Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters

Imprisonment

It has been believed that all the laws and justices written in paper brought order and harmony to nations; that these written doctrines, if followed, would bring freedom to its followers, never having to fear of injustice and danger. Such laws and statements have been written and rewritten, created and revised, as needed, by the people and their leaders to achieve efficiency. Control and power, safety and guidance are the reasons why leaders make them and subordinates follow them.

Freedom and sanctuary within a nation, that's what these laws are meant to achieve but Freedom is such strong a word.

What if the laws, so binding, become the prison itself?

That's what Sasuke has been experiencing since his childhood, laws, rules, and doctrines to become stronger, more powerful, and to be able to live up to the Uchiha. And for that reason Sasuke, to a certain extent, hated his own family. He was young, just a little boy when his parents had started preaching to him how to become the outstanding man he is required to be in the future. They had said that he should follow his brother's example, and be the number one. No one should be more powerful than an Uchiha, his father once said, other than the select few that becomes the Hokage.

Sasuke remembered himself pouring everything he had, striving to become the son that his father wanted him to be. He trained everyday, desperately pushing himself to the limits, to become like his adored brother Itachi. He would also ask Itachi to train him, for the elder was young Sasuke's idol and being trained by the person he looked up to the most was something Sasuke deeply wanted.

But that one night after he had decided to go home earlier was he freed from the cage of expectation and caged in the cell of vengeance.

Itachi had killed them all. Even the old couple that ran a local diner was slaughtered in their kitchen. Uchiha blood ran rancid on the compound that the esteemed family called home. Sasuke remembered glancing on the embellishment of their clan plastered on the building of the Konoha Police, an organization ran solely by the Uchiha family, twice, once when it was bright and the Uchiha family members strolled down the streets and another time when the compound was deathly quiet, tainted with the tangof blood, all in the same day.

That night forced Sasuke to imprison himself behind the iron bars of vengeance and ice cold hate. After that incident, Sasuke didn't consider himself a child or a man but something completely different, something that would forever be chained to the wall of doubt and paranoia. Something, or what he hoped, someone that would never see the bright sunshine every morning while looking forward to having a good day without a problem. He closed himself up from the world, convinced that at the same time he closed himself from his inner demons.

He was very wrong to that extent, he figured not too long ago. He closed himself, yes, but he closed his darkest nightmares and fiends along with him inside that coffin of anger and sorrow. He often wondered why he would always imprison himself with the things he loathed. Those visions of blood on the hardwood floor and the stench of fresh blood diluting varnish haunted his mind. The nightmare of leering at the eyes of a monster that was both his brother and his family's killer never left him. He would never forget those red, black-bladed eyes that blankly stared back at him, taunting and urging him to awaken the red-eyed demon that resided within him.

"…once you have the same eyes as mine…come to me" Sasuke had that sentence branded in his mind. The octave of his brother's voice was engraved on his soul so deeply that he could still hear him every night, taking away any sleep that had enough pity to provide him rest.

But even the torture of nightmares weren't able to make Sasuke drop his almost foolish stubbornness on holding on to an oath that would inevitably foretell his doom. No, Sasuke didn't cower; he never even dared forget.

Instead, he used all the rage and hatred as a fuel for his slowly dying soul to push on, to deliver justice to his family, a task so arduous that he focused all his energy to, unavoidably forcing him to overlook his own humanity. He disregarded his own health, whether it is physical or social. Keeping to himself while plotting his way, through all the odds that came between him and his brother. Another hard task was at hand.

So focused Sasuke was that he didn't even bother to look and appreciate the people who had cared for him. The obsessed female population of Konoha showered him with admiration even if it was only skin deep. His teachers praised him for his achievements; feats that were torturous to children his age were almost nothing to him. Later on, even his team who had grown to love him for whom he is, for he also neglected.

Sasuke had always considered himself selfless, dedicating his time and energy for the good of the clan and not himself. Later he realized that he had been the most selfish person on the face of the world. Selfless? Bah! He was nothing more but a stupid, immature boy that wanted to correct a wrong that was beyond him. A boy who took his new family, in the form of Team Seven, for granted, a boy who blamed Uzumaki Naruto for not understanding the meaning of family without fully knowing himself what that fateful word meant. Yes, Sasuke was just stupid boy, a boy that singed the undying devotion of a young woman that risked her life, time and again to help him and left her unconscious on that hard cold bench.

Sasuke had to admit that his time spent with Team Seven was both the best and worst that had ever happened to him. They became his second family. They accepted him, cherished him and encouraged him whenever possible. They loved him. He knew that Naruto, Kakashi and Sakura became the most important people in his life the first moment they survived their mission Water Country and against the battle with Haku and Zabuza. He cared for them especially during the exams that at the time he never knew would be his last journey with his beloved teammates.

He can ponder all he wants. He can daydream of what could've happened to them if things were just a little bit different but he cannot deny that he had taken the wrong road. He had taken the one where skeletons littered the sidewalks and where blood serves as rain. He has become the prisoner of his very own wrongdoing. Even the spring petals of the cherry tree growing just outside his room felt like light years away. He felt heavy, chained and gagged, unable to scream to the world, to ask for help. His pride served as another iron bar that kept him from smelling, feeling and touching those pink petals outside his window.

If he had only taken the rough stone road…if only he had taken the road made of dirt, grime and spiked steel. That long road of goes in circles seemingly never-ending and everlasting, he might have not succeeded in his life long mission. He might not have killed his brother and taken his vengeance…but he might have also kept his friends. Now, lying on the ground of cobblestone that was as cold as ice, Sasuke regretted his choice. He stared blankly at the dancing petals outside his window, just as the rays of the dawn sun sprinkled them with glitter and beauty.

The sun and the flower. Naruto and Sakura. How they coexist so perfectly together. Both the epitome of light. When they were younger, Sasuke remembered, it was always Sakura that was labeled the odd one out. She's a girl, that was the first remark and reason some people said that she didn't belong in Team 7. She's weak, another label given to her by others, him included. Some would say Naruto was the odd one out. He's the orphaned, idiot that only knows how to paint grafitti on the Hokage Monuments. He wasn't fit to become a ninja, so on and so forth. So many labels, so many remarks…they were blinded by the fact that Uchiha Sasuke was the odd one out. Uchiha Sasuke is a denizen of darkness, a prisoner of the indigo skies of the night while Naruto and Sakura coexist in the brightness of the day. They were light, he was darkness. The ultimate opposites.

Sasuke continued to watch the falling petals outside, tempted to be able to touch the tree's barked trunk and gently hold a fallen flower from its branches. He wanted to savor its beauty while being able to enjoy the sun's warmth. He wanted to be with Team 7 once again. He craved to able to be within their presence, with her laugh and with his obnoxious gibberish about ramen. Alas it is another freedom that was now an illusion to Uchiha Sasuke. They wouldn't be in this ruined town. They wouldn't be able to find him. They had probably given up.

Had they?

If so…can he die now? Nothing is worth living anymore. Uchiha Sasuke had decided he was worth more dead than alive. Can't he have his rest?

Impossible…

He was still whole and breathing. He was just trapped.

Trapped within himself and his mistakes.

Imprisoned, unable to get away.

Sadly enough, only a broken down stone house was his physical dungeon with barely a roof that kept the annoying rays of sunlight out.

Pathetic

He wanted to go back to sleep but the sunlight kept him from his rest. Stupid sun. The falling pink petals weren't helping either, a petal just landed on his lips. Annoying tree. Stupidity and annoyance. Heh…

He wasn't so far from them after all.

Uchiha Sasuke smiled under the morning sun and allowed the petals shower him with a scent of contentment.

Someday…this small encouragement might actually give him energy to get away from his prison, to break his laws of vengeance and doctrines of hate.

Maybe…One day, he might be able shatter this illusion and snap his chains.

He hoped, some day soon…he would be free again.

Free to walk under the sun and enjoy his companionship, and free to lean on the tree's trunk and be able to love her warmth and acceptance.

He hopes…

Within the Illusion of Life,

Death is the only Reality

But

Is Reality the only Death?

Within the Reality of imprisonment,

Illusion is the only Freedom

But

Is Freedom the only Illusion?

Anonymous