Sasuke.

I stopped. I lowered my head and closed my eyes. Sasuke? I turned and saw Kisame looking at me with interest and amusement, but he did not ask. I don't stop like that without reason. He knows that if it's important to the both of us, I would share it, but he would not ask. He's afraid of me, as most are. I'm not very old though, I'm not even 20 yet. But I feel so old, so weary. I closed my eyes and turned back, took a step forward before I opened them again, keeping at the course we were taking.

I kept on walking, with Kisame following not far behind. Why did I suddenly think of you Sasuke? I recall nothing that I did recently that would remind me of you.1

Sasuke. My mind whispered to me again. I took a breath and slowly blinked several times, not pausing, not showing anything. I think Kisame knows though, he has become quite accustomed to my ways.

I pressed on for a while, not that we were in any hurry, we were actually going back to report, it's just that it is not our custom to stop so soon. When we finally stopped at a small clearing beside a stream to rest, I took care to carefully conceal my actions while I stood facing the direction where the Konoha is. It may look like I was merely observing the surroundings. But really, I was, against my will, thinking of you. Sasuke, my little brother.

What troubled me was the unrelated and sudden thought of you. Had something happened to you? Are you hurt? I frowned in annoyance and felt my eyes narrow. My blood-red eyes. The eyes that I share with you, among many other things. We are brothers, through and through. We're so alike in everything, our appearances, manners of speech and action. So alike are we that I became afraid, terrified, that you might fall into the same trap I had. Consumed by the same darkness.

I don't hate you Sasuke, you'll always be my little brother. That's why I had to kill them, our parents. To free you. You won't understand until much later, but for now, little brother, hate me like I told you so.

Please, Sasuke, be alright. I hope you're not hurt. Sasuke, are you thinking of me? Is that why I thought of you? Did you, somehow, send your thoughts of me across a brotherly bond that we shared and therefore causing me to think of you?2 I laughed at that, in my mind. My eyes softened in amusement. I bet you'd never think of me as such a romantic Sasuke. You would never willingly believe that your cruel cruel elder brother have the nerves to think of you so tenderly would you?

I miss you, little brother. This sudden remembrance of you worries me. I had spoken to Kisame and he had agreed this one request of mine. He was to report back to the Akatsuki alone while I go back to the Konoha to see you. Despite of what you may have believed of me, I still care very much for you. I had to force myself to neglect you when we were still together. I must apologize if you still feel bad about that. I don't know what spurred me into this. It is extremely unlike me, but I feel that I must, patch up what's left of our little 'relationship'. Wait for me Sasuke. I will come for you, my beloved little brother.

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Notes

1 Lalala. My sister pointed this out when she read it. Your time frame's odd. When was this happening. Well, since this was written a bit after Orochimaru attacked Konoha, and Itachi visited, she thought it's that time frame. So the no reminding thing doesn't work out. But this is written as a sequel to the first chapter, which was intended as a stand-alone thingie. So nothing really works out here. Please think of this as a 'time-less' piece and don't ask. I don't wanna think.

2 LOL. This was inspired when discussing our AN 2004 cosplay skit. We were talking about making Itachi like Ayame from Fruits Basket. It was simply too good to let go.

Hm. This piece is drastically different from the Sasuke one. To me at least. It was very soft spoken but the topics moved quite quickly from paragraph to paragraph. Covering a whole bunch of topics in a short amount of time. And if I write any more in my notes, I'll rival my story. ;;