He couldn’t erase the image from his mind. He could block out the cry of pain. The sound of the blade tearing through flesh, the shower of red that dyed the earth.

The sight of his friend and teammate Tenma Inari lying dying on the cold ground slain by a masked figure. As he himself stood rooted in place in fear.

Itachi couldn't keep the tears that had formed in his eyes at bay. Regret, fear, guilt, it all ate the eight year old. And he couldn’t stop himself from dwelling on it as the line he repeated so often plays in his head; ‘Life is born and life dies’.

☆☆☆

Itachi lays in his room, tossing and turning as a nightmare plagues the little boy. The masked man is there, Tenma jumps in front of him, and in a blink of an eye blood bathes the earth. Tenma is screaming at him as he changes into a mummified corpse screaming, shouting, cursing, blaming Itachi. As the young boy struggles to wake from his nightmare.