Author's Note: I was bored, so I wrote this. I don't own Naruto or any of the characters. Not Beta-ed.


Dark

Children seem to have an aversion to the dark, a fear of it, if you will. Itachi often thought back to when Sasuke had had that typical childhood fear. Although his younger brother didn't exactly have the standard environment most had children growing up in, Sasuke did have the normal worries that pestered them.

When Sasuke's bedtime arrived, he would wait outside his room. They door would always been wide open, but no light on inside. Sasuke would hang onto the doorframe and lean into the room; holding onto the wooden edge as though it was a lifeline. He would stick only the upper portion of his body through the door, but go no further.

Sasuke would stay like this until someone went into his room and turned the light on. Usually it was the first person who walked by, and often times that was Itachi.

'You're not that afraid, are you Sasuke? He would ask, peering down at his younger brother.

'No,' would be the defensive reply. 'I just want to see you do it.'

With a faint smile on his lips, Itachi would enter into the inky room. Allowing the darkness to embrace him, hide him. The darkness was a ninja's greatest ally, providing the best cover. But Sasuke was too young to understand this. Right now the gloom was nothing more than frightening adversary, ready to jump out and scare him during the night.

Itachi would reach out a blind hand, brushing the base of the lamp with his fingertips. It was in the same spot it always was. Suddenly, with a sharp click the room burst into light. Sasuke would immediately dash into the room and leap onto his bed, now that the darkness was gone.

Itachi would watch his brother, giving him a small disapproving shake of the head.

'It really isn't that difficult Sasuke…'

In the present, however, Itachi began to see this memory from a different perspective. Perhaps Sasuke's fear hadn't been as misplaced as he'd first thought. What if the darkness wasn't a blood thirsty monster, but instead an impenetrable force, an unstoppable shadow that wouldn't dissolve?

But the dark could be defeated; a simple flick of a switch and it receded. But, Itachi's world was now starting to become dim, and no matter how hard he tried or how far he reached, he could find no such switch. Slowly, but surly, his sight was fading. With each passing day it became a little less bright and there was no reverse.

It was only now that Itachi could grasp Sasuke's fear. Even though it was a different take, it was still the same basic idea. Itachi even found himself idolizing the light. Refusing to turn off his lamp at night until Kisame complained. He would also rise even earlier, to watch the sun rising. Watching the spectacle before his sight became too muted for him to witness it any longer.

For the first time in his life, true fear gripped Itachi in a way it never had before. He'd come across an enemy of his own making that he could not defeat. That no seals, scrolls, or techniques could stop and that enemy, that fear, was the dark.