Disclaimer:

Naruto is not mine. Naruto is by Masashi Kishimoto.

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Beyond Mirrors

Riddles

(Uchiha Sasuke - Uchiha Itachi)

"Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple."
- Dr. Seuss

The feel of the cloth-bandages against his eyes were comforting. At least, this time he understands the darkness he is seeing. In the end he had always been sheltered from the world – what he saw were merely what he wanted to show him. The darkness he recognized was the black cloth of his back, such that he blocked his view from the world. Until his blood spluttered in his hands, he only saw his brother's back.

"Isn't it time yet?" he asked, his voice came out solid and commanding, or rather, demanding.

"Not yet," came the answer, "Be patient Sasuke. The next time you open your eyes you'll be seeing a whole new world. Things are getting really fun!"

"'The next time you open your eyes you'll be seeing a whole new world', huh?" Sasuke kept his face straight as he mocked Zetsu's words. "I bet so."

In the blackness of his vision he could not see him. His silhouette was uncharacteristically absent before his eyes and there was a resounding silence in his soul.

When he opens his eyes, he'll be seeing a whole new world - the world his brother saw. For now there is no more Uchiha Itachi to shield his eyes and the eyes that saw all he did not want him to see is now his. Now he is bearing his eyes – the eyes that saw horror he wished to conceal from him.

Maybe now he will be able to see - see beyond what he wanted him to see.

After all there is no bigger riddle in this world than the one whose eyes he is bearing – larger than world and life itself.

To Uchiha Sasuke, Uchiha Itachi is.

"Tadaima."

Sasuke sprung from his sprawled form in the floor and ran to the front door of their house in animated eagerness, "Okaeri Nii-san!"

Itachi laughed quietly as Sasuke threw himself to him in an over-enthusiastic hug. He ruffled the boy's hair as Sasuke's carefree laugh echoed in his ears.

"Let's play Nii-san!"

"Sasuke. Itachi have his homework to do." Their mother's voice was reprimanding as she eyed Sasuke firmly.

Sasuke's face fell, as he threw a quick glance to his older brother. His frown dissolved to wonder as he watched Itachi thinned his lips for a second, and then forced a smile, "Its okay. I will do them later." Itachi turned to him with a better smile, "Ne Sasuke?"

Sasuke stared at him for awhile before smiling brightly, wondering why his brother had too many different smiles.

The cave was dark, hollow and silent yet his footsteps weren't heard. Light as a leaf he moved, swift like fire. He walked straight then turned around a soft bend.

"You're here."

Sasuke stopped. A cloaked figure stood in a distance from him. He could barely make out the person by his silhouette. He could only tell the person's head is bowed, concealing his face. "Who are you?"

The darkness of the cave was grave as the cloaked figure slowly raised his head and revealed his sharingan, "It's me. Sasuke."

The voice rang clear in the hollows of the cave and shook tremors through his spine. His sharingan activated itself before he can summon it.

"Did you get a little taller?"

With all the practice he had on masking his emotions, Sasuke replied in equally stern voice, seemingly unaffected, "You haven't changed a bit, especially those cold, merciless eyes."

"Aren't you going to scream and charge straight at me, like the last time?"

"You know nothing of me."

In a blink, Sasuke was behind Itachi, his left hand charged in chidori.

And in a flurry chain of events, Itachi was gone in a mass of flying crows with his voice floating in the cave, "Come to the Uchiha hideout, alone. We'll end this there."

Sasuke furiously stopped and watched Itachi's crows fly in all directions. The look of his eyes before he dissolved in a mass of crows stayed transfixed in Sasuke's mind.

Something struck him.

Why it is that Itachi's eyes, while cold and blank, never had that flash, a real one?

Even just a glint.

Itachi's eyes are blank and cold but it didn't have that glint. At least he never saw.

He knew Itachi's eyes. He knew the traces, glints and colors that swirl and play in his eyes, crimson or not. He knew them even those that he cannot place nor understand.

Yet he knows them, recognizes them.

He knew Itachi's eyes, even if he doesn't understand. Maybe he knew even those Itachi did not want him to know. And now, as he stares at his crows, Sasuke thought, "Why Itachi's eyes are void of that intent?"

His eyes flew open, in an expression that can easily be mistaken for fear. But it was not – far from fear.

It was recognition.

The poke in his forehead and his brother's smile – how many years had passed?

Too long he forgot how it felt.

He watched Itachi's face in childish expression of disbelieve and defiance. That gentle expression in his lips and the way his brows smoothened in relief, Sasuke stared in a chaos of emotion. Right now, in front of him is his brother; in front of him is his nii-san.

It is, finally, Itachi – his brother.

It's been a long, long time.

But the blood flowing freely from the sides of his mouth and the exhausted air he was exuding were out of place. He wanted to reach out and catch him from his fall, like how Itachi always did to him when they were kids. He wanted to shout for his brother to watch out as he will hit the ground, as how Itachi used to always warn him when he does something dangerous. He wanted to scream but he cannot. He wanted to close his eyes and wake up, but it was not a dream.

Sasuke felt himself shatter as Itachi smiled and said, "Sorry Sasuke. There won't be a next time."

The gears in his brain burst in refutation as he screamed to himself. "There won't be a next time? No next time? Nii-san always says 'Sorry Sasuke. Maybe some other time' No! You never say 'This is it'! Nii-san!"

He felt the trickle of Itachi's blood from where his fingers poked his forehead. The blood trickled down his face instead of tears he wanted to shed. As he watched his brother fall to his death, disbelief and denial roared in his consciousness.

"Nii-san." Sasuke murmured weakly as he collapsed next to his fallen brother, and his mind was playing his brother's smiles.

"Lying… You're lying. You're lying. You have to be…"

Madara watched him in silence. Realizing the life Itachi led can leave any sane human to madness. The pain the Uchiha prodigy had to bear alone, the guilt of killing his family and his clan, the hate that replaced the love and admiration his brother felt for him, the nobility of his every action that was covered and left unsaid, yet Itachi remained sane and firm. It was not an ordinary feat or ordinary life. Uchiha Itachi led a great, honorable yet tragic life. If any random soul could feel the pain of hearing the story, Madara wondered how the younger brother would feel – the brother Itachi protected till his last breath. Uchiha Madara remained silent, letting the chaos of emotions wreck the young Uchiha. Behind his mask is a straight face, waiting for Sasuke to break, and then he will dive for the kill. After all, Sasuke is an integral part of his plan. He cannot be missed.

"It makes no sense…" Sasuke murmured his confusion. That last moment of his battle with Itachi was screaming in his head. He fought, fought for sanity to keep what he believed in, fought to deny the reality dawning to him. He threw Madara a sharp glare with a quick change in his expression, "I came within an inch of dying over a dozen times."

"If Itachi had been really serious, we wouldn't be having this conversation."

Madara spoke but mostly Sasuke wasn't entirely listening. It was not because he could not believe what he was saying. It was mostly because Madara was explaining almost every single guess he had about his brother. He was confirming things.

Every revelation Sasuke hears he refuted, not to Madara though it appears as such, but more to himself. Every expression that suggests realization wasn't because of the older Uchiha, it was because of the puzzle suddenly fitting into place. Piece by piece, one by one, everything Sasuke couldn't place before, from the beginning, were falling into place, like a large mural slowly unveiling before his eyes.

Madara was speaking again, "Your safety was his number one pri-"

"Enough!" Sasuke bellowed, in frustration more than in anger, "Lies! This is all –"

"You're still alive aren't you?"

Sasuke stopped. His eyes wide open, staring to nowhere in front of him. He wanted Madara to stop. He did not want to listen. He did not want to. Itachi's words reverberated in his head and he knew he had to listen.

Madara started to get up from his seat, "Your eyes didn't see through Itachi one bit. Every single illusion he created, you accepted. Itachi killed his friends... his superiors... his girlfriend... his father... his mother... But he couldn't kill his little brother. Crying his bloody tears, he killed his emotions, exterminated his kinsman to save his village... But he couldn't kill you." Madara crouched in front of him, "Is this getting through you?" The kunai he was holding sliced through the ropes that bound Sasuke, "To him, your life was more important than the village."

He did not move nor budge, "Didn't see through?" Sasuke shut his eyes painfully.

The sounds of the waves crashing through the rocks were unknown to him as he recalled his brother's last words. The tears he wasn't able to shed back then was flowing too freely from his eyes. The emblem of the Uchiha was embossed proudly in his back. A large black hawk flew to the vastness of the ocean before him and its loud, piercing screech broke through the sound of crashing waves.

"Our group will no longer be known as Hebi. From now on, we refer to ourselves as Taka." His voice was as sharp and clear as the hawk's.

He knew on his back Madara is there – watching. He did not mind. Let him believe what he wanted to believe. Let him believe he believed every single word he said. Let him believe he explained Itachi. Sasuke looked up to the horizon that seemed farther than it is. It was Itachi who explained things to him in the end. His every riddle, from when they were young, was his explanation to Sasuke – his smiles, his actions, his words, his eyes – those are the things Madara did not know that Sasuke did. The things Itachi left him.

"Liar." Sasuke thought, "You were the one that led the Kyuubi to attack Konoha. Nii-san was telling me the truth. Well then, thank you for making things clearer to me. I think I finally can place those that I cannot, and answer the questions I cannot ask."

The hawk was soaring effortlessly against the background of crimson twilight.

"Let me play your game Nii-san. This time, I will be their greatest riddle."

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A/N:

Hebi (Jp) – snake

Taka (Jp) – hawk

Nii-san (Jp) – (seriously people! - -' ) older brother

First chapter for Beyond Mirrors, next in the 4-Chapter challenge with Feisu-chan.

This round's challenge: greater than 1000 words.

Beyond Mirrors is about Sasuke. If you haven't figured that out.

Part of the Friendship Fics Marathon Challenge: Uchiha Itachi-Uchiha Sasuke

A/N:

That was hell of an experience. I don't think I'm writing these two again. ^^''

Next chapters will be on Sasuke and someone else or something else that is related to him. And yes, this is all angst, people! All angst!