Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or its characters... though i wish i did.
Once, before Itachi and Sasuke and even Kakashi, there was a man named Uchiha Manabu. Once he wanted to become a shinobi, once he had dreams to be the best of the Uchiha and of Konohagakure. He trained hard and only a few years into the academy, at the top of his class, he fell from a tree. As the ground came to meet him, thoughts of how to fall properly flew from his mind and no adrenaline rush took over his body, only pain shooting through his limbs and a terrible all consuming knowledge that he wouldn't dust himself off.
They told him he was crippled and would never be able to be a shinobi. He immediately struggled to get up and walk but ended up only making it worse.
They told him he was lucky to be alive and he laughed. To an Uchiha, a crippled existence is not lucky. But Manabu took whatever luck he had and continued to train though neither the Hokage nor the clan needed a cripple. He threw shuriken and kunai while he was confined to his wheelchair and when the physical therapy was done, he tried to remember what it had felt like before one of his legs became permanently shorter and weaker than the other and wondered what might have happened if the crack in his spinal cord could have been fixed without killing him.
But it was only a dream and he soon turned to the only area that hadn't been affected by his fall. Chakra control. Within the year he completely mastered the sharingan. Then an idea began to bloom in his mind and he worked until his chakra reserves grew to the size of mid level chuunin. Determined to be of use to the Uchiha clan that had sheltered him even though he was useless, he left Konohagakure.
He began to travel, sailed to the land of water, walked the rice fields and braved the deserts but always staying near the hidden villages. No one ever looked at a crippled young man save with pity and no shinobi noticed anyone carrying no weapons. And so no one noticed how whenever a shinobi battle took place, he would always be hobbling towards the fight, while everyone else took flight. And nobody noticed how his eyes, always shadowed by dark bangs hanging over his face would flash red throughout the course of the battle, watching the opponents with a strange intensity.
Years later he returns home to Konoha and to the Uchiha clan. He becomes a scholar and begins to transcribe all the jutsus he has stolen with his sharingan eyes. There are thousands and it takes him months to finish. But when he does, unlike the majority of Uchiha shinobi, he lets the entire clan look through his scrolls. Lets them copy all of his hard work with only a red flicker of their eyes. Soon it is accepted that Manabu has collected the most jutsus in the history of the sharingan and for a time, he is revered. When he finally dies, he will die of old age, sleeping peacefully in his own bed and content in the knowledge that he will forever be remembered as the man who copied 10 000 jutsus.
Only he won't be remembered because Hatake Kakashi becomes a thief among thieves with his gift of a sharingan eye. He is called the 'copy ninja Kakashi', the shinobi who copied 1 000 jutsus. And no one seems to remember that there is an entire clan with the capacity and ability to do the same. The Uchihas fade beneath Kakashi's fame and Uchiha Manabu, the true copy nin, will fade into a distant memory and a name on a scroll.
Kakashi stole the birthright of the clan, but they still have their lives and so, their futures.
A little girl with blond hair plays on the ground, mixing dirt with water. She soon becomes covered in mud and when her mother glances up to see the new outfit splattered in mud, she gives her daughter a look. The little girl smiles, a gap where her front teeth have fallen out and hurries into the house ahead of the scolding that is sure to come… Itachi, her cousin follows hours later. Under the cover of dark, he slips through the back door. Silent like the ghost under the bed from her nightmares. He picks up a pillow beside her curled form and gently smothers her. She hardly struggles and she is once of the few who are not splattered with their own blood when their hearts finally stop beating and their chests' cease to rise.
There is a boy whose parents wish him to be a shinobi. He practices with his shuriken every day and is average with his taijutsu but he is an Uchiha. Uchiha are not average. His father yells at him to try harder and he does. He tries until he can no longer lift his hand without shots of pain running its length and his father's face has turned sour at his weakness. His mother stands in the corner and desperately hopes when her son becomes genin he won't die… Itachi finds him crying in the corner. He doesn't look up as Itachi approaches and if Itachi were a less indifferent man he might feel he was doing him a favour as he slits his throat and blood spills out.
A woman repairs her son's torn clothing, straining to see in the dim light of dusk. He has just become a chuunin and she wants to makes this night special. As she pulls the needle in and out of the fabric, she wonders how long it will be before he makes jounin and makes the clan proud like his late father before him. She decides that she will buy him another set of shuriken tomorrow… she notices Itachi before he kills her. He has crept into her bedroom and walks slowly towards her even as she stirs. She is not a ninja so her thoughts are muddled when she wakes to see him looming over her. She starts to speak but before the first word leaves her mouth, kunai and shuriken have peppered her body and she can feel her life bleeding out of her.
Itachi stole their lives and their futures but they have Sasuke and they have their honour.
Sasuke rarely thinks of the Uchiha clan as it was. To him, his family will forever be symbolised by a dark night of blood and terror. Never does he think of the proud clan that it was before the fall. Never does he remember the proud red and white fan of his ancestors that he has ceased to wear on his back. He never remembers the envious smiles of the villagers and shinobi that were bestowed on the members of his clan, and even if he did, they would always be mistaken for the half admiring, half piteous ones he got after the massacre.
It's not entirely his fault; he was a small child when it happened though his childhood ended there. Before the massacre his world consisted of Itachi, then his mother and father. Occasionally the clouds of his world would part to let in various relatives but for the most part it was unchanging and he liked it that way.
Sasuke has never looked at any scrolls other than jutsu scrolls after the massacre. He believes that there is nothing that will help him on his path as an avenger inside them. This is why the tale of Uchiha Shouta is nothing more than a faded memory of a time when his mother held him tight within her arms and told him bedtime stories.
In a time long before Konohagakure was even a thought in the shodaime hokage's head, the Uchiha were slaves to the Hyuuga. There was no cursed branch family, only the prestigious Hyuugas and their lesser cousins, the Uchihas. In this time there was also a man named Uchiha Shouta.
Angry at the fate if his red-eyed kin, he fought for years and years. Fought for the dream of freedom until he could taste its sweet flavour on the tip of his tongue. Then one night under the cold dark of the moon, he fought no more for it was not needed. After many deaths in their clan and bloody uprisings, the Hyuugas realised Shouta would lead both clans to extinction if they didn't free the Uchihas. The newly formed Uchiha clan left that very night and as their former home faded in the distance, Shouta, now head of the clan, made a vow. He vowed that never again would any Uchiha bow to anyone.
Sasuke knows none of this. Uchiha Shouta is only a name he has long forgotten. He knows nearly every katon jutsu any Uchiha has ever used but does not understand the fiery passion behind it. Because he doesn't understand his own dead clan he will never know that the founder of the true Uchiha clan would hate him more than Itachi for what he has done. He doesn't comprehend exactly what he has squandered by agreeing to be Orochimaru's container. He will only think of killing Itachi, of avenging a family he doesn't remember and never of the honourable clan the Uchiha once was. He will think he is doing what the clan would have wanted but for every second before Sasuke's shell of a body withers under Orochimaru's use, every Uchiha spirit will be writhing in pain because the clan will never know redemption.
Sasuke stole their honour and Sasuke lost their honour but they have a memory. A memory of a time when all was good. A memory of happiness, pain and sorrow. A memory of life. But that is all they have. A memory, drifting in the wind.