RIG=VEDA

Summary: Uchiha Itachi is a lot of things: a genius, kin murderer, traitor, S-rank missing nin. Uchiha Sasuke acknowledges all that. But ultimately, he's still Aniki. Semi-SI!Sasuke

Author's note: Um. I have no excuses as to why I publish this instead of continuing EI (In which, I will, eventually) other than the plot bunny has taken over my mind and I just have to write this down.

This won't be as long as EI will be, I presume, since this is simply written out of whim, and I may or may not stop the fic before it even reaches Shippuden, much less Kaguya Arc and the whole Moon Eye Plan shit. Nevertheless, this is my second SI OC Naruto fic, and I hope you enjoy it.

Warnings: not much description, identity crisis, brother complex.

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The memory rushes in like a big ocean wave akin to a tsunami, slamming into a three year old Uchiha Sasuke without any remorse and the boy, who was busy playing with kitten ears keels over all of a sudden, not unlike being swept over by a harsh tide, startling an eight year old Uchiha Itachi—who, by that point, was crying soundlessly, his sharingan still on through all that tears.

"Sasuke? Sasuke!" The older boy reaches over, touching his little brother's tiny shoulders with barely concealed distress when Sasuke doesn't respond. The kitten ears clatters to the ground as Sasuke's small fists reach up to his head in order to clutch his hair and pulling and pulling and pulling—

He lets out a croaking sound similar to a dying cat, ironic considering what was on his head mere moments ago and Itachi is so so close to call out for his mother because what is happening to his little brother?!

"Sasuke! Sasuke! What's wrong? Sasuke!"

Then Sasuke just—stops.

Uchiha Sasuke, his beloved otouto, lifts his head in an agonizingly slow moments, beady black eyes staring up at him with flickering emotions too quick for even Itachi to discern.

And the younger boy, much to his shock, bursts into tears before he falls unconscious.

Itachi doesn't remember what he sees, when his little brother falls over and he just screams for his mother and father and how he trembles with fright and worry because he doesn't understand what is happening as his parents rush over to his side. His mother takes one look at Sasuke's crumpled, unconscious form before she takes him in one swoop, and rushes to the hospital without Fugaku even prompting her to.

His father kneels down on one knee and asks the obviously distressed eight year old boy, "what happened?"

Itachi can only answer, "I don't know," and oh how much he hates that fact.

He tells on how Sasuke suddenly fell and cried before he fell unconscious, and his father's look is grim before he nods and takes Itachi into his arms and rushes over to the hospital where his mother and Sasuke must be.

It is only when the doctor says that he is most definitely alright and will wake up in no time ("He's probably just tired," the doctor says and Itachi wants to demand what kind of exhaustion is it that made a three year old to fall unconscious without even a single hint of fatigue on his face mere moments ago? Surely this doctor is slightly insane, or idiotic) and when his mother reassures him that there is nothing wrong with Sasuke's chakra pathways either ("I've checked, Itachi, it's alright," and well, he trusts his mother more than the idiotic doctor for sure) when Itachi remembers what he sees.

A flicker of red in wide obsidian orbs.

The Sharingan.

On his little brother.

Itachi has to bite his bottom lip in order not to tell this particular discovery to his father.

He must be wrong.

It can't be.

He's only three.

It must be a trick of the light.

Sasuke can't possibly awaken his sharingan, can he?

After all, he never hears of a sharingan awakening thanks to seeing your older gaining it. And nothing in particular happened that day other than Sasuke taking a long look at Itachi's sharingan before he breaks out into the usual toothy smile.

Itachi takes in a shuddering breath, and decides to wait and see.

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What slams to my mind first and foremost is the suffocating feeling of being unable to breathe and that I'm drowning, drowning, drowning and I can't pull myself out—nobody is around to pull myself up and I want to breathe, I want to breathe I want to—

But, but I'm not drowning.

But I am drowning.

But I am not.

Am I drowning? Or am I not?

BUT I AM DROWNING—BUT I AM NOT—

I am not drowning, I'm with Aniki, I'm playing with kitty ears and it's fun and why am I playing with kitty ears? I'm seventeen I'm too old to play with kitty ears—and how big is seventeen? That sounds like a really big number because I can only count to ten and isn't ten after nine and seventeen is ten plus seven, dummy, how can you not remember—

And I—

I see mom, clinging to a pole as I got swept over by the wave and I reached out, yelling Mom, Mom help me, help, help, help, while trying not to swallow too much water as I flail about and I see her wide, terrified eyes looking away from me to grab the nearest object to pull herself up the water and to the safe part of a random house's roof and I stare at her in disbelief, in anger and shock and betrayal before something slams into me and I—

And I drown.

That's…

That's wrong.

I never see that kind of flood before, my mother doesn't have freckles and her hair is not in braids, my mother is kind and loving and she's way beautiful than that treacherous poor excuse of a mother how can you abandon me this way wHY DID YOU ABANDON ME TO DIE YOU COWARD and I certainly have never drowned before.

I spend time in my house, with toys, with mother, with father, with Aniki.

Ani—

Aniki?

My mind reels to Aniki and his name and his eyes and I—

Flashes of memories, of moments, of animations and movies and games and fanfictions flash through my mind before I realize, belatedly, my own name.

Sasuke?

That—

No. No, no, no, no, nO, NO.

I'm not Sasuke.

But… But I am! Why do I think of myself as Sasuke but not Sasuke but I am Sasuke but I'm not—

I pull on my hair, pulling and pulling as I try to think which one is right? Who am I? Who am I?

I'm Sasuke.

No I'm not.

I'm Sasuke!

No I'm not!

I'm Sasuke!

I AM NOT! Sasuke is a figment of imagination, a boy too caught up with revenge to see the big picture and who makes so much bad choices in his life and I can't be Sasuke, there's no way I'm Sasuke, my name is—my name is—

My… My name?

My name is…?

It's—

"…suke! Wha—….rong? Sasuke!"

I freeze, my racing mind stops as I register the fact that I know that voice. It's Aniki, I remind myself, and I look up, not knowing why I even hesitate because it's Aniki, I shouldn't hesitate but he's just a product of one man's imagination but he's not and I—

I look up and I see Aniki and I think he's so small, isn't he supposed to be bigger and taller? And I see his worried look even as sounds and images fill up my head once more ("If you want to kill me, despise me, hate me, and live in an unsightly way—") and I see him older and so tired and weary of the world and smiling one last time as he does that forehead poke—("Forgive me, Sasuke. This will be the last time.")

I burst out into tears as I see and realize—traitor, murderer, martyr, mY B i g BR O t H e r.

My name—

My name is—

("No matter what, I will love you always.")

My name is Sasuke.

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Well that was a wild ride.

Chocolate chip cookies for your thoughts?