2.
Interlude - Sasuke's thoughts
Nobody is born a murderer.
Sasuke knew that. He'd seen babies before, in all of their red-faced, shrieking glory. They didn't have a single bad bone in their body. They were blank slates; easels to be painted on, a bareness that would be corrupted with the beliefs and actions of their family, guardian, and even enemy. They were innocent.
Innocent like Itachi had been, once.
Sasuke didn't understand. Itachi had always cared. He didn't show his feelings in words, but more in actions. He didn't have to pick Sasuke up everyday from the Academy. He didn't have to be there to train him. He didn't have to shield him from the clan politics. He didn't have to care. But he did.
How could someone like that change overnight?
He knew that something big - something horrible - would have caused him to change, for him to be like this, and that scared him even more; because every time he wondered, every time he theorised about what could have made Itachi snap, those theories drove deep and right towards danger - right towards the village hidden in the leaves, his home. Or, could he really call it that when his family were murdered on this land? When their blood stained this soil? When a massacre went unnoticed in a village that harbored thousands of high-ranking ninja?
Nothing made sense. How could one man wipe out a whole clan of bloodline shinobi unnoticed? Sasuke pushed away the confusion, and focused on the one thing that was clear, the one thing he was sure of: Itachi had killed their parents - he knew it was true, he'd walked in right after it had happened, saw his brother's sword stained with their blood - and Sasuke would get his revenge for that.
And Sasuke would - because, what else did he have to live for?