Chapter Three
It had been two days since Itachi's departure. Sasuke, of course, felt like crud. His body felt tired most of the time. Normally, instead of training, he found himself lying around or taking walks for no reasons at all. His father had many meetings, and didn't speak to him much. While his mother left him alone.
Sasuke couldn't get those last words he'd said to Itachi out of his head. They seem to follow him everywhere. Whenever he thought he'd forgotten about them, they would just return instantly. He was puzzled, though, at the strange feeling he had inside. He knew he was right and that his brother was just too paranoid. So, as the two days had gone by, Sasuke had been trying to figure out why he felt so weird.
His walk took him out to the last place he'd been with Itachi. "Tsk." He rubbed his mouth with his hand, shaking his head, then placed his hands in his pockets. Stupid brother... Get out of my head! I haven't done anything wrong. See! I'm out here where you said not to be, and nothing has happened! Don't treat me like a child!
Sasuke made his way over to the tree slowly. Almost like he was taking cautious steps. He stopped about a foot away from the tree, and reached up with one hand. His fingers ran over the rough and bumpy surface of the tree, lightly scraping the tips of his fingers. They dropped in further as they passed over the hole left by the kunai, then dipped out again as the hole ended.
Sighing, he took a step back again and removed his hand. Stuffing it back in his pocket, he turned to walk away. "I hate you!" The words he had said hit him like a juggernaut. Why had they come at now of all times? As he turned he felt a tug on his shoe. A tree root caught onto his shoe, and Sasuke pitched forward. His arms flailed, as he smacked the earth face down.
A sharp pain shot through him, and his body ached. His nose hurt from the impact. Pulling himself up, he rubbed his nose. A warm liquid touched his lips. His mouth opened involuntarily and a morphine tasting liquid filled his mouth. "Ugh!" He spit the blood out, and reached up to touch his nose. It was bleeding, and felt swollen. He began running back, feeling slightly light headed.
He made is back, more tired than ever, as the sun began to cast its goodbye over the ground. His nose had stopped bleeding, and he was too busy thinking to himself to watch the sunset.
Itachi had been on his mission for months, and had practically gotten no where. Resistance from both sides wasn't making his job any easier. Konoha was having troubles with their ninja, since there had been a series of theft bands attacking the trade between the Leaf Village and the Sand Village. So most of their ninja, not their highly ranked ones, were off solving that case.
And to make things harder than they should have to be, his clan, the Uchihas, were being irrationally and unreasonably stubborn. He didn't think this problem was necessarily right. The whole dispute was all on the behalf of his clan, he had to admit to himself embarrassingly. Though, he did feel a bit better knowing he was working against arguements. That way things would settle back to normal, and peace could be resolved again.
He'd received the news secretely that the 3rd Hokage had been seeking and pressing for a hidden meeting between himeself and the Hokage about a week ago. Once he'd arrived at the meeting, he had a bit shocked to find Madara there as well. He remembered the meeting going somewhere along the lines of this...
"You do realize that when things get out of hand, the little control I have on this semi peace will snap. I cannot keep us at a stand still forever. Sooner or later talking will not satisfy people, and they will demand for battle. It seems when our blood rushes, our minds tend to lack reason, you understand. I have a proposition for you. If we are ever to settle this matter immediately, I require your immediate cooperation!" the 3rd Hokage said firmly.
At that time, Itachi would have never dreamed what had lingered in the 3rd's mind. He certainly never dreamed it to be as big as this. But yet, he himself had been betraying his own clan. Still, the 3rd's words echoed in his head, rebounding everywhere. What events had caused these things to have gotten so bad?
"My request of you both is to kill your clan," the 3rd grimly stated.
Itachi's eyes widened. "Wha...? What are you talking about!? Kill my own clan. You've gone insane, old man."
"Have things really boiled down to this? To the point that we must betray, kill! our own clan?" Madara asked.
Itachi could still not believe his own ears. He took a deep breath and immediately claimed control on his own emotions again. He was good at that sort of thing, he knew. But sometimes it hurt to hide what he really thought, or felt. Especially around Sasuke. If it were up to Itachi, he'd rather train his little brother all day long than come to these stupid missions. Though, he did realize that the main reason he did ever go on missions was to try and keep peace between the clans. For if peace was not settled, then Sasuke would be in danger, and would be recruited to come fight with the Uchihas. Of course, Itachi had also other reasons to keep peace, but he still was trying to grasp what the 3rd Hokage was telling him.
"The whole clan?" Itachi inquired.
"Everyone." The Hokage's face was grim, and showed no slightest hint of some joke. As sick as the joke was.
Itachi thought about his family. Although he did not favor his dad that much, he still thought his mother and Sasuke were important. Itachi then noticed that Madara hadn't spoken in a while, and looked over at him.
Madara had been looking at the ground, but then finally looked at the Hokage in the eyes. "If this is what is required to stop the rage... even though wiping out a whole clan seems like some sort of unrealistic tale, I don't want things to get out of hand. I only ask one thing. That you do not look down on us, just because we are Uchiha."
The 3rd Hokage met Madara's gaze. "I understand. You will proceed as planned. Itachi, with Madara's help, you will exterminate your entire clan one week from now, on this same day. I'm so sorry to have put this on you, but right now, you two are the most sensible ones... and the ones I trust the most to carry out my will. You will not turn on me, correct?"
"Correct," both Itachi and Madara replied at the same time. Then the 3rd pardoned himself, turned, and left the room.
Itachi let the conversation fade away, then turned to walk back towards his camp where they'd been. He arrived at his quarters when all of the sudden a person he'd never seen before came rushing in. "Uchiha Itachi?" the person asked hopefully. Itachi only nodded in confusion. "It's your brother...! We don't know how... I just recieved news of it myself..."
"Get on with it!"
"He's been taken! Kidnapped by Orochimaru!"
Sasuke wasn't sure what was going on. He'd been lying on the roof, alone, staring at the night sky. The next moment, two figures had leapt out of who-knows-where with ropes, and had tried to catch him. Sensing danger before they made contact, he managed to dodge them in time. He flipped off the roof and landed on a branch nearby. The branch shook from his weight and he watched leaves spiral down towards the earth.
The boy, one of the two, all of the sudden shot down on a string from higher up in the tree. Sasuke gasped, as he jumped off the branch and flung his kunai wildly at the sound ninja.
"What?" the girl hissed. "He's just a kid! And that guy wants us to kidnap him? You've got to be kidding me."
"I'm not a kid!" Sasuke protested, and swung a kick at her head. It planted firmly and she was pitched into the trunk of a tree.
The boy chuckled. "Better watch out, Tayuya. It seems that even a "kid" managed to get you. Though, this is remotely interesting. I never expected him to be so young."
"Stop calling me young!" Sasuke threw his weight into his punch and landed it into the boy's stomach. The boy grabbed his leg effortlessly and swung Sasue like a pack across the ground. Sasuke grunted, and wiped dirt from his face as he pushed himself back up. His eyes widened, as the girl suddenly appeared right before him. She stabbed her arm forward, and he managed to block the blow with his kunai. He slid backwards and tried to get a grip in the ground, when suddenly the boy was behind him.
Sasuke didn't register the blow in his back till he was sailing through the air. He hit the ground and felt his body bounce back up. A sickening crunch came from his wrist, and he cried out in agony. Clutching his crist tightly, and trying not to move it, he scrambled up.
Who were these people? He wondered why they wanted him, and he'd surely never seen them around the villiage before. Though, they were sound ninja, so he didn't know why he'd thought they'd ever been in the Uchiha clan grounds.
His body ached, and all he wanted to do was stop. But the foot stops pounding after him as he ran into the thick of the forest kept him going. His lungs burned, and he couldn't control his breaths any longer. He sprinted, giving his all, but somehow knew that those attempts were futile. For some reason or other, he felt immense hate and rage towards his brother. If only he had spent some time to train him more, Sasuke would have never been in this position.
A hand clenched the back of his shirt, and he was jerked roughly to the ground. Strong arms pinned him face down in the dirt and grass, while new ones tied his hands roughly behind his back. He cried out in pain, only to find a gag behind tied around his mouth. Then a sharp blow came to the back of his head. All he could feel were the pulsing, and seering pains in his wrist, as everything went black.
