"In summary, the min-nin escaped." Itachi stares impassively at Pain, who stands at the entrance of the copper canopy with wind and rain roaring behind him.
"And it's not our fault it got away." Kisame crosses his arms from beside the Uchiha. "You told us to be on the lookout for some hunter-nin, not min-nin." He bares his teeth in a wry smile. "Those little guys were fast, and they weren't weaklings either."
Lightning flashes, casting harsh shadows on Pain's expressionless face, and the man seems to wait for the thunderclap to pass before saying, "You are correct." He turns to Kisame. "Konan thought the foreign chakra signatures she sensed were hunter-nin who had found the hideout and misinformed you."
He pauses, then says, "The loss of the min-nin is unfortunate, but was not your fault."
Kisame nods as their leader continues. "I will ask Deidara and Tobi to search for the min-nin since they are the closest to the Land of Fire." His gaze slides to Itachi. "If they fail to find it within five days, I will send you two to retrieve a replacement."
Itachi quickly picks up on the man's meaning and asks, "You believe there are other min-nin with the Sharingan?"
"Yes." Pain inclines his head. "The shop owner found two with such dōjutsu, both wearing Konoha headbands, so other Uchiha min-nin likely reside in Konoha."
Itachi, aware Pain is right since he heard Little Sasuke worrying about his clan when he accidentally saw the min-nin's memories, flatly says, "I see." He doesn't want to know what the Akatsuki would do if they learned there was entire clan of Uchiha min-nin. Yet he's also hoping Deidara and Tobi don't find Little Sasuke.
The tiny ninja was obviously miserable in the Akatsuki's care, something that probably wasn't helped by Itachi being his primary keeper since the min-nin had heard him speaking to Sasuke the night of the massacre. Itachi's words and actions from that day still seemed to haunt the little ninja, so it would probably be for the best if Little Sasuke never saw him again.
Pain dismisses him and Kisame, and the Uchiha immediately heads to the tower's staircase. He leaves the Kiri-nin behind since his room is on a lower level and enters the hallway of an upper floor, walking straight towards the room at the end.
Yet Itachi stops in the doorway of his bedroom, and his eyes narrow.
The window is shut just like he left it, rain pelting the glass. His bed is made, dresser bare and drawers closed.
Itachi takes a single step in, flicking on the lights. However, still nothing stands out, so he goes up to his dresser and opens all its compartments, but the clothes inside appear untouched.
The Uchiha frowns. His instincts are telling him something is missing, but what could it be?
Itachi reaches back, hand going to his weapon pouch—
He freezes. Slowly his fingers run over the rim of a glass cylinder before he pulls it out and holds it before him. Itachi frowns at the jar, seeing the plastic water bottle inside is full. Little Sasuke hadn't drank a sip, but hopefully the min-nin wasn't too dehydrated when he ran off.
Itachi turns to the window and with his poor vision can only assume the dark blur outside must be a cloudy gray sky, and it's as he's listening to the the rain striking the glass that it hits him.
It's quiet. There are no tiny feet clinking inside the jar or padding around the room. Little Sasuke is gone, and though the min-nin never talked, his absence is loud.
Itachi's gaze drops to the floor while he sits on his bed, jar on his lap. He always knew his relationship with the min-nin was a temporary one and he's glad the little shinobi is finally on his way home, but a part of him misses the tiny Uchiha's company, misses that face—Sasuke's face—staring back at him.
The rain starts to lessen until it's hardly more than a whisper, but Itachi no longer has any reason to break the silence, so he doesn't say a word as the rain continues to fall.
—
"Nii-san!"
Sasuke dives between two branches, Sharingan eyes locked on his brother.
However, Itachi doesn't look back, but leaps to the next tree like he didn't hear him.
The teen frowns as he lands on a branch. Is something wrong with Itachi's ears or is his brother too lost in thought to hear him?
Concerned, Sasuke pushes chakra to his feet and launches himself even faster through the trees. "Nii-san, wait!"
Sasuke touches down on a tree limb a second after Itachi springs off of it and fear stabs into Sasuke's heart when his brother still doesn't acknowledge him. Shouldn't Itachi at least notice someone is following him?
The fifteen-year old's face twists with worry as he hurdles past branches and leaves until finally he leaps into the air and Itachi is mere centimeters away.
"It's me, Nii-san," Sasuke reaches for his brother's shoulder, but stops when Itachi spins back with a startled expression.
"Sasuke?" Itachi gapes, landing on a thick branch while Sasuke touches down across from him.
"Nii-san." Sasuke smiles, eyes brimming with joy. "You're okay, I knew you were—"
A low hiss slices through the air and Sasuke blinks, confused as to why Itachi is suddenly posed with his arm in front of him like he's throwing something. Yet he curiously follows the angle of Itachi's fingers and looks down.
Sasuke chokes at the three shuriken sticking out of his chest and he gasps as pain bursts across his torso, redness spreading over his white shirt.
The teen looks up at Itachi with wide, horrified eyes. "Nii…san…?"
Itachi's face goes blank while he surges across the branch, and even with his Sharingan, Sasuke can't move back fast enough to avoid Itachi's hand chopping down on his side. The teen cries out and instinctively raises his arms, but his defense does him no good when Itachi leaps over him, grabs the back of his shirt, and drags him up in a rotation before throwing him down.
Sasuke's back slams onto the bark, wood scraping against his skin as he rolls. Yet he stops in a crouch and rises, his ribs screaming at the motion while Itachi slowly walks over.
"Foolish otouto," Itachi hisses, Mangekyō Sharingan flaring, "It's your fault I almost died."
Sasuke feels like he's been slapped, Itachi's words cutting through him like a sword. However, he soon shakes his head and gasps. "You… You're not my brother, Itachi wouldn't—"
"I would." Itachi pulls out four kunai and Sasuke's Sharingan is the only reason he manages to duck under the knives.
Yet a breeze brushes over Sasuke's back and he whirls around to see Itachi—shadow clone!?
The older boy kicks Sasuke's stomach, knocking the air out his chest and sending him flying off the branch.
Sasuke plummets, but fighting through the pain lacing his body, he reaches out and catches a leaf hanging off the end of a tree. His hands slide despite his tight grip and Sasuke realizes the leaf is wet right as he loses his hold and drops.
The teen crashes into a bundle of twigs behind a puddle. He quickly pulls himself out of the pile, but a hand wraps around his throat and slams him into a rock. His head cracks against the stone and his vision blinks out for a moment while Itachi steps on his feet and grabs his wrists, pinning them against the stone.
"You're pathetic," Itachi says coldly, slowly crushing Sasuke's throat and making the teen wheeze. "I almost died because you were too weak to save yourself."
Sasuke's eyes sting, hearing his own negative thoughts being thrown back at him, but the teen forces himself to calm and look the man in the eye while he rasps, "You're…not Itachi." A smirk slides over his face and Itachi's eyes narrow. "Or you'd noticed…it rained recently."
"What?" Itachi asks while Sasuke glares.
"Fake." Sasuke's hand flaps down and lightning erupts from a cloud above in the shape of a dragon.
Itachi can't look up before the dragon strikes him like a lightning bolt and electricity explodes over the Uchiha. Sasuke is released, but shouts when some of the sparks jump over to him and falls to his knees, grasping his burned palms while Itachi's convulsing body goes still.
Itachi falls face forward into the stone beside Sasuke and his face scapes down the rock until his knees hit the earth and he topples on his side, body rolling onto his back.
Sasuke is disturbed by the horror frozen on Itachi's face, but assures himself the man can't actually be Itachi. His brother would have known it had rained in Konoha recently, something Sasuke realized after spotting puddles on the ground, and would have known Sasuke could use the lingering storm clouds to summon lightning.
Sasuke inhales sharply when Itachi's skin ripples and his clothes melt into himself like water, his skin lightening to a pale white while his hair shortens and turns green.
Sasuke's eyes widen. That guy!?
The Akatsuki member with the Venus flytrap around his head lies beside him, or at least it looks like that guy without the plant appendages and the dark half of his face. How he'd transformed into Itachi to the point even his chakra matched his brother's, Sasuke didn't know.
The teen is considering if the plant man could somehow mimic chakra signatures when something hot rushes up his throat and he coughs it out. Sasuke stares at the red drops on the ground—his blood?—while the world starts to swim.
The Uchiha only has the mind to turn so he doesn't fall on the shuriken in his chest as he drops on his side and sprawls onto his back.
The sky peeks through the tree leaves above and his vision blurs into rivers of blue and green while Sasuke's scarlet orbs fade to black.
A part of Sasuke hopes his body is never found because his family and friends will be devastated if they realize how close he was to Konoha.
Forgive me, Nii-san… Your otouto was foolish…
Sasuke succumbs to the darkness with his lips curved into a frown and tears pooling in his eyes.
.
The Chibi is confused when he wakes up to bright sunlight and a gray ceiling. He squints and tries turning away, but he can't feel his head or the rest of his body, maybe because they aren't there anymore. Perhaps he's a ghost—a possibility that doesn't bother him so long as he gets to see his family again.
A large shadow emerges from his side, eclipsing half his vision, and Sasuke weakly focuses on it.
Oki-Itachi gazes at him, brow furrowed slightly while he asks, "How do you feel?"
Sasuke stares at the human for a second, wondering if he's dreaming, but soon it strikes him that he's lying on a familiar soft cushion and clearly isn't a ghost, which means—
He's been recaptured by the Akatsuki.
Disbelief slams into him first, soon followed by fear and despair, but it's the overwhelming desire to escape that gives Sasuke the strength to sit up. Immediately the Chibi has to bite down on a scream as a sharp pain cuts across his chest and he looks down to see bandages wrapped around his bare torso, shoulder, and hands.
"You should rest," Oki-Itachi says quietly. "I know min-nin heal faster than humans, but one of your injuries required stitches—"
The Oki's voice fades into the background while a single question rings through Sasuke's head. How did the Akatsuki find him? Did the plant man tell them? No, that's impossible, Sasuke killed the man before he could perform any jutsu.
Sasuke's eyes lift to Oki-Itachi and a seed of suspicion sprouts inside him. The human had let him leave with Sakura, something Sasuke had wondered about while traveling on that muddy road. At first he thought the human let him escape because he was tired of taking care of Sasuke. However, if the Oki was so irritated by Sasuke, why personally cook his meals? Or give him hot baths?
Sasuke doesn't need either to survive, but Oki-Itachi gave him both anyway, just like the human told him what the Akatsuki was planning to make him do... For a second, Sasuke thought maybe...maybe Oki-Itachi had changed and really did want to help him escape, but now Sasuke knows he was fooled.
He glowers, hands curling into fists. This...this was all Oki-Itachi's plan to gain Sasuke's trust. The Oki must have worked with the other Akatsuki members and made sure the plant guy and Tobi were tracking Sasuke before letting the Chibi escape.
That's how those two found Sasuke and his team so quickly, and why Tobi hadn't bothered chasing him down the river. They knew Sasuke was a Konoha-nin and would likely be heading back to his village, so they simply waited outside Konoha for Sasuke to show up. Then the plant man used some type of transformation jutsu to pretend to be Itachi and lured Sasuke away from the village.
Maybe the plant man intended to wear Sasuke down by attacking him and make it easier for the Akatsuki to retrieve him, but whatever his reason Sasuke was certain Oki-Itachi had tricked him in the cruelest way imaginable. Because the human had allowed Sasuke to hope, allowed him to see his village and get so close to seeing his brother again, only to snatch it all away and feign sympathy once Sasuke was caught.
Rage swells inside Sasuke like a typhoon, his nails digging into his bandaged palms, and Oki-Itachi must see his fury because he asks, "Little Sasuke?"
The Chibi screams and leaps up to charge the man. Shock flashes on Oki-Itachi's face while Sasuke soars off the table, but the human swiftly catches him.
Yet Sasuke snarls and twists violently in his grip even as pain bursts over his body and something tears in his chest.
"Stop," the Oki says, voice oddly sharp, but Sasuke barely hears him over his own racing heart while he throws his head down to bite the Oki's finger.
The human's thumb snaps up to hold back his neck, but the Chibi rams his throat against it though this cuts off his breathing.
"Little Sasuke, calm down."
Sasuke doesn't understand the man's words while he writhes, his lungs burning from the lack of oxygen and battered body screaming, but Sasuke can't stop. His hatred is only fueled by his frustration at being trapped again and the mere sight of the monstrous Oki makes him want to claw the human's face off.
Suddenly the Oki's thumb lifts and Sasuke instinctively inhales, quickly falling into a coughing fit. However, he continues wrenching against the fingers holding him, determined to escape.
"I understand you're upset—"
False sympathy dyes the Oki's voice and anger flares so hot within Sasuke that he doesn't even think before chomping down on the human's thumb.
The hand goes rigid around him, but the human doesn't make a sound, and angered by the lack of reaction, Sasuke sinks his teeth even deeper into the flesh until he tastes blood.
Sasuke pulls back and spits out the blood, but when he looks up Oki-Itachi is observing him expressionlessly. Of course, he forgot the monster doesn't feel anything. Why did Sasuke ever believe he could? The man murdered his clan, traumatized his brother, and nearly wiped out the Chibi Uchiha, there isn't a drop of humanity inside him! There never was!
A growl builds in the back of his throat because somehow Sasuke will make the human pay. For his clan, the Oki Uchiha, his family and friends, Oki-Itachi will suffer.
He stares defiantly into those black orbs, expecting the Sharingan to appear any minute. Yet the man simply lowers Sasuke onto the table, releases him and steps back to the other half of the room.
"I can tell you want to be alone." Oki-Itachi turns. "Try getting some rest."
He goes to the door and leaves, shutting it behind him, but Sasuke's hands still ball up once he's gone and without thinking he jumps off the table.
The Chibi cuts off a yell when he lands as pain radiates from his middle and his hand slaps over his side. He grits his teeth while he straightens from his crouch and limping, trudges forward.
Sasuke stops when he hits an invisible wall, but slams his hands against the barrier. He hits it again and again until his fists are numb and his arms drop against his will.
Breathless, Sasuke sinks to the floor and grips his hair while he screams.
—
A couple of hours later Oki-Itachi steps into the room and Sasuke stands on the table, ignoring the stabbing pain in his side that prevents him from standing straight.
Oki-Itachi approaches, pulling something out of his pouch, and Sasuke staggers back to the wall while the man sets a bandage strip and alcohol-soaked cotton pad in front of him. "Can you use these to take care of your wounds?"
Sasuke's eyes narrow, and the Oki waits a minute, but when Sasuke makes no move towards the bandage, he sighs. "If that is your choice..."
Oki-Itachi's hand forms a sign and Sasuke is going to move when what feels like iron chains wrap around his body and he drops to his knees—paralysis jutsu!?
"I'm sorry," the Oki reaches down and grabs Sasuke, "But I can't allow your injuries to get infected."
Sasuke bares his teeth while the human sets him in his palm and unwinds the bandages from around him, pulling some of Sasuke's skin painfully since the blood from his wounds glued the bandages to his body. Yet Sasuke refuses to express any emotion beside rage.
Still, the Oki sends him an apologetic look like he actually cares about his pain and Sasuke's fingers twitch. He wants so badly to maim the human, but can only simmer in silence while Oki-Itachi wipes the cotton pad over his cuts and bruises.
Humiliation burns bright in Sasuke as a new bandage is tied over his shoulder and torso until finally the human makes a quick motion with his fingers and the invisible ropes drop from around Sasuke.
"Please try not to aggravate your injur—"
Sasuke grabs the pillow and chucks it at the Oki's head.
The human catches it and Sasuke's chest heaves while Oki-Itachi stares evenly at him before turning and walking out the room.
Sasuke wants to demand he return, but knows better than to talk. Still, his frustration over his entrapment makes him want to destroy something. However, there's no furniture on his side of the room except for the table.
Sasuke scowls and turns to punch the wall.
—
Oki-Itachi returns twice to feed him, but Sasuke lunges at him the first time and knocks the food to the floor the second time. He won't make this easy for the monster, not anymore.
The door opens a third time and Sasuke rises, yet his brow jumps up when Konan enters with a bowl of soup. However, he soon glowers.
Sasuke allows the woman to approach the table, but the second she sets the dish down he runs up and kicks it off.
The bowl is plastic so doesn't break as it clatters onto the floor. Still, seeing the liquid and vegetables spread over the ground makes Sasuke smirk. Though he scowls when the kunoichi bends down to pick up the bowl. However, an idea strikes him, and Sasuke rushes to the table edge and leaps towards her neck.
Konan moves back in a flash and Sasuke hits the floor in an awkward roll. He pushes himself up, searing pain slicing apart his insides while he stands and sprints towards her feet.
The kunoichi steps behind the barrier, yet Sasuke springs up and kicks the wall.
The woman simply watches as he kicks and strikes the barrier over and over, his face growing slick with sweat and heart pounding while his body grows heavy.
Eventually he drops to the ground and his legs crumble beneath him while Sasuke barely has the energy to raise his head and glare at the woman.
She regards him neutrally for a second, then turns and departs from the room. A few minutes later she comes back with a washcloth and walks past him to clean up the mess by the table. Sasuke struggles to his feet and staggers over to her, but by the time he's near her, the kunoichi is rising and swiftly leaves.
Sasuke glares at the closing door while he collapses onto his hands. He knows Oki-Itachi only sent Konan to soften him up, but Sasuke won't be tricked into complacency again.
Because the Akatsuki is keeping him from his brother, and that more than anything guarantees Sasuke will destroy every single one of them no matter what.
—
Itachi sits at the round table in the kitchen when a presence enters the doorway. Without looking up from his grocery list, he asks, "Did he throw his food again?"
Konan, tone neutral, says, "That, as well as attempted to attack me."
Itachi nods. "I'll find another way to feed him."
Konan inclines her head and the Uchiha waits for her footsteps to disappear down the hall before his face tightens. Little Sasuke is even angrier than he expected, his wrath reaching heights he didn't think was possible and his injured body suffering for it. He had hoped Little Sasuke's anger was aimed solely at him, but clearly the min-nin resents all of the Akatsuki for his recapture.
Itachi resists massaging his temples as he stands. He's out of ideas for now so decides to go out and buy groceries while pondering what might soothe the min-nin's rage.
He doesn't return until after midnight, but to be safe, he cautiously opens his bedroom door.
Little Sasuke glares at him from his slumped position against the wall, and Itachi frowns, though he doesn't look the min-nin's way as he starts getting ready for bed. The min-nin doesn't let up in his glaring for a second, and Itachi knows he'll need more time to calm down, so turns off the lights and hopes the tiny ninja will get some rest as he settles into his bed.
The next morning Itachi is dismayed to find Little Sasuke awake, dark circles around his eyes and chest rising and falling quickly while he holds his side.
The min-nin's injuries are clearly paining him, so Itachi pulls out a small bottle of numbing gel from his dresser, sets it on the table and leaves to get his breakfast.
He returns twenty minutes later to find the bottle open and on the ground, green gel oozing from it while Little Sasuke sits in the same place, though his breathing seems even more haggard—probably due to his bruised ribs being aggravated.
Itachi wants to leave the min-nin be, yet he cannot watch the small shinobi suffer, so his Sharingan burns to life and he quickly catches the min-nin in a pleasant genjutsu. The teen's face goes lax, ebony orbs dulling, and he gently picks Little Sasuke up and unwraps the bandage over his torso.
The skin around his ribs is splotched purple and green, making Itachi frown while he picks up the gel bottle from the ground, squirts a little on his fingers and rubs it over the min-nin's bruises. Then he puts a new bandage over Little Sasuke's torso and lays him back on the table.
For a second he considers going to the kitchen, bringing back some bread, and making the min-nin eat it since he doesn't want Little Sasuke to starve. However, forcing the min-nin to do something he's clearly against unsettles Itachi more than it should, perhaps because the Akatsuki has already taken away the teen's freedom and Itachi wants to preserve what dignity the min-nin has left.
Itachi ends the genjutsu and the tiny ninja starts, eyes darting around until he sees Itachi. The teen's face hardens and he shoves himself up, but before he can fly at him, his legs tremble and he falls back on his elbows.
Itachi knows Little Sasuke will keep forcing himself up as long he remains here, so he quickly vacates his bedroom.
The Uchiha shuts the door behind him and lingers in the hall, his tear troughs deepening as he frowns at the ground. Itachi doesn't know where to go from here. What little progress he made with the min-nin is clearly gone and neither time nor space seems to be abating Little Sasuke's anger. Yet if the little ninja keeps going like this he will certainly die, and that cannot happen.
"How is it?"
He turns to Tobi who is leaning casually against the wall a few feet away, and scowls. "How do you think?" Itachi raises a brow, anger boiling hotter than he's felt in a long time. "You stole him away from his home, took him from his friends and had Zetsu attack him."
His expression cools. "He won't eat, his injuries won't let him rest, and there is nothing I can do to make it better."
Tobi gazes at him, Sharingan flashing in his eye. "Is that what you think? Truly?"
Itachi reins in his anger, but his voice is tight while he says, "Yes." He starts walking past the man, but stops to whisper. "And since you're probably wondering, there's no sign he has the Mangekyō." His tone sharpens. "All your little tricks have done is ensured he'll kill himself before he ever does what the Akatsuki wants."
Itachi storms ahead without waiting for a response.
—
Oki-Itachi doesn't come back for the rest of the day.
The sky turns dark outside the bedroom window hanging over the table and Sasuke lays on the sill, pressing himself against the glass, though it chills his skin, to give himself the illusion he's outside.
Despite his aching shoulder and bruised body, he is starting to drift off until a whisper makes him raise his head.
Sasuke looks back right as a gloved hand wraps around him and lifts him up. The Chibi gasps in pain at the sudden motion while Tobi glares down at him with a red Sharingan eye.
The Uchiha pales because how did the man get his clan's dōjutsu!? However, he can't question it when the human is already saying, "You don't know what really happened the night Itachi killed his clan."
The teen's eyes widen as the man says, "But I will tell you the truth," his scarlet gaze bores into Sasuke's, "The truth that Konoha ordered Itachi to kill them."
Sasuke's mouth drops, and he's certain this is a nightmare until the man's Sharingan swirls and his chakra is forcibly molded while he's dragged under a genjutsu.
Yes, it's really happening. It took a little over a year, but we've finally reached a part of the story I know many of you have been waiting for :D Also kudos to everyone who predicted this would happen!
And thank you to all who reviewed last chapter, your every word means a lot!
Next time: The truth comes out and Sasuke questions everything he knows...
