With you till the End - Uchiha Itachi Fanfic [Edited]

Chapter 14 - Alone

Emiko pov:

Itachi was anxious under the mixed expression I was giving him. I was sad, hurt and angry, immensely angry. Despite that, when I gazed at Itachi, I did not know how to express my anger.

"Emiko, I-"

"How could you?" I interrupted.

"Please, Emiko, you have to understand," he spoke, stepping to me and reaching out to me with one hand.

"Don't touch me," I hissed, taking a step back before he could make contact. He gasped at that in shock, his eyes going wide, his expression turning to one of fright. The color of his face drained out, leaving him even paler than usual.

"Emiko," he pleaded.

"How could you do that to Sasuke? He's your brother! The precious brother you are so desperate to protect!" I hollered.

"It's the only way to make him stronger," he answered.

"To make him stronger?" I mused with an expression of bafflement. "Perhaps if you had just beat him up a little, I would not have felt this ruffled, but then using Tsukuyomi on him? What did you show him that made him scream like his organs were being ripped out?"

"I showed him the night if the massacre again," came his answer. His voice was weak as he spoke the truth for I knew that he would never lie to me.

I could not hold in a scoff. "What is wrong with you, Itachi? How could you do that to him? How is that going to do anything besides give him a mental breakdown?! You're killing him from the inside out! And what, hatred? Do you really think that hatred will make him strong? It won't - it will only lead him down the wrong path, and away from the hero you want him to be at the end of all this. And it seems to me that Sasuke is slowly turning into someone I can't recognize, into a monster."

"He needs to become stronger, Emiko, and I'm running out of time because of my illness. I had to-" I shook my head stepping back from him and more dear filled his eyes. "Emiko, please, you have to understand."

"No...you were not the Itachi I've always known in those few minutes. You had become someone I didn't know, someone I couldn't reach, and someone I was almost afraid of. I need to be alone for a while to take in everything that happened. You and Kisame should return to the hideout without me. Tell Leader sama that I had something to take care of."

I did not wait for his response as I turned and sprinted through the trees, my destination unknown. My eyes prickled and soon overflowed with tears, my heart agonizing over everything that had happened. Memories of the past gushed through me - both the happy and sad ones, and all the pain we had suffered over the years. It all felt so overwhelming suddenly - how we had been, how we could have been, how we had ended up.

A yelp escaped me when the branch I landed on gave way and I fell to the ground, the lower branched scraping me. I landed painfully on my side, gasping as the wind was knocked out of me. Coughing, I remained on the ground, grasping some grass in my fists as I broke into sobs.

I screamed at the top of my lungs several times until I could no more and was gasping for air. I calmed slightly in a while then shifted to sit curled up in a ball at the base of a tree with my head in my knees. It was several hours and nightfall by the time I was composed enough to look up from my knees.

There was a numbness in my chest and I was still not ready to go back to the Akatsuki. I needed some air and I needed to find a way to ease this immense turmoil in me.

"Mother, Father," I whispered into the wind.

Desperation rose in me at the thought of them, and I wished to see them. I was certain that they had heard of my appearance as a member of the Akatsuki and they were sure to be angry, but I still wanted to visit them and speak with them. I wanted them to know the truth, even though it would not help or change our situation in any way.