill his child hit home closer than he would have liked. Shortly after, Anko and he had decided to take her with them to bring her to the orphanage where their mission had started. Making sure that the young girl had a better future was the least thing they could do, especially when it wasn't even a bother in the first place.

Haku herself seemed to enjoy the experience. He guessed being carried over the open sea was quite a spectacle for a little girl.

He sighed.

Itachi wished he could enjoy himself as easy as that as well, but his mind was plagued by too many things right now to even think about relaxing. Just thinking about how he would need to explain his decisions to the Hokage was exhausting, and if he thought what his family must be thinking right now, it gave him the creeps. He didn't doubt that his sensei had followed the standard protocol and, after not finding either him or Anko after half a days worth of searching, had returned to Konoha in all haste to inform the Hokage so that he could send a professional search team for them. In view of the dim likelihood of two fresh Genin surviving such an experience, however, his family must assume he was dead.

It was of course theoretically possible that his sensei and Yukio had been killed by the enemy shinobi, but considering that he and Anko had fought the only high-level opponent their enemies had, he doubted that this was the case.

At least he could look forward to seeing Sasuke again.

...

"How did that happen?" Anko asked angrily. "We were told this orphanage was under your protection! You shouldn't have let this happen!"

The shinobi she was talking to, one of the rebels responsible for bringing the children that were rescued earlier to the orphanage, was visibly not amused being talked to like this by a child but didn't react in anger. Itachi guessed by the look of guilt in his eyes that he agreed with her, even if he didn't like being spoken to like that.

"The building was already burned to the ground when we arrived, there was nothing we could have done. Believe me, kid, I too wish we could have arrived earlier to intervene, but no power in the world allows you to change the past" -Itachi felt like the gods were laughing at him right now- "and it's better to accept the situation as what it is instead of crying about how unfair your life is. We should be grateful that there are as many survivors as there are. If it hadn't been for the caretaker who noticed the fire early on, even more children would be dead."

Itachi nodded. He might not like it, but he agreed with the sentiment. "What happens to the survivors now?" he asked.

The man turned his eyes upon him. "Some of my men are currently scouring the area to find a place where we can build a new orphanage. We're not many, our leaders needing most men for the fights to come especially now that the war begins for real, but we will use the limited time we have to help the kids as much as we can. The villagers of a nearby village already agreed to help with the rebuilding efforts as well and even want to support the survivors with food and water. I think a few might even adopt a child or two. Still, it will not be easy for them to go through the next winter, even with the villagers helping them..." The man sighed. "I guess all we can do is to hope for the best

He saw honest determination and no deception in the man's eyes, so he was willing to believe him.

Anko turned to look at him once they had given their farewell to the man. "If food is as rare as he claims, every additional mouth to feed will cause problems," she said. "And it will also reduce the probability of survival of every child as there will be even less food for each individual."

"Anko," he tried to interrupt her half-heartedly. "What do you-"

"Konoha has an orphanage as well," she went on unperturbed, "so we will bring Haku with us and take her there."

He didn't argue.

...

He, Anko, and an oddly happy Haku had traveled for roughly a day when they were found by one of Konoha's search teams. Iz was honestly a relief; at this point, he just wanted to return home and see Sasuke and the rest of his family again.

Itachi hadn't argued when Anko told him they would take Haku with them, and he didn't regret this decision. She had been right, after all, when she said every additional mouth to feed would cause problems for everyone else. He didn't want to be responsible for another child's death if he could help it.

Still, taking a civilian child -and that's what Haku was no matter her heritage- slowed them down considerably. So when the team finally found them, his first thought was about how much faster they would reach Konoha now that one of the adults could carry her.

...

"It's a relief to see both of you alive and well," was the first thing the Sandaime said after they finished their report. "We feared the worst when Tanaka and Yukio returned without you."

Both of them were currently standing in front of the Hokage's desk in silence, having just finished the summarized tale of the events that had happened after they were separated from the rest of their team.

"I expect a written report from both of you, but taking into account that this was the first time for both of you to went missing in enemy territory and since there doesn't seem to be anything that demands immediate actions, you will have time all day tomorrow to handle it in. Take today to rest and recover."

Accepting the obvious dismissal as what it was, both of them left the room.

....

A figure stepped out of the shadows of one of the corners in the room just a second after the door was closed.

"So, Itachi, do you care to elaborate why you offered this Mei Terumi the possible aid of Konoha for their rebellion against their own kage?"

Itachi had created and hid a Kage Bunshin the moment he had stepped inside the office and noticing the missing presence of any ANBU guards, knowing that there would be an in-deep discussion about his decision during the mission.

"Mei Terumi will become the Godaime Mizukage at some point in a few years. She was chosen for her contribution during the rebellion against the Yondaime Mizukage, being considered one of the main reasons for their success, as well as her outstanding prowess in battle. I made the decisions I did because I think an alliance with her, and through her with Kirigakure, would conform with our long-term plans regarding the village's future."

The old man looked at him and took the time to puff on his pipe before he finally answered. "You will explain to me every single detail; everything you know about Mei Terumi, the people she surrounds herself with, her leadership style, about Kirigakure and the Land of Water after the end of the rebellion, and whatever else you think is important for me to know to make a decision. You will explain to me why exactly you think allying with her would benefit Konoha and why you think these benefits outweigh possible downsides, and finally, you will explain to me how you imagine I should handle this situation and what decisions I should make. Then, after you finished, I will decide what to do."

'That will be a long day.' Itachi thought.

...

Itachi was relatively sure in his ability to look through whatever mask his mother put on, in always being able to see her true thoughts and emotions even if she tried to hide them. When he arrived home, though, she didn't even try to hide her relief and took him into her arms as soon as he stepped through the door.

If he were forced to guess, he would say that -considering he saw no surprise in her expression- someone already informed his parents about his safe return.

"I'm so glad you're alright, Itachi. When your sensei returned without you, we thought-" she paused for a moment to swallow. "We expected the worst."

She didn't cry, as she would never allow herself to cry in front of either him or Sasuke, but it was definitively a close thing.

"Don't worry, Kaa-san. Anko and I just got a little lost, nothing serious happened."

'At least if you thought about helping rebels in their attempt to overthrow their legal kage as 'nothing serious', that is.'

"You must have strayed far off course to arrive so late, then" another voice than his mother's replied, and he didn't even need to turn around to know that it was his father. He just wanted to gently release himself from his mother's embrace when he got surprised by his father joining them instead.

"Try not to get lost again, you hear me? Not knowing if your son is still alive or not is not a very pleasant feeling, and I would prefer not to experience it again."

Now it was his turn to swallow. He could remember a few times in his early youth where his father hugged him, but it happened less and less over time until it ultimately stopped altogether.

"I will try, Otou-san."

This was the best he had to offer. Both his parents were Jōnin in their own right, so they knew what the world of shinobi was like. All he could do was to try his hardest to stay alive.

They stayed like this for only a minute or two before they were interrupted.

"Nii-san?"

Hearing the voice, he finally released himself from the embrace to turn around and find his brother standing in the doorway, rubbing his eyes with one hand while holding his plush toy in the other. In addition to that, he was also wearing his pajamas, making it even more obvious that he just got out of bed.

Itachi couldn't quite suppress the giddy feeling inside his chest at seeing his brother. He had gotten used to seeing Sasuke every day since he woke up in the past, and even a few days without that had felt like an eternity. He knew he would get only busier from now and that he needed to get used to this again, but this knowledge didn't help him right now.

He crouched down and gave his little brother a big, honest smile. "Hello Otouto," he said. "I'm home."

Sasuke didn't need any more encouragement than him spreading out his arms to jump into his embrace.

.....

He wasn't comfortable with how close he had come to dying on this mission.

Sure, he could have used his Mangekyo to kill Taro, but if he needed to depend on this to survive every time he encounters a dangerous foe, he would be blind before he turned ten. No, he needed to improve himself, and he needed to do it fast. Unfortunately, there wasn't any real shortcut he could take to get stronger even faster than he already did. In fact, he was cheating thanks to his memories of the future as it was.

Still, he needed to make sure that he wouldn't die.

He didn't want to leave his loved ones behind, not now that he was given a second chance. And there was still so much to do for him, things he needed to do to stop Akatsuki and its true leader. There was only one thing he could do for now besides training himself to get stronger; that one thing was what lead him to where he was right now, standing in front of the big building in the middle of the night after he had sneaked out of the house when everyone else had long since gone to sleep.

With determined steps, he entered the Naka Shrine.