A/N: All right, I am ending this fic as soon as possible.

A big thank you to Quisty05, the comments in your reviews gave me a good laugh.

Another thank you to HANAJIMA UCHIHA for telling me all I needed to know on child custody, it was very kind of you.

14

Sasuke walked into his room like a ghost. He closed his bedroom door and stood right next to his window on the furthest side from the door. Looking down, he saw the water droplets hit his floor. It took him a moment to realise they were his tears.

A dull ache of pain went through him as his knees hit the wooden floor. He seized his hair in his clenched hands, not even wincing when his nails bit into his scalp, holding his head like this was the only thing stopping him from ramming his fist through the window.

All the events of today ran through his mind so fast he almost became dizzy. He leapt to his feet and ran to the bathroom located exactly outside his bedroom door, thankfully, he wouldn't have been able to hold it in over a further distance.

As he let loose the contents of his stomach in the sink, his hands clenched around the basin even tighter than they had on his scalp, his knuckles pale white. Gasping, he looked up into the mirror. He knew he was good-looking, but he didn't want to look like this. To look like an Uchiha. He'd seen a few of them with features like his; sharp but soft features, pearly white skin, jet-black hair.

The one thing he did like was his eyes. Because his father had identical ones: liquid onyx, eyes that showed emotion. The Uchiha eyes were stone onyx: they felt nothing at all.

'Why? Why did this have to happen? What did we do to deserve this?!'

Looking around the room, he suddenly felt very claustrophobic. He couldn't handle this. It would kill him. He couldn't stand this anymore!

His rage overcame him as he slammed his fist into the mirror, shattering the glass and splashing his blood on the shards. Pulling his hand back, he turned and opened the door, running down the short hall to the front door which he opened and slammed.

He ran down the concrete stairs, clenching his fists when he finally made it out into the streets. The rain pounded on him as he ran, mixing in with the shards of glass still lodged in his open wound, pulsing pain up through his arm. He didn't care. He had no room for pain in his system, his rage, instead of calming as he continued to think about today, just increased as he ran, faster and faster.

Someone had to pay for this. He had a list, actually, of people who deserved to have him beat them to death, but at the moment he was heading to the closest person on his list.

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Kakashi stood in the graveyard behind the Konoha shrine. He felt so lost. Zabuza had to drive him and Sasuke home; he had been in shock ever since he heard the verdict.

Kakashi looked down at his best friends' grave. He felt a grim smile come on his face when he remembered that Obito, the very best friend he had ever had, had been an Uchiha; a member of the family that was destroying his life at the moment.

'How ironic.'

Even more so was the fact that out of all his old friends, Obito was the only one who supported his decision to keep Sasuke. Asuma, Kotetsu, Izumo, his own father... Everyone he knew told him to put Sasuke up for adoption, saying that having a child at his age would destroy his life.

For years, it stayed this way. Until his father died. When that happened, all the others suddenly realised that their negative attitudes had just made things worse, that they needed to help instead of let him carry the burden on his own. For the next five years, everything had been perfect.

Until Obito died as well. That had been the darkest period of his life. Somehow, he had managed to get through it with his sanity intact.

Suddenly, that darkness that had nearly swallowed him when Obito died came back, tenfold. This time, he had not lost a friend who was more like a brother. He had lost his son. His flesh and blood. Seeing his father's grave, the silver-haired man stomped towards it, feeling the urge to kick it in. Sakumo Hatake. He had been the worst person in Kakashis' life, the villain of every childhood nightmare, the worst negative voice against his decisions.

Over come with anger, Kakashi through his head back and roared at the heavens, "Is this your doing?!! Was I such as disappointment to you that you have to take away the best thing in my life?!! I hope your laughing up there, old man, when I get up there you'll never laugh again!!!"

Seething, he stomped back to Obitos' grave. Feeling the rush of anger in his body become sorrow, he felt tears well up in the corners of his eyes.

"I..." the tears leaked down, seemingly impossible to stop. "Obito... I don't know what to do..."

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"Will you stop glaring at me like that?" Itachi snapped in an annoyed voice.

"No, un." Deidara snapped back. "This is wrong and you know it!"

"Deidara, we've already had this conversation. This is the best thing for Sasuke."

"Does he get a say in this?"

"If he did, he'd say it would be best to stay with Kakashi. We've already been over this!" Itachi sighed, suddenly sounding very tired. Someone slammed their fist into the front door repeatedly, but they both ignored it.

The last thing Itachi wanted or needed was a fight with Deidara. He calmed himself before saying in a much quieter voice. "I'm sorry, Dei, but I believe I did what's right, and it's already done, so can we please not fight?"

"ITACHI! ARE YOU IN THERE?!! I NEED TO TALK TO YOU!!"

Itachi and Deidara jumped. Itachi hurried to the door and opened it quickly. His jaw dropped and his eyes widened. Sasuke stood in front of him, soaking wet with blood running down his right hand. Without a word, Itachi seized the boy and dragged him into the apartment, continuing to pull him into the living room after he locked the door. Deidaras' eyes widened at the sight of Sasuke, just as his lovers had.

"Sasuke! What are you doing- What the hell happened to your hand, un?!!"

Sasuke looked down at his hand in what seemed to be genuine surprise. "I smashed a mirror."

When he looked back up, Itachi thought he had never seen anyone look so... vulnerable? Miserable? Dead? Lost? He couldn't name it, but it was horrible to see his own brother look like it.

The water ran down Sasukes' face, making his fringe stick to his skin as he spoke, sounding like he was going to cry. "How could you do this?"

Itachi tried to sound gentle. "I did what I thought was best for you."

Sasuke slowly shook his head. "How... could you think this was for the best? I understand you would think dad was a bad guy after you saw what happened when we fought, but to go this far..."

"You haven't been raised properly, Sasuke, he's not a good fa-"

"Haven't been raised properly?!" Sasuke shouted. "At least I don't go barging into other peoples' lives, pretending to care about them and then screwing everything up for them!!"

"Pretending?! I didn't pretend to care about you-!"

"If you really cared you wouldn't have done this! And don't tell me you think Fugaku would be a better father than Kakashi! He interferes and controls even more than you do, I know you hate him more than anyone!!"

Itachi was livid. He barely heard Deidara mumble something about leaving them to deal with this on their own as he left the apartment.

"I don't dispute the fact that I hate him, nor do I think he would be a good father, I just wanted you away from Kakashi! And, if you'd be so kind, could you tell me exactly how I "screwed up everything" for you?!!"

"I have to go to Kiri! My whole life is here, a good, happy life! And it's been uprooted in favour of another life where I can't see any happiness at all ahead!!"

"Who cares about happiness?! As long as you're safe, that's all that matters!" Itachi sounded sure of himself, just like always, but, on the inside, he was starting to squirm with a strange suspicion that maybe this time he had been wrong, the same suspicion that had been in his head ever since the court ruled in Mikoto and Fugaku's favour.

"That doesn't make any fucking sense at all!! And you know what?! Dad was right about you! If I'd have just stayed away from you, none of this would have happened!!"

Desperate to squash these feelings, Itachi shouted the first thing that came to mind. "Your father is a moron who doesn't think about anything but his own happiness! He clings to you and it's disgraceful-"

Sasukes' blood coated Itachis' face as his right fist slammed into his brothers' jaw.

"SHUT UP, ITACHI!! YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT MY DAD!!"

"I know way more than you do! He didn't get custody of you because of his criminal record!" Itachi blurted out from his position on the floor before thinking it through.

Sasuke froze up. When Kakashi was fourteen, just before Sasuke was born and Kakashi found out he had a son, Kakashi had sneaked into a club with Obito and was talking to some strange men. What he hadn't known was that these strange men were drug dealers. And, unfortunately, the police chose that night to raid the club. So Kakashi got charged on associating with criminals. But that happened so long ago . . . How did Itachi know about that? How could Itachi know about that?

Then, suddenly, everything made sense. Speaking slowly, Sasuke said, "You tipped the judge off about Dad's charge . . . didn't you?"

"Yes, I did."

Sasuke looked like he was made of stone. Minutes past and Itachi was beginning to get worried when suddenly:

"YOU BASTARD!!!"

Sasuke lunged at him and caught his throat. The two wrestled on the floor while Sasuke attempted to throttle his big brother, before Itachi finally managed to get a good grip on him and throw him across the room.

Sasuke jumped up and began to slam his forehead into the wall in rage, while Itachi gasped and tried to breathe properly as he watched his little brothers' violent action.

The boy spun around to shout at the elder man, blood streaming down his face now as well as his hand. "YOU ARE THE MOST EVIL – ARRRGGHHH!!!"

"You're right! You're right!" Itachi shouted to stop Sasuke from continuing to smash his head into the wall, afraid he would get seriously hurt. It did the trick.

"And I'm sorry! I – I just had such a crap father and I saw what happened with you and Kakashi and I didn't want you to go through what I did and I thought I was doing the right thing and I know I've messed everything up for you and I'm just- I'm sorry!!" Itachi bellowed with all of the little breath he had managed to suck in after Sasuke had crushed his throat.

There was silence except for the panting breath of the brothers as Sasuke stared at Itachi in an eerily calm way with a stoic expression. Itachi made a little sound of distress as he felt Sasukes' arms circle his neck.

"Oh-it's a hug, a hug's good." He said in relief as he patted Sasukes' back before the boy pulled away from him.

"Well- now what are we going to do?"

Itachi thought for a minute and said, "Well, first you better get home and have a good long sleep. Mother and Father are coming for you at ten o'clock, if I'm going to fix the mess I've made, I've got a lot of work to do before then."

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A/N: Expect an update Friday afternoon, Saturday or Sunday. If I haven't got too much homework, I might update during the week.