Disclaimer: KIBA IS MINE! HE IS MINE! SEE?.!. :motions Kiba plushie: SEE?.! HE'S MINE!. :K. Masashi cocks his eyebrow in the background before shaking his head and wandering off, swearing in Japanese. Sarge turns to K. Masashi: KIBA IS NOT GAY! YOU TAKE THAT BACK!

A/N: Weeee, loooooooong chapter to make up for the short one yesterday.

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"Sasuke?" The raven let out a weak groan as the voice forced itself through his fuzzy mind. "Sasuke, can you hear me? Sasuke?"

Sasuke let out a louder groan as he struggled to regain consciousness, his eyes fluttering open. His vision swam as he looked around the room. It took much longer than it should have for his eyes to focus, and even when things began to clear up, they still weren't spectacular.

"Wher'm I?" Sasuke slurred, his eyes trying to focus on the grey blob before him. He could only assume it was Kakashi.

"You're in the hospital. You have a brain contusion." he informed.

"Eighteen stitches, man." Kiba's voice added from somewhere behind Kakashi. "You're lucky you didn't bleed to death. That, or suffocate."

"Why..." Sasuke trailed off as his foggy brain tried to understand everything they were saying. He had a brain contusion, which meant blood had leaked into his brain tissue. Fine, that was possible. Eighteen stitches suggested it was because of something internal. Again, also possible. But how had all of this happened? And why wasn't Naruto here to give him head and make it all better?

"Good bye, little brother. Enjoy your final seconds as a firefighter."

Sasuke's eyes snapped open and he jerked up in bed, which was a bad idea, but he did it anyway.

"Itachi!" he blurted out. "He hit me across the head with a lead pipe! And he—" Sasuke's breath caught in his throat. He has Naruto. "I have to help him."

Sasuke threw his feet over the side of the bed to get up, but Kakashi's eyes widened and he grabbed the raven, pushing him back onto the bed. "Are you insane?.! Get back into bed!"

"Kakashi—"

"Now!"

"You don't understand!" Sasuke hollered. "He has Naruto!"

"We know." Sasuke's eyes flickered towards the door at the voice, seeing Shino standing there with Hinata. "We need to ask you some questions."

"Screw the questions, go find him!" Sasuke hollered.

"We can't find him if we d-don't know where he is." Hinata said in her small voice, avoiding Sasuke's eyes. It was like she was ashamed to tell him they had no idea where to start looking.

"Calm down, Uchiha." Shino ordered as he walked further into the room. "First, tell us what happened. We heard from your Captain that you and Naruto encountered a civilian."

"It was my brother." Sasuke hissed, his fists clenching. "He was posing as a civilian. He had a mask on, his back to us. We couldn't tell who he was, or that he was able to breathe. When I touched his shoulder, he swung at me. I don't really remember much after that. I remember Naruto screaming something, and that's pretty much it."

Blood was beginning to drip from between the raven's clenched fists. He'd broken skin from squeezing so hard. Kakashi forced him to relax his hands.

"Do you have any idea where he could've gone? Any idea why he would've taken Naruto?" Shino demanded.

"If I knew where he was, don't you think he'd be in jail by now?" Sasuke hissed. "And as for..." He trailed off, his eyes lowering. He couldn't say it.

"Sasuke?" Shino asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"I think—Itachi wants him." He looked up at Shino, swallowing hard. "You know, wants him."

The police officer's eyes widened and Hinata's hand flew to her mouth.

"Shit, you've gotta be kidding me." Kiba ran his hands through his hair, pacing back and forth across the length of the room. "Fuck, we've got to find him."

"We don't even know where to start looking." Kakashi whispered, looking at Sasuke apologetically.

The Captain somewhat blamed himself. He always sent Sasuke and Naruto in first, and this was obviously something Itachi had noticed. Had Kakashi changed the order every once in a while, this might not have happened. Or, I might have lost even more firefighters, he reasoned. There was no guarantee Itachi wouldn't have killed everyone to get what he wanted. Hell, he probably thought he'd succeeded in killing Sasuke.

Truth be told, he almost had.

The head injury, mixed in with the smoke inhalation, had almost killed him. Sasuke had been lucky they'd gotten him to the hospital so quickly, or he would've died, just like his brother wanted. But there was no need to tell Sasuke that. He had enough on his plate as it was.

"So what am I supposed to do?" Sasuke growled, clenching his fists again, despite Kakashi trying to make him stop. "Am I supposed to just sit here and recover while my psycho of a brother does God knows what to my boyfriend?.!"

Everyone in the room shifted uncomfortably, not sure what to say.

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Sasuke stared out the window of his bedroom, watching as the sun began to set. It had been four hours since he'd woken up, and everyone had left soon after, not being able to stand his anger. He wasn't mad at them, really. Mostly at himself for not having seen it coming, and for not having been able to stop it.

Naruto was gone, and it was his fault. He couldn't stop Itachi from taking someone else important to him. He was such a failure.

His door opened then, and he turned to look at the person who entered. Kiba gave him a weak smile as he closed the door behind himself, shoving his hands in his pockets uneasily.

"Um, you're on TV." he told the raven. He walked across the room, picking the remote up from beside Sasuke and turned on the television. He changed the channel from the soap opera it was currently on, to the news.

The first thing Sasuke saw was a picture of himself, and he growled. The television was muted, so he couldn't hear what the reporter was saying, but seconds later, pictures of Itachi and Naruto side by side appeared, and Kiba had to duck as Sasuke hurled his water jug at the screen. Luckily, it was made of plastic, so all he succeeded in doing was splash water on the television. His aim had been freakishly accurate.

Kiba turned the television off, turning to Sasuke sympathetically. "They'll find him." he insisted. Sasuke turned to him with a glare. Kiba glared back. "They will. Don't think you're the only one who's worried about him, man. I care about the guy, too. He's probably the closest friend I have at Station Seven."

With that, Kiba turned on his heel and stalked out of the room. Sasuke returned to staring out the window, except now, he was glaring moreso than staring.

A few hours passed, and as night fell, his door opened. Sakura walked in with a tray of food, setting it down in front of Sasuke, and then straightened again. "I'm sorry about Naruto." she whispered. "The two of you seem to be having a bad year."

"Yeah." Sasuke whispered.

"Um, there's a phone call for you. I didn't know whether or not you'd want to take it, so I put the person on hold." She watched Sasuke carefully as he stared out the window. He finally turned to her, and nodded, his eyes lowered.

"Yeah, sure. I'll take it."

"Okay. I'll transfer the call. The phone's there." She motioned a phone on the bedside table before walking out.

Sasuke picked up the receiver and put it to his ear, waiting. He heard a beep, then a click, and then heard breathing.

"Hello?" he inquired.

"So, you're still alive." Sasuke's eyes widened and his grip tightened around the phone.

"Where is he?.!" he hollered angrily. "Where is he, you sick fuck?.!"

"No, please don't!" Sasuke's breath hitched as he heard Naruto.

"Naruto!"

"Listen well, little brother." Itachi's voice rang down the line, a smirk evident in his voice. "Listen well."

"Sasuke! Help me! Please!"

"Shut up." There was the distinct sound of flesh hitting flesh. Itachi had just hit Naruto.

"Please, don't! Stop it! Stop!" Sasuke clenched his fist around the phone, hearing the plastic crack.

"No! Stop it!" Sasuke hollered. His door slammed open, Sakura staring in at him wide-eyed and concerned.

"Stop! Please!" It was obvious Naruto was crying. "It hurts! Please stop! It hurts!"

"You're so fucking tight."

"Naruto!" Sasuke screamed.

Naruto let out a loud cry of pain. "It hurts! Stop it!"

Sasuke hung up. He couldn't take it any more. He breathed hard as he stared at the phone.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Sakura asked urgently as she ran to Sasuke's side.

"I need you to help me." Sasuke whispered. "I have to get out of here."

"Sasuke, you can't!" Sakura seemed appalled at the mere idea. "You have a brain contusion, I can't just let you walk—"

Sasuke grabbed her hand, holding it tightly as he clenched his jaw, struggling to remain calm. "My brother is currently torturing Naruto." he whispered. Sakura's eyes widened further. "If I don't find him, Naruto is going to die. I can't help him if I'm stuck in here. Please." A tear fell across the raven's cheek, but he didn't even seem to notice. "I can't lose him, too."

Sakura bit her bottom lip before turning to look at the door. She let out a small sigh before reaching over and turning off his heart-rate monitor.

"I'm gonna get fired for this." she whispered as she helped Sasuke stand.

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Sasuke stumbled into his house, his head spinning. He felt like he was going to be sick, but he forced the feeling away as he went to the table in the front hall. He opened the drawer and rummaged around in it for a set of pictures. He had the negatives at Kakashi's, because Itachi kept destroying his houses, but he always redeveloped pictures when he lost them.

He found what he was looking for and opened it, trying to make his head stop spinning. He looked through the pictures until he found the one he want. It was of his family, before Itachi had gone crazy and killed them all. Sasuke, his mum and his dad were all smiling happily at the camera. Itachi was looking behind them at the house they were standing in front of. It was their old cottage down near the forests close to the border. Sasuke hadn't been there in years, but Itachi had always loved it.

The Uchiha didn't know why he'd thought of it on his way home from the hospital, but right now, it was all he had. Grabbing the picture, he made his way to the garage and opened the door. He went to his car and got in as he opened his glove box to find one of his emergency phones. He pulled it out as he opened the garage door and dialled a number before putting it to his ear.

"Yo."

"Kiba, don't talk. Just listen."

"Sasuke! Holy shit, man! Where the fuck are you?.! Kakashi's worried sick! The doctors say you're going to kill yourself!"

"I said don't talk!" Sasuke hollered angrily, which caused his head to pound. It felt like his brain was too big for his skull, and he winced. He pulled out of the garage and started down the street. "Listen, I think I might know where Itachi is. I don't have time to wait for the cops, so I need you to let them know. Since this is Itachi, you might want to get the others and come down with Engine Seven. Chances are he's going to start another fire."

"Where is he? Where are you?.!"

"I'm going to find him. Don't try to stop me. If you want to help, then get the others." Sasuke proceeded to tell him the directions to the cottage, ignoring Kiba's continuous attempts to get him to go back to the hospital. Once he was finished, he hung up the phone, throwing it on the seat beside him as he clenched and unclenched his fists around the steering wheel.

"Just you and me, now, Itachi. You haven't won yet."

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The younger Uchiha parked his car at the end of the long driveway that led towards their cottage. He climbed out of the car and closed the door silently as he snuck towards the house, the darkness making it easy for him to disappear. He crouched down by a tree and pushed the branches aside to stare up at the large house. There were lights on upstairs.

Itachi's in there, Sasuke insisted to himself. He has to be. Sasuke forced himself not to think about how he had no leads if he was wrong. He forced himself not to think about the possibility of Naruto being dead. He just stood up and made his way cautiously towards the front door.

He pressed his back against the wall as he reached the door, waiting silently. He heard nothing, so he reached over and tried the door. It was locked. If he kicked it open, Itachi would know he was there. He needed to find another way in.

Sasuke made his way silently off the porch and around the house, looking at all the windows. He found one slightly ajar in the living room and pushed it open. He peeked inside, but the entire room was dark. That meant Itachi was upstairs.

The raven climbed in through the window as cautiously as he could, ensuring not to let his clothes catch on anything. He didn't want Itachi to know he was there until he got upstairs, at the very least. He made it into the living room with no problems and slowly headed towards the stairs, not even noticing when he stepped on a trip wire.

He reached the bottom of the stairs and looked up. The light from an open door flooded into the corridor at the top of the stairs, so Sasuke could only hope Itachi wasn't looking in that direction. He began climbing the stairs, pausing with a wince as one of the boards creaked beneath his feet. Why does the bloody place have to be made out of wood? Sasuke thought angrily.

When he heard no footsteps coming to see about the noise, Sasuke continued hurriedly. He reached the top of the stairs and crouched, glancing down the corridor. He noticed the room with the light on was Itachi's old room. The one he used to stay in when they stayed at the cottage. Sasuke inched towards it, reaching it in a matter of seconds. He took a deep breath, and then glanced in.

Itachi had his back to the door, his eyes locked on an unconscious Naruto. The blond was lying on the elder Uchiha's bed, his head turned to one side and a blanket over his hips, groin and upper thighs. The blanket and sheets had blood on them. Sasuke's eyes widened as his breath caught in his throat.

"I have to admit, it took you longer than I thought."

Sasuke's eyes snapped back to his brother, Itachi's back still to him. How did he know he was there?.!

"I was sure you'd have been here hours ago." The elder Uchiha turned now, his eyes locked on his younger brother's. "I guess it just shows you really can't protect those important to you."

Sasuke stood, coming into the doorway with clenched fists. His eyes continued to flicker back and forth between Naruto's unconscious form, and his brother's intimidating figure. "This is between you and me." His voice sounded small, even to his own ears. "Leave him out of it."

"Oh, this does not stop at you and me, little brother." Itachi smirked. "Naruto is just as involved as you are. I'm not surprised you don't remember each other. You were, after all, only six the last time you met."

"What?" Sasuke asked, confused.

"Father and Arashi Uzumaki used to be good friends." Itachi sat down on the edge of the bed, his left hand rubbing against the smooth skin of Naruto's arm. Sasuke clenched his fists. "You and Naruto used to play together for a while. But then, I got sent to juvie for causing a fire, and when I got out, I wanted Naruto in order to experiment with fire in small spaces. I didn't want to use you, you were worthless." Sasuke's fists clenched more tightly, and his eyes narrowed, but he allowed Itachi to continue. "Arashi became scared, he thought I was going to hurt his son. After he continued to refuse my offer, I became angry. Shortly after that, I killed mother and father." His eyes narrowed towards his little brother. "You were meant to die."

"But I didn't." Sasuke growled.

"No, you didn't." Itachi leaned back against Naruto slightly, his hand still rubbing the blond's tanned arm. "Soon after killing mother and father, I went to Arashi's. I wanted to test the brilliance of the so-called best firefighter in the world. I suppose he was pretty good, considering he got his son out of the house. He never escaped with his own life and his wife's, though." Itachi looked down at Naruto briefly before looking back at Sasuke. "I didn't care he was still alive, but he was taken in by the Sannin's. Those damned people would've been the death of me if I tried to take him from them, so I just ignored him and figured I would never be able to experiment. But one day, I saw him. He'd just graduated from the fire academy, and if you can believe it, he was almost more beautiful than he is right now." Sasuke's hand twitched to punch Itachi as the elder Uchiha ran one hand trough blond hair. "But then, he met you." Itachi turned to him, glaring. "And just like that, I'd lost him before I even had the chance to truly have him. So now, he's mine, and there's nothing you can do about it."

"Yes there is." Sasuke snapped.

"Oh?" Itachi smirked. "When you entered the house, you stepped on a wire, Sasuke. That wire set off a spark in the kitchen. There's a fire slowly spreading beneath us."

Sasuke's eyes widened before he looked down. Now that he knew about it, he could feel the heat through the floor, seeping into his shoes. He looked back up at Itachi, alarmed.

"So, now what? You can fight me, if you like, but by the time we finish, the house will have burnt to the ground. Or, you can just walk away, and let me have Naruto. Let me have something for once in my life." His eyes narrowed. "You don't deserve him."

"You killed his parents, what makes you think you do?.!" Sasuke hollered angrily. "And I don't care if we burn with the house! I'm going to kill you for what you've done!"

The younger brother lunged towards Itachi, who swiftly avoided him, grabbing him around the neck before throwing him across the room. Sasuke slammed into the wall, letting out a gasp as stars danced in front of his eyes. His vision was swimming due to the blow to his head when he already had a brain contusion. He was going to be lucky if he survived this fight.

Itachi appeared before him in a second, his hand around Sasuke's throat. "It's sad that you want to fight me when you already know you're going to lose."

Sasuke grabbed hold of the hand around his neck, keeping it there. Itachi frowned, but he had no time to react as Sasuke's other hand jerked up sharply at Itachi's elbow. The elder Uchiha let out a grunt as he released his brother, pain shooting up his arm. Sasuke had either dislocated, or broken his elbow. Either way, it hurt like a bitch.

Sasuke coughed as he held his throat with one hand, trying to clear his vision. He estimated where Itachi was and lunged at him, tackling him to the floor. Itachi kicked him off easily, and Sasuke scrambled to his feet. Itachi backhanded him across the face and Sasuke slammed into the doorframe before falling to the ground with a groan.

The elder Uchiha bent down over his brother, grabbing his shirt collar and pulling him off the ground. He opened his mouth to insult him some more when Sasuke kneed him in the groin. Itachi's eyes widened as he grit his teeth, dropping Sasuke and clutching between his legs with one hand, the other on the floor to support himself.

The firefighter forced himself to his feet, ignoring the smoke and heat he could feel coming from downstairs. The fire had spread out into the living room, and was slowly making its way upstairs.

Sasuke kicked Itachi in the stomach, the elder brother falling onto his side as he struggled to get over the pain in his nether regions. As Sasuke went to kick him again, Itachi's hand shot out, grabbing his leg and pulling. Sasuke fell backwards, bringing his hands up hurriedly behind his head. His hands cushioned the blow his head would've gotten from the floor when he landed, but his vision still swam at the constant abuse to his poor brain.

Both of them struggled to stand again, glaring at one another. Without warning, Sasuke let out a growl as he lunged at Itachi, tackling him around the middle, and sending the two of them flying down the corridor. As they landed a little further down the hall, Naruto's left hand twitched.

The two brothers wrestled on the ground like animals, biting each other, pulling hair, and punching whenever they saw an opening. They'd managed to get into one of the other rooms, and Sasuke actually got the two of them standing again, at one point, before tackling his brother and sending the two of them flying out the window.

The fall should've, by all accounts, killed the two of them. But, Itachi was super-human like that, letting out a cry as a few of his ribs broke on the landing. Sasuke landed on top of him, his brother taking the brunt of the fall, and was therefore unharmed.

Sasuke forced himself to his knees as he straddled his brother, grabbing Itachi's collar with one hand and punching him with the other. He continued to do this, as if he were a machine, unable to stop punching his brother over and over.

Eventually, Itachi began to laugh, and the harder Sasuke punched him, the louder he laughed. The younger Uchiha was getting angry, and he wanted his brother to pass out, already. The firefighter could also hear sirens, and he didn't want to have the police arrive and deprive him of his rights to beat Itachi to death.

Finally, as Itachi's laughter reached the point of hysteria, Sasuke stopped punching him, panting. Engine Seven had appeared by this time, anyway.

"What's so God damn funny?" Sasuke hissed.

"I thought all of us were going to die in that fire, but it looks like only one of us is dying tonight." Itachi smiled bloodily up at Sasuke.

The raven's eyes widened as he whipped around, his heart falling into his throat as he noticed the house. It was engulfed in flames. He even had burns on his arms and back because of how close he was to the house, but he'd been so preoccupied with beating up Itachi that he hadn't even noticed.

"Oh my God, Naruto!" Sasuke jumped to his feet, and as he began to run for the front door, he was stopped. Izumo grabbed the back of his shirt, holding it tightly to stop him from running back into the house.

"You're not in gear, Sasuke!" he hollered at him. "Kiba's going in! Calm down! We'll get him!"

"Let me go!" Sasuke hollered as he watched Kiba running towards the building with a hose. Just as he got in front of the door, fire exploded through the door, causing Kiba to fly backwards before the entire house collapsed in on itself.

Kiba sat up, staring at the house, horrified. He heard an inhuman shriek from behind him, turning around to see Sasuke on his knees, clawing at the ground. Kiba's heart felt like it was being wrenched from his chest as he turned back to stare at the house.

Sasuke only had one person important to him. That person had been in that house. And that had been the one person Kiba had just failed to save.

"Naruto." the dog-lover whispered, feeling tears in his eyes. "Naruto!"

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:Sneaks away in hopes of not being found: