It was dark. Very dark. Sasuke couldn't remember one time he'd ever seen someplace so dark. Not only that, it seemed that the darkness came from a veil--like it wasn't just dark, but something was covering the light.

And since it was just so dark, when the light finally shone, in what seemed like forever, it was so peircing it nearly blinded Sasuke.

He lifted his arm to the intense light, trying to adjust. He was able to make out a vague figure. It cast such a long shadow that it touched Sasuke's feet, and it seemed for a moment that they, he and the man, were one and the same.

Finally, Sasuke was able to make out the figure--a tall, raven-haired man with the Uchiha crest on the back of his black shirt.

Sasuke had the feeling he should be feeling an intense wave of hatred toward this man. But he didn't--couldn't--remember why. And he couldn't feel that way, he just couldn't. He seemed so mysterious, like he was a man he'd never met before, yet used to know. Someone who had changed immensely from the person he'd known, or he was a person Sasuke had thought he'd known but in actuality had barely known at all.

In any case, he wasn't moving. He just stood there, back to Sasuke, in a doorway that had no hinges.

Sasuke started to run. He didn't know why, there wasn't anything compelling him to go to the man. But he knew he didn't want to stay in this darkness. It was just so...suffocating. So mean, so cruel. It seemed the darkness wanted to get him, to do something bad to him.

And even if that man could not help him, or would not, at least he'd be out of the darkness, in the light where that angelic man stood. He couldn't imagine what he'd do if he were trapped in this place, so dark, so horrific. He just needed to get to him.

But every time he tried to gain some distance between him and the man, it seemed the distance grew longer. The man became so, so, so far away, so he was barely visible. And Sasuke was becoming more and more lost in his world of ignorance and stupidity.

He became overpowered by the sense of helplessness, of fear. What would become of him? He just wanted out, but there was just no way. There was just no way.

Suddenly, the seemingly solid ground beneath him gave way, and he began to fall everlasting into a pit of complete and utter darkness, forever to descend without ever stopping, or even slowing down. He was going too fast. What would happen if he stopped? Would he die? Would he hit the ground so hard he'd die? Would it matter? Who would care? Would anyone care? Would he?

Would that man care?

The future was so unpredictable, so unsure of itself.

What was going to happen?

--

Sasuke awoke with a start. It was the middle of the night, and his heart pounded with such force that it seemed almost to burst from his chest. The world seemed to spin, and he tried to regain control of himself.

He was sweating so bad. He staggered from his bed and into his little kitchen, in the little apartment he'd been given years ago after that day. He downed a whole glass of water, and panted over the edge of the sink.

By then, he could not recall what had awoken him, or what he had dreamed. Sasuke vaguely remembered running, running so hard, but never being able to catch up to something, or someone.

He shook his head. It didn't matter anyway. He needed sleep. He had a mission tomorrow with that idiot Naruto and that know-it-all Sakura, and that perpetually late Kakashi.

He shut off the light and went back to bed.