Time passed. A month, then two, then six, then almost a year. Itachi still felt empty, but it wasn't so bad, somehow. It wasn't like Konoha, where there had been breaks between missions. Here, he couldn't rest for a moment, he couldn't get out of the role of the wandering nukenin, he had to remain vigilant.

The unrest in the country had intensified, and he could not let his guard down. It helped him. Staying focused helped him not to think about the emptiness inside him, about his loneliness, about this perpetual doubt of not being good enough, of having done wrong, of having messed something up, of having made a mistake. He would never get rid of this emptiness inside him, but he had learned to live with it.

Itachi couldn't call this place home, but he was starting to have a certain attachment to his territory. He decimated the criminals, he collected the bounty, and he was now well known in a few hamlets for the civilians to offer him food and lodging. Itachi knew he had a reputation for being unrelentingly cold, but also knew he was a polite teenager who didn't bully civilians for fun... and compared to the kind of crazy people that traveled around, that was enough to make him feel good.

The only thing that was bothersome was his cough. It hadn't gotten worse, but there was a constant pain in his chest, and his breath smelled of clotted blood. Something was seriously wrong with his lungs. The climate was perhaps an aggravating factor. The next time he saw a medic-nin, Itachi would kidnap him or her. He was a nukenin, he had the right to do so.

But medics were rare. Especially outside the villages. Especially in the Land of Water. And above all, in the midst of a civil war.

Inevitably, the hatred of the Kekkei Genkai had turned into a purge. A civil war, almost. Itachi wasn't really surprised, but it still wasn't good news. The conflicts were spreading. They were no longer limited to the main island of the land of Water but to all the small islands around, including those where Itachi lived his nukenin life. There were Kiri ninjas everywhere, hunting down deserters. There were Kiri shinobis fighting each other. Distinguishing a nukenin from a loyal shinobi was getting more and more complicated. And the worst thing was that the Nukenins themselves split into several camps, supporting each side of the civil war or, more often, both.

Itachi wasn't taking sides. He didn't want to be involved in this war that wasn't his. But even if he was not interested in the war, the war was interested in him. No neutrality was possible. Taking on a mission necessarily benefited one side or another… whether it was a robbery, an assassination, a kidnapping, or a release of a prisoner. Everything was linked to one side or another, and to interfere in it was to declare allegiance.

At first, Itachi struggled to choose missions that didn't clearly benefit one faction... Then he was careful to choose his missions to do as much work for one faction as for another... But in the end, he found himself at work more and more often for the faction in which many of his contacts were found, including Zabuza. So Itachi threw in the towel. Neutrality was impossible.

He thought long and hard about staying. He was already involved. Why not continue? Get involved for good? It wouldn't be much different from what he was already doing. The faction Zabuza supported was… one that wasn't completely opposed to Konoha's interests. Itachi would respect the parameters of his mission. And then… Having a common goal, an organized cell… It wouldn't be quite like having comrades or a village. But in the nukenin world, it was so rare to belong to something. So rare, so dangerous, so precious. Forming a partnership was a risk because you were betting on a person with their selfish desires. But joining a group was less dangerous because there was cohesion, an ideology that brought them together.

The idea of ​​joining a group of Kiri was tempting… But Itachi didn't, because he was a ninja from Konoha. Even though he was a nukenin, even though his allegiance to Konoha was secret, he was born there, he had served his village for many years. He would always be a stranger in the Land of Water, an enemy, a potential spy.

When all the Nukenins were housed in the same boat, it hadn't mattered much, but now that camps were forming with the aim of destroying, joining, or conquering Kiri... This was no place for an Uchiha. This war… This war was a way for the different factions to come home, but it would never be Itachi's house. It was not his fight. Even if he joined a faction, even if he tied himself to their cause, he would never be one of them.

He decided to move, to the country of Rice Fields. This country had no ninja villages but was roamed by tribes and clans of wandering shinobis with varied customs and Kekkei Genkai. Perhaps the climate there would be kinder to his lungs?

He warned some of his contacts, including Zabuza. The swordsman gave him a long look. He didn't ask him if he was sure of his decision. It wasn't Zabuza's type. It was Haku who, in a very soft voice, asked him if he really didn't want to stay. But Itachi didn’t change his mind, he left the Land of Water without looking back.

Itachi didn't think much of Sasuke these days. Being nukenin, fighting to survive, planning his missions, calculating how long he could last on rationing himself, looking for contracts, trying to breathe through the pain when he silently smothered a coughing fit that made him feel like a rusty katana shredded his ribcage, all that occupied him too much for him to allow himself to daydream.

The thought of his little brother was bittersweet. But, now that he thought of him… Itachi wondered how he was, if he hated him, or if he was all right. He hadn't thought about it, but Sasuke could have been blamed for his brother's actions, but also for his clan's actions. Jun and his people had an excellent reason to hate the young Uchiha, after what had happened to Hazuki. In retrospect, Itachi should have been worried about that. But he knew Jun. He could be impulsive, angry, and brutal, but he had great compassion within him. His love would always be stronger than his rage. He would protect Sasuke. Because even though he hated the Uchihas, they were her mother's family, Shisui's family, and Itachi knew how much he had cared for these two people.

Sasuke was in good hands. He was safe in the village, and that was the most important thing for Itachi. Maybe it was fate that made Jun able to defeat his Mangekyo Sharingan. Nobody knew how things would have turned out if Jun hadn't survived their fight.

Itachi was almost tempted to return to the Land of Fire, to learn more about what was left of his clan. But he knew that would have been reckless. In the country of the Rice Fields where it was the law of the strongest who reigned, where the Nukenins and the wandering clans and the bandits tore each other apart… Leaving the place for a few days would be enough for his meager connections to disappear. And among the Nukenins, good connections were necessary to have missions.

And the missions were necessary to earn his daily bowl of rice or, in Itachi's case, to buy herbal teas and various medicines to soothe the dull pain that constantly throbbed in his lungs. Itachi had started coughing up blood when he coughed violently, and it really wasn't a sign of good health. He needed these missions, these medicines. So he stayed in the land of the Rice Fields. He remained attentive to what was being said about Konoha and Kiri's civil war, but he stayed away from it. He lived day to day.

And then, when he was almost seventeen, three individuals in black coats adorned with red clouds came to find him to recruit him.

Or rather, Itachi assumed they had been sent to recruit him. One of the two men was Orochimaru, the famous Sannin, and he apparently had other ideas. He gave him a big speech about the greatness of the Sharingan with a maniacal smile and tried to gouge out his eyes. Itachi caught him under his Tsukuyomi and slit his throat for good measure.

"Oh," the second man, Sasori of the Red Sand, a nukenin from Suna said flatly. “I wonder if he's going to die this time.”

"Never mind," The third person, a woman with a cold face and amber eyes whose name he didn't know, said. “He went against Pain's orders.”

She turned to Itachi, and said in a neutral tone:

“Orochimaru was driven by his greed. We did not come to fight you. We have come to offer you a place in our organization.”

The Akatsuki was an ambitious project bringing together S-rank Nukenins, which was apparently led by a ninja so powerful that people in his village considered him a god. The Akatsuki was powerful and dangerous. It offered Itachi resources, missions, and a structure to fit into. He wouldn't be an outsider like he had been in Kiri's civil war. Within the Akatsuki, they were all the same, homeless outcasts from all over the world. Itachi had every reason to be tempted. It was consistent with his role, so he accepted.

He wasn't looking for a new purpose to guide his life at this time. The Akatsuki was just a new setting that would make his life easier. He wouldn't have to choose his missions himself, nor search for them by combing through his contacts. They would be given to him. He would have a safe base to return to after long journeys. He would have a partner assigned to him, who would be obligated to support him. He would even have access to treatment: he had placidly asked Konan and Sasori about the kind of treatment they could offer in case of illness, and Sasori had revealed himself to be an expert in drugs and medicines of all kinds. It went hand in hand with his expertise in poisons, apparently. Honestly, that seemed like a pretty good deal.

A base full of temperamental and overpowered S-rank Nukenins wouldn't be a peaceful place, and maybe not even a truly safe one, so Itachi was on his guard. For the first few days, he took careful note of who his new comrades were. The Uchiha appeared calm, polite, inflexible, and indecipherable. He wasn't there to make friends, but he still wanted to work on good terms with them.

And then he met the man with the orange mask.

He was the one who killed his genin teammate years earlier. Itachi recognized him instantly. It was like an electric shock. But it was much worse than just being faced with an old nightmare. The man in the orange mask introduced himself as Madara Uchiha and his Mangekyo Sharingan glowed in the dimness of his mask. Itachi remained impassive, but inside him, there was a bit of fear. This man was another possessor of the Mangekyo Sharingan.

It didn't matter whether he was Madara or not, he was dangerous. He was the most dangerous person Itachi had ever come across because he was maybe stronger than him and stronger than Jun because he controlled Pain and the latter controlled the Akatsuki. Moreover, he possessed the Sharingan and was an enemy of Konoha. He also praised Itachi for slaughtering the Uchihas…

It was crazy, it was insane, it was horrible. This man had existed under Konoha's nose for years, wasn't it terrifying? Danger always came from the unknown, and this man wielded both a power greater than Itachi's and the most perfect anonymity. He was a traitorous Uchiha who had founded an organization to take over the world. Itachi knew his ideologies were dangerous.

The world had tilted on its axis and suddenly Itachi saw clearly, as if the light had made itself and violently highlighted angles and surfaces which had been hidden from him until now in the shade. This man was dangerous. Not just dangerous for the world, for Konoha, and for Itachi. This man knew that Sasuke existed, he was dangerous to Sasuke.

And suddenly, Itachi discovered that he had a new goal.

He was unaware of this Madara's abilities but that wasn’t a problem. Itachi was part of the Akatsuki, and he would be able to observe him closely. Analyze him, and look for a flaw. It would be a long-term mission. It wasn't a problem. He would be patient and wait for the best moment to act. Killing had always been the thing he had been mostly good at, after all.