The Path Home

Sera: This is a part of my one shot collection that won't necessarily stay in the tragic department-a branch off of the one no one reads. I've given up on trying to make people read that one so I'm just going to continue it for myself…so BLAH! (o) Anyway-this is a Sasu/Hina one shot of when they first spoke to one another-to his leaving and ultimate return… I know I usually write this couple but…what the hell! They're my favorite to write-despite them never having spoken in the manga or anime. I think they look good together and that if, (IF) they were to interact that they would indeed hit it off. Maybe not romantically but in some way…there goes the Sasu/Hina rant. I understand everyone's pairing interests and respect him or her so I would like those who don't like this couple to just keep the retching to a minimum. Ok!

Now moving on. This is, obviously an Alternate Universe. There. Done. Finite. It's story time!

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He had hated it. All of it. Walking the same path from his home every morning to the same stop, hiding away from the sun under the cover of old oak trees thick branches alone. He was usually the only person that waited at the particular stop until that one day when he turned twelve…at twenty six Sasuke recalled that memory as though it occurred mere moments before-the recollection so clear and new to his mind and at that moment he realized, it was not because of wondrous spring season that year, nor was it because it had been his mothers birthday. No. It was because of her.

He shut his eyes in remembrance of that day.

(1) Path to the Old Oak

"Ah Itachi do I have to? It's mom's birthday…shouldn't I get to go to her grave too?" Dark eyes stared into mirror images of their own. The older of the two looked down at his younger brother and sighed.

"You have an exam today little brother-one that you cannot miss. It's enough that you missed so much school last year when it happened…"

Sasuke shrugged, annoyed. "I know…it's just that this is the first time that on mom's birthday that we aren't all together."

"It will be just like the year dad died…things changed that day too…only this time it isn't mother shooing you away to school it's me."

Sasuke nodded. He turned towards the coat hanger and pulled on his jacket. Itachi was right, Sasuke mused, things eventually had to change. This was what was meant to be.

Sasuke was seven years old when his father had died in an accident on the job. It wasn't as though it were unheard of-a cop dying on the job-and when it happened he didn't fully grasp what "passing away was". When he had seen his mother crying nights after it happened he was confused. Was he supposed to cry to? Why? His father was with God-he was in peace in Heaven.

Itachi was thirteen then and having a much better grasp of things like death he explained it to him.

'Dad's in a better place, Sasuke.' He had said, placing a warm palm on his brother's head. Sasuke stared up at him with big gray eyes.

'Then why is mother crying? If Papa's in a better place then shouldn't she be happy that he's happy?'

Itachi had sighed deeply. Looking towards the front hall noting that his mother was nowhere to be seen, he had leaned towards the seven year old and whispered to him.

'Mother just misses him. She knows he's in peace but she misses him a lot and she's lonely without him.'

Sasuke had nodded understanding just a little bit. That year, when it was his father's birthday-instead of going out to the movies like they always had even when he was alive-they just stayed home.

And their mother had just sat in the front living room facing the front window all day, sitting in their father's chair…as though he would return if she sat right there. She did that for four years until she died…on that very chair.

"Sasuke…are you listening?"

He stared up at his brother and blinked.

"Oh…sorry."

"I said that I'd be picking you up from school today instead of Minato." Itachi said. "I'll take you to see a movie maybe."

Sasuke nodded.

"Maybe we could go to the park?"

Itachi smiled slowly.

"The park? Sure, that'd be nice."

The Park near the old academy building was the earliest and happiest memory the brothers' had together. During the summers, when both parents were alive, they would go off to the park. A residual longing passed through their features for a bittersweet moment-Itachi smiled sadly.

"You're going to be late."

"Yeah, whatever." Sasuke said, scratching the back of his head in an awkward sort of way-a habit he did out of sheer nervousness or mortification, their father's trait completely. "I'll see you later then."

"Later Days." Itachi said as the younger stepped through the door, lifting a hand in parting as he left. Itachi leaned against the doorframe and smiled. "What a sorrowful day." He said before stepping back and shutting the front door.

-

The dirt path along the forest looked eerily the same from the very first time Sasuke had ever taken it way back when his father was still alive six years before. He placed his hands in his jacket pockets and continued at a leisurely pace, the crunching of leaves underfoot a sound as familiar as anything he'd really ever known. The breeze picked up, smelling of wild grass, mornings dew and wild flowers.

He hated that smell, it reminded him too much of his mother. After all, the house where they lived, so very far away from the rest of town, near the forest had been her choice entirely-he remembered how happy she had been, when he was four.

They had moved from Bridge-the next town over, back to their father's hometown and upon returning, the house in which Sasuke lived in now had been recently vacant. His grandparents had owned it for all their married lives. When his grandfather Boris, had died, their grandmother could no longer bear to stay.

Their mother had agreed immediately to take it off her mother-in-law's hands, before even speaking to Sasuke's father on the matter.

'Don't you feel it Sasuke?' she had asked him once-before his father's death. They had been sitting out in the veranda having lemonade one hot summer day. He remembered that the breeze carried the scent of wild flowers from the garden and the way that not only the trees branches had swayed but also his mother's long beautiful silky brown tresses flowed with that same breeze.

She had never seemed more beautiful.

'Feel what?'

'Nature…the smell and sounds…it's a wonderful thing isn't it?'

He'd never really understood what she meant but had nodded nonetheless. The forest, nature…his mothers' favorite things…

He hated it, all of it. He hated walking the same path to the same buss stop that only he seemed to take. He hated to hide in the comforting shade of the old oaks branches.

He hated it because it reminded him of his mother, his sweet dead mother. It reminded him of times the happy times he would never have again.

Sighing to himself he looked forward, only to see someone standing with their back towards him under the protection of the oaks branches.

"Hn?" He walked closer, standing almost beside the other person whom had yet to notice his existence at all.

Short dark hair greeted his vision, with long bangs covering closed eyes. A round pale face in stern concentration, pink lips between white teeth were nibbled, long black lashes rested like feathers on rounded cheeks.

A girl. A small girl perhaps his age, stood there with hands held together at her chest.

'Pretty.' He thought as she began to speak.

"N…ru…n…ru…ra…" He inclined his head to the side.

Her face flushed pink.

"Naruto would you like to have Ramen with me!" She stated more then asked suddenly. Sasuke stepped back for a moment in confusion. He watched her closely. "That's it…that's all there is to it to just ask…ask…ask…ask…" She said.

'So she's talking to herself…she hasn't even noticed me her eyes are still closed.'

"But…" She let out with a wistful tone, almost sad Sasuke noticed. "That wont work…he doesn't even notice me…how will I ever get over him if I cant even talk to him…I don't know if I want to get over him because then everything will change right? I care so much about him and I'm afraid that if I tell him and try to get over him everything will be different…but isn't that life? Isn't everything doomed to change eventually in this world?"

Sasuke starred at her for an agonizing moment, going over her monologue in his head. Everything was doomed to change in life, she had said, not matter how much you cared for something and wished for it to remain the contingency; change was inevitable. Be it by leaving completely…things were doomed to change.

He shut his eyes in thought before turning to the girl whose eyes were still shut.

"Tell him anyway…even if everything changes does it matter? You can always find another person to make you happy if it doesn't work out." He found himself saying.

Her eyes opened, opalescent, staring into his dark gray eyes.

"W-what?"

"You heard me." He said. The bus came into view before pulling up beside them, the door swinging open with a screech. He climbed up, stopping at the top step. He turned towards the girl and extended his hand with a bored expression. "C'mon. This is the bus for school. Hurry up." He said.

The girl flushed but nonetheless took the offered hand and climbed onto the buss.

The door swung closed and the buss lurched forward leaving behind the old oak trees and everything that his mother loved behind. For a moment, after taking his seat with the strange new girl in the very back of the buss Sasuke began to not really mind.

"I'm Hinata Hyuuga." She said bowing her head slightly.

He nodded.

"Sasuke Uchiha. It's nice meeting you."

Yes, the same path to the same stop the same trees and smells that reminded him of his mother…

"I just moved from Bright City…this is such a nice place…I've never lived so far from a town before but the wilderness, the forest is so…it's a wonderful thing, isn't it?"

"Hn…"

…he really didn't mind at all.

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Sera: Did you like it, hate it? Read and review but no flames please!