Itachi Should See More Than War

Uchiha Gen first saw Itachi early the next morning.

Dawn had not fully broken, but the disaster cleanup crews had already begun clearing the rubble.

A very young child stood at a half-collapsed street corner, holding a stack of registration forms as he quietly watched several ninja carry wounded people out of a collapsed house.

He did not cry or hide.

He did not even show fear the way other children did.

His black eyes held a composure that did not belong to someone his age.

Uchiha Itachi.

Uchiha Gen stopped.

He remembered the Itachi of the original timeline.

A genius, the Anbu, the Mangekyo, the night of the massacre.

He also remembered how that child, exposed far too early to the cruelty of war, had gradually come to accept "sacrificing the few for peace" as the answer.

Itachi was still very young now.

So young that the registration forms in his hands were wider than his palms.

Yet his gaze was already far too calm as he looked at the ruins and the wounded.

That composure was not a bad thing.

But if no one told him that war and sacrifice were not the world's only two choices, it would become the most dangerous seed of all.

"Are you Uchiha Gen?"

Itachi spoke first.

His voice was soft, but held no timidity.

Uchiha Gen nodded. "You know me?"

"A lot of people in the clan have been talking about you lately."

Itachi straightened the registration forms and handed them to the logistics ninja beside him.

"Some say you saved the Uchiha. Others say you'll turn the Uchiha against the village."

Uchiha Gen was not surprised.

"What do you think?"

Itachi looked up at him.

"I don't know yet."

It was an honest answer.

And very much like Itachi.

He would not immediately trust someone just because his clansmen praised them. Nor would he immediately take the opposing side just because the leadership suspected the Uchiha.

He would watch.

He would think.

Then he would bury everything inside himself.

Uchiha Gen glanced at the traces of writing on his hands.

"Are you helping register missing people?"

"I'm just copying the names clearly."

Itachi said, "The adults are too busy. Some of the handwriting is hard to read."

A child, copying lists of missing people amid the ruins of a disaster.

That alone was not normal.

Uchiha Gen did not immediately urge him to go home.

If Itachi had already seen the ruins, asking him to close his eyes would only teach him sooner to hide his questions.

"Walk with me for a while?"

Itachi glanced at him. "Where?"

"To see why the police force is still doing all this today."

After a moment of silence, Itachi followed.

They went to the temporary Resettlement Zone first.

Things there were a little more stable than yesterday.

The three lines were still there, and the board listing supply quantities stood in front of the shelter, updated every hour. Medical ninja recorded medicines beside the passage for the wounded, logistics ninja checked the food supplies, and members of the Uchiha Konoha Military Police Force stood only along the edges of the lines to maintain order.

After watching for a while, Itachi asked, "If the village still suspects the Uchiha, do these efforts mean anything?"

Uchiha Gen paused.

That question had come sooner than he expected.

Without waiting for an answer, Itachi continued, "The Sharingan appeared in the Nine-Tails' eyes. Many people won't change their minds because of a few rescues. The more the Uchiha do, the more people might think we're trying to prove our innocence."

It was incisive.

And dangerous.

Because this was precisely the starting point of the reasoning that would later drive Itachi to extremes.

If effort could not dispel suspicion, did that mean an even greater sacrifice was the only choice?

If explanations could not prevent conflict, did that mean one side had to be cut down before it began?

Uchiha Gen did not give him an answer.

"Watch first."

He took Itachi over to the line for hot water.

The old man who had lost his son yesterday sat on a wooden crate, with a bowl of hot water beside him.

His gaze remained conflicted when he saw the Uchiha Clan Crest.

Yet when Uchiha Ryo passed beside the line, supporting a child, the old man still reached out and pointed.

"There's an open spot over there. Let the child go first."

Uchiha Ryo nodded. "Thank you."

The old man did not respond. He merely lowered his head and drank his water.

Itachi watched the exchange.

Uchiha Gen asked, "Does he trust the Uchiha now?"

"No."

Itachi answered quickly.

"He still doesn't like us."

"But he helped just now."

Itachi fell silent.

Uchiha Gen continued on.

Their second stop was the missing persons registration desk.

A civilian woman was hunched over the desk, crying as she explained that her husband had gone missing on South Street last night.

Uchiha Makoto carefully wrote down everything she said, then brought over the transfer list for wounded people from the same area to cross-check it.

"The back alley of the South Street Tavern, around thirty years old, an old injury on his right hand."

He turned to a page and looked up. "There's a wounded man here who fits that description. He was sent to the Medical Station on the east side last night. We haven't confirmed his identity yet, but you can ask there."

The woman abruptly raised her head.

"Really?"

"He only fits the description. I can't promise anything."

Uchiha Makoto wrote down the directions for her.

The woman took the paper and was about to leave, then stopped and quietly said, "Thank you."

Itachi looked at the thick stack of registration forms beside Uchiha Makoto's hand.

Uchiha Gen asked, "Can this erase the Sharingan from the Nine-Tails' eyes?"

Itachi shook his head.

"No."

"Then does it mean anything?"

This time, Itachi did not answer immediately.

After a moment, he said, "It means something to that woman."

Uchiha Gen nodded.

"Often, relationships don't change all at once. They change slowly, through one person, one name, one set of directions, one bowl of water."

Itachi frowned. "But if war really breaks out, none of this can stop it."

"That's why we can't wait for war to break out."

Uchiha Gen looked toward the busy police force members in the distance.

"What you're seeing is the aftermath of war. What I want to do is reduce the things that push people toward war before it becomes one."

Itachi looked up at him.

"Such as?"

"Misunderstandings, rumors, silence, accusations no one verifies, and resentment that keeps building because no one addresses it."

Uchiha Gen said, "These things aren't as sharp as a kunai, but step by step, they push people to the point of drawing their blades."

Itachi said nothing.

His gaze settled on the Resettlement Zone.

It was still chaotic, still exhausted, and some people still turned away at the sight of the Uchiha Clan Crest.

But others had begun lining up according to the wooden signs.

Some thanked the medical ninja after receiving medicine.

Some took their missing persons registration slips to search for their loved ones.

These were small things.

So small that they hardly seemed capable of changing the fate of the village and the Uchiha.

Yet they had indeed kept the Resettlement Zone from spiraling out of control again today.

Just then, an Anbu appeared at the street corner.

He did not approach, only speaking quietly with the chunin in charge of the Resettlement Zone.

Uchiha Gen's two-tomoe Sharingan picked out a few words.

"Leadership meeting."

"Relocation schedule."

"Fugaku."

Itachi saw the Anbu too.

His gaze lingered only briefly, but it was keen enough.

"They're watching you."

Uchiha Gen said, "They're watching you too."

Itachi froze for a moment.

Uchiha Gen looked at him.

"Shisui was right. You're too calm."

Itachi did not argue.

"Being calm isn't wrong."

Uchiha Gen softened his voice.

"But don't start thinking too early that you're someone who can make choices for everyone."

Something flickered in Itachi's eyes.

Those words seemed to brush against something inside him that had yet to take shape.

"If everyone is heading toward conflict, someone has to make a choice."

"Yes."

Uchiha Gen did not deny it.

"But making a choice doesn't mean sacrificing everything on someone else's behalf. Nor does it mean treating one side as a price that must be paid."

Itachi pressed his lips together.

He was still too young to fully understand much of what was being said.

But Uchiha Gen did not need to convince him today.

He only needed to plant an opposing seed in Itachi's heart first.

A seed that would make him hesitate when he faced the idea of "sacrificing the few for peace" again in the future.

After the Anbu left, the chunin in charge of the Resettlement Zone hurried over.

"Uchiha Gen, the clan leader wants you back at the Konoha Military Police Force."

Uchiha Gen asked, "What is it?"

The chunin's expression was grave.

"A notice came from the Hokage Building. Konoha High Command is preparing to convene a second meeting."

"The agenda is the schedule for the Uchiha relocation."

Uchiha Gen's gaze darkened.

Danzo had changed his approach faster than he had expected.

He looked at Itachi.

Itachi was looking at him too.

This time, the calm in the child's eyes had not vanished.

But beneath that calm, a new question had appeared.

Uchiha Gen knew that was enough.

At least today, Itachi had seen more than war.