Author's Note: New chapter... obviously. This one begins to set up the major events of the story, so it's extremely important. Please, read and review. Enjoy.
Chapter 4
Sasuke groaned and rubbed the back of his head. After eight years, Itachi still hit as hard as he had before he had lost his mind and betrayed his family. Sasuke could still remember a day, at least ten years beforehand... He had snuck into Itachi's room to get a look at some of his ninja equipment, only to be caught by his brother... Feeling the back of his head, Sasuke thought he could almost feel the lump where Itachi had beaned him with the hilt of his katana after finding him there.
Sasuke sat up. It was dark by now, and the first stars were beginning to show themselves. He felt, despite his lingering dizziness, stronger than he had when he left Otogakure. He supposed that not moving for several hours had given at least some of his chakra the chance to regenerate. Grateful, he stood and checked all his limbs. Yes, he was definitely in one piece... He should get back to Otogakure, lest Orochimaru grow annoyed.
And yet... As he walked, Sasuke found himself stewing over his brief meeting with Itachi. What was he doing here? Could he have been here to see Sasuke...? Sasuke shook his head furiously. No, of course not. He killed his entire family except for me. He wouldn't be concerned with his brother's welfare.
Or could he...? Itachi had let him live, after all. This was three times now, three meetings which, for all intents and purposes, should have ended in Sasuke's death. But Itachi seemingly stubbornly refused to kill his own brother, despite the fact that he had killed not only his best friend, but his parents as well.
Sasuke felt intensely stupid that he was thinking these things. Why should he care what that bastard butcher did? All that mattered was revenge... Sasuke had to kill him, no matter what. These meetings would eventually turn to a life-or-death battle, where one of the brothers would die, no if's, and's, or but's. Sasuke, full of confidence, knew that someday he would be stronger than Itachi, Mangekyo Sharingan or not.
Sasuke's thoughts strayed to his own Sharingan. Itachi wanted him to kill his best friend so he, too, could have a Mangekyo and be a match for Itachi. But at the same time... When Sasuke had fought the only person he could ever possibly call a best friend, Uzumaki Naruto, he had found himself unable to kill him. Sasuke felt determined that he would beat Itachi without becoming him. That mattered nearly as much as the revenge itself.
But that came back to why Sasuke was still alive. He should not be there to contemplate revenge. Sasuke knew that he should be dead three times over. He knew that he should have died that day, he knew that if he hadn't been at school during the slaughter, he probably would have. Had Itachi intentionally left him alive, so that there would be the possibility of someone paying him his comeuppance, or had his bloodlust merely died away by the time Sasuke had arrived home...?
Sasuke's head snapped around. He had felt a twinge of familiar chakra, chakra that should have been much larger than it was. Activating his Sharingan, Sasuke lit a branch on fire with a simple fire jutsu and held it up. There it was, a shadow in the trees... Swiftly, he reached down to his shuriken hostler and whipped three throwing stars at the shadow.
It jumped, landing in plain view.
Sasuke gasped. "Itachi!"
It was indeed his older brother. He was bloody, ragged, and, most surprisingly, staggering. He was hurt, or at the very least, depleted of chakra. Itachi pulled his jacket up over his face. "Go. Now. I am being pursued. I do not want to have to fight you, too, when I am this weak. It would be an embarrassment to the Uchiha name if I were to beat you, weak as I am."
Sasuke's old hatred flared up, as natural as his raven-wing hair was. "Shut up. I'll kill you now, and the clan will be avenged." He pulled out a kunai and charged his brother.
"Don't make me make a fool of you." Itachi growled, easily dodging the attack. "My Sharingan is faster and more accurate than you own. So although you can see my moves, I can see your counter faster than you can see my dodge." There was a rustling and confused yelling from the darkened path back towards Otogakure.
"Shut up!" Sasuke roared, forming the signs for the Chidori.
Itachi snorted. "You must be joking. You're going to kill yourself... you don't have enough chakra to-" He fell silent as Sasuke charged him again, his hand faintly glowing from the chakra encompassing it. The high-pitched screeching seemed to cut to the bone.
"Up there!" someone called, from further down the path.
Sasuke was inches from Itachi, who apparently was too weak to dodge again. "Go to hell!" the boy cried, his voice full of the anger and sadness and hatred and loneliness only eight years of isolation could create. "DIE!"
"Unfortunately, this is not my day to die." Itachi whispered. Suddenly full of lightning-fast speed, his hands flew as he formed the signs for the Art of Teleportation. Sasuke, mere millimeters from him, was powerless to stop him. "Art of Teleportation!" Itachi yelled, the chakra from his brother's Chidori so close to his chest it was burning him. Then, without another second's hesitation, he closed both fists and disappeared.
The momentum from Sasuke's attack carried him off the path and into the trees. He let out a loud, scream curse, and cut through a tree with the Chidori.
The tree fell and crushed an otonin who was dashing up the path towards him. His companions stopped and began shouting. "Sasuke-kun! What happened?" "You foolish boy! You killed him!" "Where is Uchiha? Have you let him escape, you insolent brat?" "You're lucky you're Orochimaru-sama's second- er, first favorite, or I'd kill you myself!"
Sasuke stepped out of the bushes, shaking with both anger and a lack of chakra. "What do you mean, first favorite?" he asked the Jounin that was angrily trying to drag his dead companion out from under the tree. "What happened to Kabuto?"
"Didn't you hear, Sasuke-kun?" the Chunin that had addressed him first said. "Itachi killed him."
Sasuke felt numb. Kabuto, though one of Orochimaru's spies and his strongest subordinate (after Sasuke, of course), had always been kind to Sasuke, even since before Sasuke was aware he worked for Orochimaru. "H-he's dead? How... how'd Itachi manage to do what Kakashi couldn't?"
"We don't know, idiot." the Jounin snapped. He had given up on trying to free his companion's corpse. "He was found with this huge hole in his head, blood and brains oozing everywhere. Of course, if you had been there, we just might have been able to stop Uchiha before he escaped Otogakure."
He laid the slightest stress on "you" and "might," as if blaming Sasuke for what had happened. Sasuke, angered both by Itachi's stinging words and the Jounin's insolence, had had enough. In an instant, he was standing right in front of the Jounin, his kunai at the ninja's throat.
"Say that again." Sasuke snarled. "Tell me it was my fault again, please. I need to take my anger out on something."
"Fine." the Jounin spat. "It's all your- urrrgk..." Blood sprayed from his throat, which Sasuke had slit before he could even finish the insult.
As the corpse fell, Sasuke turned to the other two otonin. "Anyone else want to blame me for this?" They shook their heads vigorously. "Good. Let's go back to Otogakure. It's been a long, long day..."
And, angered and hopped-up as he was, Sasuke slept well that night. He had refused to meet with Orochimaru when he returned, saying that he was exhausted and that it could wait till the morning. Without so much as taking off his hitae-ate, he had slumped onto his futon and fallen asleep immediately.
Sasuke woke around noon the next day, feeling calmer and stronger than he had the day before. He didn't feel bad about killing the Jounin, because he attributed his out-of-control anger to his lack of chakra. He didn't feel too worried, either, about anything Orochimaru might do to scold him, as the Sannin typically encouraged such behavior. And, Sasuke told himself, the Jounin had it coming. No one insults an Uchiha like that and gets away with it.
Sasuke ate his breakfast in silence, pouring milk over his rice as had become his custom. This made it impossible to eat with chopsticks, but he had a spoon or two lying around, so it didn't matter. It suddenly occurred to him that if Orochimaru would be annoyed about anything, it would be the lost half-day of training. The squeal that heralded the Chidori must have been heard by the group of otonin that had pursued Itachi, and the ability to use the Chidori usually signified a large amount of chakra.
Taking his time just for the simple pleasure of annoying the life out of Orochimaru, Sasuke headed off towards the hot springs for a bath. He had noted as he ate (much to his chagrin) that he smelled very similar to an elephant's backside. The hot water felt refreshing, and the steam rejuvenated what chakra that had still not returned to him.
Twenty minutes later, he walked into Orochimaru's main meeting room, his jet-black hair still wet and hanging down around his neck. Orochimaru, who had been speaking with his head of intelligence, looked at him, gave him a piercing look, and turned back to the intelligence man to finish the conversation. Five minutes after that, the shinobi left the room and Orochimaru gave Sasuke his full attention. "It took you long enough to come see me."
Sasuke shrugged indifferently. "I was exhausted from exertion and lack of chakra, so I slept till noon, ate, and took a bath." He folded his hands and hid his mouth behind them, his favorite sitting position. "I'm pretty sure you wouldn't have wanted me in here half-starved and smelling horrible."
Orochimaru smiled faintly. "I suppose not. But to have used the Chidori while... heh... 'exhausted, lacking chakra, and half-starved,' to borrow your words, is a feat." His snakelike eyes flashed, a sign of anger. "Where were you yesterday when Uchiha and Hoshigaki showed up?"
Making a small sound of interest in his throat, Sasuke said, "So, Hoshigaki came, too? I didn't know that." He sat up, brushed his bangs out of his eyes, and scowled. "To be honest, I went to kill my brother before Kabuto could."
Orochimaru snorted in annoyance. "And we can all see how perfectly that worked out." he replied sarcastically. "Kabuto was killed, Hoshigaki's body was destroyed, and Uchiha got away. You performed brilliantly."
"Huh?" Sasuke was confused... "Body? Hoshigaki was killed?"
"Kabuto did him in, and turned him into a corpse puppet so Uchiha couldn't just slip into the shadows again." Orochimaru looked more annoyed that Sasuke had ever seen him. "He would have been a magnificent addition, too, if we could have preserved him. He would have been the perfect multiple-use puppet, because as you know, we rarely use a puppet twice."
Sasuke nodded, falling back into his indifference. "They lose their effectiveness, unless they're as powerful as Hoshigaki was. But how... how could Kabuto have lost? Even to... my brother, who's as powerful as he is? Kabuto should have been able to escape without too many major injuries..."
Orochimaru shook his head sadly. "There wasn't a mark on Kabuto besides the sword-wound in his head. Itachi killed, or at least immobilized, him with one move."
Sasuke chuckled. "Must have been something very, very powerful. Kabuto could have defended himself-"
"The problem is, he didn't even try to defend himself." Orochimaru snapped. "I told you, there wasn't a mark on him. Whatever Uchiha did to him was vastly underestimated, or so very fast that Kabuto never stood a chance."
Sasuke shrugged. "My brother isn't much of one for speed. It was probably something that looked weak..." A light went off in Sasuke's head. The Tsukiyomi... He opened his mouth to tell Orochimaru what had beaten Kabuto, but shut it almost instantly. To share the move that could someday kill Orochimaru himself would be a bad idea. The only reason Sasuke knew about it was because Itachi had used it on Kakashi and left him bedridden for a week and a half. Sasuke put his poker face back on in an attempt to keep Orochimaru from knowing.
"Enough with the small talk." Orochimaru said. "I have... two assignments for you, one to preferably be done before the other, though the order doesn't much matter." Sasuke looked at him intently. "Good, I have your attention... What I want you to do is go to Konohagakure and complete your initiation."
"What!" Sasuke exclaimed, taken aback. "Already? I just started training against Jounin, you said that it'd be longer-"
Orochimaru cut him off with a wave of the hand, studying him with the utmost suspicion. "Don't you want to do it? Or are you still too soft to kill your old friends...?"
Sasuke nearly lost it, but managed to keep up the facade. "I'm-I'm ready. I'll... do it."
Orochimaru smiled, satisfied. "Good. And the other... I know you'll be drooling over this one... You are to kill Uzumaki Naruto."
Sasuke fell silent. He stared at Orochimaru in disbelief for several seconds before he stammered, "Wh-what? Y-you never mentioned f-fighting him, h-he might b-b-be too tough for me, y'know, th-the K-kyuubi..."
Orochimaru's upper lip curled. "He is training under Jiraiya, my former teammate and fellow Legendary Sannin. He will most definitely be your equal if he is allowed to continue his training for much longer. He will assuredly interfere with your training by leading a team of Honin- fire ninja, you know- here to take you back to Konoha. He must be killed."
Sasuke felt shaky. He knew that, eventually, this day would come, when Naruto grew too powerful for Orochimaru to be comfortable about. He also knew that, by completing this mission, he would gain the Mangekyo Sharingan and his best chance at slaying his brother and avenging his clan. But at the same time... As much as he hated to admit it, the loudmouthed, easily-annoyed, "maverick ninja" (as Kakashi once called him) was his friend. Killing him would not only cause Sasuke great pain, but also would take far more than simply beating him to an unconscious pulp.
"Will you do it or not?" Orochimaru demanded.
Sasuke looked down at his hand, which was resting, trembling, on the table. A shiver went down his spine. To disobey and betray Orochimaru now was to give up both his ability to kill Itachi- and his life. But was his life worth that of Naruto, Kakashi, and Neji...?
"F-fine... I'll do it... I'll kill Naruto."
Orochimaru smiled horribly, his snakelike features brightening evilly.
It was nearly midnight by the time Itachi managed to stumble into Akatsuki headquarters. He had been using the Art of Teleportation regularly, as his chakra would allow, so that he could reach is much faster than by foot. Somehow, he felt weaker than he had ever felt before. Kabuto wasn't such a difficult enemy, and he had used the Tsukiyomi before... So why did he feel this way.
Itachi staggered into the Akatsuki main chamber, where the leader sat. "S-sir... Mission... accomplished..." Finally satisfied, Itachi collapsed.
He woke up what must have been at least a day later, staring up at the ceiling, the sound of many large machines buzzing around him. Itachi's head wasn't pounding, he could move his arms and legs without pain, and he could breathe regularly. Apparently, a sufficient amount of chakra had returned to him so that he wasn't the train wreck he had been before.
A medic-nin nearby noticed that his eyes had opened. She didn't get too close to him, but murmured, "Ah, Uchiha-san, you've woken up. Okashira-sama will be pleased. How do you feel."
"Weaker than normal," Itachi reported coldly, "but healthy. My chakra will take a little more time to return, but I'm not as dangerously lacking in it as I was before." He flexed his left biceps, to absolutely make sure he was ok.
"Good, good." the medic-nin replied, though not sounding too enthusiastic. "I'll get to fixed up, and you can leave." Gingerly, he walked close to him, removed his IV, and made him sit up. She wrapped bandages around his chest ("You had some bad wounds there, I don't know where you got them, but they had to be bandaged," the medic-nin told him when he couldn't figure out why she did this), handed him his battered jacket and hitae-ate, and allowed him to leave.
Itachi stopped at the shoe shelves and gathered his boots. He knew that being barefoot in a hospital was normal, but he didn't feel right without them. He didn't feel... like a warrior. You're being stupid. he told himself, but nonetheless, he felt better with the soles of his boots beneath his feet. Then, he made his way back to the main chamber, where the Akatsuki leader was waiting for him.
"Ah, Itachi, it's good to see that you're feeling better." he said, waving his hands to have the lower-ranked Akatsuki agents that were in the room leave. "I must say, I have never seen you in such a state... I hope you're confident you won't end up that way again next time?"
Itachi's lip curled, but he restrained himself from being sarcastic. This was, of course, the man that had probably given the order to have him sent to the hospital to recover; Itachi wasn't about to be ungrateful. "It won't happen again, Okashira." he growled, barely able to contain the malice.
"See that it doesn't." the leader said, sitting back in his chair. "Now... I believe you said your mission had been accomplished when you stormed in here? Please, report. What did you learn, and where is Hoshigaki Kisame?"
Itachi hesitated for a second, but quickly recovered. "Hoshigaki is dead. He was killed by one of Orochimaru's lieutenants while I went in to gather the required intelligence. He... he was standing guard."
"I see." the leader said, sounding disappointed. "He was a fine agent... It is a disappointment to lose someone such as him. What did you learn?"
"Orochimaru does, as we guessed, have plans for after he takes Uchiha Sasuke's body." Itachi said, sounding bored now that he had passed the part about Kisame's death, which he felt somewhat guilty about. "He wants to use Uchiha's body to break into this very fortress, and steal away Gaara, the Kazekage of Sunagakure, the Village Hidden in Sand. He had suggested giving his body to the very lieutenant who killed Hoshigaki, but..."
"But?"
"I killed that lieutenant." Itachi said, with a grim sense of pride. "I used my Tsukiyomi Genjutsu, and while he was immobilized, I killed him with my katana."
"Very good." the leader said, sounding impressed. "I believe the lieutenant you spoke of- a boy by the name of Yakushi Kabuto, I believe?- was one of Orochimaru's most powerful subordinates."
"How did you know his name?" Itachi asked, agitated.
The leader laughed. "You were not the only Akatsuki agent ever to go to Otogakure. I had one in town the day you arrived, and he reported Yakushi's death to me as soon as he heard."
"But why couldn't you have had him find out what Orochimaru wanted to do?" Itachi asked, extremely irritated now.
"Because he would have been completely unable to defend himself against the otonin had he been found out." the leader said logically. "You are my most powerful agent, and for high-risk missions, you will always be the first choice."
Itachi sighed. "I barely come back from this one. I'm not sure what was wrong, but something... was draining my chakra. I didn't realize that a fight with Kabuto and the corpse puppet Hoshigaki and a short skirmish with my brother would weaken me so." He held up his hand and studied it, as if looking for a cause for his weakness.
"I understand that that occasionally happens to the best ninjas." the leader said dismissively. "There is little reason to worry." He paused. "I want you out ASAP and working on your next assignment, if you feel up to it."
Itachi grimaced; he had been hoping for a little more rest time. As he often reminded himself, even the bad guys need a rest after a big fight. "What assignment?"
"There is a scientist in the Land of Clouds that... specializes in demons." the leader said, obviously trying not to give too much away. "I want you to escort the Kazekage there, so that the scientist can study the effects of Shusaku's chakra on the boy's body." Noticing the annoyed look on Itachi's already lined face, he said, "As you well know, you are the only Akatsuki agent that can overpower the Kazekage. Obviously, you are the only choice for this mission."
"Who will I be working with?" Itachi asked, his feeling of annoyance growing. He was referencing the fact that Akatsuki agents never worked alone; they were always in pairs, as he and Kisame were.
"There will be no airing this time." the leader said, surprising Itachi. "As I said, you are the only one who can effectively fight the Kazekage, and it would be a shame to just waste an agent. Since an attack on you would mean death, injury, or capture for the Kazekage, I am sure he will be willing to help you defend yourself."
"I doubt that." Itachi muttered. From what he could tell, the leader frowned. "Whatever. I'll do it. But tell me this... why are we sending Gaara all the way to the Land of Clouds? That's practically halfway across the continent."
"Because our own scientists have been proved horribly impractical." the leader said, sounding disgusted. "I realized during your absence that scientists who worked for me were more likely to make mistakes out of fear. Here," he added, tossing Itachi a small bag, "that will be the scientist's payment. Included in that bag is a map on a scroll, telling you where the scientist resides. Good luck."
