Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own anything about Naruto. *sigh*
Chapter 1
Emptiness was all that was left in the aftermath of the battle between Uchiha brothers. A heavy fog of smoke and ash blanketed the charred, barren ruins. The last of the legendary clan sat still, unmoving, unthinking, unable to move on from the second hardest shock dealt to him; the death of his most beloved and most hated aniki. Now there was nothing.
Footsteps…
Instinct took immediate action and Sasuke was on high alert. Though to any untrained eye, it looked as though he were still as numb and dead to the world as before. There was no question of friend or foe; every living being was a threat to Sasuke. Every shinobi nation wanted him dead, simple as that. So he waited in the still silence.
A muffled echo cried out, the air choking out the words before they could reach his ears. Shortly there came another cry, and another, some clearer than others, as if the owner were wandering, searching, lost. Finally he heard the desperate voice ring out.
"Itachi…" and again, "Itachi…"
Sasuke's fried nerves felt yet another dull shock. Who was this unknown person to be looking for his dead brother? How could they possibly know he was to be found here of all places?
"Itachi…"
What do they want with Itachi?
Possession and rage soon filled avenger's mind. How dare they seek out his brother! Itachi was his alone and no one else would dare take him away! He's mine!
I'll kill them…
A shadowy figure soon faded in from the cloud of smoke surrounding them, coughing a little as it continued it's futile search. Sasuke locked onto his target with red eyes only to realize that the weak chakra belonged to a civilian, setting of yet another round of questions. Of course once logic finally made its way back home he realized that even pre-genin wouldn't stumble into a fresh battlefield at full volume; well, except the dobe, naturally.
An average sized female, finally in full view, gradually made her way through the wreckage, stumbling a little as she went. Itachi's body still lay slumped against the wall where at long last he fell in battle.
"Itachi?" A slight bit of hope nipped at her voice, only to vanish with a frantic panic.
"Itachi…? ITACHI! Iie Itachi! Iie…iie…" The woman collapsed at the dead Uchiha's side, sobbing and flinging her arms around him as if trying to hold his very soul back from leaving his body. Sasuke pulled his frayed emotions back inside and smothered them until all that was left was his cold, calculating self once more. His brother was gone, and a woman who dared to mourn a death far beyond her comprehension would die, and then he would go. Sasuke slowly approached. On a whim, he decided he would learn her name and what she was to his brother before he ended her life.
"Who are you?" His calm voice cut through, and the woman started in surprise before gazing at him with wide, bloodshot eyes. Her still tongue irritated him; he hated repeating himself.
"Who are you? How do you know Itachi?" At this, she turned her eyes back to Itachi, before again giving her full attention to her unknown soon-to-be killer. Still she said nothing. Sasuke growled out in anger at her defiance.
"Answer me or I'll kill you!" Sasuke drew a kunai and make to strike, but a twist in the air around them made him pause, for in his way stood a masked man, wearing the cloak of his brother, of the Akatsuki. The man raised his arm and shook a finger at Sasuke chastisingly.
"Ah, ah, ah, Sasuke-kun. You may regret killing this one, you will. For she carries a secret with her, one of great interest to you." At this he turned to the woman behind him, and held out his hand for her to take. Recognition flitted across her face before she took the offered hand and stood, to be briefly drawn into the comforting embrace of the mysterious Akatsuki. Skeptically Sasuke stood impatient, untrusting of anyone, much less of this man who appeared out of nowhere.
"I have all the answers you need, ones you don't even realize you are missing. Many secrets involving your dear aniki and the truth behind the massacre of your clan." Sasuke had just about reached his limit, too much too soon had happened, the completion of his vengeance, the feelings for his brother long forgotten, any minute now his mind will be toast.
"Who is she?" Then he asked her directly, "What are you to Itachi?" She simply continued to look between the two shinobi silently. The other man gave a strange sort of chuckle.
"I'm afraid you won't get much out of her, Sasuke-kun. Itachi wasn't too bent on teaching her our language. I assume he thought it easier to learn hers instead." He shrugged his shoulders. "No matter, I suppose. What's more important is what he left her with." Sasuke was done talking. He readied his kunai for the kill.
"Nothing he left behind is of importance to me anymore; Itachi's role in my existence has ended. Move or be killed as well." The masked man crossed his arms nonchalantly.
"Be still, Sasuke. You wouldn't want to frighten the Uchiha matriarch, now would you?" At this, the Akatsuki was silent, allowing the young Uchiha to put the pieces together at his own pace.
A myriad of emotions crossed the normally stoic features of Uchiha Sasuke. Surprise, confusion, skepticism, longing, despair… it all came crashing down around him as realization came to pass. The strong, last surviving Uchiha fell to his knees in awe before this earlier disguised gift he had almost thrown away carelessly. The empty whole in his existence swelled with a new meaning, a new goal, a light in his everlasting darkness. The last thought that passed through his blank mind as he wrapped his arms gently around the waist of the beautiful angel sent to him went something like,
"Aniki, you made me an uncle…"