Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

Older Brother: Fleeting

He had planned everything out exactly, and it had all been going the way he wanted.

Danzo had told Orochimaru the real reason behind the Uchiha's massacre, and, as planned, Sasuke had defected from the Leaf in pursuit of this information. He would have become Orochimaru's next vessel and then Orochimaru would attack the Leaf in his shiny new body.

Danzo had assured Orochimaru that he would covertly assist in his destruction of the Leaf, but in all actuality he would never help that filth burn his village that he had worked so hard to keep peaceful. Orochimaru would attack and be destroyed. Taking out two birds with one stone: the Rogue Sannin and the Uchiha brat.

But everything he had so perfectly constructed had once again come crashing to the ground and, once again, it was all where that infuriating Sasuke Uchiha was concerned. The whelp took down his teacher and half the village wanted to praise him as a hero, the great Sasuke Uchiha who single-handedly defeated Orochimaru. Certainly not part of the plan.

If Danzo had known what a hindrance the youngest Uchiha would become to him, he would have ordered him to be killed in his cradle.

And then there was Itachi Uchiha. Once a most valuable asset but now just another thorn in his side. Danzo could not deny that having an Uchiha under your command could turn the tides of battle, but it seemed that Uchiha's could not be trusted to stay under your command. Disloyalty was, in Danzo's opinion, one of the worst traits anyone could possess.

Those who deserted, defected, betrayed and did not know where their loyalties ought to lie all had to be dealt with. He would make sure of it.

…

Itachi received a message one night, as he wandered about the apartment, tired of trying to sleep. A hawk clattered at the window and Itachi rushed to open it. A scroll was tied neatly to its leg, which Itachi pried off none too gently. The bird let out an indignant shriek and retreated as soon as Itachi had the scroll.

He unfurled it and was slightly surprised to see a map. It was of an area close by to the village, dense woodland to the east. There was an 'x' marked on the map, nothing more.

Within moments, Itachi was heading for it.

It was from Sasuke, he was sure it was. There was nothing written, nothing to indicate that Sasuke had sent him the map, but Itachi had been waiting so long to hear from his younger brother that reason had almost left him completely.

It didn't occur to him that it could be a trap, and he didn't question why Sasuke sent this cryptic message instead of coming home to the village. Itachi just pushed his body as fast as it would go, heart racing faster than the harsh wind that whipped through the night.

He focused as he got closer to the map's location and could sense one other presence. Itachi sped through the trees and stopped suddenly, landing on a thick branch and staring up above him.

Sasuke sat on a tree limb a little way away, on one of the thinner ones higher up in the clusters of branches. Itachi drank in every little detail of his appearance, hardly able to believe that after all this time, Sasuke was now mere metres away from him. He had gotten taller and his features were sharper, although he still carried a certain softness about him, a striking resemblance to Mikoto. Sasuke's own pale skin seemed mirror the moon's light, as the moon reflected the sun's light.

For a moment Sasuke ignored Itachi, and then, very slowly, looked down at him, his eyes glowing red in the darkness. A little chill passed over Itachi's spine. Those red eyes, shining in the dark, reminded him of the monsters parents invented to get their children to behave. Their eyes always shone red as the colour of freshly spilled blood and they always leered down at you before they leapt in for the kill.

Sasuke regarded Itachi coolly and rose so he was standing before casually dropping down to a lower branch so he and Itachi were level with each other. Itachi realised that Sasuke was a lot thinner than he had first thought. The clothes he wore hung off him slightly, perhaps worn for the very reason that on first impression they made him appear bigger than he really was.

"Big brother." Sasuke's voice was a little deeper now, but what startled Itachi more was the way he said those words. For years he'd been imagining his reunion with Sasuke. Sasuke had always said 'big brother' at some point in those daydreams, but he'd always said it with endearment and the utmost affection.

The tone Sasuke used now was sneering, mocking, wielding the words like weapons. Itachi's own Sharingan came to life as Sasuke said,

"We've got some things to talk about."

…

Itachi bit his lip. The pain brought him out of the fantasy he'd been trying to escape in. This wasn't going to be a happy reunion, full of hugs and smiles and 'I'm sorry's'. He cast away the things he'd been planning to say, all the yearnings to just have Sasuke come home, and focused instead on his anger towards his younger brother, anger he hadn't realised was brewing in him until that moment.

"Yes, we do have some things to discuss," Itachi's voice was firm and authoritarian. He could feel himself slipping back into the role of older brother. It felt easy, natural. "Maybe we should start with why you left the village three years ago." Itachi wanted to take control of this situation. Both of them wanted to be Alpha male here, he could tell, and Itachi would be damned if he let Sasuke take that role.

The two brothers glared at each other for a moment, the wind picking up in their silence, battling the leaves as it passed.

"I think you know why I left," Sasuke practically spat. The viciousness in that voice was new. Never before had he heard Sasuke speak to him – to anyone – in such a way. Unbidden, the speculations of the youngest Uchiha's departure from the village came back to Itachi, along with his fears. Did Sasuke hate him? Had he hated him so much that he could not bear to live with Itachi another moment?

"I don't know why. And it's been driving me insane with worry ever since you left. You couldn't have left a note, explaining why you defected? Or, better yet, you couldn't have talked to me about it before you made such a rash decision that endangered your life! Didn't I deserve at least that?" Itachi had never expected to feel quite so angry in this moment. He wanted to reach out and strangle Sasuke, to shake him and strike him.

"Lying scum don't deserve anything!" Sasuke flew at him, drawing the katana at his waist in a flash. Itachi didn't have many weapons on him, due to leaving in such a hurry, and dodged the sword's path, but not fast enough to escape getting a nick on the shoulder. He reminded himself that Sasuke was older now, taught by a Sannin, and his skills were likely to be near to his own, or maybe even on par.

Itachi focused on staying out of the sword's slashing arcs and on the task of disarming Sasuke. In his rage Sasuke wasn't thinking, wasn't using Ninjutsu or Genjutsu. Or maybe he didn't think Itachi was worth the chakra.

As Sasuke whipped the sword towards him, Itachi saw his chance. Moving like fluid, he evaded the blow and grabbed Sasuke's wrist in both of his hands, squeezing hard. The sword fell and Itachi kicked it away as Sasuke yelped from the pain. Hearing the pitiful noise made some innate force in Itachi soften his grip, which Sasuke felt and wasted no time in breaking the grasp and swinging his free hand at his brother.

Itachi had no idea how long they fought with just their fists, or when they started using Ninjutsu against each other. Sasuke had become truly adept in using lightning techniques, making Itachi rely on his copied wind techniques to subdue the cackling electricity.

Neither of them used Genjutsu. Itachi didn't want to open that can of worms; chances were Sasuke had mastered the Sharingan to a greater level than Itachi, and he didn't want to invite Sasuke to try anything on him. Itachi guessed that Sasuke wouldn't instigate a Genjutsu battle either because he was worried that Itachi's own visual prowess was still greater than his.

Besides, both of them would probably rather punch each other for real rather than in an illusion.

They were both bruised and bloodied by the time their fighting stopped. Itachi had seen an opening and took full advantage of it. It ended with him slamming Sasuke's head into a tree trunk with a horrible thud that again made Itachi stop hurting his younger brother immediately. The blow hadn't knocked Sasuke out, but he staggered at clutched the side of his head where a fresh wound wept blood.

By some sort of silent agreement they stopped fighting. Itachi stood panting while Sasuke crouched on the ground, cradling his head. With every second Itachi regretted being the one to inflict those marks of pain on Sasuke. The split lip, purple bruises blossoming like some sort of sick flower over his collarbone and the leg Sasuke wasn't putting any weight on were all the more proof that Itachi had failed as an older brother.

Itachi's own ribs ached, and his left cheek was slightly swollen from a blow to the face. He was sure the rest of his wounds would make their statement of pain later on. Clutching one hand to his side, Itachi stepped towards Sasuke, extending his other hand to help his brother stand up.

When he got too close Sasuke growled and stood up instantly, limping backwards, away from Itachi, as if his very presence was toxin to him. His eyes still emitted their crimson shine and held nothing but hatred. It froze Itachi in his movements. He had thought Sasuke might be prepared to have a calm conversation now that they had got all that fighting out of their systems.

"Sasuke-" Itachi started, reaching towards his brother. He was going to tell him to sit down, since he was looking very unsteady trying to keep the weight off his left foot, and the blood flowing freely from the gash on his temple needed tending to.

"Don't touch me," Sasuke spat, retreating further away, stumbling over himself. He was stooped in a half crouch, animalistic in both his hostility and his pain. "Stay away from me," he warned as Itachi took another tentative step closer.

"You said you wanted to talk," Itachi reminded him, doing his best to keep his tone gentle. Part of him knew that, if he wanted to, he could probably subdue Sasuke and take him back to the village. He was refraining from doing that; he wanted Sasuke to re-enter the Leaf by walking through the gates on his own two feet, by his own will, not by being dragged through.

Sasuke spat a mouthful of blood on the ground that had collected in his mouth from the split lip. He managed to make that action seem as deadly as if he were a snake spitting poison.

"Yeah, maybe we can talk about the time our entire family was murdered, and the people who are responsible."

Itachi could feel the blood leave his face. "It was some of your old ANBU buddies, wasn't it? The ones that weren't killed, I mean. That ones you let walk away." Itachi stayed quiet.

"Orochimaru wouldn't tell me what he knew about our Clan's murder, and I only found it out as I had him near-dead, my sword at his neck.

"As Orochimaru begged me for mercy, he told me that Danzo had orchestrated everything, that he had planned the massacre right from the very beginning. The Uchiha, shunned and ostracised by the village, had been planning a coup. And to stop it from happening, Danzo had the Uchiha killed. He had ten ANBU sent out to annihilate the Clan, but only five were there. And the ones that weren't there were all killed.

"Five, five, seven and three. It drove me insane. Five ninja killed the Clan, another five were supposed to help but never showed up, seven were reported as the culprits, all of which were dead, which meant three were unaccounted for. I finally know what happened. You incinerated the five ANBU that didn't show up for our Clan's massacre with your Amaterasu. Orochimaru told me he heard that from Danzo himself.

"So the five ninja that never showed up for the massacre that were killed and the two that fell during the slaughter of our family were held responsible for the crime. Which means that there are three left alive today, guilty and unpunished.

"But there's more to it than that. There were five people who knew of the plan to massacre the Uchiha. The Third Hokage, Danzo, the two advisors and you."

"Sasuke-" Itachi tried to interrupt but Sasuke wouldn't let him.

"You knew what was going to happen, you planned it out with Danzo and the rest! You set everything up, arranging those ten ninja to kill our Clan, but somewhere along the line you had a change of heart, or maybe you realised how guilty you would look if everyone but you in the Clan was killed. So you killed five of the ANBU, and the one that was going to end me, and emerged as the tragic saviour, who had lost everything but managed to save his only brother amongst the bloodshed," Sasuke scoffed, looking disgustedly at Itachi, as one might look at someone who had just metamorphosed into a giant cockroach.

"I don't know…I don't understand what the hell is wrong with you!" Sasuke was clearly struggling to hold back tears, halfway between shouting and wailing. "I do know you had a hand in the murder of our family, though. Maybe you were always too loyal to the village, so loyal that you would assist with the murder of our family! You planned the murder…and then let those three ninja get away with it!

"I'm going to take care of Danzo, and the three ninja who still need punishment, and then, as you watch your precious village burn to the ground, I'll send you to join our family," Sasuke declared finally. He looked halfway between man and monster. He was broken by grief and hobbling on his one good leg, but the wild, danger-infected air that surrounded him was the epitome of a truly terrifying beast.

"Sasuke, you're not thinking straight!" Itachi managed to cut in above Sasuke's tormented accusations. He glanced at the blood running over Sasuke's hand where he had it pressed to his temple. A lot of it was being lost, and Sasuke was probably exhausted too, maybe even dehydrated. "We need to talk about this after we've gotten you treated for your injuries."

Itachi started towards Sasuke again who limped further away, growing paler and looking like he was fighting very hard to stay conscious. Itachi stopped advancing, worried Sasuke might hurt himself more.

"What was that letter you sent me? The one you had Granny-cat write for you?" Itachi asked instead. He would let Sasuke wear himself out, and keep him talking in the mean-time.

"I was going to go back to the Leaf and tell you everything I had found out. That was before I knew that you had a hand in all of it as well," Sasuke panted, hardly having the strength left to glare at Itachi. "Orochimaru never told me of your involvement in planning the massacre. I found that out from someone else."

"Who told you of my involvement?" Itachi asked carefully.

"Why does it matter? If I told you that you'd just plan out another little murder for them, wouldn't you?" The words stung with truth, because Itachi would have to kill anyone who knew of his involvement in the Uchiha's murder. This was top-secret. If any of the other villages found out that the leaders of the Leaf had killed an entire Clan, well, things would inevitably get messy.

"Sasuke, if our Clan had been allowed to live, they would have followed through with the coup and, succeed or fail, there would have been more wars to come. Their deaths were the only way to stop further bloodshed from happening," Itachi said, the words feeling awful in his mouth.

"Yeah, I bet that's what you all tell yourselves to help you sleep at night, that the genocide of the Uchiha was all for the greater good!" Sasuke retorted. Itachi was speechless for a moment. He had thought that Sasuke was merely acting on his emotions and lashing out irrationally. But Itachi could now see that Sasuke was absolutely in his right mind, and he was furious.

And he had just realised that there was something Sasuke still did not know: Itachi had been the one who was going to murder the entire Clan. Sasuke knew he had a hand in organising it, but not that Itachi was going to be the assassin. Or that Danzo had betrayed him, ordering five ninja to kill Itachi, which was why Itachi had burned them to ashes with his Amaterasu. If not for Danzo's betrayal, Itachi would have gone ahead and bloodied his own hands.

Would Sasuke hate him even more, if he knew that Itachi had bargained for the life of his younger brother by agreeing to be the one to kill the Clan? Itachi knew he should have revealed the truth right then. He should have told Sasuke everything a long time ago. But still he just couldn't bear to say the words.

"Do you know why I saved you that night?" Itachi asked quietly.

"I have several theories. Either you staged it to emerge as a hero, or because I wasn't involved in the coup, so you saw no reason to have me killed. Or maybe you just couldn't stand the idea of living alone with your misery, so you had me kept alive."

"You'd rather I had let you die then?"

"I'd rather you'd never helped Danzo and his cohorts in their plot to murder our family!" Sasuke shuddered and slumped against the tree. He made no protest as Itachi approached, on the verge of passing out. His Sharingan faded to black, but the hatred stayed. "Are you going to kill me now that I know the truth?"

From the way he said it, Sasuke clearly thought the answer was going to be 'yes'. He really did think Itachi was a heartless murderer, and Sasuke seemed to have resigned himself to death by his lack of resistance to Itachi's approach.

"I would never hurt you," Itachi told him, wanting to cram the words back in his mouth as soon as they were out. He had been the one to hurt Sasuke the most. He had never meant to hurt Sasuke, but what one did and what they intended were often very different.

Sasuke's glare faltered and then he finally let himself fall unconscious. For a while Itachi just stood looking at him. Past the fresh injuries and bruises, past the thinness and unhealthy pallor, Sasuke looked truly at bliss in oblivion. It made Itachi sad. Was Sasuke truly happier when he wasn't in this world?

Itachi gathered water from a nearby river and used it to clean his brother's wounds. Every time he touched him, Itachi expected Sasuke to wake up and bite his hand off.

Sasuke wasn't the little kid from three years ago. Itachi remembered, as if from another lifetime, Sasuke looking as small and pitiful as one of the kittens in the cardboard box he'd been so determined to save. He'd grown up into something far deadlier.

Itachi couldn't take Sasuke back to the village, as his heart was clearly set on its destruction, so he sat down with Sasuke, back against the trunk of a tree. He held his brother close to him, unable to ignore the way Sasuke's bones felt too close to the surface of his skin. He doubted Orochimaru would have let Sasuke's body wither like this, so the lost weight must have happened during his time after the Snake's death.

The night seemed to last forever. And when the dawn finally came, the murky grey skies kept the sun out of sight, making for the beginning of a very dark day.

Edited 5/7/15

Don't know why I put in a reference to Kafka's 'Metamorphosis'. It just kind of came out.

I know the whole 5, 5, 7 and 3 thing is a bit Kafkaesque [lol more reference to Kafka (I'm sorry, this is what Uni life does to you)] but basically Sasuke is furious that three ninjas – the only three left alive after the slaughter of the Uchiha – were allowed to go free, and obviously that his Clan's murder was planned by the village leaders and his older brother. But he still doesn't know that Itachi was the intended assassin!

Thank you to Guest, jmtothemusic, Terra.L, gentleflam51, In Memory Of Yesterday and lucy-snape19 for reviewing.

Guest: Thank you, I hope you aren't disappointed with the reunion. There certainly is a lot to think about with this fic. I will probably involve the Akatsuki somehow but I don't think I'll extend the story based on their motives otherwise I'll be digging myself into a hole I won't be able to escape. Yeah, so Sasuke's pretty mad at Itachi and he's pretty unstable right now. But who wouldn't be after finding out all of that?

jmtothemusic: Thank you again for telling me about the previous chapter where the last two lines were a garbled mess – I don't often check my stories to make sure they're okay on the site after I upload them. I will start doing that more often now. I'm glad you liked last chapter and hopefully you enjoyed this one too

Terra.L: Thank you and you're very welcome Hope you enjoy the update!

lucy-snape19: Yeah, I'm really putting both Itachi and Sasuke through their paces emotionally. In a way I kind of hope there isn't an alternate reality where all your writing creations actually exist because then I'd be the evil torturer of these brothers. They still have a lot of mending to do. Thank you for reviewing.

gentleflam51: I don't think I'll include the Fourth Shinobi War otherwise I might end up writing this fic forever (but we all know there is hardly any correlation between my plans and what I end up doing) I might include the Akatsuki though so who knows where that'll lead to. Thank you for reviewing!

In Memory Of Yesterday: Thank you! I will probably include Team Taka at some point, maybe not as an extension of Akatsuki but I'm sure they'll make an appearance.

Thanks for reading,

Cipher.