It's come to my attention that when I publish my chapters they become misaligned. I've no idea why as when I publish them they're fine. So I apologise in advance if there's anything wrong with this chapter and will try to fix it as soon as I can.

:

Making his way home, Sasuke could only frown. It was autumn and the days here in Konoha were beginning to shorten. Why hadn't his mom come to collect him today? Had something happened? He expected behaviour such as 'forgetting to collect your child' from his dad, but certainly not from his mom. She gave all her attention to Sasuke to level things out with the lack of attention he was receiving from his dad. Sasuke appreciated his mother doing so. She was truly a kind soul.

Opening up the gates to the compound, something eerie greeted him in return. A chill ran up his spine, covering his arms with goosebumps. He was sure the cold feeling wasn't coming from the afternoon breeze. Sasuke was finding it hard to make sense of his emotions. For one thing, why was everything so quiet? He continued his trek home, shaking the hair that had fallen into his eyes.

That was when he saw the first dead body and promptly doubled over as he emptied the contents of his stomach onto the pavement. He stood there in that position for quite some time, back hunched, knees bent in, his breathing laboured. It took him some more minutes before he could find some semblance of control in him and straighten up. He began running home.

As he ran down the compound and towards his house he jumped and skidded, avoiding the pools of red and bodies which seemed to be spread out here and there. Some groceries from shopping bags had spilt out onto the paths. In the air hung a heavy musty metallic scent that had the little Uchiha feeling nauseous again.

When he reached his house he crashed into the door and stumbled in.

"Mom?!" he cried out breathlessly, hating how weak his voice sounded. His eyes moistened and quickly scanned the entrance.

One of the clansmen entered the hall upon his arrival. He stood in front of the door to the living room as though blocking it with his slim frame. "Sasuke please stand here while your father deals with..."

"Get out of my way!", he screamed before pushing off the man and running into the living room, the place where noise was coming from.

He threw the door open only to find his big brother tied up and his father pointing a sword at Itachi's neck.

:

Sasuke was a very quiet eight year old. He was so quiet that his dotting mother was constantly worrying about his condition. If only she could see that his silent nature was something that he was comfortable with. That and the fact that he did not see the need in making friends with people that he didn't enjoy the company of.

Walking out of the Academy and onto Konoha's numerous paths, Sasuke began making his way to the compound. He lived in the Uchiha district which was a long way from the academy considering that it was situated on the outskirts of the village.

"Hey!"

He stopped in his tracks and looked up. His dark eyes blinked slowly at the boy in front of him. It was the class clown; Naruto. He had mixed feelings regarding his classmate. While his father did warn him of staying away from the blonde, Sasuke never did find a reason in the past three academic years of them being together to dislike him. Except maybe his loudness at times.

"Wanna paint?!" Naruto asked. His eyes creased at the side when he smiled and Sasuke noticed him rocking on the balls of his feet.

He shook his head.

Naruto's response was almost immediate. He frowned while asking why.

This simple question took Sasuke by surprise. It made him realize that he did not have a reason for denying Naruto's request. He also didn't hate his presence and it wasn't as though his father had directly forbade him from interacting with the boy. And wouldn't him socializing make his mother happy?

"Okay then," he said with a shrug. A bit of doubt still lingered in his mind.

The blinding smile that Naruto showed him was enough to banish any doubt he previously had in him.

:

Later that day when Sasuke arrived home, hands, clothes and face dotted in paint he was met at the steps of the house by his fretting mother who was wringing her dress between her fingers. It occurred to him then that it was indeed evening time and he was fashionably late.

"Sasuke!" She gasped when he came near her. She had just noticed the paint flecked all over him, he guessed. She ushered him inside and beckoned her son into the kitchen, giving him no time to kick off his shoes.

Sasuke passed his father--who was reading a scroll and sitting on a mat in the sitting room--while following his mother into the kitchen. His father didn't acknowledge his presence and so once again, just like so many times before, Sasuke tried to push down the disappointment he felt.

"What happened?" she asked, her eyes projecting so much worry that he felt guilty. He stood at the entrance of the kitchen which she wet a towel in warm water.

"I was...playing," he answered truthfully. But in this household, saying this out loud within his father's hearing range made him feel ashamed. It was unbecoming of him as the son of the clanhead to be...playing.

At his words, the Uchiha matriarch stopped her actions which were washing the paint of her son's face. "With your friends?" She asked carefully.

Sasuke nodded while he put a his hand over hers in a comforting manner.

They both pretended they didn't see her flinch.

:

"Y-you know, I don't think that's a good idea", whispered a very concerned Sasuke.

"Nonsense!" Naruto said, secretly proud as he used that big word he heard his academy teacher use. Ha, Iruka would be so proud of him. "I'll be okay!"

"So, um, what are you gonna do?", Sasuke asked, not entirely convinced of this idea. He twirled a piece of his dark tinted hair between two of his fingers. It was getting longer than how he usually had it.

Naruto looked at his new 'bestest friend' right in the eye. His ocean blue eyes captivating the other as Sasuke saw just how uncharacteristically serious his face looked.

"I'm gonna fall off a cliff".

The Uchiha heir blinked before nodding his head. Naruto continued on.

"Then, a really awesome power is gonna come out of me", he explained further as he watched Sasuke's white complexion pale even further.

"See, Nana once...", he tugged at his over sized faded yellow shirt before tucking it into his pants "...her sensei once peaked into the woman's bathhouse, an' then...", he tucked the ends of his pants into his socks "...an' then she got really really angry an' BAM. She got wings an' all".

Sasuke blinked, he seemed to be doing this a lot the more he exposed himself to this kid's company. "...wings...".

"Uhuh", he nodded his head before peering down the mountain which had the Hokage's faces carved into it. It was a long drop. The highest point in the whole village as well.

"You sure it's okay?", even Sasuke's eight year old mind could decipher that this was indeed a bad idea.

"Nah, nah", he waved off his concern with his hand, as though swatting away a fly. "I'm just gonna fall off this, and then get some kickass wings!".

Sasuke winced at the bad words. His father didn't tolerate the use of bad language. The three senbon punctures on Shisui's left arm could attest to this.

Before Sasuke could talk his friend out of his madness, Naruto was already running. Taking a deep breath he launched off the mountain side, but not before screaming out his last words. He blamed his weird pitch on Nana.

The second Naruto jumped off the mounting with, in his opinion was a manly war cry, not a girly scream, Sasuke made his way down the built in stairs on the mountain side. Handy those.

If memory served right, which it definitely did seeing as he had a photographic memory no lie, Naruto should have fallen onto either the Sarutobi compound, or if the wind had been especially strong, then the Uchiha's compound.

Sakura prayed for the latter. His father did warn him once upon a time to not associate with the likes of Naruto Uzumaki. Suddenly Sasuke stopped and stared at what had to be either the most craziest or the most beautiful thing his eyes have ever seen. As Naruto's body sailed off the Hokage's monument, Sasuke watched as it burst into fiery--was that red or orange? No, that was most likely a mixture between those two colours--chains. Even from here he could see that they were thick and made from presumably metal, with that bold colour covering them. The chains themselves were unnaturally long as they twisted and shot out grabbing on and latching themselves onto their surrounds.

Yet the screaming being was still able fall onto the ground. Into his compound.

:

Standing in front of the Uchiha's compound was a conflicted Sasuke. Should he go in...or not? From one side he was sure that while his father did not particularly like Naruto he would still let him leave without Sasuke himself having to step in and make his friendship known. On the other hand, this was his father so...

Stepping in, he noticed how there wasn't anyone around. He wondered why and purposely pushed out the violent thoughts that entered his mind. Thoughts of bloodied corpses laid out on the streets.

"Get your hands off me, Weed Smokers!"

Well of course it was because of Naruto.

Setting off at a nice easy jogging pace, he manoeuvred himself around the place. Looking up at the Hokage mountain then back down, he did some quick maths combined with geography. At the end, if his calculations were correct, Naruto should have landed just about...

"What do you think you're doing here, brat?!"

...there!

When he arrived at the scene, Sasuke stopped in his tracks, frozen in awe, staring at Naruto, or more accurately at what was happening around him. The chains which he had earlier on seen exploding from his body were now getting somehow 'sucked back into his back' for the lack of a better explanation. He began walking up to the blonde, pushing his way through the mob of Uchiha once it was clear that the chains were completely gone.

Two Uchiha had hosted him up, one on each side, grabbing Naruto's arms firmly.

Another Uchiha wearing the police force's symbol on his Jonin vest--Uchiha Fugaku, his father--made his way to the Naruto.

Sasuke ran up to him, and pulled at his clothes gently to gather his attention. It was the silent communication that took place between them in the spam of ten seconds that made Sasuke understand that just like many of the things he has done previously, he had once again dissatisfied his father. He thought that he had already gotten used to the sinking feeling he was constantly subjected to. Apparently not.