Crimson eyes stoically swept over the horrendous massacre, blood staining his liable hands. For a moment, all sense of time seemed to cease, right there on the rooftop of the building which had been his home no longer than one day ago. Underneath him lay his dead parents and.., and he knew, on account of what he had made himself responsible of, he could never return. He no longer pathetically clung onto the thought that it was all for a greater cause, even though it was.

The only person who could possibly force the raven's feelings into resurfacing was his dear little brother, Sasuke, for he did not have anyone else to care for anymore. He was free, yet caged in so many ways. Trapped, in his beliefs, his sacrifice, his decisions, his unbreakable, brotherly affection for the youngest Uchiha...

There was no turning back. All he could do now was to look ahead, or so he wished to do.

He crouched down slightly, gripping his head as it swirled with memories of a not-too-distant past. He'd made a mistake by thinking of the furious, temporarily paralyzed little boy he had cruelly left behind mere minutes earlier. Yet, he did not permit the infrequent tears gleaming in the corners of his eyes to fall. Never again, he told himself.

In the depths of his preoccupied mind, he distantly wondered when the first cries would sound, alarming the whole village of the partially wiped out clan lying in the midst of their own blood, which related to the blood that flowed through the murderer's own veins. Or rather, giving it further thought, he supposed some formerly fellow ANBU would find them, then dispose of the corpses, and proceed by quietly, swiftly reporting the dreadful news to the Hokage. That was the most likely possibility, not that it mattered to him.

Itachi was no casual murderer though. No matter how cold and cruel he was going to appear after people found out about him murdering his own parents, he was never one who would kill without a reason, a very good reason that was. He had sworn that much to himself many years ago. Currently, at the age of thirteen, he was already a fine, brave, young man, though one who had destined himself to live a lie. He had set his path and he had said his 'farewell'.. for now. Only time could tell if his plans would be accomplished and whether he would meet his remaining family member again within a near or distant future.

The raven straightened his back, attempting his usual solemn posture, only to feel his body failing him as his head slouched, dark eyes conveying all of his emotions; An ignored pain swelling in his chest, as well as something akin to regret, but not quite regret. It was an unexplainable feeling, which he felt all because of leaving his only brother behind and turning them both into orphans, though Itachi was obviously not your average, innocent child, but a full fledged shinobi, one who had already made himself guilty of a crime which was never to be forgiven. The new-found lack of relatives was, by far, worse for little Sasuke, since it would affect him in ways Itachi didn't even want to imagine. As a very young ninja on the verge of leaving his post as one of Konoha's ANBU captains, the older of the two was usually not one to dwell on emotions, however, when it came to his brother, rules could be bent.

He shut his black orbs tightly and clenched his bloody fists, trying harder to hold the godforsaken tears back, which he managed to do, just barely. Slowly, but surely, he once again allowed those pain-filled eyes access to the terribly self-caused scene, but what caught their sight wasn't a heap of corpses. No, it was the faint shimmer of a necklace, which had, apparently, sometime during the slaughtering popped out from beneath his high collar. He raised his hands to finger it lovingly, thinking back on his twelfth birthday, which was when Sasuke had proudly decided he'd become old enough to buy gifts for his older brother. Said brother never had received an answer from the boy when he had asked where he'd gotten the money to buy it, though he had his suspicions and he still treasured the neat metal chain far more than Sasuke would ever know.

Snapping out of his memories, Itachi frowned and shook his head a little to rid of the, unfitting for the grave situation, tender smile that had appeared while he'd been basking in the pleasant moments of his life.

Now was no time to remember such things. It was time to move on.

He untied the hitai-ate around his head and pulled out a kunai, then scratched the surface of the object, leaving a straight line across the leaf symbol. After discarding the kunai, he put the hitai-ate back in its rightful place. Standing at his full height, ponytail flapping in the wind, the teenager turned his back to the massacre. With one last glance at the village he'd grown up in, he fled, all the while aware of his new status as a nukenin.

"I enjoyed it while it lasted. Please take care of yourself, Sasuke..."

Edited 25/26.07.2014