Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Title: Of Master and Brother
Category: Naruto
Rating: T/PG-13
Genres: Drama/General/Shonen-ai
Summary: After the Uchiha massacre, 7-year-old Sasuke is adopted by the Hyuga clan to become Hyuga Neji's slave. 8 years later, Itachi saunters back in Kanoha to claim what's his, and complications arise.
--01--
He was being held by someone he thought he knew, that someone was comforting him, whispering the words, "It's all right. Everything's all right now, Sasuke, it's over."
Sasuke's mind thought the contrary. He smelled blood on the other's clothing. His suspicions were confirmed a moment later when the person stepped back, there were dark crimson stains splattered everywhere.
"…You…you…" His lips hardly seemed to obey him, "You killed them."
"I did. But it's all right now." The stranger Sasuke once knew as his older brother smiled, "They're all gone. I'll look after you though. Come."
Sasuke took a tentative step backward. Itachi had waked him up only a few minutes earlier because their house was burning. Vaguely wondering why it wasn't his mother or father who woke him, the boy had followed his brother outside, only to find all of them dead.
No, not dead. Murdered, with kunais and needles mangling their corpses. Looking back at the black pile of ash, Sasuke could still see his mother's blood soaked hair and his father's fractured tendons.
Murder.
It was a terrible word. Worse than curses would ever be. Itachi had taught him his first curse words when their parents were out on missions. But Itachi had never taught him the word murder. Itachi had even forbidden him to say the word 'kill'. "It's not a cool word, what the hell are you talking about?" was his excuse.
What the hell are you talking about? Was the one question Sasuke wanted to spit at his brother. Uchiha Itachi, the heir of the Uchiha clan turned killer. But he seemed to have lost his voice somehow. All that came out of his mouth was ragged breathing.
"Come, Sasuke. You mustn't dawdle." Itachi said, this time a trifle sharper, "Or I'll leave you behind. Come on."
Sasuke was seven, Itachi was five years older than him, which meant his brother was twelve. He had some doubts about the older Uchiha's ability, as far as his capabilities for long term babysitting were concerned at this young age. But then, wasn't murder a very adult thing too?
"Come, Sasuke." Itachi repeated, a third time, grabbing a hold of his arm, trying to drag him away, "We have to go now."
In a split-second decision, Sasuke wrenched free, the smell of blood made him want to vomit. He stared at the five jagged crescent fingernail marks tinted with red, that Itachi had left in his skin for a long minute, and then finally shook his head. "I'm not going anywhere with you, aniki."
Itachi's smile at once turned to ice. "…Suit yourself." Taking three broad steps toward Sasuke, Itachi closed what distance that remained between them and kissed the younger one on the forehead. "I'll miss you, little brother."
"…Don't lie." Sasuke managed to say; he didn't quite manage to spit.
"You hurt my feelings." And in truth, under that stoic, bloody mask, some part of Itachi that still was human did sound hurt, "I'll really miss you, Sasuke. I like having you around."
"I said don't lie!" Sasuke's hand shot out toward his brother's face, squeezing his eyes shut. He thought he heard a gasp of both surprise and pain.
Itachi had a fresh, serrated scratch on his left cheek, about three inches long. "I will miss you." He was suddenly cold, "I could have left you to rot in there, with the rest of them. But I didn't, I didn't need to. Your own stubbornness will one day kill you. There is nothing left for you here."
Sasuke said nothing. There was nothing else he could think of to say. Until words left his mouth of their own accord, "I'm sorry, aniki."
"You should be. But I'll come back soon, just in case you change your mind." Turning, Itachi left him.
By this time, a crowd had gathered. The Hokage was there, also with a bunch of other people that Sasuke did not know.
A hand was on his shoulder. Sasuke thought it was the Hokage's hand, the skin was all old and wrinkly. He did not respond.
"Kakashi."
Sasuke heard footsteps, "Yes, Hokage-sama?"
"Go after him. Bring him back."
"No!" Again, Sasuke surprised himself by speaking out of turn, "Let aniki go."
Complete silence. Then murmurs all around him, that sounded suspiciously like, "Poor kid." And "Insolent brat." And "Does he even know what he's talking about?"
Another voice. A female's. "I found no one. Hokage-sama, they're all gone. All of them."
Sasuke felt a lump form in his throat, but he gathered up the remainder of his courage and stood. His full height came up to the Hokage's chest, "Let aniki go. Please, Hokage-sama."
The murmurs started anew, accompanied by a roaring in his ears, so that he could not decipher what they were saying.
The old man looked down at him, with expression that plainly showed both disbelief and pity, and, hidden much deeper within, maybe a little bit of respect? "All right." He said after a tense spell had passed, "We'll do as you say, Sasuke."
All at once, protests, as well as insults started flying everywhere. "Hokage-sama, he's a murderer!" "Please reconsider!" "The boy has just gone through a traumatic ordeal, he is in no state to make such decisions!" "Stupid kid! Do you even know who you're letting escape?"
The Hokage held up a hand, "Silence." To Sasuke, he said, not unkindly, "You have just gone through an utmost tragic experience, that I will not deny. But the fact still remains that Uchiha Itachi has just murdered his whole clan. Why are you so insistent on letting him go?"
"Because he has killed my family. He has murdered them. My brother has killed my parents. I want to be the one to kill him. I'm not strong enough yet. But I will be. When he comes back, I'll kill him."
The Hokage reflected no emotion whatsoever following his declaration. A good many of the onlookers flinched, however.
"What makes you think he'll come back?" the Hokage asked.
"He told me so."
For once, the crowd was only stone statues with expressions of doubt carved into their faces. The whole place was so still you could even hear the faint cackling of the fire behind them.
"He told you so?"
"Yes, Hokage-sama."
"Well, all right then," the Hokage's tone was suddenly brisk, shattering almost, if not all the tension that shrouded them. "If he said so, I suppose we have no choice but to take his words for it."
There was a collective gasp.
"Still, there remains a problem of your immediate future, Sasuke." The Hokage cast a rather weary glance at the crowd, then turned to gaze at the crimson embers behind him.
All of the glory that he had felt but a few seconds earlier diminished. Everyone seemed like giants, or hungry wolves waiting to swallow him up.
"We'll take him."
A ripple of heads turned toward the speaker, then the human throng parted to show two men with white-gray eyes.
Sasuke involuntarily stepped behind the Hokage. He didn't know who they were, as far as names went, but he knew who they were.
They were Hyugas.
Taking a closer look, Sasuke realized that he knew one of them. One of them was Hyuga Hiashi, the head of the Main House. Sasuke had never met him personally, though Hiashi's reputation did more than enough for him.
By reputation, Hyuga Hiashi was a coldhearted, unreasonable, obnoxious, and so on, individual who treated his whole clan like slaves. Sasuke knew he also had a daughter by the name of Hinata, who was about the same age as he was. Itachi used to joke about how it was a wonder that Hiashi managed to reproduce and he pitied Hiashi's wife, whoever she was.
The Uchiha was one of the smallest clans in Kanoha, but because of Itachi, and his father, they were respected and very few had the guts to challenge them. But now…
Young as he was, Sasuke knew what Hyuga Hiashi was thinking. He used to think like that too, in games that he played with the other boys of the village. Now the Uchiha was ripe for taking.
"Hiashi-san." The Hokage's tone was guarded. "You'll take him?"
"Yes, Hokage-sama, we'll take him." Hiashi nodded.
Sasuke had no choice. The Hokage prodded him forward, "Go on, Sasuke."
E3E3E3
The Hyuga complex resembled a castle fit for an emperor. As Itachi once put it, it made their cottages "look like bastard shitholes."
Seeing it up close, Sasuke was inclined to agree.
There were two guards, each still miraculously alert, even at this time of the night.
Hiashi addressed both, not by name, but by a mere nod, "You." He said to the one on the right, "Take the boy to the Branch quarters. This boy is his now. Tell him not to complain."
"Yes, sir."
Sasuke's misgivings reached their height when the guard grabbed him by the arm and towed him off into the darkness.
Half of the village heard him, well, maybe more than that. A declaration made by a seven-year-old midget, that he was going to kill Uchiha Itachi. But now Sasuke vaguely wondered if it had been wiser to escape to wherever Itachi was with him.
They approached a building secured by three more guards, all of them women. "Wake him." The guard holding his arms said tonelessly.
"But it's so late, he's sleeping--"
"Hiashi-sama's orders." The male guard cut in abruptly, "Wake him."
"Yes." Reluctantly, one of them retreated inside the building.
Returning a moment later, the female guard was followed by a nine-year-boy in a sleeping tunic, but he looked wide-awake, in contrast to what the guards had initially informed him and the guard that Hiashi had sent.
Sasuke looked at the other boy and realized he knew him too.
Hyuga Neji.
The guard shoved him, so that Sasuke, caught on his unawares fell facedown. To Neji, he said, "Hiashi-sama says he is to be yours. You are not to complain."
Their eyes met, Neji simply nodded. "Come with me, Uchiha Sasuke."
Sasuke got his feet, and followed Neji inside.
E3E3E3
They were barely acquaintances. Both knew on an unconscious level, the strain between their clans, what was expected of them, that one would one day dominate, if not destroy the other. So besides the speculative alliances during games, because they were the two strongest ones, there was little else.
Now, suddenly going from that to being in the same room together, well, it was a bit overwhelming. At least in Sasuke's point of view, on top of the massacre and Itachi running off.
"Hiashi-oji sure knows how to bullshit." Neji spoke finally. "I wonder what means he used to get you in here."
Sasuke blinked, "What?"
Neji smirked, "You do realize, what my uncle wanted you to become, Uchiha. Not that I'm complaining, of course."
This boy is to be his now.
"Uncle complains that I complain too much." Neji watched him carefully. "I suppose this is his way to make me mind him."
"I don't understand what you're talking about." Sasuke said tersely, "If you want to say something, just say it to me straight."
Neji led him into the next room, where there was a bed, and a mat on the ground, most presumably the bedroom. "They wouldn't let me, but I wanted to go tonight." There was remorse, and perhaps something else, "I'm sorry."
"If you are sorry, you should answer me."
Neji was a few inches taller than he was. The Hyuga stood, and smirked. Sasuke knew that smirk well; Neji always smirked like that when he was about to win. A smirk of triumph. "I pity you, so I'll let it go, just this once. But normally, Uchiha, masters don't obey their slaves. That's precisely what I am, and precisely what you are."
This boy is to be yours now; you're not to complain.
In a matter of a half an hour, or something like that, Uchiha Sasuke had gone from a respected member of a powerful clan, to a traitor and an orphan, and then, to a slave. Sasuke almost laughed. "You lie."
"I don't lie." Neji said curtly and got into bed. "You can sleep on the mat."
"No."
"You can just stand there then."
Sasuke did, until he heard Neji's breathing deepen. Then he sank to his knees, leaned against one of the wooden bedposts, and drifted off into an uneasy sleep.