::Chapter 10…

::I hope you guys review! I really wanna know what you think!

::Oh yeah, and beware of spoilers!!! There are a few in here somewhere…

Chapter 10: Separated

"Shit. How are we getting out now?" Sakura said in frustration.

"We'll find a way. Just be careful. My bastard of a brother could be here anywhere." He replied.

"Okay Sasuke-kun."

"This door can only be opened from here. Only, I can't figure out how."

"Why don't we look for a lever or something in this dungeon that might activate it?"

"Yeah. That could work."

The two walk around the tunnels, looking for something that might help them open the door.

"What about this?" Sakura pointed at a stick with a handle sticking out of the wall.

"Yeah. That could be it. But let me pull it. It could be a trap, so stay back."

"Hai."

Sasuke slowly pulled down the lever, and heard a slow creaking noise. A steel barrier suddenly fell from the ceiling, separating the two.

"SASUKE-KUN! Are you okay!?!" Sakura screamed, banging on the barrier.

On the other side of the barrier…

"Sakura! Sakura! Are you okay? Did you escape? " Sasuke asked.

The room went dark. Sasuke was confused. "Is this real?" He thought to himself.

"Look at yourself. You're WEAK. You could never kill me." Itachi suddenly appeared.

"Shut up!"

The room went dark… only what Sasuke saw next, he was not prepared for.

He saw himself as a child… getting home from the academy. Only, the Uchiha compound was quiet. No-one was to be seen. The place was cold. It was empty. It was dark. He couldn't control his movements. He could only watch himself go through the compound, and find everyone dead.

"Not this…anything but this." His sixteen year old self thought. He knew what was to come.

The eight-year-old Sasuke ran home. To the house he's lived in for years. Sasuke witnessed the Uchiha massacre right in front of him once again, his mother and father, being killed right in front of him by his own brother. He ran for it. He had no control. All he could do was live out that horrible nightmare once more. He ran, and ran. But his brother caught up with him. He told him to grow in hatred of him, to get stronger, in the hope of avenging the clan.

The sixteen-year-old Sasuke could take no more. This was the worst night of his life. "Stop it you bastard! Fight me face-to face!" he shouted.

The images slowly disappeared, the eight-year-old Sasuke, the Uchiha compound, the corpses of his family. All he could see now were the dark halls of the tunnel once more.

"I don't need to. You know you'll never win." Itachi appeared.

"Shut up."

Sasuke's blood boiled inside of him. His hatred flowed in his veins. His eyes went blood red. He drew his sword, and focused an immense amount of chakra into it. You could see the chakra enveloping him, blue, cold and electric.

"Now, you die." He said. Sasuke charged with all his might. He was lighting fast. But his brother was still able to move out of the way of his attacks.

"Nice try brother. But, still not enough, I won't be killing you tonight, so just get out of my way." Itachi said coldly.

"Why won't you kill me then? Why didn't you kill me when you killed mother and father?" Sasuke said, still trying to hit Itachi with his sword.

"Do you really wanna know?"

"Yes." Sasuke replied, finally able to scratch Itachi's arm.

"Well, I needed to keep you alive. You have something I need." Itachi replied, then hit Sasuke and caused him to fall to the floor.

Sasuke was catching his breath, but could not move. "Like what? It's not like I'm the only one with a Sharingan." He said, cursing under his breath.

"Exactly. Haven't you figured it out yet? Haven't you been reading the scrolls back home?"

"The scrolls?" Sasuke said, trying to remember.

"Too much use of the Mangekyo Sharingan causes blindness…"He remembered reading it off a scroll somewhere in the compound during his first few days back home. "So you're going blind… and you want my eyes."

"Very well observed little bother. But tonight isn't your lucky night. I have no need for your eyes just yet." He said. "But, I will leave you something to remember me by."Itachi said, then he disappeared.

"YOU BASTARD! GET BACK HERE!" Sasuke shouted. And banged on the barrier once more.

"Sakura! Sakura! Are you there?" He spoke, putting his ears to the barrier, waiting for an answer.

On the other side…

"Sasuke-kun???" She said back. "I'm fine. Don't worry."

"You sure?" said Sasuke from the other side of the barrier.

"Yes Sasuke-kun. Now how are we getting out of this place?"

"I'm not sure. But I'll find a way. Stay there and try to find out how to open the door."

"Okay Sasuke-kun. But be careful!"

Sakura heard no reply. She was extremely worried. Not much for herself, but mostly for Sasuke. She heard all the screaming and fighting from the other side of the barrier. She knew Sasuke had already encountered his brother, but failed to kill him again. She knew the weakness of the Mangekyo, and why Sasuke was kept alive at the night of the massacre.

"Now what do we do? How the heck am I gonna open this stupid door? Hmm… think Sakura. THINK!!!" Sakura thought to herself.

"Maybe one big burst of chakra will do it?" So, focusing a huge amount of chakra to her hand, she punched the door with all her might. It was extremely strong, and dust blew everywhere. But once the smoke cleared… there was the door, unmoved. Not even a scratch. Sakura cursed under her breath.

"Well, that didn't work… now what!?!" Tired and out of breath, Sakura tried her best to think about a way to open the huge wooden door right in front of her.

"If brute strength isn't the key… maybe the door itself has something to do with it?"Sakura examined the door, looking for a mechanism or a crack or something. ANYTHING. She noticed the door was plain. Just big, wooden and cannot be opened. "I give up. This door just won't budge!" She thought, frustrated

Outside the door…

"Sakura-chan just punched the door…" Naruto said, after hearing the loud bang.

"Yeah. But that's some door. It still won't open." Kiba said.

"Kakashi-sensei, can't you use a jutsu or something to get in there? They might be in trouble." Naruto said worriedly.

"I already tried that. But it doesn't work. There's more to that door than it seems. It might not even be a door." The masked jonin said.

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked , confused.

"It might be a genjutsu Naruto-kun." Hinata said.

"That's some genjutsu!"

"Hey, don't forget Sasuke's brother, we don't know what he's capable of." Kiba said.

"Exactly." Kakashi replied.

Somewhere in the hideout…

"Very nice Kakashi… you're smarter than I thought. Now, I wonder if you'll find out how to open it." Itachi thought as he heard their conversation.

"My brother still hasn't grown strong enough… his eyes aren't ready yet. If they were I would've killed him by now. Oh wait…where's he going?" Looking at Sasuke running around the tunnels, probably looking for a way to open the door and the barrier. "Hmm… he's angry again. As always. Now let's let him find the way to open that barrier. He's getting boring. " He chuckled evily in his mind.

"Oh look, my little brother's found a girlfriend... Now, this will be fun." He said, looking at the pink-haired girl sitting in the middle of the barrier and the closed door.

In the tunnels…

"Finally." Sasuke said, looking at a strange engraving at the wall. There was a hole in it. He charged his chakra into his Chokuto again, and put it in the wall. The wall moved, and revealed a seal.

"This should be enough to open that goddamn barrier. I just hope Sakura's okay." Sasuke said, clutching the seal in his hand, and attaching it to a kunai. Sasuke ran as fast as he could back to the barrier.

"Don't worry brother. I'll kill you soon enough. But if you do anything to Sakura. You're not getting out of these tunnels alive." Sasuke thought to himself.

::So that was chapter ten… thanks for reading…

::PLEASE REVIEW!!!