Inbred

Another long chapter with no NC-17 stuff, sorry. This one focuses on Sasuke's past.

Chapter 14

Sasuke kept his computer in his room so he allowed the blond to use it to send his pictures and e-mails to his surrogate parents. He issued a warning to Naruto letting the boy know he was not to go snooping around his stuff while Sasuke left him there to fix dinner because he wasn't the type of person to read other people's e-mails. When he returned he caught the boy looking at porn.

Sporting a brand new black-eye Naruto downed his bowl of instant ramen before yawning and heading off to bed.

Sasuke cleaned up and prepared himself to move the PC into the front-house, that way Naruto could have access to it without having to wait for the Uchiha to get home to unlock his door. He was just about to shut down so he could dismantle it but stopped when the mouse-pointer hovered over the 'Start' button. With Naruto here and the relationship with Neji starting to pick up he hadn't had the time to check...

His finger lightly tapped against the left-mouse button as if inwardly debating whether to shut-down or not. He shifted the apparatus to open a 'Fire-fox' browser instead. Pulling up the bank's website address, he entered his user-name, ATM card number and his PIN number and waited for the server to confirm that it was, indeed Sasuke Uchiha logging into his joint, online bank account. On the following page he clicked on 'Transaction History' and waited for the list to populate the screen. Everything seemed normal. He recognized all of the transactions, but it wasn't his transactions he was looking for. He also wasn't checking to see if someone had somehow hacked into the system and cleaned him out. No, there was a particular activity he was looking for, a particular pattern that had become noticeable ever since his parents died.

He scrolled down and saw it.

On Tuesday morning at 10:03 A.M. there was a withdrawal of six million yen. Sasuke scrolled down some more until he found the other transaction that always accommodated that one. On Friday afternoon at 4:07 P.M. within the same week there was a deposit of nearly twice that much.

So, Itachi was still alive.

Sasuke closed his eyes and tried not to let the mixed emotions of anger and relief overcome him. Itachi was his older brother, the only other member of the Uchiha family left on this earth but the rest of the world didn't know that. One would assume that as orphaned brothers they would be close, holding onto each other as they grieved together and mourned the loss of their family, but that wasn't the case. Sasuke hated Itachi, because Itachi was the reason they were orphans in the first place.

After the fire, Itachi had gone underground and left Sasuke with many burdens, one of them was to now take over the Uchiha Corporation at the impressionable age of nine. Many of his family's representatives and legal advisors had tried to take advantage of the poor boy but the loss of his family left him scarred and he had become hardened. He wasn't fooled by their artificial condolences and fake smiles. He wasn't an idiot. By law, no one could touch anything that had the Uchiha name on it except an Uchiha, it was a clause that was put in place to protect the family from 'outsiders'. Many lawyers tried to argue that because Sasuke was a minor and not fit to run an entire empire, (even though he had the intelligence and know-how to do so even at such a young age) and tried to convince the magistrates that he should be assigned a legal representative to act on his behalf.

Sasuke knew what all those flowery words meant. It meant that they wanted to get control of the boy so they could pull the strings from behind the scenes, ultimately getting ahold of the company. It was only about the money, none of them cared one damn about him.

These lawyers each met with a gruesome death and the others backed off, believing that the Uchiha name was cursed and anyone who tried to take it who was not an Uchiha would be cursed as well.

The courts decided to leave the business in Sasuke's care but, arranged for someone to stay with the child inside the mansion so he wouldn't be living alone but each of his temporary guardians met with untimely deaths until the courts noticed this trend and assigned him a 'probation officer' to check up on the boy once every month.

The rumours were that the vengeful ghosts of Sasuke's parents were killing off any and everyone who was trying to take their 'place' but Sasuke knew better. It was Itachi that had killed all those people. At the time he wasn't 100% sure why the psychotic murderer was doing this but he eventually realized that in his own sick and twisted way he was really trying to protect him.

Itachi!

As Sasuke said that name in his head, he clenched his fists and bit on his lower lip even as he stared at the significant transaction.

His brother hadn't always been like that, they were very close and did almost everything together. Itachi was his idol and he wanted to be just like 'ani-san' when he grew up. One day, that all changed. Itachi became distant and withdrawn. He didn't speak much to anyone, if at all to their father and Sasuke noticed his father didn't speak to Itachi either. The boy tried everything to get Itachi out of his funk but his older brother just kept pushing him away, he had asked his parents if Itachi hated him and his mother assured the boy that his big brother loved him very much and that he was just going through a 'teenage phase' but that didn't reassure the youth and he found himself crying himself to sleep at nights. He wanted the old Itachi back.

It was the night of his ninth birthday and Sasuke eagerly made his way home for the surprise party he knew his parents were throwing for him. He saw a bright light coming from the direction of his home and he wondered if they had light the fireworks without him. When he got closer he realized that it was not fireworks but it was fire. His home was on fire!

Without thought for his well-being he rushed into the house and cried out for his mother, his father, his brother, his uncles, aunts, cousins...anyone. He thought that they had somehow escaped the blaze and made it to safety but his relief soon disappeared when he saw the first body, and the next and the next. Sasuke didn't bother to identify the family members that were lying in a pool of their own blood because he suddenly felt sick and wanted to get away, far away. He stumbled his way to the back door with his hand over his mouth, partly to block the smoke from getting further into his lungs and partly to keep his stomach from throwing up its contents. He heard a noise from the kitchen and hoped beyond hope that someone was still alive.

"Okaa-chan?, Otou-san?" his voice was shaky and he was suddenly afraid as he cautiously peeked around the corner. He wished he hadn't.

Both of his parents lay dead on the floor, his mother was laying over his father as if she had been trying to shield him from their attacker. Sasuke's vision suddenly blurred as his eyes filled with tears. "Oka-? Otou-?" his voice was barely a squeak through the lump in his throat and the ache in his heart. He collapsed to his knees and crawled over to his parents first shaking his mother and then his father. In his naivete, he had wanted to believe they were just unconscious but when neither of them moved his brain finally accepted the fact that they were both dead. He threw himself over them and began to cry, hard heavy sobs that shook his little body violently.

Mommie! Daddy!

Sasuke felt something wet against his arms and when he held them up to look they were covered in his parents blood. He stared wide-eyed as if he had never seen the red liquid before and was expecting it to be some kind of acid that would eat away at his skin. He caught a movement in the dark corner of the kitchen and glanced over to find his older brother staring in his direction, but he wasn't looking at him, he was looking through him.

"Ni-niisan?"

Itachi moved and Sasuke saw the katana in his hand, it was smeared in blood which dripped a puddle on the floor. "Happy birthday little brother," his voice was emotionless to mirror the expression on his face. "I give you the gift of your freedom."

Sasuke held his big brother's gaze and stared, not wanting to believe what his brain was telling him was the truth. Itachi had just slaughtered their family.

"How could you do this, Itachi?" he felt something begin to bubble in his stomach and he continued to shake but this time it was with rage and not from shock.

"I did this for you, little brother."

Sasuke lost his composure. "You bastard!" he growled and lunged himself at the man he could no longer consider his 'brother'. Itachi was swift and punched the boy in his stomach, knocking the wind from his lungs. Sasuke coughed and keened over grasping his stomach with both arms. Itachi raised up a fist and backhanded the much weaker boy across his face causing him to fly backwards and roll against the far wall.

Sasuke tried to steady himself and tried to wrap his mind around the nightmare that was playing before his eyes, only he knew it wasn't a dream because this pain was very, very real. Itachi was approaching him, the katana glinting and reflecting the orange light of the flames that were steadily growing larger. He suddenly felt very afraid and scampered closer to the wall bringing his arms up to shield his head from the blow that was sure to come.

"Please don't kill me," came the pathetic whimper followed closely by a sob. He peeked from behind his arms and saw that Itachi was now kneeling before him with empty eyes that seemed to pierce directly through to his soul. He put one hand on Sasuke's chest and felt the small organ beneath his ribs jump at the contact.

"My rage does not extend to you, little brother," he said it as if to comfort the boy but it did nothing to decrease the fear that had now claimed him. "Hate me, loathe me, despise me if you must but know that what I did, I did for you." Sasuke was confused now. Why would his brother commit genocide of a centuries old family line then refuse to kill the last one? And what did he mean, he did it as a gift?...to him?

"Come after me, take your revenge, demand the blood of your family if that is what you wish," he continued. "But know this little brother, you are the last of the Uchiha, the future of our legacy lies within your hands. If you will dedicate your entire life to finding and killing me I will not stop you but, there is something more important you should concern yourself with," and although he was giving Sasuke two options he spoke as if it would be wise for Sasuke to abandon the first and seriously consider the other.

He leaned closer and spoke directly into Sasuke's ear.

"-The revival of our clan."

He released the boy then and turned to walk away and Sasuke heard his footsteps become fainter, then disappear over the roar of the fire. The child was still in shock and couldn't bring himself to move even though he knew that if he stayed there his life would be in danger, but, deep inside, Sasuke didn't care. He couldn't cry anymore and just watched as the flames engulfed his parents and made their gluttonous path towards him. He wasn't going to run, he wanted the fire to take him too, if even that way he could be with his family again. He closed his eyes and prepared himself to die. The last thing he heard were sirens and men shouting before he passed out.

When he awoke he found that he wasn't dead, much to his misfortune. He was alive and laying in a hospital bed. He wouldn't eat and he had trouble sleeping through all the nightmares. The doctor had to hook him up to an IV to sustain him and give him medication to help him get through the nights. The child psychologist helped somewhat because he no longer felt suicidal, the only thing that Sasuke felt was intense hatred towards Itachi and the desire to exact his revenge, but it wasn't that easy to track him. Everyone thought he had died in the fire so it wasn't as if Sasuke could tell anyone that he was looking for him, they'd think he was crazy and try to have him admitted to a psychiatric hospital.

Sasuke thought it was better this way, he wanted Itachi's death to be by his hands and his hands alone. He got his chance when he noticed unauthorized transactions on the joint account he had had with his brother while he was younger. At first he thought it was someone trying to clean out the account and he was going to have it closed when he noticed that the transactions weren't consistent with someone trying to empty the account.

He assumed it was Itachi and his suspicions were right when he investigated and found that the man was leaving little clues to confirm that it was indeed him. Sasuke tried to track him down but it was impossible. He soon found out that while Itachi was the one that made the withdrawals he never made the deposits, there was always someone who was 'doing it on behalf of a friend'. This 'cat-and-mouse' game went on for many years and Sasuke gave up shortly after he started seeing Neji. He assumed that if Itachi wanted Sasuke to find him he would have made it possible for him to do so and Sasuke deduced that the only reason he was doing this was to let his brother know he was still alive.

His obsession with Itachi was no longer the driving force in his life after he met Neji and then Naruto, the two boys had filled a part of his life that had remained empty and hollow and had turned his anger and hatred into love. Yes! Sasuke loved them both but he wasn't the kind of person to admit that out loud.

Sasuke sighed and shut down the computer then began the task of picking it down and putting it back up again. He really didn't know what he wanted to do with Itachi anymore but the part of him that had wanted to kill his brother in cold blood no longer existed. Sasuke turned off the overhead light ad made his way back to his bed, he took two sleeping-pills because he knew he was going to have that nightmare tonight.

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Dim Song: Thanks and sorry you didn't get much sleep that night. The reason I update so often is because I have no life. Heh, it sounds pathetic but it's not that bad really. ^_^