A/N: WARNING: Character deaths. Also, I wanted to say that I am not a strong believer in God or shit like that. I just heard about the ten rules and a plot bunny was born. So, just wanted to point that out to you guys, because some people could have different beliefs and all of those things, and I didn't want to start something weird from that. Anyway, enjoy~
He was dying and he knew he couldn't do anything about it. It was pathetic, really. He couldn't believe he was taken down by some measly ANBU. There were six of them. He could have taken them out. All of them. But there was one more, hidden in the shadows, waiting. He was about to use his signature move and kill them all but the hidden ANBU had seen it. The moment he caught his wrist to gather his chakra. It was his most vulnerable moment and he knew it. But the ANBU were elite (when were they not?), and he had been tired, his Sharingan already gone, leaving him feeling even more vulnerable. That's why he had decided to concentrate his chakra more, even if he hadn't used both of his hands like this since he was little.
It was a slower but more powerful method. And he needed power to take them out. His time and chakra were running out at an alarming rate and he didn't think he would have enough strenght for a second try. And that was the moment the hidden ANBU was waiting for. The shadows moved and the ANBU jumped out, lightning gathering in his hand (why lightning? were those chirping birds? was that his jutsu?), and in seconds the hand was through his chest. Sasuke had time to blink before the hand was pulled out of his chest and he fell face first on the ground. He managed to tilt his head enough to see a pair of feet before him.
He heard a strangled sob close by, before his vision was filled with smoke. He managed to tilt his head even more and would have laughed at the irony of life if his lungs weren't getting filled with blood and half of his face wasn't shoved in the dirt. The people standing before him were his old teammates - Kakashi and Sakura. They had henged themselves and he guessed the smoke was from them dispelling the henge. Kakashi was the one who pierced him then. Three of the other five ANBU were dead and the other two were propping themselves against a tree, probably to wait for him to be finished and for Sakura to heal them afterwards. He moved his head to see Kakashi coming closer to him but he didn't have the strenght to move away. He was turned around so his back was on the ground, and he could see his ex-teammates more clearly.
They had changed. There wasn't anything that different about their appearance except a few wrinkles here and there but the look in their eyes had changed. They looked colder, the light that had been shining in them, dimmer. And he knew he was one of the main reasons for this change. Kakashi sat on the ground next to him, crossing his legs and looking at the sky. Sakura silently followed his example and sat at Sasuke's other side, hugging her knees and looking up as well. Sasuke could see tear tracks on her cheeks. Heh, even after all this time she still had some sympathy left for him, even though he didn't deserve it. He turned his attention back to Kakashi when he started talking.
"We should finish you off right now, you know. And we would have. You deserve it. For killing so many innocent and especially for killing him. That day when you two fought, I believed you would finally find what you were looking for and come back to the team. I believed that you two would end the circle of hatred. Maybe I shouldn't have believed in that so much. Maybe I should have come sooner, just to be sure. Maybe I could have stopped you. But now it's just a "maybe", isn't it?" Kakashi sighed and looked at him and he wanted to turn away, to stop looking at him, because he couldn't bear the guilt he felt when they looked at him like that. Like he was a lost cause that couldn't be saved (it didn't matter now, did it?). Like he was just a shell of their old teammate and they were looking at the broken mess left behind in that shell.
"I want to kill you." This time it was Sakura that spoke and he moved his gaze to her but she was still looking at the sky. He was grateful for that, too. He didn't think he could handle another disappointed gaze. "I want to kill you and know that he was avenged. But, you know, I think he wouldn't want me to even after all you've done. And that's the worst thing. Because I have to do it. I have to. We have to. And it's unfair, because he wouldn't have. But you know…" She stopped, taking in some much needed air, her voice cracking. "I think, even if he was the most important person to us and we want to avenge him, even if he wouldn't have wanted us to, we still have to kill you. For everyone else that you killed. For every family that you ruined and for every new grave you made. But for him…we will leave you like this." She shakily said, and he heard the two ANBU protest at that.
One sharp look from both of his ex-teammates made their protests die out. "He will die here, anyway. He's probably already feeling the blood gathering in his lungs. The blow from the Raikiri missed the heart by a few inches so he wouldn't die immediately. Just for him, we won't kill Sasuke now. We'll let him have a few moments of peace." Sakura said and then brought out a green tag from her pouch. She placed it on Sasuke's chest, under his wound, and made a hand sign. The tag glowed a bright green, before turning a bloody red colour. The kanji for "time" was on the tag. " This is a tag I made. It will explode when your heart stops beating. We will also put a barrier around you and cast a genjutsu around the area. It's not a place where many people pass by but we don't want anyone to try and steal your eyes. Even if a ninja dispells the genjutsu the barrier won't let him pass. Only a few people can break it, and they aren't random rogue ninjas." Kakashi and Sakura stood up and put on the genjutsu and the barrier. The ground glowed red around Sasuke and symbols spread around his body in a circle. After the red light died down, he could see black symbols on the ground.
"I'm sorry" Sasuke managed to choke out. They deserved at least that much, even if that wouldn't change the things he's done, he needed to say it. Both of his teammates turned away and he could see tears falling on the ground beneath their feet. He didn't deserve their tears but he was glad they would still cry for him. With a last glance at him that revealed their teary eyes, or eye in Kakashi's case, they disappeared along with the other ANBU. Sasuke was left alone in the clearing, the only thing he could do now was to think.
They say that your life flashes before your eyes or you remember your most precious people before you die but he thought about a certain visit he had to a bar in a village ruined from the war. He had been there a few hours ago but now the memory felt old. He had gone inside the village's only bar, not really for the cheap drinks as much as for the rest. He was being chased by the ANBU but he couldn't have imagined what his fate would be. He had managed to lose his chasers for now but he had to put a lot of traps on the way, and then break into a fast paced tree jumping. That cost a good amount of chakra and he had felt the loss immediately. That's when he had seen the village and decided to stop there for a quick rest. He had put a henge over himself, making his hair a shoulder-lenght brown color and his onyx eyes a light brown. He was wearing a cloak and had put the hood over his face before entering. He didn't think there were any ninjas in the ruined village, so he wasn't that worried his henge would be detected.
He would still keep his guard up though, just in case. And he had to watch out for those ANBU too. He had relaxed slightly after quickly scanning the area and not feeling any strong chakra signatures. So there really weren't any ninjas here. Not like he expected any in the first place. The village, if you could call it that, was just like a cracked mirror. It still functioned and you could use it but it could never be the same. The buildings were ruined and some of them weren't even there. The worst part was the people. They were all dirty, wearing torn clothes that barely stayed intact on their bony bodies. They looked like they had gone through hell and back, which in a sense they had probably done. Most of them were sitting on pieces of cloth and had signs near them, saying things like 'Will do anything for money.' , 'Please help me.', and so on. Some were just sitting there, propped against the walls of their ruined homes, staring into nothingness. He had walked past them without a second glance, knowing he was responsible for this in a sense.
He had stopped before a girl and her mother. The girl was lying in her mother's hands and her body was limp. Lifeless. The mother was bent over the girl, holding her close but strangely she wasn't crying. It probably wasn't her first loss, Sasuke thought as he walked away. That's when he had found the bar. It was mostly intact and he pushed the double doors, the wood creaking under the pressure. Walking inside, the smell of grime and cheap beer hit him hard. He held back his grimace and went to a more secluded table at the corner of the bar that had a good view of the door and the other parts of the room. Sitting down, he looked around the bar. It was filled with drunk men, most of them passed out on their chairs or the floor. The bartender walked over to his table, looking at him impassively but he could see a certain alertness in his eyes, like he was expecting a kunai through his chest any second.
"What would you like, sir?" It was kind of funny how the man was so calm when behind him people were getting drunk and passing out. He looked like it was a normal thing, which it probably was, and Sasuke was the abnormality here. Sasuke looked at the bar that was behind the bartender and saw rows of different drinks. After enchansing his smell with chakra though, he could smell the drinks and deduced that most of them were either going to expire soon or they were, for a lack of a better word, total shit. He decided he wasn't going to risk it.
"Just water." The bartender looked at him strangely but seemed to decide not to comment. He brought the water and after that left him to tend to another man that was shouting loudly at the other side of the bar, standing on his table and swinging his cheap beer around. When the bartender went to get the drunk man down the guy started to protest.
"Oi, oi, lemme go."
"Please, sir, get down. You're drunk. You're going to fall from the table." Sasuke was surprised the bartender was acting so calm. He expected that with the condition the village was in, everyone would be drowning in cheap alcohol or would be taking their sorrow out through violence. He had to give this guy some credit. Even at the face of a screaming drunkard that could very well swing his bottle down at his head, the bartender looked like he was dealing with a child throwing a temper tantrum. Even though Sasuke was sure the bartender could dodge a bottle. He looked like he was in his late twenties, very tall and slim but Sasuke could see muscles there not just plain slimness. The guy had short black hair, black eyes and an earring through his right ear. He was wearing a standard waiter outfit: black pants, bow tie, shoes and a white shirt.
The thing that caught Sasuke's attention was the scar that ran across the man's face. It started from the right side of his forehead, going over the tip of his right eyebrow, over his nose, under his left eye and finished at his cheek. The scar looked old and it made the man look a little more intimidating. When he managed to get the drunkard off the table, Sasuke saw a cross shaped necklace hanging from the man's neck. The bartender put the drunkard on a chair, and the guy fell forward, passing out from the alcohol in his system. Suddenly, the bartender turned towards Sasuke, and the Uchiha averted his gaze back to his cup. He had rested enough. As he finished drinking the water, he heard footsteps coming towards him and then the bartender was sitting on the chair in front of him.
"Do you believe in God, traveler?" The man asked and Sasuke almost laughed, both because of the randomness of the question and because he had never been much of a believer. He sure as hell didn't think there was someone up there that wanted to help him. If there was, he wouldn't be here today.
"No, I don't. Never have and probably never will." The man hummed, tilting his head and looking at Sasuke curiously.
"And why is that?"
"Let's just say that if God was actually there or if he wanted to help me, I wouldn't be here or be the man I am now. If God actually exists, then I'm probably getting "help" from Satan." The man laughed and looked at me with a weird look in his eyes, like he knew something I didn't.
"Have you ever heard of God's ten rules, traveler?" Sasuke nodded. "Do you know the rules?" This time the answer was negative. "Well, the rules are ten and they say you will lead a good and respectful life if you follow them and believe in God. Would you like to hear them?" Sasuke stopped at that, unsure what to do but since he still had some time before he departed again, and the bartender looked really eager to tell them to him, he nodded. Might as well hear them. "The first rule is that there is only one God for you. You can't have others. The second is that you should not create Gods of water, earth, air and so on. There is only one God. The third is that you should not use God's name without a reason. The fourth is to do all of your work the first six days. Remember that Sunday is God's free day. The fifth is to respect your mother and father. The sixth is not to kill. The seventh is not to cheat on your loved one. The eight is not to steal. The ninth is not to lie about things that would harm or are against your loved one. And the tenth is that you should not wish for anything that belongs to your loved one." The man finished and got up. "Please do think about these rules. Also, keep your money. You may need it in the future and I haven't had a customer ordering something that's not alcohol in ages. It was a nice change. I have to leave you now. Hope you have a safe journey, traveler." The man smiled and went to another table.
Sasuke had stared at him for a while, before getting up, leaving the bar and then the village. He had been jumping through trees when an explosive tag was suddenly thrown at the tree in front of him. He had managed to dodge the explosion and saw that the ANBU had found him. He clicked his tongue in annoyance and managed to lead them to the clearing he was currently at, and the rest is obvious. He coughed up blood and the memory faded away but he could still hear the deep voice of the bartender reciting the rules. Now that he thought about them, he concluded that he had probably broken all of them.
He didn't really believe in only one true God and he had believed in more than one for sure. He had definitely believed in Gods of fire, lightning and so on but it was a passing belief, so to say. He believed but he wasn't a dedicated or passionate believer. He kind of just did it because others did. He had definitely used God's name a lot of times when it wasn't necessary, mainly when he was agitated or he had screwed up a jutsu and gotten hit instead. As for the free day, when you are always chased by ninjas it's kind of hard not to work every day. He couldn't stay in one place anyway. It just wasn't normal for him to be relaxed and do nothing. There has always been a reason for him to be on edge.
As for respecting his parents, he did respect them. Until he realised they only saw a failed chance to make another Itachi. His mother didn't show it, unlike his father but he knew she also thought Itachi was better. He still loved them but after that realisation hit home he wasn't sure he could respect them again. The next one was laughable, really. There isn't a shinobi that hasn't killed. He had blood on his hands that wasn't his. It was the blood of enemies and innocent, and his hands would never be cleaned from it.
He actually had slept with different women. Even if he was not interested in a romantic relationship and a happy family, he wanted to rebuild his clan, and the only way to do that was to have a woman with him. He had even married a woman. Their relationship wasn't anything romantic though. It was purely a 'give and take' marriage. He married her so she could give him children, and she married him for money. He had introduced himself as a rich traveler. It was easy to steal enough money to satisfy her and she never noticed he didn't always have money. She was just a normal civilian girl, nothing special about her. She knew he had slept with other women but didn't say anything about it, didn't care (but who did anyway?). He had slept with other women to increase his chance of getting a child, because after a while, he started to suspect his wife couldn't give him any. He was careful with the women he slept with, though. He didn't want to get a sick child because of a drug addicted or alcoholic mother. Sadly, none of the women got pregnant. He had erased their memory of him after that.
He had stealed a lot, too. While he was running from trackers and rogues out for his head, he would steal clothes from shops or some clothes left on a wire outside to dry. He could mask his scent from dog trackers too if the clothes were just washed. He has stolen more than clothes of course. Bags, money, food and other things. He has harmed his wife by telling a lie. She had been found with another man while he was away travelling. Her parents had come to visit her and had found her with the man. After Sasuke came back from his travel, her parents begged him for his forgiveness, ashamed of their daughter's deed. She was behind them and when she saw him she exploded, shouting at him to tell them about their fake marriage. How it was all for money and how he had only wanted a child from her. How he would have divorced her after he got his precious heir. Then her father had slapped her, his face red from embarrassment and anger. He had turned towards Sasuke, bowing and apologising again.
Her parents had said they would do anything for him if he didn't tell anyone about this incident. His wife had shouted again, saying their marriage was just a show. Saying he should already tell the truth. Sasuke had denied her accusations. He told her parents he would forget everything that had happened if he could divorce with their daughter. They had agreed quickly, afraid he might change his mind and expose their daughter, making them the laughing stock of the village. After the divorce, Sasuke left the village. He was usually always away and he didn't have any strong attachments to the place, so it didn't bother him to leave it forever. He had also confirmed his suspicions about the woman not being able to have children. It may have been cruel, what he had done to her at that time. He hadn't thought about her until now, didn't even remember her name or how she looked like. It was around two years ago when he left that village. He had a permanent henge while he lived in that village, and only removed it when he went "travelling". His chakra reserves are big but keeping the henge constantly required a lot of "travelling" so he could refill his reserves.
As for breaking the tenth rule, he had done that too. He had envied his wife, wanted her life sometimes. Sometimes, he just wanted to have been born into a civilian family, to have become a merchant or a fisherman or anything else. Just to be normal and not worry about the strenght of his trackers, or his next meal or if he would make it out alive of a fight. But life wasn't that easy. He didn't have a choice, and he was thrown into a life he had thought was unfair. And he still thought it was. Especially after that fight. He had declared he wanted revolution (for what? was it even worth it?), to become Hokage, to change the world. But that idiot didn't want that. And they fought, and that fucking idiot fell, leaving himself wide open.
And then Chidori came to life and went through that idiot's heart. He had just smiled (why?), saying he lost (why?it wasn't supposed to go that way.), and Sasuke watched his best friend lose the light from his eyes, his body going limp in the Uchiha's arms. Sasuke had pulled his shaking hand out of the bloodied chest, looking at it. Last time he couldn't do it. He had hesitated. He had fled. This time he had done it and he wanted to scream. He wanted to scream and shout at the unfairness of everything, at his own stupidness and at his teammate for dying, for letting himself be killed. Naruto was dead. He was dead and Sasuke felt like he had lost the last piece of himself at that moment. He thought the blonde idiot could do it, that he could kill him, or at least they could end it in a draw. He didn't think this would happen, that he would win. He didn't want to win, and after that he had fled. He had left his teammate and best friend there and fled.
He guessed he should have expected to pay the price for killing Naruto. He should have expected it, and he was sure he actually did. He was sure he could have dodged that Raikiri or at least moved enough so it wouldn't be a fatal blow. He was sure but he hadn't moved. He had stayed there and waited for that final strike. Now that he thought about it, maybe he had been waiting for that final strike since that day. After all, he didn't have anything left to fight for, did he? Maybe there was a God out there, and this final strike was his saving grace. And, as the last breath left Sasuke's lungs, he thought that if he hadn't broken God's ten rules, despite leading the life of a shinobi, he could have had a better life. He could have followed them, and he could have prevailed.
A/N: Hope you liked this. R&R~