"When people get hurt, they learn to hate...
when people hurt others, they become hated and racked with guilt.
But knowing that pain allows people to be kind.
Pain allows people to grow... and how you grow is up to you."
-Jiraiya
PAIN
Sasuke lay there soundlessly, in a pool of his own blood. Screams of terror rose from around him. Even as he lay there only seconds from death, a sadistic grin formed on his face. The village that had taken everything from him was now in utter turmoil, explosions still sounding in the distance. He had destroyed it. He never felt so...alive.
He found himself laughing maniacally. "If you could only see me now, brother! What a sight you would see!"He laughed again, the action causing his sides to hurt even worse. He writhed on the ground, coughing up blood from his lungs. He had finished his mission, he had avenged his clan. A bright light appeard above him, amidst the darkness ahd chaos. Sasuke looked up at it, blood trickling from the side of his mouth.
"Mother..." he said, reaching up toward the light. "Father...Itachi...take me home." Sasuke let out his last breath, the air slowly exiting his lungs. He closed his eyes, his arms falling to the ground, his head lolling to his side.
Sasuke awoke to complete and utter darkness. He moved as if to stand, but found the simple action unfeasible. Gentle hands pushed him back down. "Don't move just yet," the voice spoke to him. He growled deep in his throat, his hands reaching toward his eyes. Thick bounds of bandage covered them. He went to pull them off. "Don't! I don't think-" He tore the bandage, finding hollow crevices in its wake. "...you're ready," she finished.
"My eyes!" he shrieked, his hands wet and sticky. "They're...they're..." He counldn't summon the courage to say it.
"Gone," she finished for him. His whole life he had relied on his eyes, his sharingan. They were what made him powerful, what made him an Uchiha, what made him him.
"What have you done to me?" Sasuke hissed, wrapping his long, slender fingers around the girls neck. He felt her hands try to fight him off, pulling on his hands. This bitch had taken away the only things left that mattered to him. This bitch had made him useless.
"Not..." she managed to whisper. "...me." He let her go, her body instantly collapsing onto the ground. She breathed heavily, trying not to pass out. Sasuke arose, shaky on his feet.
"Who did this to me?" His voice was so dark, so cruel, that he could sense the girl's fear.
"I don't know." Her voice came out raspy. The girl was rising, he could hear her shuffling on the floor. "Tall, dark, spikey hair. Dark aura. Massive chakra." Madara's face suddenly flashed through his mind. That bastard...
The girl stood beside him, eyeing him warrily. This was the very man that had attacked her village. The man that killed her family and taken every last person she loved away from her. She did not know why she had saved the man when he was mere seconds from his death. He was a traitor, a murderer. He was evil, dark, ominous; however, when she saw him lying there on the ground, she was at war with herself. She couldn't decide if the right thing was to let him die or to save him. He had killed so many.
"Why did you stop me from dying?" His voice was accusing.
"I almost did," she admitted. "I thought, 'to bloody hell with that sadistic bastard. He killed thousands, he deserves it. The world would be a better place without him.'" Sasuke chuckled darkly. The world would've been a better place without him. "But then I thought, 'If I kill him, would I be any better than he?' I didn't want your blood on my hands."
Sasuke was suddenly enraged. The girl had saved him because of her pathetic conscience. She saved him so she could sleep at night without feeling guilty about killing him. "You're pathetic." The girl laughed sardonically.
"I'm not the one that is blind and won't be able to even take care of myself on my own! I'm not the one that needs my help if I even hope to survive the next few days!"
"Maybe I don't want to survive!" He yelled, his face only centimeters from hers. His voice had become demonic.
"Oh yes you do," she said in a whisper, her cockiness still evident. "You're a sick bastard who clings to life because you're afraid of what lies after that. Do you really think your afterlife could be good after a life such as yours?" Sasuke's blood went cold. He hadn't even thought of that. He had killed thousands, it was no exaggeration. He had done things that any sane man would wince at if spoken aloud.
"And anyways, you still have to catch the bastard that cut out your eyes."
Many long, ominous moments later, Sasuke spoke. "You may travel with me...but if you annoy me, I won't hesitate to kill you."
"The same goes for you, Uchiha."
"Once your usefullness wears out, I'll kill you."
"I'll make sure I'm needed."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Exactly how it sounded, Sasuke."
