"Merry Christmas, Sasuke." Itachi handed a medium, perfectly wrapped box to the small 5-year-old child.

Sasuke looked at his own badly wrapped gift than at the one his older brother was handing him. When the child hesitated, Itachi gently took his gift while he placed Sasuke's gift on top of the child's head, chuckling when the child hurried to grab it before it fell.

Even in a strict household, a child was still a child. The young Sasuke hurried to open his gift, ripping apart the wrapping paper and tossing it to the ground. When the box had holes in it, he looked at Itachi in confusion. He was about to shake it; Itachi told him softly, but sternly, not to. Even more intrigued, Sasuke carefully pulled the top off the box. Inside was a small black kitten with a cute silver bell around its neck. The kitten looked up with his startling blue eyes and mewed quietly.

"Oretachi wa . . . Otou-san . . ." At the reprimanding look Itachi gave him, Sasuke pulled his eyebrows together in concentration. "Father will not . . . allow him to stay." The child said in a quiet voice, faltering a bit in his English. He was trying hard to hide the disappointment as he looked at the cat but was failing miserably with his slumped shoulders and dejected tone.

"I have arranged for him to stay with a friend of mine. You may visit the kitten whenever you wish." Itachi said opening his own present. It was the first Christmas gift Sasuke had ever given, and it suited his brother well. Itachi ran his fingers over the title of his new book on Greek philosophy. His expression didn't change, but it didn't have to. Itachi was a quiet and reserved individual, but infinitely strong in the young Sasuke's eyes.

The child's eyes widened in excitement. He set the box down and hugged his brother around his waist tightly. "Arigatou, Onii-san!" he yelled, switching back to Japanese.

His brother didn't correct him this time instead patting his head. "You are very much welcome, little brother."

"Why did you lie to father, Nii-san?" A young Sasuke, no older than 8, asked. He was standing in the hallway, shifting from foot to foot nervously. "You should have informed him it was me."

"Are you certain that I was not the one who was caught kissing another man?" Itachi had not even looked up from his book.

"Because you fancy Catherine Hallewell, and you are quite infatuated with her." Itachi finally looked up from his book to see the distress on the young boy's face. His eyes were tearing, his bottom lip quivering just slightly. He was trying hard not to cry.

Placing the book on his nightstand next to the candle, he motioned for Sasuke to come to him. Sasuke climbed onto the bed burying his face into Itachi's shirt. "Is it so bad to like another boy?" the child whispered. "What's wrong with me?"

Itachi wrapped his arms around the boy. "I do not mind telling father it was I who the duchess had seen. It is her fault she failed to clarify which son she saw. I told father it was merely an accident which led to that incident. Though father was furious, he was much more lenient on me than he would have been with you. I predicted this outcome which was why I said it." He rubbed the young boy's back trying to soothe the sobs.

"As for you, Sasuke, nothing is wrong with you. You are still my young, naïve, impatient little brother as you were before you discovered this. It was even acceptable in certain countries a long, long time ago. However, as cultures and civilizations change, so do human ideals and beliefs, and unfortunately, this country nor ours accepts it."

"I do not want to continue feeling like this. I want to be normal. Tell me how not to like Christopher anymore. How do I fix this?" He sounded desperate even to his own young ears, and he was ashamed of it. If his father saw him like this, he would have been disappointed, asking why he was not more like Itachi.

"I do not believe it can be fixed Sasuke. It is who you are, and you should not be ashamed of it." He petted Sasuke's hair. "However, I do recommend that you should keep it out of the public knowledge until such relationships are more accepted."

"When?" He asked sniffling. He had no qualms about getting snot on his brother's nightclothes. Itachi ignored it as well since the young boy had finally stopped crying.

"I do not know. It could be a century or three. I do not have knowledge of the future, but it will come, Sasuke, so do not cry."

"I was not crying," Sasuke muttered, wiping his eyes on Itachi's clothes again.

"Do you wish to sleep here tonight?" Itachi asked.

"I am not a baby. I can sleep in my own bed." Even saying that his face was still flushed from his bout of crying, his eyes red, and his nose runny.

"All right. Get to bed. You have lessons in the morning."

Sasuke huffed. "I wish to go hunting with you and father tomorrow."

"I will ask Father in the morning. Off to bed before mother comes to check in on you." The elder Uchiha smiled when his younger brother smiled brightly at him.

Sasuke moved towards the door but stopped just short. "Oyasumi." Sasuke looked back at his brother shyly, watching his older brother decide whether or not to reprimand him for speaking in Japanese.

"Oyasumi, Sasuke. Nenasai." Itachi chuckled when Sasuke wrinkled his nose at the command. "Itte."

"Hai," he mumbled, moving to go back to his own room.

"You've been acting strange, Brother. People have begun to ask if you have gone mad. The outbursts, the withdrawal . . . I am worried for you." Sasuke could only talk to the door as his brother had locked himself in his room.

When the door didn't open, he took a deep breath and entered the room with a spare key he had swiped. The normally organized room was a mess. There were books everywhere, along with scrolls and training gear. Itachi sat in the center on the floor, seated in a seiza position, eyes closed, breathing deeply.

"Brother, will you not speak to me? You promised to take me to the river for chakra control training."

"Yuruse Sasuke . . . Matta kondo da." The older brother murmured.

Sasuke stopped. He never heard such an emotionless voice directed toward him before. At least not from his brother. And his brother never spoke in his native tongue unless his father was angry and did not wish to discuss matters where others could understand or if Itachi decided to humor Sasuke—though Sasuke had been sticking to English very well over the years. "What happened, Brother? Since your return from training, you have not been the same."

Itachi finally looked up at him, his eyes were soft, but his expression was closed off. "It does not concern you Sasuke. . . I request solitude for now. If you could give me some time to collect myself . . . it would be much appreciated."

Sasuke didn't have a choice in the matter. Itachi had stood up and closed the door in his face.

"Why? Why would you do this?!" Sasuke fell back onto his butt, his breathing bordering hyperventilating. He could no longer stand, but he scurried away as Itachi walked towards him slowly and calmly. His face was devoid of emotion, his eyes now cold and expressionless. His clothes were soaked in blood. Sasuke's eyes drifted to the mansion behind Itachi, which was now going up in flames, the thick black smoke rising high into the night sky, blocking the moon. He vaguely recalled that his parent' bodies along with the mansion's staff were burning with it. He looked at Itachi who was still approaching him. "N-nii-san," he tried to smile. "This is a mistake, right? Tell me it's a mistake."

Itachi stopped just in front of him. Something was strange with his eyes. His iris a molten silver than its deep black. "Little brother. You are weak and naïve. Just like our parents. Vampires are superior. They are meant to inspire fear in those weaker than them. Not doing so just weakens them. As proven by how easily our parents fell to a human hand." The child whimpered, backing away more only to have his back against a tree.

"But you are still young, Sasuke. You can change. You can become powerful. You can make me proud." He stabbed the blade inches away from Sasuke's face into the tree behind him. He leaned forward, whispering into Sasuke's ear, the smaller boy shaking with fear. "So run, keep yourself alive until you become of age to turn. Use your hatred for me to make yourself stronger, then come find me and show me what a good vampire you have become." His silver eyes looked down. "And try not to soil yourself the next time you see me. It's unbecoming for an Uchiha. Now," Itachi leaned back just far enough to let Sasuke have a chance to escape. "Run."

When Sasuke turned around, he had expected to see his parents' dead bodies. He had recognized the sitting room where they had been slain. With the blood spreading where he stood, he knew he would see them.

What he saw was far from what he was expecting. Itachi's body was pinned to the wall by three silver daggers: one dagger per shoulder and one just below the navel. His legs had been cut off, his arms bent in impossible angles, and there were many, many deep gashes all over his body. His stomach looked like it had been sliced open from navel to chest, his intestines spilling out onto the floor.

Sasuke stared in shock and disbelief. This must have been part of the illusion. Itachi was his kill. Putting that aside, Itachi was one of the most powerful immortals he knew. Who could capture him and torture him like this? This wasn't right. This was his revenge. This was his moment to regain honor for his family, only to have it ripped away from him and have it displayed in the most grotesque way. If anyone was going to do that to his brother, it was him.

"What do you think, young master?"

Knocked off balance by the image, Sasuke's reaction was slow, leaving him open for a possible attack.

Tobi was sitting on the couch, smiling. "Did I do well?"

Tobi did this? He stared at the man like he had never seen him before. The Tobi he knew would never be able to defeat Itachi. He was a screwup and lacked the cruelty this act required. But Tobi was wearing perfectly tailored clothes that were different than the ones he had left in without a single hair out of place and no evidence of having been tortured. Meanwhile, his brother's body looked to have been tortured for at least a week.

Tobi's demeanor had also changed. What was once a carefree attitude and good intentions were replaced with something more sinister and cutthroat though he still smiled as he always had.

"You were never in trouble, were you?"

"Well, that's disappointing. Aren't you going to ask if this is real first?" He pouted. When Sasuke didn't take the bait, he dropped the pretense. "No, I wasn't. Though I do appreciate that you would come to my rescue. I thought you might, though I was hoping you didn't."

"If you didn't want me to come, then why kidnap yourself," Sasuke asked.

"I had to test you. To see if you really had changed. This proves, unfortunately, that you have."

Tobi stood from the couch, which disappeared at once, and walked over to Itachi, smiling cruelly. "It was quite difficult to catch him, you know. Despite his weakened state, he's gotten very adept at hiding over the years." As Tobi talked, Sasuke picked up his sword. Tobi didn't seem to mind as he continued. "I should thank you for luring him out."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Sasuke demanded.

"Itachi is an amazing young man. Soft, but very skilled. He was too loving for his own good, and that was his downfall in the end."

Sasuke smiled dryly. "Haven't you been paying attention over the years? My brother is a psychopathic murderer."

Tobi's eyes darkened before another smile crossed his lips, one that was condescending. "Your brother was right. You are blind. You only see what others want you to see. Itachi has been helping you from the beginning, Sasuke-sama. Trying to protect you and coincidently, protect Naruto."

The blood in his veins froze then prickled under his skin at the suggestion. "Bullshit. My brother couldn't care less about me."

"Is that so?" Tobi asked amusingly. "Let's think back, shall we. When Itachi called you to announce he was in the city, what did you do? You put your guard up and acted with more caution than usual. When Naruto was attacked in the streets, you trained him, in essence strengthening your own basics and got you used to combat again. When Naruto's lord was sealed, it forced Naruto to depend on his own strength instead of relying on the lord to save him, and that is just the past few months. Who else knows how else he manipulated you over the years."

"Coincidence. I'm sure it just aligned with his goals to torture me later."

"You don't believe that," Tobi reprimanded lightly.

That was true, he didn't. What Tobi said filled in the missing gaps of what was going on. He just didn't want to believe it. "How did you capture him, Tobi," Sasuke asked, keeping his front towards Tobi as he walked around. Something about Tobi came off as dangerous.

"When you and Naruto were trapped in Orochimaru's lair, Itachi was the one who assisted you, gave you the tools to escape your confinement, overrode the security, and gave you the dagger that allowed you to gain the upper hand. He came out of hiding to do all that for you. Your sweet, sweet onii-chan."

Tobi was there. In order to capture Itachi there, he had to be, and yet he didn't come to their aid. "It doesn't change the fact he killed my family. Why would he protect me?"

"I wonder why." Tobi reached out, pulling the daggers out of the stomach then shoulders, allowing Itachi to fall to the ground with a sickening sound. "He's all yours Shisui."

Just as Tobi had suddenly appeared, so had another man. His hair was long, greasy, and unkempt, his skin pale, and dressed in rags. No matter how Sasuke looked at it, he looked like a prisoner.

Though he was blindfolded, Shisui ran straight to Itachi's fallen body. The amount of pain Itachi had to be in from blood loss had to be inscrutable. Sasuke wouldn't even be surprised if his brother was unaware of the pain of missing limbs at this point with the pain of hunger overriding his senses. Itachi's eyes were barely opened, his skin grey, and eyes unfocused.

Sasuke had trouble wrapping his mind around the information. Tobi being a traitor was easy to swallow. He had been betrayed before, and on a certain level, he never trusted anyone fully. Seeing Itachi like this was like the earth was shaking underneath his feet. The man he had spent over a century hating. The man who was supposed to be strong and cunning, weak and helpless. This monster who had tormented him was actually protecting him, but protecting him from what? If Tobi truly believed Itachi was a protector, not an enemy, then why would he do this?

He tightened his grip on his sword, raising his defenses.

"Aren't you at least going to ask me what my true intentions are?" Tobi asked as if he had been waiting for him to ask.

Coldly, he replied, "If I asked, would you tell me?"

Tobi's lips curled as he watched Shisui attend to Itachi. "No. Not at all, but I was hoping you would ask. If this was a story, I'd be telling you my entire backstory and motives through a monologue."

"Then why ask? Why even bring me here at all? You said you were testing me. Testing me for what?"

Tobi slowly turned to Sasuke. "You know what I liked about you, Sasuke-sama? Your cruelty. How nothing deterred you from your path. How you categorized people base on their usefulness. I loved how easily you could kill, whether man or child, all to get revenge on your much hated older brother. Why? Because it was useful to me. It made you strong. And if I could bring out that cruelty even more and keep you on task, that was even better." He looked at Sasuke with a look of a parent who was slightly exasperated and didn't know what to do with their child. "Of course, the moment I become distracted, just temporarily as we were about to approach our goal, you became soft, indulging that revolting hobby of yours, taking a man as your lover with the intent of making him your mate." He sighed dramatically. "I tried to make him leave the moment I realized he was a distraction, but I could only do so much while keeping my image. It was too subtle. But you can become great once again.

"There," he pointed to Itachi, "he is the reason for your strength. The reason you have become as strong as you have at your young age. I have captured him for you. Take the last step and finish him."

"You tell me that you were using me, and he has been protecting me, and yet you want me to take your side and kill him? Excuse me if I'm failing to follow your logic."

"Because of who you are. Can you honestly tell me you didn't enjoy the path you've chosen until now? Aspiring to become the strongest, making the right connections, meticulously creating strategies that would put you on top. You want to leave your past behind? Surpass it even? Kill him and take the next step in becoming greater. Surpass Itachi and overcome the flaw he could not."

Shisui, on the floor and cradling Itachi's head in his lap, turned his head towards Sasuke as if he was frightened. With Shisui's eyes obscured and the curtain of hair, it was hard to interpret his expression other than him being protective over Itachi.

Panicked, Shisui brought a hand up in a protective gesture, "Sasuke-kun. You're Sasuke-kun, right? It's me, your cousin, Shisui. I grew up with Itachi. I trained with him remember?"

The name was familiar. It was a long time ago, and he had been extremely young. He vaguely remembered his brother spending a large amount of time with a scraggly teen. Whether he was from the branch family or not, Sasuke couldn't remember. The boy from his memory was confident, playful, and very well educated. If the boy hadn't been standing next to, therefore compared to, his brother, he would have been a good representation of the first son of a prominent family. However, if his memory was correct, the boy had died shortly after his brother had come back from training. If he was from the branch family, the option to become an immortal wasn't even on the table. They were there to support and serve the main family; therefore, he couldn't possibly still be around.

"Please believe me, Sasuke-kun. Remember me. Please." He was pleading, his voice broken. Traits an Uchiha would be embarrassed to be associated with. Uchiha's were to be proud and collected at all times. For someone to claim to be related to him to show these traits was immediately off-putting.

"Did Itachi kill them?" He asked the man who claimed to be his relation.

"Wha-?" The question took the man off guard.

"Did, Itachi. Kill. Them." Sasuke asked again, slowly and eerily calm. "Yes. Or no."

Sasuke watched every reaction, gauging whether what he said was the truth. Shisui opened his mouth and closed it a few times, nothing escaping his mouth until finally, Shisui nodded, confirming it.

"Well, there you have it, Sasuke-sama. You have no reason to hesitate. Kill him."

If this was a story, Tobi may have been the borderline over-the-top villain. Eager to see if he would join him after years of manipulation. Honestly, he was tempted. After everything he did to get where he was today, after throwing away everything, he did not want his life to be meaningless. In the end, Itachi had destroyed his life and killed their parents.

Shisui's expression changed. He looked like a man resigned to his fate, his grip on Itachi probably painful. Itachi couldn't put up a fight. It would be easy to dispatch him. His revenge could finally be achieved.

But this wasn't what he wanted. He wanted to take Itachi down himself, fight him himself. Have him acknowledge his power and achievements.

Sasuke readjusted the grip on his sword. He wouldn't let his entire life be meaningless.

"So, what will you do, young master?"

Naruto had somehow ended up in a strange place. After following the path, he had ended up at a barrier. It was clear and distorted as if looking through water. When he had reached out to touch it hesitantly, it gave off a warmth that spread throughout his body along with a strong pain in the back of his skull warning him to go away.

Illusions were not Naruto's expertise. Besides the one time during his fight with Kabuto, he hadn't successfully created an illusion since, so it was safe to say he was atrocious with it. Uchiha had even gone to the lengths of saying he was the worst user he had ever met and that was including normal humans. He would probably not be to escape this one on his own. As they had been dating when Uchiha said that, Naruto knew he was putting it nicely.

Through the wall, Naruto could only see whiteness, nothing of detail, but he had felt someone's life force beyond it. The chakra that made up this world was thinner here, like a curtain. If he walked through it, he may be transported elsewhere, but if he distorted it, he may be trapped or killed depending on its purpose.

This illusion was nothing like Jiraiya or Uchiha described. There was no orientation. An illusion showed what the creator wanted you to see with a goal. You wanted the victim to see something specific to lead them to a certain mindset. For example, convince the victim that their dead mother was speaking to them to unnerve them or make them believe they were safe by transporting them into their fantasy. There was a focus. This was more like a location. As far as he can tell, his mind was clear, and he wasn't being steered in a certain direction. It was like the user wasn't even supervising the illusion or not aware. Did the creator even know he was there?

Still, his dilemma was deciding whether to go through the wall or not. It could be Tobi. If he left to get Uchiha first, Itachi may come for Tobi. Or Naruto could go and get into something that's way over his head. To go through or find Uchiha.

Biting the inside of his cheek, he imagined how pissed off Uchiha was going to be. He couldn't let go of the possibility it may be Tobi.

Counting to three and holding his breath, he walked through the barrier. Going through was like walking through a bubble, bending around him to let him through but pressing against him where it touched. It was uncomfortable, borderline painful, but it was manageable, and Naruto continued to walk through.

Upon reaching the other side, he couldn't help but think he should have thought more of this through. He was still a relatively new fighter and if Kisame was anywhere nearby, his ass would be thoroughly handed to him. Unfortunately, as he had feared, the barrier, having been distorted, closed, locking him in. He couldn't go back if he wanted to.

The room he had entered was purely white with not a single decoration or embellishment in sight. There was only one thing in the room. A raised white platform with a body laying upon it. The body was of a middle-aged man with long black hair that reached his knees, wearing a white kimono with a wooden stake through his heart.

Naruto's eyes locked onto the body, and for a moment, as he looked upon the pale face, he forgot how to breathe.