A/N: So this is a little thing I wrote a while ago. Nothing much. Just some Sasuke POV childhood to end of part I feels, and as always I can't resist throwing tiny hints of SasuNaru in. Because it's awesome. Seriously though, this is just random rambling from me. So I hope you like it anyway, and as always, please please please leave a review! They're yummylicious. :)

Storm

Uchiha Sasuke's childhood was a peaceful one.

He had a family that cared for him, and he was safely enveloped in his world of quiet jealousy and adoring admiration. He knew little of the outside world and even less of the secrets in the clan; only what his father and brother showed him.

His idol was his brother, the one he tried the hardest to match. His inspiration was his father, the one that he would never gain approval from. His mother soothed his wounds, and for the briefest, most transient period, he had a perfect life.

But then things began to shift. Itachi snuck out more, and his eyes grew somber and dark, heavy with the knowledge of death. His father trained Sasuke, but even as euphoria soared through him, he still couldn't shake the feeling that this was just a replacement for Itachi; Itachi, who was not Itachi anymore.

Then one night, everything changed. His world flipped upside down and was dyed red with his relatives' blood—black in the moonlight, staining the wooden floors of his house and the walls and most of all, Itachi's hands. Sasuke watched, stricken, from the corner of his mind as his once thought safe world crumbled to bitter ashes around him.

He grew into an adult in the space of that night, eyes desperate and cold. I will not forgive, he swore in his mind. Itachi must die for my clan.

Sasuke saw no one. His classmates were faceless and ignorant, especially his 'fangirls'. What did they know of his pain? What help would they grant him in his quest of revenge? He only focused on learning and becoming the best (I have to be better than him).

And then… one day, he saw.

It was only for a brief moment, when he was sitting on the half-bridge he had learned the fireball jutsu on. The sunset was fierce and for a second, he let himself think of his family, and colors leached back into his eyes. A prickle tingled the back of his neck, and he glared behind him, straight into the oddly blue eyes of one Uzumaki Naruto. He had no clue who this idiot was, but little did he know that already Naruto had aspired to beat him; already, he had aspired to change Sasuke's life.

Sasuke turned petulantly back around, blatantly ignoring the boy, and after a moment, he heard the boy's footsteps echo away.

He didn't know why, but in that brief, brief minute of orange sunset and pain and loneliness and blue, blue eyes, he smiled.

The second time he saw, it was the day they were put on teams. He glanced over, and lo and behold, there was that same blue-eyed boy from the bridge.

A burning dislike kindled inside him, fueled by the pink-haired kunoichi's obsession with him and the blond's pure idiocy. His lazy sensei didn't help matters either, and how was he supposed to beat Itachi like this?

It seemed, as always, he would have to do this on his own.

Sasuke didn't believe in teamwork. He didn't believe in friends, or family, or trust. Itachi had drilled that into him with a slash of metal and his parents' dead bodies. So for the life of him, Sasuke couldn't comprehend why he was opening up to Team Seven—and most of all, that blond moron named Naruto.

He didn't know why he gave his bento to him, nor did he know why he bothered to put up with him at all. Why he didn't mercilessly beat him into a pulp, why he allowed himself to be dragged to ramen after every mission, why he felt the tiniest shreds of remorse when Naruto berated him for being mean to his precious Sakura-chan. He didn't know why he even bothered talking to him, let alone provoking him. He didn't know why he would let himself die for him.

"My body moved on its own," he gasped, his eyes blurring, weakening. He was dying, but Sasuke felt strangely free, detached. Who cares if he didn't kill Itachi? At least he had saved someone, someone close to him.

(he's my best friend)

"Kill him for me," he whispered, and then he was sinking into dark oblivion.

It didn't feel like death. Death was cold and unforgiving, sneaking up to people and striking them before they knew it. Death was blood and the vicious fear in their eyes, inescapable.

(Death was Itachi.)

This death was soft and warm, almost like he was on the verge of reawakening any minute. Fire swirled through him instead of ice, and he felt water raining down on his face. It was peaceful here, like being in the midst of a spring rainstorm.

Then the storm broke, and he gasped as he floundered his way to the surface, alive and all too familiar with the promise he had just broken. He couldn't lose sight of Itachi. If he did… He could never face his clan.

Sasuke hardened his resolve, and he withdrew from Naruto—or rather, he tried to. It was difficult, when they shared all their missions and Naruto was constantly in his face, screaming and laughing and generally being Naruto. He couldn't stop himself from feeling fiercely proud when Naruto made it into the chunin exam, nor could he stop his body from moving to save Naruto. Save Team Seven. (Save my childhood.)

Then the strange man (Orochimaru, was he) left a curse seal on Sasuke's neck, and all he could feel was dizzying, addicting power. It left him breathless and horrified afterwards, the feel of bone breaking through skin still soaring through him. It was terrible…but possessive.

Perhaps it was the power corrupting Sasuke's mind. Perhaps it was Naruto's growing strength, and Sasuke's own incapability to grow stronger. Perhaps it was Kakashi's lessons, or Sakura's tears, or the Sound Four coming to retrieve him. Maybe it was Tsunade, who should've left him for dead. Maybe it was Itachi, who hadn't killed him and had left him alive once again.

(Maybe if it had all been different, our lives would be different.)

Who knew, but by the time Sasuke was at the Valley of the End, his mind was set. This was his role now, and he couldn't back down. He had a duty. His mind was on one track and one track alone – this path was a dark and lonely one, and he couldn't allow Naruto's brightness to be tainted by it. He had to do this alone, kill his family, seek his power, destroy his bonds.

(Yet how could he explain that feeling when he saw Naruto fall in front of him, face so innocent? How could he feel his heart breaking when he was sure it had been lost with his family's death?)

He bowed his head in the rain, soaking wet but unwilling to care. Bone-weary exhaustion weighed down on him, and he whispered, a single tear rising to his eye, "Will you let me come back, Naruto, if we make it through this? Will you let me come home?"

(Because in this storm, this never-ending hurricane, you are the only thing that has kept me safe. You are the only thing that has kept me sane.)