iii.

When he'd first gotten the letter from Kaisuki, he'd been furious. Then, he'd read it and he'd been bewildered and slightly anxious.

Naruto was pacing back and forth in the twelfth training grounds. Sakura was sitting on one of the wooden posts near him and Kakashi was leaning against another. They'd come home from another hunt for Sasuke prematurely because Kaisuki had said in her letter that it was extremely urgent and that it involved Sasuke. That had been enough to persuade Naruto to do what she'd asked, especially since it'd been almost three weeks since Sasuke and Itachi had had their fight and they still hadn't found anything.

"I wonder what she found," he muttered to himself. He looked up at Sakura, frowning. "Well, I guess the real question is; what did she find that she would want to tell us?"

Sakura sighed. "I don't know, Naruto."

He diverted his gaze elsewhere and sighed noisily. "It was a rhetorical question."

"Rhetorical or not, you're about to find out," Kakashi suddenly said, and Naruto turned around. He spotted her right away, and quickly realized that she was full-tilt sprinting towards them. Within about thirty seconds she was coming to a stop, gasping for breath, her face flushed.

"Hey," Naruto greeted rather coldly. Kaisuki straightened up and glared at him, still panting.

"Y'know," she snapped angrily. "I could easily have decided to not tell you guys this, just considering how much of a prick you've been, Naruto."

"Kaisuki," Sakura cut into the conversation, sounding weary. "I'm sorry about him. What's up?"

"Sasuke's missing slightly more than I think you guys have realized," Kaisuki told their pink-haired teammate directly, completely blowing off Naruto.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Naruto grunted irritably. Kaisuki shot him a very nasty look.

"Itachi came looking for me," she deadpanned.

Naruto blinked, "What? Why? And why is that relevant?"

"Shut the fuck up and I'll tell you," she snarled, before turning back to Sakura and Kakashi. "He said that he's been keeping tabs on Sasuke since the day he left the village, and that he's always known where Sasuke was at any point in time." She paused to take a few gasping breaths.

"Itachi has?" Kakashi repeated, sounding surprised. "Any particular reason why?"

"He didn't tell me that," Kaisuki replied, looking more and more conflicted. "He just said that he's been looking for Sasuke for two and a half weeks now and he hasn't been able to find him. He also said that he "wasted four days looking for me" so he could ask if I'd help him look. I... I mean, I'll look, of course, but I don't know why he's looking, so I didn't really want to look with him."

"Understandably," Kakashi agreed.

"Yea," Kaisuki nodded. "But... he... he just looked so stressed out, I've never seen him look like that before."

"Like what?" Naruto wanted to know. He was beginning to feel mildly nauseous.

"Like he hasn't slept in two and a half weeks," Kaisuki replied, sounding distressed. "When I didn't tell him I would help him out, he looked at me like I'd told him his kitten died and... and he just asked me to look for Sasuke on my own, which is why I decided to come to you guys. He wouldn't have taken 'no' for an answer if he was putting on an act – he would've tried harder, and for a lot longer, to convince me. The whole conversation he just kept telling me that he didn't have time to chat with me. He seemed like he was thinking that Sasuke may have been kidnapped, but I don't know why he came to that conclusion. He didn't want to waste time explaining things to me, either."

Naruto felt like he'd been punched in the gut. Sasuke may have been kidnapped? He didn't know why Itachi would've thought something like that, but given the events surrounding the battle between the two brothers that had apparently not been finished, Naruto was willing to give that idea some credit. He'd gotten to the remains of that battlefield only a few minutes after Hoshigaki Kisame had. They'd arrived just in time to see Kisame lifting the older Uchiha out of a shallow pile of rubble, shortly before he'd taken off. Itachi had looked badly, badly beaten and he'd been wholly unconscious, but he'd been alive and at the scene of the crime.

Sasuke, on the other hand, had been nowhere.

"What do you guys think?" Kaisuki was asking, sounding uncertain. "I... I don't think I would trust the assumption that Sasuke's just hiding in a hole in the ground somewhere. I personally would rather assume the worst."

Naruto glanced back at his other two teammates. Kakashi looked grim. Sakura looked like she felt like she'd been punched in the gut too.

"I agree with you, Kaisuki," Sakura said quietly, sounding anxious. "I don't trust Itachi, but I trust your ability to read people. If he looked genuinely stressed out to you, I'll believe that something's wrong, even if I don't believe Itachi's intentions are sincere."

Kakashi nodded in agreement. "It's bizarre that Itachi's looking for him," he stated. "But I'll let those questions lie until we've found Sasuke. If we run into Itachi again, perhaps we'll get the opportunity to talk to him. I think I'd like to see this stress for myself."

Naruto turned back to Kaisuki. "I thought you didn't care about what happened to Sasuke," he said. "Why the sudden change of heart?"

Kaisuki stared at him for a moment before her expression shifted into a glare. "Just because I wasn't willing to drag him home against his will when he's perfectly capable of making his own decisions, doesn't mean that I don't care about him. I was friends with Sasuke long before you even knew his name."

Naruto blinked, feeling insulted but deciding that she had a point and he didn't feel like fighting with her. He scowled anyway, though. "Fine, then," he said. "I'll go with the assumption that he's been kidnapped. Have you noticed anything in the last two weeks?"

At that question, Kaisuki looked away slightly guiltily. "I... yea," she replied quietly. "Saeka sensed him a few days ago, but I didn't go check it out because I didn't realize that something had happened to him." She sounded genuinely furious with herself, so Naruto decided that he didn't need to get mad at her for an honest mistake. She was helping now, when it really counted, so he'd let it lie.

Naruto nodded, "Whereabouts? Can you take us there?"

Kaisuki bobbed her head, "Of course."

They immediately started walking back towards the village, picking up the pace until they were at a light jog. Naruto's stomach was doing acrobatics. He hadn't realized that Sasuke was missing missing, either. Had Itachi really been the only person to notice that the younger Uchiha had fallen off the face of the planet? How close of an eye had the prodigy been keeping on his brother? Kaisuki had said that he'd admitted to keeping tabs on Sasuke for years, but why?

He decided to save those questions for later. He was sure they would run into Itachi eventually.

…

He had lost count of the days and that fact terrified him.

Sasuke was barely able to keep track of how long it would be until Teara came back. The white-haired man came by every three days, he knew, but he didn't know how many sets of three days had passed. He couldn't have told anyone how many times Teara had been through. He couldn't have told anyone how many times he'd been savagely beaten and tortured for being mouthy or doing something wrong or being too noisy when he was in pain or being too slow to move or not responding to a command fast enough...

"Are you regretting it yet?"

"Have you learned your lesson?"

"Do not make me tell you again."

Teara had started beating him for crying and for screaming. If he vocalized any kind of sound, he was, at the very least, backhanded so hard his head bounced off the wall. If Teara was feeling particularly irritable, he'd bury a knife in Sasuke's leg, or hip, or shoulder, or arm, or any other spot that wouldn't kill him. If he lost patience, he'd beat Sasuke until he got tired of it.

Every time he beat the Uchiha, he would come back twelve or so hours later and heal the damage he'd wrought upon his prisoner. He'd pet Sasuke's hair, wipe away the tears that would still be rolling down his face, speak softly to him with an empty, frosty tone. He'd leave Sasuke in a state of immeasurable agony, and then he'd come back and make it better.

The white-haired man would sometimes find ways to hurt him until he couldn't help but scream, and then he'd use that as an excuse to hurt him more. As though he were simply bored and torture was his favorite way to pass the time. Then, when he'd finally tire of it, he'd leave. If Sasuke had really infuriated him before he left, he'd leave the Uchiha in a state of agony for the entire three days before his scheduled return.

He felt like it had been months.

Sasuke didn't understand why he hadn't been found yet. He didn't know where he was, but clearly it wasn't underground. He could see the sunlight when the sun was up, after all. They had to be somewhere in the middle of nowhere or something, but he felt like someone ought to have found him by now.

"No one's looking for you and even if someone did, they're not going to find you."

Teara wasn't around, so Sasuke felt safe letting out a quiet, miserable sound. He didn't want to believe that no one was looking for him. Naruto and his team had been looking for him since the day he'd left, three years ago. There was no way they would've stopped.

Unless they gave up.

If he'd been missing in action for six months (like he felt he had been), with no signs pointing to where he had gone, he supposed he could picture Naruto giving up. Especially if the guy didn't know that Sasuke had been taken hostage by some sadistic lunatic.

His lower lip trembled and he could feel his eyes stinging. He hated it. He hated everything about his current circumstances, and there was more to it than just the beatings. Teara had arranged matters so that Sasuke was completely dependent on him for everything from water and food to the use of a toilet. He hadn't realized there was another room in the place at all. Teara had returned again a day after he'd buried those knives into Sasuke's hip for the first time and given him access to a toilet (without untying him) and then dumped him in a cold shower (without taking off his clothes or untying him) and cleaned up the mess of sweat and blood that had accumulated on his skin.

He had basically been rinsed off and then left again to air dry. That became the routine. Teara would come back every three days to give him food and water. Then, twelve hours later, he'd come back to heal any injuries he'd caused and then take Sasuke to the bathroom. The Uchiha had honestly never been so humiliated in his life.

He didn't even care who saved him at this point. He'd be happy to let Itachi (who was dead) rescue him if the man showed up with those intentions. Even if he just got Sasuke out of there for the express purpose of tearing out his eyes and killing him. He'd take death over another day of this.

He was chronically thirsty and hungry. He knew he was wasting away. He didn't know how much weight he'd lost because he couldn't see his own body, but he felt physically smaller. He felt how weak he'd gotten. The rope should have been loose enough by that point for him to get out of it, simply because of how much smaller he'd gotten, but it seemed like it hadn't gotten any looser at all and it was impossibly frustrating.

How much longer would he have to wait? How much longer would he be able to wait?

He was beginning to drift off again when he heard the sound of the lock. Immediately, he looked up, feeling his heart rate spike. He was caught between relief that he was about to be fed and given water, and terror that he might screw something up and get another beating.

He could hardly breathe as he heard the sliding door open. Heavy footsteps crossed the room, stopping in front of him for a moment before he felt someone grip his bicep tightly and drag him upright. He didn't have the strength to pick himself up off the ground anymore. It expended too many calories and his muscles had atrophied to the point that he could not physically do it.

He felt weak and helpless and he'd never been so consistently miserable and frightened in his life.

Teara's hand briefly brushed against his cheek and he flinched, but the man just moved his hands behind Sasuke's head and untied the gag, pulling it out of his mouth. He could hear the water being poured, he could smell the onigiri that he was both tired of and looking forward to.

Water, two onigiri, more water, two more onigiri. That was it.

"If you behave, maybe I'll bring you an extra one in the future."

His eyes went from burning to actively watering. He wanted to go home.

Teara's hand pressed against the side of his face and he started, but didn't try to pull away. He wasn't supposed to do that. He held extremely still, his whole body positively rigid. He was almost holding his breath and his heart was hammering away in his chest. He was struggling to hold in the urge to whimper, and it was surprisingly difficult.

"You've been good the past couple of times I've come by," the sadist commented, not a hint of actual praise in his voice. Sasuke lowered his head slightly, trying to control the growing tremors in his shoulder.

He felt Teara's presence lean in and he had to really fight not to press himself into the wall when chilled lips pressed to his cheek, tracing a line of gentle pecks down his neck. His heart was hammering in his throat and he could not breathe. What was he doing? Why was Teara touching him? Why was he touching him like this? Last Sasuke had known, the white-haired man had been disgusted by the very air he breathed.

He sucked in a sharp breath when Teara dragged his tongue up the side of his throat, but he didn't whimper, or whine, or anything of the sort. He just tried to control his shuddering breaths pointlessly, tried to steady his worsening shaking. He could feel a hand running up his leg, stopping on his hip and squeezing, just short of hard enough to hurt.

He wanted to say something. He wanted to ask what Teara was doing, why he was doing it, and if he could please stop. He didn't know what the white-haired man was planning but he didn't like it at all. He didn't want the attention, even if it didn't hurt. He didn't like having this man's hands on him in any way, let alone in this fashion.

Both of Teara's hands were resting on his hips at this point, thumbs running back and forth over bones that felt like they were probably jutting out from how much weight he'd lost. He was still nuzzling against Sasuke's neck, kissing and then nipping, never once doing anything that hurt.

Teara hummed against his neck, sending a gentle vibrating through the Uchiha's throat. "This wall is going to get in my way," he muttered, clearly not talking to his captive. Sasuke stiffened. How was the wall going to get in his way? What was he going to do? He was beginning to actually panic

Please don't.

His captor pulled back for only a moment before he grabbed Sasuke by his bicep and pulled him away from the wall, not quite dropping him a couple feet away, but not really letting him down gently either. He felt like he was being treated like a literal object. As if Teara thought of him like a doll or pet that he could play with and train as he pleased.

He wanted to be sick, but he knew that he'd be savagely beaten if he actually threw up.

A hand fell on his shoulder, pushing him onto his back. Laying on his back (and therefore his arms) was the most uncomfortable possible position he could be in, but Teara clearly didn't care about that sort of thing. A moment later, hands were touching him again, roaming freely and without inhibition. Sasuke was fairly certain that he was actively hyperventilating, beginning to wish that the psychopath would just go back to hurting him and then considering the option of swearing at his captor to persuade him to.

One of Teara's hands slid up his inner thigh, his thumb brushing over the sensitive skin directly between the Uchiha's legs. Sasuke flinched at the sensation, breath hitching on what would've been a whimper if he'd had any less self-control. Instead, he bit his tongue hard and silenced his voice before any sound came out.

No one in his life had ever touched him like this, but he wasn't so stupid or oblivious or naive that he couldn't figure out what was going on at this point. Calming himself down wasn't going to happen now. He almost couldn't breathe at this point from sheer fear. He didn't know how far Teara would go, but he really didn't want to find out.

Not that he had any choice in the matter.

"If you can't relax," Teara whispered in his ear, slowly sliding a hand under Sasuke's clothes. "This is going to be very painful for you."

Those words only served to exacerbate his tremors and further constrict his chest. All at once, he could feel hot tears spilling out of his eyes, and once they started he couldn't make them stop. As it was, it was taking every ounce of willpower to not succumb to the urge to start sobbing loudly. He knew it would hurt. He wasn't stupid.

But Teara wouldn't beat him in addition to... to this, if he could just keep his mouth shut.

…

Everything and nothing was holding him down to the point that he couldn't move, and all he could hear was Sasuke screaming.

There was darkness all around. Nothing to see anywhere. It was just him and an immeasurable weight keeping him from moving and the sound of his little brother shrieking and screaming and crying so loudly, Itachi was sure he had to be dying.

He knew, in the back of his head, that he had to be dreaming. That only served to worsen his panic, though. If he was sleeping that meant he wasn't looking for Sasuke and if he wasn't looking for Sasuke those screams could very easily be accurate he had no way of knowing what was happening to Sasuke he had no way of knowing anything until he found him but how was he supposed to find him if he was sleeping useless body wake up wake up wake up you can't just give out on me now I don't have time for this Sasuke doesn't have time for this wake up wake up...

He felt a pressure on his arm and then someone shook him roughly. He hadn't even woken up completely before he had a kunai in his hand and was swinging, full force, with the absolute intent to kill.

The only reason he stopped was because he recognized the pair of bright red eyes that were staring at him, genuine fear highlighting their color, at the very last second. The kunai was inches from her throat. He blinked, lowering the weapon. He was gasping and feeling very much like he needed and wanted to throw up. He pressed a hand to his chest, letting out a particularly distressed wheeze. He could taste blood in his mouth but he swallowed it back down forcefully, which only served to worsen his nausea.

"I-Itachi?" Kaisuki spoke in a small, shaky voice. He could feel tremors wracking his body and he was freezing.

He looked up and around, confused. Why had he been laying on the ground? He felt delirious. Was he sporting a fever? Sure seemed like it. He swallowed again, pressing a shaking hand to his forehead. Yes, that was definitely a high fever.

He dropped his hand. He still couldn't catch his breath.

Sasuke's screams were all he could hear...

He coughed harshly. He wanted to get up but he knew for a fact that he was going to faint again if he did. So he looked over at Kaisuki instead, his eyes hooded and his head aching. "Fancy... meeting you here."

She looked stricken. Then, she glanced over her shoulder and Itachi realized that she wasn't alone. Team 7 was with her – Naruto, the pink-haired one, and Kakashi. She must've gone to them about Sasuke, then. Or at least, he sure hoped that was what she had done.

Kakashi looked extremely alarmed. Naruto's face was white but his eyes were glaring. The pink-haired one... Sakura. That was her name. Sakura looked highly anxious and possibly angry. None of them looked as upset as Kaisuki.

The Yurei turned back to him, her eyes flashing to Izumi's familiar green. "Itachi-kun, you're extremely sick."

Itachi stared at her stonily. "Tell me something I don't know," he replied flatly, his voice somewhat raspy. Was that really what he sounded like? If he'd been talking to himself, he would have been concerned, too.

Izumi blinked, looking at him with real worry in her eyes. "We need to take out that fever-..."

"I don't have time for that," he told her. "We've been over this."

Her eyes flashed blue for just an instant before they were green again. "You're not going to find him if you die of a high fever that you refused to take care of before it got out of hand," Izumi told him sternly.

He diverted his gaze back to the ground. He still couldn't catch his breath.

"I don't have..." he hadn't meant to speak as quietly as he did, but his voice came out as almost a mumble. He clenched his jaw momentarily to hold in the urge to actually start crying (again). "He's... he's been missing for over a month."

"And he's not going to be any less missing if you die." Izumi reiterated.

Itachi stared at his hands. He felt so defeated. It'd been five and a half weeks. That was a long time for someone to be missing. There was no logical reason to assume that Sasuke hadn't already been buried somewhere, but he had no intention of ceasing his search until he at least found a body.

Sasuke's screams were all he could hear...

He took in a shuddering breath. He was getting a little tired of Sasuke ruining his life and his psyche.

"What are you even doing here?" He asked softly, still not looking up. He could see Izumi digging through Kaisuki's backpack out of the corner of his eye but he didn't say anything about it.

Izumi paused momentarily, but she didn't get a chance to speak before Kakashi did, "Looking for Sasuke and finding you, instead." He stated coldly. "You seem a little under the weather, Itachi."

Itachi resisted the urge to glare murderously at the silver-haired man, instead choosing to not even look up or acknowledge Kakashi's words at all. He didn't have the energy for any of this. He felt a hand close around his arm and he didn't so much as flinch when Izumi jabbed him with a hypodermic and administered whatever antibiotics or antipyretics she'd pulled out the Yurei's bag.

She pulled away and he moved to get up, "Sit down." The irou-nin commanded, and he looked over at her with a dead, hollow feeling in his chest. "Or I will put you out of commission until I decide you're healthy enough to resume your search."

He closed his eyes, placing a shaky hand over them. He probably ought to eat again at some point. "It's not..." He let out a frustrated sigh and dropped his hand, and the next thing he knew he was snarling at her, pent up stress from the past five weeks coming out in a barely controlled burst of fury. "Why, exactly, do you care what I do? Last I heard, I'm the most wanted criminal on this continent and none of you want anything to do with me, so why are you so concerned with my welfare all of a sudden? Is it because I was the first person to notice that my little brother is missing, or is it because you think I'm the reason he's missing?"

By the end of his tirade, he could hardly breathe but he didn't care. Izumi appeared to have lost her voice, but she lifted a hand and reached out as if to touch him, perhaps to offer him some form of comfort, but he jerked away and then picked himself up off the ground. He didn't want anything further to do with them at that point, and he'd be damned if Izumi was going to lay a hand on him again. She – as well as the rest of them – were wasting his time.

More importantly, they were wasting Sasuke's time.

The Yurei stood up with him, her eyes back to their usual vivid red, her gaze hardened. Evidently, Kaisuki hadn't lost her voice. "Firstly, I never said that I thought you were behind his disappearance," she snapped furiously. "Secondly, who the fuck are you, to try and play the martyr? After all that you've done to him, you have no right to even be looking for him! You traumatized him beyond repair, and now you're trying to tell me that you gave a fuck about him all along? When you've done everything in your power to pick up his broken fucking pieces and put him back together after the one person he trusted more than anyone betrayed him-..."

Before Kaisuki could finish her rant, Itachi backhanded her so hard, her head swung to the side and she stumbled. It had taken a lot of willpower to not full-on punch her as hard as he could (which would likely have broken her jaw). The rest of Team 7 lurched forward but stopped for some reason. Itachi wasn't sure if it was because they remembered that he could easily kill all of them, or if it was because his eyes were visibly watering, or if it was because Kaisuki made some gesture with her hand.

He found he didn't care.

"When you give up your whole life for someone that everyone thinks you hate, for someone you know wants nothing more than to see you dead, then you can talk to me about how much I care about my little brother!" He raged at her, voice increasing in volume throughout his outburst.

Kaisuki was stunned, her hand on her cheek and her eyes wide and watering as she stared at him with something he didn't have the energy to decipher. Itachi only stood there, chest heaving and eyes burning, for another two seconds before he he turned around and jumped up into the trees, taking off. His chest was on fire and his head was pounding but he absolutely did not care. He'd plodded on for miles in significantly worse shape. He'd been in battle in significantly worse shape.

It was a painful struggle to hold back the need to have a nervous breakdown. He just kept reminding himself that Sasuke didn't have time for him to waste.

Please stay alive for me. Just a bit longer, Sasuke.