Do not own Naruto, just like last time. Ignore the terrible name to this chapter, onegai. DX It took me forever to come up with anything! I'm not very good at naming things… Well, at least this chapter is longer…

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Chapter 5 – The Tear of the Prince

Sasuke opened his eyes slowly, not quite certain of his whereabouts. He struggled to sit up, having to throw some sort of blanket off of him to do so, and found his body to be very reluctant to make any such movements. When he finally succeeded, his head swam with dizziness; he placed his hand over his eyes, trying his hardest not to pass back out.

After a few minutes (they were minutes to Sasuke, at least. He couldn't be quite sure how long it really took, seeing as everything seemed to be going in slow-motion for him at the moment), his head finally stopped spinning. He removed his hand from over his eyes, then waited for his vision to return.

And waited.

He almost smacked himself. His sluggish mind had taken a while to realize there was no light in… well, wherever he was. He hadn't figured that part out yet, but he was certain a light would help that. He felt around whatever he was sitting on, and then decided it had to be a bed.

'A strange place, with no lights, in a bed…' Even his slow mind could decide rather quickly that this wasn't the best of situations. He scooted to the edge of the bed as fast as his body could, swinging his legs over the side. He sat there for a little while, preparing himself for the next moving activity. At long last, he shoved all of his weight onto his legs, and launched up from the bed.

And promptly fell right on his ass.

He blinked, not fully understanding what had just happened. He felt back behind him for the bed, using it to help him stand back up. He wobbled a bit, but managed to stay on his feet this time. After he steadied, he walked along the bedside, feeling for a wall to help him.

He bumped into it head first, causing quite a racket. Not to mention giving him a headache that he was sure wouldn't go away anytime soon.

There was good news, though. At least now Sasuke would be able to find some sort of light source. He stumbled and tripped a few times on the way, but at last reached a light switch. He flicked it on, then stumbled backwards away from the blinding light that had just made his major headache evolve into a migraine.

It took his eyes what seemed like ages to get used to the light. When he was finally able to look around the strange room he was currently being held captive in, he decided that he really was going to have to smack himself over the top of his head later… after the headache/migraine, of course.

He was in his own room.

'All of that worry and pain over nothing…' Sasuke sighed, leaning against the nearest wall for support. All of this activity had worn his body out, and he found his eyes kept staying shut after blinking. His stomach growled angrily up at him, which he replied to with a lazy glare. Food meant walking downstairs, into the kitchen, up to the fridge, opening the fridge, looking for food, and so on. He didn't have that kind of energy! So, after carefully assessing the situation at hand, he decided the best course of action at the moment was to go straight back to bed.

The trip back wasn't nearly as painful, and didn't take quite as long either. He sat down onto his bed wearily, yawning deeply. He vaguely realized that he hadn't turned out his light, but that thought was sent straight to the back of his mind as soon as it came to him. He lay down slowly, pulling the covers up to him, resting his head gently down onto his pillows. As soon as his eyes closed, he passed out again, practically dead to the world…

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"Sasuke, if you don't get out here right now, I'm kicking down this door!"

Sasuke groaned, rolling over to the side of his bed that was farthest from the door. He pulled a pillow over his head, blocking out the knocking noise as best he could, trying desperately to go back to sleep.

"He's probably still tired. Just let him rest." Itachi's voice sounded through his door, bringing momentary comfort. The next voice, sadly, took this comfort and turned it into annoyance.

"23 hours is long enough to sleep. Get UP Sasuke, or I'm going to get you up myself!"

Sasuke opened his eyes, deciding it would be for the best if he got up on his own accord. He removed the pillow from his face, sitting up and stretching his whole body out, much like a cat would. Placing the pillow back where it belonged, he threw his covers off and went straight for his closet. After rummaging a little, he managed to find clean clothes, and proceeded to get dressed. The whole time he could hear Madara and Itachi arguing over waking him up. Madara comment mostly revolved around Sasuke's laziness, while Itachi argued that it was best to leave Sasuke alone.

Sasuke pulled his shirt down, making his way to his door. He opened his door at just the right moment to see Madara and Itachi in the middle of a glare-down. Itachi was winning, of course, when they both heard the door open and turned to see Sasuke. Itachi smiled pleasantly at Sasuke, while Madara seemed to get even angrier.

"Ah, Sasuke, you're awake."

"What the Hell were you doing in there for a whole day?"

Itachi and Madara spoke simultaneously, making Sasuke smirk. He noticed his brother out of his peripheral vision, deciding to speak with him first. He looked over at Itachi, immediately regretting his action.

Everything came rushing back into his head. Everything that he had ever done, even things he had never admitted to doing, all came rushing back. Regrets flooded his memory, burning like a deep-set fire within his soul…

The fire…

Tomato soup…

Sasuke quickly regained his composure, hoping his horror did not show on his face. He decided to answer Madara's question instead of looking anywhere near Itachi again.

"I was sleeping." Before Madara could question him further, Sasuke made a quick getaway, hoping to leave Itachi and his regrets behind. He didn't understand what was going on lately; everything he held close to him, everything he cherished most, was falling apart! He could feel it all slipping slowly through his fingertips.

Sasuke sighed, knowing full well that nothing was falling apart, save for his sanity. No relationships had changed; everything was still the same. He was just overreacting, and apparently losing his intelligence, like it seemed he had been for quite a while now. Everything else was simply… the same. Just normal.

"How could you be that tired from one half day at school?" Madara demanded from upstairs. Sasuke shook his head, glad for the normalcy of his uncle's rage. He would give anything to feel normal right now, and that included an argument with his uncle… That was the worst case scenario, of course.

"Leave him alone. He was tired, leave it at that." Itachi walked downstairs after Sasuke, much to the latter's horror. Madara was left upstairs to grumble to himself.

Sasuke glanced at the clock, avoiding looking at his aniki again. One thing he knew for certain is that he couldn't go through that again. Not today, at least. Given a little while, say a day or two, and maybe, just maybe, he might be able to handle that kind of torture. Avoiding Itachi was torture within itself, but it was a kind that Sasuke could take… for now, at least. Sure, he wanted to be normal, wanted to be able to speak with Itachi as he would every morning – though even then the conversation was minuscule – but he knew he could not. He knew that, if he even tried to speak, he would break.

'Torture it is, then.' Sasuke smiled dryly to himself, continuing his walk to the kitchen.

"I'm going to work," Madara walked to the door, putting his coat on. He waved at the both of them, then walked out of the door, leaving the two brothers alone.

The house fell into an awkward silence, only disturbed by the roar of Madara's car starting up outside. Both of them listened to it speed away, both longing for the person within its metal prison to come back. Itachi stood in the doorway of the kitchen, feeling uncomfortable with the silence, something that was unnatural for him. He was always one to enjoy silence, even as far as to seek it out; yet, here he felt vulnerable… 'No, not vulnerable.' Itachi shifted his weight to his other led, confused. He just couldn't shake the feeling that he was missing something. Sasuke hadn't looked at him once since he had walked out of his room. It wasn't unnatural, but… Itachi had this strange feeling that Sasuke didn't want to look at him. Itachi sighed inwardly, confused as to why something this minuscule was bothering him this much. Why was something so petty the thing that had kept him up last night? He shook his head ever so slightly, a movement only he would ever notice, then went to watching his otouto.

While Itachi had been reconsidering his momentary sanity, Sasuke had been trying his best to get images out of his head by searching for food. Though it is depressing to say so, it hadn't gone so well for him… well, at least until he found a tomato in the fridge. That did brighten his outlook on life, if only slightly and momentarily. He took it out of the fridge, then made his way to the table. If it had been any other day, he would have happily munched on it with a smile on his face; today, however, was not 'any other day'. Today was simply today, and it was not a day for smiles. Sasuke soon found himself drowning in a sea of fire once more, reliving lies upon lies of his past.

Itachi watched Sasuke the whole time, fiddling with the idea of talking to him. His feeling contradicted each other, making the decision very difficult to find. His worry demanded the heart-to-heart conversation, while his natural distant personality told him over and over that Sasuke could handle things by himself, that he should stand on the sidelines and leave his otouto alone. Not surprisingly, the worry won out – it always seemed to when dealing with Sasuke. Itachi walked over, silently cursing himself for not thinking about what he would say. He never used to overlook things; what had happened to him lately.

Putting his thoughts and feelings aside, Itachi decided on an utterly unoriginal way to start their conversation. "Sasuke?"

Sasuke looked up as Itachi sat down. Itachi paused, not sure whether to continue or to fall back into silence.

"What?"

Itachi sighed; seeing his otouto's completely normal, sane response made him feel even crazier than he had before. Nonetheless, he continued on to ask the same question that he had the day before multiple times. He felt more and more idiotic each time he asked, but worry for his closest blood-relative, for his beloved otouto, forbade him from keeping quiet. "You… are okay, right?"

Sasuke winced inwardly, wishing that he didn't have to lie again so soon. He had been prepared for the torture of awkward silence between them, prepared to utterly ignore his aniki's existence, something that killed him on the inside. He knew how much it would hurt him if Itachi ignored him, and this is why it hurt Sasuke so much. Things that would hurt Sasuke emotionally were always things that he loathed doing unto others, making him feel guiltier and guiltier, and people close to him – mostly consisting of Itachi, his aniki, and his nii-san (see a pattern there?) – ignoring him was pretty high up there on his emotional torture list.

Itachi, on the other hand, was a completely different story. He was used to people ignoring him, especially Sasuke, seeing as he used to do it all the time to Itachi when they were younger. Lies hurt much worse to him; he would rather the truth be told and kill him than lies be told to keep him alive. He once actually told Sasuke this; of course, as most memories love to do, this particular memory waited until now to show its ugly face.

'Lies, lies, lies.' His darker half came back, taunting Sasuke, knowing everything that went through his head. After all, he was in it. 'So many lies, Sasuke. Can you do it? Can you really look him in the eyes and lie?'

Sasuke took the challenge, knowing his darker half knew the answer before he even asked. Looking Itachi straight in the eyes, he answered, not once wavering in his speech. "Yes. Why wouldn't I be?"

Itachi shrugged, looking down at the table. He frowned, fiddling around with a spoon left in front of his seat. "I am not sure. I suppose it is my job to make sure, that is all."

A dark chuckle echoed through Sasuke's conscious. Sasuke nearly winced at the sound, but managed to hold back the urge. 'Are you proud, Sasuke? You've succeeded in fooling your brother. You must really love him to say that to his face, and after all he's done for you. How touching.' Sasuke looked down at the table as well, barely even seeing it through his guilt. He knew that, if Itachi ever found out he was lying, it was possible he would never be forgiven.

Itachi got up, feeling rather awkward in the silence. He figured he had annoyed his otouto; he glanced down at him once more, hoping that Sasuke wasn't lying to him. He hated it when people lied; there was no reason for such nonsense! It was unneeded and could be rather hurtful at times. It was even worse when they made that idiotic excuse "The truth hurts". Of course it hurts! He shook his head, his frown deepening. Sasuke used to lie all the time to him, and he had to admit it aggravated him to no end. But, unlike with other people, he never got truly angry at his otouto, just annoyed. 'Sometimes,' he thought to himself, 'I believe Sasuke is the one person who I could never truly be angered at. I do not remember a time when I was angry at him.'

Itachi sighed, realizing that what he was doing – standing there next to the table, staring intently at the top of Sasuke's head deep in thought – could be considered creepy and stalker-ish in some cultures. He walked out of the kitchen, questioning his sanity as of late.

While Itachi's receding footsteps echoed through the silence of the dead house, Sasuke put his head down on the table, wishing for nothing more than a different life, a different problem to deal with. Anything other than his current one could be handled, anyone other than himself would be better. He felt his eyes water, then a single tear slid down his cheek.

Itachi never came back into the kitchen.

After 10 minutes of crying – it was a strange feeling, Sasuke later noted. He hadn't cried in years, and had been unaccustomed to the feeling of salt water. He always thought that standing in the shower was something like crying; after this, he found himself utterly wrong. Warm water coming from the showerhead is nothing like your soul seeping from your eyes, stealing away your self control with it. He felt his heart tearing slowly, piece by piece with every single teardrop, ever tear the size of the droplet that stole it away – Sasuke got up, wiping away the remnants of his emotional breakdown. He checked his best around the corners of the walls, and found it quite ironic that now, of all times, luck was at last on his side. He smirked cynically at his own life, then made his way upstairs to his room, where he spent the rest of his day quietly staring at the thing that had ruined his chances of ever finding happiness in the pathetic existence he had once called a 'life'.

He had discovered lately that, in order to call your meager existence a 'life', you had to be alive. In order to be alive, you had to have a heart; Sasuke found himself too lacking to ever count himself among the living again.

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Notes:

Sasuke's calculations:

What should be:

Living = Joy and happiness (at least ¾ of the time)

Joy and happiness = Heart

Heart = Blood

Blood = Oxygen to the brain

Oxygen to the brain = Intelligence (of some sort)

Intelligence (of some sort) = No stupid decisions (for Sasuke, anyway)

What it really is:

Sasuke's life = Horror and lies

Horror and lies = NOT HAPPINESS

No happiness = No heart

No heart = No intelligence (in a round about way)

No intelligence = Sasuke's decision that destroyed his life