KONOHA:
Sasuke watched his brother's face in anger. He was beyond forgiveness now, beyond wanting to understand. He was ready to kill his brother for his part in their family's deaths and he was seconds away from doing it.
"Stop it" Kakashi seized the knives that Sasuke had loaded his fingers with, blocking the sheet with Itachi's quickly-painted face on it. "It won't do any good"
"Yes, it will" Sasuke reclaimed a throwing knife and it hurled into painted-Itachi's right eye. He didn't care that he grazed Kakashi's arm a little, wouldn't admit that his fingers shook as he tried to blind his brothers likeness. Because it's not like he's practically blind, anyway.
"Tsunade wants to see you. Come on" Kakashi had kept with the boy like a loyal body guard, just as he'd promised.
Sasuke wasn't sure whether to be grateful for the man's continuing presence and familiarity, or to loath him for allowing his mother to run back. And furthermore for disallowing Sasuke to go after her. And maybe just a bit more for continuing on without his mother. Or perhaps a little further for not even considering going back to search for survivors.
He'd taken his message straight to Tsunade as planned and she'd placed them both in her most protected room - damn-near outside hers.
In her fury at the unfolding events, she'd hastened to keep Sasuke safe and had vaguely mentioned something about keeping "the last of those proud Uchiha's alive" - which had knocked Sasuke just a little more than he thought it would. Was he the last? Was Itachi already dead? He deserved it, Sasuke thought. Itachi could have been close enough to prevent their parents death - so why weren't they with him, right now?
He envied the person who'd killed his brother, if that was the case. Prayed with all he had that it was with his own father's last movements, that he lunged the sword through Itachi's major organs and fatally wounded him.
Their mother had been adamant that Itachi's situation wasn't by any means one of his own choosing. That Danzo had a major part in it, that Itachi was misunderstood by most but that he did love his family. If that was the case, how did he allow them all to die?
All to die. Sasuke could probably count on just one hand how many Uchiha's were left. Hours after the raid in the tower, Sasuke was the only known survivor - and that was only known by Kakashi, Tsunade and three of her most loyal guards. Not even Sasuke's friends knew whether or not he'd survived the attack, and he wasn't sure if that was Tsunade's intention or not.
By the time the radio announcement claimed that Anbu had definitely not been the ones to slaughter the Uchiha clan, Sasuke was still the only known member alive, known only by those select few. Not even Itachi had been mentioned - Tsunade had said nothing of the brother and Sasuke was growing impatient.
Sasuke abandoned his weapons - the ones he'd taken to sharpening as an easy distraction - and donned his cloak with uncertainty. It reminded him of running away, of hiding. And though it might have been the thing to save his life, it was the thing that stopped his brother from finding him and facing him face to face.
But Sasuke was silently thankful that Kakashi had the hindsight to bring the cloaks. There was something comforting for the moment about being hidden amongst the shadows.
They were escorted to Tsuande's office, the whole five minute trek down the corridor and to another floor. Sasuke had already practiced his speech, how he'd make her see that his brother was the one at fault and that he had to pay for his crimes. As a citizen of Konoha, it was law, surely.
Tsunade was tired, though. Sasuke saw her eyes now had shadows, but her usual energetic determination shone through. She dismissed the guards and Kakashi and Sasuke pulled down their hoods.
"Sasuke" She greeted, coming over to him and taking his arm. "How are you holding up?"
"Have you found my brother?" He asked. "And what about the bodies?" He switched. "Have you brought them all back-?" Back for a traditional Uchiha burial was right on his lips, but it couldn't form into words.
"We have a team working on that" She assured him. "But...there's something else"
"My brother" He sensed. She'd said 'something else' in the same way that people used to compare the two when they were younger.
"...Are you armed?"
"Yes" Kakashi said instantly.
"Should I be?" Sasuke asked, feigning innocence. Tsunade lifted his cloak to the side, revealing his waist and boots filled as discretely as possible with weapons. Her look said it all and he began removing them. "Your guards are clearly morons" Sasuke uttered.
"They don't have a reason to suspect you'd hurt me, boy" She snapped. "But I suppose why not, hey? Everybody else is ganging up on the higher ups" He felt bad instantly and hurried to remove all of his knives.
"Thank you" She scooped them all up and put them in a bin, kicking it straight to the opposite side of the room. "Now, anything else I should know?" Sasuke shook his head, sure that he'd removed everything. He turned to Kakashi, realising he hadn't unloaded his own.
"Him?" He prompted. Kakashi spared him a raised eyebrow and nothing more. Clearly he wasn't removing anything.
"I trust he'll keep his emotions in check" She said vaguely, moving back to her desk and leaning on it. Kakashi followed at her side and Sasuke felt oddly bare. He gave himself a second to berate himself for allowing Kakashi to have such an impact, and then put up his usual confident front.
They were looking at him like parents ready to deliver a punishment, but he couldn't think what he'd done to anger the two of them. Her voice raised, then. "You have three minutes, and then you need to leave"
Sasuke instantly felt abandoned.
"If you wanted me gone, you didn't have to bloody-well take me from them, did you?" He glared at Kakashi.
"Not you, little brother"
Sasuke froze. His fingers itched for his knives but they were in the bucket half way across the room.
"You" He felt his fingers curl into the next best thing - a fist - and his body tense for a fight. "Why are you here?" He whirled, Itachi standing just shy of the shadowed wall, dressed in full Konoha Anbu suit - an easy disguise probably to detract attention from himself.
His mask was sitting atop his head, spotless and free of blood. Had he changed? Or was he that brilliant that he'd slain their family without dirtying himself? Suddenly, all feelings of revenge and anger were gone.
"You should have just killed me with the rest of them, if that's what you were planning" His voice was low, he wished it was louder - a yell or a shout would have been much more appropriate. But Itachi had a certain air which usually deflated any outward anger - extinguishing it from any course of physical action. At least, that had usually been the case with Sasuke.
"Why is he here?" Sasuke then turned to Tsunade. "What possible reason could he have to see me? What possible thing could he say to make any of this okay?!"
The boys fists tightened until his palms bore the result of half-mooned markings. He slammed his eyes shut, but couldn't shake the image of his mother ripping her hand out of Kakashi's and running back, away from them.
When he opened them, Itachi was on his knees in front of him, that odd mask lying face down on the floor next to a knife. His long hair was dry, a clean brush over one shoulder in a sleekness that Sasuke could never replicate. And upon closer inspection, Itachi had been wounded. His bare, exposed neck was scraped and bruised in a threatening way that suggested a deserved punishment.
Anbu didn't generally have the time to engage in a fight - it was swift, clean and clear and anything more was generally left to the Shinobi. Which meant somebody had purposefully threatened Itachi.
Sasuke slowly bent down and took the knife from next to the Anbu mask - Tsunade started a little. Itachi said and did nothing else, even when Sasuke placed the blade over Itachi's throat. Tsunade made her discomfort known, a sound escaping from her throat - but Itachi held out his hand to halt her or Kakashi from speaking or moving.
"He is old enough to make the decision himself" He said clearly, and Sasuke felt like he was being cheated. It shouldn't be this easy, he thought. There was no satisfaction in having Itachi's death brought to him. He wanted an argument, he wanted a fight and a challenge and hell-fire he just wanted a reaction!.
No, he realised. He wanted Itachi to explain.
He removed the knife.
"Explain" He demanded. "Get up, and explain" He seethed. Itachi rose to a stand, his mask in his fingers as Sasuke clutched the knife in his. "And you have less than a minute" Sasuke warned.
"Then you should know two things" Itachi said clearly. "No matter what outcome we considered, you were inevitably going to get hurt" He didn't even pause. "And the other - that you haven't lost all of your family"
"I'm not sure you count any more" Sasuke hissed.
"You haven't lost all of your family" Itachi repeated.
"My parents?" He said loudly. "I've lost them! No?" Itachi said nothing, didn't defend the fact that they were his parents too or dispute the fact that Sasuke was right. He was right. His parents - plural and together and both of them alike - were gone.
"I hate you" Sasuke breathed, his knife-hand wavering.
"Time" Tsunade called. "Sasuke - let him go" He hadn't even realised he was clutching Itachi's arm, the material bunched up in his fingers. He released it.
"I hate you" He repeated, finding no emotion whatsoever in Itachi's eyes.
"I know, little brother" And then he was gone, just as silent as he'd entered.
"What the hell was the purpose of that?" Sasuke demanded.
Tsunade made him sit down, gave him a glass of water and a minute or so to recover. And then she began to explain.