Itachi is trapped in his cage.
Other birds find the lock and fly away. Some are content to sit in their cages and sing, till they find out the harsh reality. They, too, will leave. Some birds find out their cages were never really there in the first place. They will spread their wings for the first time, and soar.
Itachi is none of these.
His cage is built of every drop of blood that he drew from the veins of his clansmen (not his family, they have not been his family since he learned the truth about the ninja world), every dying scream they uttered, every look of terror on their faces.
The day he left the village, he stepped into his cage. The day he joined Akatsuki, the door slammed shut.
Itachi can't find it anymore.
Sometimes, when he is alone, he will think of the people he slaughtered, the murders, the children.
He does not cry. Itachi is not allowed the luxury of crying. They were. They had tears flowing down their faces when they breathed for the last time.
He imagines they still do. He thinks of the corpses buried, half of them long forgotten, and then he feels sick. He cannot breath, not with his lungs crushed under a mountain of guilt. He pushes it away with thoughts of the man who would have killed him without a thought, simply because he carried ninja tools.
He wonders, why can't he be more like that man?
He knows why. The man had a village to protect. Who does Itachi fight for? Itachi tells himself he fought for Konoha.
Why, then, does he slaughter so many of it's ninja?
Itachi sits in his cage, and he watches. He watches birds get on wing again, for the first, or maybe the last time. He watches them open the doors of their cage to freedom. He thinks that maybe it is his destiny to watch, to be a witness, to be there, but not there, not really. He will never join them.
Because in a cage of lies and betrayals, crushed souls and dead dreams, where is the exit?
Itachi pretends not to know how to escape, but the truth is, he does. He left his brother alive for two reasons: because he loved him...and so he could kill Itachi.
Itachi does not recoil from the thought of being dead, much as he does not recoil from the thought of killing (he only recoils after the deed is done).
He left his soul behind forever ago.
Itachi knows his days are numbered anyway. The villians will always die by the hands of the heroes. Itachi will die by the hands of Sasuke. It is his fate.
Sasuke never knows, but by killing Itachi, he will build him a door, hand him a key.
This is my first serious story that I wrote when I wasn't insane. I thought this up at 6 o'clock and wrote it at 9.