prologe
This was it, finally the last throat had been cut, finally he could be free. Or so Itachi thought, as he slowly guided the knife to his own wrist and finally pressed the knife down his arm.
As blood began to run down and his consciousness began to fade, he thought of his younger brother. Now he would be the only one left who could wield the power of their family, but most importantly, now he would be safe.
As his eyes began to close for what he thought would be the last time, he heard a door swing open and felt someone pull him up with a curse and something along the lines of 'you're not getting out of this that easily'.
After that his strength left him and he lost comsciousness completely.
__________
When Sasuke was picked up by the police after school instead of by his brother, he already knew something was wrong. When later he was brought to Kakashi, a man with white hair and a covered eye, which wasn't something unusual for Sasuke to see, and his other two kids, which he more or less knew from school, he couldn't even let himself be bothered by the fact, that that anoying idiot, Naruto, from his class was there as well.
So when some old man, called Sarutobi, apparently the mayor of the city, told him, he had lost his entire family, he couldn't stop himself from crying and screaming, even if he knew, father wouldn't agree with him doing that.
"No, no no no no !!!!" He kept on screaming, while slowly sinking to the ground.
"No, that's not possible. What about my brother?! Where is my brother? He wasn't home today, he should be ok right?! Can't you bring me to him!! Where is Itachi?!!"
"Shh, it's alright, I know it hurts, just cry it out." The man, Kakashi, his brain supplied, told him, hwile stroking his back cautiously.
"No! No nothing's alright!!! I want to see my brother!!"
Sasuke could feel his own breathing speed up more and more, somewhere in the back of his mind, he registered, that it wasn't supposed to do that. Yet he couldn't seem to care.
He needed Itachi to be here, he needed his brother and his mother and father and ... and everyone else. He needed them to be here. He...
"Itachi!! Itachi!!.... Itachi!" He yelled over and over again, but to no avail.
He didn't even notice the mayor leaving, didn't register how Kakashi held him in his arms as he cried himself into a fitful sleep.
_________
And so from now on, that was his life. At some point in time he had been told, that they weren't sure about where his brother was and whether he was alive or not, the same thing counted for an elder called Madara, of whom Sasuke had never even heard.
The only indication that he had ever been there to begin with was aparently some of his blood, that had been found at the scene, nothing else.
No one had found his body nearby so as for now, he had been declared missing in action, since any anbu, which his brother was, that dissapears without any trace is delcared missing in action.
He was all alone now. Kakashi tried to help him as much as he could and luckily Neji made sure Naruto didn't bother him too much, but still, he was alone.
His parents were gone, his brother was gone. Itachi was gone and no one knew what happened to him. He was a random 10 year old child (cause lets just pretend he was 10) with no where to go.
He had tried to completely forget everythig, but he just couldn't do it.
Not when everytime he looked himself in the mirror, he almosst reminded himself of his own brother. Not when every he closed his eyes, he saw his mothers smile slowly dissapear before him.
And that's when the rumors started.
At first Kakashi did his very best to not let Sasuke hear them, but eventually he unfortunately did hear some of the gossip.
"Look over there, the Uchiha boy" One of them whispered, Kakashi couldn't do anything but continue on walking, pulling Sasuke, who was having a real bad day, with him.
"Yeah, you're right. Such a pitiful thing, you know about that elder brother of his right? The one whose body wasn't found." The other said.
"Yeah, sure I do, what about him, has he been found? That'd be a turn" the first one said.
"No, no he hasn't been found, but apparently he used to be anbu, the only one in the family, so for him to simply be killed like that is unlikely, he must have dissapeared for a different reason."
"What are you trying to say? You don't think..." The first guy let his sentence run out
"That's exactly what I'm trying to say, I got it from some officer, apparently it's unlikely for him to be killed in such a massacre and instead it is much more likely, that he is the culprit and is now hiding."
That was the last they heard of the conversation they heard before turning around the corner. When Kakashi looked at Sasuke he could already tell what the next reaction would be and he remained right.
Right on the spot, they had to sit down on the ground because otherwise Sasuke's little legs wouldn't have been able to hold him up anymore.
He was crying into Kakashi's shoulder while gulping for air.
Kakashi didn't believe in those rumors, he and Itachi had worked together in anbu until a couple of weeks ago. Itachi was never one to seek out violence, he wouldn't use a knife or a gun unless it was absolutely necessary.
He just hoped Sasuke would believe in what he knew about his brother instead of recklessly believing the next best thing, that might explain why they were all gone now.
Unfortunately he was soon proven, that Sasuke did infact believe in those words from those two random people on the street.
As Sasuke's nightmare about missing his brother began to lessen and he started waking up form nightmares, more often than not, cursing Itachi's name.
And so Kakashi tried his best to change Sasuke's opinion. Telling him all the good things his brother had done while working in the anbu, how he had only ever talked about his family and his brother, he pretty much tried everyhting but Sasuke just wouldn't budge, until...