Origin
It was all so simple, yet so complex. Every day Sasuke would wake up to the incessant buzzing of his alarm clock. As soon as he did so, he would roll out of bed and neatly fix up his sheets. His father loved to spot check him, to surprise him. They were thorough inspections too, and whenever Sasuke failed he would be chastised harshly. Discipline, that was what his father wanted to instill in him. Itachi had it. Itachi had a lot of it. So he was expected to have it too. That was the order of things. After he neatly made up his bed, he walked across the hall and entered the bathroom to wash up. The bathroom mirror was fogged up from the steam of the bath's hot water. Itachi had been there first. He was always first.
Sasuke showered and brushed his teeth and washed his face, all of the hygienic necessities that his mother had drilled into him since he was a small child. She used to wash him, to brush his teeth for him, to dress him, but once he enrolled into the Academy he knew that he couldn't allow her to continue to baby him. He was a ninja now, well, he was going to be one soon enough. And ninjas don't allow their mothers to coddle them, they stand on their own two feet. Just like his father, and just like his brother.
Once Sasuke finished up in the bathroom, he dried himself off and began to walk towards his room once more in order to get properly dressed for his day at the Academy. After he properly disposed of his used bath towel in the laundry hamper situated near the restroom, he began to descend down the stairs and was immediately greeted with the delightful scent of tuna and rice, as well as tomatoes. Mom was making his favorite dish again! He increased his pace, almost sprinting down the steps. He moved so quickly that his bare feet reverberated against the wooden staircase.
"Sasuke, no running!" His mother chided him.
"Sorry mom," He apologized swiftly.
Getting on his mother's bad side so early in the morning would spell trouble for him later. His mother could be scary, in fact, he feared his mother more than he feared his father. There was a saying amongst the clan, "Fugaku may cuff criminals in the streets, but Mikoto cuffs him at home." He remembered a family friend reciting the idiom during a visit one day, much to his father's chagrin.
Once Sasuke turned the corner to the dining room, he saw his father and brother sitting quite a ways away from one another in perpetual silence. The boy frowned, there was so much tension between the two of them. The atmosphere was so heavy, so dense with unspoken animosity. Ever since Itachi's "episode", which consisted of him uncharacteristically lashing out after being confronted on the suspicious circumstances of Shisui's apparent "suicide", an event that deeply saddened Sasuke as he was quite fond of Shisui, almost like a second brother, his father hadn't said a word to him. Nor did he say a word about him. Sasuke decided to break the awkward silence.
"Good morning, father," Sasuke said with a warm smile. His father diverted his eyes from his meal and gave his son a smile of acknowledgement, a gesture that made Sasuke's heart skip a beat. Such a gesture was usually only reserved for Itachi, not for him. It was strange how his father treated him nowadays. Not only did he compliment him on mastering the Katon Goukakyuu No Jutsu inside of a week (despite the fact that his brother had mastered it on his first try), he advised him to not follow in his brother's footsteps, which shocked him.
He looked over to his brother, who glared at Sasuke from the corner of his eye. Perhaps he felt left out?
"Good morning, brother," Sasuke greeted him with the same warm smile that he had greeted his father with. Itachi emulated his younger brother's smile and said "Good morning, Sasuke."
The tension had lifted, and Sasuke could feel that he could breathe again. The atmosphere had been too heavy for him, but now it was light.
He began to eat his breakfast with great delight, and was sure to compliment his mother on her cooking with every bite, which made her smile and say "You are so sweet, Sasuke."
Sasuke pouted at her words and responded with, "You know I don't like sweets mom."
His mother then apologized and asked, "Would you rather be sour then?" Sasuke shook his head. He didn't want to be sour to anyone.
Once Sasuke had finished eating, Itachi stood up from the dining room table and announced that he was taking his leave, to which Sasuke was the only person to respond in acknowledgement. As Itachi began to put on his sandals, Sasuke decided to ask him if he would be able to train with him once he got back home.
Itachi looked at him with a warm smile, then poked his forehead with his two forefingers and spoke in an apologetic tone, "Sorry Sasuke, maybe next time."
Sasuke rubbed his forehead and looked away from him in mock anger, "Liar!" He exclaimed.
Out of the corner of his eye however, he saw that Itachi's eyes had an eerie sadness about them. Did he take what Sasuke said seriously?
"Brother, I didn't mean-"
"It's okay, Sasuke," Itachi said before quickly departing. Sasuke's lip quivered. He didn't mean to hurt his feelings, he just responded as he always did. What made it so different this time?
As Sasuke returned to the dining room to help his mother straighten up, he saw both of his parents exchange glances at one another before his father suddenly announced that he was heading to his room down the hall. No sooner than he get out of earshot did his mother beckon Sasuke to sit next to her at the dining room table.
"Yes, mother?"
His mother smiled at him sweetly. "Your father wanted me to talk to you about something very important, Sasuke," she began to say, her expression remained kind.
"Something important?"
His mother nodded, "Yes, it has been decided that you will become the new heir whenever your father chooses to step down." Sasuke gave her a look of astonishment. He felt pride swell up inside of him, but there was a tinge of regret as well.
While this was good news and all, he did have to ask, "What about Itachi?"
His mother frowned at the mention of her eldest son, a gesture that Sasuke had never known for his mother to do at the mention of one of her children.
"Your father has decided that you would be a more suitable candidate," She expressed, her frown curved into a smile once more. Sasuke's breath had been taken away. His father had said that about him?
"In private, you're all he talks about you know, you're all he ever talks about." His mother then cupped her son's chin and leaned in towards him to plant a soft kiss on his forehead, in the same spot that Itachi had poked moments ago.
"In you, we rest all of our hopes. Good luck today at the Academy, and try not to stay out too late."
"Alright, that concludes class for today. Tomorrow we will begin spar sessions, so be ready for it. You are all dismissed."
Sasuke began to happily gather his belongings into his single strapped backpack and went on about his way. As soon as he stepped outside however, he saw a group of kids kicking a can around the school playground. This was actually one of Sasuke's favorite games to play.
People were split into two teams and the objective was to kick the can from one teammate to another. However, if someone on the opposing team were to intercept the can that you kicked, then you would be kicked out of the game. Once it came down to two people, then the winner would be decided with whomever could kick the can for the longest amount of time without it being intercepted, which meant that it was usually timed. The only rule was that you couldn't use any other part of your body except for your feet.
Although Sasuke was eager to go home, he decided that it wouldn't hurt to play for a little while. Once he went over to the group, he saw that one of the kids, a blonde with goggles on his forehead, began to triumphantly declare that he had won, and with ease too.
One of the girls then shouted, "I bet you won't be able to beat Sasuke!"
A pink haired one chimed in with a loud "Yea!"
"Oh yea!? I bet I could beat mister popular any day!" The blonde shouted back.
Sasuke gave the confident blonde boy a smirk. He would enjoy knocking him down a peg or two. The new heir to the Uchiha clan would not lose to the likes of him!
"Bring it on!" Sasuke yelled.
The young Uchiha kicked the can first, and he sent it barreling across the playground. Everyone gasped in amazement, and the blonde attempted to intercept it by running to it. Too slow! Sasuke thought. It was almost comical really, it was as if the blonde was traversing through mud in comparison to his speed. Sasuke was able to quickly intercept the can and kick it across the playground once again. The blonde haired boy groaned and tried to run after it, but Sasuke beat him to it once more and kicked it again and again. This went on for hours and hours on end, and time began to quickly pass by. Finally, the blonde boy declared defeat, and he collapsed in a heap of sweat.
The girls circled around Sasuke and began to congratulate him. They complimented him as well, and called him "cool" and "cute", which made him blush in embarrassment. When he looked at them, he envisioned himself as the new head of the Uchiha clan looking at his fellow clan members, all friends that he would hold dear.
He looked toward the defeated blonde boy and yelled to him in triumph, "I will always protect those precious to me!"
The girls nearly fainted at his declaration, but the blonde scoffed and stood up to his feet, suddenly full of energy. What was with this guy? Did he ever get tired?
"Oh yea!? Well you won't be the only one! Because I'm going to protect those precious to me too when I become the Hokage! My name is Naruto Uzumaki! Remember it!" He then ran off.
Naruto Uzumaki? Sasuke questioned thoughtfully. What a strange guy.
Sasuke began to run home as fast as he could. He was late, how could he allow himself to be so late? His mother was going to kill him! As he entered the Uchiha compound and continued to run, he couldn't help but feel that something was...off. It felt cold. Not freezing cold. But chilling cold. Did something happen? He tried to shrug it off, he tried to tell himself that he was just letting his imagination get the better of him. It was pretty late, so perhaps everyone was just sleeping? Yea, they were asleep. That's what he told himself. As he ran and got closer and closer to his house, he felt a cold chill run down his spine. He stopped to catch his breath. Someone was watching him. His teacher said that a shinobi should always trust his instincts. He knew it, something was wrong. It was too quiet, too lifeless. Even the buildings themselves seemed to have lost their luster within a span of less than a day's time.
I gotta hurry! If something's wrong then I'll try to protect everyone! It's my duty as the new heir!
He turned the corner.
And he saw blood.
He saw the tarnished buildings, he saw kunais and shurikens pinned to the wooden facade. Door frames were forcefully removed from their hinges, lanterns were cut off completely, which explained why it had been so dark.
And then there was blood.
Blood splatter that lead to the bodies of several Uchiha clan members. There was a kunai protruding from the back of one of the deceased members, and there were more cold bodies lying around. Lifeless. They were dead. His own people, his own clan, the people that he was going to grow up to protect, the people that his father-
Father! Mother!
Were they okay? Were they alive? If they weren't...
He rushed home. He ran faster than he had ever ran before. He ran until he couldn't feel his legs any longer, and he continued to run even further. To run even faster.
Father! Mother! Please...
He entered his home but he stopped short of his parent's door. The quiet. The chills. The goosebumps. They all came back. He was frozen solid. Why am I so scared? He tried to rationalize to himself that there was nothing to be afraid of, that his father would take care of everything. That was his job right? To protect his people? So why was he so afraid? All he had to do was open the door, tell his father what he saw, and he would fix everything.
Just open the door.
He didn't move.
Open the door.
He continued to hesitate.
Open the door!
Sasuke opened the door.
It creaked.
He saw his father lying atop of his mother in a pool of their own blood.
And his brother stood over them.
"Father! Mother!"
He felt sick. He felt ill. His stomach curdled and curled. It churned and turned. Then his lunch came up. He vomited all over his parent's bedroom floor. His stomach felt better, but his shaking, his anxiety, his fear, it intensified. He looked up at his brother, who was dressed in shinobi battle gear compliments of the ANBU Black Ops. Yes, his brother would save him, his brother would make sense of everything. He was all that he had left after all.
"Brother! Father and mother are-"
His shoulder felt warm. Why did it feel warm? He gazed at it. Blood? Why am I bleeding? How did my shirt get ripped? His eyes traced the wall behind him. There was a kunai there. That wasn't always there. Someone had thrown a kunai at him! But the only person who could would have been...
"Brother? W-Why?"
It didn't make any sense. Why would his brother hurt him? He didn't understand. He couldn't understand. His brother always talked about how he would help him, how he would protect him. He even said once that he'd never intentionally harm him. But his shoulder hurt. It hurt so bad. He couldn't stop bleeding. Why was he bleeding so much? He was tired of seeing blood.
"To test my capacity."
Silence.
That's it?
Everyone was dead. Their beloved buildings were tarnished. Ruined. His mother was dead. His dear mother. He loved her so much. Why did she have to die? And his father, the man he was supposed to have succeeded once he stepped down from his position as head of the clan. The protector of his people. The leader of the Konoha Police Force. He was dead. Everyone was dead. They were killed by the most prodigious Uchiha talent to have perhaps ever lived, to have perhaps ever existed. But there had to have been a good reason. A just reason. Maybe some tried to betray him? No, that didn't make any sense. He could have just turned them over to his father right? And even if it went beyond that, why not just kill them? Why kill the entire clan? There had to have been some kind of reason.
But there wasn't one.
"To test your capacity?"
The fear, the fever, it washed over Sasuke. And it turned him cruel. His fist was clenched so tight that his nails broke through the skin of his palm and caused him to bleed. Blood. He was so sick of it. But he would spill the blood of the one responsible if he had to. He was going to avenge them, to avenge all of them.
"Stop playing with me!"
Sasuke charged at him. To test his capacity? Was that the reason? Fine. He would defeat him, then he would kill him. Then everyone would be avenged.
But it didn't go quite as planned. Itachi had struck him with a firm punch to his gut. He felt like vomiting again. He collapsed onto the ground in front of his father and mother.
Father please wake up. He thought.
Mother please, get up.
What as he thinking? Kill Itachi? Kill him? No one could beat Itachi. He was so stupid. Sasuke was always in his brother's shadow, that's why he was so pale. He couldn't do anything to him. He definitely couldn't hurt him. But maybe his father could. Maybe he was just playing possum? Yea, a good shinobi uses deception to fool their enemies. If his father had something planned, then now would be the time to execute it.
Save me.
His father's lifeless eyes stared back at him.
Save me.
His father's lifeless eyes stared back at him.
Save me!
His father's lifeless eyes stared back at him.
He was dead. And if he didn't run...
Then he would be dead too.
No. I don't wanna die!
He stood up.
I don't wanna die!
He began to run.
"I don't wanna die!"
He screamed at the top of his lungs. He was so scared. He could feel tears stream down his cheeks. He tried to be brave, but he didn't care about that. He didn't care about any of that. He just wanted to run. He just wanted to live. He wanted to live to play "kick the can" with everyone. He wanted to put that blonde boy in his place again. He wanted the girls to congratulate him. He wanted to grow up to become a shinobi, he wanted to find a wife and settle down. He wanted to have a kid. Preferably a daughter. He wouldn't mind having a daughter.
He wanted to live.
Itachi cut him off. That made Sasuke back away. But there was no escape. When he looked in Itachi's eyes, the only future he saw for himself was death. That's it. His brother had the eyes of a killer. No emotion, no soul, just calculated murderous intent that zeroed in on Sasuke and Sasuke alone. The person standing before him, it wasn't his brother. It couldn't be his brother. Brothers don't hurt each other. Brothers don't kill each other!
"This can't be true!" Sasuke shut his eyes and screamed as loud as he could. This was all a bad dream. He hoped that it was all just a very bad dream.
"You aren't my brother! What did you do with my real brother!? I want him back! Bring him back to me! Bring everyone back! Please!" Sasuke whimpered. He was cold. He was so cold. He wrapped his arms around himself to stop the shivering.
"Please..."
"The only reason I acted as the brother you desired, was to verify your capacity."
Sasuke's breath became hitched in his throat. What did he mean by that?
"You will become the one that will verify my own capacity. You carry that potential."
I have the potential...to equal him?
"You detested me, you held a grudge against me, you were elated when father picked you to be the new successor in place of me."
N-No! That's not true! I felt sorry for you! Sasuke wanted to speak, but he found that he had lost his voice. He was frozen stiff. Did Itachi do this to him?
"You, like me, are capable of awakening the Mangekyou Sharingan. However, there is one special condition that must be met..."
A foreboding gust of wind blew past them both, carrying with it a bundle of crumpled leaves that have lost their color. It was a symbolism of sorts. For within the bundle of leaves, there were two that were exceptionally close. One of them had a slit on its side, and began to float back down to the Earth. The other floated higher and higher with the wind, until it ascended out of view.
"You must kill your best friend."
N-No way...
Then that means you...
"Just as I did to Uchiha Shisui."
That can't be true. It can't be! M-My brother killed Shisui!?
"In the main building of the Nakano Temple, in the right corner to the rear of the room, under the seventh tatami mat, there lies the clan's Commentary Scroll. The scroll explains the true purpose of our clan's doujutsu. If you awaken it, there will be three people, along with me, that have ever used the Mangekyou Sharingan. If that happens, then there will be meaning in letting you live."
Itachi turned to pivot, which caused Sasuke to jump in fright.
"But as you are now, you are not worth killing. Foolish little brother. If you ever want to kill me, then hate me, detest me, live in eternal misery and shame. Run and run, never fight an opponent that is out of your capacity. Then one day..."
Itachi's eyes shifted. It wasn't the Sharingan. It was a perversion of it. It didn't look natural. Why did such a horrible thing exist?
"Come before me with the same eyes as I have."
No! I won't do it your way!
Sasuke's eyes burned. They burned so much. They felt as if they were on fire. He thought it was because of his tears, because of how much he had cried, but then he saw his brother's eyes widen. He looked at him as if he had grown a second head. Why was he so shocked? But Sasuke quickly shook the thought from out of his mind. His brother had just let his guard down. Now was the time to avenge everyone!
Now's my chance!
Sasuke picked up a kunai that was planted on the ground and flung it at his brother. It hit his brother's forehead protector and created a line through the Konoha leaf symbol. His brother was not amused. He gave Sasuke a death glare with one of his eyes, and then everything went dark.
He didn't know what Itachi did to him, but for one reason or another, he kept seeing his parents die. He was aware of the fact that it wasn't real, that it was an illusion. Color was displaced, there was no sense of time, but he could feel, he could see, and he could cry.
His brother hacked away at his mother first.
Her body went limp, and she fell. Why didn't she move? How did she not see him? Next was his father. Sasuke tried to yell, to scream, to warn him. But it didn't matter. He too fell, and he died. Then time would reverse itself. And it would happen all over again. He was tired of seeing his parents die. So he closed his eyes. But then he heard the sound of his brother's sword slicing through bone, the sound of blood spraying against the walls of his parent's bedroom. So he covered his ears. But he still kept seeing it. He still kept hearing it.
When would the nightmare end?
How long would it last?
He woke up, he finally woke up in a hospital bed. He panted, he sweated profusely. He stared at the ceiling panel for what felt like hours as he tried to make sense of it all.
It was just a dream right?
It didn't feel like he was in his bed, and the ceiling didn't look like his ceiling, but maybe his mind was just playing tricks on him due to the shock of the dream. He tried to move, but he felt a sharp pain from his shoulder. A pain so great that it hindered him. Had he hurt himself training? He used his other hand to move the sleeve back and saw the bandage that was there. Then it all came back to him.
So it wasn't a dream...
He got up. He had to go out, get some air. But that was when he overheard two nurses talking with one another.
"Yes, that's right. He was the only one spared wasn't he?"
"What about his older brother?"
"No one knows where he is."
Sasuke gritted his teeth.
That man was no brother of his.
He was able to manage to sneak out of the hospital, and when he did, he ran as fast as he could toward the Uchiha Compound. Maybe, just maybe, everything would be normal. Maybe his brother just attacked him and left everyone else alone. Maybe...
He arrived at the compound and saw that there was yellow tape sectioning it off.
It was all real.
He entered it. He thought of his aunt, the kind shop lady who ran the market, as well as his uncle. He thought of her greeting him, of her smile, of the taste of her ripe tomatoes. They were always just right. They were never sweet, and that's what he loved about them. Always juicy, but never sweet. Now he would never be able to taste them again. Why hadn't he asked her how to grow tomatoes?
The rain began to fall as he trotted through the compound. Memories of his clan, of his people, his kind people, his loving people, flooded his mind, just like how the rain flooded the streets. Were they crying for him? Was his people crying for him? Was his father crying? He knew that his mother would cry. Her leaving her baby boy, it must have killed her, wherever she was.
He continued to walk. He didn't know for how long, but he suddenly found himself within the Nakano Temple, per instructions of that man.
In the right corner to the rear of the room...
He approached the area.
Under the seventh tatami mat...
He lifted the mat and was surprised to find a passage way there. Part of him had hoped that that man had lied to him. He descended downward toward the temple, and lit a couple of candles with a match that had been left down there. He faced a stone tablet that had writing on it, and once he did so, he felt his eyes burn up again. It was an unbelievable heat, yet somehow it gave him even more clarity. He was able to decipher even more information from the stone tablet, and learned quite a lot about not only of the history of his clan, but the true purpose of the Sharingan itself. To control the Kyuubi, the Nine-Tailed Fox. At the price of blindness. That symbolized selflessness.
Sasuke gazed at his hands, and he was able to clearly see his chakra flow internally. Had he awakened his Sharingan? If so, then judging by what he had read, part of his purpose was to maintain a sort of...balance? He couldn't say for sure, but if it was within the capacity of Sharingan users to control the Kyuubi at the cost of their eyesight, then that would imply that his eye had something of a grander purpose. But that man must have interpreted it differently. Once he began to realize the amount of power his eyes wielded, he must have became obsessive.
He perhaps asked himself the true limits of his power, and wanted someone to help him test it. If that was his mentality, then that meant that that man was a cancer to the world, a sickness for which Sasuke was the only cure for, and deep down, that man knew it. That's why he had allowed Sasuke to survive. To put a stop to him once and for all.