Uchiha Sasuke glared at himself in the mirrored water of the pond at his feet. His eyes were bloody red as his Sharingan activated. How was it these eyes could read everybody but him, when the one person he barely knew was himself? He had thought his life's mission had been so clear to him. Get Strong. Kill Itatchi. Build up his clan. Simple, linear, and most importantly focused. But now that was all ruined because of his stupid emotions.
He drew his katana and futilely slashed at the face he saw looking back at him. The water rippled and he looked at his blade, imagining the water streaming off of it to be crimson blood. The blood he had spilt when eh nearly killed his best friend. The tears he had made her cry…
For being a so-called genius how could he be so stupid? He let them get too close! He let them matter to him, he let them replace his hate with compassion, caring, and-though he hated to admit it-love. He loved Naruto as a brother…and Sakura…Flashes of her cherry-blossom colored hair caught the corner of his eye and he turned, only to see a tree. A Sakura tree. He slid his katana back into it's sheath, and walked over slowly to the tree's low branches. They welcomed him into their sweetly scented bosom and he leaned against the trunk. He couldn't allow himself too many moments like this. It would make him soft. He needed to remember the hate and pain death had brought to his life, the thrill of vengeance his brother brought to his mind.
He felt his hand begin to crackle with electric energy as he remembered his brother. Itatchi had been a hero, a caregiver, a perfectionist, a prodigy child…and a murderer.
Hate me Detest me
His fist turned almost painfully hot and his arm shot out without him thinking. He felt the contact, and he felt the intolerable heat and electricity fade and the bloody mist that had clouded his vision faded. Sasuke looked down at the tree he had felled with one thrust of his palm. It looked crumpled and defeated. He remembered Sakura, lying there on the bench that night he left. Thank You.
Why had he said that? What had possessed him to thank the annoying leech who had clung to him for so many years? Because for the first time in years she had made him feel something he had thought was lost to him forever. Love. He shook his head at his own stupidity. Love was the opposite of hate, love destroyed hate. He needed that hate.
"Sasuke." A feminine voice called out in the mist and he turned almost half expecting the emerald eyed medical nin to pop out and begin to fawn all over him. A part of him knew Sakura wasn't weak like that anymore. That day when she and Naruto had found him in Orochimaru's lair she had been ready to smash him to pieces. Hardly a caring gesture. A glimpse of spiked hair gave him a sudden image of his golden haired, knuckle-headed best friend. "Ready to go?" Karin looked at him, carefully taking in his odd expression. His onyx eyes were out of focus and his face had an uncharacteristic placid expression. "Yes." Sasuke was pleased to hear the hard commanding edge was not gone from his voice.
"Where to next?" Juugo asked obediently emerging from the mist.
"The Akatsuki hideout." Sasuke gave them a death glare and walked coldly past them.
A sixteen-year-old teenage girl with Emerald eyes and pink hair watched from just beyond the lake. A single tear slid down her cheek and she walked carefully over the pond, the water rippled under her feet and cast an eerie silver light up onto her fine features. She rest a glowing hand on the gnarled burnt trunk of the tree where Sasuke had mangled it with his chidori. Slowly she lifted up the tree until it stood again, fully healed. She looked after him. The one she used to love. The one she still loved, even though she also hated him. Love and hate. Yin and Yang. Though they were apart they would always be together.