The morning that came after that night's event was ironically peaceful despite my fragile state of mind. Hitori and I were enjoying our Suimono in the dining room. The birds were chirping cheerily unlike when Danzo's intrusion happened the day before. Somehow it had slipped my attention that the birds were sort of 'in-tune' with Hitori. Their chirpings hypothetically indicated her stress levels, a useful trait if I say so myself.

Both of us were already dressed for our day. She was sporting an above the knee, green and red themed kimono complete with the hair accessories and the violet praying beads that she used as bracelets. The bracelet helped her hid her glow, she had explained it when I pointed it out during our trips around the village. I was sporting my usual Hyuuga Jukengi but without the Fudo Masamune.

"You know, I think I should go back to the mountain today, to get my things," Hitori blurted out after she had finished her soup. I was spacing out as I watched her ate and wondered how she seemed so unfazed by yesterday's event.

"Hmm? Oh, sure. I'll summon you home by the end of the day. Uhmmm, Hitori-san, how are you so yourself? I mean, you had a blade pierced right through your heart yesterday," I began and earned a laugh from her.

"I had stopped worrying about death aeons ago. Every time I injured myself too badly, my body would burn into ashes and a new one rose from said ashes. However, things would be entirely different if I ran out of lifeforce to spare. I would need to recharge it back, so to speak and that is where I would really die, in this plane of existence at least. Try not to get into that Divine Mode when I'm gone. At least not until your mental state is much more manageable. I had to lock away your demented Otsutsuki's wrath with my chakra. Don't kick yourself for that though. It is expected of an Otsutsuki to manifest that god complex personality. It won't do much if your mind kept being so fragile all the time," Hitori just had to give me a good bout of nagging before she went on with her day. She rubbed my cheeks slowly after she said it and shot me an apologetic look. I presumed that she was feeling guilty for introducing me to said powers and thus I inwardly flinched and cursed myself for succumbing to the despair of losing her. I hung my head, disappointed at myself.

"I know," I breathed, "I need help, professional help. I'm going to Yamanaka-sama's office today."

My fist was clenched as I hated it so much for I had to resort to therapy and my self-hate was all over the place. I felt her lips on mine and I gladly returned her kiss.

"There's no shame in admitting that you need help. Acceptance had always been the first step to heal. Good luck, my love. Get better," she breathed before she gave me another kiss and then she shunshinned to the lawn. When I heard the giant set of wings flapping away, I stood up and cleaned the table before I made my way to the T&I building.

"Welcome, Hikari-kun. I am grateful that you had decided to follow through with this therapy session. How was your day so far?", Inoichi-sama began as he scrambled out his notepad and a fancy fountain pen before he scribbled some of the snippets of our conversations.

"Thank you, Inoichi-sama. My morning is always peaceful and I hope it will last through the day. Unlike yesterday, of course," my gaze darkened a bit when I answered that. There was occasional scribbling sound as we talked with one another. It was mostly random generic topics before we had to get down and dirty. I was squirming, flinching and droned out throughout the session.

"I am curious about yesterday, if I recalled correctly, you didn't remember it all," Inoichi-sama probed referring to Danzo's death and I knew that he had seen me subtly shifted my weight to the other side.

"Well, for the most part, all that I could hear was my ears buzzing or something and my vision went red and pulsating. When Danzo's men stabbed her heart, something inside of me lashed out and I felt no inclination to either not listen to the emerging personality or repressing it and rather, I was enjoying every minute of it. The rage, vengeance, irritation, and anger. I felt like I wanted to do all of that. At some point, I was virtually lost and trapped inside my mind and thus, Hitori had to fetch me back. Of course, I didn't believe it was her at first but good bouts of nagging could snap someone back to consciousness. When I came to, the ROOT headquarters was in ruins, most of the members were maimed. I remembered delivering the killing blow to Danzo but, what I had done to him afterwards was pale in comparison," I half-whispered murmured to the man and he was visibly startled by the amount of information I revealed. He must have wished that if only it was that easy to squeeze out information from either his client or enemy.

"This so-called personality of yours is there a way I could meet him," Inoichi-sama queried and I had to scoff.

"Please Inoichi-sama, I don't even want to experience that again. Hitori said that she had sealed it away with her chakra but I had to get help professionally and thus here I am," I explained.

"But your lapse of control of your mind seemed to stem from Hitori-san, right, ultimately?" he probed.

"Not exactly true, my willingness, no, my desire to protect Konoha would explain it better. If she was just any other villager, I imagine that the situation would remain the same. I did say that I wanted to deserve to be worthy of Konoha. That man just literally made me lose my mind," I thoughtfully said as I gazed aimlessly out of the window. I thought that my eyes were tricking me but I had seen something moved there. Inoichi-sama wrote some more words in his notepad before he deeply sighed at the end of it.

"Well, I thank Hitori-san for doing the bulk of the work. We can focus on healing your mental problems instead. I must say, as a shinobi of Konoha, I found that the will of fire had been seared into you quite nicely. Sandaime-sama had done a good job training you if I say so myself. But, as your therapist, I would say that you are giving too much of your heart and mind to the village and I am afraid that the same will would burn you away. Of course, that is why I am here," he said and I couldn't help but raise my eyebrows at his hypothesis. "You should think of yourself too. This job of being a shinobi is a double edge sword for you, Hikari-kun. You feel too much, even when you said that you didn't and this affected your mental instability to great lengths."

"That is what I had been trying to say, all this time. I did say to myself that I am not suited for all this. That being said, the circumstances had been deemed irrelevant now. Konoha needs me for these in the coming years," my gaze darkened yet again. We were suddenly interrupted by a scratching sound at the window and then it was accompanied by a cat sound. The said cat was staring curiously at me before he winked his right eye. Both of us jumped a bit by that but the cat wasn't wasting any moment as it was the one who broke the silence.

"Missive for Hikari-sama," the cat's voice was hoarse and authoritative. I stood up and paced to the window to let the cat in. The sleek black cat dressed in a simple ninja uniform stretched his spine as soon as he touched the linoleum floor. It then nodded at Inoichi-sama before greeting him.

"Yamanaka Inoichi-sama, former head of torture and Investigation unit of Konoha. I pity those poor souls who had to face you yet again in this building."

"Inoichi would suffice, Ninneko-san. Please carry on with your missive," he waved the cat off, mildly amused by the fact that his session was hijacked by a cat. The cat turned to Hikari who was observing it intently. The cat bowed at the boy before introducing himself.

"The name is Juzo. I am bound to our mutual friend, the forsaken one. He has a message for you, Hikari-sama--the forgotten ones," the cat said as a scroll puffed into existence on his paw. I noted that Itachi's Mangekyou was inscribed as an insignia on the scroll. I bowed back before I took the scroll and store it in my jacket underneath the Jukengi.

Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click www.webnovel.com for visiting.

"The forsaken one had only mention of yourself and I didn't imagine that the one and only, that infamous forgotten one is right here in front of me," Juzo brushed his head against Hikari's legs.

"Be careful of your words Ninneko-san. Please do accompany me for a while, we will get acquainted," I chided but the cat yawned at me instead. My attention was turned towards Inoichi-sama who was left puzzled by our exchange.

I suggested, "Shall we continue in the next session?"

"Of course, same time next week.", Inoichi-sama said as he glanced over to the calendar that was on his desk. Inwardly sighed, I cursed the fact that I couldn't have time for myself as a ROOT operative had appeared next to me, kneeling.

"Hikari-sama, your presence is needed at the office to sign some documents," Torune said. He was clad in a khaki robe with his signature monkey mask. Inoichi-sama was visibly nervous at the sudden appearance of an operative from the most mysterious and malicious organization in Konoha. I noticed that he was at a discomfort for such an accident.

"Very well, Monkey-san. I want to add etiquette skills as a requirement for every member. Please knock before you enter a room that isn't yours and a clan's head at that. This cat did better than yourself," I sharply said as I picked up Juzo. The Aburame winced at the reprimand and promptly apologized to the Yamanaka's head. After a few words, we shunshinned to the ROOT headquarters and then I was lead to my office.

Apart from the towering documents and mission reports to sign and review, I was signing a summoning contract with the rest of ROOT secrets and my seal was now officiated as the vault was made accessible to me. In the said vault, I pulled out a file marked Uchiha Itachi when I remembered the scroll that was given by the black cat who was sleeping soundly as he slept on the desk after being ultimately bored by the mountainous paperwork. I unravelled the scroll and read it.

"To the forgotten one,

You are quite famous in the Ninneko world, don't you know? The rumoured return of the brother of the Sage of Six Path that was presumed missing centuries ago. Well, getting straight to the point, the leader of the Akatsuki never truly shows himself. They are a mercenary group form in Amegakure before they were defeated by Sanshuo no Hanzo. After Hanzo's sudden death, the group rose to power and took control of the village. The leader, Pain-sama possessed the Rinnegan and utilized Rikudo Ninjutsu. Attached to the scroll is also my noted records of each Akatsuki member dead or alive apart from the one we sought after. I believe, he was somehow manipulating the organization. Lastly, as you are formally informed, I would prefer it if my circumstances are still far from anyone's notice. I'll contact you if I have more. Please sign a contract with Juzo-san, just in case. Destroy this when you are finished.

Yours truly,

The forsaken one."

I sighed at the scroll as I set it on fire. I wonder why the lack of inquiries about his brother's well being. I thought long and hard on Itachi's life--he would rather live the life as a rogue-nin rather than being a loyal Konoha shinobi that he still is. It was better than one seed that went bad rather than the entire clan loses face. A coup, he said. A life of someone who has no regard of his own rather than a cause that is greater than oneself. I was well on the way of following his footsteps but the difference was Danzo couldn't meddled with me. I looked down on the last page of Itachi's dossier.

"On a meeting with the council regarding the safety risk of Konoha, ANBU, Uchiha Itachi said the following, "Off the records, I, Uchiha Itachi accept the mission to assassinate the whole Uchiha Clan on the condition that my brother, Uchiha Sasuke is to be left out from the massacre and that the council will make sure to keep him alive in exchange for me to be living as a rogue nin."

After completing his mission, Uchiha Itachi had left the village on his request towards the council member and current Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen who approved.

-Shimura Danzo."

I thought long and hard for the next move before I picked up an old fountain pen that was sitting around and scribbled a few words after the last entry.

"As the newly appointed ROOT director, I hereby assigning Uchiha Itachi as a ROOT captain and my second in command. His current mission is to infiltrate a suspicious organization that could potentially be jeopardizing the whole shinobi world while gathering information of a suspicious man that potentially endangered Konoha along with its allies and he will be instructed to return once he had completed his mission. Upon completion, all his criminals' records will be erased as it is a convenient ruse used to infiltrate the organization.

Sincerely,

ROOT Director

Hyuuga Hikari."

I shut the file up and replace it before glancing at the clock. I should get home soon but when I gazed around the office, I determined that there will be changes in the house and I was thinking a 180 degrees shift in the unit operations. I went to the still sleeping cat to wake him up.

"Juzo-san, send my regards to our friend, please. Would you mind signing a contract with me?" I asked and the cat was immediately elated. He was subtly excited of the prospect of being a summoning animal of mine. Shame on him that I had already got one. After a few briefings from some people in headquarters, I head back to summon Hitori home.