Possession

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto (or Loveless, for that matter).

Summary: After seven years, Sasuke finally gets his answers.

Warning: Spoilers for chapters 343 in the manga onward. Will probably be a tad confusing if you haven't seen the body transfer jutsu.

Author's Notes: Assuming that Itachi was 13 when he murdered the clan, and that he is 5 years Sasuke's senior, that means Sasuke was 8 when the clan was murdered and is currently 15 in the manga. Quotes are actually taken from Loveless (doing a little anime transfusion here—hence the disclaimer), but the whole "skin" thing really made me think Orochimaru, then Sasuke. And Sasuke, inevitably, leads to Itachi. Of course, this is different from how the manga progressed after Orochimaru's defeat.

Title is so for lack of a better one. And they should really have a "mind-fuck" category on the site.

Sasuke wants things that no one else understands. He had once wanted friendship and love and family, normal wants, common wants, wants that did not require omniscience to comprehend. He knows well the feeling that he needs, yet he cannot put these thoughts into words because there is no form to emotion. There exists in him an implacable hunger that claws away at his insides, so that when he is alone at night the contents of his stomach come up to greet him again, to show him the extent of this malady. It's not that he's a masochist; Sasuke secretly hates pain. But it's almost more than he can tolerate when told that he has friends who understand him, who accept him for who he is when the last time he has ever talked was to a wall. Even then, all that comes out are unintelligible sounds of frustration and the incessant scratch scratching from inside himself that has him doubled over, retching. There is no understanding. No matter how much they want to understand him, they can't.

"Skin gets in the way."

If it had just been about the power, Sasuke would never have left Konoha – a fact that perfect understanding of his mind would reveal rather instantaneously. The effort spent toiling to reach Orochimaru, the effort spent to exist in a brigand of lowlifes, could just as easily have been traded for the conquest of ultimate power. Sasuke doesn't like to rely on others. There are many other facts like those that should have made his purpose clear to anyone with even the remotest understanding of his psyche.

He remembers Orochimaru's fits of insanity after decades of bodily abuse, pushing away the spectres of the past from inside his brain. In those times he observed and waited, impatiently, counting the days forever until the end of time. When he deems himself ready, when the hour has arrived, he initiates the confrontation himself because Sasuke has always liked to do things on his own terms. His eyes have worked their magic and secretly he is smiling, even as he is engulfed by the vile substance of Orochimaru's dimension. His eyes, you see, are the key to everything.

"This skin, that keeps me separated from you."

Itachi's eyes are a shade darker than his own, coolly venomous and deathly menacing. Perhaps the purest truth is he doesn't just want to be told. Sasuke has always been too curious for his age, too insistent, too demanding for the subtleties of white lies. No matter what reasons are given, he can never believe them because he cannot know a person's thoughts. He cannot get inside their skin. This is, perhaps, a deficiency of trust. Whatever the case, as he stands before his nonchalant brother there is a mocking smile on his lips. Itachi has always believed he has manipulated his younger brother's life. Sasuke wants to see that point of view.

So his hands form the last jutsu Orochimaru ever executed and then they are inside another world of swirling black and red. The entwining of his mind around his brother's body would almost be affectionate if it weren't fatal. Itachi starts to say "Against these eyes…" but Sasuke just laughs because he has those eyes too, and while they would usually neutralize each other he can overwhelm Itachi's smaller chakra reserve through sheer determination. For the briefest flicker of a moment he thinks he sees surprise in his brother's eyes, but then there is a darkness that rips him from himself and Itachi is gone from his vision.

"I want to understand you from the inside."

He reawakens to the world through a different set of eyes. And Sasuke finally has his answers.

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End

AN: Technically Orochimaru didn't have any hands when he performed the jutsu but it has to happen somehow so humour me. Can anyone else use the body transfer justu other than Orochimaru? I'm not sure, but technically the Sharingan can copy anything but kekkei genkai, so…