Author: Masqued.

Category: Naruto.

Genre: Angst/Drama.

Rating: PG-13 (For Swearing, Violence, and Thematic Elements.)

Summary: Sasuke has to deal with a great amount of pain because of an incident that involved two very influential and important people in his life. Through it all, he realizes the true meaning behind rain. Slight AU. Warning – Major Death.

Title: Rain is Pain

Italics – Past

'…' – Thoughts

"…" – Spoken

Normal – Present

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Rain. Thick, heavy, acid-saturated rain pelted the ground and the barn. The sky was crying in the misfortune of the day. Clouds beat against each other in anger. Thunder growled at lightning as it struck the ground and trees, clapping against the sky in its own outburst of fury.

'Itachi… what happened? What caused you to lash out? You were always my role model. Damn you!' Sasuke gritted his teeth together as he peered in through a window outside of the tattered barn.

Raven locks latched onto pale skin as rain moistened the silk tresses. Obsidian eyes flickered from the window to the ground as mud began to effortlessly form. Twigs snapped as rain began to pour heavier and heavier with each passing second. Fallen leaves crinkled on the ground angrily at the bitter whip of ice cold liquid droplets.

'My damn role model!' Sasuke growled in his mind, balling his fists in sheer anger and hatred for the sleeping man his eyes were fixated on. Sucking in a deep breath to maintain composure, the raven-haired male spun on his heel and sped through the forest at top speed, sharingan flaring ferociously through the darkly features of the usually passive male.

Four, large oak trees circled a clearing. Large holes were embedded in the ground beside each, roots askew around them. Uprooted trees lay beside them, freshly pulled appendages dripping water into their previous resting spots. Heavy clouds swirled, ready to melt the skies with loud thunder, bright lightening, and a massive amount of rain. Save for the brilliant chirping of a few nearby wrens and for the large gusts of wind that whipped through the air, only long gasps of panting were heard, the owner kneeling with one knee on the floor.

"It'll work, I promise! Just you watch, Sasuke!" Uzumaki Naruto flashed his teammate a ready grin and a proud thumbs up. Leaving the pale skinned, dark mopped male no time to respond to his statement, the hyperactive, loud-mouthed blond sidestepped an oncoming bush and disappeared into the thick forest.

Pain. Anguish. Hate. Sasuke growled angrily as the kunai in his hands began to rip through the bark of one of the fallen trees, the plant's shell slowly beginning to fall away. Moist, moss covered branches began to hit the muddying ground with splashes, decorating the angered male with mud.

"Stupid dobe," he muttered bitterly, teeth clenched together, lips bent around them as he spat at the ground; "Idiot. Moron. Bastard. Damn you."

"Ah, so you've finally found me. It took you long enough you insolent little brat. Have you readied yourself enough to make a better fight then the petty ones our parents tried for?" Uchiha Itachi bit the end of his kunai, then lightly licked its sharpened edge, his sharingan freely flaring. A lop-sided grin pricked at his lips, insanity personified.

"Do not dishonor our parents!" cried Sasuke as he lunged for his brother. The older male quickly dodged the attack, a chuckle emitting his lips. Sasuke seethed bitterly, sinking his upper-level of teeth onto his bottom lip as he bit back the anger of his failure in his first lunge.

Evaporating into a swirl of smoke, the older male appeared directly behind Sasuke, leaning his shoulders forward, his lips practically nipping at the delicate skin of Sasuke's thin, slightly pointed ear. A careless glance whipped from the boy in front of him to the ground as he breathed out heavily.

"You don't honestly think you'd get me that easily, do you?" Itachi grinned whispering softly into said younger boy's ear. "I thought you would be better by now."

"I am better," growled Sasuke as he lunged for another fallen tree, angrily spearing it with his kunai - long, thin stripes adorning its bark as he did so. Red sharingan eyes glowed with anger as he continued his thrashing. Suddenly, he felt a firm grip on his wrist, preventing him from continuing.

"Sasuke." Hatake Kakashi gripped the boys wrist tighter, feeling the younger writher beneath his grasp as though he was appalled at physical contact. The red margins in his eyes twirled, but slowly dismantled, bringing his harsh gaze back to an emotionless, black stage.

Thunder roared through the sky, quickly preceded by bolts of bright lightening. The thrashing noises brought Sasuke to attention as he looked from the sky to his sensei, the tight grip over his kunai loosening.

"Shut up!" Sasuke growled, lunging at his brother again, gingerly stabbing at the latter's chest. Hatred swam over his face as his countenance scrunched together in feathery misconduct for patience. Itachi let out a rather unstable laugh as he dodged the second lunge, then spun behind his brother, grabbing him by the arms, tightening the smaller boy into a tight head lock.

"You can't trick me." Itachi hissed playfully.

"Let it go, Sasuke," warned Kakashi. Letting loose his grip on the shorter male, he sidestepped passed him and then strode to a long log nearby. Grunting a bit at the uneven surface and the moss that covered what was left of the bark, Kakashi let out a reluctant sigh and pulled himself down to a sitting position a-top the wooden surface. Lazily, his unguarded eye rose to the boy beside him.

"Let what go?" Came the harsh response. Contrasting noises to the loud thunder that growled over the sky were heard as Sasuke's kunai whistled through the air, passing Kakashi's head and barely missing the side of his skull by a few inches. Sasuke's eyes darted from his teacher as he looked down to the ground, avoiding the glance he received as soon as the kunai had landed at its destination, his unflinching teacher giving him a rather disappointed glance of his own.

"Oh, I can't, can I?" Sasuke growled in response. Though his arms be tightly locked above his head by his older brother, his fingers were still easily placed into the familiar seal. In no more then seconds, over four dozen clones of Sasuke appeared about the room, only slightly catching Itachi off guard. Once he recognized the attack, he laughed beneath his breath and looked to his brother in mock fear.

"You think shadow clones will stop me?" He muttered, tightening his grasp on his younger brother. Insanity melted over his features yet again as his eyes widened and his eyebrows arched, awaiting the response from his brother, amused at the smaller boys antics.

"Who said we're shadow clones," one of the other Sasuke's muttered in an equally low growl. Simultaneously, the duplicates darted forward at Itachi, keeping him in a current attempt at dodging each and everyone of them. In the process, he dropped his brother's arms and took to fighting off those around him instead, including his brother.

In nearly as quick time as it took to create the clones, the clones had dissipated to nothing more then Sasuke himself. Itachi was standing on one side of the room, breathing slightly heavier then when he began and wiped away a drip of blood that crawled down from the side of his mouth. Sasuke stood at the complete opposite side of the room, breathing rather heavily, leaning down on one knee, staring at the floor in slight disbelief.

"I'll give you credit, little brother, you caught me off guard. But don't think you've won just yet."

"Sasuke, did you ever think about why it rains?" Random. Irrelevant, seemingly enough. Sasuke was taken aback by the sudden comment from his silver haired teacher, who had taken to staring at him again. Inhaling sharply through his flaring nostrils, Sasuke's eyes darted to his teacher, his fist balling themselves tightly again, paling more then they were before hand.

"What?" He seethed, teeth gritted together tightly. The previously calm, onyx eyes narrowed, sharingan beginning to flare again as his gaze stood intently on his teacher.

"The rain. Have you ever wondered why it comes?" Sasuke growled angrily, breaking his gaze from his sensei to the tree he'd previously been attacking.

"I don't wonder. Rain comes because water vapor from lakes and rivers rises into the air, creating clouds. As the clouds drift closer toward the atmosphere, it gets cooler, therefore making the vapor in the clouds condense into a liquid. Once the clouds are heavy enough, it rains. Where is the point in this question?" Sasuke gritted through his teeth, glaring angrily at his teacher.

"That's not the answer I was looking for. Haven't you ever wondered why it comes?"

"No." The melancholy reply was met with a snort from the silver-haired male beside him. Kakashi gave Sasuke a glance of amusement. He wasn't so proud of the way his student was bottling up his emotions and anger, but he also was proud of the way he was still attempting to contain the way he reacted. Knowing said raven-haired male, Kakashi knew for a fact things could be much worse in the small village.

"Well," Kakashi commented, turning his gaze from his student to the clouds rolling in the sky. A moment of silence passed as the teacher's lazy eye shut and he took in a deep breath of cool air. "Besides the scientific reason to why it rains, many believe it rains because we're upset."

"Kakashi…" Sasuke growled again, tightly pulling his fingers into fists. What was this man getting at? Was he trying to teach him something? If so, he'd better get to the point before he pummeled him to the ground.

"Just yet. I will win, just – you – see!" Sasuke lunged forward toward his brother again, stopping dead-center of the room and jumping into the air, soundlessly landing on one of the banisters that held up the ceiling.

"Hiding?" Came a rather loud and obnoxious comment from the older male standing below the banisters the younger sat upon. Another one of his bitter, lop-sided, insane grins pricked at his lips again as he glanced up to his brother, his eyebrows rounding over his eye sockets as his lazy eyes stared at his brother.

"Never." Sasuke spat angrily.

"Then why the sudden jump?" Itachi questioned obnoxiously, slowly striding across the floor, placing his hands into his pockets as he did so.

Sanity. Where does one find sanity in the eyes of a man that has gone clinically insane? 'Sasuke' didn't know what to look for. He's brother had lost it long before he'd killed his parents. He was still trying to figure out why he bothered looking for any form of satisfying sanity in said brother.

Anger built up into his stomach, as well as unannounced chakra. Itachi's face suddenly resembled one of embedded fear as the sudden amount of unregistered chakra made its way to his attention.

"What?!"

"When people don't realize how much pain they're under going, they tend to neglect things around them that need to be done. Whether it be chores, or simple daily habits, it can sometimes effect the balance of things that happened in their living environment. Their carelessness, or lack of awareness, can cause an imbalance in the way things are done, which leads to an imbalance in the weather." Kakashi's lazy gaze pointed back toward the sky as he spoke, his arms slowly embracing his chest in a loose manner.

"Kakashi! You're pointlessness is irritating. Get to the damn point!" Sasuke growled, grinding his teeth together as he glared angrily at his teacher, determining to receive the point within a few seconds or therefore vowing to officially pummel his teacher to the ground.

"When I was an ANBU, I had the privilege of working with a very close friend of mine. A few close friends of mine, to be exact. But this specific friend was my best – my closest. One could say he was my only family." The sudden pause caused Sasuke to stare at his teacher again, still attempting to register any form of relevance in the conversation in his mind, yet still rather urged into finding out the slow way what the point was.

"I was on a mission once with my team. It was simple – protect a princess that needed the protection greatly. Of course, the sudden attack on Konoha's most prized ANBU team was expected, especially because this princess was not the most prized possession of the world. We had all figured before we even had left that this was a trap, but either way out of this, we knew we'd get paid.

"The mission was a success until we were near the Hidden Mist village. A rather skilled group of Shinobi's from a group of rebel's attacked us. We hadn't thought they would be as hard as they were, and one very determined friend of mine greatly miscalculated their abilities as well as their number. He was the first to be hit down – hard.

"No one else knew what had happened until we'd finished off those around us. My best friend sat on the ground, breathing way to heavy for his health. Standing stubbornly, he leaned himself against a tree and gave me his famous nonchalant glance of assurance, flashing me a thumbs up. You see, he never wanted much to be in these kind of positions. He would much rather live respecting nature, or at least teaching about it. But, his family forced honor onto him. Okibito was a hard working, pressured friend."

Sasuke's gasp caused Kakashi's story to stop. He looked up to the slightly betrayed and distraught male before him. Breathing in deeply, Kakashi licked his lips as though the rain had a sweet taste, though he'd be unable to taste it with his mask over his face. He gave Sasuke a moment to let what he'd said so far sink into his so far proven to be thick-headed skull.

Itachi attempted to disguise his worry of the sudden amount of chakra he felt by bringing up something he knew Sasuke would find a rather touchy subject. Spinning on his heel, he turned to the table in the center of the room and pulled himself to a sitting position upon it, glancing up to his brother slyly.

"You know, you're lucky I killed them." These soft words were followed by a soft chuckle that emitted the older dark haired boy's lips. A bitter, lop-sided grin flowed over his lips as his eyes rolled upward to glance at his younger brother. "They were real jerks. They pressured me and the rest us to be the best there ever was. All they ever wanted was for us to make sure we were better then everyone. Even with my advanced abilities, they weren't satisfied, constantly criticizing what I did as though it weren't enough. Those damn bastards!

"You really are lucky, you know. Those stupid morons didn't know one damn thing about parenting, and you know it! Why do you think I was such a suck-up? If I tried my best naturally, it was never enough. I had to be the good little kid that did everything and more. I had the impossible initiative. Those damn bastards barely noticed! All they did was fawn over you – you sick little bastard.

"But why did I kill them and not you? Because life would be so much harder if I'd done that. I wanted you to grow up knowing – believing – without a doubt thinking that it was your fault our parents died. You know why? Because it was." He grinned, his eyebrows quirking in accentuation of his sly expression.

'That… that bastard! How the hell could he do that? I… I will not let him get away with it! Uchiha, you'd better be ready!' 'Sasuke' thought bitterly, glaring angrily down to his brother, onyx eyes memorizing the older male's body below him.

"The… the pressures…" Sasuke's eyes widened as though he'd been given a revelation. Narrowing his eyes at the ground, and then at his empty hands, he turned his attention back to his teacher; "What else do you know about my brother, Okibito?"

Kakashi brought his gaze from the still darkening sky to the boy beside him.

"And what does all of this stupid nonsense have to do with rain?!" He added irritated by his teachers sudden pause and lack of obvious relevance.

"Okibito looked at me. He wasn't to happy that he was so badly hurt, and he wasn't happy that he'd miscalculated so poorly. What he thought was beyond me – he'd been a very valuable asset to my team. Even when he'd fallen down to many times to count, he would still get up, bite back the pain, and continue fighting.

"He was getting better. Still, he hadn't completely recovered before we reached the Hidden Mist village, and just before we entered, we were attacked again. It wasn't nearly as oppressive as the first attack, but still enough to keep us on our toes. It wasn't until after the battle that we noticed Okibito was gone."

"Gone?!" Sasuke growled. Pausing from his intense gaze at his teacher, he glanced at the sky after being hit with a cold droplet of rain. A few more soft droplets followed, causing a light shower to begin.

"Yes, gone. We didn't know where he was, and only one person had seen him before the fight had ended. He was nowhere nearby – our first thought was he'd been captured." Kakashi paused, taking in a deep breath, running his fingers through his silver tresses as they slowly began to get slightly damp with the light rain that began to fall.

"Captured? Someone from the Uchiha line? Highly doubtful," came the snobby, very conceited response. The once shocked face pulled into a rather unimpressed expression as Sasuke gently shut his eyes and turned his face from his teacher, as though partially dismissing the subject at hand.

"He wasn't," Kakashi reassured him; "but he wasn't healthy. We found him deep in the forest. How he'd gotten there, he didn't even remember. As soon as we found him, he did one thing I'd never seen him do," Kakashi paused again, letting out a soft, tension breaking chuckle; "he ordered everyone except for myself to move away from him and far away enough that they were no longer within earshot. That's when I made one of the oddest promises of my life.

"There he was… just lying there, bleeding from his chest, groping my vest, staring at me as though I were the love of his life. Pulling me down harshly by my vest, he grabbed me in as tight a hug as his tired and weak body could allow, squeezing emotion into me. I didn't know how to respond, so I simply pulled him into an equally tight embrace, neglecting his wounds.

"You know, we all knew he had the sharingan embedded in his eyes. Still, he always wore goggles on his trips. Dark, shaded goggles. It was like he was afraid of people knowing – afraid of frightening people into not liking him." Kakashi choked up over his words for a second as he imagined through memory the look on his best friends face as he sat in his arms; "He pulled those damn goggles off his face and hung them around his neck, staring at me with those bright sharingan eyes. Grabbing my hand, he took it into his own and placed it over his left eye. I was overly confused and gave him the most belated confused expression after watching him take my hand.

"'What are you doing?' I asked, pulling my hand from his face.

"'Kakashi,' he said, 'I need you to promise me something. See this eye? I need you to take it.' My eyes must have been the size of the moon the way he laughed at me.

"'What?!' I replied, receiving another laugh in return.

"'You and I both know I'm not making it – it out of this forest.' He was beginning to choke on his words. My confusion completely disappeared as he continued; 'I don't want any part of me to dishonor my parents, I want them to know I died fighting. Besides,' he shifted as though he was uncomfortable. His face was slowly getting paler and paler with each passing second; 'I need to let my family know I'll always be alive, even if it is lived in someone else.'

"You don't know how much I hated hearing that – how much I hated having to look at him as he began to die from massive loss of blood. You may wonder why I only had my left eye taken out and exchanged. Why? Because his right eye was mangled. When I'd reached him, there was a giant splinter piercing through it, blood finally having dried around it.

"You can't even fathom what it's like having to look into the eyes of someone you'd grown to see as the only family you had and watch them die." Kakashi stopped speaking again, glancing from his student to the sky as the rain rapidly quickened and rapidly grew in its weight.

'Sasuke' could no longer take the immense dishonor his parents were being shown by his older brother. Growling deep in his throat, his dark eyes flared angrily as they stared down at his brother.

"You… you sick bastard!" He belted. Suddenly, surprising Itachi to the point of falling back onto the table he sat upon, his younger brothers body twisted into the exact appearance of a rather loud-mouthed, blue-eyed, careless boy with messy golden locks. An orange suit adorned his small, heated, near hyperventilating body as it sank and rose with his heavy breathing.

"Ah… the fox." Itachi's face grew eager; "So we finally meet. Where is that little brat of my brother?"

"Not. Here. He doesn't even know where you are. I came after you myself. Now I can see why he wants your sorry ass dead!" Naruto growled, jumping from the banister to the floor. His usually cheery blue eyes were filled with rage as they flickered angrily to the raven-haired older boy in front of him, his frustrated expression nearly frightening Itachi off of his seat.

'Shit, that's a shit-load of chakra…' Itachi thought darkly, weighing his options. He'd know about Naruto for quite sometime, and could only guess that his brother didn't, or else the power-hungry Uchiha habit would have kicked in.

Maintaining what he could of his composure, Itachi glared at the blond boy in front of him, a sly smirk gracing his thin lips.

"I've been waiting for you," he commented, causing Naruto to be aware that his current rival had been awaiting the day that they'd met so he could attempt to obtain the fox demon and its power that dwelt within his small, weak body.

"Whatever," came Naruto's reply as he gathered his own and the demon's chakra into his body, then split himself into six clones, not including himself. Each clone quickly attached themselves to Itachi's body, causing the raven-haired male to itch and squirm as he attempted to get away. Still, there was no possibility of creating the hand seal to disappear. He managed the free himself from two of the clones, then two others, then the last two.

In a quick flash, the boy ran forward to the small blond that radiated the fox's chakra, pulling two kunai from his side pouch and grabbing them in either hand.

"You're mine!"

"It rained extremely hard the following day. Harder then I even cared to notice at first. Most of the following day was spent in a surgeon's office, my eye being removed and then replaced by the only tangible memory of my best friend," Kakashi informed Sasuke as he broke the short silence that settled over them; "I didn't realize what the rain symbolized until I happened to recall something your older brother had told me. He told me:

"'Kakashi, did you know it rains when you're upset? Whenever people get all bottled up in their feelings and neglect their daily duties, they cause such an imbalance in the way of life, that the weather is affected. Of course, it is because of evaporation, condensation, and nature, but people never really seem to grasp that rain can come because of how they act.'

"I gave him such a rather uncaring glance as he chuckled at me and just told me that I would remember it one day. I just wish it wasn't because of him that I would have remembered. And I definitely wish I didn't have to remember it again."

Naruto was unflinching against the far wall of the barn, eyes staring steadily at Itachi's slim form as it raced at him. The two kunai were soon slammed into his upper body, one quickly going straight in the middle of his tattoo, the other resting in the center of his sternum. A very disgruntled, angry Naruto whimpered and yelped in the pain he was forced under, aquatic gaze intimidating his opponent.

"No, I'll never be yours." Naruto's grin was mischievous, and slightly amused. Itachi's focused glance caused his attention span to be rather short. Boiling over his features, anger spread quickly across his countenance as he dug his kunai further into Naruto's body.

"But you will, be, mine!" Came a rather determined voice from behind, soon followed by two kunai being rammed harshly into Itachi's back. The same kunai was pulled, then shoved in again, this process being repeated until the bloody holes in Itachi's back were countless.

"N-no…" Itachi whispered, eyes wide with fear and anxiety as he glared unfocusedly at Naruto. Spitting impulsively, blood flowed from his lips as his limp form dropped onto Naruto's stuck-to-the-wall body. The weight on his already forced standing body caused another whimper to escape his lips.

Still unaware of his friend, the boy that had attacked Itachi glared down at the now lifeless male. Dark red sharingan eyes swirled angrily as he stared at the limp body, an insanely relieved smile perking his lips up. Another whimper from his blond friend caused his attention to divert to the problem at hand.

"Naruto!" He yelped, suddenly aware of his best friend's need for attention. Pulling the kunai from Naruto's chest, Sasuke allowed Naruto's pained body to fall onto his own. Tightly, protectively, he grasped the smaller boys waist, then slightly tripped backwards with the sudden extra weight added to him.

Dropping to his knees, Sasuke pulled the blond into his arms, then reached one free hand to begin unbuttoning Naruto's blood-saturated shirt. In mid-undress, a weak yet reasonably tight grip wrapped its way around his wrist, causing his eyes to crawl from where they were on the battered body of Naruto, to said boy's face.

"…Naruto?" He asked, confusion etching over his face as he let his hands drop to his sides.

"Sasuke-" Naruto began, but choked on blood that had begun to fill his mouth as he attempted to continue; "Sasuke, d-don't bother. J-just do… do me a favor?" Tear-filled oceanic eyes glared, meeting the obsidian gaze of his best friend.

"…Yes?" Came the uncertain reply as the pale, dark-haired boy stared down at the blond.

"D-don't… don't forget me…" Came the slow, whispered response. Unnaturally, and out of the norm, Sasuke's dark eyes widened. Grabbing the weak, blond boy into his arms, he fiercely shook the smaller boy's shoulders.

"What are you talking about? I won't have to forget you, you dobe! Don't you dare die!" He screamed angrily, continually shaking his best friends shoulders.

A rough hand slapped its way over Sasuke's left cheek, causing his abusive shaking to stop. Dropping the boys shoulders, the teenager choked back tears that he'd long hidden from everyone else he'd ever known.

"Naruto… Naruto, you can't die." Sasuke commanded him as irregular tears welt beneath the raven-haired male's eyes. He didn't want to fathom this – he didn't want to worry about not having his best friend, his number one rival, he's only family.

"Sure I can…" Naruto replied sarcastically, a small smirk tainting his lips.

"Naruto, damn it, don't you realize it? You can't die!" Sasuke choked harder on his words, eyes widening as though he attempted to emphasize his point; "…I love you."

Naruto smiled wider and pulled Sasuke into as tight of a hug as his weak body could manage, the latter tightly returning the embrace.

"I love you too, Sasuke. D-don't… don't forget me," he repeated, embrace suddenly weakening around Sasuke's thin frame. A shaking, pale boy choked angered, disturbed words through his clenched teeth as he gripped the lifeless boy in his arms, whimpering beneath fits of sobs.

"Me too," Sasuke admitted softly beneath his breath. Rain began to soar from the sky even harder then it had so far, causing the unshed tears to go unnoticed. Kakashi nodded to the boy, uncaringly remaining on his seat on the fallen tree, soaking up the rain that fell from the sky.

"Lets go, the funeral's going to start soon, and we don't want to miss Iruka's address." Kakashi suggested, pulling himself to his feet and dusting himself off nonchalantly. Gazing from the dark sky to the boy beside him, Kakashi saw the calmer, less rampage-ready expression on Sasuke's face, relieved inwardly that he'd helped the boy to an extent.

"Right." Kakashi nodded to the boy and shoved his hands into his pockets, walking from the clearing into the depths of the forest.

"Naruto…" Sasuke looked to the sky once he was reassured that Kakashi was no longer within ear-shot. "…I'll never forget you." Sasuke's tears melted with the rain and he barely bothered to wipe either from his pale, sickly face as he turned on his heel and followed in suit after Kakashi.

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A/N: Well, there it is. Don't ask where it came from. You can make it Sasuke x Naruto if you want, but that's not how it was intended to be. I hope you all enjoyed this. Please do leave a review, it may give me hope that I'm not the worst writer in the world, and it may also inspire me to write a lighter story. Farewell!