Not the way it seems

Disclaimer: I don't own the show but if I did it would definitely be shojo and would have nothing but tragic romance…

(Alternate Universe)

A child looks across the field of green and gold. Her eyes lock with the edge of the cliff where the beach rests below. How captivated with the sea, the child with dark onyx eyes, would be when those dark eyes rested upon the ocean, so fascinated with the colors of blue and green, the sound and smell, the taste of the water and it's feel. Her mother told her, that once her father had swan in that same sea, smiling like no other and laughing. Sarah could never remember a time when her father had laughed nor any other time he was anything but stoic but then there were the occasional times that he would joke with his friends when ever they seemed to be around.

"Mommy can I go into the water?"

The woman with long auburn hair shook her head.

"Not today…how about tomorrow. I promise that we'll collect shells and make a present for daddy."

The little raven haired girl nodded in agreement. She smoothed her pink dress freeing it of any dirt and smiled again. "I think that daddy will be happy when he comes back from this trip."

The auburn haired woman nodded.

"Yes very happy."

"And when I see him I'll give him a big kiss and a big hug and we'll go into the water and laugh like you said, right mommy?"

"Right."

Sarah was small, a child of five years old and yet her eyes saw more clearly then any adult, mostly because she would take the time to listen to everything and watch every detail of life, for when a child is alone and has no playmate, what else can they do? No, Sarah would simply watch her mother Hanna do every day things, from brushing long fiery auburn hair, to applying color to her pale lips.

Her father though was a hard man to read. It seemed that he was a mystery to even his companion and Sarah doubted that her mother knew where he went half the time but as all children do it was pushed to the back of her mind and set aside for times when she wouldn't be in the water or playing in the field by their modest home.

"Mommy?"

"Yes?"

Sarah grasped her mothers hand tightly.

"Can I play with daddy when he gets back and will he smile at me like he does you?"

Hanna lifted a curious brow but said nothing. Her mind seemed to drift for a moment before she smiled again dismissing the question all together.

"Let's have some tea?"

Sarah nodded.

"Ok."

-

Sasuke watched the woman and her child enter a small modest house. His dark eyes resting upon the now shut door for a few moments before he placed the kunai in it's holder. He sat back, leaning against a tree root and thought long and hard. He'd been searching for his brother for so long and when he came upon the location of his residence he was elated. Of course he had to sneak away from his 'sensei' if one could call Orochimaru that, but nonetheless he'd done it with ease. He had traveled for about a day, finding it strange that his brother would have kept so close the village that he had committed the ultimate crime in. He'd snorted at that, he was not different when it came to betraying Konoha.

He had been ready, armed and excited beyond anything else when he came upon the house but when the door swung opened and when he saw a woman come out his heart sank at the thought that he had gone to the wrong location. When he was about to leave however the sight of the child stopped him.

A girl with pale skin, long ebony hair and eyes as black as his own.

She was an Uchiha, she was, he mused, his niece.

That discovery had made him seriously consider taking the child's life. Eye for an eye, family for a family. But when it came down to it, stalking them until he was in the bushes not a foot away from the house, so easily able to come out and slit the mothers throat, to snap the child's neck. He just couldn't do it.

"Damn my stupid conscience." He whispered to himself as he sighed rather loudly. "Damn my stupid brother."

Yes, it was all the fault of his brother that he had become a monster and yet he was unable to do the monster like thing and kill the girl and her mother. He felt sick with himself. How could he let the spawn of his brother live?

"Sasuke."

He whirled around to see his brother standing behind the tree stump. His arms were at his sides, his face in the usual placid state and yet when Itachi's eyes moved to his brothers blood stained hands, which he'd attained by punching the damn tree root, Sasuke noticed a change.

'He's afraid that I killed his family.' That thought sent him reeling in joy and horror. Joy that his brother was afraid and horror to imagine that he would take an innocent woman and child's life, no matter the fact that he'd actually considered it.

"Itachi."

The brother's said nothing until Sasuke stood and starred at his bloodied hands.

"Your family is safe, brother dear, don't worry." He smirked. "I wouldn't dream of killing them, I'm not entirely like you."

"I know." Itachi inwardly sighed in relief. "You're worse."

"What?"

Itachi smirked.

"All this time I have not been out to get you, I've been quiet, I've been away and yet you still come after me. You're pathetic."

Sasuke's black eyes widened.

"I'm out for revenge."

"You're a fool." Itachi was no longer speaking in cool tones, no, his voice seemed harsh. "I killed them all years ago, I know it was something that had haunted you but brother, let it go. I have."

"Of course you could, you murderer."

Itachi smirked.

"I see that no matter what I say you wont understand how absurd this is now, how irrelevant it is that you continue to chase me and attempt to kill me. I see now that your cause to hunt me down is complete and absolute. Ah, to avenge them, mother must be proud that you turned defector against Konoha."

They said nothing, Sasuke now standing, Itachi barely a foot away. Nothing needed to be said. The only sound to fill the void was the sea beneath the cliff. Sasuke's eyes rose to his brother.

'Why haven't I attacked yet?'

"Go back home." Itachi said in monotone. "You've no business to be here, find something else to grant you purpose."

And with that Itachi began to walk past his younger sibling but Sasuke took his arm.

"What are their names?"

Itachi sighed.

"Hanna and Sarah is our child."

Sasuke smirked.

"I'll leave you then. You're lucky that you have a nice family Itachi otherwise I'd have killed you."

Itachi smirked.

"Go back to Konoha…perhaps you can finally tell that girl you love her then?"

Sasuke lifted a brow.

"Sakura?"

"Hinata."

Sasuke smiled.

"Yes, maybe I'll tell her." He then paused. "This doesn't mean I like you."

"I know."

And with that the two brothers parted ways. Sasuke would return to Konoha and it would take time to be forgiven but he would be eventually. He'd go on to carry the Uchiha line with his wife Hinata Hyuuga.

Itachi though would live like a normal man with his companion and their child and as promised by Hanna, Itachi did smile at Sarah with his entire heart.

Sarah though would always remember listening on that fateful day when the scary man with black hair had threatened her father. She was young and her eyes pure, and when she saw the scary man walk away she felt that there was a peace between her father and him. Sometimes when she went to the sea alone she'd see a figure on the beach, the scary man, but then he would be gone in the next instant. He was always watching her and she felt at peace with that. One day she'd asked her father about the man and how she had seen him and he answered her strangely but she never questioned again.

"He is someone very precious to me, someone that I let live."

She didn't understand but she saw for a moment her fathers eyes sparkle with something that she'd only been at liberty to see a few times.

Love.

Sera: Like? No? REVIEW! See he loves Sasuke! Ah! Brotherly love! Sasuke was so used to hunting him down for so long that eventually it was the only thing in his life, Itachi found this sad and pathetic. I know I know Hinata/Sasuke barely. If you're into the SasuSaku thing then sorry but I cant picture them together and about the ocean well I know that there are no beaches around Konoha but I threw it in there for prettiness…Hope you like this.