#because it's midnight and i'm tired as hell but research for my fic led me to this chapter and i was left thinking about it for a while

[theheirofthesharingan]

Itachi never told Kabuto how much he loved Sasuke. If anything, Kabuto tried to use Itachi's betrayal to his family to save the village to get Sasuke join him instead. He'd also taunted Itachi for being a liar and mocked him for being "tender hearted" because Itachi called him out on using Edo Tensei to win a war that shouldn't have been waged in the first place. When Itachi bid farewell to Sasuke, Kabuto was stuck in Genjutsu, so he couldn't have known what their conversation was like.

However, he still understood how much Itachi loved Sasuke. The only one who understood the intensity of Itachi's love for Sasuke, other than Sasuke himself, was Kabuto. Trapped in the illusions, fighting Itachi's ghost, he came to realize the extent of Itachi's love for his brother and that Itachi lived his life for Sasuke and died for him.

He wasn't obliged to save Sasuke's life. He came to war, not only because he'd changed, but because he knew Itachi spent his whole life keeping Sasuke safe. He died for Sasuke. And Kabuto felt obligation towards the love Itachi had for his brother. Kabuto could have helped in war any other way too but he only chose to save Sasuke's life because of Itachi.

There's a kind of mysticism in Itachi's love that surfaced only when he was truthful to Sasuke, and the ripples were felt by Kabuto, too.