Two figures move slowly through the drizzling rain, and the darkening sky. The elder's movements increase slightly, indicating they are nearing their destination. The other's lips curl upward, as his eyes fill with hope. They both have many questions.
When Itachi enters their camp, for once he is grateful for his partners insufferable hunger, as Kisame is nowhere to be found. Glancing at the small form that has stopped beside him, Itachi moves to sit beside the smoldering fire. following his example Sasuke, sits down to Itachi's left. When their eye's meet across the fires light, Sasuke is the first to break the silence.
"Where's Tou-san and Kaa-san?"
Itachi still isn't sure exactly what has happened to Sasuke. At first he thought it was a genjutsu, but his Sharingan detected nothing. Watching his movements, with Itachi's eyes he can see everything. The way Sasuke fiddles with a leaf, or leans in slightly when Itachi looks like he might speak. It is all done so flawlessly, that Itachi has no choice but to accept the validity of the past.
"They're dead"
Itachi doesn't know how his little brother got like this, but he needs to fix it. He needs to turn forward time, until the clock tolls on a night where he changed the course of history. Itachi isn't the type of person to regret, but sometimes he wonders, when the moon is full and his partner is sleeping deeply. He wonders what it would have been like to watch his brother gaze up at him with something other than adoration or hate. Something that spoke of a life where there was no rivalry or revenge, only a deep and silent understanding.
Sasuke finds that all of his other questions have fallen away. His fears have been confirmed, too much is different, yet still the same. Sasuke's voice is shaking, "How?" Itachi speaks again, his voice its usual monotone. "Uchiha Madara killed every member of the Uchiha clan." "We fled Konoha, as they believed I was responsible." Sasuke doesn't know who that is, but he absorbs the information greedily, flinging it around in his mind until it falls into place. The mark over Itachi's headband fits now. "Then I'm a missing-nin?" "Why can't I remember?"
Itachi's silent form is the only answer Sasuke can obtain. He is about to ask again, Forgive me Sasuke, another time, when he remembers that even if Itachi has to lift his arm higher, It ,might, will still hurt. So Sasuke trusts that his brother will tell him later…(because of course Itachi knows what's wrong with him).
So there is only confusion In his eyes, and only longing in his heartbeat. Longing for a home where the memories that danced past the walls like shadows have been swept to dust. Because creation always follows destruction, and even if he was able to cheat death, this loneliness is far more painful. All of his memories are sharp now, gripping his heart too tightly in an embrace that rejects even the slightest warmth.
Sasuke draws strength from Itachi's reality, leaning on this last vestige of his memories. Not because he knows nothing else, but because this is everything else. Everything that's still real. That he can still reach out and touch, that Sasuke can still believe in.
When a blue skinned man steps into the clearing with four fish and a large weapon sung over his shoulder, Itachi's Sharingan reflecting off his eyes and Sasukes unfeeling expression is all that is required to shut his half-open mouth, the words that would have escaped are trapped forever, in dark secrets and lonely cobwebs.
Sasuke has become accustomed to his new routine now. Wake up, train, forage, pay the innkeeper, wait for aniki, don't bother kisame-san, train, travel, sleep. Sasuke is growing stronger though, his body already conditioned and accustomed to the harsh training he puts himself through just to keep up with the others. Its already used to being pushed to its limits.
Sometimes Sasuke wonders why its so easy for him to attempt a killing strike on his brother during training, or to hear the sound of a shuriken embedding itself into flesh, when there is only a tree before him, metal glinting through its bark, and a sort of crushed anticipation, even with a perfect throw. Sasuke knows he must have been a ninja once, but he can't remember, so when he finds a rabbit caught in one of his traps, and is sure no one is around, he will whisper "sorry" before breaking its neck.
Sometimes late at night, when everyone else is asleep and kisame is snoring too loudly, Itachi will look up and wonder. Because no matter how strong or powerful he is, unmatched in strength even among most Akatsuki, the stars have a way of showing anyone just how small they really are. That even if their movements and actions dictate so much in this world, there are places they can never reach, where their words will simply despair and fall into shadows, finding no purchase in the unknown.
Itachi is not troubled by these thoughts, he never has been. Itachi is not afraid of death, not like Orochimaru, he does not relish other's pain, not like Kisame. He sees the world in shades of gray, where killing, standing over his own parents corpses means nothing, because their lives were insignificant to begin with. To his little brother though, they meant so much more, that's why there was meaning in their deaths, an order that came not from a scroll or the Hokage, but from his own heart.
Sasuke's existence gave his life meaning, and he had wanted more, to be truly real. It was a selfish wish, one bathed in the blood of the Uchiha, but a moment of freedom, to show everyone just a glimpse of his world, of the stars. To have someone live and breath and exist just for you, to become truly powerful, because isn't that what his little brother always wanted? Itachi will have to wait a little longer before he can sleep, no matter how tired he really is.
If you had a chance to take it all back, to redo everything, would you? The regret in your eyes, can you see it?