Sasuke is at it again. He is jumping on trees and shrieking his duck-butt head off; if this were a real mission he'd be dead the moment he snapped a twig. But it isn't a real mission, and for that I count my blessings.

After the third tree he somehow figures out I'm not joining him in his tree-hopping spree, and, with a crestfallen face cute enough to perhaps charm our father into buying a litter of puppies — for target practice, probably — Sasuke comes up to me, on the verge of crocodile tears. You said you'd help train me, he whines his adorable little-boy whine, and adds rather pitifully, Oniisan.

I smile at him and beckon him to come closer. He hops over, grinning happily as if he doesn't have any other care in the world, as if I am all that matters to him. Sasuke winces as I poke his forehead with two fingers, leaving a faint mark. He lets out a kind of complaining noise, and rubs the spot tenderly, hurt clear in his baby face. Why doesn't he understand? Why can't he recognize the giveaways in my new, morphed personality?

I shoot him a look that says It's-really-late-and-I-have-to-go-back, and despite himself my little brother pouts. I chuckle, because he is so innocent and he is my dear little brother, and fire a couple of shuriken into the air, hitting the targets precisely in their centres. Sasuke gapes in complete awe, adoration gleaming in his onyx eyes. Why can't he just leave me to my peace?

Show me how to do it, Oniisan, he chirps, bright and brimming with a kind of indirect sibling pride. At my gentle refusal — Next time, Sasuke — my little brother frowns, and at this I muss up his hair, chiding him for screwing up his face. Before I can tell him he'll end up like Father if he does that for too long, Sasuke is already in the air and randomly throwing shuriken all over the place.

Look at me, Oniisan, he screams, like a free bird in the vast blue ocean of the sky. I do look at him, as he soars ever so briefly in the air, then I instantly rush to rescue him as gravity starts pulling him down back to earth. At the back of my mind I cannot help but wonder, What will happen to him when I'm not there to catch him anymore?

~X~

My mother fell with a smile on her face.

She had said to me as she collapsed onto the tatami floor, her blood spilling onto the matting, Please take care of Sasuke. I know she would have said more if I'd given her the time, but Sasuke was on his way home and I did not want him to see me kill Mother — the bodies I have left on the way into the Compound are traumatizing enough, not discounting the probability that I have to use Tsukuyomi on my little brother.

Subconsciously I hear Madara taunting me, telling me I'm weaker than Sasuke. Ignoring this, I step backward as Sasuke's frantic pitter-patter of footsteps resound throughout our section of the Compound. He's coming closer.

I'm so sorry, Sasuke.

My eyes blur as he finally comes into view, small and shocked and positively terrified. He wants to know what despicable human being has done this to our clan, our family, our parents. I can barely manage a phrase of Foolish Little Brother before I feel my voice breaking and I cannot trust my own words any more.

In the end I do use Tsukuyomi, and when it is done Sasuke tries to run away. His strides are small and inconsistent; he pants wildly, years of bottle up emotion flowing down his fair cheeks. Keep it real, I remind myself over and over as the moon casts a long shadow over the small frame of my little brother.

I say a lot of useless things to Sasuke, things I'd never thought I would say to anyone. We have a small skirmish, but in the end my little brother is on the ground — alive. He pokes his duck-butt head up one more time as I walk away from Konoha, and just when I turn to get one last look of him I can see the pain and anguish in his face.

Then I render him unconscious and finally escape the trap of my clan, but Sasuke probably saw that. My little brother probably saw that tear that I let go for just this once, because his pain is my pain doubled, and because I have ultimately set him on the treacherous path of revenge.

~X~

Sasuke seems to be dead set on killing me. Is that good? Or is that bad?

He appears to have developed a very anti-social character, and doesn't seem to have many friends, save for that one hyperactive boy who looks to be his rival and thus probably his best friend. I have to beat my little brother, to use the Mangekyō on him, because that idiot Jiraiya-sama has to honour my little brother's feelings.

I also need to use Amaterasu to escape Jiraiya-sama's frog jutsu, and this leaves me exhausted. But I know my message to Danzō has been sent clearly. He and the Council had better not touch my little brother, else I will come back and commit many more murders.

Why, Sasuke? Why can't you understand?

~X~

I am sick. Gravely sick.

I may not have another few years to live, but I must continue breathing so that Sasuke can find his peace. Kisame has promised me to keep this a secret, and I suppose I am lucky to have a partner in Akatsuki like him.

I must live… Even as the pain strikes me harder than any physical weapon can ever pierce my flesh, even when my chest tightens and I have to gasp for air like a maniac, even if I cough up more than a quarter of my blood…

I must live till Sasuke comes.

~X~

Today is the day. I can feel it in my blood, in my bones, in my wretched soul. Kisame respects my decisions, and he has agreed to help me.

Today is the day, foolish little brother, where we fight, and I die. But I am not afraid as I walk out of the cave and go to our family's hideout, as I sit myself on the abandoned stone chair and wait, because I know my fate.

Because I know what I have to do,

Because I know my little brother, and

Because I know that I love my little brother more than life itself.

Be not afraid, little brother. I will always protect you.