Empty
Sasuke's heart breaks in ways that can't be healed, but this is all right because everything in his head is already broken, mangled from years of reliving Itachi's illusion.
When Sasuke was seven, his brother destroyed him. Now that he's sixteen and invincible and so much closer to revenge than ever before, his brother is about to destroy him again.
When Kakashi comes to him, seeking his pale face through the trees in the forest, he wears an expression that is made of resignation and regret. The copy-nin looks older in a way that Sasuke will never be ready for. Kakashi is only thirty years old, but he's aged as if he's fifty.
When he doesn't respond to Sasuke's drawn sword, confusion mars the teen's face.
Kakashi disappears in an instant, his jutsu silent, and then he is at the missing nin's side, clutching his arm like it's a cane and he's about to fall. Their eyes meet; Kakashi's is a steely gray and Sasuke's are made of a raging black fire that reminds his tired teacher of Itachi's Amaterasu, something he's heard of only through Jiraiya.
"Come with me," Kakashi whispers softly, and he's met with hesitation and then a nod.
They run together—Sasuke being half pulled, and half allowing himself to be pulled—until they reach a clearing that is dark and empty save for the crumpled figure of a man lying facedown in the dirt.
Sasuke steps cautiously, ignoring Kakashi's words at his back, ignoring the cold breeze that tries to warn him of what's coming, what's about to happen.
The man's cloak is printed with little red clouds, but Sasuke hardly notices this as he turns him over with a swift kick to the side.
There's dirt and blood smeared on the sunken face that greets him. The hair is dark, swept low into an elastic band, and the cheeks are hollow, brushed with long eyelashes shielding eyes that never should have opened.
Sasuke's heart almost stops as he takes in these features, because this is his brother and it has to be a lie.
He spins to face Kakashi—whose hands are fisted in his pockets, who is slouching because he obviously can't care less and he's a bastard for playing this sort of joke on someone—but there's nothing in his face to give him away, only a grave set to his jaw and a thinness about his lips that Sasuke can see even through the mask.
Everything is quiet for a few seconds as Sasuke is hurled into a world of darkness and his brother's demons. For a very long time it feels as if he's falling, but when he reaches the bottom there's nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
He scans Kakashi's face again before he lies down next to his brother and waits to die.
(Itachi couldn't have hurt him any worse than this if he'd tried.)
He feels empty and very, very tired.
Fin.