An Uchiha At Heart || SasuSaku

16. Refuge

Uchiha Itachi died. Uchiha Itachi is still dead.

While the surely false former Uchiha continued to dig through Sasuke's chest, Sasuke was more focused on the pain of simply seeing his brother again, especially like this. He was in his reanimation form, which is what threw him off. And no matter how hard the younger brother tried to break through the genjutsu-because it must be a genjutsu, right?-it wasn't working.

He tried consulting other possibilities, but he came up empty.

Itachi came closer to Sasuke with his hand still in his chest. "They were right, you know. Everyone around you will die, and it's going to be your fault. Just like my death is your fault," He whispered while simultaneously plunging further into Sasuke's breast.

Sasuke was coughing up blood at this point, and a stray tear had betrayed him at the cruel words.

Itachi's death was Sasuke's greatest nightmare. He still shivered at the memory, and indeed believed that he was accountable for his dear brother's death. It haunted him every single day, some more than the others, but to hear those words like this-genjutsu or not-was a much greater pain than he could possibly bear.

He tried once more using his Rinnegan to break out of the hallucination, but still, no use. Time seemed to stop as his elder brother looked down on him with disgust and disappointment, and Sasuke was already beginning to give in; he knew he deserved it anyways.

He took a look at his surroundings. Everything appeared to be as it was formally, then he looked back at his brother.

Maybe this is this real after all. The universe is punishing me, and now I have to pay for my greatest sin of all.

"Forgive me, Nii-san.." he whispered.

"Uchiha Sasuke....die!"

**************************************

Goddammit, Sakura cursed as she tried yet again to resist Akio's mind jutsu. She had noticed earlier that the powerful possession had broken when the explosion took place since it caught the caster off guard and distracted him. She concluded that the jutsu requires immense concentration and thus a large amount of chakra. A part of her was counting on Sasuke to cause more distractions, but he's been unusually quiet for a while now. She'd scream out his name if she could, but the jutsu wouldn't let her do even that.

"I don't know what your name is, but in a few minutes it won't matter," Akio continued to taunt her. She was awkwardly moving towards the acid as if being controlled by an inexperienced puppeteer. Her heart rate was rising exponentially with every step as she got closer to the acid. She fought and fought, but it was no use.

Sakura was going to burn to death.

********************************************

Sasuke, with his back nailed to the wall and his mouth drooling of blood, was fully surrendering to the false elder Uchiha. He felt himself sinking in despair, but then a loud, familiar scream broke him out of his trance.

Sakura.

Sasuke flinched and jerked his head upwards to look at his brother. Before he could do anything, he noticed that his Sharingan looked unusual, with two solid rings connecting the tomoes rather than one.

Immediately, he grabbed the man's arm and viciously tossed him across the hall. Sasuke's expressions were getting more animalistic by the second; how could he have let this happen? He knew from the start the man wasn't Itachi, so how is it that Sasuke was standing there bleeding because of a stupid mistake like that, one that could possibly cost him Sakura's life, not to mention his own? Just what the hell kind of genjutsu was he hypnotized into?