[Itachi]
“Gomenasai,” I pressed a fleeting kiss on Etsuko’s shoulder.
She was fast asleep, dead to the world. The bond we shared last night took us one step closer to finalising our love, and we did. But I would have to break everything I tried too hard to keep intact because of Sasuke. I knew Etsuko would hate me for it, she would happily watch my brother die, but she didn’t understand―that was the only divide between us, she was alone by choice, I was alone because I couldn’t trust myself around others.
I draped her fallen Akatsuki cloak around her bare shoulders, creamy skin that now held purple indents from my fingerprints. I was gentle as possible, we both were, however together we knew that two dying bodies couldn’t prevent blemish.
My fingers traced the circle of the Sarutobi Mon at the base of her neck, the branding performed by Hiruzen as a warning more to me than her―he wanted me to keep her safe, that was his final will even though Etsuko and I weren’t there to hear it.
I closed my eyes and pressed the back of my hand to my forehead. I sat myself back down on the end of the bed, pondering. I was selfish, a bastard, remorseless, but I had no choice. It wouldn’t make a difference I did survive and live on to rebuild the Uchiha; I was never built for that despite what my father wished―he knew I was weaker of the mind than the body.
Sasuke on the other hand was strong willed yet arrogant, and that arrogance would become his worst enemy, but I had faith, a trust that he wouldn’t allow the Uchiha to burn amongst the smouldering ashes which I’d set alight. He was strong of the mind and body because of his hatred, the factor which Etsuko was afraid of him obtaining.
I held Sasuke by the hand as I guided him down the main stretch of the compound. His small hand clenched around mine when we entered back into the bustle of the village, he was afraid of the heartless eyes that stared at us, jealous of the name Uchiha. I gave him a confident smile and tugged him along.
“Where are we going Nii–San?” Sasuke asked wearily.
“Exploring,” I replied.
Through the back alley, we came to a stop in front of the second branch living quarters. The outside was dark grey and rust stains peppered the sides of the building from neglect. Garbage and discarded weapons littered the entry way and a dull throb of music or shouting echoed down onto the street below.
“I’ve had enough of this rebellion talk, if Lord Fugaku caught you, we’d be disgraced!” screamed a woman.
The outburst was followed by a tumble of a corpse down the stairs. A girl my age was thrown head-over-heels until she crumpled into a quivering heap into the doorway. Her face was scratched and she stood with a slight gait to her left leg, as if it were in the process of healing from a break or fracture.
“B–but Okasan!” she whimpered.
The mother showed her face, her right hand swelling from the blows she gave her child. The woman clenched her fist and held it up again, causing the girl to flinch and scurry back. The woman was of some noble status from the fineness of her robe, but the rest of her remained plain, no-doubt a second-branch member begging to be brought up to the main household, she spat at her child.
“No, you have gone too fa, you have doomed this entire household,” the woman continued with a final smack. “Be gone you cursed creature, you are no daughter of mine!”
The girl took a shaky step backward, stumbling and bumping into my shoulder. Sasuke cowered behind me, hugging onto my legs as I reached out to steady her. The girl was quick and batted my hand away harshly, since I was already off balance with Sasuke gripping me tight, I toppled over my brother onto the ground.
Her black eyes widened when she realised who I was. Though she didn’t recognise me personally, Fugaku’s children were known throughout the village by anyone and everyone. She squealed and slid back towards the doorway, back to the tense arms of her mother.
“Now look what you’ve done, how dare you even touch Lord Fugaku’s son!” the woman brought her hand down and from the glisten in the sunlight, I could tell she held a kunai beneath her sleeve.
I wanted to call out and worn the girl, but I thought it would save her pride by standing up and brushing myself off. It did no justice because she stared at me, her charcoal eyes wide as saucers and chapped lips parted at the sight of me as if I were some wild animal―a hideous beast.
“GYAH!” the girl was knocked off her feet and an arc of blood sprayed through the air, I covered Sasuke’s eyes, alarmed that a mother would mutilate her child in public.
The girl was persistent and gripped onto the hem of her mother’s kimono when she stood over her. To help her too her feet, the girl took hold of a maroon cloth that dangled from the mother’s pocket; she tugged and pulled it free, tying the cloth around the gash above her left brow.
“Keep it, maybe then you will know to be seen and not heard,” the mother growled, tossing the bloodied kunai towards the opened trash bags near the side of the compound before storming inside.
“Nii–San I’m scared,” Sasuke whispered. “She’s scary.”
“Shhh, it’s okay,” I soothed, my eyes never leaving the girls.
She sneered at me, her lips pulled back to reveal clenched teeth. I noticed the way her lip trembled that she was near tears, but she didn’t allow a single one to be shed. The girl tightened the maroon cloth around her forehead like a hitai-ate, capturing her chin-length spikey hair.
“How old are you?” I couldn’t help but ask.
“Eleven,” she replied evenly.
“What’s your na―?”
She pushed past me and disappeared into the crowds of the village before I could ask who she was so I could put a name to the startlingly simple, yet beautiful, face.
I flinched when Etsuko rolled onto her back, afraid that she’d awoken whilst I was reminiscing my own thoughts. Her eyes were squeezed tightly shut and her breathing remained shallow but steady, still within the grasp of sleep. The necklace which her father gave her was askew above her collarbone but I didn’t put it back in place, I bent to pick up the maroon bandana, that simple piece of cloth that bound so many memories together, and placed it between her hands that now rested on the back of her Akatsuki cloak.
She looked so peaceful when asleep, her sharp tongue held no snide comments except the whisper of conversations in her subconscious, her brow was free from the ever-present scowl she gave, her face wasn’t hidden behind the crow mask she wore, Etsuko Uchiha was at peace.
My time was up, the more I procrastinated when with her, would shorten my time to reach the rendezvous place where Kisame would flag Sasuke and his little group down. I’d collected my strength throughout the weeks, I’d taken excessive amounts of the herbal medicine Kisame provided, I’d made love to my soul mate―I was now prepared to face my little brother, the boy that called me murderer.
***
“So this is it huh?” Kisame laughed.
“I believe so,” I replied.
“I still think you’re a bastard for doing this to Shinkoshoku and your village, but if that makes you happy then who am I to stop you?” Kisame’s grin dimmed around the edges. “That being said, are you positive that this is the right thing to do―I mean, why can’t you just simply talk it over with your little brother, Uchiha battles are such a…mess to clean up after.”
I shook my head, “Just do me one last favour.”
He laughed, “You don’t need to ask, I’ll make sure that Shinkoshoku Toge doesn’t breach the perimeter. But you do realise that I won’t be able to distract her for long, she loves you, and she will do anything to keep you alive.”
“Perhaps,” I whispered, “seeing her give up on me will bring the peace Okasan wanted me to have.”
Kuchibashi sat on Kisame Hoshigaki’s shoulder and gave a squawk in warning that the group of Sasuke’s was approaching. My partner, one of the original Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, leaned against the hilt of Samehada and sighed, I could tell even through Kuchibashi’s eyes that this would be a long fight, a battle which couldn’t be avoided nor prolonged.
There was clear hesitation not just in Kisame’s voice, but in his posture when he kicked the bound blade absently, avoiding Sasuke’s eyes. The man swallowed twice before reciting my request, “Sasuke…if you would please continue by yourself, Itachi would prefer if the rest of us waited here.”
“Perfect,” he cracked his knuckles, “I’ve been waiting for this…Nii–San.”
***
Everything I had ever known was staged, a fabricated amount of lies that weaved the thread of obliviousness within Konohagakure, and I was fine with that. Even as I sat in the stone throne like the king I claimed to be in the Uchiha worship ground, I had no qualms with my past life, the almost twenty years of living that I considered as a literal hell.
I wouldn’t have had it any other way, because the pain and harsh reality of life caused me to develop and see the fragility of everything, how nothing is ever permanent―even the legacy of the female Uchiha leader and Madara, they would soon be names carved in stone, whispers that were thought only as folk tales told my grandfathers to their grandchildren who would remain innocent until they grew up.
That was one of my flaws, I grew up too fast. Matured too early, loved too soon, and learned acceptance a little too late. I already understood the brutality of war way before Etsuko and Shisui had experienced their first fight, I loved a woman that was besotted with my best friend for ten years before she found out the truth from another’s lips, and I only welcomed death as I thought to myself.
I closed my eyes and smiled.
Ita–Kun.
“How much can you see with those Sharingan of yours? Those tainted eyes in which involved the sacrifice of someone you once held dear to you,” I asked as Sasuke stepped into the stone chamber.
“How much can I see with these?” Sasuke mused aloud. “What I’m seeing right now, Itachi…is seeing you dead at my feet.”
“You see me dead?” I refrained from opening my eyes.
Ita–Kun, the sweet voice whispered in my mind, a voice which I intended to block out until I was on my back, just like how I saw her in that arena. It was probably the disease that caused me to hear Etsuko’s voice. Ita–Kun be careful.
Everything was going to plan, I could tell from Sasuke’s exerted posture and tense figure that he’d just recovered from an intense battle, no doubt with Deidara and ‘Madara’. With the hunt still on for me, as leverage to use against the Akatsuki (from what Etsuko told me last night), ‘Madara’ was going to cause a distraction with Naruto and the Konohagakure Nin. If Etsuko interfered, she would have her hands full with Kisame, leaving me to have my punishment served by Sasuke.
“Well then,” my deep tone, yet another divide between me and Sasuke, echoed throughout the chamber. A small gust of wind blew through the annex, kicking up the dust between us. “Let’s see how good your eyesight is.”
Ita–Kun.
With both of our Sharingan active, we’d be souly focused on combating each other’s movements, hence allowing small diversions to slip through the cracks in our armour. I thrust a kunai at Sasuke, tearing through his linen bound skin towards his eyes. Oh foolish little brother, as if I would busy myself with your light when mine was all but burnt out. So naïve, if only your obliviousness was switched with Etsuko’s realisation, perhaps then you would have allowed me to die in peace away from every lie I’ve told.
Ita–Kun come back to me.
Sasuke pulled on the hilt of his straight bladed sword to combat the assault from my kunai. He’d built up impeccable speed throughout the years with Orochimaru, and I had no doubt he was on par with me. The tip of the kunai connected with the steel of Sasuke’s sword, causing a teeth clenching screech as both of us equally pushed with all of our might, testing who would break first.
I launched off from the floor, breaking the connection with Sasuke’s blade. I grabbed onto the back of his cloak, my hand fisted into the material and swung him over me. He used the force and motion to propel him as he tore the blade fully from its sheath to strike me. I always remained one step ahead and tugged forcefully on his hood, causing the fabric to dig into the bruised flesh around his throat and tossed him towards the wall. Since my left hand side wasn’t my strongest, he staggered backwards and was able to form the hand signs for a jutsu.
Sasuke gripped his left hand and glared at me, using a jutsu taught by the same man that was feared for his lightning release. The same man that threw me against an alley way telling me how stupid I was for forgetting about Etsuko and Shisui, this same man taught my little brother the working of the Chidori as if it were his own jutsu―but it wasn’t, the Chidori and Raikiri were Kakashi’s, and he taught them to his first proper ANBU student who had the knack for lightning, Etsuko.
A strangled screech from a hawk reverberated once the Chidori was activated and the blue lightning arced around Sasuke’s trembling body. So weak. I stood, unblinking at Sasuke as he ran at me, pulling the straight blade from the stone with his right hand and slamming his palm to the floor with his left, causing a current of electricity to ignite like a wave of heat.
I jumped into the air to dodge but I felt a dab of warmth slide down my cheek, blood? Sasuke aspirated in front of me and rammed the blade through my chest. Arterial cast off splattered the walls and floor as I skidded back across the floor, grunting. The pain wasn’t as bad as I thought, it was almost bearable.
Ita–Kun, turn back.
The voice in my head sounded so childish, just like the eleven-year-old Etsuko that I informally met in the street, the same girl which Sasuke was scared of. I doubt that he had much fears (or cares) now, I’d destroyed the boy once thought beautiful to my parents, I’d turned him into a vicious beast, a monster that flourished off death and blood. The voice laughed joyfully as if the young Etsuko really was running circles around me in my head.
“Listen to me,” Sasuke frothed at the mouth.
The trembling carcass that’d become of my corpse remained devoid of any expression as it raised two fingers towards Sasuke. In the thick silence I didn’t allow myself to tap my index and middle finger at Sasuke’s forehead, he didn’t deserve that memory. Instead, the two fingers pointed towards my left.
Sasuke’s head twitched that way to see me sitting in the stone throne, unmoving. However, I opened my eyes to reveal the three simple Tomoe of my Sharingan. Genjutsu. I watched in impassive amusement as Sasuke gasped for breath and stared down at the clone he’d exerted about 7% of his chakra on. The clone’s mouth opened to show a black bit with two red eyes, from the two eye sockets and mouth, hundreds of crows spilled out and evaporated into tendrils of black smoke, leaving Sasuke hunched over nothing.
“Your end is a long way off,” I said. “But I’m willing to listen. What do you want to know?”
“You BASTARD,” he hissed.
I was about to chuckle in triumph to know that I still was able to annoy him, even in death, but I felt the stab of pain for real this time. I watched as the steel protrude through my chest in horror, my crimson blood, blood so valuable, stained the tip and dripped down towards the hilt buried within the concrete. My Sharingan widened. Genjutsu.
“Ghurgh,” a thin line of blood seeped from the corner of my lips. “You missed a vital spot on purpose, how comforting that you wanted to keep me alive that extra bit longer.”
Sasuke’s body that stood three steps down on the flat floor gave a simple smirk before the image was ripped apart by snakes. I couldn’t help but grimace as the colour seeped from Sasuke’s clone and was taken away by the thousands of slimy reptiles that were the trademark of Orochimaru, the murderer of Lord Third.
“I said ‘this is the end’ you murderous, traitorous fuck,” Sasuke whispered behind the throne. “But before I kill you, I have one last question.”
Ita–Kun, this night is that of the Uchiha. Konohagakure will run red.
“The other one…that other Sharingan user, who was it?” Sasuke queried.
There was no anger in his voice, no fear, no empathy. I had murdered the boy whom my father wanted me to protect, Etsuko was right, she did what I couldn’t. Not in a million years would I have given up my light for Sasuke, stood in front of his unconscious corpse while his clan’s murderer smite me down.
However, his question’s answer would lead him to her. He knew of ‘Madara’, the stone tablet in the Uchiha hideout was crafted by him as a warning and challenge to future Uchiha. I’d read it myself and didn’t dare believe the vindictive lies it told, I gained my Mangekyou through grief, the loss of Shisui yet Etsuko’s went undocumented―only Lord Third and Danzo Shimura knew what her eyes were able to hold. I couldn’t rat Etsuko out, Sasuke would kill her without knowing that she had saved both him and Naruto.
“Why do you ask me this?” I dodged the question.
“Once I’m through with you…I will kill them next,” Sasuke said through clenched teeth.
Madara–Sama, Izuna–Sama, Hikari–Sama, Shi–Kun, Ita–Kun, Etsu–Chan. More than three others, all of nobility you proud little weasel, run away.
I frowned and looked up at the ceiling inscribed with Tomoe’s made from fire. This voice, this young fleeting echo of Etsuko, what was it trying to tell me? I already knew Madara had a brother, for he reached the pinnacle of vision above all else, a level which couldn’t even be named in his consorts scrolls. Hikari…that name sounded familiar, did Etsuko know who it was?
Six cursed Uchiha, six dead mates.
“On the night you slaughtered the entire Uchiha, I saw two other people, an Uchiha that you didn’t kill by yourself and one that remained hidden. Was that person your accomplice? All I remember is those eyes…so intriguing to look at, like flower petals, just to have the crimson burn bright like seared flesh…that person took their own life but the other…” Sasuke struggled to remember. “No matter how strong you were, you still could never have taken the entire Police Force on by yourself. Who were they?”
“Madara Uchiha,” I was going to sell out my Sensei, the man that corrupted my thoughts. “He was one of the founding fathers of Konohagakure, the first man to ever awaken the Mangekyou Sharingan and reach the eyes of Kami.”
“If he were a founder, then Madara should be long dead. Don’t fuck around with me Itachi,” Sasuke applied more force to the blade.
“Whether you believe me or not is your own choice. All people live within their own perception of what is around them; those boundaries are what they tend to accept as reality. However, knowledge and perception are both ambiguous, so reality could be nothing more than an illusion. People live trapped within their own minds, don’t you see?” I reasoned.
Ita–Kun beware.
“Where are you going with this?” Sasuke’s brow twitched.
“To say that Madara is dead, is the trapping of your own limited perspective,” my Sharingan caught Sasuke’s crouched figure in my peripheral vision, “that you fooled yourself into believing that I was a caring older brother.”
“And the other…the Uchiha with the capturing Mangekyou, that person stopped me from helping Otosan and Okasan,” his chest heaved. “What I saw that night…I thought it must have been an illusion, that nobody could have done this, that you couldn’t have done this. I wanted to believe that it was all Genjutsu but I was trapped within a terrible reality―they will feel my wrath more than you!”
An arc of lightning fragmented the right side of the throne, causing the rubble to tumble next to my feet. I rolled my eyes at Sasuke’s theatrics and closed my eyes once more, conserving what little chakra I had. Sasuke could have his little rant of vengeance; I had all the time in the world to waste on him.
“My eyes are not as blind as they once were. My Sharingan will see through all of your Genjutsu along with anyone else’s!” he yelled.
“Hn,” I smirked. “I see you’re still as noisy as before, if not a decibel louder. But even then, Sasuke, you still do not possess the same eyes as I do.”
By using lightning, he broke the Genjutsu. I hadn’t been stabbed and Sasuke stood back in front of me on the incline, that slope which showed his true place beneath me. He had no idea of restrictions, let alone self-control, a corrupting floor with the Sharingan. He would use, and use, and use until he went blind―I feared that the disease that enthralled the Golden Trio of me, Shisui and Etsuko, had befallen my little brother. At least, the beginnings of it.
“Hmph,” Sasuke grunted. “Then go ahead and try to kill me with your Mangekyou Sharingan. Or have I long surpassed your so-called ‘capacity’?”
“You seem full of confidence,” I stood from the throne as my left hand used the void in my cloak as a sling, more out of comfort than necessity. “The day the Mangekyou is awakened, it begins its slow descent into darkness. The more often it is summoned, the faster the decline. Accompanied with the other factors each level of the Sharingan holds, the kaleidoscope will in time lose its light and the user in turn…will lose their mind.”
Ita–Kun, your pride will kill you.
“If you still have some sanity left to answer me, what of the other?” Sasuke continued.
“The other?” I took one step down from the podium.
“The Uchiha that stopped me that night, the one with the mask of the animal, the one that spoke so highly of you…who it?” he asked.
My eyes found darkness once more, along with the childish laughter that had remained with me since childhood. I could feel the warmth of the sun on my face, the boy-ish push from Shisui shoving me forward into the street to start another race to the Hokage faces, and the soft pull of Etsuko on my hand as she linked our fingers.
You better hurry or Shi–Kun is gonna beat you!
“Her name is Etsuko Uchiha,” once the name slipped from my lips, the recognition in Sasuke’s eyes was alarming.
I knew she used to come into my home often and poke around for incriminating evidence to fuel her hatred for my father, and Sasuke would always catch her out, thinking it was a game. It was only when he finally matured, when he reached Academy-age, that he no longer thought of it as a game. He saw it as being a traitor to the feared name-sake of the Uchiha. Little did Sasuke know that Etsuko had given up not just her sight, but her life for the clan.
“The Crimson Thorn, huh? That traitor protected me and gave Naruto nightmares for the past four years? Bullshit, she died in the massacre, that’s what the Hokage told us…that’s what Kakashi Sensei told me,” Sasuke spat.
“Yet again your mind is caged within your own boundaries of perception; she is not dead just like Madara,” I said.
“If that’s true then why haven’t you hunted her down and killed her? You’ve given me the chance to take up on a quest,” Sasuke laughed hysterically.
“If you had a heart,” I stood at the bottom step, my Mangekyou on full display, “you would understand.”