IX - Weight of Blood

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Summary: The sacrifices that we make and the lengths we go through, are they truly crucial or are they just a foolish hubris of the young?

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Itachi stood frozen in the hall. He didn't expect this, whatever you call it. But here was his little brother just at the other side of the door, seated and whole unconcerned with his presence. He was not sure what to feel, seeing Sasuke so near yet so far. His brother was too different, morphed into a creature he can no longer understand. Their last battle hammered it in his mind. The bend of his wrist, the stretch of his leg, the tap of his foot, the sweep of his eye, they were all images from a stranger.

Not realising it, Itachi found that he had stepped into the room. His presence caused Sasuke to look up while his ever present guard stirred in warning. Itachi tensed readying for the onslaught but Sasuke's subtle shake dissuaded violence from forming.

Itachi was uncertain who Sasuke's samurai guard was. The man had come as a surprise that the Raikage had at first railed against the Samurai's of Iron thinking those symbols of another era had swiftly rallied to another bygone token. It was only the fear in his brother's eyes that made A reassess his supposition, helped by Yagura's derision at his words. Both men were Jurinchuriki and their caged beasts had responded familiarly to the knight's presence, but would say more. Onoki, the oldest of the kages, had simply remained silent and wary.

No one spoke. Itachi steeled himself to walk further in. He noted the wordless look that passed between Sasuke and his guard, before the man stood noiselessly, his armor making nary a sound, and stepped out. Itachi ignored the pang that the sight of such trust caused him. Before that was what he wished for, the ease and trust they would carry as brothers in the field, but reality had easily shattered all those dreams.

He sat down to face his younger brother. They were now alone, though Itachi was no fool to think Sasuke remained unprotected. For sure the knight, even if he could sense no sign of the man's chakra, was in an easy distance. Most possibly just behind the shoji screens, ready to spring into action once danger to his charge becomes apparent.

Itachi could not speak. He wasn't sure what he wanted to say. He could only look at Sasuke. Before his little brother, now a stranger dressed like those ancient painting of old. Not the almost elaborate caricature he wore in their last battle, but still ancient and stifling layers of robes in of golden hued cream and brown-orange with purple that had puddled around him.

Noting his refusal to speak, Sasuke did not break the silence. Instead he returned back to his writing, showing little sign of nerves. His hand remained steady. His fingers lightly wrapped on the calligraphy brush at each stroke, highlighting the pair of wicked nail guards he wore.

Itachi nearly flinched at the sight of those jeweled claws. His mind flashed back to the deep pair of gouges Killer Bee earned in his confrontation with Sasuke. Gouges bought by those self-same claws Sasuke infused with his chakra. The wound that resisted the tailed beast's accelerated healing and instead mended slowly. Itachi remembered noting the strange flavor left by Sasuke's chakra on the wound. The scent of ozone seemed to permeate and a crackle of lightning seemed to snap back at any attempt of the bijuu's chakra to heal. He wondered if this was a sign that his brother was lost. He was no longer an honorable shinobi, but a creature made up of spite and vengeance. He should have known this was so. After all. didn't Sasuke torment him by infusing him with Orochimaru?

"Will you really bring forth a war?" Itachi at last spoke. It's not as if he did not know the answer, but he wanted to hear it from Sasuke's own lips. Much to his surprise, what he got was a disbelieving laugh and a denial. Irritation flared thru Itachi. He snapped back. "Our demands are simple, yet here you are spouting some poem about the evils of war. What's your point?"

Sasuke set his brush down gently. With an arched brow he replied, "that war is devastating."

"Then give in," Itachi shot back annoyed. "His Holiness simply has to abdicate, and considering his age, it's not a hardship. And considering you stole it, just return the Yata-no-kagami."

"If only abdication was so simple," Sasuke mocked. "It wouldn't be the last resort of anything. And there's the added issue of His Holiness being a Namikaze, every noble clan knows what that means."

Itachi gritted his teeth. He hated the almost condescending tone Sasuke used. It was as if his little brother was lording the fact he knew better, that it was him that was taught. It almost like before. Here he was slaving away for the good of Konoha, while Sasuke stayed in the compound coddled and protected, drowning in the myriad arrogance of the clan.

It wasn't to say he didn't understand what his little brother meant. Though the common men knew Namikaze Minato earned the title of Hokage thru his feats in the Third Shinobi World War, feats were never enough to elevate you to the upper echelons of the ruling class. You must have the political acumen, the weight of history within your family, and most importantly, the backing of the Fire Daimyo and their ilk. The Namikaze name initially impeded Minato's accession to Kage. The clan were known to be serfs, there was no better way to put it, sealed into the service of the Uzumaki eons ago. Konoha would rarely acknowledge such an incongruity to the values they espoused, but what can they do when the sealing of the Namikaze preceded the village's founding. The Land of Whirlpool knew peace when the Uzumaki subjugated all opposing clans under their yoke, unlike the Land of Fire with their constantly warring clans. The Fire hegemony might have prevailed initially, but it seemed Whirlpool was right and Fire did follow their example in the end. To obtain peace, sacrifices must be made.

In the end despite the disadvantage of his clan name, Minato of the Namikaze clan ascended to the rank of Kage when he married Uzumaki Kushina. The last remaining Uzumaki named princess of the Land of Whirlpool. Uzumaki, a family so old and ancient, they could trace their line as nobles of the Empire of Go, and even further back as a clan of rabbit summons who forsook Sora and followed a god onto mortal lands. A family just as storied as the noble Senju and Arakawa clans that their blood has often mingled into a unbreakable alliance. Many legends follow this ancient clan and it was this weight that Namikaze Minato was accepted as Kage. Of course with the caveat that he can no longer pass his clan name to his children. They would be known as Uzumaki.

"And perhaps His Holiness should reap the consequence of his defiance," Itachi shot back.

Sasuke smirked. "So what is it then? A simple thing or a price that must be paid?"

"Don't try to twist my words," he gritted out while Sasuke jeered. Itachi could could feel his whole body trembling. It was a familiar sensation. The same anger and disgust that ran thru his body as he derided his cousins on their shortsightedness. He could still remember them, the damnable Uchiha pride that blazed in their dead dead eyes. Blind eyes of the clan that could not see what he saw, the importance of the village. The arrogance in their stance. Such arrogance should be crushed when they were nothing more than simple shinobi. Their hardheartedness when they refused to listen to him, what else could de do but destroy them all. "Why can't you understand that this is for peace?" Itachi found himself entreating. "Now is not the time for pride. Look at our family," he felt like he was begging his brother to understand. Itachi hated this. Why was he a supplicant when he had done so much for Sasuke's sake? He brought peace. The clan coup would have plunged Konoha into a civil war. Nations would have followed. Look at now and the dratted Wind who was sniffing around his stupid selfish little brother, goading him to war. "They refused to accept our diminished state. They forget their vows and forsake their duty to the village and invited their own destruction."

Sasuke's features were frozen like a tundra.

"Can't you understand," Itachi cried out. "They forced my hand, all for their godforsaken pride when they refused to bend!"

Sasuke held himself so still as the words echoed. He was as still as a statue. His gaze was unblinking. He opened his mouth to speak, but no sound came out. He licked his lips. Stopped. Started. Stopped again. He steeled himself.

"That's it?" Sasuke spoke in a whisper soft voice, "all this because you thought it was just our gods-be-damned PRIDE!" He gave a short bark of a laugh. It was filled with incredulity and grief. "What is pride? You have pride," his voice snapped. "When you call yourself a shinobi of Konoha. Your Hokage and your hypocritical handlers have their pride. The Senju have their pride. So have the Hyuuga, the Nara, the Yamanaka and all the other clans out there! They look at the accomplishments of their clan and its members and take pleasure from those achievements. What makes their pride more palatable than ours?" His arm swept thru the air, trying to encompass the scale he wanted to describe.

Itachi shook his head. His foolish brother did not see that there was a difference. "The Uchiha was a fading clan with no one special to give," Silence. "It was just Shisui and…me."

"So are you saying might is right," Sasuke spoke, his voice shivering.

Itachi felt so frustrated.

"Because that's what it sounds to me," Sasuke continued mercilessly. "That you believe people are nothing unless you are strong enough. So what is your measure of strength then? Being a prodigy?" His voice has turned soft and sibilant. "How many prodigies does Konoha have? How many clans have produced prodigies? In your generation, it was just you and Shisui from the Uchiha clan. Before you was Kakashi from the defunct Hatake clan. Previously, that was the Yondaima. Each generation from Konoha has only one or even none. So those clans that did not produce a prodigy or those Shinobi who never was, what are they? Cannon-fodder?"

"You're twisting my words," Itachi jibed back.

"Then explain to me," Sasuke barked, punctuating his demand by slamming his palm to the wooden desk. The heavy wood shook. There was a rattle of porcelain as the ink stone jostled. Dark black liquid spilled and drenched through his work, but he was blind to it. "How are we different that we need to be special in order to be treated equally?"

"Listen," Itachi was at the end of his rope. Sasuke had been relentless but misguided. He was too young to remember the clan members who would come from the missions heavily injured or dead. Weaklings. He doesn't know Itachi watching his cousins learning katas, doing them wrong that they had to be corrected. Dullards. He never saw his uncles joking around the dojo. Undisciplined fools. He never experienced the clan elders telling him to come back tomorrow. Lazy. "We are here to serve Konoha, to bend to its will. Why can't they just do what they're TOLD!"

He at last shouted as Sasuke's features twisted into disbelief. Thwarted at his brother's hardheadedness and the continual refusal to consider his words.

"Do what were told huh?" Sasuke murmured. "I remember we followed orders. That we broke and bled for this same village that you call home. And what did Konoha do but ask more and more. Return our devotion with suspicion and blame. Call us arrogant and honorless. Treated us with disgust. Didn't we bent and bent to all their demands, endured as we were slowly ostracized, treated like criminals and herded into a ghetto. How long can someone bend until they break?"

"It doesn't matter."

"So here we all are, no longer human but a thing to be used and abused," a scoff. "You are a living weapon to ordered by whatever master Konoha deigns to give you to. And the clan, is but a collection of eyes and body parts to be experiment and turned as weapons to be wielded. Brilliant."

It was as if his brother transformed before his eyes. Sasuke burst into a near hysterical laughter, but it wasn't the laughter that was disconcerting. The cloak of taunting anger and disbelief washed away. Left was a collapsed form, weary and guilt-stricken. "By Omoikane's light," he exclaimed with a odd low timber of defeat. "You're so young. We forgot you were a damn child when you did it…" His voice trailed off as he wiped the tears that formed in his near deranged cackles. "I suppose we where at fault. We pushed you. We used you. We coddled you. We praised you like you were an adult with a fully formed mind and spirit. But you were just a child no matter how brilliant. A child with a child's mind, a child's reasoning, and a child's view of the world. I was such a god damned fool."

Itachi watched with disbelief as Sasuke threw a bitter smile. It was a twist of the lip he never saw in his brother's face before, but he remember seeing it from time to time in Fugaku's face.

"You're not Sasuke," he breathed out, horrified as he activated his Sharingan. He could see that it was his brother. To an Uchiha with a sharingan, a glance between Uchiha's was enough tell who the clan member was. What more for his brother that he loved and watch grow. But he was certain it now was someone else. His stance reminded him of his father's often slumped shoulders when the man thought no one could see him. But that was impossible, he killed the man. Drove his blade thru ribs and right thru the heart. "Who are you?" he railed as he clung for that bit of hope. Maybe all is not lost and if he could just break Sasuke free from control. They could stop this together and they could come back to Konoha together. "Let my brother go!"

Itachi demanded as he unfurled his chakra. He spread it out to a jutsu reinforcing the room, preventing anyone from easily entering.

"The brother you know is dead," Sasuke replied, now unconcerned. His figure was suddenly held differently. Still and straight like a mirrored depthless lake.

Itachi rose alarmed. He pounced, crashing into his brother's body in a pile of silks, broken porcelain, spilled ink and blood.

Sasuke never fought him. If this was truly Sasuke, he would have fought. Not lay there vulnerable as the red and black liquid drenched him in a picture of violence. Itachi wondered if his brother was truly gone. He wondered what he was supposed to do. He was running out of time. He could feel his chakra straining to hold the reinforced room, as the walls shuddered with immense force. It was for sure the Samurai guard trying to gain entrance, and he was close to breaking thru.

If Sasuke was truly dead, then Itachi wondered if he should simply kill this shell of a form. Surely with him dead then war would not transpire.

His hands shook as it crumbled at the cool fabric. Itachi looked down at his brother and noted the patient gaze at the unfamiliarly familiar face. He wondered if he should just blind Sasuke. Maybe with a useless body, the possessor would flee. Or even if it didn't, the body would be vulnerable and easy to control. He could bring his brother back and find a way to unchain him.

The walls shook. It was at its limit.

"Peace," he muttered to himself. Itachi raised his arm, ready to strike. He would do what he must, no matter how much it hurt.

"Will you really achieve peace with this or will you just create another martyr?"

A boom. The floor quaked. Dust fell from the ceiling while huge chunks of wood flew forward in a concussive force.

Itachi's hand laid millimeters away from Sasuke's face. Kakashi's iron grip held his hand back, while another held a kunai, pushing away the blade of a katana that rested at Itachi's throat. Blood dripped down his throat, the blade that the samurai held had nicked him before Kakashi's timely intervention. But Itachi was blind to it all. He stared in disbelief at the impassive boy that lay beneath him.

"What?" Itachi demanded, unheeding of the sharp blade or the solid grip that restrained him. "What do you mean?!"

"Enough," Kakashi hissed as he hauled Itachi away.

Itachi did not fight, too confused.

Sasuke rose, staring at the two Konoha nin. With a sigh, he replied, "the world is not that simple." A pause as his features seemed to crumple. "And part of me is a creature of your own making, aniue."

Itachi could only gape. He watched as his brother seemed to draw himself together. It was also if he was becoming the culmination of all the differing personalities he swung to. The mockery, the grief, the regret, the guilt, the weariness, the control, and the strength, all distilled into one.

Sasuke's sharingan eyes bloomed and bored to Kakashi, who returned it fearlessly. "I know I should not ask," Sasuke began, intent on his former teacher. "But can you take care of him?" As he motioned to Itachi. "Even just for a little while…" He took a deep inhalation, as if steeling himself to say something painful. "He is a fool of a boy but he is OUR fool of a boy. The culmination of all our folly and all our regret."

At the corner of his eye, Itachi watched as Kakashi nodded.

Sasuke bent down into such a low bow, his sleeves puddled at the ruined floor. "Katajikenai," he breathed out.

"Katajikenai."

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Notes:

- brown-orange - color reserved for the emperor in Japan. The dye comes from sappanwood, giving it a unique brown color tinged with yellow (normally described as brown-orange).
- purple - colors reserved for the imperial family in Japan and the highest rank official. Rank 1 is 大徳 /Daitoku /Greater Virtue is Deep Purple. Rank 2 is 小徳 / Shōtoku/ Lesser Virtue is Light Purple
- Omoikane - Japanese god of wisdom
- Aniue - archaic, formal way, but not as formal as onisama, of saying older brother. Normally used by nobility (probably last used during the earlier part of the 20th century)
- Katajikenai - used primarily by the samurai & loosely translated as "thank you." When translated directly, it comes out to "I am grateful / indebted to your generosity" with a underlying meaning that the person who got the favor is lowly and should not have gotten the said favor. Samurai means to serve so the idea is the "server" should not have to be "served".
- Sasuke's outfit is similar to the Emperor's ceremonial robe, ohiki-nohshi: www . iz2 . or . jp / english / fukusyoku / youfuu / 3 . htm

This was supposed to have more events than the 2 brother's talking. But as I finished this, I realized how draining the whole conversation was. I decided that it was perhaps better to just focus on this and excessive baggage between the two. I tried to make this not as a boring conversation dump. (Who am I kidding? It is whole chunk of 2 people just talking).

This is wholly from Itachi's perspective. To a certain extent, this is my take on his character and his motivations. The series always talked about how brilliant Itachi was and when he was on screen / page, there was always this confidence that he was right even if he admits he made a mistake. But there was a overarching idea he was still right. I never could see it. He was a train wreck and his actions and reasoning felt so shortsighted. In fact, he felt emotionally like a child with childish reasoning. And I actually felt I could compare him with those child stars / people who found their success young. These people are normally stuck in the emotionally maturity of the age they became famous. This was the aha moment. Itachi at a young age was told he was brilliant and right. He found success at that very young age. He is essentially stuck at the moment he found his "success" and he internalized all the praises he garnered, and that he was always right / will get what he wants.

Very damaged individuals come from an environment like this. A lot of people with personality disorders come from this environment. I went with this idea. That Itachi for all his age has a reasoning and emotional maturity of a child younger than his age. And with very profound personality disorder. That's why Danzo could easily manipulate him. That's why he could do so many atrocities and not see he was part of the problem.

I'm also not giving Konoha nor the Uchiha clan a pass. I tried to say, everyone even Itachi to a certain extent, created this disturbed individual. I do hope this was well articulated here.

I did add other things, like expanding a bit more on Namikaze, but note that since everything is under Itachi's perspective, things may be a bit skewed. I also left an Uzumaki tidbit here. I do hope to expand on this.

You should also note that Sasuke switches personalities. I was vague because it was at Itachi's perspective so he doesn't really know until the latter bits. But he was still in denial in the end. Do let me know who you think came out here.

Do let me know if this was a good call and that the point I tried to make came across here. I know my interpretation of Itachi would probably be not popular, but I do hope it made sense.

Comments and critiques are appreciated.