Synthetic Darkness
By: Ruriko L. Minamino

Author's Notes:
This is my first-ever published Naruto fanfiction. I hope I got everyone in character. As far as my knowledge goes, I'm being accurate. If there's something wrong, just tell me, okay? By the way, I'm more advanced in the manga than in the anime series itself, so I'll make this clear right now: All events/information in this story are based off the Naruto manga, not the anime series. I don't take the fillers into account, okay?

Disclaimer:
I do not own the Naruto series. Kishimoto, annoyingly thoughtless flop that he turned out to be, has that privilege, unfortunately.

Warnings:
This will eventually turn into incest. If you are against such pairings, click the Back button right now! There, you have been warned. If you choose to read, don't flame if you get sick later on.

Dedication:
This story is dedicated to Gwen and Laci, the two people who actually made this story more than a passing fancy. If it wasn't for your prodding, you two, I would never have put my insanity to the test and come up with this! Love you both! Long live the Uchihacest! LOL!

Prologue: Seed of Corruption

An intruder.

There was an intruder in his room. He could sense that there was someone who should not have been in his chamber. His parents had stopped checking on him in the middle of the night when he'd turned eight. His little brother was, he could sense, soundly asleep in his own room across the hall. There were no servants or guests in Uchiha Manor that night. It had to be an intruder.

Uchiha Itachi lay very still on his bed. He did as he had been taught. His forced his face to remain expressionless, feigning relaxation. The young boy sensed no pressing danger just yet, so he decided to wait for his nighttime visitor to make the first move. It was unbearable, the need to pretend he was blissfully slumbering. At ten years old, the chuunin had yet to grow out of the childish incapability to stay still in any one position for long. He turned on his side as casually as he could, but dared not open his eyes, lest he provoke an attack.

Outside, the crickets chirped and the wind rustled in the leaves of the trees. Itachi vaguely wondered if he had left his window open before going to bed. If that was the case, then he really had been inviting trouble. Though, it was unusual for him to be so careless.

"I know that you are awake, Itachi-kun."

The speaker's voice had a silky, almost enticing quality to it. But at the same time, it made the hairs on the back of Itachi's neck stand on end. There was a soft rustling movement to the left of the bed. In a flash, the young Uchiha pulled out the kunai from under his pillow and pointed it at the shadowy figure.

"Impressive," the unwelcome visitor hissed. Itachi was barely able to conceal his surprise at finding a long, saliva-coated tongue slowly winding its way down the blade and around his arm. "Just as expected from the pride of the Uchiha Clan."

"Who are you?" Itachi asked bluntly. Even at such a young age, his voice was already as cold as ice. His fully-developed Sharingan glowed crimson in the darkness. The feeling of the warm, wet tongue sliding up and down the boy's arm was revolting. Itachi steeled himself well and fought down the urge to drop his kunai and retch on the bed sheets. Instead, he quickly adjusted his grip and pressed it threateningly into the slimy muscle. "Put your tongue back where it belongs or I will cut it off and hand it to you myself."

"Such an acid tongue for one so beautiful and young," came the hissed reply as the intruder came closer, his tongue slithering back to its rightful place. He stepped into the puddle of moonlight just at the foot of Itachi's bed. Reptilian yellow eyes gazed down upon the young boy beneath a kasa hat. The man – if it was indeed a man, and not a demon in disguise – wore a knee-length black cloak decorated with red clouds. What skin could be seen was as pale as the moon itself. "Your eyes are truly magnificent."

"Are you here to try to steal them, then?" Itachi asked challengingly. The Uchihas were not as paranoid as the Hyuugas, with their two-branched family and accursed brandings, but they did guard the secret of their bloodline limit jealously. He was tired. He'd already had one late night visitor – one he had actually expected – and he did not want another. Not now. And certainly not such an irritating and aggressive one. "I assume you already know – I won't make it easy for you."

"Are you admitting weakness, Itachi-kun?" the snake-like man practically purred. "Do you mean to say that you're certain I will manage to overpower you in the end?"

The Uchiha barely kept his eyes from betraying his annoyance. "Who are you? And how do you know me?"

The strange man took off his hat and pulled back the top portion of his cloak. Without the covering, he looked more like a snake than ever. And his identity became painfully obvious. Even Itachi, younger by two generations, knew of him.

"The snake sannin Orochimaru…"

"It's good to know that I have not been forgotten by the Leaf." He came closer. "And as for yourself – who has not heard of the pride of the Uchiha Clan, the prodigy Itachi?"

The boy ninja felt waves of anger well up inside him as his unofficial title was mentioned. He hated being called a prodigy, or the pride of his clan, for that matter. His abilities were his own, and it was his choice that he used those skills for the good of the whole village. What his clan name was had no great bearing on his choices. He glared icily at the older shinobi. "To what do I owe the honor of your visit?" Itachi asked, allowing the sarcasm to drip from his words as he strategically placed his kunai on the sheets and slipped off the bed. His visitor was no ordinary shinobi, and one who would not hesitate to kill him at that, but Itachi was not without cleverness. He would not have been visited by the Leaf traitor for no reason.

Orochimaru chuckled, eying the young Uchiha up and down in admiration. "A true shinobi masterpiece…" He licked his lips and smirked at the poker-faced boy. "I just came to see you for myself to judge if the rumors were true."

"You lie," Itachi responded bluntly. He was tired, and the sannin's gaze was making him – though he would never admit it – extremely uncomfortable.

"So quick-minded, too," was the good-natured observation. Orochimaru pulled out the chair from Itachi's study table and made himself comfortable. "I came to ask you a question."

"What kind of question?"

The sannin chuckled darkly. "Such an impatient little shinobi, but then, you are still just a boy."

Itachi was getting more annoyed by the moment. He had never been a patient child. It was lucky that he was still somewhat sleepy, or kunai would fly. "Just say what you want to say so I can get back to sleep. I have training in the morning."

"With your little brother, I assume?" It was a rare thing to catch Itachi unaware, but somehow, Orochimaru had managed the feat. He laughed again. "Yesss… I know of him as well. Uchiha Sasuke, the second, less-recognized marvel of your clan. How proud your father must be, having two geniuses for sons."

"Shut up," Itachi said stiffly, mind racing. 'How can he know my sore points so easily?' Itachi respected his father as any good son should, but he was repulsed by the lack of regard the man had for his younger son. It was obvious, to the chuunin's eyes, that Uchiha Fugaku cared but little for the five-year-old toddler. It was always Itachi who would try to bring attention to his brother's achievements. He already had an inkling that when Sasuke attended the Academy next year, the proud head of the Uchiha clan would make an excuse not to attend the opening ceremony – and use Itachi as that excuse, most likely. The brothers' mother, Uchiha Mikoto, was no different, and Itachi despaired inside when he thought of her. She was a good mother, good at managing the household affairs and playing role of the generous hostess, but the difference in the way she treated the two children of her womb was painfully obvious to her elder son: her concern for her little boy was only skin-deep. As for Itachi himself, his little brother was the one member of the clan he loved above all. Sasuke was the light in his increasingly depressing existence.

"I seem to have touched a nerve," Orochimaru noted almost flippantly. He waved his hand as if to dismiss the anger subtly flickering in the chuunin's crimson eyes. "If you hate your clan so much, why don't you get rid of them all?"

"I have my reasons." Itachi was in no mood to elaborate.

The sannin smirked even wider. "Is it because your hatred isn't strong enough yet? Or because you simply have no will?" When Itachi only glared harder, he continued. "Are you willing to become a mere puppet in a power play you yourself have no wish to be a part of? You are young, but I'm sure your extraordinary talents have helped you to understand your father's motives."

The chuunin refused to show the true extent of his rage. What the sannin said, he already knew; he'd already had this conversation – albeit with a less poison-tipped tone. His clan was nothing more than a hive of mindless drones. Everything they did was for the glory of the Uchiha family, for the glory of the Uchiha Clan. They lost all sense of self in the endless pursuit of glory for a name that bound them forever to their places in the small world in which they lived – the ultimate weakness. He cared for his parents and his relatives as persons, but what they represented, what they would have him represent as well, he knew he could never fully condone. "If you're referring to Father's attempts to use me to gain more influence with the Hokage, I do know of that."

"And you will allow it?"

"Why do you care?" Itachi asked. His patience was starting to wear thin, and the truth was, he really didn't know how he was going to escape his clan's scheming ways. How could he? He was barely a teenager, and had only just passed the Chuunin Exams three months ago. He had yet to have this discussion with – no, it was not the time to think of such. He continued to stare pointedly at the snake sannin. "And you still haven't told me the truth behind your visit."

Orochimaru stood up. "My time here is limited, but I shall tell you three things." He held up three fingers accordingly. "First, there is an offer I have been instructed to extend to you, on the condition that I found you worthy of it."

"I assume you don't find me to your liking then," was the shrewd boy's reply. The Leaf traitor had been in his room for at most twenty minutes, but to Itachi, it already seemed like hours.

"Not just yet," the snake said, a malevolent glint in his eye. "But I know that I soon shall. That brings us to the second thing I will tell you..." He paused and looked Itachi directly in the eye, as if to gauge his reaction. "Your father himself shall show you what you need to become strong enough to destroy the entire clan."

Feigned indifference would have been good just then, but when a legendary sannin-turned-village-traitor appears in one's bedroom and tells one that one's own father will hand one the keys to destroying what one hates the most, it is completely impossible not to show, at the very least, some cautious curiosity. "You said 'show,'" Itachi said slowly. "You mean to say it is still my choice – what I will do in the future, and whether or not I shall meet your dubious standards."

"Perhaps," was the cryptic reply.

Itachi would not rise to the bait. "What is the third thing you have to say?"

Suddenly, Orochimaru was standing behind the boy chuunin. Itachi was about to whirl around to look when the snake's long, slippery tongue licked its way up his cheek. "My third disclosure is this: when you make the right decision, I will appear to you again. And I will do everything I can to make sure you can accomplish exactly what you plan to do."

Itachi suddenly found himself falling backwards onto his bed. "Oomph! You–"

"If you don't mind, I will pay your little brother a visit before I leave." The rogue sannin put his hat back on and disappeared from the room in a smooth stream of smoke.

The Uchiha boy wasted no time. He grabbed his discarded kunai and slipped out of his room noiselessly. Heart racing in his chest, he slid open the door to his brother's room. He arrived just in time to see Orochimaru vanishing in a wisp of white fog.

"Until we meet again, Itachi-kun."

The voice faded into the night even as Itachi tiptoed across the floor to the little bundle curled up on the bed. Itachi relaxed and allowed the Sharingan to fade from his eyes when he saw that Sasuke was unharmed. The five-year-old was just stirring when his older brother sat down at the side of his bed.

"Aniki?" muttered the sleepy child. Sasuke rubbed his eyes as he turned to fully face his brother. "Did…you have a bad dream?" Even in his barely conscious state, the little boy blushed. Sasuke always crept into Itachi's room when he had nightmares. The little child was assuming that it was his brother who'd had a bad dream this time.

Itachi managed to smile slightly as he replied. "You could say that."

"Sleep here with me?" Sasuke asked, already moving to make space for the older boy.

Wordlessly, Itachi wiped the slimy saliva off his cheek, cleaning off his hand on the kunai cloth in his pocket. He climbed into his brother's bed and slipped his kunai under the pillow. He almost chuckled when his fingers brushed a similar blade beneath his little brother's own cushions. He allowed Sasuke to curl up against his chest, wrapping his arms around the small figure protectively.

"… Aniki?"

Itachi closed his eyes and sighed comfortably, unconsciously pulling his brother closer like any other child would do to a stuffed toy. "Hm? What is it, Otouto?"

Sasuke shifted in his brother's embrace. "I had a funny dream before you came in… There was a man with a big hat and coat standing over me. He touched my cheek and told me to grow up to be strong – just like you."

The older brother opened his eyes and stiffened slightly. "Forget about that dream, Sasuke. It's nothing important."

But Sasuke was already asleep.

Itachi frowned slightly, but forced himself to relax. His mind was spinning with what Orochimaru had told him. A way to become strong enough to kill the entire clan… And it would be his father who would show him the secret… The sannin had said it would happen sometime soon. Then there was the matter of the sannin himself. Itachi could not feel completely settled about his appearance. It had been long since the last time he'd overheard discussion about the snake man. Those clothes he was wearing… for some reason, the image was burned deeply in Itachi's mind. What had the slimy-tongued shinobi been doing since he betrayed the Leaf? When Orochimaru appeared again, Itachi would be sure to ask.

When he appeared again? Did that mean that Itachi was actually anticipating a second encounter?

Of what use to him could Orochimaru be, though? He already had mentors everywhere he went. If he ever needed help, he already had someone who would provide that. And besides, he would never have reason to destroy his own family. He hated what they did, and what the elders stood for, but to kill them – Never.

Itachi looked down and regarded the slumbering form of his five-year-old sibling.

He could never destroy this.

So why did Orochimaru even suggest it?

So much to ponder for an exhausted young mind. Itachi soon drifted off into a dreamless sleep, as only the presence of little Sasuke could give him.

Unbeknownst to the two slumbering siblings, standing in the shadows of a nearby building, Orochimaru had been watching the short exchange. And as he began to fade away, the sannin chuckle darkly and licked his lips. The first seed of corruption had been planted, and it was only a matter of time before it grew into a dark and dangerous tree.