Chapter Ten
They were all still away when Sasuke with his back pack strapped to his back took off into the forest. It was nearly dark now and given the amount of time he had walked the last time, he estimated that it would be around eight o'clock or nine before he could get back, after that he had to find away to signal the search and rescue team. Unlike before he didn't have a rider waiting for him.
The forest was nosy with birds returning home and the ruffling of leaves. It felt cold and moist, like the sky was brewing to rain. Sasuke trudged on.
The force field he had seen before was apparently not meant to restrict people from moving away from the Aforum. It was probably meant for something though; scientist did not put up force fields for nothing.
He walked for an hour, checking around and trying his best not be too obvious. The last thing he wanted was to become food for some animal and he didn't want to encounter Babo again.
The sky was dark and a slight drizzle was causing Sasuke's bangs to drip. Why hasn't the entrance come up yet? His time told him he had been walking for nearly an hour and thirty minutes. He was exhausted beyond comparison and he really only had the fact that it was cool and not hot to thank for not collapsing.
Panting, Sasuke stopped and looked at the road ahead, then the road behind. Was he going crazy or do they both look the same. It wasn't like this before. He sighed and took a rest by a tree, took out a bottle of water and gulped.
"At this rate those guys are going to find me," he said. "I can't be any more trouble to them."
He raised himself again and decided to go left instead of forward, then a little later changed to walking right.
An hour later he was crouched under a cave to keep away from the pouring rain. "ah, I should have come with the map of this forest," he grumbled. "oh right, stupid unexplored forest.
It didn't take long for his tired and aching body to fall asleep and vaguely he felt like someone else was inside with him.
He didn't know how long he was out for but when he woke up there was light around him. He sat up fast. The light was coming from an open fire. Sasuke marveled at it then his eyes moved to land on the white face.
A scream rose and died just as fast in his throat so he was only staring opened mouth.
"Good morning, Sasuke-kun"
"Neji," he whispered.
"Did you sleep well?" the snake asked, "We was worried you would feel cold so We set the fire. Is it good, are your clothes dry yet? Are you hungry? We caught some rabbits but you will probably want to cook it first before you eat it."
He was asking so many questions and Sasuke could barely keep up. "Neji," he stopped him.
Neji fell silent; his head still looking towards Sasuke but his eyes were not.
"You are Neji, right?" Sasuke asked.
"Naruto and Kiba are worried sick, they went out to look for you. We know it's our fault…" he trailed off.
"What do you mean your fault?" Sasuke asked, a frown forming on his face.
"Well, Naruto and Kiba think We drove you away. And they are not wrong. We are the worst, We wish We had more control over ourselves. If we had not tried to eat you, if we had not scared you…"
What is that about?
"I didn't leave because of that," Sasuke blurted.
Now Neji's white eyes met his and Sasuke was amazed by the emotions he saw in them; sadness, trust, and even hope. He smiled. They all seem so human that he could almost forget sometimes that they were not, but human or animal it seems they all shared the same ability to get hurt and the same tendency to feel insecure.
"It's true that you frightened me, I really thought I was going to die," he admitted with a rue smile," but I have experienced that so much since I entered the forest. I can't say that I am used to it, I really don't want my life to keep being in danger, but it is not the reason why I needed to get away."
Once he finished only the cackling of burning wood echoed between them. Neji was still staring and Sasuke was returning the stare.
"Then, why."
Sasuke squeezed his hands. The words he needed to say next might turn this conversation around but he had a feeling that it wouldn't really change anything. Neji might drop the act of pretending to be more human than animal and force Sasuke back to the Aforum or he might let him leave, either way the words needed to be said.
"It's about what I said to you. I know that the scientist wronged you and that all of you killing them, was something your instincts to protect yourself drove you to do, you probably did not mean to use me, but it is the only choice you came to, I think I understand a little too well and so it makes it really hard for me to hate any one of you. "
He paused, "it's just that my parents were among those scientists that were killed and I can't overlook that. What kind of a person, a son would I be if I willingly helped my parents killers. I have no memory of them but they are still my parents, I still love them. "
He laughed emptily," I don't even understand it, but it is true. I do love my parents and I wish I could have met them." They had looked like really nice people in that video, maybe if they had been alive Sasuke wouldn't have grown up the way he did: alone and cold in that haunted mansion. What would it have been like to have his parents around?
The silence stretched but Sasuke didn't mind.
"Sasuke-kun," Sasuke wished he wouldn't speak yet. If he said anything now then it would bring down reality, it would make him face what he didn't want to face and finally put down the lie that he wanted to believe or was starting to believe.
"What you are saying, you can't be more wrong."
He lifted eyes unaware of when he had moved them to looking at the fire.
"Your parents were really good people, even if We are blind or crazy, even if We turn into a monster We would never kill them. The same goes for you."
Sasuke blinked slowly," what?"
Neji was smiling, "there is something We want you to see."
Something he wants Sasuke to see.
After leaving the cave, he followed Neji until they reached the Aforum. Despite feeling like he shouldn't, he couldn't help trusting Neji. He had tried so hard to get away from this place but used his own two legs to come back now. He really couldn't have given any good enough explanation for why he was doing this, only that he trusted Neji.
When Sasuke thought back to the time Neji could have killed him and didn't, when Neji was willing to give him as much help in understanding what was happening, he couldn't help wanting to trust him, so he followed through the automatic door into the Aforum.
When he entered, Naruto's blue eyes held his. Sasuke's heart skipped and he had to look away. He sensed the other coming to him and braced himself to be smacked but instead, arms wrapped around him and he felt coldness all over. He stood very still, grasping at understanding.
"Why did you leave," Naruto said next to his ear," do you know how much you worried me? You promised me a hug before, I'm taking it now."
Sasuke's sense of coldness seemed to disappear and it was all warm everywhere. "Yeah," he said and gradually encircled Naruto's back. When it was a few moments later, he pulled away and scratched at his cheek while avoiding the blue and white eyes.
"I didn't mean to worry you, "he said abash and unable to identify why.
"Let's go, Sasuke-kun"
"Where are you going?" Naruto asked faster than Sasuke could nod and he too waited for an answer.
"I think it's time to show him, Naruto."
Sasuke did not expect Naruto's eyes to grow wide and then look at him. He jerked back a little feeling like he should explain but there was nothing to say.
"are you sure?" he was the one being asked even though he had no idea what they wanted to show him but he had hope that it would vindicate them, that it would allow him to stay with them a little longer. If it was something like that then Sasuke was sure that he wanted to see it. He nodded.
Instead of looking pleased, Naruto looked sad and his palm cupped Sasuke's cheek. He could only stare at those eyes in return, those eyes that were saying something, eyes that were sad, not for their owner but for Sasuke.
"Why are you…"
"It's good," Naruto said almost the same time. "You really belong here instead."
Huh?
"What's this? You found him and no one came to get me?" Kiba walked in frowning. "Hey you idiot human, you dared to escape again."
Sasuke didn't reply and only turned to look at him. Kiba blinked a few times and seemed to read the mood. "What's happening?"
"Come along if you want to know, Kiba."
Neji started to walk and Sasuke and Naruto followed him. They passed the cabin and entered the scientist's lodge. Sasuke has only been there once in the week and half that he has been in the place.
He was led passed there to an automatic door. Neji stopped in front of it and it opened. There was a room that had a strange atmosphere. When light flooded the place, it opened up a colored room. It would be the only colored room Sasuke has ever seen in this place. Normally all the walls are white, but this one had blue, tones of green and a light pink. And it had a crib with shingles hanging over it. The floor wasn't tiled either but had a soft blue carpet. On the side was what looked like toys, they had been loaded into a small plastic box.
Sasuke stepped forward before the others and looked at the place. "What is this place?" he asked.
"Your room."
"My room?" he still did not understand, or his mind was struggling to understand.
"This is the room you used while you were here, twenty one years ago."
Sasuke already arrived at that conclusion but it still made him gasp lightly. "When I was a child my parents brought me here?"
In that video his father had promised to bring him along next time, which means that they didn't die after recording that video, they had enough time to bring Sasuke along. Then what?
"You don't remember," Kiba said, "of course you don't, you were just a runt."
"So you knew me, even then when I first got here. You knew who I was."
Naruto nodded. "We all had brief encounters with you."
"You kept slipping into my cage, you were really tiny so you got through the cage bars. Do you how many times I could have eaten you? I wasn't even in this form then."
Sasuke felt air freeze in his throat as Kiba spoke.
"They let me roam around freely? Even when they had you people around?"
"I'm sure they did their best to keep you away, but you always found a way to come back. We nearly ate you once " Neji smiled
Sasuke wasn't sure whether he should smile back so he looked at Naruto wanting to hear his own story.
"I didn't meet you until after," he said.
Suddenly the mood that was almost nostalgic and sweet turned sour and gloomy.
"After what?"
"After they came. " Naruto answered. "I was always kept securely away, nothing could have gotten to me. When they tried to get into this place, they took down all the defenses and I was able to get out."
"You keep saying they but I have no idea what you are talking about."
"The old man used to call them the company. They are the enemy." Kiba supplied readily. Sasuke glanced at him. The company.
"When the old man—when your grandfather found out what we were going to be used for, he decided to keep them from getting it. They came to forcefully take it and so they killed everyone and tried to take you away. Your grandfather asked me to save you."
"Even then you and my grandfather had already formed a bond."
"I wouldn't call it a bond. Because you were always sneaking out to meet Kiba, your parents started to look at us differently since Kiba never tried to kill you. "
"Your grandfather took an interest in us intellectually and started to try talking to us."
"But you could talk in snake form."
Neji tilted his head,"we could not."
"But I heard you, yesterday."
"That is also thanks to the Former."
"Your grandfather spoke to us through a crystal ball," Naruto said. "He and your parents wanted to help us."
"It was all because of you, Sasuke."
"So, you are saying the company killed my parents?"
"We don't know," Neji shook his head." But it wasn't us."
"When I got there they had succeeded in taking them, I could only get you and take you away. I wasn't myself, and my size may have done something to the people on that boat, but I just wanted to get you out. I don't know if I got them killed."
"When you got me out."
"I was injured so I kept you safe and tried to keep you warm."
"Your grandfather found the two of you and then finally decided to make the Former."Neji looked somewhat sad and nostalgic at the same time
"So that story about being found in some land was a lie."
"Your grandfather suffered to make sure you were not taken, and they used you to bargain with him into working on the project."
"What happened to my grandfather, is he dead?"
Sasuke wanted it given to him straight.
"We honestly don't know. He never told us anything."
Sasuke sighed, "So my parents were taken by the company. Why didn't my grandfather get them back? What about the other scientists? Did they agree with my grandfather? What about my parents, do you know if they are still alive?" seeing as the company made him their bargaining tool it was probably unlikely. It felt like he was going to explode with all these new information and all the things he still did not know.
"Calm down, Sasuke." Naruto took hold of his hand and he shrugged it off without thinking.
"I need to understand. Everything I thought I knew has been all a lie so what is the truth? I need to know everything, I need to understand."
"What's the point of telling you any more, you are already looking like you can't handle it," Kiba's voice wasn't filled with as much disdain as Sasuke expected. He looked at him and they both shared a long stare then Kiba walked away.
"It's okay to take it slowly Sasuke-kun," Neji drew his attention, "we are here to explain it to you, as much as we know and as much as we can."
Sasuke breathe deeply and let his eyes fall close. "Okay, start from the beginning again"
The two with him looked on worriedly but their mouths open and they began to tell him everything.
His parents were actually scientist working closely with his grandfather on a project assigned to them by the company. It involved studying large animals that should have gone extinct for their energies. When his grandfather discovered that the animals were actually intelligent, evolved to the point where they were almost no difference between them and humans, he started to conduct another experiment. In doing so, he pulled his parents into it and then they discovered a huge secret about the reason why the company wanted to study energy: the world was reviving, as Sasuke had rightly guessed, but the company has kept that a secret intended to keep the people in A.L.U under their control, they wanted to prolong life on A.L.U and were interested in destroying what was left of natural life to accomplish it. They wanted to destroy the reviving world.
That was insane and Sasuke's grandfather ended the research with the help of his scientist who went into hiding but there was no hiding from the company in A.L.U, soon the company sends people over to take the research away, but Sasuke's parents protected it and though Sasuke was still not sure how, they managed to get taken away and Naruto rescued him. So in other words, the company was responsible for his parents' death.
After sleeping on it, it still was no good. He couldn't think of what to do now. He needed something to hold on to. First he grabbed on to blame, he blamed the company and hated them, for their lies and their manipulation and then he held his grandfather responsible, then Naruto and the others and it was so exhausting to keep blaming people.
It felt like he had not been living all these while, that he had been living someone else's life. So his grandfather never considered him as anything till the end, not his grandson and not someone with the right to know about himself.
Maybe he had been worried about what would happen if Sasuke knew too much, maybe he thought keeping him out was safer. But now Sasuke has gone and stuck his nose into it. Now he was involved but where should he go from here.
"Wait," he sat up. He had returned to the cabin after that big reveal and had even managed to sleep. Now his mind began to race with all the information.
The Aforum is still here which means the company still hasn't gotten their hands on the research, but they had to have something otherwise Sasuke wouldn't have lived a relatively normal live, which meant his grandfather had to have given them something.
He must have agreed to do the research. The company is convinced that he is doing the research and they sent Sasuke… wait, why did they allow Sasuke to come?
Sasuke's eyes went wide. Could it be that his grandfather had gone against them again? Or rather he has been against them from the start and only pretended to help. If they know then they would have come down to the Aforum and taken everything apart.
Wait, did they know about Naruto and the others?
Sasuke jumped down from the bed and rushed into the lab to look for them but neither Naruto nor Neji were in the lab. He went up to the roof in his search and the person he found was Kiba.
He paused and watched Kiba who was fixing the railing.
"I didn't know you had any skills." It was a honest observation.
"I didn't know you like courting death this much," yellow eyes glared.
Sasuke sighed. "I guess I am just shocked to see an animal doing something so human."
Kiba didn't retort with annoyance or aggression and it made Sasuke tense.
"The old man, "he began, "thought we were not just animals, not anymore." He then turned and smirked, "I'm pretty good at repairing stuff, give me anything and I can fix it, but I can't do anything about that bad habit of yours."
"Shut up," Sasuke said without heat.
"So, what do you want?"
The question seemed strange in this setting. "You came here to ask more questions right? I can just tell from your twitching eyebrows."
Sasuke touched his eyebrows, they were not twitching.
"The company, do they know about the Former?"
"I hope not, otherwise there is no point."
"Do you know what my grandfather plans to do after he completes the Former."
"Make us blend in. we were going to move to the other part of the world and live quietly."
"So my grandfather had no plans of doing anything to help the company."
"Nope, why would he when they killed his son. Unlike you, your grandfather is loyal."
Sasuke frowned," what do you mean unlike me?" sometimes Kiba had a way of talking that was the same as asking to be kicked.
"Why are you asking me? Are you not the one that left him to go live in A.L.U?"
"What?"
"You are such a big fan of A.L.U, do you want to go back now that you know the truth?"
"Shut up, you know nothing."
"I know that you abandoned the old man as soon as you could."
"I didn't, I just wanted," Sasuke was shocked to feel his eyes sting.
"You wanted a better and shinning world, you wanted to be popular," his voice was a stupid imitation of a high-schooler. "Now you know what that world is really like, I bet you still want to go back."
"I don't. I never wanted to leave my grandfather, but he was never there. What do you know that you are judging me? Do you know what it was like to live alone in that place? It was always dark and cold and I was always alone. All I wanted was to be around people who could see me. I started to feel like a ghost, like I didn't exist. So I left, so what? It's not like he cared. Even without me he was just fine. He never sent me any messages, and he cut me off like I didn't matter. If I didn't care about him why have I been risking my life? "
He sniffed and cleaned his nose, "don't say so much rubbish without knowing anything."
He expected Kiba to say more but the youth didn't say anything and when Sasuke looked at him he found the yellow eyes focused on him.
"Go ahead and think what you want about me," he said, "I don't feel like defending myself to you."
"the old man did care," Kiba said," I don't know what he was like to you but in front of us he was always talking about you, saying how proud he was. He told us only you can do the work, only you can wake up Ino."
That is what Sasuke didn't get, was that really his grandfather?
Kiba shrugged," maybe I judged you too fast, but you won't ever stop being an idiot human to me."
Sasuke sniffed and rubbed moisture from his eyes," and you would be nothing but a dog jerk to me."
"I already told you, I am not a dog!" Kiba yelled, his head going big. Sasuke smirked, while secretly his heart felt relieved. Even though he and Kiba seemed to never get along, he didn't want the guy to think of him as someone who would run away. He never meant to run, there was just no one trying to keep him there.
His grandfather's white robed back appeared in front of him, shrouded in darkness save for a yellow light coming from an antique lantern. Sasuke felt somewhat like the five year old standing by the door looking in, trying to speak only to be completely ignored.
"Do you want to see my true form? Should I transform for you? If I do don't blame me if you get eaten!" Kiba was still yelling.
"Thank you, Kiba."
"Huh? That sounds weird. What are you thanking me for?"
Sasuke nodded," just thank you."
It sounded like his grandfather who must have been lonely dealing alone with what had happened to Sasuke's parents and with the company must have had some people around him who cared. Sasuke hoped that in the place where he could not seem to fill, they had filled it. It was sad and Sasuke didn't know what he lacked to be so incompetent but it didn't matter, now that he knows the truth, he would have to find a way out.
"Sasuke!" suddenly Naruto was there, his eyes so blue. "I went to look for you in your cabin," he was saying as he walked towards him, the worry on his face so real that it made Sasuke's heart ache softly.
"You were worried?"
"I thought you'd left again," he looked at Kiba then at Sasuke with some confusion. The look on Sasuke's face must have been puzzling, though Sasuke couldn't see his own face he knew his own feelings.
It is true that he still needed to find his grandfather, but his grandfather had made sure to keep these guys safe all these while and all alone. For now, he had to take over this job. Even though he has failed as a grandson all his twenty five years of life, right now he would do his best by making sure to protect what his father and mother had died to protect and he would also make sure that his grandfather can come back to this place where he belongs.
"I won't leave," he smiled and caught the white suit Neji wore by the door. He had his hands crossed over his chest and was looking at Sasuke. "I don't know what it is my grandfather wants me to do but I am going to keep this place safe, I am going to protect it until grandfather can come back and tell me what it is I have to do. I have nowhere else to go. "
He looked at them, blue eyes, yellow eyes and white eyes. "I hope you can let me stay here with you."
"Of course, you belong here with us. " Naruto was always direct and straight to the point.
"I don't really mind, just as long as you don't get on my nerves," Kiba said. Sasuke couldn't promise anything since Kiba's nerves were all over the place. He simply smiled.
"I promise not to hurt you, Sasuke-kun. Please stay with us."