No, I'm not dead. I just got into a slump…again. Also this chapter is not betaed. Sorry for the wait. Enjoy and please review.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

Chapter 14: Minds are Clouded by Their Own Convictions

He stood, memorized, in front of the large house; the one he lived off of for a year or so while he lived in the village of Konoha. For some reason, Sasuke couldn't bring himself to walk away from it; for an unknown reason it held his consciousness within its grounds, and would refuse Sasuke's internal pleas to leave.

"It sucks what happened, don't you think?" asked a voice from behind him. Sasuke jumped at the sudden sound and turned around to face with a woman wearing a white shirt that hugged her body, long, tight beige paints that were slit from the thigh up, revealing dense fishnet stockings, and a long, tan overcoat that seemed to envelop the entirety of her body and cloud it with the mystery of what lay beneath the woman's guarded appearance.

"What do you mean? What happened?" questioned Sasuke. But even as he began to converse with this woman, there was a voice inside of his head screaming at him to just run; run and leave this horrible place in the dust.

"For the love of Kami-sama; kid, what the fuck have they been teaching you in school?" she disgustedly asked. Sasuke hung his head sheepishly.

"Uhm…I…I haven't started school yet," he explained. The woman only ground the heel of her palm into her forehead in frustration.

"Alright, well, this is, well, was, the compound of the Uchiha clan," the woman began to explain. "You do know about them, right?" Sasuke only gave her a blank look in return, which only frustrated her more. "Well they were one of the most prominent, and screwed up, clans. And eleven years ago, the entire clan was wiped out except for two people."

"Why?" Sasuke interrupted.

"I was getting to that," she irritably explained. "The first person survived because, he himself was the one to kill his clan and the other to survive was his younger brother, who watched his parents murdered before his very eyes. And so he was pretty messed up for the rest of his life," she remarked reminiscently, a faint smile on her face. "I've got to admit, he was talented, for a spoiled brat, that is."

"So, he's dead now?" Sasuke asked. The woman sighed in exasperation.

"Of course he's dead!" the woman snapped.

"Do feel sorry for him; the younger brother?" Sasuke asked, preparing himself for some kind of stark retort.

"No, I could never feel sorry for scum like him. Uchiha Sasuke could rot in hell for all I care," she spat. "It's that blond idiot who killed him who I feel sorry for; his own best friend, the Uchiha, left him out to die and now, years later, that same person was killed by his own hands. He must be an emotional wreck," she explained solemnly as she looked upon the mansion which appeared haunted in the distorted moonlight.

"Uchiha…Sasuke?" Sasuke asked himself. 'Is that the same man Naruto-tou-san was talking about? His teammate…the person I look like?'

"I don't know why I'm telling you all this though; you were bound to learn some watered-down, kid friendly version in school," she admitted.

"Why do you talk of Naruto-to…Naruto-san like that though?" Sasuke questioned. "He doesn't seem like an idiot. He's really nice…and…and…kind."

"So you know him," Anko stated rather than asked. "But you never knew him when he was your age," she claimed reminiscently. "When he was a genin he was a loud mouthed, impotent, cocky, stubborn, little pain in the ass. But he had his good points," she said as she tilted her head back up towards the sky, not seeming to mind the raindrops that seemed to assail her.

"Uhmm…konoichi-san?" asked Sasuke, trying to get the woman's attention, who seemed to have gone into a type of trance.

"What is it?" snapped the woman flatly without looking back at the boy. Sasuke flinched at the harshness in her voice.

"I was just wondering; how do you know Naruto-san? It's just…you spoke as if…well…as if you knew him well," Sasuke mumbled, averting eye contact with the woman.

"It's none of your business gaki," retorted Anko. "Why do you care anyway? How old are you, six, seven? Even if you did know him, anything you knew would be a lie."

"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked, a primordial fear starting to grow in the pit of his stomach.

"What I mean is that Uzumaki Naruto has a notorious reputation in this village," Anko stated.

"What kind of reputation?" Sasuke inquired, curious.

"He has a reputation of being the number one most unpredictable and one of the most emotionally complex ninja of the village," Anko answered. "I doubt even one person in this village knows what goes on in that thick head of his."

"So you don't know him that well either?" Sasuke asked.

"Nope; not a thing. And personally, I'd like to keep it that way," she answered truthfully.

---

Kazuki couldn't sit still; he kept moving to fix his clothes or to scratch an itch or to make himself more comfortable. It had been ten minutes since his sister had been carried home, and he couldn't help but somehow feel responsible for making his sister sick.

'I had let her go out…I should've told her to stay home. I should've been a better leader!' he shouted at himself mentally as he began pacing his room, hands folded behind his back.

"It's all his fault; I know it is," he muttered to himself. He, of course, was Uzumaki Naruto. Kazuki had known that his sister had been interested in him. Hell, he knew that basically every female that grew up with him had some kind of romantic interest in him. Whether it was the Hyūga heiress, the Haruno priss, the Yamanaka girl, or his own sister, he had noticed their love for him.

He had thought that maybe, like with his own crush on Hanabi, she would outgrow it, but recently he had seen this glazed look in her eyes, as if she were thinking about someone. And earlier, after he had come home from practice, her eyes looked even more glazed, and she seemed skittish.

He had known that she was going to see him; even a child could've guessed it. But he did nothing to stop her; did nothing to dissuade her. He desperately wanted to, though. But he didn't because even though he was technically in charge of the Sataki household, he was neither his sister's older brother nor her father, and he didn't want to be. After all, he was seven years younger than she was and still had a lot more growing to do.

'And now look what's happened; she's unconscious with a high fever!' he yelled at himself. He knew what he had to do; and by no means did he want to do it. He would have to take action as head of the Sataki clan to make sure that his sister remained safe; he would have to tell her how to live her life, and he knew she would detest him for it.

"But as long as I know that it'll help her in the long run, it's alright; right?" he asked to no one in particular

He received no answer.

He took in a deep breath and left his dark empty room to check up on his sister. He tentatively descended the steps from the upper level to the lower, where his mother was caring after his sister.

"Okaa-san, how is Tenten doing?" he called out into the darkness that seemed to envelop the house. Again, he received no answer. But to him, the silence was louder than any sound could be.

'Something's wrong,' he thought, his mind descending into a state of panic. He began to run down the steps and then through the section of the house that served as the weapon shop, the slapping of his feet on the floorboards were the only sounds in the house.

He threw open the back door that led into more of the Satakis' actual living place and feverishly looked around for his older sister and mother, both of whom were nowhere to be found.

"Okaa-san, Tenten!" Kazuki called, panic clear in his voice. Still, no one answered his calls. "Where are you?" he asked himself. He then saw the bathroom door to his left open, and he had found his answer.

"Tenten; you're alright!" he proclaimed ecstatically. "I was so afraid; you were unconscious and you had such a high fever I thought…"

"Kazuki," his sister interjected harshly as she stepped out of the bathroom and closed the door behind her, clad in a loose fitting t-shirt and loose, baggy pants.

"Yes, Tenten?" Kazuki asked, confused. He didn't have the faintest idea of why she would act so irritated. After all, he had done nothing but wish for her well-being and had done the little he could to help his sister.

"Who do you think you are?" she indignantly asked, her eyes cold as ice. Kazuki blinked his eyes in surprise; he had not expected anything pleasant by the sound of his sister's voice but this; this was far beyond what he had expected.

"What do you mean aneue?" Kazuki innocently asked, shifting his weight from one foot to another.

"Tell me otōto; do you think you're important enough to call others unwanted? To tell them that they won't be missed when they're gone? Tell me Kazuki, are you truly so cold-hearted as to tell a boy younger than you to crawl into a cave and die? What happened to the kind-hearted boy I grew up with; the one who would tell his aneue that he loved her and would never do anything to hurt her?" Tenten demanded angrily, her eyes never once blinking or losing contact with Kazuki's own.

"I was only doing what was best for…" began Kazuki defensively but was stopped by a sharp pain erupting on the side of his face.

"Don't you dare tell me that inflicting so much pain on someone who was already scarred was for the best. Do you know how much pain Sasuke's been through in his life? You had a father when you were six years old. Do you know what he had told me when I was training him today? He told me that when he was younger he lived on the streets with no money, no family, and no support. I've put up with a lot from you, Kazuki, whether it was your disdain towards my liking of Naruto, dating Lee, or proposing to Neji, but now I draw the line," she coldly admonished.

To put it plainly, Kazuki was stupefied; never before had his sister hit him, and it felt so bad to him. It felt worse than any detention he had ever gotten or any test he failed; it was as if he failed one of the people he loved the most. But his confusion quickly grew into anger.

"If you love him so much then why aren't you out with him right now? Shouldn't you be out having some kind of romantic date or adrenaline pumping moment? If you love him so much, then go and live with him why don't you! Oh, that's right, his apartment's fucking destroyed! And how do you know he even loves you? Maybe he'll just use you and then throw you away like an unwanted toy! Have you thought of that aneue?" exploded Kazuki, his heart pounding and his breaths coming quickly.

"How do you know about his apartment being destroyed? I never told you about that," Tenten asked. Kazuki's eyes widened as he realized that she hadn't told him.

"Tenten I swear I didn't…" Kazuki began to protest, but already knew by the look in his sister's eyes that no matter what he said, she would not believe him.

Kazuki only lowered his head in shame, for he knew that no matter however many excuses he gave, or how much evidence he showed, he would be guilty.

Guilty for a crime that he did not do; but rather had hired someone to do it for him.

--

"Naruto?" she called tentatively to the man. However, he did not hear her, or if he did, he decided not to acknowledge her. She was almost moved to physical sickness at the sight in front of her.

She had only seen Naruto cry on two occasions: the Sandaime's funeral and at Lee's funeral. But on both of those times there were other people crying along with him, including her. And now, he was the only one that was crying and Sakura was the only one there to comfort him. And it wasn't just that he was crying, he was full out sobbing on his hands and knees.

She thought back to all of the times that she would cry and her mother would comfort her. And then she thought of Sasuke's funeral, and when she was like this; it was Neji who got her to calm down. And not with kind, sympathetic words or hugs and kisses either; he had merely placed a hand on to her shoulder and offered her a hand to get up.

'Maybe it'll help him, like it helped me,' she thought as she walked closer to her teammate. She then slowly placed her hand on Naruto's shoulder from behind, keeping a grip that was not too firm, but not too lax either.

"Naruto," Sakura murmured as his body went completely rigid at her touch. "You'll catch a cold if you stay out here too long," she advised. She could feel the cold rain fall on to her and slip down her shirt, sending shivers running throughout her body.

"Don't touch me," Naruto commanded, his voice wavering between several emotions she couldn't discern. Sakura frowned at his comment; he had never once in the past spoken to her like Sasuke before, but just then he had sounded just like the sole survivor of the massacre of the Uchiha clan.

"Why shouldn't I Naruto? Tell me why I shouldn't touch you," Sakura told him, keeping her voice in a low, calm tone. Naruto then began to get up, and Sakura released her grip on his shoulder. Soon the two faced each other; both of them soaked to the bone.

"Because I kill people Sakura," Naruto answered, facing Sakura head on. She recognized this look; it was his determined look, the one that said that no matter what you said, he wouldn't listen. "I kill people for a living; out of all the jobs in the world I chose to do this, to fulfill the role of God. To decide who deserves to live and who deserves to die," he informed. "Have you ever killed a person Sakura?"

Sakura merely shook her head in the negative, trying to keep her emotions in check.

"Then you wouldn't know how horrible it feels to know that it's your fault that someone can't go back to their home, that their spouse and kids won't see them again, that their family and friends will cry and sob for them. It sickens you to feel their blood on your own hands; that you voluntarily took another's life for "the good of the village." There's only one feeling worse than killing, Sakura; and that's killing someone you love," Naruto explained, all of his emotions spilling out in jumbled heaps; anger, sadness, disappointment, pity, excitement, all of them finally coming out. Naruto visibly stiffened as Sakura embraced him, pressing her clean body against his filthy, muddy one.

"Naruto, why do you keep this to yourself? You have so many people close to you yet you keep these feeling buried in your thoughts. You don't have to be so alone, you know. Nobody should have to suffer alone, because, in reality, we're all suffering. Maybe not by the same things, but we all our pained by cuts and bruises scars. So please, let me help you just this once; let me repay you for everything you've done for me, and repent for all that I've done to you," Sakura pleaded. "Let me suffer with you; then, maybe, we can focus on what's really worth protecting and worth killing for."

Naruto then returned Sakura's embrace, the rain the only sound in the air for several minutes as they stood there like figures frozen in time.

"Alright, Sakura; I'll tell you. I'll tell you everything. Where do you want me to begin?" Naruto conceded, releasing Sakura, a blush on his face. She then followed suit.

"At the beginning, Naruto; tell me from the beginning," Sakura requested. "But we should go in doors first, or we'll both get sick. We could go to my place."

"But your mother," Naruto began to object. However, he was silenced by a finger being pressed to his lips.

"My mother knows you well enough, and anyway, you could probably fit in my dad's old clothes," retorted Sakura. Naruto knew not to press the matter farther, for the subject of her father was still a delicate matter.

"Alright," Naruto said. "Let's go then; but, could you do me a favor Sakura?"

"What is it?"

"Tenten's mother was looking after someone for me, and I don't want to intrude on her any longer. Could I…" Naruto requested.

"How about this; you go to your house and change in to some clean clothes, and I'll go pick up Sasuke for you," Sakura offered as they walked away from the Memorial Stone.

"How did you know what his name was?" Naruto asked, amazed at her knowledge.

"Intuition, Naruto; that's all."