[0056]
[Private]
My dear brother's birthday. He is sixteen. Time flies by so quickly. The years are gone so fast. Traces of red are all that will remain to mark what once we had, and traces of red are all that will signify the beginning of what is yet to come.
It is a shame I could not tell him face to face. It is a shame my gift was laced with lies and truths so intertwined even I sometimes wonder.
I doubt he will know. He will take my words at face value. He always has.
[/Private]
[Audio Message to Sasuke]
You're sixteen now. My, how you've grown.
[Pause]
That is, of course, something quite generic to say, isn't it? So then I give to you my apologies, Sasuke, as you should suspect by now that I do not mean those words, only say them out of required custom. You are still little, and you always will be little. You are, after all, my baby brother, my otouto.
Moving along. Pleasantries aside...
I have been reflecting. We've spent many years with one another, and yet I hardly spared a moment of my time for you. Even when you required it. And still, to this day, I cannot be there for you, I cannot provide for you and support you the way an older brother should. I cannot be family. It is by blood alone that we are bound, something neither of us was given right to deny. Something we were both forced into.
Some people believe we are born a certain way. This, Sasuke, is my way, and if it inconveniences you, well, I cannot be sorry. You are an Uchiha, and you are, or will be someday, strong enough to live through the insufferable ordeals that come along with bearing such a heavy name. If you cannot be strong enough, those pressures will crush you... and you will then, little brother, be that failure you always feared being.
You will forever live out your days in my shadow.
[Pause]
You are weak presently. I say this not because of what was done to you, but say it because it is how you have been... for quite some time. Always weak... weaker than I am. Despite your strengths you are frail, with fragile mind and soul. Like glass, you break quite easily. It has never taken a hard push delivered by me to send you faltering. You... are too deluded, too lost in dreams that will never be. If you wish to surpass what I leave you with you will need to become more. You will need to steel yourself. You will need, Sasuke, to let go of the lies you have built up in your life, as well as be submerged in the truth I have kept from you for so long.
I do not believe you are capable of that. It is a lonely road, one which puts the heart and mind through many trials and tribulations. But if you venture that lonely road, perhaps someday we'll cross paths again. Somewhere. Sometime. Perhaps...
Know only this, and this truth is what I give to you on your special day...
I did not love them. I do not love you.
But you and I are forever tied, bound helplessly to one another as brothers are. The only way for you, my otouto, to stand any chance at beating me, is to hate me and all that I have become, and all that I ever will become.
Happy birthday, my dear, foolish little brother.
[Static]
OOC Note: This is but a tape that will have been placed upon Sasuke's bedroom pillow along with a note from Itachi's lawyer saying it was to be delivered upon the day of Sasuke's birthday if Itachi was incapable of doing so himself...
[/Sasuke]
My dear brother's birthday. He is sixteen. Time flies by so quickly. The years are gone so fast. Traces of red are all that will remain to mark what once we had, and traces of red are all that will signify the beginning of what is yet to come.
It is a shame I could not tell him face to face. It is a shame my gift was laced with lies and truths so intertwined even I sometimes wonder.
I doubt he will know. He will take my words at face value. He always has.
[/Private]
[Audio Message to Sasuke]
You're sixteen now. My, how you've grown.
[Pause]
That is, of course, something quite generic to say, isn't it? So then I give to you my apologies, Sasuke, as you should suspect by now that I do not mean those words, only say them out of required custom. You are still little, and you always will be little. You are, after all, my baby brother, my otouto.
Moving along. Pleasantries aside...
I have been reflecting. We've spent many years with one another, and yet I hardly spared a moment of my time for you. Even when you required it. And still, to this day, I cannot be there for you, I cannot provide for you and support you the way an older brother should. I cannot be family. It is by blood alone that we are bound, something neither of us was given right to deny. Something we were both forced into.
Some people believe we are born a certain way. This, Sasuke, is my way, and if it inconveniences you, well, I cannot be sorry. You are an Uchiha, and you are, or will be someday, strong enough to live through the insufferable ordeals that come along with bearing such a heavy name. If you cannot be strong enough, those pressures will crush you... and you will then, little brother, be that failure you always feared being.
You will forever live out your days in my shadow.
[Pause]
You are weak presently. I say this not because of what was done to you, but say it because it is how you have been... for quite some time. Always weak... weaker than I am. Despite your strengths you are frail, with fragile mind and soul. Like glass, you break quite easily. It has never taken a hard push delivered by me to send you faltering. You... are too deluded, too lost in dreams that will never be. If you wish to surpass what I leave you with you will need to become more. You will need to steel yourself. You will need, Sasuke, to let go of the lies you have built up in your life, as well as be submerged in the truth I have kept from you for so long.
I do not believe you are capable of that. It is a lonely road, one which puts the heart and mind through many trials and tribulations. But if you venture that lonely road, perhaps someday we'll cross paths again. Somewhere. Sometime. Perhaps...
Know only this, and this truth is what I give to you on your special day...
I did not love them. I do not love you.
But you and I are forever tied, bound helplessly to one another as brothers are. The only way for you, my otouto, to stand any chance at beating me, is to hate me and all that I have become, and all that I ever will become.
Happy birthday, my dear, foolish little brother.
[Static]
OOC Note: This is but a tape that will have been placed upon Sasuke's bedroom pillow along with a note from Itachi's lawyer saying it was to be delivered upon the day of Sasuke's birthday if Itachi was incapable of doing so himself...
[/Sasuke]