Title: buried deep
Characters/Pairings: Itachi, Kisame, Sasuke (mentioned)
Warnings: Major character death (off-screen)
Summary: Itachi liked the idea of dying at the hands of his brother, of paying off his sins that way. It turns out life is never that simple.
Notes: I like the idea that sometimes, not everything goes to plan. I'm a big fan of canon divergences for that reason. I wrote this last year after rewatching the Wave arc and bits and pieces of the Chuunin Exam. God, that's so long ago now. Everything was still nicely uncomplicated. Not so much now.
It is the twenty-third of July, and Sasuke is dead.
It had not been, as Itachi had imagined he would, by old age. It had not been because of him being consumed by hatred. He had not taken his own life.
Today is Uchiha Sasuke's thirteenth birthday, but he is rotting in the ground, and Itachi is alive but far from well.
Sometimes, he thinks he hears his brother's voice, an inquiring "Aniki?" followed by a tug on his pants. Sometimes, he sees movement out of the corner of his eye, dark eyes, dark hair. Itachi blames it on his deteriorating vision. After six long years as a missing-nin, he is uncertain how to feel about it. He had thought (but he hadn't, not really) that he'd shut all his emotions down – when he'd killed a mother and babe without horid guilt wrenching in his gut; when he could no longer remember the faces of his Mother or Father, and was not disturbed by this fact. Itachi had thought himself to have lost his humanity many years before, on that fateful night. As it turns out, he hasn't. Not completely.
Many months before Sasuke's thirteenth birthday, he and Kisame had found themselves in a non-descript bar. Ninja from several countries had been gathered round, having a drink with their comrades. A few Leaf shinobi in the far back had caught his attention, however, and he had overheard snippets of their conversation.
"-a shame, though, for Konoha to have lost such an asset-" One of them had said.
"Not to mention Kakashi," another added. "Genin teams have been lost before, but this..." He had shaken his head. "Not too surprising he handed in his resignation."
Itachi's had known Hatake Kakashi, personally, and while the man certainly hadn't been the most... conventional of shinobi, he had certainly had Itachi's respect, back when he had still been a soldier of the Leaf.
"I suppose the Sharingan can be considered to be a lost cause, at this point," another ninja added.
"They say the boy awakened it in battle, against Zabuza no less," the first one said, thoughtfully. "You know, to protect the..." He gestured and the other three grimaced.
"I wish the Kyuubi brat had perished," the fourth one said disdainfully. "But at least he's kept locked up."
Itachi hadn't heard the rest of the conversation. He had tracked Kisame down and dragged him out of the bar, and he'd had to... He had to make sure. He had to know.
"What's got your panties in a twisted," Kisame had muttered, annoyed at not being able to finish his drink.
"I have reason to believe my brother is dead," Itachi had said.
"Your brother? The brother you kept alive so one day he could kill you? Ha, that's a good one."
And today it was the twenty-third of July, and Sasuke would never turn thirteen, would never kill Itachi, would never become the person Itachi had hoped him to be.
But he was a hero, nonetheless. And, Itachi thought, perhaps that was worth more than dying at the hands of his brother.