Blinded by Fear

Dare

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"I can't believe you're standing in front of me," Sasuke said, staring down at her, his hands still wrapped around her shoulders. "I thought you were-"

"Did you really think Itachi would pick one of us over the other?" Sakaria interrupted, slightly offended. Sasuke thought for a moment as he looked at the floor.

"I wasn't sure what he would or wouldn't do," he admitted. "After I learned the truth about our clan and the village, I started hoping that you were still out there somewhere... and when Itachi told me you were still alive, I was going to come find you." He took his hands from her shoulders and looked at Suigetsu and Jugo, then back to her, "What happened? I mean... How did you survive all this time with Itachi... and when he was in the akatsuki, how did he keep you a secret? I don't think I understand."

Sakaria sighed, her head pounding from the interrogation, and thought back to where she should begin. She took in a deep breath as if preparing her lungs for the speech she was about to give. "When Itachi killed our clan, he made me hide in the woods... He told me that the police force was launching an investigation on Shisui's suicide, and that I needed to hide so we wouldn't get in trouble." Sasuke nodded, thinking how clever Itachi must have been to think of such a lie, but that it almost seemed unnecessary to fool a child with such elaboration. "When he came back into the woods to get me, he told me he had killed everyone but... Something about him seemed... sad..."

"I wish I'd been able to tell..." Sasuke said, suddenly jealous of his sister's empathetic heart.

"I told him I wanted to go with him... later, he told me that he was glad I chose that because, since the village had no idea I had been born, he had made no agreement with the Hokage to keep me safe like he had with you..." Sakaria looked down trying to remember back to her childhood after the leaf village, but everything seemed so hazy. "When Itachi first joined the akatsuki, he kept me hidden most of the time, always leaving me in the woods nearby... but that proved to be problematic after I was attacked several times and hurt... Eventually, he explained himself to Pain, who reluctantly took me into the village." Her mind was suddenly flooded with images of her playing in the rain and folding origami with Konan whenever she wasn't on missions. "Once I was old enough..." Her voice shook as she admitted, "I joined the akatsuki myself." Suigetsu glanced over at her at this, unsure as to why she'd never said anything about any of this to him. "I did what I had to do to stay with Itachi... and I wasn't sent out much...but, if I was, most of the time I was either with Itachi and Kisame or Deidara. I was sent out with Hidan once but..." Sakaria shook the thought from her head, not wanting to delve into the trauma that ensued after setting out on a mission with the Jashin follower who reveled and worshipped in violence, "Itachi never let that happen again... Anyway," She digressed, "After a while, he told me everything about the village and you... and why I couldn't go back to you. I had tried once before, but Orochimaru got in the way." Sasuke's attention was diverted to the curse mark that covered her shoulder and he snarled a little, angry that his sister had been around the snake sage at all. Sakaria looked up at Sasuke, her ashamed face replaced with a look of promise. "I never stopped hoping we'd be a family again, Sasuke," She said, staring at her brother whose mouth hung open, searching for words, "and Itachi never stopped protecting you."

"How did you end up with Suigetsu and Jugo?" Sasuke asked, not wanting to delve too far into the emotional storm that was whirring in his head.

"The leaf took me captive after the Anbu confirmed that I was still alive. Apparently, mom had kept track of all of our accomplishments in a diary that had been hidden somewhere at home, and they found it along with a picture of the three of us that had been kept inside." Sakaria lowered her head once again, saddened at the thought of her mother's journal filled with prideful memories being sifted through for information about her accidental daughter. "I stayed in the leaf village for quite some time and I was going to try to find you before you got to Itachi but no one would let me leave... I had everyone's eyes on me all the time until word got out that you had attacked the summit and killed Danzo... The village was still in shambles at the time and everyone was scrambling to rebuild and gather intel for the war so I became the least of their worries I gu-"