Posted: May 26, 2012
Last Updated: May 26, 2012
Chapter WC: 987
Story WC: 23,171

Worth Dying For

Interlude
Uchiha Sasuke

-6:00 AM, February 10th, 312 TE-

-Sasuke's Apartment-

Fact: Uchiha Sasuke could not stand messes. He liked things to be neat and organized. He liked things to be well within his control. He did not like surprises or changes or even having something disturb him while he was concentrating.

Sasuke wanted his life to fit into a neat little box, and he hated it when it was not, so he went out of his way to categorize everything that he could.

Fact: Uchiha Itachi massacred the Uchiha clan.

Solution: Uchiha Sasuke would kill Uchiha Itachi.

Fact: Uchiha Sasuke was the last of the Uchiha Clan.

Solution: Uchiha Sasuke would repopulate the Uchiha Clan.

He was not sure on the specifics of the last one yet. He figured he would get there once Itachi was gone.

As he thought, Sasuke scrubbed his breakfast dishes. Washing away the soap, he held the plate up to the light, frowned, then scrubbed some more. At last he placed the dish in the rack. He frowned and rotated it slightly to the left. He hung the towel on the rack over the oven and then smoothed it out. He picked up the towel, shook it out, and hung it back up. He then picked it up again and repeated the process.

Sasuke checked his clothes one last time before heading to the door at 6:25. He patted down his pockets, mentally taking stock of his equipment. Twenty shuriken and two coils of wire in his leg pouch. Five kunai in his left pocket, six kunai in his the right. He took out one of them and set it down on his desk. Five kunai in his left pocket, five kunai in his right. Sasuke looked back down at the table, made sure the tip of the kunai was facing down precisely, and frowned.

Fact: There was dust on the table.

Solution: Get out the dust cloth and clean it.

At 6:33, when he was finally satisfied, Sasuke left and locked the door behind him. As he left the apartment and headed toward the Academy, he stared stoically ahead, ignoring the stares he garnered as he walked. He had found over the years that anyone who recognized him displayed one of two reactions: either a look saying "Oh that poor boy" or a look of wary suspicion, like he was a caged, bloodthirsty beast that would turn on them at any moment. Sasuke's hands tightened into fists.

Fact: Uchiha Sasuke was not the same person as his brother.

Solution: Uchiha Sasuke would kill Uchiha Itachi.

Sasuke arrived at the Academy at exactly 7:04, as he did every day. He made his way into the classroom and sat down at 7:07 and by 7:10 was sitting with his notebook placed before him exactly in the center of the desk. He straightened the pencil next to it so that it was two centimeters away and perfectly parallel.

At approximately 7:26 The Fangirls came running into the room, screaming at the top of their lungs and jarring Sasuke away from where he had been staring at the blackboard, counting the pieces of chalk and resisting the urge to walk up to it and clean it with a wet towel. He could see the chalk residue from yesterday's lesson and it bothered him, but he had long since learned to express restraint when it came to other people's messes—and doing so truly did take a lot of self control. If there was one thing Sasuke prided himself on, it was control.

Fact: The Fangirls were loud, obnoxious, and completely useless.

Solution: Ignore their existence.

Sasuke stared staunchly ahead. He did his best to pretend that there were not banshees clamoring around him, screeching in his ears and probably doing their best to burst his eardrums. He clenched his teeth and glared at the wall. He could not wait until he was out of there. Away from the stupid little girls. Away from the teachers who either sneered behind his back and taught him as little as they could, or praised him for anything he did and silently bumped up his grade. Away from the annoying, repetitive lessons that he had mastered months ago.

Once he was an actual shinobi, Sasuke would be well on his way to taking revenge for his clan.

One of the girls next to him tried to talk to him. Sasuke ignored her. He had no desire to talk to his classmates. The only one who had actually tried hard to become a shinobi was that blond boy—Uzukami, he thought it was—and even he had dropped out, probably because he could not use any jutsu. None of these people were worth his time. They would just hold him back.

He did not like conversations anyway. People and their emotions were an unknown variable, something he had no control over. He would not have the first clue about how to respond. He could not even remember the last time he had actually held a conversation with someone. It was probably before his clan died. He point blank refused to talk to the therapist they kept trying to send him to. Telling someone how he felt was nothing but a weakness that could be used against him. That therapist could easily tell others his thoughts, or sell the information to an enemy.

Fact: Uchiha Sasuke trusted no one.

Solution: Uchiha Sasuke talked to no one.

And if he was lonely, well that did not matter. His life was dedicated to those who had died—his family. He did not care what others thought of him, or if they thought he was a security risk. He had his goals, and he would do anything to accomplish them. If that meant training on his own until his hands bled and he puked from overexertion, so be it.

Fact: Uchiha Sasuke would kill Uchiha Itachi.

o-O-o

A/N: Sasuke will be a very important character in this story, and also a bit different from in canon, as you can see here. The main divergence in his personality is a result from his mild OCD, though that will snowball into larger changes later on.

Happy reading!

-S.R.

In taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior.
-Sir Francis Bacon