Identity
When Uchiha Shisui is killed by the river, Itachi is the one who drowns him and Sasuke is the one who sees it.
His brother is dressed in black and white, his hair pulled back tighter than Sasuke's ever seen it, and there's a katana resting loosely inside his grip.
Shisui and Itachi are speaking softly, admiring the stillness of eachother's faces and pretending not the notice the waves of water crashing swiftly against the sides of the bank they stand on. The world around them is bustling with life, but, in contrast to it all, they whisper and look so dead that it's scary.
"You're aware of what you're doing, I suppose," Shisui says coolly, and then as an afterthought he adds, "You always are. That's the thing about you, Itachi. You always have to be in control."
Sasuke stares at his hero's face, expressionless. Itachi says nothing but flicks his weapon in Shisui's direction, his arm shaking, a motion so involuntary that Sasuke flinches. His brother is a controller. To see him like this is startling.
"Yes," Itachi agrees softly, eyes narrowed at his own weakness, and then he steps forward.
Sasuke, by now, understands that his Nii-san is frightened, probably more scared than he himself is, and he wants to run out into the open and wave his arms and scream, scream so somebody will come charging after him and then see and then help Itachi turn away from this.
But he is a child and he is hiding and he is petrified.
So he watches.
Shisui opens his arms to embrace death and says quietly, "My life is in your hands, Itachi. Take it if you dare."
And Itachi dares.
His katana clatters uselessly into the water and then, faster than his brother's eyes can follow, he is lunging, holding fistfuls of Shisui's long, dark hair, so very like his own that it's obvious they are family and this is wrong, unthinkable on so many levels that Sasuke's heart aches.
Itachi crouches low in the dirt and pushes his cousin forward, leaning with him, fingers latching onto Shisui's shoulders, and then each of their heads are plunging into the river, the disruption sending ripples all around them.
Itachi comes up first, breaking the surface again, beads of moisture dripping down his face, and his victim's body floats to the top a few seconds after. His ANBU vest is heavy with the weight of water sloshing around between it and the smoothness of his shirt, and when he rises off his knees Sasuke can see the Sharingan spinning, and the winded way that he is breathing.
Soon the Sharingan are pointed in his direction as Itachi turns, and then he is left to wait for the approaching footsteps, the shadow that towers over him.
"Sasuke," he says, his throat raw, and then Sasuke's right hand is being crushed by a killer's.
They walk to the house in silence, Itachi's katana left behind, and before they open the door Itachi holds onto its handle for a few seconds, resting his forehead on the wood, his eyes closed tiredly.
"…Nii…Nii-san?" Sasuke asks timidly, staring up at him.
Itachi does not turn. Itachi does not smile. The door swings open, slowly, and he steps aside, ushering his brother into the warmth.
Mikoto intercepts Sasuke on his way to his room, and she bribes him into helping her prepare dinner. Itachi escapes her knowing look and takes short strides down the hall and out of sight.
He isn't present at the dinner table, and he doesn't appear for breakfast the next morning, or for lunch. At the next meal, he sits and refuses to eat. His face is thin and gray and their mother shoots him worried glances every time she takes a sip of sake, disguised as water.
After the table is cleared and he has finished rinsing the dishes, a task that takes longer now than ever, he retreats to his room again and is bedridden with fever (as Mikoto assures her youngest son) for the next three days.
On the fifth night after Shisui's murder, Sasuke wakes to find him slumped against his bedroom wall, near the doorway, head on his knee.
When Itachi looks up and notices him, eyes alive with the dim moonlight, he stands and steps to Sasuke's bedside, smoothing the wrinkled sheets. He leans over the smaller boy, examining his features crucially, and then he sits, the bed dipping under his weight.
"You were having a nightmare," Itachi observes stiffly, and grabs the stuffed toy that Sasuke had been sleeping with.
The air in the room is stale and cold, and for a while neither of them speak. The quietness is awkward (to Sasuke), but then Itachi breaks it.
"I know you saw," He whispers, and Sasuke doesn't think, even for a second, that he could lie and get away with it.
"Can you keep a secret, Otouto?"
Sasuke nods his head, unsure, and reaches out to pat his brother on the chest, to touch him and solidify the conviction that he is real, that they are really there, together.
Itachi stands before his tiny hand can connect, and then he is at the door, saying, "I know that you will not disappoint me, Sasuke."
In the time between his late-night visit and morning, Sasuke lies awake treasuring the fact that his brother has used his name twice today.
(It means so much more than it should.)
Fin.