Disclaimer: Kishimoto Masashi. Hasn't changed.

So I decided to continue. Thanks to my reviewers and their support of angst. And thanks to Wikipedia for refreshing my very fuzzy memory on Akatsuki...

...and I also took some liberty with Akatsuki, becuase a few of the members have yet to be introduced.

Plus, squinting is no longer necessary. :P

Vengeance

In Akatsuki, there were only two things that mattered: Power and loyalty. Sasuke had never understood why Itachi, who had hated most of all to be held back, had kept loyalty to an organization that demanded he jump at their call.

One became a member of Akastuki automatically if one defeated – that means killed – another member. It was simple, but difficult enough that the members were fairly stable.

After killing Itachi, Sasuke didn't run straight to the Akatsuki headquarters (he hadn't been tailing Itachi for this long not to know at least that). No, that would have been a desperate act. Sasuke knew that they would find Itachi's body, then come to him.

Sasuke had nothing that he would call 'home' or a 'hideout' – or even a 'lair' – but he had places that he had secured for himself. People who owed him favours and areas that no one else would dare touch.

As Sasuke watched the sun sink into the horizon, he began to feel his wounds. What had seemed minor in the heat of the moment bled his strength from him in the red sunset. He needed to rest.

xxxxx

After binding his injuries, Sasuke fell asleep immediately. He woke up with his fingers of one hand clenched around the neck of his attacker and and a kunai pointed at his opponent's gut. His eyes were still closed.

"Cute."

Sasuke was now gripping a wooden stick. "Fuck you."

A feminine giggle. "Just seeing how you're feeling in bright and early in the morning. You seem to have aquired some new accessories." A tattered Akatsuki robe was dangled above his nose, and the ring he had thought was on his finger dropped into his chest.

"Just remember this, Sasuke-kun," a voice whispered into his ear, lips just barely brushing the edges. "Itacchan was by no means the strongest among us."

Sasuke's face burned in the humiliation of hearing his brother referred to in such a derogatory manner. "I don't remember allowing you to address me that way."

"Don't like Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke's arm lashed in the direction of the voice. He felt fabric rip through his fingers and then a flash of darkness escaped his tiny shelter. With a slight wince, he raised himself to his knees. "You will address me as Itachi only."

Another laugh. "Even cuter, Itacchan..." The voice faded into the distance.

xxxxx

Sasuke spent the next few days recovering. He mended the cloak, though there were still blood stains. He spent very little time sleeping, though he knew that it would have done him some good. Blood poured down the inside of his closed lids and he didn't want to see it. When he fell into a fitful rest he would wake up clawing at his neck, as if prying away fingers that strangled him. At least when he woke up he would forget dreams that seemed more like waking hallucinations.

xxxxx

Fingers splayed on his chest were slick with blood and sweat. His head was tilted back and he couldn't see the face attatched to the hands. He didn't need too.

"You know, Sasuke..." A rare smile – "Rather, Itachi... this is what they mean by becoming one."

Wet heat fell on his neck, sliding up to his ear. The breath of air made him shiver. "You're me now. You have just what you want."

"You... never understood what I wanted."

"I know everything now. I am you. Because you want it so badly you can't stand it."

xxxxx

Sasuke woke with an arousal burning his cheeks and the ring on his left finger burning his skin. He tried to pull it off but it seemed to be melded to his skin. He pushed off his covers and lay there for a while, waiting for his body to cool down. He felt like his flesh had been slowly melting on his bones.

His fingers dragged across his neck, as if reminded of a touch there. He closed his eyes and tried to remember but nothing came to him.

Shaking his head as if to rid the scraps of memory, Sasuke rose to don his cloak and leave his shelter. It was time to stop hiding; now was the time to make his move.

If someone were to ask him what it was that he wanted from Akatsuki, Sasuke would not be able to answer, even if he had wanted to. Their goals seemed to revolve around aquiring power purely for the sake of power, something that he had never understood. But taking Itachi's place filled a gaping hole that wouldn't be filled with anything that he had ever known.

For so long, Sasuke had been doing want he wanted. He was tired. He needed someone to tell him what to do. He needed something. Anything. When life and death and everything else made him sick, all he could do was try to erase himself from his own mind.

It was then that Uchiha Itachi joined Akatsuki.