Second Chance Of Redemption

Chapter 6

Sasuke wasn't blind this time to the increasingly suspicious activity that took place within and around his home as time passed. Itachi grew more and more withdrawn, Sasuke becoming less and less able to goad him into those little impromptu training sessions.

Just from watching his bother train, react to his childish challenges, Sasuke saw and learnt a lot, realising just why Itachi was called a genius and he hadn't been. His brother was incredible and he wondered in what reality he'd ever thought he was ever capable of coming close to matching that perfection.

That fight with his brother, the one where he'd killed him . . . that had been a joke.

Sasuke could see the fate of the Uchiha clan playing out in front of him and the more he saw the more he realised that it was impossible for him to stop. There was nothing he could do to change it, unless he revealed truths that did not need revealing . . . no, not even then.

All he could do was watch sadly as his brother lost himself to the duty he'd placed upon his own shoulders, silently supporting his brother in any way that he could. He would be the younger brother this time that he had failed so miserably to be last time.

"Aniki, do you think father will come to the ceremony tomorrow?" Sasuke asked quietly, staring out at the garden. Usually, this question would be followed by a request to train but he hadn't asked that of his brother since the night he had had that 'nightmare'.

As it was, this time the first time around, his brother had been carrying him home after he'd sprained an ankle trying to mimic something he'd seen his brother do. Those targets had always fascinated him, but now that he knew the trick behind it, he wasn't really all that impressed anymore. He had followed Itachi again today, watching him as he practised. This time he didn't reveal his presence, this time he noticed that Itachi was distracted, going through the motions and not really practising something he had long since figured out. This time, he didn't ask his brother about the Uchiha Police force crest.

This time he was waiting at home for his brother to return so that he could ask the question he already knew the answer to.

The thirteen year old Uchiha looked down at the boy he had merely planned on passing, his thoughts on his father who had confronted him at the gate about being late, but stopped instead. He had sensed his younger brother's presence, lingering in the training ground to see if he would say anything, come out of his hiding spot, but the boy did not. Content to merely watch him practise with that same adoration in his eyes, only this time there was something deeper there, something Itachi couldn't quite put a finger on.

Itachi was now on his way to his father's meeting room, not at all concerned that this little impromptu conversation with Sasuke was further delaying him from something he was already late for. This meeting was about a mission that Itachi wasn't planning on going on. For some reason, he suspected Sasuke knew all of this already.

"Probably not." Itachi finally answered, having come to the conclusion some time ago that Sasuke did not like being lied to and almost always knew when he was, no matter who was doing the lying. He would frown before stating the exact opposite of what had been said to him, almost always the exact truth of the matter. But he never did that to anyone but Itachi.

"Will you come?" Sasuke already knew the answer.

"I would really want to, but I have a mission." Itachi answered.