Hey, what do ya know, I still exist in the world of fanfiction. This one's a slight crossover with digimon frontier (anyone else noticing a trend? In case you haven't figured out yet, I am obsessed with one of the characters in that show). BEFORE all the Naruto fans who haven't seen frontier navigate away, you do NOT have to know all of the events of frontier to understand this fic. I will not be using any ACTUAL digimon in this, just a couple of the characters. Actually, if you've seen digimon frontier, the biggest plot turn is painfully obvious…The story is much better if you haven't seen frontier, trust me. I will describe any characters who are from digimon or of my own design.
REVIEW YOU PANSIES! Constructive criticism is appreciated very much, I am a perfectionist and always want tips to improve myself. Flames are also welcome. I like flames. I use them to roast weenies and make s'mores.
Disclaimer : IF IT AIN'T MINE IT AIN'T MINE.
***
Ah, the hospital once again.
Sasuke had been released from the hospital not two days ago, and now he was back. He'd been called out from the small apartment he'd began living in alone, not because they were worried about him-there were several other families living in the same building if he needed help-but because, supposedly, there was someone at the hospital that needed help from Sasuke. He really wasn't sure what the Konoha shinobi thought he could do. He was eight, who did they think he was, Itachi? Sasuke winced inwardly at the thought of his brother's name. Clearly, that scar was still fresh. But then, watching one's brother slay every other of one's family, however distant, isn't exactly something that could heal overnight.
And now, here he was again, at the very place where he had awoken after the massacre, still so recent it hardly seemed real. For the sake of someone he'd never met. Lost in thought, he trailed numbly after the shinobi who'd summoned him, through the well-lit, white-washed hallways to wherever this person who allegedly needed Sasuke's help so specifically was being kept. Finally, they stopped. The shinobi knocked on the door of the room where he had led the young Uchiha. A young doctor with glasses accenting his nervous eyes opened the portal.
"Ah, you're here!"
"Yeah, I brought the kid. Any change?"
"No, I still can't get anything out of him. I-I tried to get him to eat something, but he said he wasn't hungry. I mean, he's s-so emaciated at this point, that I was more w-worried that I would have to make sure he didn't eat too fast and make himself sick, but apparently he's been traumatized enough by whatever it is that happened to him that he can't eat. Poor guy…"
Traumatized?
The doctor leaned down so he could talk to Sasuke eye to eye. "Sasuke," said the spectacled young man, "This evening, we found a boy out in the forest. We don't know much, bec-cause he won't say anything to us, but it seems he was separated from his family rather suddenly. Seeing as you had a..a..um, similar experience fairly recently, we thought that you might be able to, you know, relate a bit."
"You want me to play interrogator for you."
"Ah, um, that's not what I-"
"I don't care what you said, it's what you meant."
"Sasuke, just go in and talk to him, will you?" Sasuke turned to glare at the shinobi, who seemed entirely fed up with the youth's behavior. Sasuke finally just gave up, and resigned himself to the task at hand. Better to just get it over with.
He walked into the room to something he'd not at all expected. The kid, whose appearance was oddly similar to Sasuke's own, was even younger than Sasuke himself. His skin was pale, his hair black, and his eyes a deep navy blue. He was fiddling absent-mindedly with a small, wooden sculpture, a blank, empty stare reflected in his eyes. That look…in a way, it was almost like looking in a mirror. A bowl of rice sat on the dresser next to the occupied bed, completely untouched. From what Sasuke could see of the child, the doctor had spoken truthfully-the portion of the kid's body not under the covers was far too thin to be natural.
He glanced up nonchalantly as Sasuke entered, and then returned his gaze to the wood figure. Sasuke approached the bed.
"You really should eat, you know."
"Can't."
"Can't, or won't?" Sasuke's tone of voice matched the child's almost exactly, and the lack of any emotion on his features mirrored the younger child's.
"…Dunno. I'm hungry, yes, but…somehow…I just can't bring myself to eat it. It wouldn't…feel right. So, I guess…maybe it is that I won't. You wouldn't if you'd seen what I had."
"I very recently watched my older brother slay my entire clan. He said I wasn't worth killing." Ah, that got the kid's attention. But, strangely, not for the reason Sasuke had expected.
"You…you're someone's otouto?" He sighed. "I wish that it was my otouto sitting here…even if it meant that I wasn't…" The last sentence was nearly inaudible, but Sasuke still heard it, just barely. "Why…" The boy's voice dropped again, too quiet for Sasuke to make out this time.
"What?" Sasuke asked curtly.
"WHY DID I HAVE TO BE THE ONE THAT LIVED?!" The little boy burst into tears.
"Because someone had to. Someone had to make sure that those who passed on can be at rest, knowing that at least one of their number made it-that at least one person is alive to make certain that they are avenged. Stop crying. It's not helping anyone."
"Wha…" The boy sniveled, "what do you m-mean…avenged? I…I don't know that w-word…"
"It means that it's your job to take down the people who did this to you."
"They didn't do anything to me…They k-killed Kaa-chan and Tou-chan and Nii-chan, but they left me alive…I guess they thought I wouldn't make it on my own…"
" 'They'?"
"Yeah…bandits, I think…"
Sasuke was silent for a moment. In a lot of ways, the story was similar to his own. Both of them had had their whole life ripped away in one night, and both had lost a treasured brother.
"Do you really think that your otouto, if he saw you now, would be happy to see you starving yourself?"
The boy stared at the figure in his hand for a few moments. Sasuke noticed, now, that it was an intricate, skillfully depicted lion that the boy held. At last, the younger child placed the lion on the dresser, filling his hands instead with the bowl of rice, and hesitantly began to eat.
"Um," he ventured in between bites, "What's your name?"
"Sasuke Uchiha. I'm eight years old. You?"
"Kouichi. Dunno my last name. I'm five."
***
Umm…not much else to say…except a request that anyone reading this who may have seen frontier that you don't all go 'WHAT YOU KILLED [insertcharacternamehere]!!!' and etcetera. And if you think that you've figured out the plot-again, if you've seen digimon frontier, this becomes painfully obvious later on-NO SPOILING. Please. Anyways…yeah, I got nothing. Bye now.
