Shame, embarrassment, wrath, hate... self-loathing. Feelings that converged in one heart on a daily basis. All concealed by a poker face that remained like a powerful tree that looks healthy on the outside, while all classes and sizes of filthy maggots crawl inside.
Itachi Uchiha woke up with a head start, coming across a brilliant light on the ceiling of some unknown facility. That light was like the sun itself reflecting its brilliance on him. The same warmth, the same burning judgement.
His gaze darted around, scanning like a radar on steroids. He found Sasuke leaning on the table, asleep. He found three individuals sitting around him, looking at him casually, awaiting his moment of lucidity.
He knew at least two of them personally.
"Orochimaru, Tsunade Senju..." He mumbled, then looked towards the third person, whose expression looked lazy; he was dark-skinned with golden mane hair on his back. If one looked closely, his ears were swollen and red.
Tsunade didn't answer, she stood up, took Itachi's hand without asking and measured his pulse.
The snake sannin grinned. Itachi seemed not to be able to take his murderous gaze away from him, "Don't look at me like that, Itachi, we're not enemies... at least not now. I am as much a prisoner as you are", he said with his characteristic hissy tone.
"He is not a prisoner, Orochimaru, you and Ray are", Tsunade clarified, prompting a laugh out of the sannin and a pair of rolled eyes out of the unknown individual sitting at the far side.
Itachi's eyes darted towards him again, sitting with his arms crossed, just casually hanging around, and yet there was this deep aura about him. He couldn't help but feel like all the lights in the room were subtly leaning towards him.
"You are healthy, feel free to check yourself up", Tsunade said.
He looked at the place where Sasuke's hand had gone through, but it was gone. Not even a mark, even for Tsunade (the best medical-nin in Konoha), it was outrageous that she could heal a wound so quickly.
"Tsunade Senju. Why am I alive?" He couldn't help but ask. The situation was too confusing. One second, he was laying down his life to save his little brother, the next he was waking up, and both of them were okay.
"Why? Because this village owes you a lot, Itachi. The least I could do was save you".
The words fell like a revelation that exploded in his mind, 'She knows'.
"How long have I been unconscious?"
"About twenty minutes?"
"To heal my injuries to this degree in twenty minutes... even for the Toad Sannin, this healing capability is ridiculous. You have gotten stronger, as we thought–".
"My prowess is beyond the point. Why don't we stop beating around the bush?".
Tsunade's seriousness brought him back to the present. Itachi didn't know what was going on. The place looked like some sort of underground facility that had access to natural light. But then, it didn't make sense.
'If it was only thirty minutes, how can there be light here...?' It had been nighttime during the incident. He thought she might be lying, but what would be the point of that? He was still a criminal. What was going to happen next?
Tsunade took some sort of notepad and started writing.
"You were ordered by Danzo Shimura, village elder, as a part of his organisation, root, to slaughter your whole clan to prevent a civil war. Am I correct?".
!!!
"I wasn't ordered–" His answer was almost instinctive, as if it had been ingrained in his brain. He heard a laughing hiss from Orochimaru, and then the temperature in the room increased severalfold. When his eyes met Tsunade's, they weren't normal. He gasped in disbelief.
'Rinnengan!?'.
"Don't lie to me, Itachi. I already know the truth. I am only asking you to get your testimony," She reiterated, "I will ask you again. You were ordered by Danzo Shimura, village elder, as a part of his organisation, root, to slaughter your whole clan to prevent a civil war from taking place. Yes, or not?"
He bit his lips and clenched his hands so hard they almost bled; he knew he had no way out. But at the very least, he could get to confess his sins.
"Yes".
"You abandoned the village and became a missing-nin under orders of Danzo Shimura, village elder".
"Yes".
"You pledged to Danzo Shimura, village elder, to never reveal this or any information related to the coup d' etat to any pertinent authorities or jonin, chunin, or genin rank shinobi of the village".
"Yes".
...
The interrogation continued with Tsunade keeping notes of everything in her notebook. Once they were done, she took something out of her pocket and passed it to the dark-skinned man, who rolled his eyes, fidgeted with the weird device and then said: "It's all saved".
"Replay it, husband".
'H-Husband...?'.
The man, Tsunade's husband, whose existence he didn't even know, then did something, and everything that was just said was replayed in front of his very eyes, for his ears to hear. First, he was surprised, and second, he couldn't believe what was happening.
"Good. So we're done with this part. Now... I intend to make a public statement, but I will tell you lot present here first. Itachi Uchiha, as the fifth Hokage of the Leaf, I hereby rescind all your charges as a criminal, and re-appoint you as an active jonin rank shinobi of the village," She began, reading a document.
"W-What?"
"And since the Uchiha Clan does not possess such autonomy at the moment, I use my authority as the Hokage to appoint you as the Patriarch of the Uchiha Clan starting from now" she continued, reading the document, each word more shocking than the last for Itachi.
Things were moving too fast. Itachi couldn't help but reach out to the hand of his slumbering brother, somehow not believing what was happening. He couldn't believe justice was dawning even when the horizon wasn't clear.
"W-What I did!–"
The Hokage put her hand on his shoulder, "What you did doesn't matter now, Itachi. What matters is what you're going to do now".
She said with all due seriousness, then took her document again, "I hereby declare, Danzo Shimura, ex-village elder, as a criminal for charges of conspiracy, indirect manslaughter, colluding against a clan of Konoha, manipulation, unjust use of power", She then looked at him straight in the eye, "And genocide".
"..."
Justice had been served on a platter.
All he had to do was eat it.
A door opened at the end of the corridor, leading to the exit where the outside was visible, the dark night where deities and monsters lurked in the shadows, hunting.
"Now, as a Jonin of Konoha, the village hidden under the leaf. Do your duty, Itachi Uchiha"