THE PREVENTER
Prologue
***
There was a full moon that night, and a cool spell had set upon the village of Konoha. Most people would have been asleep by this time, especially if they were shinobi and needed their rest, but one ninja was not.
Wearing all black and blending in with the night, the figure made its way swiftly and easily toward an open window, hoisting itself in and landing soundlessly on the wooden floor.
Moonlight fell across the room, reflected on the pale face of the boy who was sleeping there. He had black hair and, had his eyes been open, then they would have mirrored the same blackness that was in his soul. For now, however, his dreams were uninterrupted by the nightmares that usually plagued them, and the figure could see this just by looking at his face.
The figure stood there for the longest time, carefully concealing its charka so as not to alert the sleeping boy of its presence. A strange sort of feeling seemed to well up in the figure's chest, a pain that had grown from six years of separation.
Carefully, and with fingernails painted black, the figure reached toward the boy's throat, breathing only very slightly as every breath it drew felt like ice.
I have to know…if it really is him…
This was not how it should have been. The figure had seen Sasuke Uchiha die, had seen his body lying in the mist covered with senbon and blood. If this really was Sasuke Uchiha, then he would still have it…
Slowly, the figure's hands drew back the covers from Sasuke's neck, revealing his bare chest, and…
"Aha…" The figure breathed silently, as the moonlight glistened off the chain Sasuke wore around his neck. On the chain was a simple silver locket and the figure, quite forgetting itself, reached with shaking fingers and pried the locket open.
Inside was a picture of a ten year old girl, who had long, almost knee-length dark brown hair and mismatched eyes. The right one was blue and seemed to lack a pupil, a sea of ocean-blue iris – whereas the left one was blood red and had a noticeably black pupil. She was wearing a white singlet with black three-quarter-length pants, and a blue headband with the Leaf Village plate on it was tied around her neck. In her arms was a blue-eyed black cat, and she was smiling brightly for the camera.
The figure stared silently down at the picture, its face mere inches away from Sasuke's.
After all this time…he kept it…even though he must've thought I was dead…
There was a lot of emotion in these thoughts, but tears refused to gather in the person's eyes, which had already seen to much pain in sixteen years of life to ever cry again.
Suddenly, and without warning, Sasuke's eyes flew open.
For a moment, his starlight black eyes stared into the orbs of ruby and sapphire above him, and for a moment he knew he was dreaming for, of course, by the time he'd sat up, he was all alone again…