Start the Machine

- all I can see is you -

chapter six; the emotionless assassin

Sasuke's POV

The sky was painted with an abundance of colour; swirls of orange and pink clouds slowly moved across the horizon, and I watched as the sun slowly inched its way downwards. From the roof of the shack, I could see the sky perfectly. Sunsets always gave me such a strange nostalgic feeling. I suppose, it reminded me of when I was a child.

I doubt anyone would have ever guessed it, but I thought about what it was like to be a child quite frequently. It all seemed so distant, like a fuzzy dream I had stored in the deep vault of my mind. Every once un a while, I would unlock this vault and recall the memories locked within. It was strange to think that I was happy at one time.

Those times were long passed.

It was beginning to get dark. The sun tucked itself behind the trees and began to disappear. I caught myself deep in thought, much like I always did. My thoughts wandered, fathoming my conversation with my father earlier. I had never dared to lie to him before. I wondered, why didn't I tell him the truth...? Why did I let her live? In all honesty, I did not know. At that point, I couldn't even understand myself.

I guess, I just didn't think she deserved to die at that moment.

But why?

Born and raised by those who worshiped hatred, by those with no regard for human life outside of their family; why would I allow such a weak, pitiful girl to live at my mercy? I could not possibly fathom...

I shook my head of these thoughts, clearing my mind as I noted that the sun was almost completely gone over the horizon and soon it would be night. This was my cue to go back inside, and hopefully sleep soon so I could escape my conscious, even if only for a few hours. I would rest myself, but I knew that soon I would find myself in the exact same place, watching the sun rise instead of fall.

The air was hot and sticky the next day. Sitting in the shadows of trees was nice, but it still didn't change much about the humidity and what it was doing to my hair. It was getting all poofy...

Annoyed, I was trying to flatten my hair by patting it, and I heard a tiny giggle come from my right. I had heard that giggle once before, recalling a more simplistic time back at the academy.

I gave her a very strange look, and she blushed and looked away. Something deep (very, very deep, as in the darkest depths of the ocean floor kind of deep) inside me almost compelled me to smile... Almost. I wasn't entirely sure what it was, but regardness I resisted the slight tug that pulled at the corner of my lips and kept my expression serious and stern.

Hinata couldn't see it, but in my mind I knew how strange that was. It had been an extremely vast amount of time since someone had even remotely impelled me to actually smile. This thought disturbed me.

Cutting my thoughts off completely, I suddenly felt an abrupt sense of chakra incoming. Hinata seemed to notice as well, for she gasped and looked off in one direction.

"Sasuke-" She began, but I cut her off.

"I know... Someone's coming."

Hinata's POV

Through my byakugan eyes I could see two people running towards us at an extremely high pace. Oh no... I thought. Who could it be?

Sasuke activated his sharingan, and silently waited. In a matter of seconds, two nin sped by us. One moment Sasuke was beside me, the next he was on the ground haulting the people in their path. They skidded to a stop. Sasuke held his hand on the sword he always kept in his belt; I'd never seen him use it before, and I was really hoping I didn't have to.

I didn't know what to do, so I stayed in the tree and watched, trying to get a better look to distinguish who it was, but I really couldn't recognize their chakra. I did not know these ninja, but I could make out the symbol on their headbands and saw that they were from the Sand. What are ninja from the sand doing here? I wondered. Sasuke stared at them with blazing red eyes that even struck fear into my heart despite the fact that he was not looking at me.

"Get out of our way!" One of the ninja demanded, but Sasuke did not comply. He continued to stare them down, studying them, likely analysing who they were. When he said nothing for several moments, the other ninja spoke out.

"He said get out of the way, Uchiha scum, or we'll kill you right here."

The chakra these men possessed was not weak, but nothing comparable to the great chakra that Sasuke emanated. The men talked with confidence, but I could see by their expressions that Sasuke was making them uneasy. After another few moments, Sasuke decided to speak out.

"What business do you have in the leaf?"

"No business of yours!" Shouted one of the ninja angrily.

What happened next almost happened too quickly for me to process.

Blood.

Dark, mass amounts of blood lined Sasuke's blade, and splattered across his clothing and skin. In a mere instant, the two men lay slain in the dirt. Sasuke stood before them and stared at their bodies with blazing eyes that read no emotion. I gazed down with shock, trembling where I sat. I didn't even see him move... He just standing there, and in a flash both of those men are dead! It terrified me to see this happen, realizing how easy it really would be for Sasuke to take my life. He could strike at any given moment, and I would never be able to see it coming.

Sasuke hovered over the murdered corpses for but another moment, before he looked up at me. His eyes were no longer red, and had reverted to their original onyx black.

"Let's go." He said to me in a surprisingly soft tone. I got a hold of myself and jumped down next to him, trying to avert my eyes from the bodies, but the sight would never be unseen. We walked through the forest in silence; I didn't dare speak a word. I was still trying to calm myself down from what I had just seen. The blood that covered Sasuke was not helping. We arrived at a creek, and Sasuke told me to wait off to the side while he washed himself off.

I sat behind a bush and held my knees to my chest, trying to erase the images from my mind but they did not cease. My heart was beating heavy in my chest, and I felt like I was about to have an anxiety attack. Calm down, Hinata. I told myself. You've seen it all before, it's no different...

I peeked back through the bushes and could see him rinsing the blood off his body, tingeing the water with red. He wore a serious expression as he momentarily dunked his head under the water only to bring it back up with his face clean of all traces of blood. What goes through a persons mind after they kill? I speculated as he removed his shirt and began to rinse it in the creek as well.

It was impossible to guess what he was thinking about; he could have been feeling remorseful or he could have been feeling nothing at all. His face was so cold, so emotionless. It was like he had been trained to erase any human emotion from his mind without any anguish.

Sasuke was undoubtedly the most chilling description of an assassin.

Thank you so much for reading :) Please leave a review, any sort of feedback would be great. Hope you all enjoyed this chapter!

~Homely