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Immortal Rayemars Sasuke never learned exactly what action of Itachi's had been the breaking point for their father. He originally hadn't thought that it was Itachi attacking their family members, because if it had been the man could have settled the situation that very minute instead of putting it off until the morning; but when Sasuke was a year more cynical he began to think that their father had pretended to beg forgiveness because he'd been afraid of taking down Itachi without half the police force behind him. Their mother had come to his room early, very early that morning, and told him to go dress and wash his face quickly; she wanted to go hang the laundry in her sister's yard so it would get a better breeze, and he needed to help her carry the baskets. She said they could have breakfast once they were there. Sasuke had taken just a little too long in the bathroom. He noticed that their mother had been pale and stressed when he came out, pushing a basket into his hands with more force than was natural, but at first he'd thought that was because she was still tired and nervous about yesterday. There was a weird tension throughout the whole house, a silence with a tangible source; their father seemed affected by it too. Itachi had still been in his room when Sasuke and their mother left, so Sasuke didn't know if he felt it as well. They were halfway down the street to their aunt's home when he heard the noise. Their mother tried to brush it off at first, but Sasuke finally broke away and ran back to the street corner. She caught him--she was a jounin after all--but not before Sasuke had gotten close enough to glimpse all the people on a street further down. She only managed to drag him a few steps back before he realized that everyone was moving in the direction of their house. By that point Sasuke was yelling--he would have felt bad for yelling at their mother, but something had been wrong all night and morning and he didn't like the looks on the faces of many of those people and she wouldn't say anything and she wouldn't let him go--and their aunt and her youngest son had come out the door. "Stop, Mikoto," she said tiredly. "Maybe it would be better. . . ." "It would not!" their mother shouted back, and Sasuke stilled in confusion. Then he realized she'd loosened her grip when she'd turned partially to glare at the other woman, and broke free. Their aunt called something as he ran, and Sasuke picked up speed until he reached the crowd and could weave his way through it. One of the cousins on their father's side caught him before he reached the house, and held him fast by his shoulders; but at that point Sasuke was already close enough to see Itachi. His first thought was Why isn't anyone helping him? and only then did he notice that all the ninja at the front of the crowd, the ones surrounding their father and Itachi, were police. Most of them, including their father, were bleeding. (The worst were being carried to the hospital by other family members, because the Uchiha complex had sealed itself off from Konoha for the day.) Itachi was bleeding the worst of all, and even young and in his first year at the academy, when anatomy hadn't been taught yet, Sasuke could tell that he had a shoulder dislocated, and his other arm and both legs were broken. His hands were chained behind his back with no mercy given for the injuries, and his face was already beginning to bruise. Another police officer, one Sasuke had seen talking often with their father in the streets, was forcing Itachi to kneel on the pavement, head almost touching the ground. Their father was holding a katana. Sasuke wondered when he'd stopped yelling, and then realized it was when he'd stopped being able to breathe. "What are you doing?! Father!" Their mother was behind him in the crowd. "Sasuke!" "Let him--let me go, don't--brother!" "Sasuke, come here!" "Stop," Itachi coughed, and everyone, their mother and aunt and neighbors and all the other people, fell quiet. Even those at the back ceased whispering after only a few seconds' delay. Itachi coughed again, harder, then spit out blood and a tooth and coughed once more. Then he twisted his head to stare at Sasuke, even though the man at his back pushed him further down at the motion until his cheek was scraped on the pavement. The blood on Itachi's mouth made his smile look warped, the bruises made his eyes strange, even stranger than that other sharingan yesterday, made them look wrong, they'd beaten up his brother until he didn't even recognize him anymore and what the hell was going on?! "I've drowned in this pathetic clan," Itachi told him, and behind them people started murmuring again. Sasuke wanted them to shut up because he couldn't hear, Itachi was saying something to him and he couldn't-- "--to you. There's a place you need to find in here," Itachi said, and then hacked violently when the man behind him shoved a palm down hard on his ribs. "Enough," their father said, and tightened his grip on the sword's hilt. "If you don't need the clan, Itachi, then the clan doesn't need you." "NO!" Sasuke screamed, and tried to wrench himself free. The cousin tightened his hold on Sasuke's shoulders, and gripped his jaw so that he couldn't speak but couldn't bite, either. Behind him, he thought he heard their mother sob, but it could have been anyone. Their father's hands never shook as he lifted the katana and brought it back down. Sasuke always remembered that. The cousin turned around in the stillness afterward, so Sasuke couldn't see the body anymore, and then picked him up when he couldn't move his feet and carried him back to his mother. Several women had grouped themselves around her; his aunt had a hand on her shoulder, but the others were just there, standing. Her breathing was harsh, and her hands were clenched into fists, but she wasn't crying. She didn't cry the whole day; and if she cried that night, it was too quiet for him to hear through the walls of the house. Sasuke remembered that, too. They tried to tell him, later, what had been wrong with Itachi--the suspicions about Shisui's death, the uneasy reports from fellow ANBU members, the growing reticence and the excessive violence on missions. . . . The price of attacking and defying the clan. Sasuke learned to nod silently and keep his face expressionless within four months. He found the basement beneath the Takano shrine after three years of searching. In the meantime, his scores in tracking and espionage, already the best in the class, increased impressively. "Next," Kakashi said. "My name is Uchiha Sasuke," he said flatly, not bothering to take his hands away from where they were folded in front of his mouth. "There are tons of things I dislike, but I don't really like anything. And. . . ." He hesitated briefly. This teacher seemed worthless, but if he was a jounin, then he couldn't be trusted. . . . But then, when his father had sent him out the door that morning, he'd told him to be wary of the man that had been selected to teach his team, and to whenever possible study him. His father had clearly known who'd been assigned in advance, and it didn't sound like they were on good terms. "I don't want to use the word 'dream,' but . . ." he went on, and then paused again so that the first one didn't seem as suspicious. "I have an ambition: to reach the height of my capacity." ". . . that's an odd phrase," Kakashi said. "What does it mean?" "I'm still finding out," Sasuke replied tersely. He didn't like the way the man was gazing at him--it gave him the feeling that the lazy voice had been a deception he'd fallen for. He was already regretting not lying. The blond moron beside him muttered something about guys who tried to make themselves sound so cool; Sasuke didn't waste breath acknowledging him. "Hm," was all Kakashi said. "Okay. And lastly, the girl." The only difference is who you're avenging. |