When Sasuke was a little boy, things frightened him. Very few things frightened the young Uchiha, and only one was tangible, but each fear beget the next fear, up until his last fear.

His first fear was of disappointing his father, that came first and foremost, and if his father wanted him to be as good as Itachi, then he would do his absolute best to avoid failure. He would prove his worth and his mettle.

His second fear was that his father wanted him to replace his brother, Itachi, and that was something that Sasuke did not think he could do. He did not want to in any case, because Sasuke realized that he need his brother.

So fittingly, Sasuke’s third and strongest fear of all, was that he would lose his brother. And the worst part was that he knew neither how nor why, only that he was not strong enough to stop him nor save him. He was afraid that one day, his older brother would go away, quick as the lightning.

And so Sasuke’s fourth and final fear was of the lightning.


But that was when Sasuke was a child. Now, Sasuke is older, and his father is dead, as is the rest of the clan. The only two survivors are himself and Itachi, but even still he’s lost his brother, but it wasn’t forever yet. Not yet.

Sasuke is sixteen and likes to think that he’s finally caught up to Itachi in skill, because although his motivation now is different, he’s worked his whole life to be at that level.

There’s no need to replace Itachi, per se, because there’s no one left to judge. But after Sasuke fulfills his goals, he has to replace his whole entire clan, anyway. There, his first two fears are more than perishable; they are now non-existent.

And as Sasuke stands on the pile of rubble above his brother, he finds it maddeningly ironic that the lightning that he always feared would come and take his brother away from him forever was finally here, and he anticipated it. He was, he IS that lightning.

“Kirin.”

---

It is much later now; Sasuke can feel it in his body. The fight is long done and over, which means that Itachi is dead. Sasuke pulls his hands to his face; they are heavy as lead, and he cries into them. and it’s because he doesn’t know why, but Sasuke is still afraid.