A/N: so I have some time this week, and I finished this chapter early. I don't know why am I so enthusiastic about writing this chapter, because, warning: massacre is this chapter. I dropped all kind of hints in the previous chapters, and I'm sorry, it's here. However, I suppose that my readers deserve to get this chapter over with and they deserve an answer. Before you decide to drop it, I sincerely hope you can read until the end and listen to my reasoning, so I'll leave the rest until the chapter is done and let you read. At least, it starts really happy with Naruto's first appearance.

Beta'd by the fantastic Alice J

Chapter 13 - Things Fall Apart

Sasuke started the Academy soon after he turned six. He was excited, like a newborn lion, ready to show his abilities to the world, especially to Father. From some of my conversations with mom, my father had planned for Sasuke to graduate at nine or ten, as opposed to the usual age of twelve. Since Father didn't particularly care about Sasuke's life at Academy except for his grades, I had the opportunity of walking him home sometimes from the Academy. I could stay with him for half of the trip, then I had to leave when we got too close to the Uchiha compound.

I had just gotten home from a B-rank mission, a B-rank mission in which I was the leader. After my accidental completion of the A-rank mission, Akira-sensei suggested that I be assessed for leading a B-rank mission myself. We went on a B-rank missing-nin hunting mission with another two Chunin and Akira-sensei became my observer, only stepping in when we couldn't handle ourselves. He never had to, from the moment we left the village to the moment I cut off the missing-nin's head, I was leading the team. After that, I was allowed to lead B-rank missions and most of my mission ranks got bumped up to B-rank.

I stood in front of the Academy gate, looking as composed and scary as a twelve-year-old could be. Sasuke should be out in… about right now. I waited silently until kids started to flood out of the Academy gates, and searched for any sign of my little brother. Finally, I caught the sight of his spiked black hair and rushed to him.

Usually, he would spot me at once and approach me quickly, but today, he seemed to be in a conversation with somebody and he didn't notice me. When I say conversation, I actually meant Sasuke with his best 'I don't care' face (he learned that from Itachi) mixed with his original 'get lost' face, arguing with a boy who looked as young as he was with blond hair that radiate sun rays.

"Stop following me, Uzumaki! I don't want to spar with you." I could hear my brother yell in a childish voice. It's kinda strange and funny, did I sound like that when I was threatening to break Shisui and Itachi's bones?

"Stop in the track, teme, you afraid I'm gonna beat you to the ground?" The blonde boy responded. This one definitely had some guts, but my mom would be horrified by his use of words.

"You can never beat me, Uzumaki, so stop annoying me, I have things to do." Sasuke yelled back, clearly wanting to shake his little (hostile) follower off. That's when he saw me and immediately approached me with a smile.

"Mai-nee, sorry I was late, I got a little caught up. Anyway, let's go, we can hang out longer today." Sasuke said happily and I raised an eyebrow, waiting for the explanation, and he continued, "Father left for some serious clan business today and he won't be back with all the elders until at least tomorrow. So mom was left in charge of my genjutsu training today, and she won't mind if I stay with you longer. In fact, I think she secretly encourages me to stay out today with you, as long as you won't lose me." I reached my hands to ruffle his head, and he ducked before grunted something like "stop treating me like a kid". But he was a kid, and I wish he could stay like a kid, not something father wanted to turn him into.

"Don't ignore me! I'm gonna beat you to the ground, dattebayo!" I looked up to see the blonde kid yelling as he quickly approaches Sasuke. When he saw me, he halted a bit and paused.

"I see you made some… interesting friends, Sasuke, mind giving me an introduction?" I asked Sasuke as he groaned.

"He is Uzumaki Naruto, the dead last of the class, and no, he is not my friend." He explained as turned his head toward the blonde kid with annoyance, then he yelled at the blonde kid - Uzumaki Naruto - loudly, "Loser, this is my sister, and like I told you, I have stuff to do to so get lost."

I took a mental note at Sasuke's attitude. He was always a competitive child, being pitted with your genius siblings would do that to you, but I guess some of the Clan arrogance must have rubbed off on him. Granted, Itachi and I weren't really subtle about our ability, although we kind of didn't have a choice in that matter, but we tried hard to tone down the Uchiha arrogance. Sasuke, well, he was young, he would improve later.

"Don't run away, teme, I'm definitely going to beat you and I'm going to be the Hokage one day, dattebayo!" I watched the blonde boy with interest, just by looking at how pissed off Sasuke was, one could tell how persistent he was. By the way, his clothes were covered in dirt, he was probably beaten in the Academy taijutsu training, most likely by Sasuke. But his voice had no malicious intent in it, he was simply aiming for the top, not the retribution.

"Like that will ever happen, dead last. Ignore him, Mai-nee, let's go." Sasuke attempted to drag me away, but I stopped him and an idea forming in my head. Sasuke is so not going to like it, I thought.

"How about we go eat something together, Sasuke?" his eyes beamed up a bit at my words, but the light disappeared as soon as he heard my words, "And, Uzumaki-kun, you are welcome to come along." I said to a stunned blonde kid, and Sasuke seemed a bit betrayed and confused. Sorry, Sasuke, forgive me for my selfishness, but I want to see you grow up surrounding by friends and teammates, not stepping stones.

"Really? Are you serious?" Naruto asked and I nodded. The boy jumped in joy, and I marveled at his ability to change his mood so fast. "Then, can we go eat Ramen, I know the best place!" Naruto suggested, and I raised my hand and said: "lead the way."

Sasuke came along with a temper, obviously mad at me. He didn't talk to me the whole way to the ramen shop. When we walked into the ramen shop Naruto suggested, Ichiraku Ramen, I sighed and grabbed Sasuke into a hug.

"Why are you still sulking, Sasuke, just accept it, it can't be too bad." I said to my brother as he struggled to get out of my hug. He didn't answer me, but he silently sat beside me, still giving me his stinky face.

"How about this, if you can be neutral today, not happy, just neutral, then I will teach you a ninjutsu of your choosing, although do keep it below B-rank please." I proposed to him. I could see Sasuke's face in concentration, trying to decide if the deal was worth it.

"I want Raiton: Electrifying Web." Sasuke said to me with a straight face, and I smiled.

"Electrifying Web? You are pushing it here, that's a B-rank jutsu, hard to learn as well. How about Raiton: Electrifying Line?" Electrifying Line was basically a simplified version of Electrifying web, where the lightning didn't spread like a web, but they advance in a line and char everything in its' path. I could see Sasuke's eyes beam at my words even though he tried hard to suppress it, he said "Deal!" immediately, a little too eagerly. The shop owner served us ramen with a smile, Naruto gulped it down immediately and Sasuke finally decided to take a bite.

"Teme, you got a really good sister. Hey, Nee-chan, can you teach me!" Naruto asked with ramen noodle on his face.

"Don't even think about it, dobe, you'll never learn it. Mai-nee is a genius, her jutsu is too powerful for you." Sasuke spatted out before I could answer. I saw Naruto's eyes flare up and decided to intervene before another fight could break out.

"Not true, Sasuke, hard work is needed for anything." I hit Sasuke's head lightly and he muttered: "Why do you care, you are a prodigy anyway".

"I heard that, but you don't live in a world full of prodigies, in order to survive under Konoha's rule, comradeship is needed. So if you want to gain influence then you need to learn that." I said to Sasuke calmly. I was not going to tell him that he needed others to survive, or that he needed to be sociable, that was kind of hypocritical of me.

"Think about it Sasuke, if you don't like the empty encouraging words, think about it practically." Sasuke nodded lightly at my words and proceeded to eat his ramen.

"So, why do you want to learn my jutsu, Uzumaki-kun." I asked Naruto next and he responded quickly "I want to be Sasuke's rival, and I will beat him fair and square!" Cute kid, he reminded me of someone from a memory long ago. Don't die, Uzumaki Naruto, stay alive.

"To be honest, I don't think my lightning jutsu would be fitting for you. How about some taijutsu. Don't put so many hopes on me, I'm not a good or reliable teacher. If you want to beat my little brother, then you need to trash him one day using your own style. Also, Sasuke, I'm rooting for you, so don't get conceited."

"Awesome! You hear that Sasuke, one day I will beat you! Dattebayo!"

"Like hell, say that when you are not dead last, you dobe."

I didn't know at that time, that Uzumaki Naruto would be the one changing this world so much.

(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ fuwa~fuwa~desu~~~

When you put the weight of your whole existence into one strong pillar, yet when that pillar cracks, things start to get shaky. When that pillar broke completely and there was nothing anchoring your world, then things fall apart.

The pillar started to crack when Shisui died.

Shun told me in the morning, early enough that I was still feeling sleep, but immediately after hearing it, all my sleepiness were gone, replaced by the chilling cold running down my spine.

"You might want to sit down for this" I did, "But I received words, that Uchiha Shisui was dead yesterday." What.

"The official report from the Uchihas said he committed suicide, and his body was never found." Shun continued before I could register the words, he seemed determined to get everything out before I started to panic.

"What about Itachi, was he with him? How? Why did he… are you sure?" I bombarded Shun with a string of questions he couldn't answer. He did, however, tell me "Uchiha Itachi was reported as the last one seeing Shisui-san alive. He was the one reported the suicide and brought back the suicide note." I need to see him, I need to see my brother, I need to know what happened.

Immediately, I found myself jumping out of the window, running for the direction of the Uchiha compound, vaguely hearing Shun yelling at me "Don't do anything stupid, you don't know what happened!"

You are damn right I don't, but I'm going to find out.

I ran past the streets of Konoha, still too early for the businesses to settle in. The Uchiha compound was on the outskirt of the village, apparently, it was a form of exilement and supervision from the village. For what, I don't know, and I didn't really care at the moment.

Even before I broke into the compound I was exiled from, I heard the loud commotion. There were a few bangs, a few screams, and a few curses. I slowed down in front of the gate, just in time to get out of the way so an angry Itachi wouldn't crash into me when he furiously left the compound entrance.

"You monster! Traitor! Don't ever come back!" I snapped my head at the screaming and peeked inside the entrance. Five Uchiha men were on the ground, clearly feeling the pain of the impact. Seeing as my brother was the only one standing and walking, I could almost see with my own eyes what happened moments before I came here. The real question was, why?

I turned towards my brother, who was apparently ignoring me and decided to walk on ahead. I yelled at him, trying to get him to stop, "Wait, Itachi, what happened!" The question was vague but I knew that he knew there was really only one thing I could be asking about.

He stopped for a moment as if deciding whether to tell the truth or the lie. I wanted to call him out on that, telling him to scrap the lie, but I didn't. I let him stay silent.

"He died. He committed suicide, then he died." Itachi's simple responses broke my heart. When I heard that there was no body found, I had hope that Shisui was still alive, no matter how unlikely it was. Instinctively, I knew Itachi was lying, he was lying about something, but the way he said 'he died' with such grave and deep sorrow, I knew he wasn't lying about that.

"You liar, did you kill him to activate your Mangekyou Sharingan? Of all the times… You are a monster and a traitor." One of the men on the ground yelled in anger. Itachi ignored him and continued to walk away from the compound.

"No, I don't believe that! How do you expect me to believe any of that! Tell me the truth, Itachi, what happened to Shisui." I ran after him and yelled. I didn't believe it, the idea that Shisui would commit suicide, the idea that Itachi would kill him for something so trivial as power. Even the idea that Shisui had died, I couldn't believe it.

"I'm telling you the truth. Shisui died, and I saw him die." Suddenly, he turned around. I was stunned by the redness of his eyes, so red as if it was dyed by blood. On the crimson iris, there was the black pattern I wasn't familiar with. It wasn't the usual three tomoe sharingan, it was some design more elaborate. It was Mangekyou Sharingans, the best proof that Shisui indeed had died and Itachi was the first-hand witness of it.

"I told you to stay out of the clan matter, Maiko. So stay out of it." There it was again, that icy tone I thought I would never hear again. Itachi seemed so detached, so far away from me now. I thought I understood him the best aside from Shisui, but now, I couldn't read him at all.

"This is not a clan matter, Shisui was my friend, and you are my brother. Please, I just want to know what happened!" my voice snapped at him, it was mixed with rage and desperation. I was pleading with him, something was going on here that I didn't know about, and he was keeping it from me.

"It was his choice, and it has nothing to do with you. So stop asking and go. You are not an Uchiha anymore." Just like that, he broke me away from him, snipping the string between us. He was leaving again, turning his body away and ready to disappear.

"No. You are not running away again!" I screamed at him and used body flicker to get in front of him. I wanted to catch him, I wanted to stop him from leaving. But when I finished the body flicker, Itachi was gone without the trace. In fact, it seemed that I never even used the body flicker, since my position was still the same as before.

Genjutsu, I suddenly realized, Itachi placed me under a genjutsu. He had never even been here to have this conversation with me, it was all an illusion.

(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ fuwa~fuwa~desu~~~

I was pacing the room repeatedly. The night had already fallen and the view outside the window was veiled by darkness. Shun was sitting on the couch, watching me pace the room. He knew that I wanted to be left alone, quietly thinking my brain away at this impossible puzzle, so he didn't talk to me.

Why wasn't I crying? I should be crying. Shisui was my friend, one of the closest since I was five. So why wasn't I crying? Think through the mystery before you cry, I thought to myself, I refused to cry before knowing what the hell happened.

The chances were, Shisui was indeed dead. Even if there was no body found, Itachi's eyes were the best proof that Shisui had died. The Mangekyou Sharingan can only be activated from the trauma of losing someone close to you first hand, I had learned that when I told my father about the temporary irritation in my eyes after Daichi was killed. He explained the criteria for Mangekyou Sharingan to me, after witnessing the death of a loved one, the Uchiha's sharingan will start to irritate until either the Mangekyou was activated, or the pain fades and nothing happens because the trauma wasn't enough.

With a painful heart, I had to disregard the possibility that Shisui is alive for now. So that left the question of what happened to his body. Shun, being in the intelligence division, told me that Shisui was reported as a suicide by jumping off of the cliff. The Uchihas searched for his body to recover his sharingans. However, they couldn't find anything in the river, or under the cliff. That meant Shisui's body was either retrieved by something before the Uchihas or that it was destroyed, along with his sharingans.

The chance of Shisui's body being retrieved by someone else was not unlikely, but if his body was truly destroyed, then it could only be by his own hands or by Itachi's. Unless, there was someone else around to pick up everything. This line of thought left two conclusions, that Shisui's body was being collected and used, or that his body was destroyed to hide something. Both of which were not pleasant conclusions.

There were just so many unanswered questions, so much uncertainty, and so much bullshit. Why the hell was he and Itachi even there in the first place, and why were the Uchiha clan members angry at Itachi, even more than usual. They were twitchy and angry, not just because of his Mangekyou Sharingans, they mentioned something about the special timing of the events. Something was definitely happening that I didn't know about.

I tightened my fingers and dug my fingers into my arms. I was missing a lot of information, and even Shun couldn't give me more information since the Clan didn't really report much. Suddenly, I remembered something Shun said, he said that Itachi brought back Shisui's suicide note.

I need to find it, it's my only clue now.

Without anymore thinking about how dangerous it was to break into the Uchiha compound when there are a whole lot of sharingan users keeping watch, I grabbed my swords and jumped out of the window.

All the way toward the compound, I was thinking about how I was supposed to get past the security. However, the moment I got to the compound, I realized that all of that didn't matter now because something was wrong, something was horribly wrong.

I was immediately alerted by the horribly pungent smell of blood. It was a smell I was so terribly familiar with, so instead of blocking my senses, it sharpened my attention. The next thing I noticed is the fact that all the security and the traps have been deactivated.

I flickered inside the gates in the blink of an eye, I thought I had prepared for some unforeseen circumstances, but this was something else.

The body count started to rack up from the entrance. The streets inside the compound were filled with bodies. Some were lying motionlessly on the ground, blood stained or dismembered. Some were stuck on the walls by shurikens and kunai, with gaping holes in their chests, blood flowing a river under them. Men, women, children, adults, seniors… no one was spared.

My blood ran cold as if just realizing the scene in front of me. I thought of what this meant, it's implication. This was not an attack, this was a genocide, a massacre. Oh God, Itachi, Sasuke, Mom!

I blitzed through the streets, only stopping to check the body just to make sure my worst nightmare didn't come true. I didn't find a single soul alive, but I also didn't find my immediate families' bodies. The main house, I realized, that's where my families would be if they were home.

My body moved before I could even register the flaws in my actions. For example, I didn't think about how could the whole clan be killed in one day; nor did I think about who it would be. I could be running to my death, but I couldn't turn back now, I wouldn't.

The main house was dark, like the rest of the streets. I couldn't hear anything from the main house, it was emitting a silent dread just like the rest of the compound. I rushed through the now stained red greeneries around the house, ignoring the dead bodies at my feet every three meters I moved. I was so close to the closed doors, closed but not locked. Just one movement and I could discover the reality I'd been dreading for, and I was scared. I shook away my hesitation immediately, then I raised my hands, grabbed the handle and slid the door open.

At first, I registered my parents, they were kneeling down on the ground together without a care in the world. There was no blood, no red, and no holes. They were alive! I though for one wishful moment.

But then, I saw the glistening sword raised above their heads. When I recognized who was holding the sword, I was appalled, I was horrified, and I was shocked to the point that I couldn't even move.

Itachi, my brother, was holding a blood-stained sword, over our parents' head. It's him… No, it's not him… It's him.

From the moment of my entry, the deathly tranquility in the room was broken. My mother brought her hands over her mouth and covered a surprised cry. My father snapped his head up to look at me with disbelief. And my brother, oh, Itachi was still holding his sword, as still as ever, but he also looked towards me. There was a brief moment of shock in his eyes before his Mangekyou Sharingan turned back to as cold as stones.

There was a moment where everything was frozen before Itachi brought his sword down on our parents. I moved, or rather, my body moved. It was the naturally trained instinct of a soldier that allowed my hands to reach for my weapon even if my head wasn't functioning.

I flickered in front of my parents and moved my ninjatō up to blocked the glistening sword. Two metal blades clashed in mid-air, a few centimeters above father's head.

"Why! Give me a reason! Why!" I yelled furiously at Itachi, who was still staring at me coldly. He didn't answer me, instead, he twisted his sword to break free of my blade. Then, his movement was a blur.

He was fast, so much faster than what I expected. He blurred behind me and punched me in the waist. I was surprised by the speed and the force, so before I could respond to it, I was falling forward, crashing into mom. However, before I could fall down, Itachi grabbed my shoulder and pulled me back. He kicked me in the ribs and sent me flying toward the wall.

The impact knocked the air out of me. Along with the searing pain of a broken rib, the pain in my torso made me gasp for oxygen. I was falling down along the wall, at least that was before I felt a sharp pain in my stomach. My fall was halted, by a sword that impaled my abdominal region and embedded itself into the wall behind me.

I heard my mom letting out a cry, and I forced myself to look up from the wound gushing blood on my stomach. The earlier adrenaline eased my pain, but now, it was coming back. My chest was feeling suffocated, a tight weight pushing it down along with the pain from the broken rib. My stomach completely erupted in pain. The sword was keeping me on the wall, but it was also piercing a bigger and bigger hole on my stomach. I was loosing blood fast as there was already a small stream of blood running down the wall and collecting into a pool of red at the ground.

My parents were still kneeling down before their son, before their impending doom, like sinners asking for forgiveness. I wanted to yell at them asking them why aren't they moving, but I had a sinking feeling that they won't answer.

"Why? Why are you doing this? Please, tell me why?" I wasn't really asking at the end. I was pleading. I didn't really want an answer, I want this whole ordeal to stop. Please, Itachi, you can stop now, you can still stop!

"I am cleansing the clan." That was all he answered. He pulled out another sword behind him that was also stained crimson red and raised it above my parents' heads again. They reverted back to the positions they were in before I arrived, except now, I was watching helplessly.

"Move, Mom, Father, why aren't you moving!" I yelled. They were not in a genjutsu since I could see their chakra clearly flowing, and their emotional reactions were clearly normal. Then why, why weren't they moving, waiting for the slaughter silently like lambs?

"We love you, Maiko. We really do. Please, don't be afraid. It will be over soon." Mom said in a raspy voice and she was crying with a smile. Tears were flowing out of her eyes and dripping into the floor, but she did it with a smile on her lips.

"Forgive me, Maiko. Forgive me for everything. But I am proud of you, really proud of you." Those were the only words my father had spoken to me for three years. Father had closed his eyes, but I could feel the genuine regret from his words. I shouldn't be crying, I hated him, for everything he forced me and my brothers to do for the sake of the clan. But my face was wet from the warm tears coming out of my eyes.

"Stop! Please… stop! Don't do this! Please… Itachi-nii, please!" I wailed and cried as if it was the only thing I could do. I gripped my hands on the hilt of the blade and pulled with all the strength I had left, but the blade only moved an inch and gave me a searing sharp pain. I was stuck, trapped and forced to watch the tragedy unfold.

"Do it, Itachi, do it. You have always been a gentle child. But this time, do what you have to do." Father said in a calm tone as I whimpered and yelled at him to stop. Mother had also closed her eyes now along with father as they waited silently. Itachi's grip on the sword tightened, and he raised it an inch higher as the starting moving of the swing. His red and black eyes were staring intensely into our parents, and for a moment, I thought I saw a flicker of something glistening at the corner of his eyes.

I shrieked and screamed as Itachi brought the blade down and slashed my mother and father across the neck. It was indeed quick like mom promised, but the terror wasn't over. There was a spray of blood as Itachi finished the slaying motion, and my brother, the figure I looked up to with love, the anchor of my world, was covered in scarlet red blood that accompanied his ruthless crimson eyes. It was like I saw everything in slow motion, a replay in my sharingan of my parents falling down like broken dolls. Father fell first, head into the ground, red flowing down his yukata. Then Mother followed, falling on top of Father, sprawl over his body lifelessly. I didn't even need to check for their breathing to know that they were dead immediately. Itachi's hit was concise and deep, as expected of someone trained in Anbu. There was no way my parents would survive this.

"NO!" I wailed at my dead parents, couldn't believe what he'd done. Suddenly, I felt my eyes stinging with pain. It was changing, something was changing, and it was so sorrowful and painful I wish it hadn't. I blinked my eyes, trying to stop the pain, not that it really mattered. All parts of my body hurt, and this was not making a difference. When I opened my eyes again, I realized, the horror was not over.

Sasuke was home.

I saw his small figure entering the main house, eyes widening in shock and horror. I wanted to tell him to go away, to leave, but I knew that nothing I could do that could erase this image in his head.

(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ fuwa~fuwa~desu~~~

"Mom… Dad… what's happening…" Sasuke whimpered slowly, trying to register what he was seeing. There was a lot of blood, his parents were covered in blood, lying on the floor lifelessly. He turned his head just a little, and he saw his sister, his Mai-nee-chan, pinned to the wall by a sword, struggling to get the blade off. There was a lot of blood gathering at her feet.

"What… happened." He asked again, but no one responded him. He ran straight to the main house the moment he entered the compound. He saw a lot of people lying on the floor, and there was a lot of blood, they all looked dead. No, they were dead, and now his family looked just like them.

He turned his head again, and to his shock, he saw his brother, the brother he always admired and respected. Itachi-nii-chan was holding a blade, a blade that looked frightening similar to the one pinning Mai-nee-chan on the wall.

He was about to ask, or scream, but he never got to do it, because he saw his big brother's red eyes. It wasn't the normal sharingan, but it felt more dangerous than that. Immediately, he felt his world twisted into something else, something equally real but much, much more terrifying.

Then he saw it all, the murder of his Clan members and his parents all playing in front of his eyes. He saw the person responsible for all of this. It was his admirable brother, Uchiha Itachi.

At that moment, all he could was to scream.

(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ fuwa~fuwa~desu~~~

I cried out again as I saw Sasuke dropped to the ground and started to scream at the top of his lungs. Whatever happened to him, no, whatever Itachi did to him, it was more than just a simple genjutsu.

Once again, I clenched the hilt of the sword impaling my stomach hard and pulled with all my strength. This time, the blade moved more, and it was almost out of the wall. With a loud 'thump', I fell to the ground, straight into the pool of my own blood. The sword was still in my stomach, sticking out from one end. I could feel my consciousness fading due to the blood loss, and I had no idea if the sword had damaged any of my organs. I just needed to move towards Sasuke, I just needed to reach him.

Suddenly, I felt a burning gaze on me. With a sinking heart, I realized that Itachi had now turned his attention on me. I looked up and saw that he was looking at the area in front of me. His right eye widened and suddenly, the area in front of me was ignited in a black flame. The black flame formed a one-meter radius semi-circle around me, and it trapped me beside the wall, separating me from Sasuke.

"Don't move, this is Amaterasu, the eternal black flame. It will burn everything it touches away until there is nothing left." Itachi's cold voice rang in my ear. I didn't doubt his words, I could feel the menacing aura from the black flame. For that moment, I was aware of the fact that Sasuke stopped screaming, instead, he was convulsing on the floor. His head turned slowly towards Itachi, and I realized, he was conscious of his surroundings, no matter how limited his consciousness was.

"Both of you are too weak. So weak that you aren't even worth killing" Itachi said to us slowly, letting the words sink in our brains. "It's because of your weaknesses that you can't stop me. If you want vengeance, then start hating me now and grow stronger."

"Kill your best friend the one closest to you, that's the easiest way to get Mangekyou Sharingan, to gain power and to take revenge." He whispered, but we all heard what he was saying. He was turning around, he was leaving. He was leaving us behind.

"Stop!" I yelled desperately as I ripped the blade out of my stomach. With groans of pain, I stood up. Itachi turned around momentarily, and when he saw me, he seemed surprised at something. But I probably didn't even see that, because all I cared about was making him stop.

My left eye was hurting and it seemed to suck away all my chakra and energy. As if making a wish, there was something exploded from my left eye. Suddenly, the world stopped. Not just in my perception, but truly, it stopped.

Itachi stood silently in his position, unmoving, Sasuke's convulsing stopped. Even the black flames stopped moving, and it retained its jagged shape, like a sculpture. It was as if the time had frozen along with everyone else.

I was the only thing moving, I walked towards the flame, and I moved across it. It wasn't burning me, and it wasn't hurting me, it was as if I didn't even exist. I kept on walking, suddenly aware that some liquid was dripping down my left cheek. It was warm, but it didn't smell like tears. It smelled like blood.

Still, I kept my eyes open, staring at where I wanted to go. I wanted to reach him, I wanted to stop him, I wanted him to stop running away. I weakly walked towards him and I could feel my legs were shaking, both from the blood loss and the sudden depletion of a chunk of my of chakra.

I was so close, maybe just one meter away. I raised my shaking hands towards him, without thinking about what I was supposed to do after that. I couldn't stop him, I didn't have any weapons in my hands, he could kill me as easily as a bug.

He was only ten centimeters away from me, just a little more and I could reach him. But that was my limit, suddenly I dropped to the ground and my eyes closed, blackness then ensued my consciousness. I didn't reach Itachi, and now he was going to leave, and the thought of that hurt more than the hole in my stomach.

In that one night, the once powerful Uchiha Clan was decimated to only three blood descendants. A traitor, a child, and a cheater of death.

A/N: I want to say that this is the plan ever since I wrote chapter 9. I just couldn't find a good reason for the massacre to be stopped naturally, since, in my opinion, one of the following things must happen: a) The coup d'etat never happened (and considering how long they plotted this, it's not gonna happen), b) Danzo and his squad that ruins everything are either dead or incapacitated (so that Shisui can reverse the situation with his Sharingan and there is no need for massacre), c) Itachi refused to commit the massacre (if we continue with his reasoning in the canon, then Maiko's existence probably give him more reason to do so). The OC is not self-insert, she wouldn't know beforehand what happened in the original timeline, nor how her actions have any implications on the events. She is really 'blind' here, and she wouldn't have the power, at least not at this point to stop the killing (or to kill Danzo, which is a sound solution in my mind, but that can happen later on *hint*hint*).

I personally don't believe that timeline can be changed so easily with a small and purposeless action, rather, I think the wheels of history is such a strong force that unless you aim somewhere critical, it's going to keep going on its original path. Besides, how can one grow if there are no hardships in one's life? In the canon, I like the idea that Sasuke changed because of what happened, he just didn't change in the... right direction. So in my fanfic, I want Sasuke (and Maiko) to grow, to understand that things often aren't what they seemed (because he sure missed the point in the canon).

On a brighter note, see the character tag I put on the story, it says Itachi U., which means he is just going on a slight break and he will be back, ALIVE. And no, he will not be dead like in the canon, and yes, this traitor thing will go away eventually (and he will still be alive by that point, I love him too much for him to die). No Uchiha under my watch will go down a horrible revengeful path (Well, Obito and Madara... They are already down that road before the fanfic timeline started.. so they are technically not under my watch), and I refuse to believe that my character can't figure out the unusual circumstances and hints written all over them.

So with all the talking, I just want to say, please, give it a try and have some faith in me. This is a dark fic with sadness, but they will make one stronger. Hey, Maiko's mangekyou sharingan is here to cheer things up... (never mind, I said nothing)...

Oh yeah, the next update is still on this Saturday (I somehow managed to get a head start), so this is the first rare double update week (hopefully there will be more, but the future is bleak with my exams and all)