Indra Otsutsuki's chest heaved weakly, his breaths quick and desperate. This...this was his death-bed. In a room with his followers all running around, trying to figure out a way to delay his death. This wouldn't do.
Indra remembered his father's death. Everyone had kneeled next to him, comforting him. Of course Indra didn't get that. Sure, it was somewhat nice to know how desperate they were to keep him alive...but it wasn't the same.
Deciding that enough was enough, he turned his head weakly to one of the men running about. It was a boy, maybe half his age. He gestured the boy towards him.
"What is it, Lord Indra?" the boy asked.
"Out…" Indra whispered. "Take me...out…"
"You...want to go outside?"
"Y...Yes…"
"I'll take you, My Lord."
When the boy managed to get Indra outside, the old man stared at the night sky.
Suddenly, unquenchable rage flooded his system. These stars...these were the same stars he had looked upon with his idiot of a brother. His brother who had gotten what he should have.
Asura got the title, the recognition, and the power of six paths. What did Indra get?
Nothing.
But...Indra would change that. His body may die here, but his soul will live on, and it will one day defeat his younger brother.
His eyesight started to fade.
His brother...his brother who had loved him. His brother who was so insufferably, obnoxiously cheery. His brother who, even in the last time he saw him, could brighten up a room just by walking into it.
A tear slid down his cheek. He felt so much regret. So much longing.
Indra Otsutsuki didn't forgive Asura Otsutsuki. He didn't miss Asura Otsustuki.
But Indra did miss his little brother who had always looked up to him. The one who, just by being there, made everything feel better.
Before his breathing stopped and he took his final breaths, Indra Otsutsuki saw the stars.
As he closed his eyes, he made one final wish.
Even if I can never have revenge...I wish that I'll at least have the stars.
The first time Sasuke Uchiha opened his eyes, it was midnight, when the moon was highest in the sky.
His elder brother was holding him, smiling down, but Sasuke did not care. All he cared about were the stars in the sky.
Tears fell down his face and he let own an ear-splitting wail. Itachi, fumbling slightly, whispered, "Shh, Sasuke, it's alright. I'm right here."
But Sasuke Uchiha would not stop crying.
As Sasuke blew out the candles for his third birthday cake, Itachi clapped his hands.
Shisui, who was also clapping, asked, his mouth in a wide grin, "So, Sasuke, what'd you wish for?"
Sasuke's smile seemed to dull a little. Itachi blinked. "Sasuke, what's wrong."
Sasuke ignored his big brother. Instead, he glanced out the window. It was sunset and soon, it would be night.
Softly, he whispered, "I wished for the stars."
It was three weeks after Sasuke's sixth birthday, and Itachi was walking by his brother's room. That's when he heard shuffling inside. Pausing, he wondered what Sasuke could possibly be doing at midnight.
He slowly opened the door, expecting his little brother to be fidgeting about with a book or some kunai.
Instead, Sasuke was standing next to the window, trying to fix the its broken blinds, tears streaming down his face.
Itachi's eyes widened.
"Sasuke," he asked, running over to him, "what's wrong?"
Sasuke stumbled when Itachi held his shoulders, looking at him. He wiped his tears, making a point not to look out the window.
"Nothing," he said, his voice cracking.
"Sasuke...why are you crying?"
Sasuke turned his head away, but unfortunately, he turned towards the window. More tears spilled out of his eyes.
"Sasuke!"
"I don't know!" Sasuke yelled out suddenly.
Itachi, slightly startled, pulled back. "What do you mean?"
"I don't know why I'm crying! I...I just feel mad!"
Itachi was silent, before, "Why are you mad?"
"I told you, I don't know!" he yelled. "I just feel so mad at someone about something and I don't know who I'm mad at or why I'm mad and it just...just-"
"Is frustrating?"
"Yeah! And then...I start feeling sad. Like...I feel sad about something that I used to have but don't anymore...but I don't know why. I don't remember losing anything!"
Itachi was silent. What was he supposed to do in this situation. This had never happened to him before. He knew he had to comfort Sasuke...but about what?
He couldn't say "Don't worry, you'll find your toy" or "You'll figure out how to throw a kunai" or "Father didn't mean it".
Instead, Itachi decided to ask something else. "What happened to the blinds?"
Sasuke sniffed, then looked down at the broken blinds on the floor. "Th-They were kind of crooked so I went to fix them...I might have pulled too hard…and, well, this happened."
"...are you sad because of the blinds?"
"No! I told, I don't know why I'm sad! If it were the blinds, I would've told you!"
Itachi gave him an apathetic stare.
Sasuke blinked is lips. "I'm not sure...but I think it's the stars."
Itachi blinked. "The stars?"
"Y-Yeah. Every time I see them...I cry."
Itachi thought back about how Sasuke always used to cry...at night. How Sasuke always closed all the blinds at night. How he refused to leave the house at night.
It actually made a lot of sense.
Well, he thought, I might be able to work with that.
"Sasuke...maybe you're sad for the stars?"
"...for the stars?"
"Yeah. They're all the way up there, alone."
"...I guess."
"But they're not. They have each other, the same way you have me." He wiped away Sasuke's tears. "See? There's nothing to cry about."
Sasuke stared, before hugging Itachi, nodding into his chest.
Sasuke knew that's not why he was crying. He knew that he would still cry, because this wouldn't change anything.
But his big brother was right there by his side, and even if he couldn't fix all of his problems, he would always help along the way.
After that day, Sasuke still wanted to cry every time he saw the stars...but he could stop himself.
The tears weren't unstoppable, the emotions nowhere near as overwhelming, and Sasuke could take them. He just bit the inside of his mouth and scrunched up his eyebrows and, while his eyes would still water, he wouldn't cry.
But, every now and then, he'd let the tears fall from his eyes. After all, he heard that it wasn't good to bottle up all of your emotions.
When Sasuke woke up in the hospital room, he was confused. Then, he felt blind rage.
How could Big Brother do that?
The previous night, Itachi Uchiha had killed everyone in the Uchiha Clan.
Sasuke trembled. His face was red, his anger at its max, and he only saw red. He let out a scream of fury...and then cried.
He cried for the brother that he knew he would never get back.
And somehow, it felt so painfully...familiar.
After the Uchiha Massacre, Sasuke started crying again. Every time he saw the stars, tears would flow freely from his eyes, just like the time before Itachi had confronted him about it.
This time, however, he let them. He didn't hold anything back. Every night, he would open the blinds to his apartment window and stare at the stars. He'd let the tears fall down his face.
Every night, Sasuke Uchiha would cry himself to sleep.
He didn't want to mourn for his family anymore...but he wanted to cry nonetheless. This seemed like the best way to go about it.
When he went back to the Academy after a week, he stayed silent. He didn't want to face anyone, he just wanted to learn and then leave.
He sat in the empty classroom, waiting for his classmates to start filing in. They slowly but surely did. They all either ignored him, whispered about him, or gave him empty condolences.
The most Sasuke gave them was a glance and a nod.
But then...but then…
Sasuke's eyes widened slightly as the room brightened. It wasn't the lights, it wasn't from the windows, but it was something...someone.
He imperceptibly glanced towards the classroom door. And there...was Naruto Uzumaki, neon-orange and all.
For a second, his dark onyx eyes met Naruto's bright cerulean...bright like the stars.
And Sasuke wanted to cry all over again.
Why did he want to cry? He wasn't looking at the stars, (no matter how bright Naruto's eyes were, they could never compete with the twinkling jewels up in the heavens), so why?
And then it hit him.
Because Naruto.
He snapped his eyes away and growled softly.
That dunce was not going to be the reason he cries.
Sasuke got eventually got used to Naruto and no longer felt the overwhelming urge to cry in his presence.
The fact that the idiot was downright pathetic was certainly helpful.
Afterall, you no longer felt the urge to cry for someone who you've internally laughed at.
He stopped his nightly ritual of staring up at the stars. He didn't know why, but it no longer felt as...calming, as it had.
"Team 7 will be comprised of Sakura Haruno, Naruto Uzumaki-"
"YES!"
"Just my luck…"
"-and Sasuke Uchiha."
"YES!"
"Nooo!"
Sasuke inwardly wanted to pummel Iruka-sensei, but then realized that it would be a little drastic.
So, here he was, silently fuming in his seat.
Of course he got put with the bumbling idiot and the (frankly, quite creepy) fangirl.
...what did I do to deserve this?
Sasuke cursed his luck. Not outwardly, though.
Ever since that one time when his mother heard him say a...not-so-friendly word that he had learned from the big kids at the park, he had resolved to never utter anything like that again.
He was still terrified that his mother would somehow rise from the grave to do it all over again.
(Years later, Sakura Uchiha nee Haruno would ask her husband what those very faint red marks on his cheek were. Sasuke would just shiver and beg her to never bring it up again.)
Currently, Sasuke was frantically searching for a reason to use the tents.
It was their first C-Rank, and they were setting up camp because it was going to get dark soon (luckily, there were no stars out yet).
Kakashi claimed that the tents would impair their vision of their surroundings.
"And, sleeping under the stars will be fun!"
No, it will not.
Sadly, he couldn't think of an excuse that didn't make him sound whiny or insane.
The universe hated him, didn't it?
Naruto only heard it because he was paying attention. He was so, so bored. He couldn't sleep, after all, because it was his first C-Rank yesyesyes-
And then a silent, choked sob cut through his excitement.
He sat up and glanced around. Sakura and Kakashi were both sound asleep (the latter ready to be up in a moment's notice, no doubt), and there was no way sobs could make it through the thick cloth of Tazuna's tent.
Which meant…
Naruto's eyes widened when he saw Sasuke slowly shaking, taking sharp breaths as tears streamed down his face.
He was at the edge of their clearing, lying on the ground.
After only slightly hesitating, Naruto carefully got up and walked over to the sobbing boy.
When he got there, he quietly said, "Sasuke...are you alright?"
Sasuke tensed and suddenly, he was sitting upright, glaring at Naruto (which would have been a lot more threatening without his tear-streaked face and bloodshot eyes).
"W-What are you doing here?" Sasuke demanded, his voice cracking slightly.
Naruto blinked. "Uh...well, you were crying, so I came over to make sure you didn't accidently, like, impale yourself in a thorn-bush...or something."
Sasuke wiped his tears and gave him a deadpan stare. "Sure."
They fell into an uncomfortable silence.
"So...are you alright?" Naruto repeated.
"...I'm fine."
"No, you're not."
"Yes, I am."
"No, you're not."
"Yes, I-wait. No. I refuse to be brought down to your level."
"Darn it," Naruto said sarcastically, "you've foiled my evil master plan!"
Despite himself, Sasuke chuckled slightly.
Naruto's eyes widened. "Do my ears deceive me? Did the great Sasuke Uchiha just laugh?"
Sasuke gave him a half-hearted glare. "There's a difference between a chuckle and a laugh."
"Nope, they're just synonyms."
"You're way too much of an idiot to know what the word 'synonym' means."
Naruto glanced at him before turning to look at the stars. "And you're too much of a prick to be crying in the middle of the night. So, what gives?"
"...I don't know why, but I cry everytime I see the stars."
Naruto scrunched up his eyebrows. "Like...involuntarily?"
"Yes."
"...you should probably get that checked out. Might some kind of medical condition or something."
Sasuke blinked. "I...never thought of that."
Naruto smirked. He leaned in close and whispered, "Knowledge."
Sasuke snorted. "Like you can say anything."
"Hey," Naruto said, "I'll have you know that I'm a lot smarter than I look."
Sasuke stared at him for a second before turning away. Naruto's eye twitched.
"Hey, don't turn away when I'm talking to you-"
"Maybe you are."
Naruto blinked as his mind registered what just happened.
Before he could say anything else, Sasuke said, "Goodnight, Naruto."
There was no venom in his voice. Naruto smiled.
"Goodnight, Sasuke."
Sasuke stared up at the stars as Naruto walked away.
For the first time in his life, Sasuke felt no urge to cry.
They look so beautiful without the tears in my eyes.
Sasuke stumbled away from the Valley of End.
Naruto was currently somewhere in there, unconscious and quite possibly dead.
But Sasuke knew he had survived. Naruto wasn't going to die from just a Chidori, strengthened by the curse mark or not.
There were two rips in the back of his shirt where his wings had been, and he grimaced at the pain coursing through his body.
He kept walking though. Towards his future, towards his strength, towards his revenge.
He kept walking towards Orochimaru.
He didn't know how he knew where the old snake was, but he just...did.
Maybe Orochimaru had included a kind of homing beacon for exactly this kind of situation. From what he had heard of the man, he was quite thorough.
So Sasuke kepting walking. He walked until his knees shook, until his eyes drooped, and until his heels felt like they were on fire.
And, eventually, he collapsed onto the ground, unable to walk any further.
He weakly turned onto his back and stared up at the night sky.
For the first time since his first (and disastrous) C-Rank mission, Sasuke cried. He cried for the people he had left behind, even though he knew it had to be done for the sake of revenge.
He cried for Kakashi-sensei, who had somewhat taken him under his wing (though he was still slightly useless).
He cried for Sakura, who he realized meant much more to him than he had thought (and he refused to think about it).
He cried for Naruto, his best friend (and maybe his only friend).
And...and he cried for the stars, because, once again, he could no longer hold in the emotions they brought.
I forgot how pretty they looked through tears.
He always wanted to cry when he saw the stars. He had learned how to hold it in, though, much like how he had when he was six. He bit the inside of his cheek and glared at nothing in particular, and he wouldn't cry.
Now, he wasn't thinking about that. It was the dead of night, the stars no doubt twinkling in the sky, but he wasn't thinking about that.
All he saw was the behemoth in front of him.
So this is the Ten-Tails.
There he stood, next to Sakura and Naruto, and he felt a twinge of nostalgia.
How long has it been?
No. Right now, focus on the monsters in front of you.
Sasuke brandished his sword and raced into the fray with Naruto, each of them taking out multiple monsters.
Suddenly, one flew past them both, crashing into another, shockwaves visible in the air.
Sasuke stared incredulously as Sakura ran and punched the ground in front of them, making a crater.
A freaking crater.
...yeah, they had a lot of catching up to do.
Sasuke was pretty sure he was dead. It was pathetic, really. He was stabbed by Madara Uchiha, and now he was dead.
But that was not to be, apparently, as the room(?) around him suddenly lit up.
In front of him was...a man. A man he felt like he should know.
(Oh, and he was floating in the air, probably an important detail)
Then he met his eyes. His eyes that were purple with ripples (very trippy)...and they sparkled. Sparkled like the stars.
I wish that I'll at least have the stars.
A tear escaped his eye, but he quickly wiped it away.
The floating, purple-eyed man raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything.
I knew it. I was a colossal jerk.
He was about to die. Not like last time. No, he was quite sure now. After all, the clash of a Chidori and Rasengan by two kage-level shinobi (albeit tired shinobi, but kage-level nonetheless) was not something people just survived at point blank range.
So, yes, he was going to die.
And while his life wasn't flashing before his eyes, bits and pieces were, all of which were from Naruto's point of view.
While he watched his past self challenge Naruto to a fight on the hospital roof, he said, in a very Naruto-esque way, "I am a giant prick."
Then, the universe proved that it hated him yet again, and he woke up.
The first thing he thought was Oh my god why does my arm hurt...I DON'T HAVE AN ARM!
And the second thing was Oh snap I'm alive now I have to deal with the consequences…
(As you could probably tell, he wasn't exactly thinking clearly right now)
But then, he actually opened his eyes. And...it was night.
Figures. Naruto and I did spend all evening duking it out.
He didn't notice it, but the stars were there, and he was looking directly at them.
And, for the first time since his first (and disastrous) C-Rank mission, he didn't feel the need to cry at all.
"So you finally woke up, eh?"
Sasuke glanced to his side. Naruto was staring at the sky, a small smile on his face, one of his eyes swollen.
Sasuke sighed. "And I'm having an identity crisis."
Naruto's one eye blinked. He turned to face Sasuke, wincing slightly at the phantom pains coming from where his arm should have been.
Sasuke continued. "I just watched me through you-"
"Wait, what?"
"-and I realized that I was being a huge jerk and that I was really mean and that I'm sorry-"
"Sasuke, are you feeling alright?"
"Of course," Sasuke said, a giant grin suddenly on his face. "Why wouldn't I be?"
Naruto stared at him. "...I think I remember Sakura saying something about trauma causing people go delusional temporarily-"
"Hey, Naruto?"
"Yes Sasuke?"
"You remember that old guy that was floating in the air with the weird purple eyes?"
"...you mean the Sage of Six Paths?"
"Yeah. Did you want to stroke his beard as much as I did? I mean, it just looked way too perfect to be real...like it was a wig. A wig for your chin. Yeah, that's it."
"...yes, definitely delusional."
Sakura gasped the next morning when she saw her two teammates lying next to each other, each missing an arm. Panicking slightly, Sakura quickly started to heal their stumps as Kakashi slumped in relief after seeing that they were both alive.
They were silent for a moment, before Naruto said, "Uh, Sasuke, about last night-"
"Not a word," Sasuke hissed. "Not a single word."
"...Sasuke?" Sakura asked.
"We shall not speak of it."
"O-Okay."
Sasuke was intent on erasing the last night from his memory.
How was he that hysterical?
He met Naruto, Sakura, and Kakashi's eyes, and couldn't help but smile.
They were all overjoyed, borderline ecstatic, and their eyes twinkled.
Like the stars.
And they were his.
"Big Brother!" a little boy yelled, giggling.
"Asura, you have to run," an older boy yelled exasperatedly. "That's how you play the game!"
"But I can barely see anything! It's so dark!" Asura yelled to his elder brother.
Almost to prove his point, he then tripped and fell over a rock.
Indra, holding in his laughter, helped up his sniffling younger brother.
"See, Big Brother? We can't run in the dark!"
Indra waited a moment to gather himself, then chided, "That's no excuse when there's plenty of light!"
"What light?" Asura demanded.
Rolling his eyes, Indra pointed at the sky. "The stars. Duh."
Asura looked up. "They may be bright, but they're not giving any light!"
"Yes they are!"
"No they aren't!"
"Yes they are!"
"They won't give off enough light unless you gather them all in one place!"
"Well then," Indra said, huffing, "looks like I'll have to get them all so you can see in the dark." He paused, before smiling. He poked Asura's arm. "But only if you help me!"
Giggling, Asura reassured, "Of course! I'll help you get the stars so you can see in the dark!"
"I don't need to see in the dark, you do!"
"Don't pretend that you didn't almost trip on that tree trunk!"
"Did not!"
Asura suddenly tackled him and then Indra and his brother were sprawled on the ground, laughing brightly and talking about how all the stars would one day be theirs, so that they would always be able to see in the dark.
~The End ~