This was, without a doubt, the worst day of Itachi Uchiha's life.

Trauma was something he'd gotten used to, as was both pain and violence. He'd lost his innocence when he was barely old enough to grip a kunai, when a wounded soldier tried to strike him down and got struck down in turn. His years in ANBU didn't help, some of the missions he'd taken part in kept him up at night. His Mangekyo had awakened at the cost of his best friend, who jumped into the river just to retain a semblance of control over his own life.

He'd been through a lot, yet he never thought in a million years that there would come a day worse than when Shisui died.

Fate had a cruel sense of humour, though.

Hands shaking as he gripped his bloodied katana, stained crimson with the blood of his parents, Itachi gazed down at the bodies of his parents and just stared with his Sharingan active. He wanted to remember what he'd done for the rest of his life, for nightmares to haunt him every time he'd closed his eyes. It was for that reason that he hadn't turned his eyes off once, so that he could catalogue each life he reaped away perfectly.

Wiping the last of his tears away, Itachi finally looked away and then up at the ceiling. His heart was heavy, his hands covered with blood, and mind fogged with shame.

Itachi stood there, truly contemplating the unforgiveable sin he'd just committed, and waited for his brother to find and judge him. He prepared himself mentally, reciting empty words to push his brother down the right path. One where he slayed his evil brother, perhaps it would take years but he knew Sasuke would do it. The Uchiha's hatred burned deeply, even if it took years, his younger brother would do it.

Steadying his breath, the thirteen year old body stopped shaking and pieced his mask back together, cursing himself for it internally. A shinobi wasn't meant to show emotion. A shinobi was a weapon for their village, and no useful weapon wept for the dead.

He had to do this. The will of fire demanded it.

The door creaked... and Itachi got into character as his brother- his innocent, kind, emotional brother- gazed upon him with so much confusion and hurt that it shattered his heart. What kind of monster was he to break such innocence?

Itachi didn't let it show, instead he spoke dispassionately and began to rant like a madman. He spat out empty words, about strength and power, hoping his brother would eat it up like rice.

Yet, his younger brother denied it at first, even as he held a bloodied sword in his hand and their parents laid dead at his feet. That hurt. To know he was permanently twisting how Sasuke would view him, but what was his pain in the end?

Nothing compared to theirs.

Realising Itachi truly was responsible, Sasuke's eyes turned sharp. Terror, disbelief, and loss all blended together as his little brother charged with the intent to attack. Though it hurt him, he truly had to drive home the danger of weakness.

His fist was clenched to the point his nails drew blood as he buried it into Sasuke's stomach, drawing spittle and air out of his brother's lungs. The sight of him sinking to his knees hurt, but Itachi continued monologuing regardless. He had to truly earn his brother's ire, for the boy to hate him so completely he was drowning in resentment.

Sasuke ran. The sheer terror in his movements was obvious to anyone with a lick of common sense, tears dripping down his face and staining the floor as he ran as fast as his legs could take him. Of course it wasn't enough, people rarely could escape him and his brother was no exception. Soon enough the two of them were just outside the compound exit, bodies littering the streets. Blood was seeping onto the concrete, out of people of all ages, and Itachi didn't dare catch a glance at a single one.

Not the little girl he'd slashed in half as she held her baby brother.

Not the elder whom he'd known since childhood, a widower who was always kind to him, who looked at him with betrayal as he stabbed the poor man in the back.

Not the pregnant woman who had desperately pleaded for both their lives, only to get mercilessly cut into ribbons anyway.

His voice came out weary and dry at first.

You're not even worth killing

Despise me

When you have the same eyes as me, come find me and try to kill me

The entire time, Itachi never allowed his eyes to leave Sasuke, he carefully observed the emotions in those eyes. Fear. Despair. Loss. Confusion. Hatred was notably absent though, and it seemed that he his Sharingan hadn't activated yet.

He stared right into Sasuke's eyes, heart pounding, every instinct in his body demanding him not-to-do-this, but Itachi didn't listen. Instead, he allowed himself to relish the pain of his Mangekyo activating. The world turned red as pain pulse from the evolved Sharingan, they felt like they were on fire, his optic nerves trying to burn themselves out, yet he forced himself to ignore it and looked deep into his brother's onyx eyes...

"Tsukuyomi!"

Just as he'd done earlier that night for Izumi, the world tilted and twisted into the mirror world of illusions. It was empty, nothing was there except the two of them, and he held complete control. The only thing that hurt him was the burning in his eyes, which would get worse the longer he let it drag on.

If nothing else, Itachi knew this would awaken his Sharingan.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAGHH!"

Strangely, before the illusions even began, Sasuke began to scream. It was a high, long, and loud scream of pure agony that had the younger boy clutching his head as sweat began to drip down his head. It was too obvious to be fake, Itachi could tell.

The illusion broke as Itachi was thrown back into the real world, where his brother continued to roar in pain. Instinctively, he reached out a hand to comfort Sasuke, only to pull back when he remembered. He couldn't break character.

One Tomeo.

Sasuke fell to his knees, his throat probably raw from yelling, much to Itachi's shock his eyes began to bleed as Sharingan burst to life and evolved right before his eyes!

Two Tomeo.

Itachi nearly took a step back when he noticed Sasuke wasn't stopping, and that blood was gushing out of his eyes like a fountain, all the while he never stopped screaming!

Three Tomeo.

"NOOOOOOOOO!"

Itachi very nearly had a heart attack when he finally saw it. Six-pointed stars took form in Sasuke's eyes, causing his mouth to dry from utter bafflement and amazement.

His six year old brother had awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan.

As though snapping out of a trance, Sasuke finally broke through his trauma induced hysteria and began to breathe frantically. His bleeding and still active Mangekyo darted everywhere in sight as though he were a lost child.

"No- not this. Not-" Sasuke stated, then cut himself off when those piercing eyes landed on his older brother. Itachi didn't fail to see the disbelief in those eyes, as though he were looking at a living legend and not a person.

That wasn't the look you gave an enemy. It was the look which was given to a stranger.

"...what is this?" The boy asked curiously, eyes wide as he examined his surroundings. "Where is this?"

"..." Itachi nearly felt his mask slip. This wasn't a part of the plan...

"Why am I-" A confused Sasuke took a hand and brought it up to his cheek, only to recoil when a substantial amount of blood painted his hand. "My eyes..."

Without prompt, the younger Uchiha dropped. Not dead, there was no way, but the amount of chakra that a Mangekyo used up was too much for Sasuke's feeble reserves to maintain for a prolonged period of time. His body hit the concrete, slack and unconscious, and for a moment everything was calm.

Itachi's was silent. For once, he allowed his mask to slip as he gazed through the streets of the Uchiha compound. The bodies he keeled over were starting to grow cold, their blood which stained the ground and walls was drying. Only his brother was left.

He truly had killed all but one.

As he turned and began to leave the area, Itachi decided that Sasuke awakening the Mangekyo wasn't a bad thing. The curse of hatred which those eyes gave their users would encourage Sasuke to seek him out and kill him. His brother wouldn't need to worry about going blind, all he needed to do was give Sasuke his eyes by the end.

Everything would work out. Konoha would remain strong, Sasuke would become the hero who slayed his clan killing brother, and Itachi would get to die. Everything was going according to plan.

Tears streamed down Itachi's face, but he wiped them away before disappearing with Shunshin like the wind.

Hiruzen Sarutobi- Third Hokage- made his way through the halls of Konoha's general hospital. Each step he made was heavy, and he barely responded to the respectful nods and bows he received from the hospital staff.

The Uchiha clan was all but completely gone, and with it their plans for revolt were up in smoke. The village was safe, for now. It was a brutal, admittedly extreme, measure to secure the future of Konohagakure, but necessary.

He couldn't afford to let the Uchiha live. So, he stood by, and let Danzo set in motion the massacre. It had to be done.

Hiruzen knew this in his heart, yet he still struggled to raise his eyes at the form of Sasuke Uchiha as he sat on his bed. Even when he stepped into the hospital room, the Uchiha didn't offer him so much as a glance. His eyes were firmly fixed onto the window by his bedside, a scrutinizing look on his face.

That wasn't the look of a child. Though he hadn't met Sasuke personally, Hiruzen knew that look. It was a face he'd seen on the fresh Genin who had returned from war, that distant, daydreaming expression on a face that had lost its naïve charm much too soon.

Hiruzen cleared his throat. "Sasuke. I heard about what your brother did, you have my condolences."

Strangely, Sasuke didn't respond, or even shift his expression. He simply kept his gaze set on the window, as though he were in intense thought.

"What happened to the Uchiha was a great tragedy, and make no mistake, the village will not allow them to die in vain. Your brother has been marked an S-ranked missing-nin for his crimes."

Again, Sasuke didn't respond, but something shifted in his eyes as they narrowed.

"Itachi will face justice." Hiruzen declared. "That I swear to you-"

"How should I believe that?" Sasuke's voice was sharp. He finally dragged his dark eyes away from the window, gazing at Hiruzen with curiosity. "Was it not on your land where Itachi was allowed to get away with slaughtering them all in the first place? Women, children, even babies were reaped away without resistance. Aren't you meant to protect the clans which dwell in Konoha?"

Hiruzen was surprised by the boy's tone, it was judging and harsh, and it made him grimace. The boys words were like a slap to the face.

He had no response.

Sasuke looked away again, but spoke again. "I'm sorry, but I can't trust you to get real justice for the Uchiha clan. I'll have to do it myself."

Now, that got the attention of the Hokage. It seemed that Sasuke had resolved himself to vengeance, and if he'd learned anything at all about the Uchiha in all his years, it was that they were stubborn. Their ire was like fire, it couldn't be stifled, merely directed.

Hiruzen bit his lip. "I'm sorry, Sasuke. I fear that you're correct. I couldn't save the lives of your family, but please remember, the village comes before all else. Train hard for Konoha, and your brother will fall."

The last real Uchiha fell silent, no longer responding, and for a good long moment Hiruzen felt true pity for this child who had lost everything. A lonely life laid ahead for him as a child who had lost all his immediate and extended family in one swoop...

It was simply tragic. As was life in the shinobi world.

Sasuke Uchiha- because that was his name now- didn't humour the old man with an odd looking hat for more than a few sentences. He carried around him an air of self-importance, one that might have been well placed if the way his nurse seemed to talk about him in hushed whispers was anything to go by, but he just wanted to be left alone. His mind was scattered, and he didn't want to be in the presence of a man who was blatantly trying to indoctinate him.

Strangely, before the massacre, Sasuke would have taken the 'wise' words of that hatted man and eaten them like a fine meal. What happened to him?

Sasuke still had trouble processing it all. As in, back at the Uchiha Compound, when Itachi activated those shuriken-like eyes, something awakened in him. At first, it was agony, like someone was trying to take a hand full of rusty nails and jam them into him mind, but when it faded all he saw was a world dyed red and his eyes burned.

He remembered now.

Sasuke cradled his head slightly as he thought back. Before he was Sasuke Uchiha, he was someone else. A regular man, with dreams and aspirations that were ended in an accident where he got murdered by a teenager with a knife. He remembered it well, how he'd gotten threatened and been demanded he hand over his possessions. He'd been unconvinced, the boy mugging him was shaking slightly, and he didn't believe that he was in any real danger.

He'd told him to put the weapon down and go home, and gotten a blade in the stomach for it.

Sasuke massaged him head, trying to come to grips with his situation. It all felt surreal. How had these memories even come to him? Was he still himself, even, or had the real Sasuke died when his soul merged with that other man's?

It all just felt like a bad dream.

But no. This was just reality.

And the reality of his new life was, loneliness. It hurt, to not have anyone, but in this new life he couldn't rely on anyone. Before he'd been Sasuke there hadn't been anyone in his life. He'd had three brothers, but they'd all died at one point or another. His friends could be considered co-workers more than anything else, and he'd never been in a real relationship.

'...and now I've lost the Uchiha too, before I even had them, even.' Sasuke lamented. From what he could recall, which wasn't much in either of his lives, his father had been a stern and cold man. They were never close, and he seemed to favour his older brother over him. Ironic, considering how that turned out.

His heart ached when he thought of Mikoto Uchiha. From what he could remember, she was a kind woman who valued family, though her relationship with Fugaku seemed strained at times. She was always there to reassure him of his worth next to Itachi, the once-in-a-generation prodigy, who effortlessly excelled in being a shinobi. Mikoto never compared him to his brother, not even once.

Now she was dead, at Itachi's hand at that.

His Sasuke half wanted to tear his brother apart, to hunt him down and take his head as a prize, but the other, more grown up side was... sceptical to say the least.

Sasuke creased his brows. Itachi claimed that he killed the Uchiha clan- his own family- for power, yet from what he could shakily recall from his memories that seemed wildly out of character.

The Itachi he remembered wasn't power-hungry, even if a skilled shinobi. That pathetic excuse he'd heard about 'testing himself', seemed almost silly, especially since he killed children and civilians in his conquest.

Besides, now that he really thought about it, how was Itachi even capable of ending the clan by himself? Sure, he was talented, but from his memories the Uchiha was a family with dozens of capable fighters in their midst, including a genius of no lesser talent than Itachi.

Did a thirteen year old boy, no matter how talented, really have the power to wipe the Uchiha out?

Sasuke clutched his head, biting back a wince as a headache assaulted him.

His mind was still in scrambles, it seemed. Thinking too hard, or too far back, on either of his lives seemed to take a toll, which was annoying.

This matter needed to be investigated further, and he had a feeling that Konoha was involved somehow. That hat wearing man was clearly of importance to the village, and the way he spoke unsettled Sasuke. It was obvious indoctrination, his emphasis on putting the village first showed as much.

Konoha couldn't be trusted. Not now, maybe not ever.

Sasuke would have to plot his next moves carefully.

'Well, I am a member of the Uchiha clan, which seems to be of great importance to Konoha.' Sasuke considered. 'My status as the last Uchiha should-'

A blaring ping made him flinch away as a dark blue screen with white writing flashed into existence. It was shaped as a box, and for a moment he just stared at it in confusion.

"...what?"

Name: Sasuke Uchiha
Age: 7
Chakra Capacity: 500/500 (Civilian)
Chakra Control: 50/500
Strength: 10/100
Durability: 5/100
Endurance: 20/100
Agility: 15/100
Taijutsu: 10/?
Ninjutsu: 15/?
Genjutsu: 0/?

Elemental Affinities:

Fire - (Beginner)
Lightning - (N/A): You have no training with this element.

Dojutsu:

Sharingan(Mangekyo): 0/?

Sasuke's eyes glanced through the screen with astonishment. His abilities were laid bare for him, as though in a... video game?

'What does this all mean?' Sasuke frowned. Whilst he could understand some of what these stats were measuring, others not so much. The Sharingan looked familiar, they were the eyes which the Uchiha were famed and feared for, though he had no idea what a 'Mangekyo' was. Ninjutsu and Chakra also struck a cord in his mind... little else did though.

It was a frustrating dilemma, to have your memories fractured. It was like working through a puzzle, but you weren't given all of the pieces.

"What are you?" Sasuke questioned, though predictably didn't get an answer asides from a slight glitch on the screen. It incited a deep sigh from him.

He definitely had some questions to answer. Luckily, he had nothing but time at the moment.

Sasuke would get his answers, that much he swore.

Loneliness was a familiar mistress for Sasuke, but that didn't make her easy to live with. Time in the hospital was spent well, with nurses running him through a myriad of tests that he was mostly familiar with. Most of them anyway, though the Chakra related ones were admittedly new, it was nothing to write home about.

The nurses who were treating him seemed to avoid meeting his eyes, a fact he hadn't missed, and when asked they simply replied that it was bad luck to look an Uchiha in the eyes. They didn't state so with malice, these people genuinely believed such a thing.

It made Sasuke click his tongue. Bad luck? To hell with that! He had a budding theory that the village themselves had something to do with the Uchiha massacre, and the rumours he'd heard just from his nurses about his family supported that. It was subtle, but they seemed to have a subconscious fear of the Uchiha, to the point that some almost seemed relieved that the clan was killed.

It all ticked his senses in ways he couldn't ignore. Indeed, Konoha couldn't be trusted.

His time in bed wasn't spent totally idle. His Sharingan, the Dojutsu that the village seemed to hold in such high regard, was actually rather easy to activate once he'd gotten a decent grasp on his Chakra.

For a person who possessed memories of a body where Chakra was totally absent, grabbing at the energy itself became easy. It was almost like the human circulatory system, running life force through his veins. It was pitifully weak, but he could guide it to some degree.

That amazed him. Chakra was a biological function, and he was full of loaded questions. Was Chakra exclusive to humans? How far could a person build up their reserves before they hit a limit? Was there even a limit?

Over the days Sasuke spent bedridden, he'd come to learn a number of things by coercing information from his nurses and doctors. For one, the village- more like a city- he lived in was far more important than it seemed at a glance, though he'd have to learn more without drawing attention to the fact his memories were lost. These people seemed to pay extra attention to him, if they knew of his ignorance then they'd no doubt exploit it.

It was embarrassing though, how long it took for Sasuke to fully grasp his Chakra. He'd spend entire hours with his eyes closed, trying to grasp and bend the foreign energy to his will, and only proceeded further when his Chakra wouldn't fluctuate so much as a metaphorical inch out of line. Maybe it was cautious of him, but he refused to use a power that wasn't perfectly under his control. He didn't know what exactly Chakra would do to him if he wasn't careful, and when the most useful tool in his arsenal involved sending literal energy into his eyeballs... well, he wouldn't want to go and blind himself.

'Who would be stupid enough to literally run through their life energy without complete control over said energy?'

Sasuke would have laughed in amusement at the idea had he not been so focused on channelling his Chakra. The raw amount of energy he had was feeble, but it could probably be grown with time or age, so it was better if he had a firm grasp on controlling this power when there was so little to control.

A trio of knocks on his door shattered his meditation, the nurse didn't even have the decency to wait for him to give the okay before walking in. He cracked an eye open, seeing that one of the nurses tending to him was blatantly staring at him in confusion, so he sighed and stepped off his bed.

"What do you need?"

The nurse hesitated. "Well, Uchiha-san... you've been given permission to go home to the Uchiha Compound."

Sasuke raised his eyebrows slightly. Surely these people had more common sense than that? Yet, looking upon the nurse, he saw no hint she was joking. These people were going to send a child back to the place where his family was massacred. He'd have laughed at the idea if it wasn't so brazenly inconsiderate.

To her credit, the nurse seemed to sympathise. "You don't have to-"

"No." Sasuke shook his head. "That is my ancestral home, and I have no intention of abandoning it. I will return, it's where I belong."

The face full of pity he earned from the nurse told him she took that lie, which was perfect. He would be lying if he said the place didn't hold some sentiment, but his memories took a lot of the attachment.

No, he wanted the Uchiha Compound because of the land and potential secrets it could provide. Afterall, where better to learn about the Sharingan than its very source. Not to mention the other possible techniques kept secret by the clan.

"I understand.."

And just like that, Sasuke was let out. He vaguely remembered the path to the Uchiha's home, it was a long one. The walk home was a drag; people were whispering about him. Strangers, all of them, they didn't know his pain, yet they acted like they did. It was irritating to say the least.

Part of him wanted to lash out and scream at them to leave him alone, so that he could brood in peace, but he didn't. To condescendingly scold them about their pitiful attempts at being discreet, their whispers were like screams to him.

He wanted to silence them.

But Sasuke didn't do anything, not even a harsh glare. Not even a glance, actually. Hostility felt like a dangerous feeling to give off at the moment. He had a feeling that he was being watched, and that made him pick up the pace in the hopes it would go away. It didn't, and he hated it.

Eventually, after a solid hour of walking, Sasuke was stood in front of the Uchiha gates. The bustle of Konoha was gone, in it's place was an isolating silence you'd only find in a manor cast away to the outskirts of town. No other homes were in the immediate proximity, and going into town was quite the trek.

Sasuke moved on, pushing the giant doors open almost ceremoniously, and for a moment he just stopped and stared.

Konoha had done a lazy job of cleaning up his home. The bodies had been cleared away, true, but remnants of the assault were apparent to a blind man. A cracked or shattered window here, a slashed door there, and upon further inspection he found planks stained with Uchiha blood.

Sasuke looked upon the his supposed home mournfully. The Uchiha Compound was massive, like a manor made to house hundreds, yet he was the only one here. It was symbolic really, a once mighty clan reduced to a single man.

Most would say the Uchiha were finished.

"...No."

Sasuke straightened his back, even though nobody(who could be seen) was near. Deep in his heart, the part of him that remained of Sasuke raged, and frothed, and roared at the very notion of admitting defeat. Of letting the clan die so pathetically and quietly. The Uchiha might have practically been gone, but not yet! Itachi had gotten most of them, but he still lived!

He'd come back from death, the Uchiha would come back from this!

Sasuke would build the entire family back up, greater than ever!

A/N: Comment down below if you would like me to continue this.

If you want to support me, then look towards The Magician 565 on P atreon. Just look my account up and you'll be able to see five chapters ahead at a reasonable price.

This is my first Naruto fanfic, so tell me if you've enjoyed it.