Disclaimer: I bet you know the drill.
A/N: Set in the post-war future. Since I'm not up-to-date with the manga, I can't tell if Sasuke's OOC or not. Still, hope you enjoy.
Sepia
The day's task was weeding.
Back in the day he hated weeding, but he tolerated it because he could tell himself it taught him patience and perseverance – two qualities he needed for becoming a stronger ninja and achieving his goal. Well, he was one of the strongest shinobi alive, and his goal was achieved. Weeding was nothing more than a punishment.
His hands pulled at the tangle of leaves and roots more fiercely because he knew he couldn't show how much the D-rank aggravated him. The ANBU guard hidden in the dense treetops would no doubt chuckle to his mask if Sasuke began grunting and cursing. He wouldn't give him that.
Sasuke continued pulling out leechy plants from overgrown soil while his sweat soaked the earth. The sun hit the nape of his neck, hot red even on his closed eye-lids.
He guessed it wouldn't do to ask his civilian employer for a glass of water. The woman didn't look happy when an ex-criminal appeared on her doorstep instead of three Genin. She was quick to shoo her kid-daughter away from the yard. Sasuke's eyes narrowed.
'And this is the demise of the great Uchiha clan. Konoha's garbage men. Konoha's garbage.'
Part of him knew it wasn't like that. It understood that he should feel extremely lucky that he was allowed to return back to forces in any way. But it was hard to feel anything but humiliation while his back moaned in the uncomfourtable squat.
This was the foreseeable future. Not even Naruto could greet him with the once-felt ease.
And he didn't need it. The pity. The lame attempts at connecting. The pointless tries to become a part of the village again.
He was here because...
Well, only because Itachi would have liked it. Sasuke in Konoha, that is. Sasuke of Konoha.
It was a stupid dream.
„Itachi-kun".
It took him a moment longer to realize that the word wasn't uttered in his mind.
Sasuke froze. 'I'm hallucinating.'
„Itachi-kun!"
Sasuke followed the voice. It came from the porch.
He let go of the grass and rose. An old woman squinted at him. She sat there from the early morning, when Sasuke's employer helped her ease into a chair. She hadn't moved since.
„Come here", she beckoned with her walking stick.
Sasuke approached with caution. His brother's name rang in his ears.
„It is you!" the old woman sounded delighted. „My, I haven't seen you in a while, look how much you've grown! And how handsome you are!"
Sasuke blinked.
It clicked.
'Senile.'
He stared at the crinkled old face, beaming with a benign smile. He couldn't account for it, but he felt disappointed. And sore.
She didn't mind his silence.
„How's your family doing?"
'Dead.'
„Fine."
It was awkward to keep up her illusion, but he didn't see a point in breaking it.
The old woman nodded. „So nice you came to help out. Mina can't do everything by herself."
Mina being the daughter, he presumed. „Hn."
Her eyes were squeezed in an intricate pattern of webbed skin and sepia-coloured liver spots.
„How's your little brother? Will there be a ninja out of him, too?"
Sasuke didn't know whether to smile or frown. It was so absurd.
„Yes."
He wondered how she knew the Uchiha, but the woman soon answered the question on her own.
„And your grandma?"
His surprise prompted her clarification.
„Did I tell you I know your grandma?" The stick tapped the floor. „Yes, we played together when we were little. Many, many years ago. Is she doing fine?"
Sasuke barely nodded. He searched for his grandmothers' faces, but they were out of reach. And senile as she was, this woman clearly had them.
The question escaped him before he could think twice.
„What was she like?"
His head ducked in embarrassment. He hoped the ANBU didn't hear.
„Kotone? When she was little, you mean? I can't imagine she would change much. Lively as always."
Kotone. He knew it from the gravestones. It was weird to hear it spoken.
The woman looked up to the sun and smiled. Wisps of white hair escaped her bun and stirred in the breeze.
„She could outrun every boy on the street, even before ninja school. Even your grandpa. He didn't like it."
He looked away from her laughter. His gaze fell on the hands laid on the stick's handle. They looked soft and warm.
„We used to play catch-me-if-you-can right there in the forest. Of course, she would always win." She pointed at a couple of scraggy young trees. Her eyesight must have been giving out as well, seeing the forest that grew there before Pein's attack wiped it all out.
„You should ask her yourself. She should have loads of stories to tell."
His heart was a rock sinking to the bottom of his stomach.
„Sure."
„I'm so glad I've seen you, Itachi-kun. Please, tell Kotone Yue said hello."
„... I will."
„It's very hot today, would you like some water? Mina!"
„No! Thank you. I'm fine."
„You sure?"
„Yes."
„Alright. Off to work, then!"
She playfully shooed him away with her stick.
Sasuke stepped down on the ground and walked over to a heap of withering leaves. He squatted and resumed his work. Every couple of minutes he would look up to glance at the past, dozing off in her chair.
For a moment, he felt so intensely bile-rising jealous of the old woman's illusive world with its old friends, grandsons, and afternoon naps. It passed when his eyes grazed over her kind hands. Maybe Kotone-baa-chan had ones just like that.
He looked away at the thin trunks of a future forest. He tried to imagine two girls – one dark-haired Uchiha, and one resembling Yue's granddaughter – chasing each other in their shadows.
Was it possible to make it happen again?
He wanted it to be.