Greetings.

Well, this is the last chapter everyone, just thought I'd let you know. I rather liked writing it, even though it only took mea few weeks to do so. I sincerly hope you all like this last chapter, I know I love the ending, but I'm a bit afraid the time-skipping stuff is too much, like I'm rushing it. I don't know, tell me what you think, okay?

By the way, this is my one and only review-answering session. So, be honored.

Streetwise Girl: Yay! Thanks so much!

Redcloudangel: Yes, mood... and also, you're never going to know the hidden meaning! Yay! Well, actually, I'll give you a hint and you can figure it out yourself, how does that sound? Unhappy with what it sees... That line, and also the mirror bits. DIG! Also, the titles have meaning behind them too since you mentioned that in your review, try to figure it out. Use your brain my friend... Giggle...

Arashisama: And in honor of your mistake-pointing-out, I have gone back and fixed that. Itachi is now thirteen. Thanks ever so much!

ANIMEFREAKXXX: Thanks! Love you!

Mr Dirk: I am honored.

Skogstroll: Hehehe... then I suppose it's a good thing you didn't get the hidden meaning...

This is a story.

Love it.

Embrace it.

Review it.

This is after Itachi slaughtered the entire Uchiha clan… with the exception of Sasuke.

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Chapter Four: Sunlight

Itachi was visiting Konoha. He waited outside the city for Kisame, who had gone in on his own, and sat on the ground to stare out at the buildings.

He had heard a few stories about Sasuke over the past few years, ever since he'd left Konoha, mostly about how he had sworn to kill his older brother. Itachi. Just the day before Itachi had watched him practice, and he had to admit, his younger brother had gotten stronger. But still not strong enough. Not as strong as he would have tobe.

He sat on a cliff overlooking the city, opposite the carved faces of past Hokages, and he could see everything. He could see the school he'd attended, just as Sasuke did after him. He could see the Hokage's office where he had received so many missions… but he couldn't find his old home. Perhaps it was hidden among all the other buildings, or maybe it was because he didn't want to see it. Sasuke still lived there however, Itachi knew because he had followed him home the day before. Why, he didn't entirely know.

He sat in silence, the breeze tossing his hair playfully, and he reached up every so often to brush it out of his face. After awhile he heard distant footsteps coming up toward the cliff, and he waited.

Itachi knew he was there before he saw him. His younger brother had never been completely silent when he came to Itachi's room years ago, even when he was trying to be, and nothing had changed, even when Sasuke wanted to kill him instead of ask if he could sleep with him. To chase away the nightmares and the shadows.

He didn't move.

It would have been so easy to get up and kill him, but whether it was because he simply didn't feel like moving, or some deeper reason, he didn't. He didn't hear Sasuke for a few moments, then the cold steel of a kunai was pressed to either side of his neck.

"You've gotten better," Itachi acknowledged. Sasuke was right behind him.

"I guess I have, to be able to sneak up on you."

"Hm…" Itachi closed his eyes as he spoke. He seemed completely at ease despite the kunai pressing into his skin, and Sasuke pressed them in harder, angered by Itachi's total lack of response.

"You're completely at my mercy," Sasuke informed him harshly. "Aren't you going to beg for your life?"

A smile twitched Itachi's lips. Oh Sasuke… "Foolish little brother, you don't quite understand."

Blood-red eyes blinked.

"You may have a kunai to my throat, but that doesn't mean you've beaten me by any means. I heard you coming, it would have been all too easy to avoid…" he paused slightly, "or kill you."

"So why didn't you?" Sasuke demanded. "If it was so easy, why didn't you kill me?"

Itachi was silent for a long moment.

"Well?" Glaring crimson eyes bore into the back of Itachi's head.

"That's for me to know," Itachi said at last, and he could practically feel Sasuke's anger, his frustration.

Sasuke didn't reply, and there was silence. After a few moments however, his eyes happened to alight on the corner of a folded paper sticking out of Itachi's pocket.

"What's that?" Sasuke asked. Itachi didn't respond, though his eyes opened to reveal themselves coal black.

Sasuke snagged it with one hand, keeping the other kunai at Itachi's neck, just in case. He wouldn't put it past his older brother to whip out his katana and kill him right there.

The paper looked quite old, and the writing on it was faded, as it was done in crayon. The scrawled script of a child. Sasuke stared at the paper for well over a minute, and at last the kunai dropped from Itachi's neck. His eyes faded from blood-red to night-black as he read, reread, and read again, as if not quite believing what he was reading.

"Why did you keep this?" he asked quietly. He remembered. Itachi stood slowly, and the action caused Sasuke to grip his kunai tighter, but Itachi made no move to attack him. He didn't answer.

"Explain," Sasuke ordered, tossing the folded paper at his brother. It fluttered to the ground a few inches before Itachi's feet, and beneath one folded piece, he read the crayoned words written in scrawled child's script.

I love you Nii-san

Sasuke

He was silent for a long moment, fully aware of Sasuke's eyes boring into him.

"Why did you keep it?" Sasuke asked, and beneath the cold demanding, the burning hatred that Itachi himself had cultivated, he heard a note of sadness. Carefully concealed yes, but it was there. "You told me... there's no use holding on when things change. No point in chasing shadows of things that can never be. So why did you keep it?"

Itachi knelt and picked it up, folding it carefully and returning it to his pocket.

"Because some things, my foolish little brother, are worth holding on to…"

Sasuke let him walk away without a word.

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The End.

Because without that, you wouldn't know it was the end. : ) The endings of pretty much all my chapters have been rather ambiguous, so now, I bequenth to you, my dear beloved reader, the information that this is in fact, the end. Farewell and Review!