Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I do not own Naruto; however I do own some of the future characters.

AN: Yo! This is my first Naruto fanfic so please be gentle. For all those reading my other fic 'The Balance of Earth' it will be updated soon I just had this story on my mind, that and college is eating my brain. Please enjoy the first chapter and don't be too shy to review, we all know it's the best thing for everyone.

Kanshisha of the Void

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The door to the main Uchiha mansion slid open with ease, the dark figure stepping through onto the landing. His feet barely made a sound as he slipped of his black sandals and continued into the passageway and up the stairs. Although it didn't seem it, he was mentally cringing maddeningly. Nothing showed on his face, that remained stotic no matter what the situation; but the thought of the screams of joy that would surely come as he entered his room were enough to cause visible tension over his body. He tightened his grip on his katana, which he was carrying at his side, and expanded his senses throughout the hallway. Nothing. At least, nothing unordinary. As he continued to his room, he undid the straps holding his ANBU vest in place and let if fall casually from his chest.

He stopped outside of his room, his hand resting on the handle but unmoving. Slowly, he prepared himself for the expected impact of a small body and the hours of questions that would come, as they usually did. It wasn't that he hated his younger brother; he was just annoying at times; if 'at times' meant all of the time. Applying pressure to the handle, it slowly began to ease downwards and a soft click of the lock sliding open could be heard. He opened the door, no more than a few millimetres, and peered through. There was nobody sitting on the bed, and nobody sprawled across the floor (that he could see); no one dared go in his wardrobe, so the only place left was the space in the room that was concealed behind the door. He could feel no chakra coming from inside his room nor any from anywhere on the bottom floor of the mansion. He knew that his little brother wasn't able to mask his chakra yet; or at least, he hadn't been able to when he left for his mission; which left him with two theories: one, his brother was able to mask his chakra, or two, he wasn't in the house. The first one he had already discarded before even thinking it, his foolish little brother was skilled, but not that skilled. The second one was possible, but it was late and his brother was usually at home when it was dark, whether their parents were there or not.

Gently, he pushed the door open inch by inch; ready to defend himself should the onslaught come. But it didn't. And for some reason this both disappointed and worried him. To be honest, he was used to his brother tackling him every time he came home from a mission (or just came home in general) and there had never been an exception. Except tonight.

He now gazed with saddened eyes around his empty room, the dense shadows swallowing it whole, eating away at each spot of moonlight that appeared on his carpet. He stood his katana against his bedside table and sat down on the bed with an 'oomph', slouching his shoulders in a way that was unbefitting of him. He rarely got upset, and when he did he didn't usually express it at all. But somehow this seemed different. Seeing his little brothers face light up when he came home was all that he needed to take his mind off of the horrors that he had endured through his missions. He was his beacon of light.



He quickly changed from his ANBU attire into more comfortable wear; black trousers and a black T-shirt, and headed out of his room towards his brothers room; just to check. He made no effort to avoid the creaks in the floorboards if it alerted his brother that he was home and purposefully knocked his hip against the wooden draws in the hallway, causing the vase on top to rock loudly. He stopped as he knocked the draws and stared at a photo that was placed next to the vase. It was a slightly younger version of himself with his little brother seated on top of his shoulders, a huge grin adorning his face. He remembered that moment and the thought made his mouth twitch into (what could be classed as) a small smile. Turning away from the photo, he carried on down the hall. His brother's room was the furthest from his and because of this his brother was nearly always caught sneaking down the hall to his room.

A sudden feeling made him tense. There was chakra coming from his brother's room; but not in soft waves, as a normal person's would when they weren't fighting; no, these waves of chakra were harsh, pounding waves that only came off of someone who was using vast amounts of chakra, usually in battle. The chakra felt agitated and wrong, but rather than figure out what it was he snapped himself from the feeling and burst into his brother's room completely unprepared for what he would see.

He expected anything else; enemy ninja, beasts, even fan girls, but not this. His eyes momentarily scanned the room before dropping on the small figure that was sprawled across the floor, a beam of moonlight highlighting his face, and shadows devouring the rest of his body. His body quaked, his feet glued to the floor. His little brothers eyes were wide open, his pupils dilated, drying tears slipping down his cheeks; his raven spiked hair was darker than the night against his paling, pasty skin and from any distance you could see his body jerking madly.

"S...Sasu...SASUKE!"

Itachi wrenched his reluctant legs forwards, dropping down next to Sasuke. He placed a hand on Sasuke's forehead only to draw it back immediately. He was colder than ice (no pun intended). Itachi grasped the blanket of the nearby bed and wrapped Sasuke in it, noticing that his eyes had remained wide open, it was clear that he was unconscious. Itachi very rarely lost his cool, but right now was definitely one of those rare moments. He lifted Sasuke into his arms and without a second thought leapt out of the second story window.

He leapt across the rooftops as fast as his legs would carry him with the extra weight. He could see the hospital in the distance which only encouraged him to go faster. He took a chance to glance down at Sasuke, the coldness of his skin tearing through his thin shirt, and looking worse by the second. He landed in front of the hospital, the ground cracking with all of the chakra he had in his feet to go faster. People stared at him as he sped past, the woman holding open the door shrieking when the after effects caused a huge gust of wind to blow her back against the door.

The medi-nin at the reception looked up in shock as the saw a pale faced Uchiha Itachi standing before them, a desperate look on his face and a very ill looking Sasuke in his arms. The medi-nin immediately took Sasuke from Itachi's grasp and hurried him to the nearest room. Itachi went to go after them but was stopped by a female medic, who was then quivering on the floor when Itachi glared down upon her; his Sharingan activated.

His breathing had not relaxed at all; his chest still rose and fell at a maddening rate. Itachi paced outside of the ICU room where Sasuke was currently being treated. He hadn't been able to contact his mother or father seen as they were both out on missions; and even if he had been able to he wouldn't know what to say, or more accurately he couldn't say anything. His mind was awash with fear that he had never know before, he suddenly found himself knowing and thinking that the one thing in his life that he cared about more than anything might be taken away from him, and that terrified him. He ran his hands through his hair desperately trying to regain some control over himself; it wasn't working. He stopped pacing and slumped against the wall, sliding down the grey concrete onto the dark marble floor, looking up to the white tiled ceiling as he hit the smooth coolness. Every now and then he would cast quick glances at the door, hoping that someone would come out and tell him that Sasuke was alright. Time seemed to pass in eternities, seconds were lifetimes, minutes were millenniums.

Itachi stared at the tiled ceiling, counting the number of marks and scratches that there were in each one, sighing after eight tiles at the needless task created only to take his mind off of the current situation.

The doors to the ICU swung open and Itachi was immediately on his feet, mentally pleading for everything to be alright. The male medic stopped in front of Itachi, a gloomy expression written all over his face. The news wasn't good.

"Uchiha-sama, I'm afraid that even after all of the tests we have done, we still can't discover what is wrong with your brother." Itachi looked at him with a blank expression. "All that we can deduce at the moment is that he is in a coma from unknown causes."

Itachi's whole body shook. Sasuke was in a coma. He glared at the medic, his eyes piercing straight through him. The medic faltered slightly but continued.

"But what we do know is that he is completely healthy," Itachi's frowned.

"How can he be completely healthy? He's in a coma!"

"There is absolutely nothing wrong with his body and nothing affecting his chakra network. He is completely healthy. We can find no reason whatsoever to explain why he has gone into a coma."

Itachi averted his eyes. His little brother was ill with an unknown disease and there was nothing anybody could do but wait. For the first time in his life Itachi relinquished his grip on his emotions and cried.

--

Itachi sat beside Sasuke's bed holding his tiny frozen hand. The past two days had been torture. Their mother and father had returned home to an empty house only to discover that their youngest son was gravely ill in hospital; their mother had run into the ICU room screaming for her baby boy. Sasuke hadn't improved at all, his body temperature still plummeting below human limits. And Itachi had refused three important missions to be by Sasuke's side which had angered their father to know end.

Itachi snapped out of his trance as his mother came through the door and sat down on the opposite side of the bed, needlessly flattening the covers with her hands. He watched her do it, unable offer any comfort to her, simply because he had none to offer himself. They hadn't spoken for the two days, but Itachi didn't mind; he knew that it would just be meaningless small talk.

Itachi rubbed the side of his head, willing away an increasing headache that had bugged him for nearly three hours.

"If you're getting a headache," came his mother's blank voice. "Go get some fresh air."

Itachi glanced at her, noticing the blank expression on her face that was masking the overwhelming fear building up inside of her; he knew, he had the same mask.

He didn't want to leave Sasuke's side, but the threat of a torturous headache swayed him and he stood up to leave. The moment he stood he knew something was wrong. The room tilted violently, a thick haze clouding his eyes. The pain in his head suddenly escalated, forcing him to clasp his hands to the sides of his head and causing his knees to buckle as he became to dizzy to focus and lost his balance. He could vaguely hear the scraping of a chair as his mother got up and rushed over to him in time to catch him as he fell back and the sound of her voice shouting his name over and over, pleading for him to be alright. Her voice being the last thing he heard before his world turned black.

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AN: I love cliff-hangers, do you like cliff-hangers? I do. I love Itachi as well, he has to be my favourite character next to Gaara, who is so cute! Ah, I just want to hug him. The first chapter was out of the way quite easily, just wait for the next eleven, I say eleven because there's going to be at least twelve chapters, but I'm sure you figured that out...right? Anyway, thanks for reading!

See ya!