Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Older Brother: Heartbroken

Itachi wasn't the man he used to be. He doubted he was even fully what constituted as a human anymore. He was probably more stone than man. Cold, unfeeling and fixed forever in time.

The day Sasuke had left Itachi had awoken to an empty house. He didn't sense Sasuke's presence and thought perhaps he had gone out early that morning. He had always worried constantly about his younger brother's well-being but it wasn't at all unusual that Sasuke would leave the apartment early, even on his days off.

Still, something hadn't felt quite right. Itachi tried to calmly pass the time, making a cup of tea for himself and sorting through the post. He had a mission to prepare for that day which was a welcome distraction.

The village was terribly short-handed lately what with the lingering threat of the mysterious Akatsuki and Orochimaru's menace hanging over them all like a storm cloud.

So he set out, face composed into his usual mask of indifference, ignoring everything around him.

Maybe if he had been paying more attention, he would have seen the looks the other villagers gave him as he sped through the village on the way to his mission.

….

It wasn't until he returned from the mission that Itachi saw that something was wrong in the village. The pained, strained and drained expressions on almost every ninja's face made for a depressing picture. The Leaf had been under a lot of pressure with recent attacks and disputes between countries, true, but Itachi could tell that a fresh tragedy was now on everyone's minds.

Itachi hurried to the Hokage's office to report in and, more importantly, find out just what was wrong. He was beginning to get a bad feeling. It was like that night all over again.

Itachi didn't knock; he walked straight into the office.

Tsunade and Shizune were in the room, and both sets of eyes widened when they saw who it was. Shizune's mouth worked silently while Tsunade paled considerably.

Something was definitely wrong. Why was something always wrong? And why was Sasuke the one who suffered the most and deserved it the least?

"Where the hell is Sasuke?" Itachi's voice was sharp as a sword and venom-tipped.

Tsunade sighed, as if in reluctant acceptance.

"Sasuke Uchiha has gone missing."

"Missing?" Itachi parroted. What did that mean?

"It's a very complicated issue," Tsunade said. "Orochimaru's henchmen were able to enter the village last night and I'm certain they paid a visit to your brother. We have a witness that saw Sasuke leaving the village in the early hours of this morning."

No…it couldn't be…

"You mean...Sasuke left?" Itachi asked weakly.

"Our witness says Sasuke wasn't in his right mind. It's possible he was under some other influence in which case it is more of a kidnapping rather than a defection. Orochimaru's accomplices may have lured Sasuke out of the village and forced him to go with them. The witness never saw Sasuke actually leave the village, just heading towards the gate. He may have even been taken from inside our walls. Rest assured that are treating this as a kidnapping rather than a defection," Tsunade spoke calmly, although she was clearly ready for some sort of explosion or violence from Itachi.

She didn't need to be. Itachi felt weak, dizzy. He thought he might faint for a few moments.

His little brother kidnapped by the Snake Sannin? From right under his very nose?

Or, Sasuke had left the village willingly, to join Orochimaru, once again practically in front of him. What sort of big brother was he? Could he even call himself that anymore?

"Why wasn't I informed?" Itachi asked, so quietly that Tsunade asked him to repeat himself. He did so, but with more darkness laced to every word.

"We needed you on that mission today," Shizune told him, a little uncertainly, "It was top priority, and we-"

"My brother is the top priority!" Itachi shouted, feeling his voice ripple around the room. "How-how…how could you…" his hands shook and his vision blurred, and not from overuse of his Mangekyou Sharingan.

"We sent another squad to track down and retrieve Sasuke," Shizune continued.

"Who?" Itachi asked.

"We sent Naruto Uzumaki, Neji Hyuuga, Choji Akamichi and Kiba Inuzuka, all being led by Shikamaru Nara," Tsunade said.

Rookies…all of them rookies….

"Are you trying to let my brother be taken by that-that degenerate bastard Orochimaru? Do you always send rookies to deal with dangerous Rogue Nin?"

Itachi could feel the very essence of his being consumed by the flames of rage and hate. His village, the place he sought to protect, had betrayed him not only once, but a second time.

"I'm going to bring my brother home. You're going to tell me all the information you have about where he might have been taken, right now." Itachi left no room for argument.

As he raced across the country, he could only think about the way the village he had loved had put a knife in his back. They didn't tell him Sasuke had been kidnapped because they wanted him to complete his mission? A scroll to the one of the Feudal Lords could be delivered later, but Sasuke would be gone by later. How could Itachi ever justify that? His brother would be in Orochimaru's slimy grasp, and all Itachi could say for himself was that he hadn't been able to stop it from happening because he was busy playing politics at the time?

Itachi saw each squad member Tsunade had sent for Sasuke passed out, one by one, as he travelled. They had obviously been through a battle and were heavily injured. Itachi didn't spare even a second glance. He only wanted to find Sasuke.

But Itachi didn't get what he wanted. He tracked Sasuke all the way to the Final Valley where Naruto was knocked out, a Leaf ninja headband beside him, the symbol crossed through with an ugly gouge.

Sasuke was long gone and impossible to track. Itachi kept going, sweeping the countryside in a large searching radius but found nothing. Itachi had promised himself that he would stop crying so much, but right then he had let everything out. It took a long time, to pour out so much anguish.

It was with a heavy steps and heart that Itachi returned to the Leaf, by which time the 'Sasuke Retrieval Squad' had been found and treated, all them recovering.

Itachi just walked back home, barely taking note of anything around him. He sat down at the kitchen table and stared at a chip in the wood. He could have been there for hours, before he heard a knock on his door.

Brainlessly, he answered it to see Sakura and a heavily bandaged Naruto outside, teary and distraught.

Naruto apologised, saying over and over that he would get Sasuke back, and he would become stronger and beat Orochimaru to a pulp.

Sakura apologised too, crying uncontrollably.

"I-I-I saw him l-leave and I couldn't stop him! I'm so sorry!"

That sparked Itachi's interest. She was the witness. She may have been the last person to see Sasuke before he was taken….or before he left.

"I need to talk with Sakura alone," Itachi said abruptly. With much trepidation, Sakura followed his gesture to enter the apartment and Itachi quickly shut the door on Naruto.

They both sat down at the table, Sakura wiping the tears off her face with her hands.

"You said you saw Sasuke leave?" Itachi asked. Sakura sniffed.

"Well, not exactly…but…I suppose I sort of did…"

"I need to know," Itachi said, desperation hinting every syllable, "I need to know if Sasuke was kidnapped, or if he left to join Orochimaru on his own." Sakura looked very uncomfortable, avoiding Itachi's gaze. He asked her to look him in the eye, sternly. "Tell me the truth," he implored her.

"Well…Sasuke…he may not have been thinking clearly or he might have been in some sort of Genjutsu or maybe the Curse Mark made him-"

"What happened?" Itachi ground out.

"Sasuke…left. I don't think he was forced to leave, or that he was ever doing anything against his will. I didn't tell this to anyone else because I didn't want Sasuke to get in trouble. I mean, he may have been in a bad state of mind; he seemed really upset but he was also determined to leave. I thought, if I told Lady Tsunade that he was kidnapped, she would be more willing to send out search parties for him and that he would be brought back!" The girl burst into tears all over again.

Itachi leaned back, thinking. As Sakura said, it was possible Sasuke was being controlled to an extent by the Curse Mark, making him act irrationally, but he had also left of his own free will. Sakura was smart, Itachi had to give her that. She knew that Sasuke had more chance of being treated as a victim in all this if she implied that he was taken by force.

"Thank you, Sakura," Itachi said. He wondered if he could ever thank her enough for what she had done for both him and Sasuke. "News will probably get out that Sasuke joined Orochimaru willingly, but we can both remain ambiguous about how willing he really was. Please, don't tell anyone what really happened. The village will aim to bring Sasuke home if people think he was forced or manipulated into this. And we both want Sasuke to come home, right?" Sakura nodded.

"I promise I won't tell anyone. I just want him back."

….

A lot of things bothered Itachi during the next 3 years. It became clear that Sasuke wanted to be with Orochimaru, as he overthrew those who came to 'rescue' him and openly declared his loyalty to the Snake Sannin.

By extension it became more apparent that Sasuke had probably not been kidnapped in the first place, that he had left. But Tsunade was always reluctant to name him as Rogue, or as any sort of criminal. He had a pretty good guess as to why that was: because Sasuke was still a child, he was one of two remaining Uchiha's and she would lose the other remaining Uchiha's loyalty if she named him as Rogue.

Rumours began to circulate about the two brothers, and Uchiha in general. People whispered that the Uchiha were a bad sort, intrinsically evil. Then, even worse, that Itachi had been cruel to Sasuke during his five years of guardianship over him, which was why his brother defected from the village. That rumour was especially hard to deal with. Itachi sometimes wondered if it was true. Had Sasuke hated or feared him so much that he just couldn't bear to be in the village anymore?

And then there was the gossip that Orochimaru was a violent man and would probably abuse Sasuke, physically and mentally. Itachi hardly slept at night, thinking about all the things his baby brother, who he was supposed to protect, may be going through at that very moment. He told himself over and over, like a stuck record, that Sasuke was Orochimaru's next vessel and would not be damaged.

Every day that passed was another day that Sasuke was gone, and a day closer to when Orochimaru could take Sasuke's body for his own. That was when time would run out.

Itachi was never sent on any missions that focused on retrieving Sasuke. The Hokage told him many times that she thought his emotions would get in the way of the mission. Every refusal was another knife in his heart.

As year number three of Sasuke's departure reared its head, Itachi became the stone man. He didn't care about anything anymore. He carried out his missions with half-hearted commitment, almost trying to get himself killed. He didn't care when villagers openly talked about how he had probably drove his brother to leave the village.

He could feel it in the air as the time drew closer. The indrawn breaths of acceptance, of knowing that soon Sasuke would no longer be himself, as he would be a host to Orochimaru and his perverted immortality Jutsu.

In the past Orochimaru had moulded his vessel's body to eventually appear as his own. Itachi wondered if the same would happen to Sasuke, or if Orochimaru would keep his face. Itachi was under no illusions that part of the reason Orochimaru had chosen Sasuke to be his next container was because Sasuke was very pretty. (Itachi could imagine a younger, more care-free Sasuke protesting at being referred to as 'pretty'. How he missed those days.)

Every day Itachi expected to wake up and find out that the day had come and it was time to expect an attack from Orochimaru on the Leaf, because he had finally take possession of Sasuke's body.

The news came.

Different news.

Sasuke Uchiha had killed Orochimaru.

…..

No one knew quite what to make of the rumour going around not just the Leaf, but the entire Shinobi world, that Sasuke had taken down Orochimaru. Even Itachi couldn't help but feel two sides to the whole thing: relieved and happy that Sasuke was not going to become Orochimaru's next body but apprehensive about what his brother's real motives were.

What worried everyone even more was that Sasuke seemed to have no intentions of returning to the Leaf. He was roaming about, with accomplices apparently, doing who knew what. There were so many rumours to keep track of: Sasuke had joined Akatsuki, Sasuke was freeing all of Orochimaru's test subjects, Sasuke was going to join the Hidden Mist village, Sasuke had gone mad under Orochimaru's tutelage.

It was too much to bear when Tsunade sent out a squad to once again attempt to retrieve Sasuke and Itachi was not a member of it. He could appreciate the effort that Tsunade had put into the team but it was missing the key component: him!

"I have told you a dozen times already!" Tsunade could easily match whatever volume Itachi would yell at. "Your emotional attachment to the target is too much of a liability on a mission that requires delicate care."

"Yet you still send his old teammates, who obviously have strong personal feelings for Sasuke!" Itachi bit back. Naruto and Sakura and both grown into fine ninja, and Itachi couldn't help but envy the both of them that had not only been able to speak with Sasuke during his time under Orochimaru, but had been on many retrieval missions. Itachi had dreamed about a time where, just for a minute, he could talk with Sasuke.

He was sure he would have been able to convince him to come home.

"They balance out the squad and their attachment doesn't run as deep as yours. Blood is thicker than water, and all that."

"Which is why I should be going! I know if I can just speak with Sasuke-"

"Enough! My word is final! What makes you think Sasuke will listen to whatever you have to say anyway?" Tsunade paused, lowering her voice. Her expression took on a morose look. "Before I was willing to give Sasuke the benefit of the doubt, choosing to believe that he was a victim of Orochimaru. But the longer he refuses to return to the village, the more I have to assume that he is indeed a Rogue ninja. And you know what will have to happen then."

Sasuke would be in the notorious Bingu book. Probably ranked at A Class, maybe even S class with all the crazy rumours flying around. And he would be killed on-sight.

….

That evening, Itachi sat in Sasuke's room. He had left it mostly untouched, apart from that one time, just after Sasuke left, he had torn his brother's room apart looking for something could indicate his whereabouts. Or anything, really, that could be used to solve the mystery that was his brother.

Itachi had turned up nothing, a part from a box of hidden medicine. It was prescribed to Sasuke and, as he read the label, Itachi had felt his heart sink a little more. It was, basically, a powerful pain killer. For the Curse Mark, most likely. He hadn't known that Sasuke was taking medication.

After that Itachi had put Sasuke's room back together, everything neat and tidy, the way Sasuke had left it, and only ventured in there once every year since to clean the room.

The three years had been a lonely existence. And Itachi was sure it had started to make him go insane. He had some disturbing day-dreams that involved the violent killing of Orochimaru, at his hands. Itachi had killed before, but had never revelled in it. He always did the job quickly and got it over with.

But in those horrifying yet satisfying imaginings, Itachi was brutally tearing the Snake's body apart, enjoying every illusory cry for mercy and shriek that he was sorry. Itachi wondered if some part of him was put out that Sasuke had finished off Orochimaru, because he had wanted to do it so badly himself.

Itachi gently lowered himself onto Sasuke's bed, kneading the sheets between his fingers. He wanted to tell himself that soon, soon, Sasuke would be home. But he just didn't know that for sure.

There was a scratching at the window that made Itachi start. He furrowed his brow at the tabby cat that sat outside, gazing calmly at him. In its mouth was a scroll, only a small one. Gingerly Itachi opened the window and, at the cat's lack of resistance, removed the scroll from the feline's maw.

He opened it and read:

Dear Itachi,

Your brother Sasuke visited me not too long ago. He asked me to send you a message, saying not to worry and that he would be home soon.

I'm sure he also sends his love (although that boy would never say it aloud).

I send my love too, and wish you would come to see me a little more often.

Yours,

Granny-cat

The cat watched him read the letter and, once it saw that Itachi had done so, it bowed its head and darted away, soon out of sight.

Itachi clutched the letter to his chest and took deep breaths. Sasuke would be home soon. Sasuke would be home soon.

"Thank you," Itachi whispered, to everyone and no one. "Thank you. Just make sure he comes home safe." ome home.

ith Sasuke.

ke during his tutelage under Orochimaru, but had

Edited 3/7/15

Well, there you have it. I would like to say that I know exactly where this is going but to be honest I don't. Go me.

Thank you to Guest, gentleflam51 and jmtothemusic for reviewing last chapter.

Guest: Aw, thank you so much! Uni is pretty hectic, I don't have many lectures but all the time I have off I'm supposed to be working independently. Hopefully you enjoyed this chapter. Sasuke is a very rash character but I've always found sympathy with him. I have a pretty large, tight-knit family myself so if I lost all of them at once I'd probably go insane and on a mad quest for vengeance.

gentleflam51: I agree with you there completely – losing even one family member can be tough at any age, and to lose your entire family in one blow would definitely affect a 7/8 year old. Yup, Sasuke did go to Orochimaru and Danzo is being his usual self, messing everything up behind the scenes. Grrr, stupid Danzo…

jmtothemusic: Thank you, Uni is going okay so far. I'm doing a joint honours and one part is creative writing so hopefully I can improve my skills. I'm really glad you liked last chapter and hopefully you'll like this one too. It's a bit more of a stepping-stone to the next chapter than I'd like it to be but things will happen, I promise! Thank you again for your amazing reviews, they always brighten up my day

Thanks for reading,

Cipher.