Itachi recognized the sharp poke of a sword in his back.

"You aren't Boruto," Sasuke hissed. "Tell me who you are or I'll kill you."

So this was it. Sasuke had trapped him. The only question was how? How did he suspect him of being anything other than Boruto? There was no way he knew the actual truth." Keep calm. As the older brother he already knew how to manipulate these situations with Sasuke: Sasuke having a meltdown as a baby so he distracts him with a shiny toy; Sasuke pouting that Itachi can't play with him because had homework or a mission and Itachi keeps him at bay with a forehead poke or a promise to play later. He knew what to do then, surely he could manipulate his way out of it now.

"What are you talking about? Of course I'm Boruto," he scoffed.

"I said. Tell me who you are."

"Of course, I'm Boruto," he tried again. My sharingan isn't strong enough to overpower him. What else can I do…? "I don't know what you're thinking right now-"

Sasuke stayed silent and Itachi felt the burning sensation of the sword grow as the sword pierced him deeper, almost breaking the skin. His brother was serious. He immediately realized that if he didn't think fast he might not get out of this alive.

Self preservation and die or tell him the truth to save the world? The answer was clear. He had to do what he could to save the Village again...and his family. Itachi swallowed and stepped over the line that resigned him to this fate. "How much do you know?"

"So you admit you're not Boruto." Sasuke's voice was booming and overpowered his own. "Tell me who you are."

"Sasuke...please tell me what you-"

"I said tell me who you are." The sword shoved against Itachi further and he leaned forward against the tree to keep it from stabbing him open. "You knew about the rinnegan. You were surprised by my arm. You knew things that Boruto clearly did not. There is no use lying anymore- it's in your best interest just to talk."

"I don't know how to tell you what I need to tell you…" Itachi choked out.

"It's easy. You talk or I'll kill you."

Itachi's mind snapped to life. He had to get the information out fast and in a way that could make Sasuke believe. He knew his brother's quick temper. He had to let the truth sink in slowly so as to not overload Sasuke's already cold and determined demeanor or else he might snap.

"It's not that simple," he whispered. "You won't believe me."

"Try me," Sasuke growled.

His previous life played out like a movie behind his eyes as all the memories with Sasuke flashed before him. What could he say to get him to believe?

"I'm proud of you," he tried. "You have gotten so strong since ourlast fight..."

"Oh are we talking in riddles?" He kicked Itachi behind the knees and he fell forward. His forehead scraped against the tree. "That doesn't tell me anything. We fought before and I let you live? Consider yourself lucky. Where have we fought before? Tell me, quit playing these games."

Dammit. Of course he wouldn't immediately think of Itachi. What was a foolproof memory?

"You… You have gotten so strong since our fight with Kabuto," he tried again slowly.

Sasuke jumped backwards and Itachi rolled away and sprung up before Sasuke could attack. He could see that Sasuke's sword was alive with lightning but he didn't attack. It was like his curiosity got the best of him and he wanted to figure out the real truth instead of just killing him. "What do you mean 'our' fight with Kabuto?" he hissed. "I'm tired of asking- I'm going to make you tell me who the fuck you are."

Sasuke charged at him, but as though from divine intervention, Itachi felt his body surge to full strength and he was able to dodge. He knew even with his own skills and Boruto's, he was no match for him.

"I am trying to tell you!" he screamed. I have to make him see sooner. I have to go all out or he'll kill me.

"JUST SAY IT!"

Sasuke sliced through the air and Itachi was able to flip backwards just in time to barely miss the blade. He knew he only had seconds left.

"Who did you last fight with Kabuto?" he yelled out as he reached higher into the trees.

Sasuke landed on the branch below him. His eyes suddenly darkened as his thoughts clearly landed on Itachi. "How dare you? What are you saying?"

"I don't know why I'm here… And I don't know why this is happening-"

Sasuke yelled out and climbed higher after Itachi. "How dare you disgrace him?! How dare you mock him? How dare you imply that you are him!"

He was getting too close. Itachi knew he needed to make him realize in the next few seconds or he was surely dead. Maybe if he startled him with a memory...a realization…something to stop him for a second...he only needed a second…

Later Itachi would suppose that what happened next to his body was its own act of preservation to buy him as much time as it could, but he felt his eyesight sharpen suddenly as Sasuke hopped on his tree branch next to him.

Sasuke's face morphed in horror as Itachi felt his eyes switch to the sharingan. But in a flash it only changed to anger. He stabbed at where Itachi was standing but Itachi was able to duck again and jump downwards.

"What are you? Are you another one of Orochimaru's things?" he yelled after him. "You think that just because you have the sharingan that you are an Uchiha? That you get to claim him and his acts?!"

Itachi knew he was referring to his older brother; he thought he was now fighting for his brother, and how he'd be horrified if he knew the truth. But he needed to know that truth.

"Those are my acts!" he fired back. "I told you, I don't know why it happened or even what happened but-" He dodged out of the way. He was losing seconds.

"Sasuke, please, listen!"

"I have done enough listening to you!"

Itachi's mouth began spewing out all the information he ever knew about Sasuke that may have been personal enough to make him stop and begin to realize the truth. "Your favorite food is tomatoes. You worked so hard on your fireball jutsu until you finally got it; all you ever wanted was Dad's approval. All you ever wanted was to train with me. You'd love when I'd let you train with Shisui and me. We both lived for the times we had together-"

Sasuke clearly felt he owed Itachi no more words because he was silently seething as he rushed him; easing him into the truth wasn't stopping the trickle of bloodlust in Sasuke's eyes but actually fueling it.

He knew what he had to do then. The answer was clear. If words weren't working...

He had to go for it.

The one thing that would let him know over anything,

But he needed an opening.

And he needed that opening now.

But how? He needed to say something to make Sasuke falter, even for just a second.

Itachi weaved the signs that were muscle memory now and blew fire toward him to buy himself more time to move higher; the branch Sasuke was on immediately sprung to life in flames and he was forced to jump away.

Sasuke returned the heat and the brothers were suddenly breathing their own fire at one another. Why doesn't he use amaterasu? he heard in the back of his mind, but he waved the thought away. Thank goodness he wasn't.

He couldn't keep doing this much longer. The seconds ticked away and soon Sasuke was going to have him trapped and as soon as he did, surely Itachi would be dead. What can he say…

Suddenly, the words came to him. The last words he said to Sarada, and the last words he ever said to him, too. He would know. He had to know. He prayed they would work and give him his opening, otherwise he was out of time.

"Sasuke." He jumped to the next tree and conjured up all the breath he had to scream his words. They had to work. They had to. "Sasuke, please listen!"

Sasuke followed but Itachi had already screamed the words: "No matter what you choose to do- no matter if you have to kill me right now- I will always love you!"

Below him, Sasuke faltered for a second as the words reached him.

The opening he wanted presented itself; that was all he needed to make his ultimate move.

NOW.

Itachi jumped down to Sasuke's level. Within a moment he was staring into his face.

"I will always love you," he promised again as he moved his fingers to his forehead to convey the truth. "Always."

His fingers touched his forehead. I can't go back now.

The gears of time jammed. Sasuke immediately took a step back away from his older brother. "N-no…"

Itachi stared into his wide, crazed eyes and could see his brain whirring behind it. He stepped closer. "Yes."

"No. No. You could have learned that from...you could have gotten that from the archives," Sasuke tried to justify. He took another step backwards toward the edge.

"What archives, Sasuke?" Itachi asked gently. "Are there files on our brotherhood? Do they know about this? Everything that should have been but never got to be?"

Sasuke began to shake his head as the truth seeped into his brain and incinerated everything he thought he knew. "No. No no NO. This can't be… You can't be…" He took another step back. Then another. He was clearly too shocked to strike back.

"I am." Itachi inched closer to his little brother whose eyes were now popping out of his head. He fought the urge to reach out and take the scared little boy into his arms; he was in big brother mode now, and he felt calm in his old role, needing to be strong for his brother.

"Sasuke, you know everything I have ever done has been for you." I did it. I actually did it. He sees the truth. "I told you...I don't know why… I don't know how… but I'm here."

"No no no. WHEN? When did this happen?" Sasuke's scream was primal, animal, a pain from deep within. Itachi could see tears forming in the corner of his eyes, begging to be squeezed out. "This can't be real, this isn't real, this isn't-"

"I woke up as Boruto that night in the forest," Itachi explained gently. "That night he was attacked…"

"Oh GOD." Sasuke's eyes bulged more as Itachi assumed the last week came flying back to him. "STOP. STOP IT. IT'S NOT TRUE. That time… that whole time. That means you...you...you were in my house...you…"

"Fought Sarada. Yeah."

Sasuke's knees buckled and he fell to his knees. "This whole time...you…" he sputtered.

"I don't know who you thought I was, but I only want to help you," he stated calmly. He walked over to Sasuke and gingerly lifted him before bringing them both safely to the ground. Sasuke immediately buckled to the ground again, and Itachi sat calmly next to him before placing a hand on his arm.

"Listen-"

"That's why you wanted to know about my arm...you never knew...you were gone before…"

"Yes. Everything."

Sasuke suddenly reached up and grabbed Itachi's shoulder, bringing him close to his face. "That means you met Sarada," he cried out.

Itachi just nodded. Sasuke's face crumpled in response as he realized the significance of his statement, and he lowered his head toward the ground. His grip on Itachi tightened then loosened before his arm slumped off his shoulder.

"She looks so much like Mom," Itachi replied softly. Sasuke made a choking sound and Itachi could swear he saw a tear drip onto the grass.

Itachi suddenly remembered himself. "Hey, hey. Stay with me, Sasuke." He didn't want to see his brother break down, not when he clearly brought him here for a reason. They could talk about Sarada later. "Can you tell me who you thought I was? Can you tell me what's going on? Why did you try to kill me?"

Sasuke finally raised his shell shocked eyes to his brother's and Itachi could see in his eyes that he was quickly regaining composure. "White zetsu," he said gruffly. "I thought you were a white zetsu."

"So you know about the white zetsu found here?" Itachi asked.

"I found one when traveling as well, right before Naruto's letter came through- Oh no. Naruto." He lowered his head again and he beat the ground with his fist. "How are we going to tell Naruto?" When he looked back at Itachi, his eyes were back to the size of saucers. "Where is Boruto?" he asked frantically. "The real Boruto?"

Itachi bit his lip. "I...I don't know… All I know is I woke up in his body. "

Sasuke closed his eyes and sighed. He could see the worry and heavy responsibility he carried for Naruto.

"We can worry about that later," Itachi assured. "There's nothing we can do about that now. I want to know why you thought I was a white zetsu."

"Because you were acting differently and it was the only reasonable explanation. I mean…" His eyes popped open and he stared hard at Itachi's face; Itachi could tell he was still trying to wrap his mind around the truth. "It kind of still is."

Itachi nodded thoughtfully in agreement. It definitely did seem more understandable than your brother being reincarnated.

"And we had rumors about someone restarting the Akatsuki which would fit with zetsu's purpose of potentially inciting a new war against us. That's the only explanation of why they'd be here."

"The Akatsuki," Itachi said slowly, feeling the conversation shift. "Is that what you were looking for on your trip?"

"Yes. The documents that you- I mean Boruto- was after that night."

Itachi nodded slowly. He knew what he needed to explain next. "Sasuke… You said rumors of the Akatsuki…"

"Yes."

"Those are no rumors. It's true. Someone has restarted it and I believe the white zetsus may be a part of it."

Sasuke sat up straighter. "What? How do you know that?" he demanded.

Itachi sucked in a breath. "Because… Sarada, Mitsuki, and I are a part of it."

"What." Sasuke stood and gripped his sword. He was back in attack mode. "Why? Why would you ever be a part of that? How did this happen?!"

"No one knew!" Itachi was on his feet next to Sasuke again and moved his hands forward to lower Sasuke's sword. "This was something that happened before I even got here. Someone is targeting them for the organization but under the name of Root. The only reason I knew that is because I found documents… and I think they were the documents you were looking for. They had Mitsuki and Sarada on them with the name Akatsuki, so I was able to verify that this was the Akatsuki, but we still don't know their true intentions."

"You say you found them. Where? How did you find them? We had the whole Anbu on the lookout for them!"

Itachi took a deep breath. "In our house…"

"Our house…?" Sasuke asked, confused.

"Our house. In the Uchiha neighborhood."

He watched as the realization dawned on Sasuke. "We never looked there."

"Why would you?" Itachi noted. "So I have been trying to keep an eye on this since I found the documents last week."

"Does anyone else know?" Sasuke demanded suddenly. "About you? About this? Keeping something like this to yourself is completely reckless." He was regarding Itachi now in the way Itachi would describe as the way their father used to do when he was disappointed; he realized that as far as lives went, whether he was in Boruto's body or not, he had less life experience than Sasuke. Sasuke had truly surpassed him in every way. Maybe he was wiser.

"Kakashi and Yamato," he admitted.

"Kakashi and Yamato?" he asked, clearly perplexed.

"It's a long story. But they know everything I know."

Sasuke returned his sword to his scabbard and said, "We need to go talk to them right away before anything else happens. And before Naruto is done with his duties for today." He then grabbed a pen and paper from his pocket and quickly scribbled a note. A hawk flew down from the sky as if on a queue. "This will get to them before we do," he explained. "I'm telling Kakashi to meet us at his apartment."

Itachi hurried as Sasuke glided quickly across the field back toward the town. He could tell by Sasuke's determined stare that his brother had completely returned to himself, but he was still wondering what he was thinking. He opened his mouth to speak.

"Talk later," Sasuke suddenly hissed out of nowhere. "We will talk later when we have no chance of being heard."

He followed Sasuke in total silence for a few more minutes until they reached the Kakashi's apartment. They burst through the door to see Kakashi already sitting casually at the table.

Itachi could tell his face faltered only slightly as he watched him trail behind Sasuke. "Oh, hi, you two," he said smoothly. "I didn't know you'd be here too, Boruto? How are you?"

"Save it." Sasuke pulled back a chair across from Kakashi and stared at him as he sat. "I already know."

Kakashi's eyes drifted over to Itachi. "Know what…?" he asked innocently.

"I know his real identity, Kakashi.".