[Naruto] Strong Enough
Title: Strong Enough
Author: runespoor7
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: NaruSasuSaku pretending to be gen, ItaSasu somehow.
Summary: In the end, there's indeed a fist punching through Itachi's chest.
Notes: This is how Itachi died in Celebrationverse. Also, happy birthday, Sasuke. ^_^
In the end, there's indeed a fist punching through Itachi's chest - through his heart - and Sasuke can barely believe what he sees, can barely believe the blood splashing everywhere he looks, everything soaked red, red like the Mangekyou flickering in Itachi's eyes, red like his blood, so, so much blood, Itachi's blood, Itachi can bleed, Itachi can die.
Itachi is dying at Sasuke's feet, and Itachi is smiling up at him, and Sasuke's hands clutch on the red-black-soaked Akatsuki cloak - why are his hands clutching, Itachi' face is suddenly closer - why has he dropped to his knees, why has he taken Itachi in his arms - Itachi is smiling.
There's a sated, peaceful look on Itachi's face and it takes Sasuke less than a second - a heart-wrenching moment of fucking hope - to realise that, as always, Itachi isn't looking at him - he's looking through him, above him, and Itachi's looking sated and peaceful and exactly like he used to be before he decided to smash the pedestal Sasuke had put him on and he's not seeing Sasuke.
For an awful moment Sasuke almost thinks that he was too late again and that Kisame's prophecy went true (going blind), that the warning advice prayer wish Itachi's dying partner bestowed upon him (perhaps if you hurry you'll be able to get him before he's entirely blind; I don't think he'd like that) was wasted - Sasuke's never been worth it - but then he remembers that Itachi is dying and Sasuke's seen these glassy eyes on everyone he's ever seen dying, on everyone he's ever seen killed.
Itachi blinks and his eyes settle on the Sharingan, and his smile becomes affectionate and ever-so-slightly mocking. That's when Sasuke realises his own mouth is working as if trying to shape words, except he doesn't have anything to say, does he?
Itachi is going to speak, Sasuke realises, and he tries to prop his brother so that he'll have less efforts to make, embracing him and pulling him against his chest. It's almost easy, and Sasuke is startled to realise that it's because he's taller than Itachi now.
"Foolish little brother," Itachi breathes. A ragged sob escapes from nowhere. Itachi's throat swallows; Sasuke bends a little forward, attentively listening.
Itachi opens his mouth, and it's Sasuke's breath that hitches.
"Shut up," Sakura's voice icily interrupts.
Nonplussed, Sasuke looks up.
He'd forgotten, but Sakura's standing there, towering over them.
If he were to look to the side, a few meters away, he'd see Naruto's shape sprawled (broken) on the ground, his breathing irregular - unless Sakura already tended to that, but Naruto won't die; Sakura was securing the seal, making sure the Kyuubi wouldn't leak out of his vessel just now, when Sasuke took his brother head on.
A chuckle leaves Itachi's lips before turning into a cough. Itachi's body twists and jerks in Sasuke's arms, and Sasuke's terrified.
"Sakura," he pleads. He blinks away the blur surrounding his teammate's shape, changing her into an undefined haze of pinks and reds, and something warm slides on his cheeks. Itachi's blood. Then another sob wrecks him, and he realises he's crying. This time he recoils.
Sakura sends him a look Sasuke can't possibly decipher - he's never been able to read her, only once or twice when they were kids and certainly never since she started training with Tsunade, though he knows better than to conclude it's Tsunade's influence; it's Sakura, and in a way it explains everything, like 'it's Itachi' or 'it's Naruto', maybe more so, because Itachi was also niisan and that man, and Naruto was dead-last, but Sakura was just Sakura.
"Sakura," he repeats.
(Please… I love you so much…)
(I'll help you fulfil your revenge…)
(I'll find a way to be helpful to you, any way!)
Itachi shakes. Sasuke tries to stabilize him - make him more comfortable - it's stupid to wonder where is he hurting because there's a huge gaping hole in his chest and for a moment Sasuke feels the pain as keenly as if it were his own, which makes sense because Itachi doesn't seem to be feeling it more than as an hindrance.
He watches, confused, Itachi moving his head from the left to the right, and he almost frowns - but it's only habit - when his hands are feebly batted away. He removes them at once though he itches to take care of it in spite of Itachi's apparent wishes.
His eyes widen when he realises Itachi is softly laughing.
He doesn't really want to whimper in protest. His mouth whimpers anyway.
A kunai pulled out of nowhere suddenly presses against Itachi's throat and Sasuke can only thank instincts honed since he was old enough to stand - old enough to look up to his brother - that he doesn't jerk in surprise. He eyes Sakura with something akin to horror.
This is Itachi - people don't threaten Itachi. And, from somewhere even deeper, stronger than anything Itachi wanted him to become - this is niisan.
"It would seem my… foolish… little brother wants to hear," Itachi forces between raspy breaths. He still manages to sound mild. "Won't you let him-"
This time he falls silent because the kunai pierces the side of his throat. It's no teasing cut, less a warning than the first part of a sentence.
"I didn't tell you to start talking," Sakura informs him. She steadily pulls the kunai out with a squelching noise, filtering her chakra to heal the wound. Itachi grimaces.
Sakura puts the kunai away in her pouch.
"S-sakura," Sasuke is begging. "Please d-don't-" he's almost suffocating.
A tear falls on Itachi's face. Sasuke cringes and tries to stifle his sobs at the same time, something like mortification rising in him, and also something like clumsiness, because how can he tell his brother he didn't mean to?
"He wants to hear," Itachi says again, softly (in a voice less precise than usual), as if he's trying to persuade Sakura into his way of thinking, and Sasuke almost wants to tell him that it's useless, because nothing and no-one can ever change Sakura's mind about anything on this earth except Naruto when he's sweet-talking her, and even then, not every time.
He doesn't, because after all this is Itachi and Sasuke respects him enough to allow himself to believe that if anyone not-Naruto can achieve such a feat, it's going to be him.
"I don't care about what he wants."
Sasuke sinks a little, unconsciously cradling Itachi closer to him.
"Tell him what he needs to hear."
Itachi's gaze focuses again, the commas of the Sharingan sharpening in his eyes. "Whatever for?" he mutters.
"What else did you live for?" Sakura asks simply.
Itachi smirks at her.
Sakura doesn't react.
Sasuke is amazed when his brother's eyes turn toward him - when Itachi is looking at him - and what the fuck, why is he blushing like when he was a kid, with embarrassment and pride and awkwardness rolled all in one.
He's babbling before he has the time to think, words tumbling out of his mouth with urgency.
"I'm sorry - I'm sorry I couldn't - I'll do better next time you'll see - next time-"
"Sasuke," Itachi says, and Sasuke startles, this is the first time in almost ten years his brother says his name, "there will be no next time."
No, Sasuke wants to yell scream cry, no, just one more chance, please, but Itachi hasn't finished talking. There's blood on his teeth, Sasuke dazedly notices.
Itachi's lips stretch.
Sasuke is seven years old and his brother is smiling at him.
Then the only words Sasuke didn't want to hear from his brother - or was it the only words Sasuke ever wanted from his brother - or was it from his brother he wanted to hear them? - leave Itachi's lips.
"You've grown strong."
Sasuke is silent, breathless, for a moment.
"Niisan!"
Sasuke is huddled around his brother's body.
It doesn't take very long for the Sharingan to still and for Sakura to stand up again and go to Naruto's side. Logically, Sasuke knows this means Itachi is dead, but he's still gripping his brother's cloak and breathing into his brother's smell and rocking with a soothing rhythm, and he may be whispering into his brother's ear things that he will never remember as Sakura is examining the damage done to Naruto's seal.
The damage done to Naruto's seal when the idiot took the Mangekyou full on because Sasuke had raised to his brother's bait in spite of everything and the fucking idiotic dead-last had leaped in front of him as if his body had acted of its own - stupid stupid stupid stupid - and Sasuke had charged in because Naruto should never be under the Mangekyou.
Sakura had rushed to Naruto's side and Sasuke would have been thankful - this was how things should be, this was how he'd imagined it - except that Naruto and Mangekyou fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck and then he'd understood Itachi had taken the opportunity of subjective time to fuck with Naruto's seal.
So Sakura was taking care of Naruto and his seal - Haruno Sakura greatest seal expert alive, he had to kill Itachi so he'd be there when she'd make it because fuck his seal was the first serious seal she'd studied - tinkered with - mended - whatever - and he'd be damned if he missed that - did that mean he was going to have to live?
So Sakura was doing that and he was fighting Itachi.
And not winning.
(Sometime later Sakura comes and puts him out like a light with the same flick of her fingers he used when he left Konoha, but it's still Sasuke who utters words of thanks.)
It was the coda Sasuke had been aiming for since the moment Itachi had told him, hate me and be strong.
Except for them.
In the beginning Sasuke wanted to defeat his brother alone, and he twisted this definition again and again beyond all recognition until 'alone' came to mean 'without Naruto and Sakura' - which, after all, was only synonymous.
The reason he had to fight alone - 'without Naruto and Sakura' - was because they were weak.
They'd weaken him, because he'd have to worry about protecting them and staying alive instead of putting Itachi down at any cost (his own life).
Thus he wasn't surprised - and, in fact, almost vindicated in a gloating, blind-with-rage sort of way - when he realised he was losing, exactly like he'd always predicted would happen if the idiot and Sakura went with him.
Then Sakura - future greatest seal expert ever Haruno Sakura, remember? - was done with the temporary fixing of the dead-last's seal and stood up, and left Naruto, and joined the fight, and that was when Sasuke's ending stopped happening.
In the end there's indeed a fist punching through Itachi's chest, except it's Sakura's.
Sasuke feels a little guilty that he doesn't feel like he's lost after all, but only a little.
(You've grown strong.)
Author: runespoor7
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: NaruSasuSaku pretending to be gen, ItaSasu somehow.
Summary: In the end, there's indeed a fist punching through Itachi's chest.
Notes: This is how Itachi died in Celebrationverse. Also, happy birthday, Sasuke. ^_^
In the end, there's indeed a fist punching through Itachi's chest - through his heart - and Sasuke can barely believe what he sees, can barely believe the blood splashing everywhere he looks, everything soaked red, red like the Mangekyou flickering in Itachi's eyes, red like his blood, so, so much blood, Itachi's blood, Itachi can bleed, Itachi can die.
Itachi is dying at Sasuke's feet, and Itachi is smiling up at him, and Sasuke's hands clutch on the red-black-soaked Akatsuki cloak - why are his hands clutching, Itachi' face is suddenly closer - why has he dropped to his knees, why has he taken Itachi in his arms - Itachi is smiling.
There's a sated, peaceful look on Itachi's face and it takes Sasuke less than a second - a heart-wrenching moment of fucking hope - to realise that, as always, Itachi isn't looking at him - he's looking through him, above him, and Itachi's looking sated and peaceful and exactly like he used to be before he decided to smash the pedestal Sasuke had put him on and he's not seeing Sasuke.
For an awful moment Sasuke almost thinks that he was too late again and that Kisame's prophecy went true (going blind), that the warning advice prayer wish Itachi's dying partner bestowed upon him (perhaps if you hurry you'll be able to get him before he's entirely blind; I don't think he'd like that) was wasted - Sasuke's never been worth it - but then he remembers that Itachi is dying and Sasuke's seen these glassy eyes on everyone he's ever seen dying, on everyone he's ever seen killed.
Itachi blinks and his eyes settle on the Sharingan, and his smile becomes affectionate and ever-so-slightly mocking. That's when Sasuke realises his own mouth is working as if trying to shape words, except he doesn't have anything to say, does he?
Itachi is going to speak, Sasuke realises, and he tries to prop his brother so that he'll have less efforts to make, embracing him and pulling him against his chest. It's almost easy, and Sasuke is startled to realise that it's because he's taller than Itachi now.
"Foolish little brother," Itachi breathes. A ragged sob escapes from nowhere. Itachi's throat swallows; Sasuke bends a little forward, attentively listening.
Itachi opens his mouth, and it's Sasuke's breath that hitches.
"Shut up," Sakura's voice icily interrupts.
Nonplussed, Sasuke looks up.
He'd forgotten, but Sakura's standing there, towering over them.
If he were to look to the side, a few meters away, he'd see Naruto's shape sprawled (broken) on the ground, his breathing irregular - unless Sakura already tended to that, but Naruto won't die; Sakura was securing the seal, making sure the Kyuubi wouldn't leak out of his vessel just now, when Sasuke took his brother head on.
A chuckle leaves Itachi's lips before turning into a cough. Itachi's body twists and jerks in Sasuke's arms, and Sasuke's terrified.
"Sakura," he pleads. He blinks away the blur surrounding his teammate's shape, changing her into an undefined haze of pinks and reds, and something warm slides on his cheeks. Itachi's blood. Then another sob wrecks him, and he realises he's crying. This time he recoils.
Sakura sends him a look Sasuke can't possibly decipher - he's never been able to read her, only once or twice when they were kids and certainly never since she started training with Tsunade, though he knows better than to conclude it's Tsunade's influence; it's Sakura, and in a way it explains everything, like 'it's Itachi' or 'it's Naruto', maybe more so, because Itachi was also niisan and that man, and Naruto was dead-last, but Sakura was just Sakura.
"Sakura," he repeats.
(Please… I love you so much…)
(I'll help you fulfil your revenge…)
(I'll find a way to be helpful to you, any way!)
Itachi shakes. Sasuke tries to stabilize him - make him more comfortable - it's stupid to wonder where is he hurting because there's a huge gaping hole in his chest and for a moment Sasuke feels the pain as keenly as if it were his own, which makes sense because Itachi doesn't seem to be feeling it more than as an hindrance.
He watches, confused, Itachi moving his head from the left to the right, and he almost frowns - but it's only habit - when his hands are feebly batted away. He removes them at once though he itches to take care of it in spite of Itachi's apparent wishes.
His eyes widen when he realises Itachi is softly laughing.
He doesn't really want to whimper in protest. His mouth whimpers anyway.
A kunai pulled out of nowhere suddenly presses against Itachi's throat and Sasuke can only thank instincts honed since he was old enough to stand - old enough to look up to his brother - that he doesn't jerk in surprise. He eyes Sakura with something akin to horror.
This is Itachi - people don't threaten Itachi. And, from somewhere even deeper, stronger than anything Itachi wanted him to become - this is niisan.
"It would seem my… foolish… little brother wants to hear," Itachi forces between raspy breaths. He still manages to sound mild. "Won't you let him-"
This time he falls silent because the kunai pierces the side of his throat. It's no teasing cut, less a warning than the first part of a sentence.
"I didn't tell you to start talking," Sakura informs him. She steadily pulls the kunai out with a squelching noise, filtering her chakra to heal the wound. Itachi grimaces.
Sakura puts the kunai away in her pouch.
"S-sakura," Sasuke is begging. "Please d-don't-" he's almost suffocating.
A tear falls on Itachi's face. Sasuke cringes and tries to stifle his sobs at the same time, something like mortification rising in him, and also something like clumsiness, because how can he tell his brother he didn't mean to?
"He wants to hear," Itachi says again, softly (in a voice less precise than usual), as if he's trying to persuade Sakura into his way of thinking, and Sasuke almost wants to tell him that it's useless, because nothing and no-one can ever change Sakura's mind about anything on this earth except Naruto when he's sweet-talking her, and even then, not every time.
He doesn't, because after all this is Itachi and Sasuke respects him enough to allow himself to believe that if anyone not-Naruto can achieve such a feat, it's going to be him.
"I don't care about what he wants."
Sasuke sinks a little, unconsciously cradling Itachi closer to him.
"Tell him what he needs to hear."
Itachi's gaze focuses again, the commas of the Sharingan sharpening in his eyes. "Whatever for?" he mutters.
"What else did you live for?" Sakura asks simply.
Itachi smirks at her.
Sakura doesn't react.
Sasuke is amazed when his brother's eyes turn toward him - when Itachi is looking at him - and what the fuck, why is he blushing like when he was a kid, with embarrassment and pride and awkwardness rolled all in one.
He's babbling before he has the time to think, words tumbling out of his mouth with urgency.
"I'm sorry - I'm sorry I couldn't - I'll do better next time you'll see - next time-"
"Sasuke," Itachi says, and Sasuke startles, this is the first time in almost ten years his brother says his name, "there will be no next time."
No, Sasuke wants to yell scream cry, no, just one more chance, please, but Itachi hasn't finished talking. There's blood on his teeth, Sasuke dazedly notices.
Itachi's lips stretch.
Sasuke is seven years old and his brother is smiling at him.
Then the only words Sasuke didn't want to hear from his brother - or was it the only words Sasuke ever wanted from his brother - or was it from his brother he wanted to hear them? - leave Itachi's lips.
"You've grown strong."
Sasuke is silent, breathless, for a moment.
"Niisan!"
Sasuke is huddled around his brother's body.
It doesn't take very long for the Sharingan to still and for Sakura to stand up again and go to Naruto's side. Logically, Sasuke knows this means Itachi is dead, but he's still gripping his brother's cloak and breathing into his brother's smell and rocking with a soothing rhythm, and he may be whispering into his brother's ear things that he will never remember as Sakura is examining the damage done to Naruto's seal.
The damage done to Naruto's seal when the idiot took the Mangekyou full on because Sasuke had raised to his brother's bait in spite of everything and the fucking idiotic dead-last had leaped in front of him as if his body had acted of its own - stupid stupid stupid stupid - and Sasuke had charged in because Naruto should never be under the Mangekyou.
Sakura had rushed to Naruto's side and Sasuke would have been thankful - this was how things should be, this was how he'd imagined it - except that Naruto and Mangekyou fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck and then he'd understood Itachi had taken the opportunity of subjective time to fuck with Naruto's seal.
So Sakura was taking care of Naruto and his seal - Haruno Sakura greatest seal expert alive, he had to kill Itachi so he'd be there when she'd make it because fuck his seal was the first serious seal she'd studied - tinkered with - mended - whatever - and he'd be damned if he missed that - did that mean he was going to have to live?
So Sakura was doing that and he was fighting Itachi.
And not winning.
(Sometime later Sakura comes and puts him out like a light with the same flick of her fingers he used when he left Konoha, but it's still Sasuke who utters words of thanks.)
It was the coda Sasuke had been aiming for since the moment Itachi had told him, hate me and be strong.
Except for them.
In the beginning Sasuke wanted to defeat his brother alone, and he twisted this definition again and again beyond all recognition until 'alone' came to mean 'without Naruto and Sakura' - which, after all, was only synonymous.
The reason he had to fight alone - 'without Naruto and Sakura' - was because they were weak.
They'd weaken him, because he'd have to worry about protecting them and staying alive instead of putting Itachi down at any cost (his own life).
Thus he wasn't surprised - and, in fact, almost vindicated in a gloating, blind-with-rage sort of way - when he realised he was losing, exactly like he'd always predicted would happen if the idiot and Sakura went with him.
Then Sakura - future greatest seal expert ever Haruno Sakura, remember? - was done with the temporary fixing of the dead-last's seal and stood up, and left Naruto, and joined the fight, and that was when Sasuke's ending stopped happening.
In the end there's indeed a fist punching through Itachi's chest, except it's Sakura's.
Sasuke feels a little guilty that he doesn't feel like he's lost after all, but only a little.
(You've grown strong.)