A Different Path

Hate Begets Despair

Sasuke's POV

"You.." For a moment there, Sasuke was at loss of words. He didn't know how to respond or what to feel. His trembling fists clenched slowly, his fingers crumbling with the static he felt in his fingertips once his blood had ran cold, draining the whole life out of his shaking body. A blur was slowly seeping out of the corners of his slightly-glassy onyx eyes, fogging his view as the ground beneath his feet seemed to be moving.

A white screen suddenly took over his sight. A few vivid outlines were forming in the distance. Horror passed through every inch of Sasuke's body. Corpses. Everywhere. Blood. Shadows.
The fear and disordered surprise on the dead face of his mother. His cousin and childhood friends, all drowning in pools of crimson red.
The emotionless eyes of his father, stoic even in a gruesome death.
Sasuke could only blink twice to see all of those images gone, but never being erased from his mind.
And then he remembered. All of the hate, the despair, the loneliness.. And the need of acquiring vengeance. "You.." Sasuke hissed through gritted teeth, his eyes narrowing to slits.

He let his furious gaze wonder upon the cloaked body of the man standing at a meter in front of him, biting his lower lip to the point where he tasted blood.
"Yes, me." Itachi let those words out easily, as if speaking to his younger brother after two years since their last conflict meant absolutely nothing to him. His eyes were simply dead and he held no emotion on his face, unlike Sasuke, who was beyond enraged.
"You dare show your face to me when my village is in flames?" He growled as his skin burned with hatred towards his brother.
"Which is exactly why this is the best time for me to test you. Now, that you do not only bear hatred for me, but for your village's attacker as well." The Uchiha spoke slowly, his lips barely moving. "It might just be sufficient to actually make you powerful enough."

"My hatred for you alone gave me a reason to keep fighting. It made me wake up every day, wanting to avenge my clan that you slaughtered in cold blood!" Sasuke growled as a sweatdrop rolled down his porcelain forehead. But Itachi remained unfazed. Not a single shred of emotion. Which only angered the raven more.
"Foolish little brother.." Itachi sighed, his eyelids getting heavy.
Suddenly, he opened his eyes to reveal his Mangekyou Sharingan as a chill ran along Sasuke's sides and the scenery around them changed drastically. The young Uchiha shook his head to find himself on a crimson-tiled roof, with a few giant cliffs to his right. He could say he was in a crater or a grotto, but it was more like a very steep valley.

Where am I? Sasuke looked around but there was no sign of his brother. Release! He raised two fingers, forming a hand seal. Nothing happened. If this is not a genjustu, then he must be around here somewhere. He wouldn't just get me here and then leave. He'd rather leave me in the village to get hurt. His lower lip curled in disgust as a bitter taste of bile washed over his tongue. Taking more of his time, Sasuke sneaked a peek at the surroundings some more. There was another smaller traditional building to his left and given the looks of it, no one had been living there for a long time. A glimpse of silver caught his eye. He turned his head sideways and squinted a little to see the rough wooden edges of a symbol hanged on the upper part of the smaller house's front facade.

He was already shaken but he what he came to realize next, shook his very core. The two halves of a moon, the bigger one red and the other one white with a perpendicular line flowed smoothly along the splinters of the old, dark wooden planks. Sasuke felt his stomach churn as he stood frozen in his place.
The Uchiha Clan.
The raven shuddered slightly when a cold wind swept over him, ruffling his silky hair. He knew better than to allow himself to be at ease. There must've been the Uchiha that once lived here. Why have I not known anything about this?
"This is the old Uchiha hideout." Itachi's sinister voice ringed in his ears, making him whip his head to see nothing but two lone crows, flapping their onyx wings in the thin air. He then turned around, his fists clenched and teeth painfully gritted. Itachi was facing him, his cloak now apparently gone. The black demon-wind-shuriken-like mark in his red eyes made them seem like they were glowing. And maybe they were. Sasuke's foggy mind couldn't really tell.