Title: Mangekyō Sharingan

Rating: T

Summary: Itachi may be a ninja and a chuunin, but he's still ten. He doesn't know what to do when his little brother comes home that afternoon. (Team Tensai 'verse)

Warnings: Serious stuff going down here people, get your hanky.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto does.

Author Note: This is for romantiscue because she asked. :) Actually she questioned how it would go down and I couldn't help myself. I had to know too :) I wrote this in present tense because I think it adds to the emotional value. Or something. I don't know, I just wrote it this way and like it :)
*Note: Sasuke is acting. This is tied to my Team Tensai 'verse and it was touched on briefly in chapter 4. Sasuke was not actually raped at the age of five, he's gone into the past and wants to use Tsukuyomi, so he needs to pretend to get Mangekyō. If you want more information about how I changed the activation of the Mangekyō you can read Team Tensai, story id: 5561415. Again, chapter 4 has the particulars :)

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Itachi is in the back yard practicing his new kata when he sees, though more like senses, his little brother sneaking in the back door. The ten year old manages to just catch a glimpse of Sasuke as he vanishes through the door and his heart catches in his throat. He is absolutely sure that he'd seen tear tracks on Sasuke's cheeks and blood splatter on his shirt.

Wanting to know why his little brother is covered in blood and crying, Itachi follows Sasuke up the stairs and watches silently as Sasuke goes into the bathroom and he waits for an hour outside the door. Finally he can't help himself and he knocks on the door.

"Otouto?" His voice is soft and he's worried about his baby brother.

"Go away."

Itachi can hardly hear Sasuke through the door and he bites his lip, "What's wrong Baby Brother?" Itachi is ten and Sasuke is only five, so Sasuke really is a baby in Itachi's eyes and the older boy wants so badly to help.

"Go away."

Laying a hand gently against the door, Itachi gracefully falls to his knees, bowing his head, "Please Otouto, tell me what happened."

"Go away."

It feels like those two words are the only words that Sasuke know and Itachi shakes his head. "Sasuke," He tries one more time, voice still gentle and barely audible above the pattering of the water from the shower.

The shower stops and Itachi wonders idly if he should call his brother by name more often. "Aniki..." Itachi can hear something thump against the door and knows that Sasuke is also kneeling, leaning against the door.

The pre-teen chuunin bows his head, "Sasuke," He whispers. He can almost physically feel the pain of his little brother through the thin wooden panel that doubles for a door.

"Aniki, does it ever go away?" The door slides open just a crack and Itachi looks into his brother's unnaturally pale face through the heavy steam. He peripherally notices that Sasuke's skin is bright red and knows that it's from how hot the child had been running the water.

"Does what go away?" He can barely hear his own words, but Sasuke apparently has better ears than himself because the boy closes his eyes and turns his face towards the floor.

"The pain."

Itachi reaches out and pulls Sasuke into a tight hug, cradling the boy close and petting his hair. Something hurt his little brother. Or maybe it was someone because Itachi feels his anger well up like molten lava when Sasuke tenses in his arms and Itachi refuses to show the anger on his face, refuses to let Sasuke see him furious, refuses to frighten his brother. "All physical pain fades Otouto."

Sasuke is silent and then there's a contained blast of killing intent and anger, self loathing and fear, sadness and shame and Itachi can't stand it and then it's suddenly gone as quick as it first appeared. "Does it ever go away?" Sasuke leans back and looks up into Itachi's face and his eyes are bright red and black, circles crossing circles and Itachi knows.

Itachi knows what happened. And he can't breathe because this is his little brother and he has the Mangekyō Sharingan and that means something that Itachi doesn't even want to think about but he can't stop his brain from going there because he's a genius and his heart constricts and he reaches out to cup Sasuke's face and Sasuke flinches.

Itachi can't choke back the emotions running throughout his whole body and tears are crawling down his cheeks and he pulls his hand back not even noticing that it's shaking. "Sasuke," He murmurs, his voice trembling and uncertain.

Sasuke turns away from him looking at the floor and his eyes close and then he leans into Itachi's warmth knowing that Itachi will keep him safe, "His hands were so big," Sasuke's low voice is muffled by Itachi's shirt and Itachi clutches tightly at him.

Itachi can't think of anything to say that would help ease Sasuke's mind so he doesn't say anything at all. He just listens as Sasuke rambles about hands and pain and then blood and no more breathing and all Itachi can think is that he's glad that the bastard that hurt his little brother is deaddeaddead because he would have hunted the man down and tortured him, hurt him, made the head of T&I look like a welcome change in comparison to what he would have done.

When Sasuke has all but fallen asleep on his older brother, Itachi picks him up and takes him to his room. Sasuke is lax in his arms and hands when Itachi dresses him for bed, not looking at anything at all, just staring at the wall or ceiling. Itachi knows that if he contemplates the bruises on his little brother's arms and waist he'll snap, so he doesn't.

Before he leaves, Itachi sits beside Sasuke and stroke his face gently with a finger, "I won't let anyone in your room, okay?" Sasuke doesn't answer, just stares at nothing with blank eyes. Itachi thinks that the shock has finally set in and more tears fall down his face. "I'm so sorry Otouto."

Itachi kisses Sasuke on the forehead and leaves the room. He closes the door and walks down the hall, down the stairs; into the kitchen. His mother is there fixing an afternoon snack for Sasuke, for when Sasuke gets home from playing in the park with his friends. Itachi can't hold it in any longer and his rage erupts like a geyser, suffocating even himself.

Mikoto spins, readying herself in a defensive stance with the knife that she'd been using to cut up an apple. When she can find nothing that could have caused Itachi to release such a feeling she stands down from her instinctive movement. "Itachi-kun," She asks, "What wrong?" She was jounin before she'd retired to have children. She is ready for her son to tell her anything. Anything at all.

"Sasuke has activated the Mangekyō Sharingan."

Anything but that.

The knife drops from her hand and it almost stabs her in the foot, but she twitches unconsciously and the knife misses, plunging into the wood with a thump and sticks there upright and quivering.

Itachi throws himself at his mother and grabs tightly to her kimono while hiccupping through his tears, "Mama," He calls her, something Itachi hasn't call his mother in years.

Mikoto's arms come up around his shoulders and she hugs him back, just a tightly as he is holding her. She can tell that she's gone into light shock but can't seem to shake herself out of it. She holds her eldest son and wonders how she can possibly tell her husband that their baby, that their little Sasuke who they were so proud of just weeks ago for activating his Sharingan, had been raped.

She knows that there isn't a way to tell Fugaku without all hell breaking loose.

"Itachi-chan," Mikoto rocks Itachi back and forth gently, "Where is Sasuke-chan?" Itachi, her first born, her duty to the clan, her beloved son who refused to answer to 'Itachi-chan' when he was four, let go of her clothing and rubbed away the tears on his face.

"I put him to bed. Mama," Itachi's voice cracks as he speaks, "What... I don't know what to do."

Mikoto takes him back into her arms, petting his hair, "I need to talk with your father," she says calmly. She can't get emotional just yet. She won't be able to do what she needs to do if she's emotional, if she's breaking down so she shoves back her motherly affections and lets her jounin mindset take over. She knows that it's not fair to Itachi for her to do this but he understands and takes a step back.

"I... I'll stay with Sasuke. Don't go inside his room. I promised him that I wouldn't let anyone in." Itachi scrubs that last of his tears away.

He watches his mother leave without bothering to make herself presentable for the public and knows that she loves Sasuke. No Uchiha ever left their house without looking their best even if they weren't even leaving the compound.

Pulling the knife from the floor where it had fallen and putting it on the counter, Itachi gets lost in his mind and he walks back up to his little brother's room in a kind of daze. He sits outside the door, guarding against intruders and he tries to imagine what Sasuke has gone through and can't.

The tears come again and Itachi wonders if the tears will ever stop.

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