**edit: thank you lightxdark for correcting Kiba's name for me, i fixed it now XD


My One in a Million

Chapter four:

Heat was stirring in his gut; Tsunade was going to be the death of him.

Either that or he would destroy the village and every living thing within a ten miles radius in a rage fit.

Accidentally, of course.

"You're moving me here because someone got a bloody nose?" He tried to keep his arms crossed as tight as possible as to not break the old lady in half. She was Naruto's precious old bag and if he demolished her, he would have a thousand pissed-off Narutos on his case.

"He got a bloody nose because your fist hit him there." She pursed her lips. "Besides, what's better than training your eyes and serving the community at the same time?"

"I couldn't care less about your community."

She sighed. "You say that, but you eat our food, right? You live in our buildings, right? You walk in our streets and talk to our people, right? Guess what, that makes you part of the community." After an awkward pause, she added. "Buck up, it's your punishment for defecting."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "I'm being bossed around by an old hag who wouldn't even show her real face to the world."

"It's for your own benefit, believe me." She pushed him down by the shoulder to sit in the chair. "All you have to do is use your sharingan to copy the books we have stacked here. The current technology in printers can't get a clear image because of how old the paper is."

"Years of training and this is what you decide to use the Sharingan for?"

The hand on his shoulder suddenly tightened, almost crushing his bones. "Remember that time you attacked us to assassinate our leader? Yeah? Well your amaterasu ate up the records, one by one, for seven days; this is what's left." She let go of him. "At least pretend to take responsibility. Oh, and don't punch anyone in the nose while you're at it."

He didn't even bother to respond when she stomped away, breaking pieces of floor in her anger; until she shut the door behind her with a loud slam that shook dust off the bookshelves. "Whatever…"

He glared at the large pile of books he was assigned to copy, and on the other side of him was an endless supply of blank paper. He didn't mind books, really; in fact he'd always dreamed of visiting the Hokage's record's library for it's one-of-a-kind books and some top-secret scrolls on missions and techniques.

He just didn't want to read them as a part of homework. Or as she put it: punishment.

Sasuke slumped in the chair, grabbed a random book and sifted through the pages in boredom. Records of missions: who came in, who went out, who died, what rank and how much they were paid.

The records were dated five years ago.

He shut the book and wondered if he could secretly just burn the rest into ashes and pretend none of it ever existed.

He wasn't even here five years ago, why should he care?

He grabbed another, older book, and opened it at the end where a thin amount of paper sat separated from the cover by a considerable gap; it was a record of the clans of Konoha. The Akimichi and Inuzuka occupied the first half and the rest was lost in the fire. The Uchiha clan, if one followed the Japanese alphabet, should have been after the Inuzuka; but now it's gone forever.

It happened again, he thought, their existence is once again demolished by the hands of one of their own.

He shut the book and whispered a quiet prayer of apology to his clan before setting the book aside, feeling even grumpier than before.

The door behind him opened and in came a pair heaving boxes in their arms, the first person smelled like wet dog and chatted loudly like one, the other was hidden behind boxes but Sasuke could recognize those ugly track pants anywhere.

"You've got to be kidding me." He growled and watched the boy transition from comfort to shock to confusion before falling into awkward silence.

"What're you doing here?" The Inuzuka boy said gruffly and dropped the heavy box onto the massive table between them.

"Homework." Sasuke said and directed his attention to the girl, she carefully slipped the box off her hip and onto the tabletop. After a quick bow she turned around and rushed outside. "You smell like an Inozkua."

The boy's nostrils flared, his naturally sharp teeth bared. "And you smell like treachery."

Sasuke turned away from him and grabbed a book and pen. "I'd be careful if I were you."

"You started it." The Inuzuka growled and stiffly unloaded the books out of the box. "There you go, more work."

"Why is that Hyuuga here?" He asked without looking up, pretending that copying a page with his sharingan required undivided attention.

"I'm not interested in talking to you." He sneered. "And if you touch one hair of her head I swear…"

Sasuke looked up, curious. "You'll what?" For added effect, he let the pen down and sat up to be on eye level with him. "Bark at me?"

"You might be Naruto's friend but it wouldn't matter, if you make one mistake." He stepped forward so that the only space left between them was their breath. "Just one, you hear?"

"Naruto's not here right now, is he?" Sasuke smirked. "What's holding you back?"

"Kiba kun?" Hinata said from the door. "Is everything okay?"

The boy, he recalled now as the shaggy kid carrying around a white puppy, didn't break eye contact, but didn't answer her right away. Sasuke smirked. "She's talking to you."

Sasuke watched the boy step away and turn around to face the worried girl. "It's alright, Hinata, I'll go get the last box." He shot a dirty look at the Uchiha and disappeared beyond the open door.

"Alright…" Her eyes met his for just an instant and then she turned away, focusing on the box in her hands and taking her time crossing the room towards the table.

He didn't want to talk to her, actually, so he picked up the pen and got to work. The more he learned about her the more he hated her clan and this village; and the more it made him want to break things. There were too many similarities between the Uchiha and the Hyuuga, this girl in particular was easy to relate to; she was the older offspring of the clan's most prestigious figure, there was inner turmoil between the ranks to keep the secrets of the Byakugan to themselves just as Madara hoped to keep the Sharingan a secret. He wondered if, instead of Itachi, she was old enough to be chosen; and ordered to massacre her whole clan, would she do it for the sake of presumed 'peace'?

Would she be sitting here copying books, and him walking around town like nothing is wrong with the world?

He had to frown at the page and bring the hovering tip of the pen to the paper.

Hinata was still here, he could sense her hovering, arranging books from a box to a shelf behind him; it was distracting, why wasn't she saying anything?

Sasuke hunched over the old book again and let his hand work it's way over the modern, bleached paper. Why did it matter if she was aware of him or not? Why was he curious about her?

Of course, she was somewhat different: gullible and less pushy than the women he'd known throughout his life. However, that didn't explain why he had the urge to push her buttons whenever she was around.

Because the village was small he'd seen her here and there occasionally, sometimes Naruto would walk up to her and strike up conversation; but he never attempted to approach her himself, never saw any reason to do so. When they did converse, however, he ended up trying to figure her out even as she remained mysterious without really trying to.

His hand had paused above the sheet of paper again and he had to glare at the old textbook because it was its fault for being too boring.

"Sasuke san." Hinata approached him uncertainly.

"Don't talk to me." He snapped.

"S- Sorry…" she placed a book atop the tower to his left and went back to silently arranging books on their shelves.

"How many more is there?" Sasuke glared at the pile.

She wondered for a moment if he was waiting for a reply or not. "I'm not sure…"

"This will take days." He rubbed the bridge of his nose where his brows knotted to fight off a growing headache. "Why don't you just wait for a new printer?"

She was slightly stiff when he turned to glare at her back. "The books are too old, the light just goes through…"

He let the pen drop. "So you're saying nobody invented a fitting printer yet?" Chakra surged into his fingertips when the scent of danger wafted into his nose.

Hinata turned to look at him and speak, but the sirens went off outside, indicating an emergency situation in the whole village.

"Fire." They spoke at the same time, the smell of smoke hitting them both at the same instance. In a split second they were standing on the rooftop of the Hokage tower looking out to the horizon where a thick tower of smoke rose to the cloudy sky. Hinata wasted no time in disappearing from his side in a puff of white smoke, his hand made it's way to his hip as he reconsidered; that area was the recently established Academy building… Today is a school day and now it's the middle of the day, children will be trapped inside, did he really want to go there right now?

He'd absently wondered why the Inuzuka never showed up when he said he would, his sensitive nose must have caught the scent ages before theirs did; he's probably already there. The smoke was thick enough to see from anywhere in the village so every responsible adult is probably there already; they didn't need his help.

Help?

Was he planning to help anyone had he been there early?

Sasuke rubbed the bridge of his nose and turned around, intending to climb down and resume the homework Tsunade assigned him; a giant frog was making it's way down the main road with water overflowing from it's massive mouth. Naruto was on top of it's head, a blond dot with a flaring-red jacket flapping in the wind.

"Sasuke! We need your help! There are kids stuck on the top floors, you can fly right? I'll be right there to put out the fire so hurry up!" He shouted as the frog hopped by causing a minor earthquake.

Sasuke sighed and grumbled about how he should have gone inside earlier. With a simple jutsu he had a giant hawk under his sandals headed towards the rising smoke. The whole population of the village was there, kids were crying and mothers were screaming, ninja with water techniques were trying to keep the fire under control and medical nin were giving first aid to whoever made it out. Some houses around had caught fire and were being evacuated, he'd mentioned to Kakashi that the current location of the academy was stupid but the copy nin never took his comment seriously, saying that it's closer to the living districts and so there were less chances of children being kidnapped or setting traps away from crowded streets.

Serves them right.

The wings took him down to a window on the third floor where three kids were trying to jump off, they instantly hopped behind him when he approached but told him to stop when he angled the bird to head down.

"Wait! Ami's still inside!" one of the boys said and shouted her name into the frail window frame.

"I'll come back for her." Sasuke shouted against the loud noise of burning wood and collapsing pillars.

"No! Here she comes!"

"There's no place!" He told the boy but the girl, about seven years old, finally approached the window.

"Ami, jump!"

"I'm scared!" She cried.

Sasuke rolled his eyes and decided his summon could manage all of them for a minute, so he grabbed the girl by the wrists, pulled her under his arm and commanded the bird to take them down fast. She was kicking and screaming when they finally made it down, a middle-aged woman ran towards him heedless of the sprinkles of burning shrapnel and the summon disappearing in a thick puff of white smoke. She extracted the girl out of his arms and pulled the boy close and cried loudly- their mother no doubt. "Thank god! You're safe! Thank god!"

"You're thanking the wrong person." He told her, she just glared up at him as if the fire was his fault. "Is there anybody else left?" not surprised, he turned to the other boys behind him. The one who wasn't having a nervous breakdown shook his head no and ran into the crowd looking for his family.

Hinata appeared out of no where and clung to his sleeve. "My sister!" she breathed hard and looked up to him with wide, frightened eyes. "N- Naruto will flatten it to the ground! P- please!" She sputtered incoherently and pointed upwards when words failed her, the part of the academy still standing was now impenetrable to the hawk but he could Jounin gathered at the base with makeshift safety nets.

Glancing backwards, he found that Naruto was a block away from the fire, and if he ordered the water be released, the weak wood would be one with the ground. He was going to kill whoever was left inside; that idiot.

No, Naruto would never do that, he's probably depending on him to get everyone to safety in time.

That idiot.

Hinata caught his shirt in a death grip when a giant snake appeared under their feet and darted into the third floor window with both of them on top, it slid, lightning fast, into the building through a large hole in the wall and spat poison into the flaming corridors as to not let the tongues of fire touch them. "Where is she?"

Frowning into the smoke and fire, Hinata scanned the building with her Byakugan. "To the left, up the stairs, they're in the teacher's room on the third floor!" Hinata managed a quick seal with her hands wrapped around him, her palms flattened against his chest before cold water splashed against his shirt and face. "This will give you some time!" with that she hopped off in the middle of the burning corridor.

"What are you doing?"

"I'll tell Naruto to wait one minute!" She said and ran in the opposite direction. "Please hurry up!"

"You fool." He grumbled to himself and ducked when a huge chunk of ceiling skimmed his head; the snake's head smashed the thick doors open to the teacher's lounge. A Hyuuga teenager, two jounin and several first-graders were gathered next to a window.

"What are you waiting for?" Sasuke crossed his arms and ignored the fire crawling around him and closer to the children. "I'm here to save you but you already have the window open. You can just jump, you know."

"We're working on it, baka!" The Hyuuga girl snapped at him. "Pitch in or piss off!"

A smirk found it's way to his mouth. "Hop on." The giant snake crossed the window frame towards the ground and created a slide downwards, Sasuke hopped off and waved for the children to slide down to safety. The members of the rescue team stood in line to grab the children one by one. The Hyuuga girl was the last to climb onto the slippery back, but a heavy wave of frog water was already descending quickly from the sky.

Sasuke had an instant to sigh at his friend's bad timing before pressing two fingers to his mouth to dismiss the summon; the girl hovered a few feet in the air when the snake suddenly disappeared but before she could panic, she was expertly caught in Sasuke's arms. Once the dizzying realization that she wasn't dead settled in, he let her feet drop and she shook charcoal out of her hair.

Hinata pushed through the crowd and crashed into the girl, crying and laughing and reprimanding all in the same time, her clothes dark with ash and hair littered with wood shavings.

"Neechan calm down, I'm a chuunin, I had to help with the evacuation." She said and patted the taller one on the head. "I'm alright."

"You were doing a half-assed job if you ask me." Sasuke brushed ash off his clothes and wetness out of his fringe.

"There were guys at the bottom helping us; they can only do so much." She pointed to the makeshift net now crushed under the rubble; some shinobi and civilians were still there surveying the situation.

"How did it start?" Hinata sniffled. "It got so big!"

"Electrical short-circuit, I could smell the wires burning." The Inuzuka stomped closer, hair slightly fizzy at the ends and face smeared with dirt. "Can you see anyone in that house?"

Hinata tightly knotted her fingers in a seal and scanned the burning building. "I don't see anyone, there's nobody in there."

Sharingan still on, Sasuke glared at the fire. "Someone is in there, but it's not really burning."

"Yeah it's just a little scorched. Are you blind as well as stupid? Can't you see the huge-ass fire?" Kiba barked at him and turned to Hinata and her sister. "You're absolutely sure no one is in there? We're bringing it down so it wouldn't make the fire any bigger, it'll be faster but we don't wanna kill anyone by mistake." A giant, white dog squeezed through the crowd, fur soaked to the bone and ready to infiltrate fire.

"How you ever get to wear that Jounin Jacket, I'll never know." Sasuke grabbed Hinata's and her sister's sleeves and pulled them back behind him. "Go ahead, kill yourself, runt. Stop depending on girls."

"What did you…" It was the last straw, Kiba grabbed Sasuke's collar, a few inches taller than him. "I warned you once and I will not do it again you sonofabitch! Who do you think you are?"

Sharingan instantly switched to Mangekyo; he could hear echoing in his ears, the collective moans of those in his past coiling in a downwards spiral, feeding the darkness. "I think you've got it reversed, mutt, and if you had one shred of brain, you'd take it back."

"Guys, people are dying! This isn't the time for a pissing contest!" the girl behind him snapped but was held back by her older sister. Several ninja in Anbu masks circled around them and approached cautiously.

"Well you think you're all high and mighty, but you're just an abandoned dog with its tail between its legs." Kiba shook the boy by the shirtfront. "You're not stronger or smarter than any of us, but you know why the whole village tiptoes around you? Because you're a crazy bastard who might break into a killing frenzy at the drop of a hat, that's why!" The white dog barked twice, as if telling them to cut it out.

"Keep my parent's out of this." Sasuke said calmly, not really looking into the boy's eyes. He reached a hand up and listened to the sounds of the world disappear.

Kiba kept talking, his mouth moving and eyes fierce, but he couldn't hear any of it. Masked nin were sprinting towards him, weapons at the ready, but everything was going in slow motion. The smell of scorched wood and dirt disappeared and the heat of fire turned into a stifling haze of mist. Susanoo reached out eagerly from the pits of the cold void, his hand cold as ice and grip strong like iron; their fingertips met and the beast ruptured what little tolerance he had left; he let the anguish and hate wash over him then the outside world came crashing back into focus.

The smell of burnt flesh and wood and plastic, the sky thundering with a pent-up rain storm and the village square exploding in chaos as the reality of a large-scale fight dawned on them. Screaming and crying and shouts of frightened people running around him, they gazed up at the translucent monster hovering above him with frightened eyes; the boy holding his shirt let go and stepped back, prepared to fight. With a wave of his hand, Susanoo mimicked and reached back, knocking a few stories off their respective buildings, with tremendous speed it sped forward towards the Inuzuka.

Several things happened at once, someone behind him screamed "No!", The boy's fist shot forward as he got a clear shot at his stomach, a giant dog's razor-sharp teeth closed around his arm and Susanoo's hand smashed through the burning building ahead, breaking it apart like a flimsy house of cards. Two Anbu were on either side of him, each with a kunai in hand poised against the pulsating veins on either side of his throat.

Silence occupied the crowded area for just an instant before everyone broke out into a raging fit, demanding that he take his mindless, killing tendencies somewhere else; that he kills himself and rids the world of his menace and cries to clear the square before the fight involved any of the villagers or their children, that the Anbu should take him out right here and now.

Nobody dared do any of it, though, too scared or too curious to see what was going to happen next like some sick movie scene.

Slowly, because a heavy dog was still chewing on his wrist and a pair of kunai was still pressed to his jugular, he brought his arm back and let his fingers uncurl. Susanoo did the same and from his large hand fell the crushed corpse of a missing nin with a crossed forehead protector bearing the symbol of the village of Lightning. Susanoo vanished instantly, obediently, allowing a clear view of the cloudy sky once more, as if on cue, droplets started a soft pitter patter on the metal sheets that once made the roof of Konoha's Ninja Academy.

"Like I said." Sasuke said calmly. "There was someone in there, and it wasn't burning." With eyes like his, trained to make and break Genjutsu, it was easy to see who was really behind the whole thing. The dog slowly let go of him, blood dripping down it's chin, and stepped back to it's trainer with ears flat and tail tucked. The Anbu slowly retreated but kept a poised stance, stealing glances at the dead enemy a few feet away. Kiba just stared back and forth between the body and the Uchiha, mouth open.

Naruto jumped into the clearing. "What was that about? I was back there with—Whoa! Who is this?" He grimaced at the dead ninja. "Hey, I know this guy, he was all over the newspapers when he died a few years ago!"

"The puppet." Sasuke said, not really surprised by any of it. "I guess Kabuto is still manipulating dead guys, shouldn't you stop him or something? Well, that's your problem." He frowned at both the blond and the brunette before shutting his eyes and sighing. "You've wasted enough of my time already, idiots." The crowd parted automatically when he headed towards the older part of town towards his apartment.

"Where are you going?" Naruto shouted.

"To change my wet clothes!" He shouted back, voice angry, so that nobody dared try to change his mind.

Once away from ignorant townspeople and annoying Narutos, he let his eyelids flutter open, blood poured generously down his face and he let it. It was still mid-afternoon and even as the sky was dark with rain and clouds he should have been able to see. The street ahead, however, was still blurry and dark, as if he was peeking through a dirty telescope. His hands shook with the effort to keep Susanoo contained, its struggle clawing at his chest and scratching at the thin veil separating him from insanity.

His parents cried, his brother laughed hysterically and a long line of enemies snickered at him in the darkness, as if a piece of each and every one of them remained embedded in his very soul.

"I'm begging you… Sleep." He whispered and wiped blood and tears off his face.