Sasuke's Story…
Sasuke arrived at a clearing after a several day hike. His own supplies had long since run out and he had little more than roots and small animals to eat for the past couple of days. Hungry and worn, Sasuke walked forward driven by one single desire.
Revenge.
For as long as he could remember, Sasuke was focused on just one thing: killing his brother, Uchiha Itachi. Sasuke saw those blood red eyes glaring at him in his dreams night after night. Sasuke saw in his mind his brother's hands drenched in blood of their father and mother. He remembered how Itachi stood over them, expressionless at first, but then smiling and turning to him. Sasuke's heart cried out for him to do something. To attack the monster that destroyed his family but he was too scared. He couldn't move. He couldn't scream. He couldn't do anything.
For the next eight years, Sasuke was obsessed. He trained every day. Trained to exhaustion and beyond. Then trained some more. He was driven become strong. He soon became the best student in his class, and the most powerful rookie genin. But he didn't care. He had never cared if he was the strongest. He only wanted to know that he was strong enough—strong enough to kill his brother, strong enough to take revenge, strong enough to do what he couldn't do eight years ago.
Then in the chuunin exams, he met Orochimaru. Orochimaru had chosen him because he was strong. Sasuke, Orochimaru had said, could be far stronger than Itachi. Sasuke wanted that power. The curse seal Orochimaru left Sasuke with gave him a taste of what he could do. He wanted more.
Orochimaru returned during the final round of the examination. Sasuke had been fighting Gaara, a demon in his own right, for the chance to advance in the chuunin exams. Sasuke had been on the verge of winning when the sand demon within Gaara finally woke up. Then all hell broke loose. Orochimaru returned with his own army of shinobis, among them was none other than Itachi.
It had been six years since Sasuke had seen him, but those red eyes that matched the blood on his hands were unmistakable. Fury consumed him and Sasuke would have attacked Itachi then had Kakashi not stopped him.
The third Hokage had faced down Orochimaru and driven him back but lost his life in the process. Kakashi, Gai, and the other Jounin had likewise defeated Orochimaru's henchmen. Itachi on his own had caused much of the destruction, but upon the appearance of the sennin Jiraya and his summoned toad, Gamabunta, he also retreated along with the others. The Hidden Sand nins were also defeated and Gaara was captured, the demon inside him sealed up once again.
With the chuunin exams terminated prematurely and the third Hokage dead, the village was left in shambles. Jiraiya took control for a while, along with a committee of jounin, and select chuunin. Not long thereafter, Tsunade, a student of the Third and a colleague of Jiraiya, arrived in the Hidden Leaf village and officially assumed the title of the Fifth Hokage. Since her inception, the village began to return to normalcy. However, things were far from normal for Sasuke. He began to focus again on Itachi. He trained every day and night, with Itachi consuming his thoughts and nightmares. Orochimaru had disappeared and there was no imminent threat to the village. With no outlet for his anger, Sasuke was nearly driven to insanity. Sakura became more bothersome than ever, always worrying about him, and expressing those worries to him daily. Ino chattered incessantly every time she saw him. Naruto was a big a fool as he had been the first time they met. Sasuke became more withdrawn then ever until one day, he decided to leave.
There was nothing left in the village for him. Sasuke knew he had become powerful enough to defeat Itachi on his own. He was already the most powerful ninja in the village. His destiny was to defeat Itachi and there was nothing else left for him to do.
Sakura tried to get him to stay, but to no avail. Kakashi, the Fifth, Jiraiya, and everyone who knew about his plans tried to get him to stay with the same result. Even Naruto tried to stop him. Rivals though they were, Sasuke thought if anyone could really understand, it would have been Naruto. It turned out that no one truly understood the mindset of an avenger.
So, one night, he left.
Orochimaru's men picked him up immediately, and they agreed to accompany him on his hunt for Itachi. It appeared that Orochimaru had grown to fear the older Uchiha, and wanted him dead. It didn't matter to Sasuke either way, because he was going to kill Itachi, regardless of what the missing nin thought.
It took a while for them to get on Itachi's trail. He proved to be very resourceful, setting many deadly traps along the way. Ironically, it was those same traps that kept Sasuke on his older brother's track. But the others had fallen prey to those traps. Sasuke was disgusted by the ineptitude of Orochimaru's men. They had all died before they found Itachi, leaving Sasuke alone as he entered the clearing.
The clearing was a gap in the middle of a forest. Tall trees surrounded the area like giant spectators witnessing the fight. The leaves rustled as Sasuke stepped into the makeshift arena. A dozen birds took off from their perches with a whisper of a flutter. Sasuke looked around, but caught no sight of Itachi. But he was nobody's fool. Itachi had probably planned since the beginning to drag out the hunt as long as possible, destroying all the other shinobi and tiring Sasuke out before the fight. He must have realized that the fight was inevitable, and this place was good a place as any.
"I grow weary of this game, Itachi. Come out," Sasuke said into the forest. He knew his brother was hidden somewhere, and he was in no mood to go searching anymore. This was it.
Itachi's voice seemed to come to him from all different directions. "Say it."
I didn't know you were so playful, Itachi. Sasuke grimaced. "Ollie ollie outs-in-free," he said.
Somewhere from the trees, Itachi cackled. "Just like old times, little brother."
I'm hardly little, and this is far from the games we used to play when we were children. Sasuke closed his eyes and concentrated. When he opened them again, they were blood red, the pupils replaced by the pattern-wheel characteristic of the sharingan eye.
The curse seal on his neck started to tingle. For a long time, Sasuke had been able to resist Orochimaru's seal, but its influences became stronger over the past few days. Ignoring the sensation, he spoke aloud to his brother again.
"Enough, Itachi. Come out and fight me."
A hail of kunai flew at him from every direction. Already having anticipated such a move, however, Sasuke replaced his body with a log. Dozens of kunai impaled the piece of wood as Sasuke leaped into the air.
He hoped to catch a glance of where Itachi might be, but he knew his brother was far too smart to show himself. With few other options left, he closed his hands together to perform a seal.
Mythical Fire Flower!
Sasuke blew out several bursts of flame from his mouth at the trees surrounding him. Itachi would not be able to stand to flames and would be forced to leave his hiding place. He landed at the center of the clearing, fully expecting Itachi to leap out of the trees.
So it surprised him greatly when the attack came from the ground below him.
Itachi's hand's shot up out of the earth and grasped him around the ankles. Sasuke cursed himself for his stupidity. He tried to kick out of Itachi's grip, but his older brother was too strong. Unable to move, he could only watch as another volley of kunai and shuriken flew at him from the trees.
I couldn't even land a single blow on him, and he's defeated me already. Sasuke's hands worked quickly on a seal—any seal—that would block at least a few of the weapons, but he knew it'd be too late. The air sang as the honed pieces of metal spun toward him from a thousand angles. He watched as they all found their targets all over his body. The weapons thudded into his arms and back. One slammed into his neck, spurting hot blood over his body. A kunai pierced his eye—his precious eye! One of bigger shuriken flew and sliced through his arm, severing it at the elbow in a spray of blood and flayed muscle. Sasuke looked down with his remaining eye at his body, covered in its life juices, with more sharp objects sticking out of it than an average porcupine. Disappointment and anger welled up inside him as he fell to his knees, and he knew the pain would set in as soon as the shock wore off.
But it didn't. There was no pain. There was no burning where the metal had sliced open his skin. He looked down at his arm where it was severed, but there was no pain there either. There was nothing—nothing except the cruel, mocking laughter of his brother.
What's going on? Sasuke thought to himself. But even before his brain began to stumble around for an answer, everything before his eyes melted away. The hands that had gripped his ankles disappeared. The burning trees that surrounded him were replaced by open air, and he realized he wasn't in a clearing in a forest, but on top of a cliff. The weapons that impaled him were also gone. There were no cuts on his body. His arms were both still intact. Reaching up, he also found that both of his eyes were there as well.
Genjutsu! The young genin gasped at the realization, but a far worse question loomed in his mind. I was watching with sharingan, how could it not have picked it up?
Sasuke looked up, and saw his brother, Itachi standing there. It seemed as if he'd always been there, although Sasuke couldn't remember how he got there in the first place. In fact, Sasuke wasn't certain of how long it had been since he even left the village, or how far he had come. The backpack he'd brought with him from the village was still on his back. His fingernails were still dirty, and he was still hungry, but he couldn't remember the last time he ate. He realized that he couldn't recall when the world around him stopped being real and became an illusion that his older brother wove with his sharingan eye. In front of him, his brother chuckled softly.
"Did you really think you could kill me? Is that why you're here?" Itachi asked. The older Uchiha's voice scoured Sasuke's already confused and vulnerable mind. He could feel his older sibling's presence and gaze washed over him like an acid bath.
"I told you already—you're too weak. Your life was too easy. You've been screwing around for too long, playing kid games. I thought your hatred would give you strength enough to kill me," Itachi paused for a barest moment. "I suppose I might have even been proud if you were strong enough. But you're not. You're pathetic."
Itachi's words wreaked havoc with Sasuke's emotions. All his life, he'd been fighting to gain strength so that he could one day defeat his brother. He turned away so many people, hurt so many of them, disappointed so many of them. Kakashi sensei, Sakura, even Naruto… and now, Itachi made it sound as if Sasuke was looking for some sort of approval. Approval from the man he hated. The same man that killed his entire family—
"I'm embarrassed that my own brother could be so weak. You are a disgrace to the Uchiha bloodline, in fact…" Itachi stepped forward and picked Sasuke up by his collar. His eyes glowed red as the sharingan wheel appeared. He brought his lips to Sasuke's ear and whispered, "don't ever mention that you're of the Uchiha legacy."
The older Uchiha smirked and drove his fist into his younger brother's gut. He released his grip and watched the young boy crumple to the ground. Itachi regarded him as a wolf might regard a skinny rabbit. Without a word, he turned and walked away, down the hill.
Bile rose in Sasuke's mouth as his stomach throbbed with pain. The pain in his stomach matched the pulsing in his neck as the curse seal began to invade his body again. His hatred for his brother and his disgust at himself for wanting his approval exploded in his chest and sent hot blood coursing through his veins. The curse seal begged to be released and Sasuke did nothing to stop it. The black markings grew from the three dots on his neck and traced burning red lines all along his body. The lines seared their way up his face and toward his eyes as Sasuke's mouth curled up in a hideous sneer. His mind was devoid of any self-control or rational thought. Instead, clouds of hatred and anger and perverse delight jostled in his mind. Echoes of his brother's voice thundered faintly in the storm.
Are you an Avenger, or ain't ya?
"Who said that?" Sasuke said aloud, as the pain his neck began to increase. He felt the dark chakra pump through his veins, like so much molten lead, heavy and burning.
And burning and burning. Burning your family. He killed your family and burned your house down. So, are you an Avenger or ain't ya?
What? You're not making any sense. Sasuke answered. The curse seal had taken over most of his body now, and Sasuke could feel the deliciously seductive power waiting to be used. The energy filled up his body and poured out his nose and his mouth. It trickled out of every pore and soaked his body in its forbidden embrace. It was hot, scalding, just like the time when he was a kid and he went to the hot springs with his father to take a bath, but it was to hot so he couldn't go in, so he waited, and there was steam so he couldn't see his father, or his brother, or anyone else, it was just hot…
So, are you an Avenger or ain't ya?
His eyes began to itch and burn. Sasuke screwed his eyes shut against the pain and dumbly pawed at them.
Just open your eyes! Are you an Avenger or ain't—
I am! Sasuke shrieked silently and forced his eyes open. His eyes were blood red and the sharingan wheel was spinning furiously. Dark chakra filled every fiber of his being, every bone in his body, every muscle, every cell.
"Itachi!" Sasuke shouted at his brother.
The older Uchiha had already sensed the tremendous spike in chakra and stopped his decent from the mountaintop. He turned and stared back at his younger brother, his head tilted to one side.
Without waiting for any sort of a reply, Sasuke hurled a kunai toward Itachi and sprinted in the same direction. The curse seal dramatically improved his speed as Sasuke reached Itachi well before the kunai did. As Itachi reacted to the kunai, Sasuke appeared behind his brother. Itachi deflected the weapon but his eyes widened in shock as Sasuke drove his knee into Itachi's back. Sasuke retreated half a step and crouched low to the ground before exploding forward, tackling Itachi with his shoulder.
The impact drove Itachi several yards up the hill. Sasuke didn't wait to press his advantage. Leaping into the air, he performed a series of seals and brought his right hand to his lips and breathed out a large stream of fire, forcing Itachi further up the hill, toward the edge of the cliff.
Sasuke gasped as pain racked his entire body and every muscle screamed. He knew he couldn't let the battle carry on any longer. Concentrating, he performed a simple seal. At that moment, a half dozen kunai thudded into his body. However, Sasuke had already performed kawamiri no jutsu and replaced his body with a log.
The air was filled with the sound of a thousand birds chirping. Itachi looked around in confusion as the sound began to grow louder. Soon, his eyes settled on the source of the sound, coming from inside the inferno that his younger brother created.
Knowing that he had little time, Sasuke began concentrating chakra to his hand long before he landed. Using the flames as cover, he continued to gather chakra and started charging toward his enemy. Aided by the curse seal and the chakra boost that it provided, Sasuke's left hand soon began to crackle with energy. Holding his hand by his side, he increased his attack speed and burst out of the fire.
Sasuke sped toward his nemesis, relishing the look of shock on his face. Much like a devil out hell, the ends of his clothing were smoldering from the fire and a cloud of smoke marked his trail. In a blur of smoke, fire, and lightning, Sasuke closed the distance between him and Itachi more quickly than anyone imagined possible.
Still moving impossibly fast, Sasuke drove his left hand into Itachi's stomach and a pained grunt and the warm sticky liquid pouring over his arm let him know that he had struck his mark, not a mere clone. Wrapping his right arm around his older brother in a hideous parody of hug, he continued to the charge, right to the edge of the cliff, all the way grinning crazily at his brother. The momentum of the charge drove both Uchiha's off the edge.
It wasn't long before the curse seal took its toll and every muscle in Sasuke's body clenched up. He let out a grunt through gritted teeth. This is it, he thought. There's nothing I can do to save myself even if I wanted to. At least I'm taking Itachi with me. He glared up at his brother's face, wanting to see defeat and fear in his eyes. But only a mask of odd calm stared back at him. Sasuke thought that to be strange, but by then, there was not enough left of his rational mind to even consider an answer.
Soon thereafter, there was no thought at all.