In which Sasuke is angsty.
Sorry about the rate of updates guys. I'm trying to be better about it, but that hasn't worked out particularly well, has it. Heh, read and review!
When Sasuke goes back to the maze of run down shops and houses that used to be home, where no one dares step lest they also be cursed with the Uchiha clan's fate, he goes to his room and closes the door.
There is a scrubby little tree outside his bedroom window that hasn't died yet, though he's purposefully neglected it. It's the only thing growing in the yard of the house except for the weeds and yellowed grass. He hates it. For a while now he's gone out and watered it periodically, and today, there is a tiny white bud on a high up branch.
Everyday, Sasuke forces himself off of an aging mattress and out the door. Everyday he goes to meet with a teacher who can't teach him nearly enough to ever hope of tracking down Itachi. Everyday he trains and hates and lives like the wretched thing his brother said he was because he isn't strong enough. Even then, sometimes he has to try his best to hide a smile startled out by some quip or ridiculous act from his teammates. And that just makes him angrier. What right does he have to laugh and live? God how he wants vengeance. He wants it almost as much as he wants to forget his clan and thrice damned brother and live his life. He envies the not so dead-last Naruto. Naruto, whose improvement far surpasses his own.
No matter how hard Sasuke tries, the lithe frame he's built on isn't made for strength. He won't ever be able to kill Itachi, no matter how much of a "genius" he might be. Number one rookie is such a meaningless title when compared to the dirty, messy, painful lives of real ninjas. And the genins think their little game, played under watchful teachers, will prepare them for bloated carcasses full of maggots bound together by kunai and blood?
He wishes that Haku's needles had done enough damage to kill him. But they didn't, so he lets the pulsing mark on his neck lead him away from Konoha.