Regrets

AN: This is a one shot I did to complement the interlude between the third and fourth books of my second generation fiction, Children of Sorrowful Fate. It centers around Itachi and should answer a few questions that people had, like why did he suddenly leave, and was he really the one that sent Taran back.

Won't answer the "why was he a crow during the whole story," but if you do have that question, just pm me and I'll explain my old theory on that power he gives Naruto in the manga.

Not that anyone has actually asked those questions, I just felt like doing a one-shot because I like Itachi as much as I like Neji and Gaara, and I hardly get any inspiration to do fanfiction for him.

Enjoy!

Sometimes he wondered what life would have in store for him if Fugaku had never planned that rebellion and he never had to raise his sword against the his own clan.

It was a nagging question that he usually kept in the back of his thoughts, not even looking at it. But on this night, the one he knew would be his absolute last one in this world, he brought the thoughts out and examined them.

Naruto and Sasuke may never have become friends... or perhaps even they would have been even closer than they were, he wasn't sure. He doubted that they would have been on different teams, as there weren't any other children Sasuke's age in the clan at the time of the massacre.

He closed his eyes in silent memorial at the reminder of the small children he had killed that night, the mothers holding the babies... and for what? To make Sasuke a hero?

That had worked out brilliantly. He sighed, still angry at himself for not being able to somehow protect his brother from Madara.

He heard a small moan, and looked over to see the girl he had been watching over for so long that she seemed almost like a daughter to him. A brief thought crossed through his mind, that if things had gone differently, then maybe this soul would have been his daughter.

Obviously not the body, but the personality, her mannerisms that were so unique to her. He doubted that her parents would have ever gotten together if it weren't for the sheer heartbreak Naruto had suffered at the hands of Sasuke and his supposed death.

The girl was crying in her sleep, something she had done each night since she had heard that prophecy and she and Itachi had made plans accordingly.

Plans that called for the death of that boy from Sunagakure, one Itachi was surprised that she would accept.

It was only after careful observation that he realized that she was planning on using his death as the catalyst for her own, which, if all went according to plan, would allow the bijuu to never again be in this world.

However, she was willing to walk away and give up the world for Taran, and knowing that scared her. Itachi could relate, he had given up the world for Sasuke.

He remembered her pale hands grasping the small stone that the two had used to represent the boy in their planning, her tears as she made the decision. He wanted to gather her in his arms, protect her from everything, somehow assure the girl he had grown so fond of that it would be alright. Still in raven form at the time, he had settled on pecking her ear, earning him a small melancholy smile, and he wondered if he had looked that small when he decided...

Madara had found him then, and offered comfort that was anything but. Disgusted at the memories of how the Elder had...

Shaking his head, he wondered briefly if Sasuke was offered the same sort of "comfort."

Still... if nothing else... he had to admit that the physical aspect of his relationship with the Elder was good. Disturbing, completely wrong... but good. It served it's purpose, killed the pain for a brief interval of time, but it was one of many things on his list of regrets.

Was he a good person? Hitori would argue that he was the best person she knew, right after Taran. She knew his history, after he had revealed who he was to her, she demanded to know everything about him, arguing that if he was her guardian, then she had a right to know who exactly was guarding her and from what.

Reluctantly, she was told the whole story, and surprisingly, had remained quiet throughout the whole thing, something that shocked her teammates as they saw the girl walking through the streets of Konoha with the all too familiar crow leaning next to her ear from his perch on her shoulder, he had told her more in images than words, their old way of communicating.

It was then that she truly made her decision to train at the mountain, despite what she told Taran a few days earlier. She had grabbed Konohamaru then, made the deal with the Hokage...

And jumped off that cliff. He had stayed in the air, circling above as a crow knowing there was nothing he could do to help with this test. As sunset came, he cheered along with the rest of Konoha as she jumped down from the toad's back to her Uncle's arms.

He felt a pang of jealousy at the Hyuuga and again wondered what would have happened if the massacre had never taken place. Would he have had a family? A daughter like the girl sleeping next to him?

He glanced over at her again, noticing that she was still clutching that stone, tears still running down her cheeks.

If she were his daughter, if he had been allowed a happier life... he leaned against the tree and sighed.

"Daddy! Grandmother!" the small dark haired girl with ebony eyes, not the pale blue, and no curse seal on her forehead called, "Uncle Sasuke's back!"

He turned, looking in surprise at the girl, who was roughly four years old, and then noticed the surrounding home where from across the table his mother smiled at the girl, "You've gotten so tall Kaguya."

"Not as tall as Daddy," she grinned, hugging him, and he found his arms wrapping around the girl.

"How was school today?" he asked, and she scrunched her nose, "It couldn't have been that bad?" he added in a teasing voice.

"Can you help me with my shurikan throwing?" she asked, "I'm having problems hitting all the targets again." He nodded in the affirmative.

"If it were me, you would have said 'next time'," Sasuke said as he entered the kitchen, a wry smile on his face.

Itachi stared at his brother for a moment, This was a Sasuke that had never been tainted by petty vengeance, one that never witnessed the Uchiha massacre. Kaguya ran to hug him, "Uncle, you're back from your mission!"

"Want to see a new trick?" he asked her, "Then I'll help out with your target practice." he shot a snide look to Itachi as he said it.

Kaguya didn't see, she was too busy thanking her uncle and begging to see the new technique he had learned.

"I'm so glad you were able to talk your father out of that nasty business," Mikoto suddenly said after the two had left, "It's a shame that your wife didn't survive the childbirth, but I hate to think of how many lives would have been lost if..." she shook her head, "Thank you Itachi."

"For what mother?" he asked wide-eyed.

"For giving me my grandchild," she smiled again.

Careful watching told him that this dream, for that was all it could possibly be, was happening roughly six years after the massacre was supposed to take place. He traced all information he could, and found what had made the key difference between this universe and reality.

Madara didn't exist in it. Instead of running into him as he weighed the options of his clan versus Konoha, he had apparently decided to speak with his father and with Danzo, somehow made peace between the two factions. It made no sense, nor did the elusive information on just who Kaguya's mother was, he couldn't see her face in any of the photographs his mother had around the house, and no one in this dream was mentioning her name. All he could fathom was that he had married someone instead of the massacre, which to him was odd enough, but then he started looking at the small changes in the world...

And yet for all the differences, there were some things that were exactly the same. Naruto was on Sasuke's team, and he was still the jinchuuriki, something that screamed Madara was somewhere, even if there was no other evidence, and the chunnin exams had passed exactly the same as they had in the real world.

But at the end of it, the fifth Hokage wasn't Tsunade, it was Fugaku.

Itachi found himself in charge of the police force and the ANBU, making both work together in ways he had only dreamed of before.

And in the evenings he came home to the little house outside of the Uchiha compound, one he vaguely recognized as the one Neji had owned in the real world, to Kaguya and would tell her different stories of famous ninja.

And if he had a mission that would take him away from her, he would take her to his mother's care and buy the girl a box of cinnamon rolls. On the return trip, he would buy her a small present.

They even had a puppy.

Yet, despite knowing that this wasn't real, in no way could be real... he was happy.

Sasuke defected just as he had in the real world, though his reasoning was different. He wanted to surpass the Uchiha name, get out from under it's stigma.

The goal was the same, he wanted to be more powerful than Itachi, same as in the reality, but because he was tired of being compared to how great his brother was, not because he wanted to kill him.

Instead of Sakura, it was Kaguya who had followed him to the gates. Itachi was away on a mission and she had seen him sneak out from the main house.

"Uncle," she pulled on his shirt, "Don't go..."

Sakura he had knocked out in; Kaguya he kidnapped. Orochimaru's henchmen grinned when they saw the young girl, knew her to be something their master would enjoy immensely.

Fugaku wasn't as lenient as Tsunade, He ordered Shikamaru's team that if they couldn't return the Uchiha then they were to kill him before he left the Fire Country.

Itachi only landed in Konoha long enough to hear the news, then, knowing where Sasuke would be, started for the Valley of the End.

He got there as the fight between Sasuke and Naruto started, watching it play out almost exactly the same, and he looked to find Kaguya...

His heart stopped. Madara was in this world after all... and he had the girl as he grinned from beneath his mask at Itachi.

He used Sasuke instead of me... Even with an Uchiha as the Hokage he still plans on destroying Konoha! Quickly he looked down, saw the finale of the fight...

Naruto was dead. The way the blood pooled beneath the jinchuuriki... not even the kyubbi could have healed that wound. The orange chakra seeped out...

And suddenly Madara was next to Sasuke, holding the girl, Itachi ran towards him, but his legs were heavy, he wasn't reaching them in time to stop Sasuke's body from crumbling, from the orange chakra seeping into the crying girl holding out her hands to her uncle.

Madara looked at Itachi one last time, and smirked as he threw the girl down, "Just try and keep her from me," he challenged as he vanished into that swirl.

An Uchiha jinchuuriki... one that Madara sealed personally... Itachi tried not to think of the possibilities as he gathered the small crying girl in his arms, trying hard to shield her from Sasuke's and Naruto's bodies.

From then on the happy dream turned into a nightmare. Fugaku exiled Kaguya from Konoha, if the original attack would be blamed on the Uchiha, the clan head didn't want to think of the repercussions of the new jinchuuriki being a Uchiha, no matter that it was his granddaughter. Itachi left with her, leaving his position as ANBU head to Kakashi, who was more than happy to reenter the forces at the death of his two students, and the head of the police force to Shishui.

The only comfort he had as the two left was that Sasuke and Naruto's friends did not blame her. He went through the next three years, saw the rise of the Akastuski, and when Madara came for Kaguya, the young girl couldn't resist the elder's sharingan. Despite Itachi's efforts, Madara had her and the kyubbi completely under his control.

Heartbroken, Itachi returned to Konoha, trying to save it...

To his horror, it was Itachi that killed her, tears in both of their eyes as he realized that she had directed the Kyubbi's chakra to impale him as his sword struck her heart.

Both died together and there was no comfort, Konoha and it's people had all been destroyed, Madara still receiving the kyubbi's power as the moon above them turned red.

His eyes snapped awake, and he found himself back on Myobokuzan, with Hitori still asleep.

"So did you make the right decision?" the elder toad asked and Itachi looked down at him, "All those years ago... was the Uchiha massacre the less humane of the paths presented to you?"

"That dream was your doing?" he narrowed his eyes.

"I know what the two of you have been planning, and I know about the decision you made to leave her tonight, to beg for that favor from the death god." Fukasaku looked up at him, "And I know that you regret. Everyone has their own, but yours affected nations didn't they?"

There was nothing to say to that, so Itachi merely nodded.

"At least stay long enough to tell her goodbye," the toad turned, "She loves you too much for you to simply disappear on her." He vanished as the sun started to rise.

Itachi nodded, and stared at the rising sun, and as he prepared to leave, he cast one more glance at Hitori who was rubbing her eyes as she looked at him, "Chi? Why aren't you a crow?"

"I cannot stay and watch over you anymore," he said softly, "My time has run out," he leaned over and pressed his lips to her forehead, "Take care Hitori... and whatever you decide... don't ever regret."

As he vanished from her sight into the murder of crows, he knew that from here until eternity when his penance was done, he would never regret again.