Forgotten Dream
Chapter VI: Returning Home
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. But I have realized that I am one of the people who would be most able to fulfill that 'daily manga chapters if I owned the series' promise, given that these chapters have been coming out at least every day, sometimes twice on days I have off of school. So yeah, I can boast that, but I still do not own the series. T.T
Sasuke let his eyes wonder freely around his childhood home, now his place of residence once again. Not much had changed; apart from a thick layer of dust, it looked almost exactly as it had ten years ago when he had last set foot here, the night of the Uchiha Clan Massacre. Then again, that may have something to do with the fact that during those ten years, the only people who had been here were ANBU investigating the murder, and they had only been here for a very brief period of time. So in all honesty, the fact that the old manor looked completely the same was something that Sasuke had been very much prepared for. That didn't mean that he could stand the idea of actually living here again, though. Well, he thought as his eyes fell on Sakura, who was gazing around her with an expression of awe on her face, maybe he could stand to live here. He still wasn't looking forward to it. That part would not change for anyone.
"Sasuke-san, it's so big!" the medic-nin exclaimed, a child-like expression of wonder upon her face. Sasuke almost smirked fondly at the sight of it, before he caught himself. He was an Uchiha; Uchiha did not start acting soppy over pretty girls. Wait, he didn't mean the pretty part! Okay, fine he did. He loved Sakura, but that was no excuse to suddenly lose all of his pride and start acting in a way resembling the behavior of the dobe! Though Sasuke would of course act in a slightly more mature manner than his blond companion had ever behaved.
Speaking of the dobe, he was wondering around in the street, gawking at how many buildings there were. Trailing behind him, fidgeting with her hands again, was Hinata. The Hyuuga showed little shock at the size of the Uchiha Compound, though she was probably used to it from living in the Hyuuga Compound all her life. Hinata was the heiress to the Hyuuga clan, after all.
"Naruto. Hinata," Sasuke called. Both perked up at the sound of their names, instantly turning to face Sasuke. "This way," he told them, heading down the main road. It was all coming back to him now as clearly as though it had been ten days since he had last been here, instead of ten years. Turn onto this side road, walk past the torn-up paper lanterns that once displayed the Uchiha clan crest so proudly, and open this door. Step forward, take off your shoes, and you'll be standing in the front room to what had been Sasuke's family's house in the days before the Uchiha clan had been wiped out. Sasuke stared around for a minute, remembering all that had passed within these walls.
"This is home," he said simply. Naruto instantly charged forward to explore the house, Hinata trailing him like a silent specter. It was almost comical how awkward Naruto's presence turned Hinata into a stammering wreck like she hadn't been in years, yet she still chose to follow him like a faithful puppy. Sakura walked more slowly, examining everything like a display of some forgotten culture, instead of just the home of Sasuke's deceased family. Sasuke stood alone in the doorway for a moment longer, lost in his memories, before shaking himself out of the trance and heading off to follow the others.
He found Naruto plopped down on a couch, watching TV. (A/N: If you look at the clips of Sasuke's home from the episode of the Uchiha Clan Massacre flashbacks, there really is a TV in one of the rooms. They probably don't still get any reception, since no one's been paying the bill for about ten years, but oh well! I'm just pointing out that there actually is television in the Naruto world.) Hinata hovered in the background uncertainly, and Sakura perched beside Naruto on the aged (and probably completely coated in dust) sofa. Sasuke inwardly smirked with amusement at how apparently comfortable Naruto was just plopping down to watch TV in someone else's house, let alone plopping down to watch TV in someone else's house that most people thought was still haunted by the ghosts of the dead Uchiha. That dobe could do some truly amazing things at times. Then again, it could simply be that he never learned that there were these things called manners. With Naruto, you never knew.
"Hey, Sasuke-teme, wanna watch with us?" Naruto asked, looking up from whatever cartoon he was watching. Sasuke was amazed how quickly Naruto had remembered to add the –teme suffix to his name. Hopefully Sakura would begin to show the same progress soon, and things could hurry up and get back to normal.
"Hn, no thanks, dobe. I'm going to check up on some things here"
"I'll come with you, Sasuke-san," Sakura offered quickly (too quickly?). "You may be strong enough to be released from the hospital, but that doesn't mean that you're back to full health yet, and I don't trust you not to injure yourself and wind up back in that hospital by the end of the day."
"Hn, thanks for your concern, but I can handle myself," he replied, remembering that there had been a time when he would have just had to tell her that she was annoying to get her to leave him alone and dash off in tears. Times changed. Sasuke's heart of ice had thawed, and Sakura had grown up from a giggling little fangirl into the kunoichi she was today. And the kunoichi she was today didn't mind if he didn't want her to come with him. Sasuke sighed inwardly. Sometimes he almost missed the days when she would kill for a chance to talk with him. Almost.
Sasuke moved slowly but deliberately through his house, systematically checking that everything was indeed exactly how he had last seen it apart from the inch or so of dust. (A/N: I'm American, I say inch. Besides, centimeter just doesn't sound right. A centimeter or so of dust? It just sounds awkward.) There was one room he purposefully saved for last. Down the outdoor walkway, at the very end, were two sliding double doors. They opened to reveal the room Sasuke had dreaded seeing the most, the room that was the last place in his house he had visited on that fateful night. The room in which his parents had been murdered.
Even after the passage of ten long years, Sasuke fantasized that he could still see the blood on the floor. To his eyes, this room could never be cleansed of it. It would always be tainted by the blood of his parents that had spilled on its floor. Even if he were to live here full time, as he was preparing to, this room would always be left alone. A final memorial to his parents, he supposed.
Sasuke bowed his head as he prayed for his parents' souls. No tears fell from his fathomless onyx eyes. He had cried himself dry over this loss long ago. In his heart, there was only the ache of remembered grief, not eased in the slightest with Itachi's death. He supposed that Kakashi had been correct about that after all. Just as the Jounin had also been right about Sasuke having found something precious in Team Seven: the family that he had thought taken forever from him by Itachi's hands.
Sasuke did not know how long he stood there, head bowed in memory, before he became aware of someone else's chakra coming from somewhere close behind him.
"You can come out now," he instructed them. Obediently, Sakura stepped out from where she had hidden in the shadows, an expression of grief on his behalf upon her kind face.
"It's hard for you to be here, isn't it, Sasuke-san." It was more a statement than a question. "This is where they were killed, weren't they? Your parents, I mean."
"Yeah," he confirmed sadly. "I'll never be able to forget what was taken from me that day. My parents, my big brother, my idol, and my entire family."
"But you found it again, didn't you? When you were with your Genin team. You've told me that they were like a family to you, after you lost yours. You must miss them terribly."
"I do," Sasuke said forlornly. "It would probably be easier if I didn't know that they were still out there somewhere; if they were dead. Now… It's hard, Sakura, to know that the people you love more than your own life don't even know that you're here." There were tears in her eyes as he finished saying this, tears shed for his ancient loss. If only she knew…
"I should probably be going now," she said, wiping the tears from her eyes with her arm and turning to leave. "Goodbye… Sasuke-kun," she said as she turned the corner and left.
Sasuke-kun. Did that mean that she remembered?
"Goodbye, Sakura-chan," Sasuke said quietly as he walked slowly down the walkway and entered his old bedroom.
Unknown to Sasuke, two eyes tracked his every movement with the calculating intensity of a predator. Two sickly yellow eyes, whose pupils were mere slits like a snake's. A sinister chuckle came from the figure as it slunk away into the shadows, as snake-like in its movements as in its eyes.
A/N: A little creepy on the ending there. No, Sakura doesn't remember (quite yet), she just had a moment like Naruto where she says something from back when they were Team Seven without realizing it. Their memories won't be back in full until we near the end of the story. Muhahaha (insert creepy evil theme music… again, as the screen fades into blackness) This creepy theme is fun. (I'm having an odd moment today.)
