The Uchiha Mansion, built only ten years before Itachi had claimed it as his own for a mediocre price of 5 millions, is located at the centre of the prestigious ANBU Park, now also property of the rich Uchiha. A few kilometers on the northern side the Rain village stretches its arms towards the precious property, though not daring to touch it. The high fences built all around the terrain made an obvious statement: do not trespass. Now and then a stray dog would wander into the unfriendly side of the land, and never be seen again.
Sasuke awoke at the clanging of opening gates. A flat driveway rolled away from the iron fences, and the car was moving smoothly into the private property. The driver was as stiff as ever in his leather seat, his small eyes fixed on the road ahead. The flat lands all around were blue under the cloudless sky, and shadows skipped by the nude grass as the headlights of the Mercedes advanced. A giant white block stood silent near the end of the driveway.
Kisame suddenly turned around.
"See that?" He pointed a hand into the direction of the white block. "That's Itachi's lair. You might wanna be careful once you get in there. He doesn't show much mercy to troublemakers"
The block was getting nearer and nearer. White stairs came into view, and at the end of a dozen of marble steps sat a pair of wooden doors. The dark of the wood stood out from the white of the walls, and as he stared with wonder Sasuke had the impression that he was being sucked into a black hole, falling through an endless pit. He shivered.
"Man, does he have good taste," Kisame laughed. "A little too conservative, but still sophisticated. Apparently, high contrast is pretty fashionable."
They stopped in front of the stairs. The boy helped himself out while the driver opened the trunk and took out Sasuke's meager luggage. When the trunk was locked back into place Kisame took out an envelope from his own bag and handed it to the boy.
"Take this with you. It contains copies of your certificates and documents, so you better keep it. Itachi has the original copies. There's also a map of the mansion and a list of things that you'll need to know if you wanna stay here. It's all in the envelope." He rapidly patted Sasuke's head. "Have fun, kid."
The man walked back to his car and waved. He seemed rather worried, if not completely anxious. There was something about his expression that disquieted Sasuke's mind, but said boy couldn't quite put his hand on it. He smiled back at the strange driver, who nodded and got back into his car. In a flash he was out of sight.
At that very moment the front doors of the mansion popped open. A strange blond man was leaning against the doorframe, glancing down at the dark-haired boy with an unhappy face.
"Yeah, uh, you are Sasuke, yeah?"
Sasuke backed up a bit and sucked in his stomach. What the hell?
"Don't make that face, I'm friendly, yeah? Won't hurt you any time soon."
He walked casually down the stairs and picked up Sasuke's luggage before he could protest. Then, as if he did not notice Sasuke's perplexity, he walked back up the stairs, through the creepy doors, and into the mansion, all without turning back. Sasuke waited a few minutes before following him into his long-lost brother's home.
"Holy shit!!"
Sasuke was speechless. He couldn't think of any fancy word that could possibly describe his awe. There he was, standing still in the middle of an enormous hall like an idiot, facing two sets of stairs that crept up into opposite directions, along with some random doors all around, trying to decide whichever way he should go. Luckily for him, he caught a glimpse of the blond man dragging his luggage upstairs, and decided to follow.
"Wait up, hey!"
The stairs ended, and Sasuke nearly stumbled on the thick white carpet that covered the second floor. He spied another set of stairs leading to the third floor, but decided that it was not time for him to play explorer. Now the blond was walking into one of the two dimly lit hallways. He was cursing about smashing some crappy elevator to pieces if it wasn't repaired soon. Sasuke ran after him.
"Hey! Are you Itachi?"
The blond gave a scary laugh and stopped walking.
"Me? Kisame fed you pills, yeah?"
Sasuke shook his head. "Uh, no."
"Do I look anything like you or you daddy?"
Sasuke shook his head harder. "I don't think so, but…"
The light-haired man patted the boy's shoulder. "Listen, Itachi can't meet you tonight. He's busy. I'm – uh – a friend of his."
He walked to a closed door and fished a set of keys from a pocket.
"This will be your room, Sasuke. Don't make a mess, yeah?"
Sasuke was becoming more and more irritated by the man's odd speech – yeah – but said nothing.
The key wiggled in its socket for a few seconds before the door decided to yield. There was no light inside the room, but Sasuke could tell by the air flow that it was quite a bit oversized.
"Cool, where are the lights?"
"I think I left the remote somewhere inside." The blond eyed Sasuke with the same worried expression that Kisame had. "Ah well, I'm gonna go now. Enjoy yourself, yeah. Itachi will probably see you in the morning." He turned around and left.
It took Sasuke almost half an hour to find the remote, and another half an hour to figure out how to use it. It was a small, black thing, and he had to point it towards the ceiling in order to turn the lights on. There were also a few buttons for air conditioning and the fireplace, but they were too weird for Sasuke to decipher.
The room itself was very luxurious; it looked and felt like a first-class suite designed especially for the president. A lily-white king-sized bed lay on one side, while a matching leather couch rested on the other, along with a flat screen TV. The floor was covered with a sinister black carpet, and snowy curtains adorned the big windows. A door opened to a gigantic bathroom filled with black towels. Talk about contrast, Sasuke thought, this is completely insane.
He dropped his luggage on the floor.
He felt disappointed. His long-lost brother, the one who bothered to go through all the complicated procedures in order to adopt him, was now too busy to greet him? As far as Sasuke was concerned, it wasn't a good excuse – it was more like nonsense. This could all be a trap to get him kidnapped. But then again, both his parents were dead, so nobody would pay for the ransom.
The thought of his parents brought an awkward pain to his chest. Sasuke was never really close to them. Sure, he treated them with respect and love, and he acknowledged their love for him as best as a teenager could, but he knew there was always something missing. Both his parents were extremely busy, and they were constantly on business trips or visiting friends, so Sasuke spent most of his days alone. He didn't care as much as he did when he was little; as long as his parents left him money, it was okay.
He didn't even know if he was truly sad for their deaths or just very hungry.