Man, Naruto chapters never come out fast enough. I'm hardly in a position to complain, though, seeing as I've been dragging this fic out for months.
Naruto is the property of Masashi Kishimoto, as usual.
Vengeance
If Akatsuki had not chosen that moment to launch their attack on Konoha, maybe things wouldn't have worked out as they did. Maybe.
Akatsuki was sick of waiting. Itachi and then Sasuke's repeated failures in attempting to kill Naruto and harness the power of the Kyuubi had strained the leader's patience. He would attack Konoha and capture the Kyuubi in one movement. After waiting what he deemed a sufficient amount of time for Sasuke to recover from the injuries he incurred in his fight with Naruto, they launched their offensive in full force.
"Hokage! Hokage, the village is under attack!" The messenger's frenzied knocking broke Naruto away from Sasuke to walk briskly towards the door.
"Who?" Naruto demanded.
"They're wearing black and red robes and demand the surrender of the Hokage if the village is to be spared!"
In that moment Sasuke broke out of his trance. Naruto slid open the grate to leave and, distracted, didn't form the barrier seal that prevented escape while the door was open upon his exit.
That moment of distraction was all Sasuke needed. Inhuman speed plunged him past Naruto to tackle the messenger on the other side of the door. Naruto reacted a moment too slowly, and Sasuke held the head of the messenger at just the angle to break his neck. The Hokage froze.
"Hmph." Sasuke smirked. "So a messenger is worth more to you than your village?" Naruto grit his teeth. Sasuke broke the messenger's neck and ran.
Weeks of invalidity and a lack of weapons put Sasuke in no shape to fight Naruto. Plus, he just wasn't in the mood.
"Coward!" Naruto gave chase, but he had never been able to match Sasuke's speed. Naruto threw a handful of kunai in sequence, but they all missed their target and thudded into the plaster walls. It wasn't long before Naruto fell from view.
Barefoot and with his weakened body not used to running, Sasuke darted through corridors in an irregular pattern, fingers webbing genjutsu seals to conceal his passage.
Hospital hallways gave way to a reception area, now empty. Sasuke could hear yells and the sound of burning wood outside, and burst through the front doors. Bright light shone into his unaccustomed eyes, blinding him as he ran. Shifting into Sharingan, the blurry forms before him solidified to reveal buildings on fire, bodies on the ground, and arrows in flight. He needed to keep moving, and most of all – he needed a weapon.
A lone figure in white, pale, ghostlike, Sasuke darted toward the fringes of the battle and grasped a sword impaling a young woman as he passed. The confusion of battle disguised him as well as any genjutsu. Dodging blows and steel, Sasuke made for a line of trees not too far in the distance.
In an instant that Sasuke didn't even register, Sasuke was grabbed by his wrist, swung around by his own momentum and flung headlong into the ground.
"It's been a while, hasn't it, Itacchan?" Sasuke's breath choked. The voice behind him lowered to breathe in his ear. "Or have we forgotten?"
Sasuke cried out as the ring on his left finger burned all the way up his arm to his chest. The pain drove him senseless, like a brand applied directly to his brain. "Is this the resolve of the Uchiha? While we have been planning, Itacchan has been playing." Sasuke was dropped to the ground, sweating and gasping, curled in on himself. When the worst subsided, he opened his eyes to see his assailant.
A woman stood before him, eyes slitted and wrapped in the red-clouded cloak of Akatsuki. Without her introducing herself he knew who she was.
"You disappoint me. And you were showing such promise." The pressure of her chakra beat down on Sasuke, a cold wind that made him shiver uncontrollably. "If you can't remember on your own, then I'll have to make you."
Sasuke didn't even hear the last words that come out of her mouth. He was too busy screaming. He felt like a thousand wasps were pushing on the inside of his skull, forcing it open. Broken open, a foreign and yet familiar entity was entering his body, sinking into his skin and locking itself to him with his ring.
I'll never die. I am alive. I'll possess you forever. I own you. I am you. You are me. Sasuke didn't have the willpower to resist. That's it. You want me here. You know I'm superior to you. I can make you do the things you were never strong enough to do. I can cut off the ties that you could not. I've done it before. Yes, yes he had. He'd cut off all his ties. Every bond.
Did you ever wonder why I did it? No, of course you would never do that. You only see the action. Your vengeance has always been a simple knee-jerk reaction to pain, nothing more.
Akatsuki will change the world. You're so self-absorbed that you never think of these things. Akatsuki thinks of the global picture. A nation united – no more warring between the villages, a united government. No more lines. Something to surpass everything. Those who surpass must break the chains that bind them. You understand that much, at least.
You know what needs to be done. I'm giving you my strength, Sasuke. You shall be the one to guide Konoha into the new era in my place. The night is over; now begins the dawn.
A puppet jerked by strings tied by his own fingers, Sasuke was rattled to his feet. Kneeling to pick up the sword, Sasuke turned away from the forest and back to the chaos in Konohagakure.
"Feeling better, Itacchan?"
"I thought I told you not to call me by that demeaning pet name. My name is Itachi." His eyes flashed red.
"You'll need this." The woman produced a red-and-black Akatsuki cloak and held it out for him to take. "Your old one was getting rather ratty."
Sasuke took it and donned it over his white hospital clothes, fastening it around his neck, a black shadow concealing only a ghost within.