Itachi walked to where Sasuke's room was and opened the door. He stepped in and walked towards his little brother. He was greeted by Sasuke's attempt to punch him.
The elder easily dodge the blow and looked at Sasuke. "I came to see how you were."
"You don't have to pretend anymore. I figured out your cheap trick." Sasuke scowled at Itachi.
"I don't know what you're talking about, Sasuke."
"That's a lie! All of the sudden you act concerned about me, you try to get me to trust you again, and it's all so you can find out what you want to know about Orochimaru!"
Itachi's eyes widened when he heard Sasuke's words. "Sasuke, that's not true at all. I really am concerned about…"
Sasuke interrupted. "Just cut it out! I know you don't really care about me."
"Little brother…"
"I don't want to hear your lies! If you really cared, you wouldn't have killed everyone and left me to suffer! If you cared, you would have stopped me from ever going to that man. You have no idea how awful that was!"
Sasuke's eyes began to tear up again. Itachi felt remorse wash over him. "You may not believe me, but I too have suffered from this."
"Is that so?" Sasuke answered as he wept. "So you know how it feels to have someone force his way inside of you? You know all about the guilt that comes with him forcing you to get pleasure out of it? And when you fight back, you get a scar to remind you of what happened!" Sasuke stammered as he lifted his shirt to reveal the gash running down his chest. He fell to the floor in a crumpled heap as he broke down in front of Itachi.
Itachi was speechless. He had only seen Sasuke act this way once before, when his parents were taken before his eyes. "Sasuke, I…" Itachi began before his brother cut in.
"Don't even try to act sympathetic, Itachi!" Sasuke barked.
Itachi kneeled down to Sasuke's level and placed a hand on his shoulder. "You're right. I have no idea of how that would feel, neither physically nor mentally. But I want you to know that causing you this amount of pain was not my intention."
Sasuke pushed his brother away, "I don't care what your 'intention' was. You are the only reason I have gone through this, and I will always loathe you for that." Itachi knew that what Sasuke said was true, no matter how much he despised hearing the words come from his little brother that he cherished so much. He realized that he had to tell Sasuke the truth behind his actions in order to relieve Sasuke's pain.
Itachi stepped out of the room and closed the door behind him. Informing the young Uchiha of the truth was going to be a challenge he never saw coming.
Hidden leaf village:
"Lady Tsunade!" Shizune exclaimed as she barged into the fifth hokage's office.
"What is it, Shizune? I'm very busy!"
"I'm sorry, ma'am, but we have just received confirmation that the Anbu members we sent in search of Orochimaru last month have been killed. Remains were found near the edge of a river."
"Damn it all! How could we not have heard about this sooner?"
"Well, we knew that something had happened to them since they had not reported back, but we just received word that their bodies were found."
"Have the bodies examined; I will get a team together to go and search for Orochimaru. Now go!" Tsunade yelled. She was beyond angry at the situation.
"Yes ma'am!" Shizune yelped and ran out of the room.
Naruto was sitting in his pajamas opening a cup of instant ramen. He started slurping up the noodles when he heard a knock on his door.
He pulled it open, "Oh, hey Sakura! What brings you here?"
"Get dressed; Lady Tsunade wants to see us right away!"
Naruto shut his door and pulled on his orange jumpsuit. He then ran to the hokage's office. He opened the door and saw Sakura, a man with face gear, and a sickly pale boy with a midriff black shirt.
"Thank you for joining us," Tsunade said sarcastically since he was the last to arrive, "I received news earlier today that the Anbu team we sent to the sound village was eliminated. Shizune had the bodies inspected and learned that it was a lightning style user who killed them."
"Sasuke…?" Naruto questioned.
"We can't be certain that it was him, but we believe that he was most likely the one to do this. I have assembled this team in order to go investigate further. Your job is to go to the village and locate Orochimaru. Do not take any further action when you find him."
"Understood, Lady Tsunade." Sakura said.
"Now move out!"
The team of four reached the gate of the leaf village and prepared to leave. The man introduced himself. "My name is Yamato. I will be the leader of this mission, so you must follow my orders. Remember what Lady Tsunade said; do not do anything once we find him, even if Sasuke is with him."
Naruto looked away from the man. He was going to get Sasuke back this time for sure.
"My name is Sai." The sickly pale boy said with an overly enthusiastic smile plastered on his face.
"Why are you smiling like that?" Naruto asked and stepped away from the teen.
"Smiles make good first impressions."
"Enough talk," Yamato interrupted, "we need to go."
The team rushed into the woods and began their mission.
