Kakashi looked up from his desk when the door opened. "Ah, Konichi wa Itachi san."
Itachi nodded. "Konichi wa Kakashi san. Is the boy…"
Kakashi nodded. "Raiden is here. Come on I'll take you."
Sasuke, Naruto and Neji were practicing fighting poses with Guy. All three glanced up in surprise when Kakashi entered followed by a dark haired man.
"Boy's I'd like to introduce you to a friend of mine." Kakashi announced. "This is Itachi."
Itachi nodded to all three but his eyes were trained on Raiden.
Kakashi addressed Raiden. "Raiden, I'd like you and Itachi to spar."
The boy nodded and bowed in the Karate style to Itachi before falling into a Karate stance.
Itachi copied his actions and the two of them charged. Kakashi and Guy watched closely as the two exchanged blows. Itachi was holding back, testing Raiden's strength and Raiden seemed to know it.
The younger raven threw a kick aimed at Itachi's head. Itachi dodged and caught the foot, throwing the boy backwards. Raiden fell and immediately leapt to his feet. He frowned and a flash of crimson was seen as his Sharingan appeared.
Itachi swallowed. He gazed at the ruby orbs that stared determinedly back at him. Raiden charged again but Itachi sidestepped and grasped him about the waist, flipping him over and pinning him to the wall. Then he too activated his Sharingan.
Sasuke felt as though his breath had been knocked out of him. The man above him gazed down at him with swirling red irises. He knew those eyes. They often haunted his dreams… gazing at him through a wall of flames and always accompanied by a voice screaming his name.
Kakashi, who was watching the boy carefully, noted that Raiden had paled considerably.
Itachi lowered his head so that his face was barely an inch from that of the boy beneath him. Sharingan gazed into Sharingan. Sasuke could feel the strange man's breath on his face.
Itachi inhaled shakily "…Sasuke?"
Sasuke's eyes widened. He gasped and managed to struggle out of Itachi's grasp, quickly backing away. Kakashi moved towards the stricken boy.
Who is this man? How does he know my name?! The question echoed in Sasuke's mind. What's going on?
Kakashi placed a hand on Raiden's shoulder. The boy turned and looked up at him with troubled eyes.
Guy and the other two boys quickly exited the room.
"Raiden… Is Sasuke your real name?" Kakashi inquired.
Raiden bit his lip and nodded slowly.
"Do you remember your surname?"
Sasuke shook his head.
"Well Sasuke your surname is Uchiha… You are a member of the Uchiha clan, a prominent family that was wiped out by a fire fourteen years ago. You were believed to have died in that fire."
Sasuke's eyes had grown wide during this announcement. He stared openmouthed at Kakashi.
"But there's more." Kakashi continued. "There was one other survivor… Sasuke, I would like to reintroduce you to your older brother, Uchiha Itachi."
Sasuke was so stunned that you could have knocked him over by snapping your fingers. His gaze moved slowly from Kakashi to his brother's face.
Itachi gazed at him softly.
Sasuke swallowed hard.
Itachi took a step forward. "Sasuke…"
It was all too much! Sasuke whirled and dashed from the room. He passed a surprised Anko at the front desk and flew out the front door at a dead run. He went by Sakura who was walking up the walkway towards the dojo.
"Raiden?" She called after him. "Raiden!"
He didn't slow down. He just kept running. Out of the town and into the forest… He ran blindly unable to see a thing for the unshed tears that blurred his vision.
Sakura turned to find Kakashi and Itachi running out of the building. "What's going on?"
Kakashi quickly explained what had happened and Sakura gasped. "Oh my gosh! I can't believe that I didn't realize the connection! Oh, poor Raiden- I mean Sasuke! I've got to find him."
She turned and rushed after him.
Sasuke was still tearing blindly through the forest when crashed into the trunk of a tree. He ricocheted backwards and crumpled to a gasping heap on the forest floor. He curled into a ball, hugging his knees to his chest. He didn't know what to think. All his life he'd struggled to suppress his emotions and had eventually succeeded in locking away his feelings and becoming a stoic, indifferent being. But now, all those emotions, which had been buried for so many years, were bubbling to the surface and Sasuke had no idea how to cope with them. His erratic heart beat and shortness of breath scared him.
He started as he felt a cool, gentle hand touch him lightly on the shoulder. Turning he looked up to see a pair of sympathetic green eyes gazing down at him.
"Sasuke?" Sakura knelt beside the trembling boy. He looked up at her and she saw the turmoil of fear and confusion that dwelt within them. "Oh Sasuke…" she embraced him, holding him tightly.
Sasuke, not knowing what else to do and desperately in need of some form of comfort, clung to her as one might cling to a rock in the midst of a stormy sea. The tears continued to build behind his eyes but he still struggled to hold them back.
Sakura saw this and it pained her. "It's okay Sasuke… you're okay." She soothed. He was frightened and confused… his future and everything in his life was so uncertain; as a matter of fact nothing in his life had ever been certain save the pain he had endured. Lost and filled with distrust, he had nothing to hold on to, nothing to reassure him that he would make it.
Sasuke choked back the sobs that threatened to escape him. He sat petrified and in a cold sweat, listening to the sound Sakura's soft voice but not comprehending her words.
"Sasuke…?" Sakura frowned. "SASUKE!" He slowly raised his eyes to hers. "Sasuke all this holding back isn't good for you. You need to stop stifling your feelings and containing all that fear, confusion and sorrow inside you. You've reached your limit; you're just destroying yourself from the inside out." She hugged him tightly. "Please Sasuke." She pleaded. "Quite tearing yourself apart. The strain of constantly trying to maintain this unaffected mask is going to ruin you."
She was crying by now but Sasuke remained dry eyed. Although a part of him wanted to let loose, he couldn't; he was fearful that if he did he would no longer be able to control himself. All his life, the only thing he had had control over was his mind and emotions. He had seen many a fellow slave driven to lunacy and the thought of losing his sanity terrified him.
He recognized the truth in her words. The pressure had put a tremendous strain upon his body and was turning him into wreck. His trembling increased and he began to hyperventilate. He felt as though he couldn't get enough oxygen into his lungs. His vision blurred to the extent that he could no longer see Sakura. The sound of her voice became slurred as his consciousness began to fade.
Sakura's eyes widened as she watched Sasuke. He's having a panic attack! She realized. I have to get him to the hospital! At that moment she heard voices calling her name.
"Sakura? Sasuke?"
Kakashi!
"Kakashi over here!" Sakura shouted.
A moment later Kakashi and Itachi appeared.
"Kakashi, Sasuke's having a panic attack. His heart rate is way to fast, we need to get him to the hospital now!" Sakura exclaimed.
Itachi paled at this. The two men leaned down and picked up the now unconscious teen.
"Lead the way Sakura." Kakashi directed.
Sakura nodded and the quartet made their way out of the forest and towards the hospital as fast as possible.
A faint light penetrated the warm darkness in which he had been submerged for who knew how long. Sasuke slowly became aware of his surroundings. The soft beeping of the monitor the white blankets that covered his prostrate form, the sterile, unfamiliar room and above all the sleeping form of his mistress in the chair at his bedside. He looked around in confusion.
A hospital? He wondered. How did I end up in a hospital? What happened?
Next to him, Sakura stirred and opened her eyes. "Hmm? Oh! Sasuke you're awake!"
Sasuke started. She called me SASUKE! Suddenly the events of the previous day came flooding back to him with the force of a tsunami. The news about his family… the revelation that he was from Konoha… The meeting with his brother… his brother!
Sakura rushed to his side has he began to wheeze. "Sasuke calm down!" she ordered. She hated having to be harsh with him but he needed to calm down. He had nearly had a heart attack the day before and She had been told that if she allowed him to become excited again so soon it could be very dangerous.
She placed her hands firmly on his shoulders and locked eyes with him. "Breath in deeply." He did as she said. "Now exhale… inhale… exhale… inhale… exhale…" She talked him through it as he began to regain his self-control.
"Now…" she said after he had relaxed somewhat. "There's something you need to understand. I realize that you were unable to show your feelings in the past because of your situation. But things have changed now and that is no longer true. I understand that it is very difficult for you but you need to try to open up a bit. The constant pressure is putting a terrible strain on your health. Please Sasuke, you have to let go of all those emotions and painful memories that are bottled up inside of you. If you don't I'm afraid of what might happen…" Her voice trailed off.
Sasuke closed his eyes. How could he tell her the reason he was so afraid to let go? How could he explain without words what he had seen happen to others in the slave house? The frenzied laughing and the hysterical weeping… he had seen intelligent men reduced to crazed beasts. Some had taken to inflicting pain upon themselves and many had gone too far… He didn't want to end up that way. He had finally found a place where he didn't have to worry about getting beaten every other second and where someone cared about whether he lived or not. He couldn't afford to lose his mind now.
Sasuke felt cool hands touch his cheeks. He opened his eyes to see that Sakura had taken his face in her hands and was gazing at him with worried eyes. Their faces were less than and inch apart and all Sasuke could see were her beautiful green eyes. When he looked at them it was as though all the pain and fear melted away and he could finally breath. It was an alien sensation but Sasuke supposed that this feeling must be peace. Very slowly, a single tear formed in the corner of Sasuke's eye and made it's way down his face.
That one tear was all it took and the next thing Sakura knew Sasuke was clinging to her with all his might. Tears poured from his eyes and his body shook so hard she was surprised his bones didn't break. She saw the pain in his eyes as the memories he'd suppressed for so long resurfaced and her heart ached for him…
The tears blurred his vision blocking out everything except Sakura's eyes. Her eyes were the only things that kept him from falling to pieces. They kept him relatively stable amidst the wave of emotion that threatened to engulf him.
She was all he had. He possessed nothing; not even himself was his own. His grip on her tightened and Sakura felt her arm going numb. She tried to remove her arm from his grasp and Sasuke panicked. He held on to her tightly.
"D-Don't-t leave! P-P-Pleas-se don't-t leave m-me!" He pleaded in a hoarse voice. His eyes were desperate, begging her not to leave him alone. He didn't want to be alone again.
Sakura felt tears streaming down her face. She reached out and embraced him, holding him close. "Sasuke I'll never leave you!" she whispered into his ear. "I swear I'll never leave you!"
Her emotions were mixed. She was happy that he had finally spoken, sad because of all that had gone through and enraged at the monsters who had hurt him. He didn't deserve any of it. Neither had the other two.
Sasuke buried his face in her hair and cried silently. The fear, the pain, the sorrow, the anger and the bitterness built up throughout those terrible years… he was finally dealing with it.
Sakura continued to whisper soothingly to him, encouraging him and letting him know that things would be okay.
"You're doing fine Sasuke. Just let it out." She comforted.
How long she sat holding him like that, Sakura couldn't say but she knew that several hours had passed before Sasuke's breathing slowed and the tears stopped coming.
So… this chapter was about Sasuke again, since there was quite a bit I still had to clear up. The next one should be about all three of them. I hope you all liked this chapter.
Reviews are greatly appreciated as always. (I don't feel like I even have to worry about saying no flames since you guys are all really great about being encouraging… so thank you!) :D
Mata Kondo, (Until next time)
~Midnight Anime Angel
