title: We're not the same, dear
word count: 372
genre: general character: Itachi
prompt: "digging graves" The prompt for this was given to me by one awesome person because I couldn't think of anything to write.
dedication: to Dayadhvam, Happy Birthday honey!
A picture was all he had left. It had been taken on a sunny day during one of the few days when being ANBU, being Uchiha was forgotten and they actually were a family. It showed his mother getting out a bento from her basket while his father's normally stoic face had softened around the edges as he gazed off into the distance. Sasuke could be seen trying to climb on Itachi's back and laughing while doing it. And then there was Itachi himself. The affection in his eyes was something he had closed off this very night while having the scent of blood in his nose and the image of a desperate Sasuke burned into his mind. He turned the picture in his hands, again and again until the family inside of it was distorted through wrinkles and the perfection of this day was nothing but a faded memory threatening to break Itachi's resolve and just make him run back to his most precious person. Even though he knew that it was impossible.
Sasuke hated him.
He should hate him for it was the only way to save him in the end. The knowledge hurt but imagining Sasuke's death hurt more and so he had to sacrifice his past, his family and best friend and trade them for a blood stained future that would leave him scarred and wishing for his own death. He knew what he had to do and there was no going back. Dropping to his knees he started digging in the dirt, his hands that had been unsoiled from the night's events finally gaining the stains he had already felt after killing his family. He couldn't bury them, wasn't even allowed to mourn them if he wanted to stay strong but he could grieve in his own way. Once the hole was deep enough he took one last look at the picture of his past and then lay it inside to bury it beneath the earth of Konoha . There was no going back if he wanted to succeed, no hesitating if he wanted to protect and so he turned his back to the grave of his past and left into the dark in front of him.