Home is Where the Heart Is

Celestia193's Author's Note: Alright, so there was interest from Splash about an Origin story, and from Unpersoned about the possibility of a prequel, dealing with Sasuke's life after arriving in Avalon. Well, we now present to you, the Diary of an Angsty Teenager. Kidding. We now present to you a story of love and family, and finding the place where you belong. And…you know, starts the whole heart-attack inducing mess in Secrets of Avalon. Enjoy! Because I am going to rip your bleeding hearts out.

Also, trigger warnings for implied…well, shit that goes on not just inside the foster system. Not all kids are treated well by the people who are supposed to be taking care of them.

Silver's Author's Note: As Celestia193 said, this is a prequel to Secrets of Avalon. Either story can stand on its own. We would obviously love for readers to check out both, if you're so inclined though. This story is more focused on family and is about a slightly younger Sasuke. So no real romance in this one. For our romance readers, I would highly recommend checking out the sequel. With that in mind, happy reading because I promise that there will eventually be a happy ending.

Disclaimer: We own nothing and make no profit off of any of our stories.

Chapter 1

Hiding, again. Always reduced to hiding out at the library, pretending to do homework that he'd finished days ago. It was the only way he wouldn't have to go back 'home' for a while. Today's lie was that he had gone to a cram school, a prep course for those heading to high school when the new term started up.

Bullshit, he didn't need a damn prep course. He was at Chiyoda, getting himself lost among the books. It was better than going back to where his foster 'parents' lived. Two and a half years with them, and things hadn't gotten any better. No matter how perfect his grades were, how many sports he excelled at, or exams he passed at the top of his grade, nothing made them happy. He could probably have told Kakashi and gotten himself moved, again, but that wouldn't solve the problem. Just like it didn't solve the problem last time, or the time before, or the time before…

He was cursed. A bad luck charm. And nothing that he did was going to change that. It was something that he'd had to learn how to live with.

But in just three years, it would all be over. Less, if he dropped out of school in the summer of his senior year. Kakashi wouldn't like that, but Sasuke knew that his social worker would respect his decision, if he had to. Well, once they had an argument loud enough to wake the dead about it. He would, of course, be much louder than Kakashi.

Sasuke was a charity case, at best, and he knew it. In reality, he was just there because he was smart, and because he was supposed to show the couple's children what standard they were supposed to surpass. In the end, they were all supposed to be better than he was. And they ALL knew it.

He HATED it. And they hated him just as much. It hung there every time he entered a room, unspoken, but obvious. If they saw him at all, it was only to express their silent contempt for him, the one person who had no reason to be there at all. He was unnecessary, unwanted, like a burnt-out light-bulb that no one had bothered to throw away. They were tired of him, and he knew it. But they were too proud to toss him back into the system and say 'he's no good for us, take him back'.

Even though he knew that his 'siblings' wanted as much.

Dark, listless eyes scan the rows of books for something interesting to read. Preferably, something that would keep him occupied for several hours. Best not to leave until the library was about to close.

"Seeker…"

Sasuke tilts his head to the side as he stares at an ancient-looking leather-bound book. It couldn't have… "Great, and now I'm losing my mind. I thought that a book talked to me."

"Seeker."

Now that time, he couldn't believe his ears. Was a book really…talking to him? No, he knew that it was impossible, but… "Tch, how stupid." Someone was obviously playing some kind of prank on him. And it wasn't funny. Maybe one of his siblings had found him, or sent one of their friends to pick on him again. Obviously, even the two in college hadn't grown out of childish sibling rivalry yet. Or the bullying phase.

His gaze cold, he pulls down the book, peering through the bookshelf to see…just more books. There was no one on the other side, whispering to him. Not even when he looks around the corner, just to be sure. He's alone, like usual.

Always alone…alone, or in pain. Sometimes both.

Sighing, he looks down at the book in his hand, sitting himself down against the bookshelf, and opening it up to the first page on his lap. "Seeker…" He frowns at the title emblazoned on the page. "…This has got to be some kind of trick."

Flipping the page, a beautifully curving text lays on the next one. "…The young elven child appeared in the darkened woods, the part of the forest where few entered, and fewer came out." Morbid, but he'd read darker. "A place inhabited by dangerous creatures, and where even the mighty hunters of Sindaron feared to tread. There, the elven child, taken away, so far from home, found himself face to face with a creature of nightmares. With the size of an elephant, and the teeth of a lion, claws the envy of any eagle, and a disposition befitting its terrifying appearance, the monster struck, filling the air once more with the scent of elven blood."

Damn, just what kind of book had he picked up?

"Seeker. Gifted with the clearest sight, know this. What has been started cannot be stopped. Before you lays a choice, and a choice you will make, lest the doors to happiness be shut for all eternity."

Now THAT time, there was no way that he could have been hearing things, because even as the old voice spoke, the words on the page disappeared, replaced by exactly those that had been spoken. "What the fuck is going on!?"

The angry hiss of a librarian pierces the air, even as the pages of the book begin to glow. "Quiet!"

"Sorry!" Great, the last thing he needed was to piss off the people who had been helping him hide every other day when he needed to be alone. That said, the book was just getting brighter, and his fingers refused to let go of it.

It grows brighter and brighter, until the light blinds and envelops him, obscuring everything else from sight.

The first thing he registered when the light died was that…his head REALLY hurt. Like…ate a pound of ice cream in five seconds on a dare, kind of pain. The second, was that the library floor was not the library floor. Because last he checked, the library floor wasn't made of dirt and grass.

Groaning, he opens his eyes and lifts his head from the ground, blinking haphazardly as his blurry surroundings slowly come into focus. "…The fuck…?"

This was definitely NOT the library. Had someone drugged him? Was there a flash-bang grenade in that book, or something? Had someone tossed one, and then kidnapped him?

…What a stupid thought. Why would anyone want to kidnap him? If they wanted money out of those…foster 'parents', then they were out of luck, he was the wrong target, by far.

But…that said, why would someone just leave him out in the middle of a forest? Maybe it was actually one of those cretins, leaving him out here to die, to stop him from taking up space in their house. It wouldn't surprise him if that's what it was.

"RGGGGGGHHHHHH!" Loud growling accompanies equally loud footsteps stomping towards him. This had to be some kind of hallucination. He hadn't been dropped into some kind of zoo, or safari. He couldn't possibly have been out THAT long.

But, upon sitting up and turning around, Sasuke's blood runs cold as he comes face to face with…A giant furry, snarling creature the size of an elephant, with a mouth full of razor sharp teeth that could easily bite him in half, and long, wickedly sharp claws protruding from hair, and scaly feet.

…No…fucking…way…

"GRRAAAGHHHHH!" The…thing roars right in his face, nearly deafening him with its sound as he scrambles to his feet in a panic. That sounded real. Even though there was no way that something that looked so…strange could be real. He'd never seen or read about any animal that looks like this, like someone had shoved together a lion, a crocodile, an eagle, and an elephant. It was like an African safari nightmare come to life!

And the pain that exploded across his right arm as he turned to run definitely felt real. What kind of fucked up dream was this!?

With no time to dwell on it and come up with an answer, Sasuke bolts through the trees with the creature hot on his heels, adrenaline pumping through his veins as his vision tunnels, showing him just the path ahead, and nothing else. He had to get out of here.

Otherwise, he was definitely going to die.

Today, Thiral's High Prince, Itachi Uchiha was wandering the forest as part of a hunting party, searching the land of towering trees for game, and perhaps a trophy to bring home. He had a fondness for hunting, to be sure, though there was nothing in this world that could compare with his book. Still, it was a useful way of keeping in shape.

Though he hadn't expected to hear the sounds of a nightspawn in the distance and the sounds of someone panicking. That could only mean one thing. Obviously, some poor soul had stumbled on the beast and now, they were running for their life. They were trying to outrun a beast that, one did not simply outrun.

"Hunters, move out!" They had to move quickly. "It sounds as though someone is in dire need of our help." Which of course was the only sensible thing to do when you were alone and encountered one of those things. Running for your life or using magic. And magic was a skill that, even among their kind, did not show itself often.

The prince was fortunate though. His party was made up of skilled and talented warriors, and they numbered nearly a dozen. This in turn meant that they'd easily be able to save whoever it was. It was apparently, their lucky day, as he makes his way towards the sounds of 'battle.'

Silent. They had to remain absolutely silent. Thankfully, he was an elf of Thiral, of the endless forest. That made moving through the underbrush without making a sound as easy as breathing to Itachi.

As they got closer, Itachi's eyes widen. "A boy." The boy was certainly several summers younger than himself at least and running fast enough that even the nightspawn was having great difficulty keeping up with him. A feat difficult to match for even some of their best warriors. "Use magic to put the creature to sleep. There's no need to kill it, but make sure not to hit the boy." There was also no need to have him wake up in an unfamiliar place and be terrified, if they could help it.

"Yes, Your Highness." A dark-haired huntress with soft brown eyes, now hardened at the sight of the rampaging beast and the young elf bleeding profusely from his arm. She raises a hand magic glowing softly around it as her fellows do the same. And just in time, too, for the beast must have chased the boy quite a distance. The young elf's legs fail him, tripping him over the exposed roots of one of the ancient trees. "Somnus!"

"Somnus!" Her fellow hunters, those possessed of magical skill, target the beast as one, a bright glow filtering between the trees, and illuminating all that it to be seen as over half a dozen spells strike the beast at once.

"Somnus!" Itachi adds his own magical power to the fray. "Somnus!" Eager to render the creature unconscious and to tend to the elf, who, at a glimpse, looked startlingly like his mother.

The spells fly over the boy's head, striking the creature from many angles, and with sufficient power to stop it in its tracks, swaying, before crumpling to the ground, nearly squashing the young elf in the process.

Sasuke, exhausted from running for…twenty minutes, at least, groans as the beast's jaw slams down on the lower half of his body, preventing him from moving…anywhere, really.

More importantly, there were people. Shit. Were they the ones who brought him here? What had they done to that monster? …Were they going to kill him, too?

Itachi cautiously guides his unicorn towards Sasuke and maneuvers around the unconscious nightspawn. "It's alright." He smiles as he extends his hand towards the boy. "You're among friends now and the nightspawn is asleep now. It will trouble you, no more." It was unfortunate how close it had come to crushing him. "It seems that it took more sleeping spells than anticipated to fell the creature. I am sorry for that. That had to be frightening."

Sasuke's eyes flick up towards the man on the…was that actually a unicorn? …Alright, clearly he'd been injected with something, because unicorns didn't exist. And neither did… "…Elves…?" That was impossible. But the man's ears had pointed tips that stuck out from behind his long black bangs.

He tries in vain to pull himself over the tree root, only to find himself caught fast between it and the…nightspawn, had they called it? Between it and the monster's head. "…" What could he do? "I'm stuck." Not to mention that he couldn't exactly reach up towards the…elf? His arm twinged with sharp pain every time he tried to move it.

"We can fix that." This was going to be taxing, but Itachi was quite confident he could manage it. "Autem!" He summons his magic to lift the creature up and then throws it a few feet away. There was no need to throw it further. "Are you alright?" It was heavy and that would just be a waste of magic.

No, he wasn't. He was in pain, he was scared shitless, he didn't know where he was, and he most certainly didn't know whether he was seeing things, or if this was all just a very realistic dream. …Realistic dream was starting to sound more and more appealing by the second. "…Do I look alright to you?" Sasuke turns himself onto his side with his good arm, looking up into dark eyes suspiciously. "Who…what are you? And how did you throw that…thing?"

Itachi looks at him in confusion. "I'm an elf, the same as you." Maybe, he had taken a blow to the head in his effort to escape the nightspawn. "And I used magic, of course." Perhaps this elf simply wasn't gifted in magic. Not every elf was and that might explain his surprise.

Okay, now Sasuke knew that this was a dream. "I'm not an elf." Just where did this guy get off saying something like that? Had he never seen a human before? And why the hell was he dreaming up stuff like this anyway?

"You'll have to forgive me, but your ears and speed say otherwise." Itachi smiles at him. "Not to mention your impressive agility."

This guy was smiling, and that set off all sorts of alarm bells in Sasuke's head. "Well, I hate to break it to you, but last I checked, I was human, always have been." He uses his good arm to pull himself up against the giant tree root, glaring at the elf, expecting him to…attack him with that weird magic or something. "And my hearing is just fine, thank you."

Itachi shakes his head. This child was obviously disoriented and confused. "Humor me. Touch your ears." He knew what the other elf would find. "I believe you will find they are pointed. Just like an elf's, because you are an elf."

This guy was insane, he had to be. "Fine, I will." Sasuke reaches up with the fingers of his left hand, raking them through his hair and touching the tips of his ears. …Pointy.

…What the fuck?

Sasuke's breath stutters, and he closes his eyes, silently reminding himself that this is just a dream. "…Fine, whatever, I can play along with that if you like. It's not like any of this is real." All he had to do was wake up, and everything would be fine. He would wake up back in the library, one of the librarians would be shaking him, telling him that the library was about to close, and that he would…have to go back to that place…

"I really do believe we should get you to a healer." He shakes his head at him as if not sure how to react to the boy's oddness. "Do you feel well enough to ride a horse? If not, we can have you ride in the royal carriage."

Ride a horse, he had to be kidding. As if Sasuke would know how to ride a horse. "I've never ridden a horse in my life." But that was beside the point. "And why should I go anywhere with you? I don't know who you are or what you want, but for all I care, you can go and stick that royal carriage of yours up your ass."

"The fact that we just saved you from being eaten by a nightspawn escaped your notice?" Itachi shakes his head. "If we truly wanted you dead, we wouldn't have intervened. We could have merely allowed nature to take its course." Why was this child so aggressive?

"Well, no one would have blamed you if you had." Sasuke clicks his tongue irritably as he glares back at the beast, leaning tiredly against the giant root. "Besides, none of this is real anyway. It'll all be gone when I wake up." He presses his hand to his right arm, trying to stop the last of the blood still trickling from it. Weird…weren't you supposed to not feel pain in dreams? So why did it all hurt so damn much?

He certainly had Queen Mikoto's face, but this child was acting as though he was a wounded and abused animal. "Alright. Let us just get you in the carriage then." He strides over to him. "I can carry you, if you view it as necessary."

Sasuke immediately shrinks away from the approaching elf, dark eyes watching every motion, while muscles tensed, ready to at least try to flee. He didn't know how far he would get, dream or not, but this man…he exuded power that Sasuke had never felt before. Though maybe that was because of the blood loss, it made everything feel…kind of fuzzy. "Stay away…" His fingers twitch and tremble. "Just…stay away from me…"

Definitely an abused animal type of reaction. "Normally, I would do that. However, you're injured, and clearly in no shape to be traveling through the forest alone. Nightspawns are rare, but far from the only creatures that dwell in our forests." His implication was clear. The young elf's chances of survival were extremely low like this.

"I don't need your…" The world starting swirling before him, and Sasuke was having a hard time keeping track of which way was up. "Pity…" And his legs, still numb from being squashed by the beast's head, felt like jelly.

From a distance, the brown-eyed huntress holds out her hand, the words on her lips lulling the boy to sleep. Her cousin was trying to help the other elf, and yet, he was being completely unreasonable. It was baffling, truly.

"Pay it no mind." Itachi sighs as he watches the boy fall into some badly needed sleep. "I believe he may have suffered a head injury from the nightspawn or…something in his past has caused him to behave in an overly aggressive fashion."

"Yes…it is why I thought it best to put him to sleep. He likely won't accept help, otherwise." Izumi flits over to the root, catching the young elf as he slumps towards the ground, grimacing at the sight of all the blood. "We'd best hurry, however. I can tend to the bleeding, but if he isn't brought to a healer, he may lose this battle before sunrise."

Itachi had no idea that his wounds were that serious. "In that case, we must make all haste." He quickly scoops up the younger elf as gently as he could and carts him off towards the carriage waiting only ten minutes away by foot. Itachi decides to remain in the carriage with him, curiosity and concern eating at him. It was hard not to feel protective over someone who had a face so similar to the Queen. So similar to his mother.

Izumi slips into the carriage as well, shooing Itachi to the other side, and kneeling on the floor of the carriage, while lying the boy out on the cushioned seat. "…Did the child tell you his name, at least?" Her hands glide over him, glowing as they reach his arm, and the torn and bloodied skin beneath the sleeve of his strange clothes.

"No." Itachi sighs and shakes his head. "He was too frightened and badly injured to observe such formalities."

"I wonder…what house he is from." He looked so much like the queen, as well as like Itachi, and yet, Izumi had never seen him before. Surely she knew every member of the house of Uchiha, even the distant ones. "He bears no crest that I can see. Could he come from your mother's tribe?"

"Hmm. That would explain a great deal." Yes, that must be it. "If he was a wild elf, it would be natural he'd be wary of us."

Izumi could feel the blood stopping beneath her hands, and the skin slowly knitting itself back together as the unicorns pulled the carriage towards their mighty city. "His clothes are strange, and his manner of speaking is…" Well, honestly, it was very foreign to her. "Perhaps he is lost? Your mother would likely know if he belongs to one of her siblings, wouldn't she?"

"Yes, she would." Surely, Queen Mikoto would recognize one of her kin. "Well in any case, the boy certainly is in need of treatment either way and we can hardly just leave him out here in this condition." He would surely die. If they didn't take him with them, they might as well kill him themselves and the thought of doing so to a child was utterly unthinkable.

"No, we could not." To them, so willfully neglecting a child was akin to torture, or in the worst case, murder. And no elf in their kingdom would condone such treatment. "What circumstances could drive him into the forest and so far from his kin?"

"Well I'm not sure what made him go this deep into the forest on his own." Itachi knew what he had been running from though. "Though obviously, the nightspawn didn't care about whatever his circumstances were. The way that he reacted to us was…disturbing." This child had clearly undergone some type of ordeal. "I would be lying, if I said I wasn't worried about him."

"Yes…" Izumi was equally worried. No child should be in the forest alone, at least not without a hunting part, a traveling group, or their nomadic kin with them. "I suppose we will get our answers once the healers have a chance to save him. …He's lost a great deal of blood…" She had staunched the flow, of course, but there was no replacing what he'd lost, not on hand. He must have been bleeding the entire time he was running from the nightspawn. Clearly, the boy was strong, but would he be strong enough?