"What does it mean to live? Love plays a pretty important role I'd think!"

There are three stages

Three acts that are claimed by Uchiha Izuna, and then, as time passed, Uchiha Madara. But there are three things Izuna will be, that Madara is not, nor ever can be. Izuna is okay with it, in fact, he is grateful that he will take the fatal tasks.

The first stage is to grasp life itself, and Izuna did this. He did this, as he remained silent; preferring to listen, rather then burble useless things, as though his tongue were made of something heavy, gluey his young thoughts supplied. So he aged, and he tried his hand at speaking.

He was indignant that he could only coo and babble, the one word he wanted to say so out of his reach.

So he learned another one instead.

"Nii-san."

Madara's young form had frozen, his eyes widening in what was, and could only be, stunned disbelief. Izuna only laughed then, repeating his brother's title, over and over with out stretched arms. Needless to say, Tajima was just slightly disappointed.

But to see his eldest, and his youngest sons getting along.

Well, that made up for it, even if only a little bit.

The second stage however, was different.

It was terrifying.

Izuna was only six, and his blood roared in his ears, clumsy fingers grasping sharp knives, cutting through the sturdiest of steel. It was at six Izuna made his first kill, an assassin who deemed the younger heir a target. He paid dearly, his blood staining the boy's face.

But Izuna didn't cry then.

He didn't cry for weeks, months.

It was only when thunder crashed over him at one night that he realized he was crying. Something he had not done often, even as a child. Izuna was seven, when Tobirama felt cold chills run up his spine; those emotionless, merciless eyes staring well pass his emotional shield.

Senju Tobirama hated Izuna.

But Izuna didn't care.

For he felt nothing and as such it would remain. He was a weapon, silent and lethal from birth, fighting for his first breath of air, born too soon, his chances of life nearly taken from him before the end of his first hour. But Izuna was different, and he didn't know quite why.

It was only when Madara approached him in the next storm that he realized who he was.

Izuna was six then, and he was seven when he concluded Madara was his brother. Not just a doll made of the same flesh and blood from their parents. This changed things rather quickly, and when Tajima told Izuna what his first word had been, Izuna could only look at his elder brother.

He could only stare, dark eyes shifting with something he could not yet grasp. But he knew one thing, the Uchiha were blood dolls, and Madara was his brother. Madara was his big brother, someone his young, baby self had acknowledged with utmost joy and love. So Izuna let himself go, or rather, he broke through what had once protected him.

Madara was far from a doll.

Izuna learned this when he was eight, listening to his brother's beautiful words, fanciful dreams where bloodshed was but a memory. He listened, finding himself enraptured by a boy Izuna knew, knew with every fiber of his being that would twist and change this fate of the world. Change it until was what Madara deemed right.

Izuna was eight when he felt for not the first time, but fully felt and understood, what love Madara held for him.

Izuna was eight when he promised, no swore, he would protect Madara-Nii-San from this cruel reality.

Senju Tobirama was nine, when he noticed the change in the demon he had fought before, and he was grateful.

He wouldn't admit he was scared of someone, holding so much ability and potential, who felt nothing. Because Izuna wasn't an Uchiha, he was the rare, silent observer, watching as the world tore itself to pieces. Tobirama felt as though he were part of an act when he fought with Izuna, and he hated it.

It was when Izuna was seventeen, that he entered the third stage.

Death.

Tobirama had not thought he merely acted then.

He never thought the observer would fall. Izuna wasn't supposed to have been hit, he should've seen that coming, and he should've dodged. It was with a bubble of disappointment and grief in his throat, that the Senju realized something.

Izuna was tired of watching.

But he was also protecting.

Tobirama only wished he had an idea of just what was being protected so fiercely, to give away his own life. Surely not the Uchiha themselves, for Tobirama knew, he knew that Izuna didn't care for them.

He never cared for anything that wasn't worth seeing, his time wasted upon. But Madara didn't need to be protected…

It was only upon their leaving, that Tobirama looked at his own brother. It was only upon seeing that pain, that he realized, that yes, Madara did need protection. But from what?

Izuna was seventeen when he felt the moon's light on him for the last time, and his brother's tears for the first. He was the observer, and he had seen what Madara tried to hide.

The younger Uchiha, the younger brother, wouldn't let Madara lose sight of the future.

So as he lay dying, despite their medic's best advances, he offered his eyes, smiling gently, his brother's palm laid flat over his beating heart. Even with Madara's desperate cries, and the pain that somehow crept into Izuna's throat, Madara accepted, and Izuna smiled.

Izuna was almost eighteen, when the flame in his body was snuffed out.

But Izuna was smiling, even in death.

For Izuna had carried out his three acts, and destroyed them in the process.

He feigned love and honor towards his Clan, even if he found nothing within him to wish them a safer life. That was the first act, and he carried it well, although, not so well that a certain Senju did not see through it, fear installed within his young child's body for not the first time.

He fought as a true prodigy amongst geniuses, the second act. He was not intelligent, only curious, and passionately so. But he let the intelligence title remain, and no one saw through it.

The third act, he loved no one.

But that was a lie.

He loved his Nii-san.

Only his Nii-san.

Madara knew this; he had known such a thing ever since Izuna's birth, for love had been burning, like a fire within his brother's eyes, even if the younger himself had not known it. Big brother knew best of his brother's heart, but with misfortune he did not know all.

He did not know that Izuna was only an observer, who had made one, blood twined bond. One bond made by mistake, and never, not once cast away. Izuna was an observer, but he was also selfish, Madara was his brother. His. So he would wait.

Forever if need be.

And he would watch.

Waiting for the man he had made his first tie with, and maybe, a little longer for the curious one.

Love was a curious thing.

But he knew what it meant.

To Izuna, loving his brother, protecting him. That was all that ever really mattered. Throughout all three stages, all three acts, Madara was the only one. The only one he would die to protect, and had war not been against them, maybe the curious one would be in that short list as well, maybe, perhaps a friend.

Uchiha Izuna.

But he was Izuna, little brother, first.

"I love you...Nii-san, and I will wait for you."

Even if it meant waiting for eternity.

Author's note:

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters used in this piece.

With that said, I hope you enjoyed my veiw of Uchiha Izuna, and would like to know if you want a second part, from Madara's point of veiw.