Itachi blinks his eyes open and the world stay dark. For a moment, he envisages turning on his sharingan; but no threat seems to be around, so he simply sits up, wondering where Kisame has gone. And then two arms wraps around him and he freezes as a body plasters itself against his back.
-Itachi? What is it?
The voice only freezes him further. Why is his little brother naked in his bed? Why is Sasuke in his presence peacefully?
Something is wrong, very wrong. He needs Sasuke away to protect him, right now, before whatever’s going on gets worse and becomes a threat to him.
-Foolish little brother, he starts, still blank inside.
It’s enough; Sasuke lets him go. And doesn’t; instead his hands take his and guides them to his face.
-Nii-san, please, wait?
His voice is soft and pleading, worried despite its surety. Itachi tries to take advantage, rips himself away, but then he realizes what his fingers are feeling. Sasuke’s voice, his features under his touch - they’re older than it should be. He shakes.
-Don’t panic, please? It’s okay, I can explain what’s going on.
The panic is not receding at all. Seeming to sense it, Sasuke presses his hands on his face.
-Ok, ok. Breathe in…
He demonstrates, audibly.
-and breath out…In…Out…
Itachi tries to follow the instructions.
-Focus on my hands and my voice, ok? I’m here, I’m okay, I’m alive, and none of this are going to change anytime soon.
Itachi tries. That’s easier.
-Breathe in…
It’s coming easier. The confusion, though, is not receding at all.
-Breathe out - like that, yes.
They take a few more breathes in unison, while Itachi keeps wondering where to start.
-Sasuke.
-Hm-hm?
There’s affection in his voice, and that’s doing nothing for Itachi’s confusion. The panic, at least, is not coming back.
-You said you could explain what’s going on.
He doesn’t know how to talk to this Sasuke, who doesn’t seem to hate him, who apparently sleeps (naked??) in his bed, who acts nothing like the hateful 13 year old boy he saw last.
-A small time travel mishap. We’ve had time to see it coming, so we’ve studied the seal. There’s nothing to do, just wait until tomorrow.
He pauses, and continues.
-Welcome to the future, nii-san.
And kisses him in the cheek at the old name, soft and affectionate, and Itachi still doesn’t know what’s going on.
Doesn’t know what’s going on, and is really, really bothered by what he gathers.
-The nudity is freaking you out?
He’s. Not used to Sasuke reading him right. Even before, Sasuke was too blinded by his idealization to see when Itachi was feeling less than well.
-We have good medic nins around, continues Sasuke, giving him a set of clothes. You should use your sharingan.
Itachi hesitates. He only has Sasuke’s word, after all, and from whta he knew yesterday no reason to think Sasuke would ever want anything from him but his death.
Once again, Sasuke is in front of him, his hand behind his head and his forehead against his.
-Nii san, he says softly, trust me.
His breath touch his lips. Itachi remembers again they woke up together in the same bed, naked. But Sasuke lets him go, and Itachi activates his sharingan and puts on the clothes.
Sasuke is already clothed, waiting for him at the door, a small smile on his lips.
-Come on. We do not have that much time, in truth, and though i’d like to give you a simple vacation to relax, there ARE things i need to tell you - that you need to know - for things to go well.
THis is want he wants. This, this new life he’s discovering for himself in the future - it’s everything he didn’t know how to want. It means that he has no right to it, of course; what happiness does he deserve? But this happiness is not his alone, and hasn’t he already taken his little brother’s happiness away from him once?
-What are you thinking about, nii-san?
Sasuke is not looking at him. Side by side at the table, they’re looking at the street, and the people passing by. Sasuke is not looking towards him, but he’s obviously paying attention to him. Itachi thinks Sasuke is not missing any of his expressions.
-Since when can you see through me so easilt, Sasuke?
-Ah, that, you’ll have to find out. Nowadays, you don’t keep me guessing that much, but you still forget, sometimes, to let me in. I have to be careful or I might miss something important. What were you thinking about?
Sasuke knows exactly what he’s doing. Sure, he could have been dropped out in the past at better moments, but now, and not two minutes later is good enough for him. Ten minutes earlier would have been better though. He would have had to convince Itachi that he had Orochimaru under sufficient control he didn’t need to exhaust himself making him appear and getting rid of him - or that maybe they could wait until they had rested at the very least, but. Itachi is still alive, so now is good enough. Run towards Susanoo. Drop his weapons. Not waste his last resources into pointless attacks - he’ll need enough energy to get help for Itachi. Sure Itachi is confused but he’s still getting close - and now he’s into touching range, his fingers towards Sasuke’s eyes (yeah right. Like he’s going to fall for that). Sasuke ducks under his arm - his whole life. His whole life has been training to dodge that forehead flick, he’s just never even wanted to dodge it. Even if it was just Itachi keeping him away with his own hands - it was still Itachi’s hand near him. So Sasuke ducks, and embraces his brother.
-Nii-san. I’ll give you my eyes if you want them that much - wait actually that’s not negotiable, you’re taking my eyes - but can that wait until you’ve got some medical attention for that cough?
The shock make Itachi loses consciousness and Susanoo disappears. But eh, Itachi’s breathing. He just needs to dodge Obito long enough that Karin or Sakura finds them.
He knows no healing techniques, using chakra or not. Damn it.
Sasuke doesn’t know what he’s doing at all.
Ok. Ok. At least, with Itachi out of it, he doesn’t have to convince him to stop fighting. He’s got his mangekyou - he can feel his rinnegan. Ok. Ok. Where is Sakura? He has no idea what she might be doing, where she might be at this point in time. Where is Karin? His team is not far, he thinks - gods he doesn’t know. All he can remember about this moment is waking up with Tobi - Madara- Obito! Telling him the truth - or his version of it.
The truth. Couldn’t he have come earlier? Before the fight? Before he took Orochimaru in him? Before he left for Oto? Before the chunn exams, before getting Orochimaru’s curse mark? Maybe he could have prevented the third’s death and then Itachi would have had no reason to come to the village. Safer for him certainly, but Sasuke desperately wanted to seehis brotehr again. And here he is, alive in his arms and Sasuke doesn’t know how to keep him from dying.
And even before obito, isn’t the first beign to come going to be Zetsu? He wants to kill Obito, even if NAruto would disapprove. But if Naruto was here, he could give some chakra to Itachi and keep him alive long enough for a medic to arrive. He wishes NAruto was here. He should have asked him to come with. How is he going to save his brother? If he can’t, if he’s forced to see him die once more, he will elt this world burn.
-You must live, Nii-san, he whispers in his brother’s ear. You must live, if not for me then for teh world, for Konoha. I won’t let anything stand if you go. Naruto will have to kill me to stop me, and it’ll break him. Please live. I’ll break without you, please…
He feels silly begging Itachi, who can’t hear him. Certainly, there are better options than counting on Itachi to achieve the impossible, he knows that. BUt a part of him still feels like nothing is impossible to Itachi, as if he only needs to ask and his big brother will move mountains for him. His big brother who lied to him again and again, who confessed to trying to mind control him, who admitted to failure, who kept leaving him behind with a ‘next time, sasuke’ - and yet he feels like if it’s for him, certainly, Itachi will listen to this one request.
He would do nothing less himself, after all, right?
-Nii-san, don’t worry, I’ll save you.
Susanoo can get them out of here fastest. His chakra reserve have no right to be high enough for it right now, after that exhausting fight this body was in, and the time reversal jutsu his soul went through. But if Itachi could mantain it as he was dying, Sasuke can call it and keep it active long enough to find someone, anyone, who can help.
“I hope it won’t end the same way this time too”, he thinks, uselessly. It’s the fifth time. It never changes. There’s no point in trying again, except giving up would be worse.
There’s a jutsu like that, he knows. Izanami. A sharingan jutsu, obviously - trapping someone in a loop until they accept the lesson you want to teach them, that kind of thing is only possible for sharingan users.
He lifts his hand to his eye. He’s the one trapping himself, with a sharingan jutsu. Someone - an opponent, obviously - once told him his sharingan could neither see the future not read minds. He wouldn’t bet on no sharingan being able to.
He stands up. Time to try again. This time, they will live.
(in his heart, he knows he should move on. Trapping himself in this loop is trapping the whole world in it, keeping everyone from moving forwards. It’s not right.
But maybe he should just ask for help)
That’s. Really not the moment he would have chosen to arrive at. There are still things he can change, he thinks, maybe enough that Sasuke has a better time of it. Maybe.
-Nii-san? What happened? Mom and Dad.. Who did this?
He wants to scream. He wants to cry. He wants to take Sasuke in his arm and never, never let go. He wants to run away and pretend neither his first life nor this new one ever happened.
-Foolish little brother…he murmurs.
What he doesn’t want to do is play the role he played the first time around. But really, Sasuke is smart. He will put things together soon enough, and Itachi must give him answers. But his little brother, right now, is a confused and scared seven years old child, and the truth would be too heavy for him. Wouldn’t it?
He tried to go back far enough, but he still came up short. There’s only one week before the massacre, there’s no way that will be enough. Especially since all he wants to do - all he feels able to do - is to beg for as many cuddles for his parents and his brother as he can. That’s not going to solve anything.
He needs to change their mind. He needs to change the minds of the whole clan. He needs to change Danzo’s mind - or kill him. Maybe just kill him. He needs to show Itachi there’s another way. He needs to save them. He only has one week.
He needs… Wait. He needs a weapon of mass conversion. He needs someone able to change the most stubborn minds. And luck would have it, there’s right in Konoha someone for whom that’s not only his specialty, but also has first hand experience on what it’s like for the whole village to blame you for the Kyuubi’s attack while being absolutely blameless.
Sure, maybe he shouldn’t use a 7 years old to fix his clan. Sometimes people don’t listen to Naruto - Uchiha, especially, he’s prime example, but he’s counting on the ‘exact same experience’ to counterbalance it - and Naruto is still so very young. But. It’s not like putting Naruto in the middle of a tense, ready to blow up situation can make ti worse, after all. Not when the first time around there were only two known survivors and one hidden.
So! Tomorrow he’s inviting Naruto in the Uchiha compound! That’s sure not going to make Danzo more suspicious at all!!
Obito blinks. He’s just a little too late, he doesn’t know how to deal with it. Couldn’t he be there just five minutes earlier? No, he should have arriver back in the cave, escaped earlier - he had no control over the timing of his arrival on this scene.
Still. He already has his mangekyou; he shouldn’t feel it form again, but he does. Rin, rin, Rin is dead. Kakashi falls forward, chakra exhausted, and Obito almost loses it again just like back then. Rin. He screams. Kills the Iwa nin goes to here. Steps on Kakashi, his feet phasing through his oh so tiny body - and stops himself. Backs off. Looks around him - Rin. Oh no, Rin.
Once again he’s holding her body, crying, the world falling apart around him. And then Zetsu tells him it’s time to go home and -
Rin’s dead. Rin died years ago, in truth. He’s not this fourteen years old anymore, innocent until broken. He’s a broken adult man, bitter and angry, and not anymore ready to let himself manipulated by zetsu and madara’s lies. Slowly, he puts Rin down, and goes to Kakashi. He looks at his former teammate, surprised by how small he looks. Ahead of them is such a dark hell of a world. But by coming home, at least, he can make it better for Kakashi.
Ahead of them is the bright light of Naruto, and the tumult of the Uchiha, and the hypocrisy of the village. Once every shinobi stood together, inspired by the friendship of two jinchuriki. Once a boy befriended all the Tailed Beasts. Once a broken, grieving, sardonic man raised three kids into the best ninjas of the age.
And now the past is past, and the future unknown. If he can get guruguru to leave him just by asking.
It’s night - it’s that night. Obito is busy killing most of their clan. Itachi is doing his job. Sasuke - 18 year old Sasuke, who lost is entire world once again - is watching from the shadow. He’s not here to save his clan. Saving anyone, protecting people - this was never his plan, was it? Making them proud. Taking revenge. Atoning. Slowly, building himself a new life, with new bonds (accepting he can have one, that he’s allowed on, that it will not be ripped from him (it was), nor is it a betrayal of his first family) - and yes, at the end, protecting those people who accepted him back, offered him a new family, let him have teh space to mourn his fallen ones and still, still, always, be here by his side - and he failed.
So he’s not here to save his clan. He watches Itachi, instead, and wonders what pain he can spare him. He can’t take their parents’ death from him - he can’t save them, he could only kill them himself, and none of them would be better for it. The best he could, maybe, do, is save Itachi from having to scar his younger self.
But then Itachi goes inside their house, and Sasuke remembers going in, remembers his parents’ corpses, remember his brotehr’s cold eyes and his world crashing down, and for one second he can’t spare one ounce of compassion for Itachi, no forgiveness inside him. One second, and now he’s complicit.
He puts his head on his brother’s shoulder, and take his hand. Itachi presses his slightly. In front of them, the waves of the sea are hitting the bech again and again as the sun is setting.
It’s peaceful. He slides his hand higher, feeling Itachi’s wrist. His brotehr - all that’s left of his family (he’ll never admit, to anyone, that if he had had to choose only one person of his family to keep, he would have chosen Itachi, and so he is desperately, shemefully relieved for how things turned out) - is alive.
-I Love you.
And, after a beat,
-I will always love you.
-Hm. Me too.
Sasuke smiles.
(last time, he could’t even answer those words. This time, at least, he could say them.)
(oh, the shame of happiness)
Itach doesn’t stumble into the inn, for the simple reason he can still control himself so far, but he can’t check if anyone’s around. But as he comes in, someone else enters the inn, much more confidently than him. The receptionist looks up, and say
-oh, are you tgether? We only have one room left, unfortunately.
The stranger is looking at him. With the rain outside, Itachi doesn’t have a choice. As he is, he will have to take the risk.
-I’ll pay, say the stranger.
Itachi looks at him and examines him. He’s a man, about 20 years old. He has not felt young in the presence of adults his whole life, but this one - he’s suddenly aware of how small and comparatively weak he is. He can’t see the left eye of the stranger, but the right eye is dark, but warm. Itachi looks away.
(the rain ahs washed the blood. He can still feel it)
In the room, he watched through the window. He needs sleep, and to stay awake.
-Uchiha Itachi.
He forces himself not to tense. There’s no threat in the voice; still he can’t admit to his identity.
-You should look at me more closely. Maybe you’d feel safe enough to sleep.
-I’m not -
-I’ll ask you not to lie to me. It would be useless, anyway. I promised long ago I would never again fall for any of your lies.
There’s no judgement or anger in the words.
-Believe me or not, for now I only want to help.
Itachi turns. There’s so much feelings in those words, who -
This time he recognizes him.
The voice in his head has grown stronger, upset, and worse through the last few months. And tonight it’s silent, but Sasuke can feel its pain. He doesn’t, though, because his own is overwhelming, devastating. But now, as he run after nii - after the murderer, it starts talking again.
‘Don’t give up on him. Don’t believe him, believe in him. One last time - try to get him to talk to you. One last time’
He tries. He fails. He falls asleep, but he sees, before fainting - the voice was right.
Nii san is a liar. But nii san is still his beloved, adored, revered big brother, and he’ll believe in him, since he can’t believe him.
He never hear the voice again.
He reaches towards his precious, adored, little brother’s eyes, and tears one out. Sasuke screams. HE screamed too, last time they met; and the time before that, too. But this is the last time. His body is failing him; even mantaining this illusion si taxing him, and he’s sure Sasuke will manage to rbeak through soon enoguh. Soon enough.
Break through, and prove himself strong enough to defend himself. Itachi has only one last task as his older borther left to accomplish, and then, never again will he be the cause for his brother’s screams.
(forcefuly, he keeps himself from thinkign of the nightmares he wakes up from, the oens Sasuke without a doubt share. He lived. It is, in part, thanks to him.)
Sasuke will live. Itachi puts the eye in a glass container, and -
The illusion shatters. No? He’s still holding the container, is still wtaching from afar - Sasuke is looking at him, with two intact eyes and a look on his face Itachi hasn’t seen since - that Itachi has never seen. This is not the hatred he’s culitvated since he completed his mission. This is mroe like the love and doration from before, but with no trace of the resentment that grewbehind. No, instead, it’s - grief? Horror? Relief?
The illusion shatters - comes back instantly. And he dies. He dies, and Sasuke fiants, and wakes up, and -
He knows, by now, what is happening. He knows how to spot a memory transferral. But this is impossible. Still, he watches, and this is, certainly, fitting punishment, to see how his actions broke his brother.