introducing...playlist!!
pick which vibe you're going for and put these songs on queue as you read this chapter
p.s. it might just change the way you interpret the story ;)

kazumi's playlist:
1. squabble up - kendrick lamar
2. like him - tyler the creator
3. family line - conan gray

sasuke's playlist (highly recommend):
1. killers - siobhán winifred
2. sinking ship - the backseat lovers
3. the moon will sing - the crane wives

katsuki's playlist:
1. the only exception - paramore
2. i should hate you - gracie abrams
3. how to save a life - the fray

🎐

"Susanoo."

The forest was ablaze. Blue flames were engulfed by malignant black ones, raging high into the night sky. Kazumi hovered midair, encased by a bright red barrier, the shape of an armored giant.

He wasted not a second, raising the giant's hand, fisted around a katana, and swung it in Orochimaru's direction. The sly, slippery snake slipped right beyond the blow. The mere brute force of the heavy hit sent a huge gash to the forest below, trees were blown over a mile away.

It seems I've underestimated him yet again.

A bead of sweat rolled over Orochimaru's pale forehead, the adrenaline catching up to him.

I thought he would at least try to minimize the damage, especially with the U.A. students so near but this...!

"Let us strike a deal, Uchiha!" The snakey man called out to the boy, dodging an incoming flurry of wind attacks created by the Susanoo's katana slashing through the air. His attempts of bargaining fell upon deaf ears as the angry barrage of attacks only seemed to increase.

"You're sorely mistaken if you believe you can manipulate me." He glowered. "I'm nothing like Sasuke."

The Sanin grinned, even in the dangerous of times, he relished the feeling of fighting a strong opponent. It'd been long since Orochimaru had faced off against someone who stood a chance. His susanoo was complete, solid, he'd never thought that brattish, quiet, little boy the Akatsuki had taken in would grow so much. He'd never thought anything of it, always assuming he was just a timid kid who acted as a loyal dog to Uchiha Itachi.

Now standing before him was a fine shinobi, one he could barely recognize.

Casting a clone jutsu, the snake-man grinned widely. Kazumi was doing fine with just one of him, how would he fare against a few more?

"Senai Jashu: Hidden Shadow Snake Hands!" Snakes manifested on his hands, their beady eyes set on Kazumi, hovering midair. The clones kept him occupied, they were all fast, slipping just out of susanoo's grasp. Kazumi set his jaw, growing more frustrated by the second. A few snakes slipped past susanoo's barriers and Kazumi felt their fangs sink into the flesh of his body.

Shit. My chakra reserves are depleting faster than I thought.

Orochimaru appeared before him, a kunai clutched in his hands. He slashed--or well tried to slash-- Kazumi's eyes. He dodged in the nick of time, doubling back and delivering a strong blow with the butt of his katana. The real Orochimaru plummeted to the ground below, creating a large crater with the mere force of it all. Clones poofed away left and right, as their user trembled on the ground too disoriented to keep control of his chakra. The legendary Sanin cowered before Kazumi's majestic susanoo and for the first time in a while, the man felt true, crippling fear in his heart.

He's gotten stronger. In my current form...I can't beat him!

He disappeared from the man's line of sight, the hues of his susanoo blinked away in an instant. The man looked around in frantic. Where was he? How could he possibly move so fast?

"How dare you use Itachi against me?" The katana swung from the skies above, at the last second, the snake man dodged. But he was too late, the sharpened edged stabbed down deeply on his left shoulder.

A cry of anguish and anger left the man's lips as he clutched his wound. It had hit a vital, a nerve that rendered his arm useless. Hanging limply by his side, he glanced shakily up at the Uchiha standing before him. He'd long dispelled the susanoo, yet a replica of the katana remained in his hands, unsheathed and clenched tightly in his fists.

"W-Wait-!" The tip of the blade met Orochimaru's throat, drawing droplets of blood to drop onto the earth below. Kazumi cocked his neck to the side, his eyes as terrifying as ever, even without the Sharingan activated.

"Don't you want to join me? We could rule this world, you and I. Here, you could make the Akatsuki's goal come true. Wouldn't Pain want that?" He compromised a desperate, last-effort ditch attempt.

But he was only met with a hollow laugh.

"Hah...! And stoop so low as to be someone else's dog? This is where we're different, Orochimaru. You and your sly tactics...you're willing to do whatever it takes, even throw away your pride for your foolish dreams. But guess what? I'm not you. I'm not like Kabuto nor Sasuke, I'm not going to sit idly by and become an experiment for you."

To his dismay, Orochimaru only grinned widely, his bloody lips curling up to show an uncanny full set of teeth.

"Then you will die along with that Uchiha Itachi, whom you care so deeply for. He's writhing in pain right now, just like little Sasuke, the one you left behind."

The battlefield before him faded away to vivid images of Itachi coughing up a waterfall of blood, his eyes bloodshot, his skin a sickly grey, and his body frail. Sasuke's bloody form followed, injected over and over again with foreign substances, his anguished scream filling Kazumi's ears.

SLICK

The katana trembled in Kazumi's hands as he trembled in rage. He didn't even care where he'd struck, he just wanted the man before him to suffer. He wanted him to die, the most painful death. No...death would be too easy.

"...release..." He muttered, twisting his katana, lodged deep in Orochimaru's gut before going to pull it out.

Only it didn't.

The ground opened up beneath him, only then did he realize how careless he'd been. Orochimaru had kept a strong grip on his arm, dragging him in the debts of portal. Just as the misty darkness surrounded them, the last thing Kazumi saw was Midoriya desperately chasing Katsuki as he disappeared into another portal.

"So you do have a weakness after all," The wet flesh of a tongue flattened on the shell of his ear before all went dark.

🎐

He'll never forget that day. It was raining, a complete downpour in Konoha. But Kazumi always felt it was fitting, because, he'd like to think the rains and the heavens cried for their deaths too.

But heaven...it was such a foreign, stupid concept to him. "When I die will I go to heaven?" That was a question he'd never asked himself. Maybe it was because he knew he wouldn't. Maybe because he'd seen the good, maybe because he'd witnessed pure hearts and knew that deep down he was nothing like them.

The Uchiha clan had been slaughtered the day Kaoru and Shisui died. It was a complete annihilation. He'd like to think he was afraid that day, or sad, or something. But all Kazumi remembers was the numbness and emptiness he felt when he stared down at the bodies of his clan members.

It felt wrong. He felt obliged to hate Itachi, to loath him, to wish some form of harm on him, but he found that he couldn't. No matter how hard he willed himself to cry or anger, he couldn't.

The mighty Uchiha clan was always known for their pride. They were always a proud clan, they never backed down from anything. Perhaps that was the beginning to their end.

All of the clan pride for what?

It led to their deaths anyway. Even without Itachi, Kazumi knew one day they'd be sorely defeated because of that ego, that pride they clung so desperately to.

"...Ka....zumi...." A clang verbrated in main household of the Uchiha compound as Itachi dropped his katana, collapsing on the floor, trembling.

"Why...how...how are you here?" He'd never seen such a display from the quiet and reserved Uchiha before. Now he sat, shaking on the floor, desperate for anyone or anything to cling to.

Kazumi knelt before him. It didn't take long for the older to wrap him in an embrace. But even so, he felt nothing. Just cold, cold, cold. He let himself collapse under Itachi's weight, dazed and confused.

What's wrong with me?

"Please tell me...are Shisui and Kaoru safe?" Itachi's voice sounded so desperate, so hopeful for any reassurance. But Kazumi couldn't give that to him.

"Kaoru and Shisui are dead."

His hands fisted at the fabric of Itachi's shirt. Why? Why can't he cry? Why did he feel so numb? Why does this keep happening to him?

Itachi stilled, and for the first time, he finally took a good look at Kazumi. He was almost unrecognizable. Tattered, burnt clothes, slashes in multiple areas, caked blood on his cheeks and hair. And his eyes...fresh blood leaked from his sockets. Signs of struggle were seen on his eyebrows and lids. Scratch marks had been dragged across his eyes, fresh and still bleeding.

"Kazu—" The apology about to leave his lips was cut short by the boy in front of him. The boy who he knew was secretly caring, loving, and kind, that Kazumi was nowhere in sight. Instead, he was replaced by a replica who looked nothing like him. He couldn't find, not even a single ounce of the warmth he once knew in his eyes.

All he could find was pure, unbridled rage.

"Let's leave, Itachi. I can't forgive, I can't forget. As long as I'm alive, this village will never fucking know true, safety, I'll make sure all of them pay. For what they did to us."

Sasuke's breath hitched as the paper crane he'd folded in school slipped out of his hands. The cards he'd written for his brothers, long forgotten, they found themselves discarded on the floor.

"....Nii-san?...Kazumi...?"

A part of Sasuke hoped that it wasn't them, he wanted them to reassure him, tell him it was all just a silly little prank, that everyone was alive. All that hoped broke like glass as soon as he caught a glimpse of Kazumi's eyes.

"W-Who are you? Where's Shisui? Where's Kaoru? This isn't funny! Stop it!" His distressed cries went unanswered as Kazumi stalked over to the cowering boy he once knew and loved, whom he now felt nothing for.

"You know it don't you? Deep down. You already know the answer to that question.

"No! No, you wouldn't—"

Kazumi laughed, terrifyingly humorless. The deranged sound reverberated throughout the empty house, the house full of people he once knew. Their eyes still open in fear, their lips still parted, forming pleas and begs that would forever go unanswered.

"Oh, but I would," His smile disappeared completely, only an uncanny, deathly calm expression remained.

"I killed them. Shisui and Kaoru. I even took Kaoru's eyes, see? Every single last one in the Uchiha clan, we killed them. They're dead."

Sasuke's eyes filled with tears as he willed himself to look at his brother, who he shared blood with. Only to find him in the exact same position as Kazumi. Hus eyes blown wide open, bloodshot and filled with steely resolve.

"Don't you understand, Sasuke?" The words sounded so foreign in his lips as Itachi spoke, willing his voice to remain steady.

"You're weak. You're a liability. So was the clan. That's why we're leaving you behind."

That was when Sasuke decided that his brother who he loved so much and Kazumi were truly gone.

🎐

It wasn't as if he hadn't gone back. He did, he'd remembered a few years after he'd gone rogue, Kazumi decided to pay Konoha a visit.

What for? For forgiveness? For resolve? For a reminder why he joined the Akatsuki? He didn't really know what compelled him to. For closure, he decided, and that as a good enough excuse. 

His journey to the Village Hidden in the Leaves felt strange. His feet remembered the path so well, having bounded from tree to tree after so many missions. With practiced steps, he entered Konoha through the now deserted halls of the Uchiha Clan compound.

A thick sheen of dust enveloped each and every surface and boots clinked and echoed throughout the hallways. He traced his hand through every nook and cranny through the halls and Kazumi could almost see him, a child, doing the same thing years ago.

What he felt was a sense of detachment, one he couldn't put into words. It was like visiting a place in a dream, everything felt stuck in place here. Bloodstains had faded, bodies cleared away, but the deathly silence was filled with the stench of death. He left quickly, not wanting to linger around in such a location for so long.

The Hyuga compound wasn't far away. He stood perched on top of a large tree nearby, getting a clear view into the training grounds. Of course, he was met with the sight of Neji, training with his uncle.

His hair was longer, his gait even and determined. Even as the clan head struck him down again and again, he got back up in a solid fighting stance. The sight made his lips twitch, he expected nothing less of Neji.

A compound shrouded in a forest was the Nara Clan's. He watched Shikamaru feed the local deer gently, stroking them with practiced hands. He was the same, lazy eyes and the unkempt hair pulled into a ponytail. His eyes took to the sky and Kazumi wondered what he was thinking about. He'd always been someone the Uchiha could never completely figure out after all. No matter how perceptive.

Things never did change did they?

Kazumi watched as villagers threw rocks and food at a scared Naruto. He slunk back home, tail between his legs. Something twisted in Kazumi's gut as Naruto entered a tiny apartment complex.

Really? A tiny apartment complex for the son of the fourth Hokage? A grimy room for the boy that had practically saved the town by having the 9-tails sealed in him? Such conditions for a young boy, an orphan nonetheless.

He watched as Naruto cried into his pillow, hugging it tightly for some form of comfort. Kazumi sat on the balcony, listening to his sobs quiet down until he'd cried himself to sleep. Only then did he enter through the window quietly.

The apartment was dirty, clothes and trash strewn anywhere. To know Naruto lived in such conditions...Kazumi clenched his fists and instead got to work. Cleaning silently, throwing expired food items away.

Naruto would never know what happened that night. For all he knew, a miracle had happened, someone had cleaned his home. And somehow, left a piping hot bowl of ramen on his kitchen table, still hot to touch by morning.

Kazumi had one last stop to make. Sasuke's apartment wasn't hard to locate. He'd just gone through the hokage's records and easily found it.

Sliding the clean glass windows open, he leapt inside. It was a small, quaint apartment, neat and tidy. He looked around the apartment, everything was in place, minimal decor and simplistic. Classic Uchiha style.

He wandered into the open door of his bedroom. Sasuke looked so small on the massive bed. He'd grown, lost some of his baby fat, he had a more defined jawline now. His sharp features had developed, he had all the traits of an Uchiha.

Hearing whimpering, he watched his peaceful expression morph into a frown. His breathing quickened and a sheen of sweat lined his forehead. Night terrors, Kazumi realized.

His hand brushed away the long strands of hair framing the boys' face. He'd grown so much since the last time Kazumi saw him. His gaze trailed down to the photo frame on his bedside table.

He was a genin now. Kazumi was surprised to find Kakashi as their jonin leader as well as Naruto and Sakura in his team.

"I'm proud of you, Sasuke."

Seeing that the boy had calmed and that the first rays of sun had started to shine through his curtains, Kazumi retracted his hands, turning away to leave.

"...Kazumi?"

Kazumi.

Kazumi!

Uchiha!

UCHIHA!

"UCHIHA SNAP THE FUCK OUT OF IT ALREADY!" As he came to, Kazumi noticed the constant ringing in his ears that refused to subside. He scanned his surroundings, he was in another bar. The room's brick walls seemed to close in on him as his vision swam.

"...Katsuki?"

He tried to move but found himself immobile, red chakra threads bound him in place, a small seal in front of his place on the floor. He'd fallen right into their trap.

"Are you familiar with chakra binds, Uchiha Kazumi?" Kazumi raised his head to meet the eyes of Orochimaru, who was using the mystical palm to heal the deep gash on his shoulder. He struggled in his binds, concentrating chakra onto the sides of his arms to try to break free.

"Oh I wouldn't do that if I were you," He smirked as the threads absorbed his chakra and coiled around him even tighter dragging a groan out of Kazumi.

"HEY! YOU SNAKE MAN! GET THE HELL AWAY FROM HIM!" Bakugou struggled in his binds. Kazumi was the strongest person he'd ever met, but he was much more than that. He was his first mentor, the first person Katsuki had opened up to in a while. As much as he'd hate to admit, he hated feeling helpless, watching Kazumi in pain.

"Just watch, you little brat," Orochimaru disregarded the blonde boy completely.

He knelt in front of Kazumi, a knife materializing in his hands before he stabbed the Uchiha on the abdomen, twisting it deep into his gut. Blood poured out of his wound and Kazumi could feel the metallic taste building up in his throat.

"I'm just returning you the favour," He said, licking his lips. Oh, how Kazumi wanted to rip that useless tongue out of his mouth.

"I'm gonna kill you. I swear to fucking god I'll kill you, Orochimaru! HOW DARE YOU FUCKING USE THEM AGAINST ME?" His control slipped away as bloodlust coated the room, everyone felt it, even the villains in the room cowered.

"As soon as I break free, I'm going to tear you from limb to limb, I'll make sure you regret ever uttering their names from that foul mouth of yours. I'll be sure to kill you properly even the reanimation jutsu can't bring you back."

"Will you, now?" The Sanin chuckled. Driving the kunai into his abdomen again, this time hitting a vital. Kazumi coughed wetly, the puddle of blood beneath him growing by the second.

"STOP! YOU SICK MOTHERFUCKER! LEAVE HIM ALONE—!" Katsuki's words only made him laugh, as he pulled Kazumi up by his hair. His eyes were filled with resentment and hatred but they stared pleadingly up at Katsuki.

"Katsuki...please stop. Don't believe whatever he's about to tell you-"