Those are my two babies:)

Fourteen year old Sasuke sat alone in the empty room, staring at the door. His stomach growled, but he ignored it, unwilling to leave his position.

He was very worried. His brother had never been gone this long before. The third day was drawing to a close, and Itachi still hadn't returned.

"Where are you?" Sasuke whispered. "You better not have gotten into trouble."

Suddenly, he heard footsteps outside. His heart leapt, and he sprang to the door. Throwing it open, he saw the familiar form of his older brother standing in front of it, his hand raised to knock.

His brother was the spitting image of him, or rather, it was the other way around. Both had longer black hair, though Itachi's was long enough to be tied in a ponytail. They shared the same face structure, with dark onyx eyes and a straight nose. Each had a well built body, lean and muscled from living out in the streets. Though Itachi was almost five years older, Sasuke had already nearly matched him in height.

Itachi laughed, but it sounded tired and hollow. "Been waiting here a while?"

"Where have you been?" Sasuke demanded furiously.

"Out."

"Out!?! For three days? You haven't contacted me once! What am I supposed to do if you turn up dead in a gutter? Do you have any idea how worried I was?"

"Now's not the time, Sasuke." Itachi moved past him, his voice empty. He hung his coat on the broken coat rack and slumped down onto the beaten up sofa that was the only piece of furniture in the two room building.

Sasuke frowned. "Itachi? What's wrong? Did you do something? Wait, what is that on your face, that dark stuff?"

Itachi turned to stare at him, his black eyes a bottomless pit. "Blood."

"Blood! Are you hurt? Please, Itachi, tell me what's wrong with you!"

A flicker of emotion flitted across Itachi's face. Anguish. "I...killed someone."

The room seemed to drop ten degrees. Sasuke stared at his brother in horror. Yes, they lived underground where crime was rampant, and he'd seen his fair share of bodies, but neither Sasuke nor his brother had taken someone's life. That was, after all, how their parents had raised them, before they'd died three years ago.

"Itachi...why?"

"She was a policewoman. She came after me to arrest me. They would have found you, too. I don't know what they might have done to you, but I'd be put in jail for the rest of my life for the crimes I've committed. How could I look after you like that? I had no choice. She intended to injure me. I didn't mean to kill her, only wound her, but..." Itachi swallowed. "I think her son was there too. He saw everything. I left right away, but I'm not sure if he saw my face."

Sasuke shook his head, running his hands through his hair. "What are you going to do?"

Itachi shrugged lifelessly. "Dunno. Stay on the run. I think that woman was acting alone. She had no back up team with her, so I'm guessing no one knew about her attempt."

"Why was her son there?" Sasuke asked.

"I'm honestly not sure," Itachi answered. "He might have snuck here with her. Regardless, the point is, the only eyewitness is the boy. And I doubt he saw me. They won't have any way of knowing who killed that woman."

"But us Uchihas already have a bad reputation. Don't you think they'll suspect us?"

"I don't know, Sasuke," Itachi sighed. "Just drop it for now, okay? See if there's anything to eat in the kitchen."

Sasuke frowned, reluctant to leave, but he did as his brother said.

When he came back, however, holding a bowl of instant noodles, Itachi was gone.

*************************************

Sasuke shifted in his cell, moaning as the clanking of the chains on his wrists roused him from sleep. He opened his eyes to the same sight he'd been seeing for the past two days; gray brick walls and a steel metal door with two guards posted on the inside.

When he moved, they looked up and instantly placed their hands on the handles of their swords.

Sasuke yawned. "Good morning."

The guards glanced at each other, then back at him, unresponding.

Sasuke smirked a little, and pulled himself up into a more comfortable position. It was extremely boring sitting in the cell all day, and the only way to amuse himself was to mess with the serious, nonsocial guards.

He inspected his leg for signs of improvement, and nodded approvingly. Tsunade turned out to be a talented medic as well, and had performed a simple operation on him two days ago. She hadn't done as good a job as she could've, she said, because he was a criminal that really didn't deserve treatment, but it seemed fine to him. It was an important part of his escape plan.

He'd been questioned briefly on the previous days, but nothing had been asked about Naruto's mother. It had been mostly about whether he recognized the faces of pictures of underground criminals, and if he knew where they were hiding, blah blah blah.

Sasuke had known each and every face, but had denied all of them. He said that for the most part, he'd been a lone wolf, and didn't have interaction with any others. He'd always stuck to his own business, and didn't get involved with any other criminals. That was actually true, but it didn't stop him from knowing anything about everything that went on underground. Sasuke had always been like that, storing bits of information for future use.

For example, he knew the guard on his left was extremely sharp, but had a bad knee from the way he walked with a slight limp. The guard on the right had the upper hand in strength, but was slow to read to things, always second guessing his decisions.

Sasuke couldn't have asked for a better pair of guards. They would definitely be helpful to his plan.

The door opened then, revealing a glaring Naruto and Sakura.

Naruto crossed the room. "Give me the keys to his chains," he motioned to the guard. The guard with the bad knee unhooked the set of keys from his belt and tossed them to Naruto. He knelt down, and unclipped the chains from Sasuke's wrists before cuffing them securely behind his back. They dragged him to his feet, Sasuke stumbling a little on his not yet healed leg, and escorted him down the hallway to another room on the left.

On entering, he was shoved into another chair. Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Would it kill you to let me stand for once? It's irritating to be constantly sitting."

"I'm sure it is," Sakura clipped cooly. "Must be hard for a heathen that's used to running wild to stay put for more then two seconds. Consider this a training exercise."

"So, like a dog?" Sasuke asked matter-of-factly. "Should I bark and wag my tail too?"

Naruto elbowed him in the head. "Shut up, scum."

Sasuke looked around the room with remote interest. It looked like all the other rooms in the building; gray cement. "You guys could use an interior decorator."

That earned him another jab. "No one said you could talk!"

"Well, it's just that there's no color or life anywhere. No wonder you guys are all so dry and humorless. I thought that above would be a more cheerful place than underground, yeah? I always wanted to live up here. But now that I look at it, I think I'd rather just stay where I was."

Sakura turned toward him, fury evident on her face. "Is-is this some kind of joke for you!? Do you find this situation amusing, Uchiha? Do you not realize how easily we could just kill you and be done with you?"

"Then why haven't you?" Sasuke asked seriously. "And don't say it's because you're looking to get answers out of me. Most of the stuff that Ibiki guy has been questioning me about is stuff he could easily find out himself. What's your ultimate goal?"

"To find out whether or not you killed my mother--" Naruto began.

"Don't give me that," Sasuke said sharply. "I thought you said you were sure it was me. If you're so sure, and everyone believes you, why haven't I been executed?"

Sakura opened her mouth, but was interrupted by someone from behind. "That," the person said. "Is for me to know and for you to find out."

There will be some exciting revelations next chapter! Stay tuned;)