You changed everything I knew to be true, and everything I do now has your flavor.

Really, the decision was a forgone conclusion. With Itachi's record and bloodline, not to mention the political implications, Uchiha Itachi became the first Uchiha to join ANBU since his uncle Kagami had had the honor. The council even agreed to Kakashi's suggestion Itachi be placed on the fast track for captain, due to his ability to analyze a situation and plan thoroughly. He stayed calm under pressure, didn't waver in the face of physical pain, and, above all, he valued Konoha's reputation. The rest of Kakashi's advice was ignored.

"Kakashi, may I ask you to stay?" The hokage spoke as everyone filtered out of the room. Kakashi, wondering why he'd taken this assignment in the first place and swearing he'd never do anything politically sensitive again, stopped and walked back to the Hokage's desk, bowing. As the last man closed the door, Kakashi straightened.

"Are you pleased with the decision?" Sandaime asked, his lined face carefully neutral but curious.

"I find it very strange that they decided to admit someone to ANBU who isn't even here..." Kakashi admitted mildly, rubbing his chin. He'd been immensely happy to get back into his normal face masks instead of that ridiculous scarf.

"Its is a slightly special case. Usually, when one is on an initiation mission, their proctor doesn't lose them," Sandaime pointed out.

"I didn't so much lose him as he ran away," Kakashi pointed out, the oddly apprehensive twist in his gut.

"But you're sure he's alive?" Sandaime pressed, the line between his brows creasing.

"As sure as you can be anyone alive when you haven't seen them for a month," Kakashi admitted. "If he did die, I'm sure we'll get some kind of sign sooner or later." He hoped. Shisui might just run and never look back if Itachi died.

"If he's gone much longer, his family is going to start demanding explanations, or proof that he's alive and well," Sandaime said, and Kakashi wondered if he would be the scape goat for this. Who better to explain to the Uchiha where their charming little heir had gotten off to?

"It's better than admitting out right ANBU lost him," Kakashi mused. Saindaime's look said Kakashi had lost the kid. Kakashi doubted the Uchiha would like hearing that.

"Give it more time. He'll come home-Itachi has the strongest sense of duty I've seen outside of dogs," Kakashi added. "He'll let us know." Saindaime looked dubious, but what could they do but wait? Shisui and Itachi had effectively vanished without a trace from the small island. The best ANBU trackers couldn't find a trace of them, and dead boys certainly couldn't be so hard to find. There hadn't even been a hint that Mist had them dead or alive, and surely something of that would have leaked.

"But, unless I miss my guess, he's alive and will be home as soon as he can convince someone to come with him," Kakashi concluded, probably more hopeful than convincing. He really should have grabbed the kid before he got out of that boat.

Kakashi had been back in Konoha for two weeks, as far as the Uchiha could tell. So far there had been no sign of Itachi. The Hokage insisted the boy was already on his first ANBU mission. Fugaku had believed that for a while, but now it sounded like an excuse. Had something happened to Itachi? Surely they would be obligated to tell him if something had. The clan was getting restless. They were full of conspiracy and mistrust, so they made monster's out of shadows. Fugaku needed Itachi to come back soon or the coup would take place next week.

They were not ready for that.

Fugaku still held a small hope that a solution could be reached without outright war. That was the hope with sending Itachi to ANBU. Maybe he could dig something up that would give the Uchiha the leverage they needed, but he doubted it. The longer things dragged on, the more resentment built up, and the more Konoha seemed to think the Uchiha's place was here crushed under the village's heel. The Uchiha wouldn't stand for that much longer. Things would have to change. One way or another, things would have to change.

"When's Itachi coming back?" Sasuke asked, a question he asked a few times every day now.

"Soon," Fugaku lied. "Sasuke, go outside." Sasuke stared at Fugaku as If he might protest this time, but he only sighed and turned to walk out. Sasuke, Fugaku could tell, would be a handful in a few years. Itachi had always done as told, quiet and quick. Mikoto had also called him eerie, but must war children were like that. Itachi also hid under tables when he heard loud noses until he was almost eight.

"You should go and talk to the Hokage," Mikoto insisted quietly as they heard Sasuke shuffling towards the door.

"If something's happened to Itachi, they'll let us know." Fugaku wasn't going to go begging, and he had a feeling confronting the Hokage about this would start things moving that couldn't be started. What would have to be done if he were told Itachi were dead, or worse that no one knew where he was?

Mikoto's mouth thinned into a line. Someone knocked at the door. Fugaku felt the press of the unsually warm spring day on his skin.

"It's been too long," Mikoto insisted quietly.

"I'll get it!" Sasuke shouted. Fugaku expected it was someone coming to ask about Itachi.

"Kakashi's back, Fugaku." Mikoto's voice held no motherly concern, but all of the fire and steel of a ninja. Were she not a woman and married, Mikoto could be Jounin. Fugaku had always taken some pride in the fact that his fiancée could hold her won against him in a fight. She might have passed him, given time, but that's not how things had gone.

Do you know where your son is, Fugaku?

What kind of heir would Sasuke make? The Uchiha needed Itachi's brilliance for the coup. They needed a strong leader. Sasuke was too young and didn't have his brother's power. Fugaku heard the door rumble open in the background. He felt Mikoto staring at him.

"NII-SAN!"

Mikoto was the first to react, scrambling to her feet and running. Fugaku followed, running the first three steps until his knee twinged, and then he walked. He heard the rapid bursts of Sasuke's questions, demanding to know where Itachi had been and why he'd been gone for so long. He did know he'd been gone forever, didn't he? Fugaku heard Itachi's reply, deeper than it had been before he left. Mikoto stood in the doorway, hand over her mouth.

When he saw Itachi, Fugaku understood why. Itachi was browner than he'd ever been, thinner and taller. The fullness of his face ahd fallen away to reveal cheek bones and a hardening jawline. In the newly thin face, his eyes were large and dark. On the whole he looked darker and older. His right arm had a blood bandage on it, and he held his brother as he used to when Sasuke was much younger, smiling softly.

Itachi looked up from his brother and to his parents, his face oddly grim behind the smile.

"Itachi, have you been sick?" Mikoto asked as she stepped forward, the shock gone. Fugaku realized that was why Itachi looked more mature. His hands had thinned as well, his entire frame leaner as he leaned forward to set Sasuke down.

Itachi shook his head. "An injury, but I'm recovered." Itachi shrugged, a gesture Fugaku felt certain he'd never seen his son use before.

"Nii-san, Nii-san, what took you so long?" Sasuke demanded, pulling on Itachi's shirt. Itachi looked amused, his thin hand brushing Sasuke's head.

"That is what we'd all like to know," Mikoto added, and Itachi smiled a little at them all.

"This morning was was getting my tattoo…" Itachi touched his shoulder. "But it was clan business before that." Itachi gently poked Sasuke on the forehead and looked at his father. "I think we should talk about that."

It wasn't a suggestion, and, as he looked down, Fugaku never realized he'd been afraid to meet his son's eyes before. Something had changed.

Itachi would never be a child to Fugaku again.

Itachi sat in his father's study with tea, feeling very out of place. He looked out of place, calm and contained and utterly alien. Fugaku sat down slowly, trying not to favor his knee when it wouldn't have mattered months ago. Itachi knew his knee was injured. It didn't matter.

Now it did.

"You convinced Kakashi to go to Konoha without you?" Fugaku pressed. Itachi nodded.

"Yes. I thought the informant we'd been using might be half Uchiha, and I didn't want Kakashi involved." Another little shrug. "That was why it took me so long. I had to chase him, and there was the injury…" Itachi made a vague gesture at his gut, and Fugaku thought of how many gut wounds he'd seen go septic during the war.

"And was he?" Fugaku asked.

"Was he?" Itachi repeated the words. Fugaku realized Itachi's eyes had lost focus, and now they became almost too intense.

"You said you thought he was an Uchiha," Fugaku repeated. "Was he?"

Now Itachi smiled a little and looked down at his hands. The thick braid of dark hair slid over his shoulder. "No." Itachi looked up, something off in the corners of his mouth and hanging in his eyes.

"When it comes to him, I was wrong." Itachi's hands twisted in his lap. "He wasn't what I thought he was."

Fugaku nodded, satisfied, and Itachi never brought up the subject again. But, Fugaku always wondered what had happened. Itachi never quite was the same again.

The old man finally made up Shisui's mind.

Poking around Konoha had been easier than expected, all things considered. Shisui didn't even think Itachi knew he was in town, which was good since Shisui didn't know if he wanted to stay. Something was off here—tense and growing tenser by the day, and no one seemed to like the Uchiha much. Shisui wondered over this as he perched in a tree.

He'd put it off long enough; it was decision time. Really, it always amazed him that Itachi could have him so divided against himself like this. Always that kid made things into such a huge ordeal for Shisui, but now he'd made up his mind. When the old man had shown up, Shisui really only had one logical choice, and maybe it had been the inevitable choice all along. Itachi wasn't the blindly loyal little follower anymore, and Shisui had a feeling he'd played a hand in that. Whatever these secret meetings were about, there was no way they were condoned by the Uchiha.

Which meant things were going to get really messy in a little while. Really messy. Shisui knew when to expect death.

"Uchiha Shisui, you are now and forever more will be, an idiot about this kid. A huge stupid idiot, you know that?" And he did, and he was almost even okay with it. It was kid of like having an allergy. You just had to deal with it. Take the medicine or avoid it.

"And may I be eaten by thrice cursed minnows," Shisui added as he leaned forward, delicately balanced for a moment before he fell towards the ground in a glorious free fall.

"You won't come."

Shisui lay in his favorite new position, his head on Itachi's chest listening to the kid's damn unstable breathing. It no longer bubbled or wheezed, so maybe he could stop having a complex about it soon. That would be nice. Just a little. The damn kid had gone from gut infection to pneumonia faster than a blink, and the healer had charged almost more than Shisui could pay for that.

"I never said that," Shisui protested, sleepy and indifferent.

"No, you said you would come," Itachi admitted.

"See?"

"You also said I didn't smell while I had a festering wound," Itachi added.

"Don't confuse my sweet nothings with my serious talk, 'Tachi," Shsiui grumbled, the nickname slurring off of his tongue as he raised his head. Itachi's lips quirked.

"You're not going to come." Shisui opened his mouth to protest, but Itachi went on. "And that's okay."

"Lying's suddenly okay with you?" Shisui quirked an eyebrow. "Finally, some of my good sense is rubbing off on you." Itachi smiled, still bird thin and pale and weak in the bed, but better. He would live, and Shisui could sleep without waking even when his hand was on Itachi neck, feeling his pulse through the night. Shisui lay his head back down, listening to Itachi's heartbeat.

"I'll come." It bordered on a promise. Itachi didn't speak, but his chill fingers traced the shell of Shisui's in ear a conciliatory manner, as if in advance forgiveness or apology. Shisui shut his eyes, and Itachi began to hum an old Mist lullaby as his hands tangled in Shisui's hair, as if he might never let go.

~Fin~

THANK YOU FOR STICKING IT OUT TO THE END WITH ME. I'm sorry the epilogue kind of sucks. :C So much has changed since I started this fic-I moved out West, moved back East, finally got a job, ect. Thank you for being patient and for all of your kind words!

I am not currently planning a sequel. It would take me forever to write it, but you can expect some kind of snippets and drabbles from this verse to show up on my AO3 account, where I can organize thing a little better. These things will also better explain what happened between the last chapter and the epilogue.

I have a final request-mention in a review or a PM a song or songs you associate with this fic, or that fits a character's in it, or whatever. C:

Until next time-Liz (AKA Samurai101)