The Prologue

Itachi Uchiha was never a man who enjoyed the dirty work that the life of a Shinobi had to offer. The dirty work he had to complete as a missing-nin was even less tolerable. His work as part of the Akatsuki? Deplorable doesn't even start to describe it. Yet he did so regardless, for the sake of his village.

Back when he was young, a prodigy of the academy, he would dream of the difficult missions they were sure to send him on, the heroic acts he was sure to commit. He couldn't wait until he were old enough to serve his village, saving the innocent and protecting the people. He couldn't wait to be a hero.

But being a hero had cost him everything.

The saddest part, however, was that Itachi probably wouldn't do anything different. Had time magically reversed itself, and he were left to make the choice again; to kill his family and stop the coup d'etats, or join his clansmen and potentially launch the Fourth Shinobi War, he would make the same choice all over again.

The guilt was going to kill him, he decided. Itachi knew he was powerful, after all, very few could take down a sennin like Orochimaru with the same ease that the Uchiha displayed a few years previous. So when it came to contemplating matters such as his inevitable death, he knew that it probably wouldn't be by the hands of some ordinary shinobi, or Kami forbid some incurable illness; no, it would be Sasuke Uchiha who dealt the final blow. It was only right, for Sasuke to finally have his revenge against the man who slaughtered his entire family.

It was comical really. Itachi had always considered himself a pacifist, yet here he was: An S ranked missing-nin with the title of 'Clan-Killer', a man known for the brutal slaughtering of his own family. He often wondered what brought him down this path, what made him think that a hero's life could only be found in the twisting road of a traitor and spy.

His job was getting more and more tedious by the minute. Pain was starting to get bored with their lack of progress, sending out his men to scour the nations to find all the jinchuriki. What he wanted with them, Itachi still wasn't completely sure, but after the extraction of the One-Tailed, he was certain he never wanted to witness such a brutal ceremony again.

So with an inaudible sigh, Itachi Uchiha walked alongside his partner Kisame towards the Village of the Hidden Leaves on a mission to find and incapacitate the 9-tailed jinchuriki. He really hoped that the blond girl was no where to be found. But frankly, the world hated him.

Naruto supposed that it was perhaps her fault. It had all started out as planned, Yamato had successfully imitated Sasori and met up with his spy. Until it turned out to be that traitorous bastard Kabuto. From then, it all went down hill pretty quickly.

Yamato was easily found out, his disguise useless under the watchful gaze of Orochimaru. It was the moment the snake bastard came out, when Naruto lost all control of her faculties. Orochimaru was the reason Sasuke left, the reason her best friend was now a missing-nin. This was the man who killed her jiji. She was going to kill him.

Through her years training with Ero-sennin, she had learned how to control some of the Kyuubi's chakra, bending the potent power and wielding it as her own. Yet all control slipped from her grasp as her emotions ran rampant, tail after tail sprouting, her skin melting, her claws sharpening. By the time the fourth tail appeared, all hope of proper cognitive function was lost as the fox took complete control.

Everything went black.

When she finally woke up, as her eyes finally shot open, it was to the sight of piercing blood-red eyes staring back at her.

"Naruto Uzumaki, welcome back to the realm of the living," Itachi drawled.

There were very few people in life that Itachi truly detested. High on the list was Danzo, even higher was Tobi/Madara. The person who ranked number one? Orochimaru. Everything about that slimy man made his skin crawl, the sennin's penchant for experimenting sending disgusted shivers down the Uchiha's spine. So when he and Kisame stumbled upon a fight between his old partner and current target, well they couldn't help but intervene.

The other ninjas in their party had long been knocked out, perhaps injured as casualties in this large scale fight. The jinchuriki had already been sporting four tails, Itachi presumed that she long ago gave up the pretense of keeping her wits about her. Orochimaru was starting to sweat, he noticed, finding it difficult to keep up with the sheer power of a four-tailed Bijū.

Unfortunately, it seemed as though the Uzumaki girl was losing more and more control. If an end wasn't put to this fight, and soon, Naruto would probably lose complete control of the fox, allowing it to consume her and break free from his prison. Itachi couldn't allow that to happen.

It was pathetically easy subduing Orochimaru. The sennin was already tired, and went down easily under the might of Itachi's fully matured Mangekyō. Naruto, however, was a tad more difficult to take down. Genjutsu did nothing against the fox, so the Uchiha was forced to get a little creative. Now Itachi was by no means a Fuinjutsu expert, yet he dabbled in many fields, and was quite familiar with a compression seal.

Once he had forced the malevolent chakra back inside the girl, Naruto collapsed from exhaustion.

"This is perfect, we can now take the girl back to base and be done with this ridiculous mission," Kisame stated.

"We can't," Itachi quickly bit out.

"And why not?" The swordsman questioned, "She's right here, tired and unconscious. Her fellow shinobi are in a similar state. This is the perfect opportunity."

"Orochimaru," Itachi began to explain, "Is of a higher priority. He constantly gets in the way of our plans. Pain-sama would be happy to deal with him. You can take the snake back to base, while I watch the jinchuriki and make sure that she doesn't run. Trust me, this is the best plan."

Kisame chuckled, "Well I do believe that this is the most I've ever heard you say in one given time. But fine, I'll take the creep, you watch the loud brat. But be careful, boss won't be happy if you manage to misplace the weapon."

Itachi narrowed his eyes, "Don't worry. Uzumaki won't leave my sight."