Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Let it Burst and Bloom ❯ Let it Burst and Bloom ( Chapter 1 )

Sasuke felt the bones in his jaw creek and shift under the pressure of his brother's fingers. His neck was tilted dangerously far back, his body hanging limp, exhausted. Sasuke was tired, bone weary of this fight. He'd come to end it, one way or another and it wasn't ending; he was still here, still looking his brother in the eye. But they were just eyes now, black as Itachi's cloak. No red. The red was all around them, on their skin, on the ground, in their noses, staining their teeth. They were both bleeding. Itachi shook him, their faces less than a hand span apart.

 

“Little brother,” he murmured. “My blood. The only blood left. It's just us now. All the Uchihas gone, all gone but us. And now, most of our blood is on the ground.” He shook Sasuke again, and he let a choked sound, a strangled, pain-filled noise escape his throat. Sasuke hurt everywhere. His chakra channels burned; his muscles ached; his fucking jaw hurt where Itachi held him. But he was almost finished. Itachi thought he'd won. “Not enough hate,” he'd said. Never enough. Never enough to beat him. Get more power; foster your hatred, let it grow until you have enough to kill him. That had been his strategy for so long... so many years, more of the weapon Itachi had told him to find. He'd obeyed like a good little brother, a trusting a little brother. Itachi could still tell him what to do. Come back to me when you hate enough, Sasuke.

 

Sasuke was tired of hating. Sasuke didn't feel like he could muster much of any emotion anymore; he had nothing left in him. Or if he did... it had been strangled for these last three years, sealed away inside him by the man he... He'd had to improvise, grow something other than hatred. Hate didn't work inside his sealed body. It felt like poison. It felt very bad. The man he'd been living with the past three years had sealed out his hatred and thirst for... pretty much everything. All he had left, the only things of his in his brain, were, well it was all confused. His brain was, and his chakra... they were twisted and sheltered and choked. He was protected from himself, from his head. But he was suffocating, and his- the man he'd been living with had tried to make it okay, tried to make it enough, but in the end, he'd only reminded Sasuke of his mission, of his vengeance. The hatred had not returned, but determination had.

 

And the second his lo- the second the man he'd lived with, his keeper, his guard, the second he'd given in to Sasuke, the Uchiha took quick and brutal advantage. Kakashi could be dead. Perhaps. But Sasuke thought it more likely that he was coming to find him, to look him in the eye and probably just smirk or shrug or something equally inappropriate. Sasuke hoped this second part came true, that Kakashi was not dead, that he was on his way to find him, because if that was the case, if he got to see Kakashi again before Konoha shinobi killed the last Uchiha for running away again, for the last time, then he could tell Kakashi how he'd beaten Itachi. He could look his lover in the eye and say, “I won. And it wasn't because I hated him. It was because I loved you.” That's what he'd say before he died. Unless he didn't die. Unless the Konoha shinobi saw that he was finished now, that he wouldn't be any more trouble. Through his exhaustion, he tried to think who, if anyone, in that village would hesitate before they killed him. He had very few options. He had no friends. But he did have brothers, of a sort. He had a few that he could count on one hand, maybe three fingers.

 

In order to win against Itachi, Sasuke had to change the rules; he had to reject rules. Itachi thought that Sasuke was finished, that once again he'd humiliated his little brother in defeat. He was mostly right. Sasuke was pretty much finished. He was very tired. But he had... He tried to swallow and found he couldn't. Itachi was squeezing tighter, choking him. Sasuke had three years of strangled, muzzled, leashed power burning in him. His lover had freed him, broken all his seals, his chains, and now Sasuke was very very strong. His chakra channels burned, but they breathed, too, for the first time in years. He tried and failed again to swallow. Then he opened his eyes, just black eyes, and he took a small breath. Well, he'd just have to kill his brother with a dry mouth.