I looked around the dank cell that I now inhabited. Water dripped down the walls and the noise it made as it splashed on the ground filled the small room. My bed and a small chest for clothes and other belongings were all that this room held. I had stayed here for two and a half years now and it looked the same as when I had first arrived.

A shiver ran through my body and I ignored the soreness that it brought up. I was perpetually cold these days. I hadn't been warm since I'd left Konoha; since I had walked away from Naruto lying in the mud, unconscious, so long ago.

He had been lying there in front of me. Vulnerable, defenseless… weak. I could've killed him. There would've been no way he – or anyone else, for that matter - could have stopped me. In fact, as I had contemplated murder my fingers twitched towards my kunai pouch but I couldn't make myself pull a weapon out.

A water droplet fell on my nose and I looked up. The sky was a dark, dark gray - almost black. The same color as the darkness inside of me, the darkness that had been there for a while. I couldn't quite remember when it had set in but slowly, progressively, my hate had turned me into something ugly. I couldn't live without it though. What would my life be if I didn't hate my brother? I had to hate my brother, otherwise I would never become strong enough to kill him and avenge my clan once and for all.

Suddenly, burning pain erupted in my shoulder. I cried out and grabbed onto my shoulder. I dropped to my knees and slowly the pain ebbed.

The rain was falling more quickly now and both Naruto and I became soaked. A deep coldness seeped into me. It encased my heart like a living thing and I knew the coldness was there to stay.

I was face to face with Naruto now. I was so close I could see every line and curve of his face. I watched his closed eyes. Any moment I expected them to open and I would see the bright blue that I had grown so used to.

I had seen every emotion pass through those eyes: love, joy, happiness, anger, sadness, and finally betrayal. I tried to imagine a world where I would never see them light up again from the taste of ramen, or glint with the victory of a battle, or flare with determination for acknowledgement.

Naruto was my best friend. The only one I had let in, in almost four years. I had felt so lonely before. I shielded it with arrogance but I was so, so lonely. And Naruto understood. Despite what I had screamed at him earlier of him not knowing the joy of family… he did understand loneliness. He had been alone his whole life. Shunned, rejected, and unloved for something he couldn't control. Out of everyone, Naruto was the only one who I would ever venture to call my family now.

I couldn't kill him.

I stood up and walked away from him. My best friend. I would find another way to achieve the Mangekyo. I would become stronger than Itachi and then I would kill him. No one would stop me. Not even my best friend.

I pulled myself from my thoughts. It was time to leave this place. I was as strong as I would ever be under Orochimaru's tutelage.

I opened the door to my cell and slowly walked along the hallways towards Orochimaru's rooms. I paused in front of the doorway, already formulating a strategy in my mind, and then I opened the door and started my journey once again.