A man with eyes the color of the deep sea stared on in discontent. The person chained to the chair in front of him was being just so uncooperative. The prisoner's fingers were broken, his left eye had a senbon punctured through it, his entire right leg had been completely shattered, and both his shoulders had been dislocated.
"Won't you just give me the information?" the man sighed, rubbing the white mask that covered the bottom half of his face, "You've been here for days and really, I'm starting to get rather annoyed. And once I get annoyed, I start to get angry. My, what do you have to live for? Konoha? That village will always be a place for the weak, especially with that fool of a leader you have."
"Don't speak of the Hokage that way!" the captive snarled. The man was unfazed, merely plucking a kunai from his holster and eyeing it thoughtfully.
"Now, now, no need to be brash. We're all friends here, aren't we?"
"You're a traitor to the village." growled the captive, "Ten years ago, you murdered the Third Hokage and left the village, taking various forbidden scrolls with you! You orchestrated the Uchiha clan massacre! You planned the destruction of over half the village! You- GAH!"
The man plunged his kunai in the prisoner's stomach and yanked the senbon from his eye at the same time. His eyes shone with something absolutely predatory.
"I know my accomplishments were nothing short of amazing, Kiba-kun, but let's stay on topic, shall we? Good. Now where were we... ah yes. The annoyance you've riled up within me. Are you going to do something about it, like give me the information I want, or are you going to get me angry?"
Kiba held his tongue and stared upwards maliciously, causing the man to smirk.
"Oho, such brilliant determination. I like that in a shinobi- I really do. I'll tell you what. I'll let you crawl back to the pathetic village you've sworn your allegiance to. tell them about my organization, the Usuakari, and tell them about the members you've seen during your... pleasurable stay here. I'm sure that they're going to like that. And yes, and one more thing."
The man leaned in close to Kiba's ear.
"Tell your Hokage that he'll see much more of Uzumaki Naruto, dattebayo."
Itachi knew that something was wrong. He could just feel it. The thirteen year old made haste to the Uchiha Compound. It was late at night and he had just gotten back from a mission. The closer he came to the compound, the more worried he got. Where were all the chakra signatures? Why couldn't he sense anyone in the compound? Where were they?! Once Itachi stepped in the compound, his entire body froze.
People were dead on their doorsteps and blood bathed the streets. A... massacre...?
"Sasuke!" Itachi exclaimed. He ran past numerous bodies and burst through the doors of his house. A soft sobbing could be heard in the tea room and he ran there first. His mother and father were face down in puddles of their own, still fresh blood. Sasuke, Itachi's eight year old brother, was pressed against the far wall with his head buried in his arms. Itachi rushed over to his small body and brought him in for a tight hug.
"Sasuke... Sasuke, it's alright..." he murmured, "We'll find out who did this... don't worry..."
Sasuke cried for a few more seconds before abruptly stopping and looking up at his older brother with a strange glint in his eyes.
"Sasuke...?"
A grin stretched over the little boy's face.
"Just kidding~"
Before Itachi knew it, he was on his back, a tanto plunged in his stomach and his beloved baby brother standing over him with a mocking stare.
"Guess we won't have to find out who did this, eh, aniki?"
Itachi's eyes widened unbelievingly as Sasuke took out another kunai, this time a poison - tipped one, and drove it into his collarbone. Itachi was far too consumed by shock to respond.
"Sa... Sasuke...?"
"Naruto said that we can't kill you because it would be more beneficial to us for you to be alive in the future. I don't exactly agree with that logic, but I guess you can make the argument. I mean, I already killed the rest of the clan, save for Shisui. You and him being alive means nothing in the grand scheme of things." the boy sighed. Itachi said nothing, his eyes still deathly wide and his skin becoming even paler. Sasuke rolled his eyes.
"What's with the look? Oh what, you're surprised?" Sasuke questioned. He laughed harshly, full-throated and open, "That's rich! Well, I have to leave soon. The poison in your system will go away within a week, and until then, you'll be in a coma. It's one of Sakura's specialties, so I know it's going to work. But for now..."
Sasuke's eyes gleamed red.
"Mangekyo Sharingan!"
Itachi shot up from his bed, sweat dripping from every inch of his body. He buried his head in his hands and leaned back against the wall. Damn, why was he having these dreams all of a sudden? But he already knew the answer to that one. The murder of his clan, conducted by none other than his beloved younger brother, had left a wound so deep in him that he would remember every detail of that tragic night no matter how hard he would try to forget.
And that night was a whole decade ago.
That night, Sasuke left the village along with seven other children. Itachi should have seen this coming, though. Sasuke had always been a more talented genius than he had ever been or ever will be. And he was fine with that. The only thing he wished he could done other than keep Sasuke in the village was that he should've seen all the signs.
Sasuke had begun to come home late ever since he started attending the Academy at five years old. Itachi and his parents thought that he was out training with his friends and thought nothing more of it. Kami, they should've been more careful. Upon entering the Academy, Sasuke had already obtained the three pronged sharingan. Itachi could even remember at one point when Sasuke snuck into one of the Uchiha clan meetings.
The boy was sitting up in the rafters in the corner of the ceiling. He was completely obscured by a shadow, but his sharingan shone brightly as he surveyed every Uchiha in the room. Itachi spotted him by complete chance. When their eyes met, Sasuke leaned out of the shadows, gave his older brother a brilliant smile, and disappeared.
There was another time where he could've noticed something wrong was during Sasuke's sixth birthday.
He invited a handful of his classmates as well as a few kids a year older whom Itachi had never seen before. Itachi sat alone on the couch during the party, observing every one of Sasuke's friends. First, his eyes landed on Uzumaki Naruto.
He was all smiles as he laughed at nearly everything. Even with the Kyuubi sealed in his stomach and the weight of the people's hatred on his shoulders, it was a wonder that he could stay this cheerful. The next person Itachi looked at was Haruno Sakura. She was mostly silent during the party and had blank eyes, but she allowed herself a tilt to her lips whenever someone made a joke. Sakura was civilian born, if Itachi wasn't mistaken, yet her excelling knowledge of nearly every subject was unparalleled.
Sometimes, she engaged in conversation with a boy dressed in a forest green shirt and brown shorts. His arms were wrapped in bandages until his elbows, and his pitch black braid swung slightly at his hips. His name was Rock Lee, Itachi eventually heard. Rock Lee looked rather serious and stone - faced for a seven year old, but if he was Sasuke's friend, he was Sasuke's friend. Itachi didn't have any right to immediately judge the boy.
There were also two Hyuuga's at the party. One was the Hyuuga heiress, Hinata. She was her same, boisterous self and teased Sasuke until a blush overtook his entire face. It was rather endearing to watch, especially when Neji joined in with even more teasing. There was a pale boy beside Sasuke who grinned at the scene. His hair was short and straight and everything about his grins and laughs were absolutely genuine. Sai, his name was. And lastly, there was Shikaku's son, Shikamaru. He was half asleep with a dango stick hanging from his mouth. He wasn't being bothered with.
"Sasuke! Sasuke! It's time to open your presents!" Hinata exclaimed. Itachi stood up from the couch and walked closer to the group of children while still maintaining a respectable distance. The presents he received included blue steel shuriken that returned to him when he summoned it, a set of fuma shuriken, explosive tags, unnamed scrolls (that Itachi was very curious about), and black steel kunai. But the best had yet to come.
Neji and Lee went into the hallway and came back with a long, wrapped box.
"This is your real gift, Sasuke." Naruto smiled, "We all pitched in to get it for you."
Itachi watched as Sasuke calmly tore off the wrapping paper and opened the box. Inside was a beautifully crafted chokuto sword with a tsunami engraved on the black hilt and the silver blade polished to the point where you could see your reflection in it as clear as day. It was also so finely sharpened that merely a whisper of pressure was enough to draw blood.
"You guys..." Sasuke murmured. Sakura nudged him with her elbow and inclined her head.
"Test it." she said. The boy grasped the hilt and lifted the sword up to the light to see its luster. Eyes widening in realization, he pulsed chakra through it. Itachi watched in shock and horror as the blade crackled with black lightning.
Later that night, Itachi discovered that something else had been in the box. It was a white mask that covered the bottom half on one's face, like something Hatake Kakashi would wear, but of slightly thicker material. What really caught Itachi was that the kanji for 'two' was written where the mouth would be. It definitely was strange, but Itachi mentioned nothing to his brother, nor his parents.
'I should've done something.' Itachi thought bitterly. His sweltering thoughts were soon interrupted with a series of knocks on his apartment door. He sighed and stepped out of his bed in nothing more than a pair of track pants.
"Oi, seriously! Open up, Ita-chan!"
Itachi sighed a second time and went to open the door. His cousin, Shisui, sprung through the threshold with a wide grin on his face.
"Took you long enough my adorable baby cousin! And good timing too. The Godaime wants to the see the both of us- something about Kiba-kun coming back with some information." he said. Itachi nodded, went back inside to pull on a shirt, and followed Shisui through the bustling streets towards the hospital. Orochimaru, the Hokage's right hand, was already waiting for them.
"Good morning, you two." he greeted, "I apologize for calling you so early, but Inuzuka-san, who had just recently returned from his mission, is now fully conscious. He may have some information that you may be interested in. Please, come in. The Hokage's already here."
Jiraiya was indeed already in and had taken up a comfortable seat on the windowsill. Kiba was seat in an upright position on the bed with one of his arms in a sling and a bandage covering his left eyes with Akamaru lying right beside him.
"Now that everyone's here... Kiba, could you please tell us what happened to you?" Jiraiya asked. The eighteen year old took a deep breath.
"I did the assassination like I was told, but I was ambushed on my way back to Konoha. It was those people who destroyed a small village in Wind Country a few weeks back. They wore white cloaks with a blue tsunami embroidered at the bottom. The cloak also had a hood, so I couldn't see their eyes."
An image of Sasuke's sword with the tsunami engraved on the hilt flashed in Itachi's head.
"Their clothes were all black and they had blue armor plates on their shins, arms, and torso. What was weird about them were their masks. They were white and covered the bottom half of their face and had kanji where their mouth would be. The ones who attacked me had the kanji for 'scarlet ink' and 'two'."
Itachi's eyes hardened immediately as Kiba continued his story.
"The organization is called 'Usuakari', or twilight. The people I saw in the organization were Haruno Sakura, Nara Shikamaru, and their leader, Uzumaki Naruto."