Alternate Hosting

By TwinEnigma

Warnings: AU, violence

Tail Five:

"Why?"

It was a question that has haunted Sasuke ever since that bloody night. Oh, he'd remembered the answer he was given – he'd never be able to forget it, not with it staring him in the face every time he looked in the mirror and saw those whiskers – and he'd convinced himself it had to be true, since the alternative was too horrible and twisted to contemplate. But still the question lingered, right there with all the anger, pain and ruins of his heart that his brother had left behind. He poured everything into his training over the last few years. It kept him from losing himself in the wake of his family's utter annihilation and that burning, maddening question his brother left behind.

Team Seven was really the first concerted effort at forced socialization he'd had in years. He'd hated it, resented his relatively happy-go-lucky, clueless teammates, and doubted the ability of his sensei to teach his way out of a paper bag. Even before the massacre, he'd never been very social and being forced into it now was like shoving his face in dog crap and telling him it was roses.

His team eventually began to grow on him, like a fungus or an aggressive tumor of some kind. They were reliable, for the most part, and, oddly enough, he was slowly coming to get used to them. Hell, he might even have started to like them. They were rather persistent and very hard to ignore.

Then they ran into Orochimaru in the Forest of Death and every little illusion he'd been building about growing in strength with his team shattered like glass. Orochimaru shut him and the fox down with a single seal, leaving Sasuke insensate and Naruto – stupid, stupid, stupid Naruto – nearly died taking the next attack that was meant for him.

The nightmares came back after that, only now his teammates were lying alongside the bodies of his family members, cruelly battered and broken while his brother stood over them, bloody sword in hand.

A few weeks later, Kakashi was hospitalized, apparently having managed to stall Itachi at the village border, and it was like Sasuke's nightmare had come to vivid, horrific life. Kakashi was strong – over half his records were blacked out, an indication of ANBU service – and he'd given Zabuza a run for his money even with the severe handicap of having to protect the three of them and their civilian client. When Kakashi ran into Itachi, he had three other jounin with him, no one handicapping his ability to fight, and it was all they could do to stall them long enough to escape.

Itachi had come to collect the Kyuubi, that's what Kakashi had said.

Sasuke gritted his teeth as he peered around the corner of the inn and saw the black cloaks with the red clouds. Naruto and Sakura would probably never forgive him for going alone. They'd have wanted to come. But he wasn't going to let his brother kill them, not for that thing. He rather be killed than lose another precious person to that monster his brother had become.

The wall exploded near his head as a giant sword smashed through it and Sasuke bolted out into the open, already calling on the red chakra. The fox responded like quicksilver and he could feel it grinning maliciously at him as it said he may be the only Uchiha it likes; lies, of course, and Sasuke knows it better than anyone. It hates him and all things Uchiha.

Itachi was in front of him now and Sasuke screamed in rage, red lightning shrieking in his clawed hand. Itachi was moving his hands and he was probably going to dodge-

Itachi suddenly stopped and spread his arms in a welcoming gesture, a faint smile on his lips. Sasuke's hand struck half a second later, tearing through his brother's chest in a spray of hot blood and shattered bone as if it were mere tissue paper.

The world slid to a shrieking halt and everything, even the screams of his late-arriving friends and the curses of Itachi's sword-wielding partner, faded into the background.

"W-Why?" he managed.

Why did you let me do that?

Why did you kill them and spare me?

Why?

Itachi did not answer, his lips curved in a bloody smile, and, instead, shakily reached forward, pressing his fingers to the younger boy's forehead.

Sasuke's wail of anguish melted into a roar and the world burned.

AN: Most depressing drabble of the lot. If it came down to it and Sasuke was the Kyuubi host, methinks Itachi would not be able to go through with turning him over to Akatsuki. Although, if Sasuke was the host, Itachi would have even more reason to kill off the clan.