Sasuke's big brother was abducted by Iwa while he was on a mission when Sasuke was six. The war had ended six years ago, and no one wanted another war. Iwa refused to say they'd actually stolen the boy. The Uchiha refused to take it lying down. They demanded action--war. This was their genius the Iwa-nin had taken. They wanted him back. They were willing to risk war to get him back. Konoha was not.

Sasuke's clan was killed by his cousin Shisui when Sasuke was eight. Sasuke was spared for some reason. Shisui had always been like an older brother to him after Sasuke's real older brother had been taken away. That night he became a murderer and a missing-nin. Sasuke had nightmares for month and years afterwards of his cousin's madly whirling eyes with the strange sharingan in them.

Sasuke swore he'd kill Shisui and avenge his clan.

Sasuke was now twelve, already Gennin and on what he considered to be the worst team there had ever been. Sakura would be alright if she stopped mooing after him and started using her brain. Naruto....Naruto was a loss. He was wearing orange. He was supposed to be sneaky, and yet he was wearing orange. Someone, Sasuke thought, had obviously dropped Naruto on his head when he was small, or Naruto had eaten way too many glue sticks and sniffed too much paint while in the Academy.

Sasuke, of course, had dedicated his life to becoming great enough to kill his cousin. He had one goal, one purpose, and one passion in his life. He ate, breathed, lived, and slept that dream. He thought of little else, and could spend hours fantasizing about how he'd carry it out. He was going to kill Shisui one day, and that was all that mattered. He knew he had to focus his whole life into doing this, or he'd never make it.

It was December when Kakashi came only three minutes late to a team meeting. There was snow on the ground. Sasuke was wearing an old coat of his fathers, which was far too big but warm and comforting. Naruto was in orange as always, and Sakura had a pink coat and a green scarf. They all gave Kakashi a bewildered look as they stood in the new fallen snow, cheeks and noses getting nipped red by the cold air. Kakashi, they learned, was never good and being tactful.

"Sasuke, Iwa has agreed to return your brother."

Sasuke stared at Kakashi. He almost asked which brother, but then he remembered Itachi, in a vague, childish way--the pokes on the forehead, the cold voice, the gentle hands that helped him adjust his stances sometime, the soothing, no-nonsense voice that had comforted him when he'd had nightmares, the hand sticky with honey or sugar from Dango.

"Oh," Sasuke said, eyes a little wide than normal, but face over all impassive.

"Oh?" Sakura looked confused.

"OH!? They just promised to give your brother back! Be happy! Jump around! Scream! Cry! Do something!" Naruto grabbed Sasuke and shook him. Sasuke punched Naruto in the nose on reflex and sent him sprawling down into the snow. Naruto bounced right back up, giving Sasuke an incredulous look.

"Don't we have a mission to do today?" Sasuke asked, looking up at Kakashi. Kakashi looked down at Sasuke, and nodded, his own face an impassive mirror of Sasuke's. How could Sasuke be excited about seeing someone he didn't even remember that well?

The next day Sasuke was more excited. He realized, as he moved around the empty house he refused to leave, there would be someone else living in here with him. He wouldn't wake up and have to move through an empty house. He needed to air out Itachi's old room--clean it. Sasuke only kept the rooms he was living in clean. Itachi's room was probably filled with dust and stuff.

More importantly, he also realized that Itachi could help him avenge their clan. Itachi had been a child genius, hadn't he? With his help, taking Shisui down would be easy. he probably knew all sorts of tricks and techniques he could teach Sasuke to help the boy improve much faster than he was. Best of all, Itachi had the sharingan, which Sasuke still lacked.

Sasuke couldn't wait for his brother to get back.

They new year approached. Naruto approved of Sasuke's new found fervor for his brother, and Sakura said they should throw a party for the boy when he got here. Sasuke wasn't sure. Who would come? His teammates, of course, Naruto said. Sakura's eyes had that sparkley look, and Sasuke almost said no. He didn't want those two in his house, but....Itachi had liked sweets, hadn't he? Parties had sweet food at them, so....

Itachi was coming home. He'd arrived last night in Konoha.

Sakura, Naruto, and Sasuke spent a week getting things ready. The house needed to be clean. Itachi needed a new futon and bedding. The house needed more food if two people were going to be living here. The garden needed to be neatened up. Sasuke didn't want Itachi to think he'd been neglecting the house. There were decorations to put up, food to buy or make. Sakura got recipes, and they managed to make most of the food. Naruto, to everyone's shock, was the best cook of them all, if someone else could remember to get what he cooked out of the oven before it burned.

Kakashi came by the last day to tell them he was going to get Itachi from the ANBU and bring him home. Sasuke's brother had been in Konoha a week, and Sasuke hadn't been allowed to see him until now. Itachi had been gone six years, and Konoha was being very careful about letting him loose.

Sasuke couldn't sit still. All he could think about was his brother. Once he got his brother back they could start training to go after Shisui. It would be so much faster with Itachi's help. The clan would be avenged in no time, and then they could be a real family again.

Sakura and Naruto were running all around, Naruto in his painful orange pants and a black turtle neck, and Sakura in a dark red top and dark green skirt. She had pink tights on, and her slippery feet chased Naruto around, trying to make him sit, trying to make sure everything was ready, trying to make it all work out perfectly. Naruto was starting to give Sasuke a head-ache.

They all froze when they heard the shoji door rattle open. Then it was a free for all scramble for the door. Sakura grabbed Naruto and pulled him back, recognizing it was Sasuke's right to greet his brother first. Sasuke came sliding around the corner, welcome on his tongue, and excitement so screwed up in his chest he thought his heart might stop.

Beside Kakashi stood a man Sasuke had never seen. His face was thin and almost delicate. His hair was soot black and long. It was pulled back in a thick braid that fell down to his waist. His clothes were a hakama and black pants tucked into boots. He looked up as Sasuke came around the corner, and Sasuke froze. His welcome died and grew cold. The excitement twisted into bitter disappointment in his chest.

"That's not my brother," Sasuke said. Kakashi looked surprised, and the stranger looked up at Sasuke, eyes half lidded.

"Yes Sasuke, this is Uchiha Itachi. It's been a while since you've seen him. I'm not surprised you don't recognize him," Kakashi coaxed. He put a hand on Itachi's shoulders. Itachi didn't take his eyes off of Sasuke. Sasuke wished he would.

"Hey Sasuke! Go say hi to you brother! Tell him we've got a party waiting and everything!" Naruto insisted, prodding Sasuke in the back. "Go on. He won't bite." The stranger looked between Sasuke and Naruto, and then back at Sakura.

"He's not my brother!" Sasuke whipped around and slapped Naruto's hand away from him. "He's not my brother! Iwa lied! That's not Itachi!" Sasuke broke, shoving past Kakashi and the man he brought, out into the snow. He heard Sakura and Naruto shouting after him, but he kept going.

Itachi's eyes were blue.

----

When Sasuke came home the house was dark. The food leftovers had been put away. He guiltily took some and ate it. He didn't know where his brother was. He didn't care anymore. The man Kakashi had brought home was not his brother. It was impossible.

Sasuke padded over to Itachi's door. He opened it slowly and peered in. The stranger was sitting against the back wall. He looked up as Sasuke opened the door. Sasuke flinched and snapped the door shut. He stalked off to his room. No, that defiantly wasn't Itachi. It wasn't his brother.

----

"Sasuke."

Sasuke looked up. The stranger was wearing black today, like Itachi used to. It made the blue of his pale eyes stand out more. In that face--pale with black, black hair it looked out of place. The blue was pale--almost like Ino's, but maybe a shade or two darker. Sasuke didn't know. It wasn't like he was staring or anything.

Sauske looked away, shuffling his feet into his boots. There was more snow on the ground. They'd probably be shoveling snow today. "What?"

"Have a good day."

Sasuke glanced back, and the stranger was gone, back off into the depth of the empty house. Sasuke had thought that having this person in the house might make it feel more like the home he remembered, but it didn't. The home Sasuke remembered had a mother and a father and a cousin, at times. There were no brothers in it, and Sasuke had been a fool to think that having a stranger in the house would make it any less empty.

----

"Why do you hate your brother?" Naruto asked, muffled by his scarf. It was cold this year, and there was snow everywhere. Sasuke never remembered there being this much snow in the village before. Most Gennin teams were being paid to shovel it. Kakashi, nursing a thermos of some hot beverage he never shared, said it would be good for building muscles. So far it was good for falling and bruising and annoying things like snowballs.

"I don't, and he's not my brother," Sasuke grunted back as he threw some snow over his shoulder. "Stop hounding me. If you like him so much, he can live with you."

"Dude, do you think Konoha's get the wrong person back?" Naruto snorted. "Even I'm not that stupid. If they say it's your brother, then it's your brother."

"He's not--"

"Sasuke-kun.........even if he's been gone a long time, and you don't remember him so well, he is your brother," Sakura pointed out. "Aren't you happy to have part of your family back?"

"Yeah! Your own flesh and blood, so you can be nice to him, ya know! He's a nice guy!" Naruto shouted as he carried off a pile of snow.

"He's not. He's not my--he's not an Uchiha. Did you see his eyes? Itachi had the sharingan. He got it really young, and he was a genius! That guy's eyes--there's no way he's my brother!" Sasuke spat at them, fed up with their insistences. What did they know anyway? They didn't know anything.

"Why does that matter?" Naruto countered, walking back up the drive with his shovel. "Okay, his eyes are different, but how does that make him any less your brother?"

"You moron, it means--"

"Break time!" Kakashi called from his position on the roof. He peered down at his Gennin with an eye smile. Sasuke scowled and stomped off. He heard Naruto grumbling to Sakura he still didn't see why Sasuke was so hung up over his brother's eyes. They were just eyeballs.

Naruto was an idiot.

----

The stranger had one good thing about him. He could cook. Sasuke ate his supper in silence, watching the stranger warily across the table. The stranger ate his food slowly, and sometimes his chopsticks trembled in his hands. Sasuke watched that weakness with a disparaging eye.

"You haven't asked me," The stranger spoke in a soft voice, almost a whisper. The stranger always spoke like that--gentle, soft, and in way that should be barely audible but was perfectly easy to hear.

"Asked you what?" Sasuke asked, looking up slowly. He met blue eyes with black, and wished there was red somewhere in the mix--anywhere.

The stranger took a bite of his rice and chewed slowly. "What happened to my eyes."

Sasuke took a bite of his food and chewed. He took another bite. "What happened?"

The stranger ate. "They took them. What the wanted from me was the sharingan, after all. They implanted them in two likely candidates two months after I was taken. Like Kakashi-sempai with Obito-kun's eye."

"Oh." Sasuke picked at his food. He bit his lips and tried to keep from asking anymore questions. "Why did they give you new ones?"

The stranger didn't look up from the food and the table. "They had problems. Like Kakashi-sempai, the candidates could not turn their sharingan off, and their chakra networks were not capable of using the sharingan for very long without a severe drain on their reserves. One died of chakra exhaustion. They asked me if I could show them how to make it work.

"I'd been blind six months." The strangers hands were shaking. "I told them I would tell them what I knew, if they'd give me new eyes. They did. I told them. They chose blue." The stranger motioned towards his eyes.

"You told them!?" Sasuke's hands slammed down onto the table, scattering bowls and plates and food. The stranger jerked, looking up at Sasuke with wide eyes. "You told them clan secrets!? You told them how to use the sharingan! You betrayed the clan! I can't believe you would--"

"Have you ever been totally blind, Sasuke?" The stranger soft voice cut through Sasuke's voice. "Have you ever lived your life, not being able to see where you are, who's in the room with you, where they've taken you, what's going on, or anything of that sort? Have you ever lived knowing you'll only ever see darkness, and your last chances of escape or life have been ripped from you?"

"You-you shouldn't have told them! Betraying the clan is--"

"Highest treason? The worst thing ever? Even after I told them what I knew, that man was no match for an Uchiha. There's no way the sharingan can be used by a non-Uchiha to the best of it's advantage. I was trying to survive, Sasuke, and I did. Would you rather I had died in that Hell hole they called a cell?"

"Rather than betray your clan? Yes!" Sasuke shouted, rising to his feet. "This clan has enough traitors in it without you!"

"That's right. Two thirds of the Uchiha clan are traitors now, isn't that right?" The stranger started eating again, ignoring Sasuke's outburst. "It must be hard being the only true Uchiha, Sasuke. Are you going to obsessively plan my death as well?" The stranger's voice dropped. His hands flipped the chopsticks around in his hand, pointing the end towards himself.

"Shall I save you the trouble, little brother, and rid you of my dissapointment?" The stranger asked, tone suddenly bitter and biting. Sasuke stared down, and he was suddenly breathless. He looked at the pale neck, and the line his mind made between the chopsticks and the throat. He could see that long, fine instrument slamming through the jugular--a very painful way to die to be sure.

"I wanted you to help me kill him," Sasuke muttered. He clenched his hands and looked down. "I thought you'd have the sharingan, and you could...." Sasuke reached up an hand and rubbed at the tears gathering in his eyes. "I thought you were going to make it right."

"You are a true Uchiha, Sasuke. You're caught up in their greatest vice, and can't see what really matters." The stranger stood, dropping his chopsticks. "Clean up, please. I'm going to bed."

----

The stranger and Sasuke didn't talk. The house was even more silent and lonely than before. It was cold. Inside, outside, everywhere. It was cold.

"So, did you make up with your brother?" Naruto asked. They were on a stake-out, waiting for a caravan to move out so they could swoop in and steal some artifact.

"No, and why do you care?" Sasuke asked in a low voice, eyes on the caravan.

"Well, 'cause Itachi-san's a nice person, and he seems to really want to get along with you, you know?" Naruto scratched at his obnoxiously bright head. Seriously, how did he ever hide anywhere? How did his eyes not melt and drain out of his ear from the hideous color clash he had to face every morning in the mirror?

"How would you know that?" Sasuke kept his eyes on the target. It wouldn't do to get distracted now.

"'Cause, he came and asked me'n Sakura and Kakashi-sensei about you. Like, what you like to eat, or do when you're not training, and stuff like that. He bought me ramen, and told me he liked my jacket," Naruto chirped, beaming.

Sasuke snorted. "Your jacket's an eyesore. He was just saying that to be polite."

"Na-uh," Naruto hissed. Sasuke punched him in the arm.

"Shut up and move, we gotta go," Sasuke hissed. Naruto scrambled, and they slid off through the snow. Sasuke tried to put the conversation out of his head, but he couldn't.

----

"What did you mean, when I said I was caught up in the Uchiha's greatest vice?" Sasuke asked, leaning against the door of Itachi's room. The stranger was moving things around--folding clothes and fussing thing into an order he liked. Sasuke watched with eyes that tried to be impassive.

The stranger didn't even look up. "Revenge. The whole clan seems to have been obsessed with it, and they've passed it on to you."

Sasuke bristled. "That's not--"

"What got them killed, Sasuke? They refused to stop crying for revenge to be taken on Iwa for one lost little boy, and look where that got them. Had they been able to look past what they'd lost to what they still had they might still be alive today," The stranger said, hands busy. "Shisui saw they were pushing Konoha towards a war, and he acted as he saw fit."

"They didn't want to give up on you! How can you criticize them for not giving up on getting one of their own back?" Sasuke asked.

"Two years after I was captured, they should have given up on me, Sasuke. I was probably dead. I was blind. It was a miracle I was left alive so long after they took the sharingan from me. The clan knew the chances of getting me back alive. They didn't want me back. I read every single demanding letter, and they wanted Iwa to suffer. Oh yes, they wanted their precious genius back, but they wanted Iwa to bleed to. Just getting me back wasn't enough. It wasn't me they were after," The stranger stopped and looked up at Sasuke. "And you're just the same."

"So I should just forget about Shisui and what he did to me?" Sasuke asked, blood boiling. "I should forget avenging my entire clan? I should just let him get away with what he did?"

"No, but killing him isn't what you should do. You want revenge, Sasuke, not justice. If you really wanted justice, you'd wait for an order, or bring Shisui back to Konoha to face their justice. You just want him to suffer like you have." The stranger's voice was sharp and clipped, but still soft. His hands never stopped moving. "You're just as blind as the rest of the clan--caught up in the past and revenge and too blinded by all of that to see what you have."

"I don't have anything," Sasuke scowled. "I'm an--"

"Avenger. A spoiled child no one's had the heart to tell you'll never catch Shisui. He's a genius. He's so much older than you, you really have no chance of catching him before someone else kills him, and if you go after him too soon, you'll end up dead." The stranger stacked his clothes away and stood, looking down at Sasuke. "You have a team that would love you like family if you let them. You have a brother back who's been missing half your life, but all you want is to get back at the man who wronged you."

The stranger walked past Sasuke. "I'm not going to help you with Shisui. I've been a prisoner so long I'm no longer fit for ninja duty, and my skills have deteriorated. I wouldn't have been any help to you anyway. Sorry to disappoint you, outouto."

Sasuke sat on the floor and stared across the room at the fussily neat room. He wished it were still an empty mess.

----

"You've been quiet. Something wrong?" Kakashi asked. The snow was melting. It was finally getting warm.

"We don't get along. He can't help me," Sasuke said. "He's useless."

"So, he should be discarded?" Kakashi wasn't looking at Sasuke, but at Sakura and Naruto, who were sparring. Sakura was going to win. Her control was better.

"He's just taking up space. He's not--he's not helping me," Sasuke repeated.

"Hmmm," Kakashi rubbed his nose. "It's easy to move forward when you leave everything behind. It's far harder to press on when you have to carry someone." Kakashi paused in his cryptic words. "Perhaps, Sasuke, you should stop looking for ways for your brother to help you, and turn around and help him first. You could learn something very important."

"That doesn't make any sense..." Sauske groused. He looked back to his teammates, and saw Sakura flip Naruto to the ground. Sasuke stood and walked towards them. It was his turn now.

----

Sasuke stood in Itachi's doorway. The stranger was asleep. His hair was tangled around his head, falling from its braid. His face was drawn, and the bedding around him was drenched in sweat. Sasuke watched the stranger's lips moving, making words and small, silent sounds. Sasuke leaned against the shoji. It would be easy just to walk away now, like he'd done every other time the strangers dreams had woken Sasuke up.

Sasuke stepped into the room. He walked across the clean floor and crouched down by the bed. He hesitated. He could see the bedding was wet with sweat. The stranger washed his bedding a lot. It was already starting to look worn. Sasuke bit his lip.

Sasuke reached down and touched the stranger's quivering shoulder. The blue eyes flashed open, and the mouth gasped hard at the air. "Nii-san, wake up, you were having a bad dream." Sasuke whispered, recalling a voice doing the same for him in the very distant and dim past.

Turn around and help him first.

The blue eyes rolled over to look up at Sasuke's face. They were wide and frantic. A hand clutched at Sasuke's as the eyes calmed, and Itachi's lips pulled into a small smile.

----

"Your stance is wrong."

Sasuke looked up sharply, a glare in his eyes. "But you said you weren't a ninja anymore."

Itachi shrugged, a lazy smile on his face as he sat on the porch and watched Sasuke do his kata in the newly blooming garden. "I said my skills had deteriorated. I never said I'd gone senile enough to forget something as simple as that. Move your left foot to the right and raise your right arm an inch."

"That's all that was off?" Sasuke asked, shooting his brother a look.

"'All'? Do you know how much a difference it makes for your balance if you move those two things? Now, do it, you'll see."

Sasuke scowled as did as his annoying brother suggested. He blinked as he felt the difference. It was such a small thing, but....

"I told you," Itachi almost sang. Sasuke glanced over and saw the blue eyes were smirking along with the lips.

Sasuke sent his brother a smouldering glare and went on in his kata. Maybe Kakashi had been right. There was more talk now--more warmth in the cold house that had nothing to do with the spring air. Itachi didn't sleep until noon most days, trying to make up for sleep lost to nightmares. He didn't wash his bedding half as much.

"Sasuke, you're doing it wrong," Itachi called.

"Will you stop that!" Sasuke shouted back, whirling around. "I'm trying to practice! If you think you can do it, get out here and do it!"

Itachi blinked. "I'm not a ninja anymore. Why would I do that?" Sasuke snarled, and pounced. Itachi caught him, ninja or not his reflexes were amazing. He flipped his little brother onto the porch and sat on him. It was frustrating when Itachi did this. He showed he still had skill. He could trounce Sasuke if he'd just get up and try, but he didn't. He wasn't a ninja anymore. He's left that life behind him, and he showed no signs of ever wanting to go back.

Months earlier, Sasuke would have been hounding Itachi to become a ninja again--to put his skills to good use and help bring Shisui to justice, but he was only tempted to mention it once in a while. He actually looked at Itachi, blue eyes, crooked teasing smiles, and when he thought about it he couldn't see why he should force Itachi into something else when he was happy now. He couldn't remember Itachi ever smiling before.

He couldn't forget the vengeance he wanted to take on Shisui. He couldn't put that aside totally, but he thought about it less. He talked about things besides ninja business and his obsession with Itachi, Sakura, and even sometimes Naruto. He thought he might smile more, but he wasn't sure. Something felt different. When he sat to eat with his brother he didn't feel anxious about the empty house, or how he was going to kill Shisui. He didn't have the urge to practice until he was too tired to move. He'd lost the sense of panicked urgency to get good enough that had run his life since the massacre.

He didn't know if that was a good thing or not, but he knew one thing for certain.

"Nii-san, I can't breathe."

Itachi laughed.