A cup of tea sat growing cold on the table in front of Sasuke. But even as the last feeble wisps of steam rose from the rim of the cup, he ignored it. Try as he might, Sasuke, the last truly loyal Uchiha, couldn't stem the flow of old memories that tortured him and made him question his own goals.
The tea had jogged his memory back to a time long before the horrors of the Uchiha massacre. It was an unseasonably cold day for Konoha, and he and Itachi had been out running through the village, Sasuke always trying to outrun or outsmart his older brother. As the two raven-haired boys raced back to the house, Itachi realized that Sasuke was shivering slightly. Noting how cold he looked, the older boy decided that they should probably have some tea before anything else.
Sasuke groaned inwardly as he remembered what had happened later. He couldn't believe how weak he must have seemed to his brother, even as a young child. The dialogue between him and Itachi ran through his head, childish and pitiful, especially now.
Itachi looked up from his tea at Sasuke sitting there blowing on his own cup, cross eyed from the effort of looking down at it. He laughed, saying "You look like someone trying their phoenix flower jutsu for the first time!" before taking a large sip of tea from his own cup. Sasuke smiled and followed suit, but as suddenly as he had smiled, his face fell. Itachi could see that he was barely holding back tears.
"'Tachi-nii-san," Sasuke wailed, "Ow!"
Itachi ran over and scooped him up in his arms. "What is it otato? What happened?"
Sasuke grabbed onto Itachi's ponytail and began to sniffle. "I burned my mouth and it hurts," he finally whimpered out. Itachi rubbed his back and calmed him down.
"It's okay Sasuke; it'll just be numb for a while. Maybe from now on I should test your tea." Sasuke nodded in agreement and wiped off his face with the back of his hand.
As the memory finished taunting him, Sasuke sat back and sighed. It was no wonder the brother he now wanted to destroy had deemed him unfit to waste energy on. At least now he was seen as a prodigy and top of the class. Stronger. More worthy. Lost in thought, Sasuke absentmindedly picked up the cup in front of him and took a sip. As the lukewarm tea entered his mouth, he grimaced. At least now he didn't need Itachi to tell him when to drink his tea. He wasn't a lemming who made dumb follower's mistakes anymore. The young ninja got to his feet and dumped the cold tea down the drain. Avengers don't dwell on the past, only the future that needs to be changed. But even as he left the room, he had this nagging, ignored feeling that nothing is closer than a brother.