Fourth meeting, part four

Our genes make us immortal. ~The Secret of Life, PBS

Yuki was sitting in the small dark room he was ushered into two days ago. People he didn't know came to him twice to give him food. He was treated as a prisoner, even though he didn't know why. But he didn't care about any of that. He just wanted to know how his uncle was doing and how his mother was. The only news he's got was that Sasuke has survived from the poison and on an antidote. There was no news about his mother at all.

A few things baffled him in which he was unable to come up with answers. One of them were why was Sasuke appeared out of nowhere during the mission? But he quickly came up with that one. His mother had asked Sasuke to follow him, or Sasuke came on his own accord, or both. But that wasn't important. What bugged him more were the faces the guards made when they saw the group of kids arrive at the village gates, frightened and full of hate. And also what Sasaki Ruri said.

"Konoha would want him alive to interrogate. He has many secrets that must be pried out. Let's go."

Yukimura had always known his uncle to be a secretive man and he took the example of his mother to never pry about Sasuke's past. He was told when time allowed it, he would learn everything. But Yuki had wished that the time would never come, because his mother had said it in such a somber way. As if they would lose Sasuke if his secrets were revealed.

Suddenly, while in the middle of his thoughts, a loud roaring of metal against metal sounded in the dark hall. His mother was with the Hokage at the other end of the hall with a small candle.

"Mother," he called out as he got up from his knees and went over to her.

"I'm fine," she told him and held out a hand to stop him before he got on with a bodily inspection for any injuries.

She said she was just fine but he could tell with the dull glimmer in her eyes that something happened.

"What about uncle?" Sasuke asked.

Mayuri opened up her small mouth to say something, but nothing came out. What can she say to her son who relies on Sasuke so much? How can she say to him that his own uncle will be executed publicly? How can she tell him he will lose his father-figure in such a shameful way? Tears weld up in her eyes and rolled down her cheek.

"Mother!" Yuki yelled and grabbed her slight shoulders with his large hands that were so much like his father's. "Tell me!"

The Hokage besides her grabbed his wrists off of Mayuri with an iron hold. He eyes were filled with heated resolve and looked right into Yuki's raging ones.

"Let go of me!" Yuki screamed and jerked his hand away from Naruto. He came back up and grabbed the man by his collars, pushing him against the wall. "It's your fault!" he accused. "You're the Hokage! You have all the say in this matter!"

Naruto stood there patiently. "Shirakawa-san," he said to Mayuri gently, "please leave the room." He didn't want her to see what he was going to do to discipline her son. She has already tried to hard coping with everything; she didn't need to see this next part. "Please. Just wait outside."

Mayuri couldn't stop the tears from spilling, even though she told herself not to cry. She left the room, entrusting the news to Naruto. The guards that accompanied them shut the door behind her and she waited outside patiently, like what she always did and will always do.

Inside the room, at the very second the iron door closed, Naruto grabbed Yuki's arms, turned in a circle, and swept his feet off the ground tossing him over his shoulder in one smooth motion at the speed of light. The boy landed on the ground with a hard thud. His instincts and reflexes weren't working right in his state of mind.

Yuki got up weakly.

"I know how you feel," Naruto said. "I've had my fill of man handling people out of rage when it was out of my place."

"You have no idea how I feel," Yuki criticized.

"Your uncle said the same thing to me once. He had lost his entire family when I had no family to begin with," Naruto said. He knew the perfect remedy for things like this, a good heart to heart talk between men and maybe just a little of throwing around of fists.

Yuki charged at Naruto with his fists expecting to plunge through his face. But Naruto easily evaded it. He bend down and thrust his palm up at Yuki's chin which caused him to fly up a couple of inches and then spun around in a tight circle and smashed his heel at Yuki's abdomen sending him fly until he hit the wall on the other side.

"However," Naruto continued without losing the tempo of the one-sided battle, "that isn't for you to say. Since now I have acquired a family of my own. I understand the fear of losing her."

Yuki crawled up from the ground. Beat up and dirty, he was now calm of his emotions. He sat in the dark in a pathetic heap.

"Sasuke was my friend," Naruto said sadly. "I knew him better than anyone else. This is also why I understand his decision at this time." Naruto set down a glass bottle and a clean towel. "Here are some pain killers, use this if you want and wipe off the blood on your face if you don't want your mother to see.

Naruto left the room quietly.

Yuki sniffled and forced back the tears. He took the towel and whipped away the blood, but left the pain killers there. Some part of him wanted to remember the physical pain, and if he couldn't' hold back the tears he can say it's because of the pain.

Mayuri came in a few minutes later. She seems to have calmed down just as much as Yuki although her eyes were tried from blinking back tears and still having them to fall out. She walked over to Yuki softly and slowly as if she didn't have any power in her legs.

"Let's go, Yuki dear," she said softly, her voice still sweet even in her sorrow.

Yuki didn't move. It wasn't that he didn't want to move. His ears perked up when he heard his mother's voice, but he couldn't find the will or the strength to beckon to his mother's call.

"Let's go," she repeated as she bend down and took a weak hold on Yuki's arm, trying to pull him up. "Let's go see Sasuke-san," she said.

Yuki pulled himself off the ground and followed his mother out of the room. He kept his head down as they walked into the light and moved to another place following the Hokage and his guards that are no doubt keeping an eye on Yukimura. They assumed him to be a bad guy because he's affiliated with Uchiha Sasuke and even though their Hokage was showing Shirakawa Mayuri and Yukimura favor and trust, they couldn't bring themselves to trust them.

They followed Naruto to a separate building away from the prison in Konoha and down a long flight of steps and down a long hallway. He said he had moved Sasuke out of the prison hold since it was dangerous for Mayuri and Yukimura to enter that place.

Sasuke was in a room that was pretty decorative for a place to hold a prisoner. There were traditional antiques on the walls even though the room itself was in ruins. The two guards with them before were told to wait outside the place where the first entered from.

On the wall that Sasuke was sitting in front of was a large painting of a tribal symbol, a large white fan with a red tip. It was old and dusty but had an aura of power around it. Yuki gazed upon the large painting. He has never seen it before, but he felt and air of familiarity with it.

Sasuke watched the boy as he looked upon his tribe's symbol for the first time. His feet and hands were bound and his chakra gates were closed by a master physician so he could not use any of his jutsus. "Yukimura," he said to him.

Yuki returned to reality when his uncle called him.

"Sit," Sasuke said and Yuki obeyed. He sat down on the cushion placed in front of Sasuke. Naruto came behind Sasuke and unlocked his hand cuffs.

"You won't run away will you?" he asked quietly as a joke, but Sasuke took it seriously. He would never run away again.

"Uncle, is that?" Yuki asked curious about the symbol.

"Yes, it is. That's the symbol of our family, the Uchiha. Today I will announce you as the heir to the Uchiha name, although it's close to ruin. Will you accept your father and forefathers' name, Yukimura?" Sasuke asked.

Yuki glanced at Mayuri standing at the side. She nodded to him. Mayuri and Sasuke have only talked about the Uchiha in to Yuki once, when he obtained his Sharingan.

"Before I bestow you the title you are due I must tell you of the evil things that I have done before," Sasuke said. He held up a hand when Yuki wanted to go against that statement. "I am the one that murdered your father and the one that betrayed Konoha beyond forgiveness. Because of what I have done in the past others may hate you and curse you, Yuki. But remember your father and your mother and continue to live in what is right. Your mother has taught you well. Never be blinded by malcontent for something you could not control.

The Seventh Hokage, Uzumaki Naruto, will take your ninja training from here, and I promise you, he is the best of the best. Learn well from him. Do you understand?" Sasuke asked.

Yuki bowed his head and said, "Yes."

"Raise your head," Sasuke said and Yuki did so. "I will now bestow upon you the secret to the power of Uchiha." Yuki closed his eyes as Sasuke reached with two fingers and tapped him on the forehead lightly.

There was a warm wave that flowed from the place Sasuke touched and it filled Yuki's body. It felt like the light he saw so many years ago when he was only seven. Yuki opened his eyes and felt like crying for some reason.

"That was how your father gave me his power to me when he died," Sasuke said with a bitter smile. "I hope to pass on his legacy." Sasuke put a hand on Yuki's shoulder, "You are the greatest gift that your father has given us."

Sasuke, then, handed Yuki a closed scroll with a paper seal. "In this scroll there are all the secrets of the Uchiha clan, its powers and its past. I sealed it when I laid eyes on it after the Uchiha massacre. Now it is yours to do with that you will. I trust that you make the right decisions."

"Thank you, Uncle," Yuki said. "But in exchange for all this, I would wish that you—that you wouldn't have to…" Yuki muttered, he really wanted it that Sasuke didn't have to be executed.

"I have done too many bad things in my life already and I can't atone for all of them by good deeds alone. What must be done must be done, and I've accepted my death."

"I don't care what others may say about you or what the law makes you out to be. You are my uncle! You are the person that taught me my first ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjujtsu. You taught me what it means to be chivalrous and brave in battle," Yuki said with his head bowed so no one can see his tears.

Sasuke put and hand on Yuki's head and petted it like he used to do when Yuki was just a child. "Thank you for thinking so highly of me. Perhaps it was just to pay back you to father by taking care of you, but you have really become just like a son to me. Be strong until the end, Yukimura," Sasuke said as his own tears started to spill gently down his cheek as for the first time he realize the full meaning of family.

A week later it was time for Sasuke's pubic execution. In the middle of the village on an elevated scaffold built just for this event, Sasuke sat in a white robe at the center. A crowd gathered at the stage in just a couple of minutes. Those that were younger simply were curious; it was their first time witnessing an execution, and the older people who knew of Sasuke's deeds in the past.

Mayuri was with Yuki in the crowd. It was one of Sasuke's wishes to watch him instead of turning their heads away shamefully. It was time for his execution at noon and the crowd has become even larger. It seemed as if the whole village has gathered to see.

A judge walked to the front of the platform and started to list his crimes. In the large crowd he could easily find Mayuri and Yukimura. They faces were somber and Mayuri was on the brink of crying again. She held onto Yuki's hand tightly who was gritting his teeth as if in pain.

Naruto was standing at the window of his office. He didn't have the time to be at the execution, but he could see it clearly from his window view. The sun was high up in the sky and it was time. He set his tea cup down on his desk and closed his eyes.

The judge had finished reading off Uchiha Sasuke's crimes and the executioner placed a tray with a bowl of clear liquid in front of him. The poison glimmered in the light like water. It was tasteless and odorless. It went down your throat just like water. But when the liquid hits the stomach it will start to feel like fire burning your body from the inside out.

Sasuke took the bowl with his hands that were still cuffed. He held the cool ceramic bowl to his lips and watched Mayuri and Yukimura in the distance for just one more second then closed his eyes. As he let the cool liquid run down he thought, "If this can't atone for my own crimes then at least let this let Mayuri and her son live peacefully. I do not need any forgiveness, God. But please have mercy on them."

He set the bowl in its place with a loud heavy crash as the poison start to take effect. He grabbed the thin fabric of the robe at his chest as the fire of the toxins emerged in his gut and ran down his intestines and spread through his body. It moved faster than he thought it would. He guessed that Naruto argued with the elders to use a faster reacting poison instead of one that drags out the pain.

He head start to dizzy from the pain and he fell over. He caught himself with his free hand although it pulled his body down with his wrists cuffed together. It didn't matter how humiliating he looked right now, the pain was much more excruciating. His finger nails dug into the hard wood as he bore with the fire that has spread down his spine and legs. He looked out at the crowd again, looking for his family. Mayuri was in tears and Yukimura forced his eyes opened as they promised.

Tears squeezed out of Sasuke's eyes as he writhed in anguish as the fire has reached his neck and choked down on him. He could feel the fire slowly gather around his still beating heart as it wrapped fiery fingers around and strangled it. As the torture and agony reached its peak it suddenly just disappeared. He didn't know if it was because his brain has gone numb because of the pain or it if was magic but the fire became warm. Instead of hot and merciless flames trying to quench every little bit of life out if his heart, it was as if a pair of gentle hands have wrapped around him, receiving him.

By then his eyes couldn't see clearly and his lungs have collapsed. He couldn't feel an ounce of pain anymore.

"Nii…-san," he muttered with his last breath as his heart finally stopped.

The physician at the scene took his pulse and declared him dead at noon. Then the judge declared to the crowd of his death.

"If there are family or friends that are here, you may claim the body by order of Uzumaki Naruto, the Seventh Hokage," the judge said.

Mayuri and Yukimura waited for the crowds to disperse before advancing to the scaffold. The executioner has taken his hand and foot cuffs off and laid him on his back. Instantly, someone came to talk to Mayuri as Yuki stood there like a dead log. As he looked on at Sasuke's face a strange stinging came to his eyes. Warm liquid ran down his cheeks and trickled onto the wood.

Everyone stopped to stare.

Mayuri turned around as her son cried tears of blood. "Yuki," she whispered in awe, "you're eyes…"

Unconscientiously, his Sharingan had activated and upon that it evolved. The pupils formed themselves into their own clever kaleidoscope-like design.

"Uncle, he," Yukimura managed to mutter. "He finally looks at peace."