TheDarkestShinobi: if you read this and like the style then you should read my other story speak. Speak is actually a lot better than this,

Anyway this is about Sasuke's defection indirectly requested by Halskr a long time ago...

- I do not own Naruto

(story start)

"tell me your....dreams"

A dream.

My dream...

It's not a dream....

It is not just some childish dream or desire; I don't imagine it in my sleep, in my subconscious, where logic ceases to exist in most people's minds. I don't sit there waiting for it to happen. I don't look at falling stars and close my eyes wishing for it. I don't bow my head before I go to sleep and ask almighty Kami to perform the deed for me. I never wished for it when I blew out my candles.

Why? Simple, it's not a dream, and it is not a wish.

Dreams.

Something unreachable one can only hope to attain through means they are not sure of yet. Or better yet, that someone else can help them achieve or just give them the credit for it.

They, as people, as other shinobi, have hope, they have dreams. You have dreams. But what are your dreams? It's something you hope will happen.

Hope.

I don't have any hope either, hope is useless, if you want something, make it happen, if you can't make it happen, it won't.

You know I'm leaving, the look in your eyes says it all. I didn't think anyone would have seen me. You are lucky, or more skilled than I thought you were. You start to ramble and once again I reassure myself of what I'm doing, not that your words could have deterred me at all.

I took the team seven picture with indifference, setting it on my table only because Kakashi was there, and I forgot to throw it out after he left.

At first it was a momentary glance, a thought would cross my mind but I'd discard it and move on with my life.

Just a glance until I saved your life. I shouldn't have but I did and endangered mine.

"Don't die"

I said those words, when logic tells me I should've been wishing for our roles to have been different. When I got home from the hospital I couldn't look away from the picture.

I stared at our team seven picture for hours, wondering how you can be the way you are. How life hasn't done to you what it has to me, how that with everything you've been through, you can still dream. You still choose to dream. The fact that you can still choose to dream.

The next day I sat on my bed holding the frame to see if I could read you like I could everyone else.

I couldn't.

I'd hold the frame in my hands and marvel. I'd sit there and ponder things I'd never shown I was interested in. Things that would surprise you and initially, surprised me.

How you can be so innocent and gentle on the eyes, yet a pain, and a burden on the ears and mind, and how, despite it all, I look forward to seeing you. And some more trivial things, like... How is your hair pink? How do you keep you're nails and skin flawless when we sleep outside and fight until we can't stand?

How you can be so smart, yet so stupid? Legendary fool, you've harnessed power I have not obtained yet with an eye you were not born with, and I don't hate you for it. Why don't I hate you? Why don't I hate having to wait hours before you decide to grace us with your presence?

And finally, you, you puzzle me the most. You can be completely idiotic or wise at a moments notice. You brag about things you'll never do, but keep quiet about things you can, like that rasengan you used against me at the hospital on the roof. You seen through my mask and reached out to touch me, me, the real me.

And what we did together, that first real mission. How was that even possible? We were genin, with no experience whatsoever and we managed to complete an A-rank mission. We distracted Zabuza, a legendary swordsman and allowed Kakashi to escape.

Then I unlocked my sharingan and almost died to protect you. That would have been a waste if I had died. I shouldn't have done it. I shouldn't have endangered my life for yours, I have a purpose. The both of you, Naruto, Sakura, are not worth protecting at the cost of my life.

For some reason, I have to keep telling myself that.

I finally was able to put the picture down, finally able to face it down, finally able to hide your image. I had to, you have to understand, and for some reason it is important to me that you do.

Screaming...
Yelling...
Crying...

Those are the sounds I hear when I sleep.

Blood...
Bodies...
Him...

That's what I see when I dream...

My neck starts to throb and I reach up to grasp it. I can feel the power pulsating in the seal. I close my eyes and let out the breath I didn't realize I was holding.

It has power I can still feel despite the fact that Kakashi sealed it. Power, that's what I need. I need all the power I can get and Konoha won't give me enough. They're not able to.

My parents are vivid in my mind, and every day, the dream, the nightmare still haunts me. I know that I must avenge them. The only way to do that is to kill the very thing I once called brother. The very thing I aspired to be when I was younger. My older brother Itachi, the murdering wretch that killed them all to test his power. The one that took everything I had, but he gave me a purpose, one I must fulfill.

Now, I listen to you rambling on. All of your words stab at my heart, but it's too strong for me to falter. Can't you see I have to do this alone? It's because you would all get in the way. It has nothing to do with the prospect that you might get hurt.

For some reason I keep having to tell myself that too...

"Sakura..." what can I say so that you'll leave me alone? Maybe I'll insult you, use a fault of yours like that big mouth of yours... or your quick temper... maybe...
I am nostalgic for a brief second and I can see you in my mind, the memories and I say the first thing that comes to mind,
"Thank you..."Maybe I would've said more, but I didn't.

But thank you for what? For being a friend, for helping me get stronger, though not directly. For not dying on me, not making me lose another precious person.

Wait... What?

I didn't mean that last line, really.

You're still looking at me and I disappear and reappear behind you and I knocked you out, because I had to. I have to, I do. You were going to scream, and that would have attracted attention, attention I don't need. They will take me back to this place and force me to stay, and they'll never let me do what I have to. I went to catch you but more memories resurfaced and I heard the scream. It still is bloodcurdling and makes me freeze in my steps. I missed catching you and instead watched you fall, the soft thump your body makes as it hits the ground is enough to shake me out of my trance. However, I still stay like that for what seemed like hours, but was only mere seconds in reality. I study your face, your tear stained face and I feel regret, but it's fleeting and never stays and I'll never think of it again. I picked you up and thought about what I was doing.

This was all necessary.

I keep telling myself that too.

I'm finally able to put you down on the bench, to lay you down so that you can be comfortable, I don't know why I cared about that, and I never want to know why.

I walked on slowly, memories still playing in my mind. His voice still rings in my ears as if, he, as far away as he was, could still taunt me. The fridged air swirled around me, pulling me towards Konoha, yet pushing me away, towards destiny, if I was a person who believed in such a thing, but that would be like believing in hope.

I blinked and was instantly alert. There would be no mistakes; there was no room for mistakes. What I was doing was a serious crime; I was becoming a nuke-nin, abandoning Konoha. Abandoning Hokage Sama. Abandoning Sakura. Abandoning Kakashi. Abandoning Naruto. Unlike my brother, I was doing this for the right reasons, to accomplish my goal.

From this point on, we are no longer friends. I'm severing my ties with you, with all of you. With you, Sakura, with you, Naruto, with you, Kakashi, with you, Tsunade. There is no suffix, I don't need one anymore, and she is not my Kage.

And Konoha is no longer my home.

This was the right thing. Or maybe it wasn't, but I didn't have any time to ponder that. The only thing that mattered was that it was the necessary thing. I needed to beat Itachi, and I would only be held back if I stayed here, Orochimaru was willing to help me, he knew what I needed. Power, more power.

So I will do what is necessary. Even if that meant abandoning everything I had and knew. Even if that means I will die in the process. As a shinobi I was well aware of that distinct possibility. I pulled the straps to tighten my pack and jumped into the trees. I look back over my shoulder to see the gates and the guards snoozing there.

It was ridiculously easy to escape. I walked right up the gate and jumped off. No one was alerted at all. This reaffirms my thoughts, only a weak village would be like this. A village to trusting, too loving. One without hate. Especially after we were attacked.

"You can't defeat me, you're hate is not strong enough"

But Itachi I will beat you, I will defeat you and listen to you beg me for your life. And then I will end you, yes I will kill you with no remorse, because I hate you. It's a burning beast in my gut, my hate. It is waiting to destroy you. It grows bigger and stronger every day; I don't think I could possibly hate you any more.

I smirk as I turned back to the forest before me. It's as green as it ever was, the night not hindering my sight at all with my new eyes.

Today starts a new era, and soon enough I will be able to kill Itachi and finally avenge my family. Now that I was finally able to do what was necessary.

Finally able to leave Konoha, because I have to, to accomplish what I need to, to do what I have to do.

I sprint off, there is no time to waste, like I said there can be no mistakes, this might be my only chance to get to Orochimaru. There is no way I can fail because it is not a desire, not just a childish dream.

It is an ambition.