Full Summary: Ever since his parents died, Sasuke has amnesia. While investigators look into the murder of the Uchiha parents, Sasuke stays with his older brother. He thinks of Itachi only as a brother, but what if Itachi feels more?
Warnings: Yaoi, ItaSasu, Uchihacest. Don't like, don't read. Some spoilers, because I made Naruto's dad alive (I like him. So what??)
Disclaimer: Uh…If I owned Naruto, bad things will happen. Hehehe…
Right. I got this idea from…I don't know where, but the writing style used in this fic is basically my tribute to Jodi Picoult's amazing writing, and by that I mean the different perspectives. I can't write like her, but…I felt like writing a fic like that (going no where, again…).
Dedicated to Light is Gay! Thanks for all your support!!
Prologue: Memories
Was it a dream? The only evidence that proves it…A photograph of you and I…in love…
30 Seconds to Mars 'Was It a Dream'
Prologue Part 1
They are all whispering around him. Why, was the one thing he needed to know. Uchiha Sasuke clenches his hand around the strap of his backpack, eyes scanning over unfamiliar territory that is supposed to be familiar but just can't be. He feels stupid, like he should be in pre-school instead of freshman high school. Sasuke stays behind all of the gossiping girls, the back-slapping jocks, and the other typical groups of high school. He already decides to go into a group of his own, at least, until he finds someone that can pull him out of the mystification.
Sasuke spots a large clique of what seems to be filled with at least eleven kids, some older, some the same age as he. The spiky haired blonde turns around and allows a candid smile to cross his face. The raven hair can only blink in recognition that he is being recognized as the gang seems to drift towards him, all sporting surprised and expectant faces, and waiting for Sasuke to say something familiar.
He decides to go against their wishes and say nothing. He doesn't know them. Give him a reason to know them. "Excuse me," Sasuke mutters, trying to get through. All he wants was to go home, to someplace that is somewhat familiar, to someplace that has someone waiting for him. The group will not allow him.
Sasuke sees the blonde haired boy's (leader?) eyebrow go up. "What's so funny?" The Sasuke demands, speaking his mind instantly.
"Your voice. It got…deeper, I think," the blonde says, cocking his head to the left in uncertainty. Sasuke was about to do the same, but he refrains once the other boy performed the motion. "Ah, well. It's nice to have you back, Sasuke!"
Sasuke bits his lip. He figured that something like this was bound to happen – his past self did not have to be anti-social did he (right now, he dearly wishes he used to be)? He closes his eyes and begins to utter the words he had practiced before, for the time has come to announce things to strangers who were not strangers in the past. "I don't know you."
"What?" a (pink haired?) girl screeches, her emerald eyes wide with some sort of distress. "Naruto," she turns to the blonde haired leader "they warned us about something like this, didn't they?" She turns back to Sasuke and holds out her hand politely. "My name is Haruno Sakura. I already know you, Sasuke-kun, but…Well…" Sakura trails off as she wonders if she said the right thing.
"Yeah! My name is Uzumaki Naruto! I'm going to be the best ramen maker slash eater one day, so don't you forget it!" Naruto holds out his hand with a peculiar cheesy grin on his face.
They all slowly begin to introduce themselves. The names spill into Sasuke's head, none of which that were proverbial. He tries to memorize them, he tries to recognize them, he tries to, and he tries to. The only that stand out the most is the blonde haired leader (Naruto) and the pink haired girl (Sakura). Much to Sasuke's disappointment, none of the names trigger anything in his head.
Sasuke begins to wonder whether or not he should introduce himself. They claim to know him, yes, but he can already hear them whispering behind his back, about what he should be, how much he's changed, how much they miss the old him. Sasuke chooses a time when Naruto and Sakura were distracted to move away.
Maybe he should transfer to a different school.
A different Sasuke, a different school (and a different life).
Prologue Part 2
Laminated memories are lying on the table, with smiling faces etched onto them for as long as they can hold on. His finger traces against that one, his favorite, the one before fate began to take its rage on the two brothers. Alluring eyes (that maybe should belong to a girl) narrow slightly as daydreams try to commute in and out through his head. He attempts to filter the forbidden ones, the ones that bring nightmares and seem to cause horrible weather. He scours them down until they are merely nothing but an impossible hallucination.
He checks his watch and sighs. Thirty minutes before he should leave to pick his younger brother up from school. Right now, though, he wishes that he could stay here, in this haven filled up to the brim with vivid fantasies. But everyone knows that such illusions are fake.
He prays that they are real. If not, he prays that he will stay in them forever and ever. For there is his younger brother, holding a shocked expression at having a camera right in his face, bundled up in winter clothes like an overprotected child, with snow falling around him and on him, framing his face and somehow causing every single detail of him to be magnified into something beautiful, something irreplaceable.
But he also knows that they do not have to be magnified to show such splendor.
Uchiha Itachi smiles that gentle smile that has been locked away only for two occasions, when he's alone, and when he's with his brother.
The picture is tucked away into its rightful place, hopefully to be kept there forever, never to fade away. They are his last hope to cling onto the past, to recollect his beaming face that never seems to manifest any longer.
They are his last hope to cling onto the past, a past that maybe he should let go of.
Prologue Part 3
Every sound reverberates in this place. It's classic in empty spots like these, but there was something too anomalous about it in this household. That is just one of the facts Uzumaki Minato records into his notebook as he searches the Uchiha household that was forsaken that one day. For some reason, he was chosen to look at this case. Sure, a detective is supposed to, but Minato abhors cases that have to do something with anyone his son's age or younger. The quandary with that is that the older Naruto gets the more limited cases he has to take.
A hate I have to get over. Minato unconsciously scribbles it into the notebook, notices, and scratches it out quickly. He sighs, running a hand through his slightly rowdy (they have been tamed before, but not this morning) blonde hair. As he approaches the kitchen, the smell of blood is still evident. Minato tries not to distort his face in disgust, primarily because he knew that would be rude to the dead.
The outlines of the bodies are on the ground, one of a female that was partly on the table and partly on the floor, and another of a male who was near the doorway. Minato carefully stepped over one of them, frowning. Uchiha Fugaku, a man he knew personally (that doesn't mean he likes him much). Minato keeps frowning when he stares at the female's outline – Uchiha Mikoto. He did not know her personally, but he saw glimpses of her every once and a while. She was…no, is a beautiful woman.
The sleuth runs the facts through his head yet again, hoping that he did not miss anything – one thing could ruin the entire picture that was gradually being colored in by the painter, who is Minato himself. At the moment, the only thing that is clear is the outline: what happened. Now is the time to figure out why and how. To Minato, the why is more important than the how, as it should be for everyone that is searching for the x in an equation.
No one other than the residents was in the house during the time of the murder. Uchiha Fugaku and Mikoto were in the kitchen. The whereabouts of the two brothers, Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Sasuke are presently unknown. That would not do. The likelihood of one (or both?) of the brothers committing the crime is high, much to Minato's chagrin.
Uchiha Fugaku and Uchiha Mikoto were both stabbed to death. No fingerprints were found on the knife for an unknown reason. A fight, perhaps? The detective is a father himself, he knows that children (mostly adolescents) always fight the urge to kill their own parents (possibly themselves, as well). What would drive a child to murder their own parents? Minato runs another hand through his unruly spikes, noticing that he still has to fix his habit of jumping to conclusions.
According to the autopsy, Uchiha Mikoto had no signs of struggle. A typical mother. I'll give my children anything, even my death. Okay, maybe not a typical mother, Minato admits. But it seems typical of Mikoto. Always over protective of the boys that everyone knew were bound to slip away sooner than she thinks. Minato would not know, though, mainly because Kushina, his wife, died at childbirth. He figured that she would have been that overprotective of Naruto, as well.
According to the autopsy, Uchiha Fugaku showed many signs of struggle. A typical Fugaku. The chief of the police force in Konoha, Uchiha Fugaku. He seems fearless when you first set your eyes on him, but through the years of working with him Minato had to notice something about him that was off. Sure, Fugaku always placed his life on the line for work, and he hides the fear of losing his life pretty well, too. But something suspicious constantly bubbles up in the sleuth's chest, and he swears he can always see a glint of fear in his chief's eyes – fear of death? Maybe.
Uchiha Sasuke has had amnesia ever since the murder.
Well, that left some hint, a starting point. Interviewing the survivors is always an option – not an option, actually, but a necessity. Uchiha Itachi is on his next list to interview, but the fact his younger brother is the one that has the amnesia due to something (shock, most probably) is a leading point.
Minato does not know the brothers personally, but Itachi's ingenious skill at everything he does and Sasuke's indescribable character had to reach him one day. The solitary thing that left a lump in his throat is the thought that both brothers were prime suspects.
Prologue Part 4
Sasuke waits outside while the school empties itself out until it is just a building. Teachers are still inside correcting tests, checking over homework, watching teens for detention, and tutoring in-need-of-help kids. Sasuke can barely comprehend all that was being taught to him that day – all the unfamiliar terms, all the unfamiliar friends, all the unfamiliar customs. This entire world is unfamiliar.
He had also heard that the old him was a straight A student. Do they (Itachi?) expect him to do the same? His brother's status of being an academic genius and an athletic player in all sports reached Sasuke's ears during the whole school day, and how they look forward to see how he progresses even with his amnesia. Sasuke does not care. All he wants now is to go home.
A car pulls up near him. One of the only recognizable things around here to Uchiha Sasuke. He reaches the trunk of the car and tugs it open, placing his already overweight backpack inside. When Sasuke seats himself in the passenger's seat, Itachi sends him a tiny smile matched with a slightly anxious gaze.
"…What?" Sasuke demands, avoiding his brother's stare. Is he expecting him to take out a piece of paper and shove it in his face, saying, hey, look, I got an A+! School is easy, Aniki, a piece of cake… Sasuke sees Itachi's faint reflection on the mirror, a longing look for something unknown. He instantaneously wishes that his older brother would stop looking at him like that – he's not the Sasuke he once was. Sasuke's fingers dig deep into the armrests of the leather seat he is sitting on, trying to drift off into a world where things were perfectly fine (where, possibly, he would not exist).
"How was school, Sasuke?" Itachi asks, turning the radio down a little. Sasuke glares at him. The movement of turning the radio down is like asking someone to surrender, to talk. The raven haired boy refuses to tell his older brother anything. Not now. Not while he's in a crappy mood. Sasuke turns the radio up louder than it was when he first entered the car.
Itachi's hands tense on the steering wheel and relaxes again, almost reluctantly.
Prologue Part 5
Everyone will stare at Uzumaki Naruto in surprise if they find out that he's good with most household work – everything but cleaning. Cooking, fine (ramen rocks, and the girls love a man who can cook). Fixing machinery so you do not have to waste money calling for someone, fine (manly thing, to be able to do that). Cleaning, um...(problem against it?) His father is continuously out doing work on detective stuff, leaving the blonde to do as he pleases.
Fix a meal. Unenthusiastically do homework (hopefully finish). Watch whatever's on TV. If homework still is not finished, finish it. Grab a random snack while playing video games. If bored with that, chat with others on computer, or play violent games on computer. If father is home, fix a dinner. If father isn't home, fix dinner anyway (RAMEN!). Watch TV. If you have to (scratch that, want to), study. Go on computer for any random thing. Stays on computer doing any random thing. Go to sleep or stay awake while staring at ceiling. Whichever suits you, Uzumaki Naruto…
That little drabble that Naruto had made for himself is posted on the refrigerator door, sending him some sort of reminder to do whatever he skipped in his boring home life. For Uzumaki Naruto, school is more exciting – and he has no idea why, himself.
In between playing video games and chatting on the computer, the phone rings in the house. The arbitrary blonde decides to wait until the answering machine picks up, and then changes his mind when he checks the caller ID. It said Uchiha, Sasuke on it. Confusion ripped through Naruto as he began to wonder why Sasuke was calling him, but he realized (took him a while, too) that he'll find out.
"Hey, what's up, Sasuke?" Naruto chirps while he holds the phone by his shoulder. He holds a controller in his hand as he mercilessly mashes the buttons. He reaches for the bag of chips that lay close to him, takes a handful, and shoves it into his mouth the Chouji way.
"Uh…Well, you seemed to be the most trustworthy out of the group," Sasuke confesses slowly. Naruto blinks, finding the word 'trustworthy' being the complete opposite (much to his own annoyance, anyway) of what truly portrays him. Sasuke persists, and the blue eyed boy can not help but notice that his voice is shaking. "I just wanted to know what I was like before I lost my memory."
"Uh, sure, Sasuke, wait a sec," Naruto says, reaching over to the game console and shutting it off. He is considerate enough to focus completely on a conversation like this because his friend sounds very serious. Seriousness is something that the blonde usually does not comprehend, but friends are a different matter (friends are everything!!). "Okay, where should I start? Your voice wasn't as deep as it is now, for one thing. Then again, we're supposed to be going through 'changes' now, so I guess that's natural…" Naruto delves deep into his mind, trying to recall the old Sasuke (far away…?). "Don't take it personally, but I don't know you yet, so it's hard to try and make differences."
"It doesn't matter. Pretend you're telling a friend who doesn't know the old me." Sasuke's voice is rushed now.
Naruto decides not to waste any time. "Sasuke was (is?) a pretty happy person. He had some sort of innocence that made him untouchable – can't really explain it, maybe your brother knows, but he kept a lot of secrets about his life at home. He got average grades at everything except for math; he was a real whiz at that. His favorite color was lighter blue, and he'd sometimes take things too literally. Teachers often favorited him and I don't know why. Uh…He avoided talk about his older brother for some reason. He was pretty fragile at athletics, so…he wasn't so good at that. And…we were like best friends."
Naruto wonders if it is okay to sound sad while talking about this. This is Sasuke, after all.
"Thanks, that's all I needed to know, I guess," Sasuke said, his voice soft. The other boy hangs up the phone without saying good-bye – to Naruto, that is a sign meaning that he's anxious about something. Is he wondering about the same things Naruto is? He stares at the wall and begins to ponder this, hoping to come up with a solution.
Questions run through Naruto's head. Is it wrong to pretend that the Sasuke on the phone with him now different than the Sasuke he was talking with a week ago?
Then again, is it wrong to pretend that the two Sasuke's are the same?
End Prologue
Ah, prologue. It was planned to be Chapter One, but I realized it seemed too short to be a chapter. Oh well. Hope you enjoyed!! Please review!!
Spoilers from Naruto Shippuden Manga are scaring me! If I don't post in a while, you'll know why. You have been warned.
KoneKo