A Different Fate
Disclaimer: Naruto and all its characters are Kishimoto's legal property. I'm not making any money off this story; however, all the Original Characters, Original Plot-lines, and Original Themes are my own.
Rating: Mature due to language, sensitive themes, and violent and sexual situations.
Main Themes and Genres: Moral Relativism, Realism, Family; Angst, Drama, and (Political) Mystery.
Supporting Themes and Genres: Tragedy, Erotica, and Horror.
Prominent Characters: Uchiha Sasuke and Uchiha Itachi (Central Characters); Uchiha Obito (Second Most Prominent Character) and Akatsuki.
Yaoi/Incest Fans: Don't expect any Yaoi/Incest concepts in my fictions. Look elsewhere if they give you elusive moments of gratification.
Warning: Realistic military protocols, conflicting philosophies, non-sexual male bonding; violent character deaths, morbid content, promiscuity, and ideas this fandom isn't used to. Those who are averse to such things can stop reading now and find the work that suits their highly interesting tastes.
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Chapter One: A Decision
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The night was young, and his heart was younger still. Life was a thing of wonder for a young boy of five. Tonight was that night when he would sit down and have a talk with his father. He said that he was his son. His heart elated with the fondest and sweetest hope he drew from the memory. His father had said that he was his son—truly, his son!
A smile spread on Sasuke's small face. His cheeks were ruddy, and all that running made his heart beat so loudly. The mist was tall around him tonight, and the forest was like the dark strokes of an ink-brush. His mother said that it often got that way before autumn. He poured more strength into his thin, small legs and ran harder, and his heart responded just the same: it pounded like a temple's gong in his ears.
Sasuke ran through the curtain of night mist, watching the big and wide road taper off into the stone pathway of Uchiha compound. His feet faltered on the familiar path, and he suddenly stopped. He felt someone was watching him. His gaze wandered skyward, and he caught sight of something: a dark phantom sitting before the full moon! And then it was gone just like that!
What was that? He peered into the darkness again, but everything behind the trees was dark and blurry. He wished he had a Sharingan! It would make things so easy. His soft mouth twisted into a frown, and again he ran towards the wide-open gates.
The air carried the stench of something he could not understand; it smelt putrid. He coughed and slowed down his running to a walking pace. His small hesitant feet traversed the ground as if they were doing it for the very first time. The lampposts were out and only one flickered close to a house that was silent and dark beneath the shadow of a large tree.
Sasuke looked around and his heart shuddered, skipping a beat after a loud, resounding one that he forgot to breathe. They were lying everywhere! He could not see their faces, but he could see the stained Uchiha symbol on their backs. Shadows lay upon them like airy-lids of graves. He could not hear a single breath—not even a tiny whine of protest. Gone. Everyone . . . gone!
He frantically looked about, his eyes prickling, his lips trembling with the enormity of terror. His skin became a burthen for his tiny frame. His bones vibrated inside the mortal crucible as though it wanted liberation by dancing to the melody from death's lips. Morbid, disgusting, revolting little sweet thing that was afraid of something it knew not.
A silent-hush fell down over the whole compound. Wind was just beginning to find its speed and strength. And he, too, willed strength into the small legs that quaked with a fear he still did not understand. His mind was a fragile tripwire now that awaited a slight disturbance to land that fear within his small belly and make him run, run, run!
A small sound, which came from the right, and he could not even register what it was; but he willed such strength into his legs that he bolted to his sanctuary, hoping, dreaming, and mournfully waiting that he would find his parents and brother alive, safe.
Sasuke squeezed his eyes that beheld the horrors, little tears stinging on his cheeks and that little mouth that still held the rosy innocence of childhood. Feet found purchase on their own and silent houses sped past him.
Everything was just a blur to him—the foetid compound submerged in the smoke of eternal gloom and dread that was once his home. In that moment, it did not matter: little children who played with him under the shade of the wide tree did not; the sweet smell of the flowers did not. Nothing! All that was left in the whole world was that little beating heart and its loud sounds in the theatrical echo-chamber of his frame. Such a small body and how sweetly it struggled to find refuge in the stronger arms of its progenitor.
Red was in the air, but he zipped by the silent sleepers, eager to press himself against the bosom of his brother. He would protect him. He surely would. He was strong. He was kind. There came into his heart a tingling sensation, and a wellspring of hope opened in the dark corner of its chamber. He could still make it. The killer had not noticed him—yet!
Sasuke gritted his teeth and ran down the familiar path. The lantern outside the entrance door was still lit, but he could hear nothing from inside. Moths fluttered around the light, eager to press themselves against the flame for a painful salvation; their wings were so loud in the pin-drop silence.
Slowly, he stepped on the wooden floor, and it creaked so loudly, announcing his presence. He had never really noticed the sound in the hustle and bustle of the compound. It was like the place drowned it out. Now, it hung there as a reminder of how alone he was this night—truly alone. Lonely little child, sad little child that sought the refuge of his brother's shadow.
His trembling hand reached out, and he felt his muscles painfully protest against his decision. He pressed it against the cold familiar wood and felt the roughness of its textures on the sweaty palm of his hand.
Sasuke's senses had heightened beyond belief. He could hear everything: the slight tap of the bamboo wood in the garden behind his house, the soft mewling of a babe somewhere beyond the compound, and the threatening hiss of a snake in the bushes. Even his skin was like the silkiest of velvets that felt the caresses of his sweaty hair and the touch of cool wind on the innumerable drops of sweat, which graced his whole body like greying pearls.
He pushed the door a little more, and a rank smell of something dead rushed out that nearly set him to retching. It did not feel right—the smell was not right. He pushed it with all the force he could muster and looked at the vivid blood upon the mat in the moon-washed light. It was so red.
A shapely body lay upon the other, but the supple bosom was still. He could see the stain of red on the side of petal-like lips—a ruined butterfly on a lily. His mother! Fear pared off his outer shell, and he slowly noticed the menacing shadow that stood tall over him.
"N-Nii-San . . . why?" Sasuke asked, his voice catching, his eyes seeing the sin on that clean sword. His own brother had killed them all.
"Foolish brother," he spoke in a voice he had never heard from his lips before, and his blood ran cold. He opened his new eyes and something hit him like a heavy old cart that crushed his bones. The beast was set loose upon his soul, and his memories were pried away and rent from his mind and torn apart like the ravaged rump of a wailing child; its savagery was wanton, insatiable.
Sasuke saw it all: the fall of the sword and the arcs of blood and the vivid guts in the lantern's light. He could not breathe. It was a lie. His brother loved him with all his heart. It was a lie! And then it passed, a silent beast scuttling away into the maw of hell after it had had its fill of his flesh. His raised his watery, half-mast eyes and stared deep into those uncaring eyes and anger set his soul alight.
He ran towards his brother, ready to crush him, end him, but he was too weak. Foolish little brother—he knew better than to take him on. One blow and he was flat on his stomach, his eyes meeting their corpses and he wept. Weakness became a forerunner of his fear, and his wiry muscles vibrated like mechanical dolls in the careless hands of a babe.
He wept in a fit of convulsions and ran out into the open. The fresh air did not give his soul any solace. It was in such pain from the taint that had inflicted itself upon it—the rancid filth of reality, betrayal.
Itachi found him again and tossed a kunai at the ground before him, telling him about killing his own friend to exact vengeance upon the foul fiend he had become. He fell forward, but his will poured force defiantly into his being. Something crumbled in him, a red taint of wonder in his eyes.
Itachi jumped away, leaving him to fight a new battle, but fear had given way to anger; it carved its own path and he was a ferocious, wounded, cornered little animal. His Genjutsu had hamstrung him, but his will was stronger. Kill. Kill. Kill. He dashed forward, his limbs carrying him upon the soft currents of air.
The breeze was quick and brisk as it came off the river and pushed against him like something relentless, and he pushed back, chasing his tormenter as he jumped upon the house and launched three kunais to stab his head. Itachi turned at just the right moment; one ricocheted off his headband and it fell off his forehead. Sasuke did not know when he deflected the other two.
Sasuke's strength left him, and he just dropped down like a heavy stone, clutching his arm and baring his teeth against a groan. He would not let him see the weakness he saw in his brother's eyes as tears. He did not understand; and then it all became a blur, and his angry beast fell asleep so suddenly . . .
When he opened his eyes a vague and blurry canvas of stars greeted him. It was swaying. He turned his eyes a little to the right and noticed that he was in the arms of a man whose face was in the shadows. He peered deep into that darkness, and as if the man could feel his innocent gaze upon him, he looked down. It was . . . Itachi!
Sasuke's body started trembling, and he tried to curl into himself. A part of his small heart was afraid of his cowardice. He was going to kill him. He had already killed everyone. Why take him outside to commit such an act? He thought he understood his brother, but he did not.
Itachi stopped and calmly looked down; his face was unusually blank that cast a gloomy pall over his soul. He had killed everyone. His brother was evil—a bad seed. Sasuke gritted his teeth but was too afraid to move his body.
"Are you hungry, Sasuke?" he asked, his lips moving in the darkness of the night. The moon shone brightly behind him.
Sasuke only stared, his eyes peering over the cloth he was wrapped in, his heart beating ferociously in his tiny, frail breast. He did not say anything in response. His tongue was too heavy, like a heartless beast had ripped his fleshy one out and replaced it with a piece of heavy iron. It was dry and swollen.
He shifted the arm under Sasuke's small back, and the little boy, muddily and half-consciously, raised a startled cry. "We can stop at a small inn. I'll buy you whatever you want to eat," he spoke softly, a ghostly smile crossing his tight lips, and then he started walking again with slow firm steps. Night's wind was so kind and sweet on his cheeks.
Itachi did not stop and the stars and the purple sky kept swaying. Sasuke did not know what was happening, but he kept quiet, feeling strange sensations thrumming in his skull. And then the little boy warily turned his gaze just a little and saw that they had left the lights of Konoha far behind them . . .
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Canon-Manga Info: The scene concerning the Kunais is canon. It took place exactly as I've written it.