I stopped centering my text! :O This is so much easier to read.

Sai had gone home, after a short conversation about what had happened back in Tsunade's office. He said he had missions to wait for, since it was still morning. Neither of us brought up the burning questions, and I was appreciative of it. I didn't want to talk about it. I wanted to curl up into a ball, in the dark, in blankets, and hopefully have some kind epiphany.

But instead of going home, I decided to work at my epiphany in the fresh air. Luckily, I hadn't been spotted by Kakashi, Yamato, or Iruka. They were the only ones I was worried about having to lie to. More lies. Not what I needed. They all knew about the lockdown - Iruka was probably at home grading papers, and Kakashi and Yamato were probably on the front lines with the ANBU. Did they know if I was involved? No clue.

I went back to my old training grounds. Thinking about it, so many things in our - Sasuke and my - life lead back to the place. There were the countless hours of sparring and meeting - and waiting for Kakashi - with Sakura's mental tallying and Kakashi's praise and critique. There were all of the times Sasuke and I had stayed after Sakura was gone, and done nothing but spill our thoughts to each other. The confession, and my first words to Sasuke after his two year absence. Last night. It was the perfect spot.

I fell listlessly to sitting on a spot that should have chalk marks around it. Up against Sasuke's cherry blossom tree. I was stealing his spot, but it was comforting, like he was really there. I didn't have anyone to tell my story to, but I could mentally drop the weight. The first and most important thing.

Sasuke.

Sasuke was certain he had killed his brother. It wasn't real, but it made Sasuke himself again. That was the positive. There were far too many negatives. It made Sasuke reckless. It gave him an air of invincibility that could ruin him. Now he was going to Orochimaru, thinking he would have an easy time, and I wasn't sure if he would or wouldn't. He could get himself killed.

And he may be himself again, but it was fake. Now was every aspect of our lives a lie? It was amazing how that one façade could alter an entire life. Even the kiss felt like a lie.

The kiss.

Had we lead normal lives, I probably would have jumped him at the opportunity if he had offered it the way he had this time. I was apprehensive, almost afraid of it - because the last time we had, it was followed by a near death experience. A memory I didn't want to bring to the surface. Sasuke must have been blinded by his satisfaction, but I'm sure he felt the same. He was weary himself, and patient.

Itachi.

I twisted the grass below me in my hands. Itachi was confusing. He had only given me vital information, but in very small, not explanatory terms. He was ordered to kill the clan. By who? For what reason? Why did he go through with it? Why was Sasuke left alive? Why did Itachi plant a seed of revenge in his head? He wanted Sasuke to kill him, and for me to end trying to stop him. Why? Why would Itachi want to die? What would killing him do? More importantly, why had Itachi - I assumed - erased his memory? He stated he wanted Sasuke to murder him, and Sasuke would have been on it like lightning had he awoken sane.

My Epiphany.

Find Itachi.

For the time being, Sasuke would be gone. If I could find Itachi, he could explain the entire thing to me, and maybe I could find some way to keep both of them alive.

I intended to look for him, but I intended to look for him outside of Konoha. I also expected it to be difficult, but it was far from. Kakashi and Yamato hadn't bothered to find me for training or missions yet, so if I went home, I would evade them completely. I planned to search tomorrow, and I wanted to avoid everyone, if possible. Going to lookfor someone that - as far as everyone else was concerned - was trying to capture you sounded like suicide.

Sasuke's house was still as clean and orderly as ever. I fixed up the place weekly, just like anyone would in a normal household. I probably kept it in better shape than Sasuke ever did. I left my shoes by the door, and left all of the lights downstairs shut off. I dashed up the stairs, on a one way course to my goal, a shower. After the shower, maybe more sleep. And food.

I recalled the first time I ever came up these stairs and to the balcony like hallway at the top of them that overlooked the yard. I was with Sasuke, and he was showing me his bedroom, giving me a sort of tour. It was when he first offered to let me live with him, what with problems of the past that didn't exist anymore. Would those things still be happening if I was still in my house, and had never moved in here? I didn't know.

But I did wonder, what was in the other rooms? Sasuke had told me not to go in one of them - his parents room - and he hadn't bothered to mention that the doorway in the middle of his and his parents was his brother's room, but with the boards and such, it was obvious.

I was respectful enough to not go near his parents room. Not only that, I didn't have an interest in what could be in there. But Sasuke wasn't here, and he couldn't tell me no, and I did have an interest in what was in Itachi's room. Maybe I could find some record, document, or report on him that would tell me the whole story I wanted to know, and I could avoid looking for him altogether.

Determined, I made it all the way up the stairs and past the first door - Sasuke's parents bedroom, and stopped at the second door. Then almost had a heart attack.

The boards were completely gone.

Small holes left from nails and all kinds of scrapes mangled the wood of the door. Someone who definitely wasn't me had been here, taken the boards down, and presumably was either in the room or had been in the room.

I shivered, and went with the option, "had been in the room." I reached out to touch the handle, grabbed it like I had been anticipating it to shock me or something, even though I wasn't that stupid, turned it and swung it open. A shower of dust came forth. It certainly wasn't a room I had cleaned, and probably hadn't been touched in ten or so years.

The room was laid out differently than Sasuke's, with a twin sized bed on the right side of the room, parallel to the wall and pressed up against it. The blanket on top was grey, unlike Sasuke's dark blue. Across from the bed on the left wall was a bookshelf, filled with bound books with scrolls sitting infront of them on the shelves, all rolled up and tied. On the back wall that I faced was a window, centered exactly in the room. In front of the window was a black fabric chair, and beside that a small table with a lamp. What I couldn't see, was on the wall with the doorway was another set of shelves and drawers, jam packed with all kinds of weapons and tools - kunai, splitting kunai, shurikens, hung up swords, wires, summoning scrolls, seal scrolls, ration bars, soldier pills, and every rank of Konoha uniform. Everything needed or desired for any mission.

And in the ink colored chair across from me, sat Itachi Uchiha, former resident of the room.

"Y-you!" I cried, for it was the only word that came to mind in my human instinct to yell. I backed away a step and waited for something to happen - and by something, I assumed something bad or painful - but nothing did. Just an involuntary reaction. Itachi remained in his place, watching me. "What…" I tried to make words since he hadn't responded, "What in the hell are you doing here?"

At first he was silent, like he was processing something. "I had a feeling you'd be here, I suppose." He was wiping dust away from something in his hands, but I wasn't paying any attention. My sense of duty and realization kicked in quicker than the fear. As if to be threatening, I walked in and shut the door behind me.

"You owe me some explanations." Oooh, crap. Not good. I had to hope Itachi really wasn't bad. Maybe he'd find it a joke, but we both knew he could be miles away from here by the time any form of ANBU unit showed up. Why ANBU? Well, they probably had a bit better chance then I did. I needed to start thinking before I spoke. I guess that was another fault of mine - since birth, I'd said whatever the hell I wanted to, without putting much worrisome thought into it until after things were said.

He chuckled without emotion, but that combo made it a little sad. "What would you like to know first?"

I willingly dropped my guard, walked in a little more, and dropped to sitting on his old bed. I should have been running, but - with the exception of Sasuke's presence - I'd never felt so physically safe in my life. Like I could walk all over Itachi without fear of anything. Half of me, anyway. Half of me - the sane part - processed that he was still an Uchiha, and he was still in a sense, a murderer. The other half of me wanted nothing but justice - so long as I got my answers first. "How did you know I would be here?"

His answer came quickly enough. He was still fiddling with the object in his hands, but it seemed more like an act of confidence, not at all nervousness. "You seem to be the only other thing besides me that drives Sasuke to a kind of insanity. For you though, it's healthy, so I have reason to think he's in love with you."

I probably would have slapped myself under other circumstances. We were either really, really damn obvious, or we had a stalker who'd already spread some worldwide message about it. Maybe Kakashi…I stopped thinking. "Okay. Moving on. You're confusing."

"How so?"

I bit my lip and glanced at him for awhile. Where to start. "We'll get to the proof, and the back-story, and the 'why' later, but assuming everything you've told me so far is true, which isn't much, you probably want Sasuke to kill you."

No answer.

"So why did you make him forget? He would have been a bat out of hell on a one way course to your death had he woken up and remembered what had happened. That's what's confusing. Actually, more than that. Why don't you just let him slaughter you?" In reality, the whole damn thing didn't make any sense at all.

He placed the object that remained unidentified on the small table beside him, and stood up. I'd barely seen him move, he was so quick. It probably wasn't on purpose either - just a force of habit. "I think we should start from the very beginning."

"When's that?" I asked, the sane half of me working to realize that he was coming closer to me. I still remained sitting. Vulnerable. As if we were usual friends, he sat down - much more gracefully than I did, mind you - beside me, and I was determined to do all but glare to prove I wasn't intimidated.

"Around ten years ago." His gaze wasn't on me though, not yet. He was looking away first. "It would be easier to show you, than try to explain."

"Show me how?" I tried to piece together in my head what he meant. Pictures? A tour of someplace?

"You remember when I left Sasuke unconscious - you and that sage were there."

"Oh…yeah." I tried to bite back. Then, him and his partner Kisame hadn't wanted to walk out of there without me. Me and my demon. Had that want gone away? Had he betrayed Akatsuki? Or something? Or not? I had to be completely confident in my judgment.

"I suppose you'll hear the rest of that story soon, but for now, I can show you anything in the world that I think up - and you'll feel like it's all real. It would be much easier than telling you everything." He was looking at me now, like it had something to with his eyes. That's right, Sasuke's eyes were solid and glazed over…

"Will I be unconscious for a month?" I couldn't hold it back. Kakashi, Iruka, and anyone else unaware would be suspicious by tomorrow, and they'd be looking for me. Being knocked out for a month - out of the question.

"…No. What - "

"Uh, right, when you went away, Sasuke was in that comma like thing for over a month." Idiotic speaking must have been in my genes somewhere. I wonder if clumsiness comes from alleles?

Itachi looked puzzled at first, and it was the first time I'd seen anything but blankness on his face. After a few moments of thinking, he answered. "My jutsu only lasts a day." Then he waited a bit longer, like he was checking what he was about to say. "When it wore off, something else kept Sasuke's sub-consciousness from waking. Something self induced, unless he was kept that way purposely by whoever took care of him."

Something else, self induced. I'd thought that Itachi was to blame for Sasuke's comma - the month long part. But when Tsunade came with me to undo the 'jutsu' his eyes were closed and he was breathing normally. Not like before I went with Jiriya to find her. Then when he was awake, his eyes were clear and he was a little lost as to where he was. I'd have to ask him, someday. "So…you're saying you want to use it on me, but will I be out for a whole day?"

"Not if I break it when we're done."

It sounded okay, but there was one last problem. Did I trust him enough? I'd seen the power before - you go into your own mind and lose control of your body. Anything and everything could happen to your body while the jutsu was being performed. Besides that, the images were at his control. He could show me anything, and between memories and things Sasuke had told me, there were plenty of things I never wanted to see. Be it again, or for the first time. "How do I know I can trust you?"

"You don't."

I waited for more of response, but nothing came. He was right though. There wasn't much he could say to make me trust him. "That's not good enough."

"How will you find out the truth, otherwise?" His eyes flashed red, something so familiar to me, that I'd seen in Sasuke's orbs so many times. He was still right. How would I? I wanted the truth almost as much as I wanted Sasuke back. If he killed me or something, at least I could think I died trying to fix this.

"You Uchiha are so fucking intimidating." I growled. "Set me up."

He chuckled, just the same as he had before. Dry and lifeless. He shifted a little, and locked eyes with me. "Just keep your eyes open for a moment," He said, and I had to force them. Every nerve up there wanted me to shut them, simply knowing things that might happen. At first he shut his crimson orbs, like he was concentrating hard on preparing this. Then his eyes opened slowly enough for me to study the details. It was just like the regular sharingan, but the three black tomoe were thicker, and connected - joined at the center of his eye on a black ring. That was all I had time to notice. A millisecond later, I wasn't gazing into his eyes, I was looking at the outside of the house - but there were people, now.

"Oh. This is when your clan was still alive." People, all with black or brown hair and pale skin, traits of the Uchiha, infested the village. It looked alien - since the only way I'd ever seen it was empty. There was a limited amount of people, but it still seemed weird. Besides that, I'd only been exposed to two of them - all of these people were cheery and bustling and making the scene look perfectly normal for being smack dab in the peaceful Konoha. Just like Itachi and Sasuke, most of them, male and female, were pleasing to the eyes. "Wow. What are you doing?" I wondered if Itachi could even hear me at all.

"Manifesting a memory into what I show you."

"It's damn vivid, for being a mental image." And vivid barely covered it. Not only could I see - I could hear everything. Voices speaking small talk, and serious mission business. If I remembered right, the Uchiha were our former police force. I heard a lot of things about investigations, standing in the middle of it all. I could also smell - although there wasn't much that stood out. I also felt. The temperature, the breeze. I wondered instantly if I could taste, but there was nothing to test the theory on that I'd be willing to put in my mouth.

"'You'll think it's all real,'" He repeated his quote from earlier.

I had another realization, and it made me notice that I was really slow. "Why was Sasuke screaming?" It spilled over, but I hadn't actually planned on asking. Better to wonder.

"…We'll get to -" He started. Then I wondered why I couldn't see him, but he was controlling the illusion.

KIT. WHAT in the HELL is this?

Oops.

Well?!

Um, well, remember Itachi? Could he hear us? I kept that thought away from Kyubbi, for the time being.

Do I REMEMBER Itachi?

Stupid question, right. Just don't worry about it, and ignore the mental picture you're getting.

What - What are you thinking? This is - The Uchiha's place, I remember.

You would. The grudge that the whole world held against me for holding Kyubbi - and what Kyubbi had done, didn't often come to my mind, but now was one of those times.

But you've never seen this.

For the time being, shut up. Go back to sleep.

You owe me explanations then, brat.

I waited for just a few moments before quietly asking, out loud, "Could you hear that?"

Itachi answered, just like I'd hoped. "I could hear it - but I couldn't say anything that he would have heard. Interesting, you can 'talk' to him like that. How long have you been able to?"

Nervously, I tried to stray away from that conversation. I didn't want him to know much, or want much. I still hadn't heard the real story behind two years ago when his ambition was capturing me, because of said fox demon. "Since I found out he was in there, err, here. A few months after I turned twelve. But what about these people?"

"To them, we are not here." He replied smoothly. "None of their senses are attuned to us."

"So if this is the beginning, help me understand the story." Now I was ready to get down to it. Maybe I'd finally get to hear the entire thing, though most if it didn't make sense yet. If I hadn't felt I could put so much trust in Itachi, I never would have questioned that he was just a madman.

"I was around thirteen, and Sasuke was nearly seven. At this point, I was a Chunin, and Sasuke was soon to be in the academy. Our mother's name was Mikoto, and our father was Fugaku. Had Sasuke told you any of that?" I assumed he was just giving me the back-story, but I hadn't ever heard about Sasuke's parents at all. I'd also never taken the time to do the math - Sasuke was only six years old. I tried to imagine Sasuke, little like that. Of course everyone started out a baby, and grew, but looking at someone as stoic, dark, and driven as Sasuke at sixteen years old, you never would have thought he was ever child. He'd only gotten six years of a real childhood.

You haven't gotten any. Kyubbi mumbled, half asleep. He was right, too, but I'd also never been exposed to childhood, then had it ripped out from under me. According to Jiriya, I was child enough now, and I'd had Iruka most of the time.

"I guess talking about them would have been a little hard." I breathed.

It took him just a little too long to answer, and he didn't respond to my comment. I remembered, they were his parents, too. His family. His childhood. And at thirteen, it was still hard to take, even if he was an Uchiha. Even if he'd done it with his own hands, there was a reason. I didn't doubt it now. This had hit Itachi just as hard, no, harder. He wouldn't have done something like this without knowing good would come of it. "I'll show you the first part." His voice sounded untouched. Uchiha's were very good at what they did.

Was going to do the entire thing in one chapter, but I was itching to put this up, so you get the other part eventually.