Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto


Of Brotherhood and Blood

Itachi learns to hide at a very young age. The shadows become his home: curving around him, protecting him from the madness of the world. Away from the prying, expecting eyes of his father and the proud, hypocritical ones of his clan.

He misses the sunshine, sometimes, when everything is peaceful and bright, like Konoha, like his home before it became his prison.

And he is jealous, so jealous of Sasuke, but he'd never tell him that. You are lucky, he thinks, to be the younger one.

And when he makes ANBU, the village celebrates the eleven-year-old assassin-to-be. He feels sick.

Then his world fades into gray, as if mocking him with the desolate hours to come.

And Sasuke…Sasuke sitting in front of him, young and blue; the only bright spot in a street of dead relatives.

And he knows, he knows it's selfish, but he is weak and the words of bitterness and hate come pouring out of his mouth, sharp and hurtful.

His brother stares at him in horror, and it's so hard to keep his feet. He wants to sink there on the asphalt and cry with him but he's lost the right to that, hasn't he? Lost it when he struck that first blow. But he misses his mother, dammit, and he'd even bring back his father…. if only… And then the tears escape somehow and his mind is warning him to turn away, but this once, he doesn't listen.

In his heart of hearts, the one that remembers how to be an older brother, he realizes he wants Sasuke to see the salty drops, wants him to remember this moment and forgive Itachi, but he turns away too quickly, conflicted.

The tears are still falling, staining his uniform, one that he will never use again. But maybe he will keep it to remind himself of his crime. Absolve him, somehow.

It is not much different from the blankets or stuffed toys children his age still used, except that instead of keeping the monsters away, it makes them come knocking at the door. They are welcome in his dreams and his thoughts, even when he can't sleep at night, because when he's so lost in memories or battle, he forgets for a minute what he's done.

But Sasuke hasn't, and Sasuke will come. Sasuke, Itachi's saving grace. How ironic, Kisame snorts when he finds out.

How very ironic indeed.


Uchihas do not show emotion. Sasuke knows that, Itachi knows that, all of Team 7 and the rest of the village knows that. So why is Sasuke standing over Itachi's body and sobbing as if his heart was breaking?

Because before he became Someone-I-Have-to-Kill, before he was Itachi, he had been his Aniki. And some bonds, no matter how hard you stretched them, never broke.


A/N: All feedback is appreciated