&. [ S I X T Y S E C O N D S to I G N I T I O N ] - .mini-essay [uchihacest]

As small children, their relationship was that of innocence.

Sasuke loved Itachi, admired his older brother in the most angelic way. And Itachi undoubtedly returned that love, even though as seasons went by, the time he could sacrifice grew less and less. Always "forgive me, Sasuke – maybe next time," and a gentle poke to the forehead.

Sasuke didn't mind, as long as they could be together sometimes.

Yet on that fateful night when the streets became slick with blood, everything changed.

Their bond was dyed a crimson red when Itachi complied with those dreadful orders for a greater good, when he made the decision to shut the book on the Uchiha by his own hand.

But perfection made a mistake, and that mistake was keeping his baby brother alive. Itachi could kill his mother, father, friends, even his lover - but that small bundle of warmth, the little boy who used to hug him around the waist when he returned home, looking up at him with an unsullied adoration was spared.

He made sure Sasuke would be safe, be protected as he left Konoha. He warned the nobles that if a sinister touch would ever befall his little brother, he would leak everything he knew to neighboring countries, and the same village he vowed to protect would fall.

It was all for Sasuke (but Sasuke would never learn the truth).

Despite this, Itachi should have known better than anyone that the day he turned his blade against his own kin would be the last day Sasuke ever loved him.

And so in that alleyway, Itachi told Sasuke to hate him, to despise him - to run, run, live in an unsightly way, and to one day come before him with the same eyes as he. He told Sasuke that the brother he had always known was nothing more than a lie, and Sasuke believed every word of it.

There are two things that make one strong in this world, and those two things are love and hate. And if Itachi could not have Sasuke's love, then he would settle for revulsion, for loathing. He would make Sasuke strong; make sure they continue to exist together, even if the boy hated him.

That is what a big brother is for, after all, and Itachi had said this.

In years following, Sasuke did just had Itachi had intended: hated him with the same passion as he once loved him, becoming no more than a single-minded avenger (an avenger of Itachi's own creation) – one that would gain the power to kill his brother, vindicating his lost family and exacting justice upon the demon that he believed Itachi had grown to be.

He left Konoha, everyone he ever knew to train under a traitor of the leaf. He would become powerful; he would become strong, whether it would mean sacrificing every friendship that he had ever forged or sacrificing his own body for the cause.

And Itachi would continue to hurt him, add fuel to that blinding fire.

Because no one can hurt you more than the one you used to trust, that body being smashed by the same gentle hands that used to embrace it.

And in the same years, Itachi remained in Akatsuki, an illness slowly draining his life away. But he would continue to live, to prolong his life, praying for that one day when his beloved baby brother would spill his blood, ending his existence and granting him the release of death. And in return Sasuke would gain a new power, inheriting the Uchiha name and bring about a new future for their clan, and Itachi would be content with this.

Sasuke existed for Itachi, just as Itachi existed for him (but Sasuke would never know).

When their showdown at the Uchiha compound finally came, Itachi was prepared.

Prepared to push his own flesh and blood to the edge for the final farewell, make him fight with the truest hatred. Prepared to die and in his last moments surrender himself, his remaining ability into Sasuke, an eternal protection and contribution of love burned into his little brother.

Prepared to take this secret to his grave with not but one last bittersweet childhood notion.

“Forgive me, Sasuke… there won’t be a next time.”

And there the Uchiha brothers lay in the end, forever intertwined by a sick twist of fate that kept them so close, yet so far away. Only one could survive to see the light of tomorrow, but the dead rest peacefully.

Uchiha Itachi died a traitor, a murderer, and a monster – yet by the same ironic standards a savior and a lover, an illusionist who remained but an illusion himself. Not but few would ever know who such a mangled beauty truly was, a mystery that would be buried in the sands of time.

Sasuke would move on, not realizing the truth until it was too late.

And Itachi himself would not have had it any other way.