As the morning sun peaked over the clouds a strange breeze could be felt drifting through the air where mist covered the blood-soaked street in a futile attempt to cover the horrors previously hidden by the night. Shadowed homes loomed on the sides of the street, waiting for souls that would never return for they fed the crows littering the scene in murders, feasting on the flesh of the dead and cawing in delight. A rotting stench enveloped the area, a warning to all those who entered.

A small cry came from a bundle that lay amidst the wreckage. A shuffle, then a child with black unruly hair uncurled himself. He sat in a stunned silence for a time before finally finding his way to his feet. Looking around he stumbled, uncertain of which direction to go, as a panic slowly crept into his lungs. Hyperventilating, he sped up, tripping as limbs grabbed out from the shadows to capture him. Screams choked his throat, unable to escape and tears trailed his cheeks as shock poured through his system leaving nothing but coldness. He darted forward terrified and found himself at a familiar gate, painted with a fan representing his clan. Panting and still trembling, he avoided the ominous dark pools and sat just outside of the walls for a moment catching his breath.

After a while, a strange pecking sound drew the attention of the child. He turned and locating the sound, found it to be a large crow. It turned its head back and forth, looking at him once with both eyes, an eerie intelligence sparkling within them. The child observed the bird for a moment, a chill creeping up his back as the crow continued to stare. Then the bird cawed loudly and flew down at him. With a cry the child ran blindly not realizing that the bird had stopped following him. Street after street past by in a blur with early risers just beginning their day. The frightened child ran into a woman carrying a bundle of clothes and she toppled over and looked to see what hit her, but he was gone before she could catch him. He nearly ran into a cart, but dodged it at the last second. He could feel that the horror he was running away from was drawing nearer with every step he took. It urged him to move faster until finally he found himself at the wall of the village. In a panic, he knew he had to go further than this. A gate came into view and he raced towards it. Slowing down as he reached a small crowd, he walked with them desperately avoiding everyone. He walked quickly as thoughts of the monster chasing him began to fill his mind. A group of children walked by him suddenly, unintentionally camouflaging his exit.

"Hey teacher!" A little boy with blonde hair called out.

"Yes, Uzamaki?" The teacher asked impatiently.

"Where are we going?" The kid questioned.

"It's a surprise." The teacher answered blandly.

"But where?!" The rest of the kids around the black-haired child groaned and he felt a sick fear begin to overwhelm his body again as he struggled to keep himself from screaming.

Once they passed the gates, he separated himself from the other children and made his way into the trees. From there he ran through the forest sticking close to the path, but staying away from the monsters' eyes. He found himself a great distance from the village he'd left before his adrenaline finally ran out. Collapsing onto the ground, he laid on his back. Gasping for air, as the stress of his run made it difficult to move and the child could barely think in the pain, he fell unconscious.

When Sasuke finally woke up, he immediately noticed he wasn't home. He was outside surrounded by trees and shadows and he could see the stars blinking in the night sky and hear bugs chirping from within the plant life. He felt numb and lifted an arm to make sure it was still there, but a sharp pain erupted from his shoulder and he gasped. Starting to sit up and feeling his mind start to panic, he could barely move out of exhaustion. Sasuke fell back and tried to breathe properly. Now he wasn't numb anymore. In fact, he was in so much pain he wished he was numb. Once the pain receded, Sasuke started to drift. He laid for some time in the limbo between dreamland and reality, waiting for sleep to claim him. The sun lit up the sky. Then he was gone.

An old man walked slowly down the path. He took a sip of water from his bottle and wiped his forehead. Stopping for a second to shift his backpack, he went on his way.

Suddenly, the bushes began to move. Standing still, the man waited, until finally he realized that whatever it was wouldn't be coming out soon. He relaxed a bit and walked closer to the tree line. Pushing aside the bushes branches, he found himself faced with a young child and a difficult question. Should he leave the child here to fend for itself or wait for it to wake up and help it to the next village? He really needed to get going, his supplies weren't going to last for much longer and he wasn't quite as fast as he used to be. If he really tried he might make it in a couple of days, but it didn't look like the kid was going to be waking up any time soon.

The man sighed to himself, knowing his answer already, "You always said I was too much of a softy."

He pulled out a blanket from his bag and laid it out on the ground. Then he set his things off to the side and strained to picked up the child, nearly dropping him several times before making it to the blanket. The kid groaned and rolled over.

"Oh, shush!" The man replied quietly. He looked the kid over and noted the bruises and scratches on his arms and legs. After a second of rest, he dug through his bag and pulled out some bandages.

"You should count yourself lucky. I don't usually have these with me." He muttered distractedly. Although the kid probably couldn't hear him, it made him feel better to pretend someone had heard his words. He pulled out a bottle of peroxide and dabbed a little onto a piece of cloth.

"Here we go." He walked over and rolled the kid onto his back. Starting with the feet, he wiped the wounds carefully and wrapped a bandage over the cuts. After the legs were taken care of he moved to the arms where he found a deep wound in the shoulder.

"What did you get yourself into?" He muttered in surprise. With no answer to satisfy his curiosity he went back to work and thought about it. This wound would require stiches, he frowned. As a traveler he was used to surprises and had a basic knowledge of medical care, but the best he could do for now was disinfect the wound and wrap it up. He never did have the stomach for stitching.

"Alright, we'll just have to get you to a village doctor a soon as you wake up." He informed his unconscious patient. The kid moved his legs a little and tensed his muscles before relaxing. The man placed a blanket over him and started to set up camp.

The first thing Sasuke noticed as he woke up was that the pain had lessened. Not by much, but it was duller and workable. Moving to sit up a blanket slid off of himself. It was some time in the afternoon he guessed. Looking around he found that he was on the road. Extremely confused, he started to stand up.

"Hey, wait a second!" A strange voice called out. Sasuke fell back into a sitting position startled.

"You shouldn't be getting up so soon." A man with greying brown hair and travelers clothing walked out of the woods with a fish in his arms. Sasukes stomach rumbled at the sight of the fish.

"Ha-ha, just hold on a second and I'll have this cooking for us." The man smiled. Sasuke nodded still confused and nervous, but ready for food. The man walked over to a pit and began starting a fire. After a few tries the fire began to slowly eat away at the wood. The fish was placed on a stick and the stranger settled down.

"So, my names Akio. I found you hidden in the trees so I pulled you out and fixed you up." He looked over at Sasuke waiting for his reply.

Akio cleared his throat uncomfortably and started again. "Uh, right, so…what's your name?"

Sasuke stared at him for a moment trying to remember his name.

"Oh, well…you don't have to tell me right now, I guess. Why don't you just tell me where you're from?" Akio tried.

Silence again.

"Or just what happened to you? Do you remember anything? Are you able to speak? Can you hear me?"

"Sasuke."

"What?"

"My name's Sasuke." Sasuke said as he moved towards the fire pit.

"Huh? Oh! It's nice to meet you then! I'm Akio…wait, I already…never mind. So where are you from?"

Sasuke was quiet for some time. Fear ate away at his mind and body, making it difficult to swallow. He couldn't go back. Not ever.

Sasuke shook his head. The man looked at him oddly.

"So, what happened to you?" Sasuke shook his head again, then shrugged.

"Well then, what's your family name?" Sasuke hesitated this time, but still shrugged.

"Alright, so…where are you headed?" Sasuke actually looked at him this time.

"Nowhere." He said quietly.

"Uh, okay. So you can't remember anything?" Sasuke nodded.

"Well then…" The man sighed contemplating the next few words. "Why don't you come with me for a little while? We can stop by the village doctor and get your wounds inspected. See if anyone recognizes you."

Sasuke just stared at him. "But," The man looked uncomfortable, "I can't keep you around. I've already had my children and raised them. I don't have the spirit to run after a child and you need proper care. Plus, the travelers' life is not for children." The man finished quickly. Sasuke just stared at him some more then looked away.

"Good. Well…uh…" Akio rubbed the back of his neck.

"The fish."

Akio looked confused for a moment before turning to the fish.

"Fu…ish!" Akio corrected himself midway remembering the child beside him as he pulled the burning fish out of the fire. He beat at the fish frantically cursing under his breathe, stopping once the fire was out. Then picked up the end of the stick, at the end was a burnt piece of unidentifiable fish.

"Well, let's eat up!" He said enthusiastically. Sasuke raised an eyebrow and stared at the fish.

"Heh Heh…yeah. Cooking never was my specialty." Akio admitted. Sasuke nodded.

After dinner they settled down for the night. Akio took back one of the blankets and packed up his supplies so they could start early in the morning. Sasuke watched quietly, which unnerved Akio, but he thanked his luck the kid was acting properly.

"Good night." Akio laid down and sighed. Sasuke watched him carefully. After a while Sasukes eyes began to close as the toll of the day hit his body.

The atmosphere was peaceful.

The air was crisp and clear.

The tea on the table in front of him was his mothers' favorite.

Sasuke smiled and took a sip of tea and looked around himself. His mother sat to his left. She was drinking the tea too. She looked at him and smiled.

He looked to his right where his father sat. He looked strangely peaceful and happy.

Sasuke took another sip of tea and started looking across the table. His mother grabbed his hand. She shook her head, then smiled and let him go.

He looked back at his drink and continued to enjoy it. Out of the corner of his eye he could see a dark shadow was looming across table, but as he looked to see what it was his father took hold of his hand and shook his head. Sasuke nodded and went back to his tea.

As he looked into the cup he saw his reflection. He looked terrified. Disturbed he set the cup down and looked back at his mother. She was looking at her own glass and avoiding his gaze. He looked at his father who was doing the same.

The shadow became more prominent as Sasuke began to feel afraid. He refused to look across the table though and turned back to his cup.

He reached to grab the cup and knocked it over in his haste. As the tea spilt out onto the table it turned red and thick. Sasuke picked up the cup and watched the liquid slowly spread out and begin to cover the table and spill over onto the floor. No one took notice of the liquid as more than what was spilt rushed over the sides of the table.

Sasuke went to stand up and look across the room, but both his mother and father grabbed his arms this time.

The liquid stopped moving and Sasuke settled back down. The shadowy area grew larger and the air felt thick and humid.

The atmosphere was one of fear and distrust. Sasukes eyes darted back and forth between his parents. Each time he looked at them they smiled peacefully to calm him down, but he knew that something was wrong. Every time he went to confront the shadows they stopped him. The shadows grew into a darkness that enveloped them all.

Soon they were sitting at the table with only a shaft of moonlight to see by. Sasuke was trying to ignore the shivering crawling up and down his spine.

He looked back at his mother to find her missing. He gasped and looked towards his father. He was gone as well. The red liquid was crawling up the walls of the room now and Sasuke felt his eyes being forced to look across the table. He closed his eyes to stop himself from seeing. He sat there with his eyes closed until he had calmed down. Slowly he opened his eyes. His brothers red eyes bore into his own, pinning him in place.

"Run foolish little brother! Run away with your useless life!" He heard his brothers' voice echoing throughout his head. It repeated again and again becoming more distorted with each loop. He tried to scream as he felt his panic rising, but his voice was missing. Tears began to accumulate as he stared into his brothers' eyes. Then suddenly his brother was gone and he was all alone with the dead bodies of his parents.

The feeling of abandonment stung far worse than his brothers' words.

He found his voice, but now there was nothing to say.

He wished his brother was here to make it better.

Sasuke woke up crying. He could only remember flashes of the dream he'd been having. His parents had been alive and smiling. Then they were gone and his brother was there. Then he was alone. Sasuke rubbed his eyes and rolled up the blanket he was borrowing. Thankfully the old man was still asleep, so he didn't have to explain why he'd been crying. He walked away a little so he wouldn't wake up the old man and started to do his morning stretches just like he always did while he waited for the sun to rise. The sun finished burning away the last of the morning mist as Sasuke ended his morning routine. The old man was still sleeping when Sasuke returned, so he set about to make breakfast. He went to the river where Akio had caught yesterdays' dinner and found a tree with edible fruits that he recognized and some berries. After collecting enough for the both of them he made his way back to the road and sat down in front of the fire pit. He ate some of the fruit and waited for Akio to wake up. As he waited he began to think.

'I wonder what's going to happen now. Where am I going to go? What do I do? Will someone try to take me back? If they do, what should I do? I'll be all alone. I am all alone. I wonder if I'll get in trouble. Like a missing-nin. Like him... What if I'm dreaming? Maybe I only think it happened, but it didn't.' Sasuke grabbed his shoulder and the pain grounded him. 'No. It did happen.' Right as Sasuke began to think further Akio woke up and yawned.

"Oh, morning kid." He said through his yawn. Sasuke nodded in his direction as Akio rubbed his eyes and started to stretch.

"What cha eaten?" He mumbled sleepily. Sasuke held up a fruit for him to see and took another bite.

"Okay." Akio picked some up out of the pile and started to eat. "So, there's a village close by. I don't remember the name, there's so many villages you just learn to recognize them by sight, but it's small and it has a good doctor. I'm actually traveling through it to get supplies and I'm planning on making my way out of Fire country, so I'll be passing through a few villages. Eventually I'm gonna have to drop you off if we can't find your folks. Alright?" Sasuke nodded apprehensively. He remembered very little about what he'd heard of concerning nearby villages, much less those further away. He frowned slightly.

"Ha-ha, don't worry. I'm sure someone will recognize you before we get to that point." Akio assured him as he stood up. Sasuke followed suit and they started towards the village.

They walked for a few hours in silence before Akio started humming a tune to himself. Sasuke ignored him and instead paid attention to the woods, watching out for bandits and other enemies. Eventually Akio stopped his humming, but replaced it with whistling. Again, he was ignored. In quiet, they had lunch and ate some dried food Akio had in his bag. A few hours before sunset they set up camp and ate dinner. Akio was accustomed to the silence and Sasuke didn't want to talk, so the two hardly spoke. They made a great amount of progress the first day and began their trek the next day with similar results. No bandits ambushed them and after a few days with very little conversation, the two of them made it to the village Akio had mentioned. The doctor wasn't there the first time they stopped by, so they went to the stalls to buy supplies and get Sasuke some decent clothing since Sasuke was still in his ripped up clothing. Akio handed him a bag.

"Here's your new stuff, get dressed." He said as he headed towards a stall selling traveling gear. Sasuke packed everything except an outfit into his new bag and went into an alley to quickly dress himself. His arm proved to be a bit of a hassle as he tried to move it around, but the pain had dulled significantly, so he made it work. He stuffed his old outfit in the bag then stepped out of the alley wearing a dark brown shirt and darker brown pants. On his back he held a small green bag with the rest of his clothing and on his feet were a standard set of sandals. Sasuke walked up to Akio just as he finished up paying for his dried meats.

"Ah, there you are. I see those clothes fit. Good, I don't think the salesman would have traded them for another size. Heh. Guess we better check back in with the doc, huh?" Akio lead the way through a crowd of costumers and made it to the building where the doctor was. He knocked on the door a few times and stood back waiting for it to open. After a minute a tired looking old lady opened the door to see who it was.

"Oh! Akio! It's great to see you! What happened?" She asked with a frown.

"Ha-ha, no. Just my friend here seems to have gotten a little scratch. We needed to see if there was anything you could do."

"Hm? And who is this? I thought your children were all grown up? You didn't…"

"What?! No! I found him on the side of the road and thought I could help him out."

"Okaay." She turned her attention to Sasuke. "Hello young one, I'm Mei, what's your name?"

"Sasuke." He answered as she led them into the building.

"That's a good name. What about your family name?"

"He can't remember anything besides his given name." Akio supplied.

"I see. That's too bad." She said as she started her inspection.

"Where's this scratch you were worried about?" She asked as she looked at his legs and arms where the bandages were still hiding his wounds. Sasuke pulled off his shirt and she started unwrapping the wound on his shoulder. Once she was done she hissed.

"This needed a doctor days ago." She said as she inspected the pus underneath the skin. Sasuke winced as she poked it lightly. She moved to get a bowl full of a green medicine, a cloth, and a needle.

"This will probably hurt a little bit, but after I put the medicine on it should start to numb the area, okay? So try not to move." She poked the wound with a needle and began to release the pus. Sasuke jerked, then held still and cringed. She dabbed some of the medicine on and continued to pull out more pus. After nearly an hour Sasukes arm was completely numb. He could barely move it much less feel it. The wound was clean, stitched up, and wrapped.

"So, Mei, are we all finished?" Akio stepped back into the room. He'd all but ran in his desperate escape when Mei began to stitch Sasukes wound.

"Yes. I just want to take a quick look at the other wounds before you leave." After making sure everything was working properly and nothing else was wrong with Sasuke she let them leave.

"You two should stop for dinner tonight. It's been ages since we've seen each other Akio. I'm sure there's plenty to catch up on." She said smiling. Akio smiled as Sasuke paused to wait for him.

"I'm sorry Mei. We're spending the rest of today searching for Sasukes' family. Then I'm heading out tomorrow." Suddenly he looked at her thoughtfully. "Hey, maybe you can take him in. I'm not sure if we're going to find anyone who knows him. After all that was one nasty wound and I found him with nearly nothing on his back. Chances are he and his family were robbed or attacked." She looked disturbed.

"Do you really think…? Oh, the poor child. That's awful." Akio nodded.

"But not unheard of. I know you need some help around here and he's a pretty good kid. I'm sure you'd take good care of him. The only other choice I have is to hand over to a village adoption agency." Mei frowned.

"I'm sorry Akio. I know he needs a good home, but I'm too old to take care of a child." She smiled sadly. "We both are. Just look for his family for a little while. Maybe someone will claim him. If not…" She left it at that. Akio sighed. Mei was right, he was asking too much for her to try raising a child at her age.

"Yeah, I thought you'd say that. I had to try though. Well, bye. It was great seeing you!" He smiled and caught up with Sasuke.

"Alright! Let's begin our adventure!" Akio grinned as he began walking down the street. Mei stood on her porch watching them leave and waved good-bye to Sasuke as he turned to wave back.