Hey! I'm back, with the new chapter! XD LETS ALL CHEER!

All: crickets chirp

...oh fine whatever. I'll get on with the fic...

Disclaimer: I no own, you no sue.

Oh yeah, and for anyone who didn't pick it up last chapter, Robin is the reincarnation of Sasuke. Sorry for all you Naruto fans...U.

I changed the symbols a bit here, so pay attention. I'm still searching for the perfect symbols, so I might do this often. SORRY!

'thoughts'

"speech"

/Japanese/ -when everyone around them are speaking English, if it's a flashback from Konoha, I'll use quotes.

:::: -flashback beginning or end

RESURFACING-SPRING RAIN

Itachi/Slade's POV

It had happened 14 years ago. He had heard about it from within the Akatsuki on a fine spring morning only within hours after it happened. The ninjas were all talking excitedly; they couldn't believe their ears...

Uchiha Sasuke had died during an A ranked mission.

It had made him stop in his tracks. 'No fucking way...' It was a rare event indeed that made him curse like that, even though it was only in his mind, but this fit the bill. 'Sasuke...dead?' He didn't dare to believe it. A little voice in his mind told him that it was indeed the truth, but he squashed the voice instantly. He had to see for himself. Making up his mind quickly, he teleported out of the Akatsuki hideout and head for Konoha.

'Sasuke...foolish otouto...'

An eight year old Sasuke looked up at his brother with wide innocent eyes. "Aniki, teach me to throw shuriken, just like you!"

Itachi looked at Sasuke and he couldn't help but smile a little. He wished with all his heart that he could stay and practice with him, but there was an important mission today. He knew he couldn't skip, he had his duty to do. Once again, he cursed the clan for forcing him to be an Anbu captain. With practiced ease, he poked Sasuke's forehead. "Tomorrow, Sasuke, I'm busy today."

Sasuke frowned and rubbed his forehead where he had been poked. "Promise?"

He avoided the guards on the gates easily, being the skilled ninja that he was. However, before he moved on, he noticed a depressed air about them. 'This isn't a good sign...' Dread was beginning to build in him, he felt uneasy. Without looking back, he sped towards the Hokage's tower.

:: "Yes, otouto, I promise."::

He reached the tower in no time. There were Anbu guards stationed at the entrance. He appeared behind them and knocked them out effortlessly. Same to the other guards in the tower, though one had the misfortune to get knocked out permanently when he had attempted to attack him from behind. 'They really don't make Anbus like they used to...' He pushed that thought out of his mind. This was not the time to be thinking of such trivial things like that...he had to find out...

He pushed open the doors to the Hokage's office. The sight that greeted him did nothing to calm his nerves. His spirits dropped somewhere around his stomach. At that moment, he lost all hope.

Sixteen people were in the room. He knew of all of them from the Akatsuki intelligence files, and also from his own information gathering visits. Only some of them glanced at him when he opened the doors. None of them seemed surprised, only more depressed somehow.

Tsunade was sitting silently at her desk, head in hands. She had only looked at him briefly before resuming her position. She didn't seem surprised to see him at all. Bad signs.

Sakura, one of Sasuke's teammates, he remembered. She had been sobbing and shaking badly when he had opened the door. She looked up at him and began to cry hysterically. Another girl, Ino, was trying to comfort her. She too was sobbing quietly, though not as bad as the other girl had been.

A group of four was standing off to a side. The Hyuuga boy, Neji was staring blanking at a wall. He didn't look up at him at all. Tenten was leaning up against the wall, tears streaming silently down her cheeks. She looked at him, then quickly turned her head to the side. Rock Lee and Gai were currently reduced to blubber and were bawling and hugging each other. He didn't expect them to notice him, and they didn't.

Chouji was sitting in a chair and looking depressed. He wasn't eating. That was a sign that something was seriously wrong. He didn't acknowledge him.

Hinata was sobbing. She was facing away from him but he could see her back shake with her sobs. Kiba was patting her back. His dog, Akumaru, was howling mournfully. Shino kept his face as emotionless as he could, but the bugs crawling on him showed his depression. He was depressed enough to have lost partial control of them.

Shikamaru was standing against a wall. His lips were curled in a grim smile, the kind a convict smiled right after their sentence was named. He was looking up at the ceiling. You could tell that he had been crying. He glanced at him for a while when he came in. Then he started to chuckle softly, hollowly, without any mirth at all. "Damn you Uchiha..." he muttered.

Kakashi seemed dead to the world. Tears streamed from empty eyes, eyes that had no life behind them. He was standing near the middle of the room, oblivious to everything around him. Kurenai and Asuma were standing next to him. They were trying desperately to get Kakashi out of his trance. He could tell that they were sad also, even though they tried to hide it.

Last was Naruto, the Kyuubi's container. He was perhaps in the worst shape out of them all. He was sitting by the window, hands hugging his knees. He kept on rocking back and forth; is eyes were wide and bloodshot, he had been crying, and lifeless; just like Kakashi's. He was just muttering over and over again "This is a dream, just a dream, I know it is, it HAS to be, tomorrow will be normal, he'll be there again, he'll call me a dobe, just like usual, why did he do it, WHY?! This is a dream, I know it is..." and so on and so forth. Upon hearing that, his worst suspicions were confirmed. Nevertheless, he had to ask...

"Is it true?"

The voice sounded so foreign to him, it was so weak and it sounded hoarse, but it suited his emotions.

Tsunade looked up. She had been crying also. "Yes."

That one word confirmed it. He fled the room and dashed out of the tower. 'dead Dead DEAD...'

He had been trying to avoid it for years, more than half a decade, that simple confession his soul yearned to make...

:: "Promise?"::

It was raining. He realized vaguely that he had stopped moving in the middle of a sakura tree garden. The beautiful cherry trees surrounded him on all sides. Suddenly, he recognized his whereabouts.

The Uchiha clan's sakura tree garden.

::"Yes, otouto, I promise."::

For the first time in a long time, tears fell from his eyes and mingled with the rain pouring around him. Too late. He had always wanted to confess, but it was too late...

"Otouto...I love you. I'm so sorry...."

::He never carried out that promise.::

tbc.......

Well this chapter was sorta angsty, you can view the relationship between Itachi and Sasuke either as brotherly love or intimate love. Whatever suits you best.

How did you like it? REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW and tell me what you think. Did it make sense? It would help if you gave me some more ideas. Never can have enough ideas I think.

And VOTE FOR PAIRINGS!!!! I've narrowed it down to 2 possible ones, but you can suggest other pairings and I'll think about it.

Robin (sasuke)/Slade (Itachi)-1 vote for this.

Robin (sasuke)/Raven- 1 vote for this.

Other- 0 votes

Authors eat reviews, don't let us starve! Review! XD