Hi friends! I tried to get this chapter up quick, but had a lot of stuff I wanted to cram into it! So it took longer than my usual one day updates, but it's still pretty speedy :) haha so here you go!
"What are you talking about?" Sasuke was no longer being restrained by his brother, but he maintained an offensive position. "If I didn't do anything, why do you keep screwing with me? Why can't you just leave me alone?"
"If my knowledge is correct, you were the one who sought me out."
The light that was able to filter through the sheer curtains added an unsettling vibe to this already dismal environment, and both brothers could feel the other's apprehension towards the current situation... for neither was able to determine the other's intentions.
"You're the one who keeps showing up around here," Sasuke snarled while grimacing at Itachi, "so tell me, what exactly is it that you want?" This young Uchiha had originally set out to find answers, and this situation did provide the perfect medium for obtaining them.
The elder kept his slightly glum gaze locked on his little brother. There was so much he wished to say, yet he could not reveal the majority of his thoughts.
"I had received information about the place you and those other missing children had been taken to," the Uchiha prodigy decided to tell his younger sibling the majority of the truth concerning this matter, "after discovering what sort of facility you were being held in, I decided to go there..."
As Itachi spoke, he could see the expression on Sasuke's face change from hatred to pure mortification; along with that, the younger began to slowly inch away from his older sibling.
That's when Itachi realized what the other Uchiha must have been thinking... Sasuke was under the impression that Itachi wanted the same thing as Kazaki Yamada...
"No, that's not... Sasuke, I would never do something like that," Itachi was never one to stutter over his words, but he couldn't help it in this situation, "that wasn't what I meant-"
"Is that why you brought me here?!" Sasuke was becoming hysterical after reaching that conclusion. "I know that you hate me, but we're still related! I'm still your brother! How could you want something like that from me?"
Itachi was truly disconcerted by his little brother's accusation... though after slaughtering everyone that Sasuke was once close to, it was not overly difficult to see why the boy had developed this theory.
"I didn't bring you here for that," Itachi felt truly terrible about that, for he would never perform a defiling act on anyone, especially his precious Sasuke, "that never crossed my mind; I would never do something like that to you!"
"Then why did you go there?" Sasuke had run out of room to back up, as he was now against the wall farthest from Itachi. "And why did you decide to bring me here? If you really are telling the truth, and you don't want me to die, why didn't you just take me to a hospital?"
Itachi weighed his options in his head... he could continue to play the role of horrible villain and actually do what Sasuke thought was going to happen, but there was absolutely no way that he would ever be willing to do something so awful to his beloved little brother... then there was the option of trying to convince Sasuke that he decided to watch over him for personal gain, but that was proving to be a challenge since Sasuke was fixated the thought of Itachi wanting to do less than moral things with him... there was also the option of revealing the truth behind the Uchiha Massacre, but that was intel that Itachi had sworn to keep from Sasuke, which meant that Itachi would have to quickly diffuse this predicament through other means...
••••••
"How is this possible?" Kakashi, along with the rest of his temporary squad, were all baffled, for they were not able to locate Itachi Uchiha.
"He's got to be around here somewhere," Guy replied while continuing to scan the area, "the team that was sent out before us had pinpointed his location, and it was right around here."
"He couldn't have gotten far from here then..." Shibi of the Aburame clan added.
It hadn't taken this team too long to arrive at the spot indicated by the other group, but if Itachi had realized that someone had been tracking his movements, he could have slipped away or used a diversionary tactic to send them off course.
"So what should we do?" Shizune asked the others for their opinions on the matter.
"I think we should go back to the village," Shibi said, "though our group is highly skilled, we cannot do anything without a target, and since none of us have especially high sensory abilities, it would be dangerous to proceed."
That was true... and unfortunate... for it was not everyday that a member of the Akatsuki was wondering around alone; however, the bug ninja was correct. No one would be able to find the man with relative ease, and if their suspicions were correct and Itachi was onto them, he would easily be able to ambush them.
"Well, as unfortunate as it might be, you're right," Kakashi admitted, "and we were given orders to abandon the mission if it became too dangerous, and it might turn out that way if we blindly search for him."
"Let's go report back to Lady Tsunade," Shizune added, "we will be able to request a team with more shinobi on it, and perhaps we could add a member from the Hyuuga clan; the Byakugan would prove quite useful for a mission like this."
"Right, let's go." Kakashi wrapped up the conversation and began leaping through the trees towards Konoha.
••••••
The panic was obvious in Sasuke's eyes as he watched Itachi.
"Sasuke, please try to calm down. I'm not going to do anything to you."
The younger was unconvinced by Itachi's statement. "You also said that you would always be there for me, but I found out the hard way that you were lying then, too."
"I wasn't lying to you when I said that, and I'm not lying now." He really didn't want to say that, but Itachi was desperate to make Sasuke believe him, for allowing his brother to believe that he was about to sexually assault him was completely unacceptable.
Itachi began to instinctively walk closer to his brother, for he wanted to comfort him in his time of need, but this made Sasuke panic.
"Don't come near me!" He screamed in utter terror. With a weakened state of health, and the trauma causing his mind to go into a state of hysteria, Sasuke began to unconsciously summon visions from the days that he was forced to do immoral things with perverted men that were three to four times his age.
It was always so gross... sweaty palms were always touching him... the smell of blood and other bodily fluids constantly overrode his sense of smell, making him want to vomit... it was too much for a child to handle, though Sasuke had managed to keep it together pretty well until now... but that was over; he could no longer repress the constant fear that someone would try to defile him again.
Itachi could clearly see that Sasuke's grip on sanity was slipping away, and he wasn't entirely sure what to do. He had not thought this whole thing through, for when he found Sasuke collapsed on the forest floor, his brotherly instincts kicked in, and he wanted make sure kid brother would recover safely... that was the only thought on his mind at that point.
And he never saw this coming... he had never anticipated his little brother becoming so frightened, but the boy was clearly terrified.
Sasuke fell to his knees and began trembling. He looked up at his brother with tears welling up in his eyes; it was apparent that this child was truly mortified.
"Please don't do this to me..." His voice was barely a whisper as he begged his older brother to stop what he thought was inevitable.
Itachi could not bare to see his brother completely crumble... and it was none other than his own presence that brought this onslaught of emotions to fruition...
••••••
After telling the hokage what had happened, the Slug Queen had decided to mull over the situation before executing another plan, for dealing with high level criminals was not something that could be taken lightly, especially after learning that said criminal may have been aware of the tracking shinobi.
This meant that the masked jonin now had quite a bit of free time, and he figured that visiting Sasuke should be one of his first priorities.
First, he went to the hospital in case the boy had not been released yet, but the woman in charge of the desk told him that Sasuke had gone home several hours ago.
With this newly acquired information, the jonin started his walk towards Sasuke's apartment complex.
After knocking on the door a few times, Kakashi came to the same conclusion that his other students had come to mere hours ago; Sasuke was probably sleeping. However, that thought was dismissed when someone began speaking.
"You're the third person that came looking for him today," Kakashi turned to see a young woman standing in the doorway of the unit across from Sasuke's, "he's not in there, though. He actually hasn't been home in a few weeks; I'm not sure why, though."
"Oh, hello there," the man greeted the stranger, "I know that he hasn't been home in a while; you see, he was... injured on a mission and resting in the hospital for the last couple of weeks," Kakashi relayed a lesser version of the truth to Sasuke's neighbor, "but he was released earlier today and was supposed to come straight home. Are you sure that he didn't come back?"
"I've been here all day, and the only people that came through here were two children," she replied, "there was a loud blond boy, and a young girl with pink hair. Other than that, I'm sure no one has been here."
"Well, thank you for letting me know." Kakashi was kind of weirded out by this girl; it wasn't unusual for young females to have their eye on Sasuke, but she seemed to be almost stalkerish, like she had been watching all day for the Uchiha to return...
That wasn't really important, though, for another issue dominated Kakashi's mind... where exactly was his pupil?
I tried to include everyone's ideas in there! I also hope that you all are enjoying the story and would love some more feedback and ideas! :)