Well, how depressing was this to write but I finally have written down why Fugaku turned the way he did, why he has lashed out. I wonder if this means you readers will forgive him or not... :)

Chapter 14

Sasuke stood over the coffin, crying silently. He stared at the extremely pale face of Naruto, which looked so peaceful it shattered Sasuke's heart all over again. Naruto is in a better place now, he thought. He looked around and saw Tsunade; she was comforting a bawling Sakura. Sakura was sat, hugging her knees on the chair; Tsunade was crying silently, trying her best to comfort the small pink-haired girl although she could not find anything to say that helped. He looked over at the group of people, although homeless were dressed as smartly as they could. He could see Kiba, crying his heart out as well. Kiba's family were also in tears as they stared at the coffin. Tenten was also stood there, she had let her hair down in commemoration for Naruto; she had told Sasuke that she always wore her hair up for a special reason she had only ever told Naruto about and he had kept it for years, continuing to badger her that she was a pretty person whether her hair was up or down.

There were other people around although they weren't here to pay respects to Naruto. They were just the funeral workers. It stung at Sasuke that so little people cared for Naruto who was the brightest person on the planet – why hadn't everything stopped like he had, become black and white, had no one noticed that the colour of the world had now left it?

Sasuke looked around at the funeral he had prepared. It was very black and white, white roses decorated the room, black hangings covered the windows and the chairs were dark as well – the only brightness in the room were the dozens of white flowers that acted like the light that Naruto had lit up inside of him.

He turned around as he heard the door open and saw Itachi and Charlene walking in. the pair looked extremely solemn – of course their wedding had been ruined by Naruto's death. Although they didn't know him very well, they had come to pay their respects to Naruto; Itachi thanked Naruto for making Sasuke so happy in the time they had spent together. It was then that Mikoto came in, followed by Fugaku.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Sasuke hissed; he glared seriously at his father.

His father remained silent.

"You're the one who killed him! You killed him! I'll never forgive you. I'll never forgive myself. You complete and utter bastard! The room seemed to darken as Sasuke released some kind of strange power brought up with his grief of Naruto and his pure hatred of his father. Sadness, grief, anger and hatred battled each other and Fugaku grew more and more frightened as Sasuke seemed to radiate ferociousness. His hypnotism was manifesting in to some sort of complete magical power. The room grew lighter and lighter...

Sasuke woke up suddenly in the chair in the waiting room at the nearby private hospital. He looked around to see many doctor's and nurses walking around, other patients and families waiting around in the waiting room. It was all just a dream. It was all just a dream. A horrible nightmare. Naruto wasn't dead. Sasuke's chest heaved in relief. He sat there; he caught his reflection in the mirror opposite him. He looked deathly white with a tinge of green.

My dream told the truth...if Naruto dies, it's all my fault. I...I don't think I could bear that if that happened. Please Naruto, be okay. Be okay, let me apologise for what I did to you.

Sasuke continued to stare in the mirror, no longer seeing what was there – he was just staring in to an endless existence. He heard a bang as doors to the hospital opened in to the waiting room and Mikoto – his mother – came in and she ran and hugged her son.

"I'm so sorry Sasuke. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry I couldn't stop him".

"Mother, it's not your fault. This is my fault...and his fault. I never want to see that man again", Sasuke hissed menacingly.

"Well...Sasuke...your father is here. He wants to talk to you about something very important", Mikoto whispered. She handed Sasuke a cup of tea. Sasuke sipped gently before answering.

"I don't want to listen to ANYTHING that man says; you hear me! Nothing!" Sasuke was bordering on shouting, getting a few dirty looks from others in the room. "He hurt Naruto. I can't EVER forgive him", he finished, lowering his voice.

"Well, I will wait here and listen for news about Naruto, I want you to go and talk to your father. He's sat on the steps outside. Please do this...do this for me? If not me, do this for Naruto. If he was just as kind and thoughtful as I heard, he would want you to talk to your father, to straighten this entire situation out". Mikoto smiled weakly at her youngest son. She kissed his forehead. "Go on", she whispered.

Sasuke drank the rest of his tea.

"Well I guess even if I don't listen, there is something I want to say to that man", he hissed. He got up, legs still a bit shaky from the circumstances. He fell in toe wall slightly, gathering his energy and mentally getting ready for the confrontation ahead. After several minutes of standing, he started to move. As he walked along, the whole situation lit up in his mind. Sasuke had picked up the unconscious form of Naruto and carried him as fast as he could to the nearest vehicle. He needed medical attention and fast. Tsunade went with him, using everything she could to stabilise Naruto and get him comfortable. Two of the other guests were doctors in the local area and went with him, taking one of their cars. He drove them to the hospital he was at now. He saw that Naruto was given attention to straight away. The two guests wished Sasuke luck and went back to the party. Tsunade left to go and talk to Itachi and Charlene. The last thing he remembered his father doing was just stood there, holding the knife. His hand had dropped when they took Naruto off, but people gathered around him and Sasuke drove him from his mind – he was fixed on saving Naruto and that was all he cared about. It was whether Naruto pulled through or not that would decide what Sasuke would do.

Sasuke spotted his father; he was sat on the stairs like his mother had said. Sasuke casually walked up and cleared his throat to alert his presence.

"Mother said you wanted to speak to me but I have something to say first. You better wish that Naruto gets better. Because of not. I will do things to you – truly terrible things, not even I can speak in case someone hears. I will make you rue the day you ever got that knife out and hurt Naruto. I will make sure you suffer more pain than one can stand. I hope you realise just how angry you have made me and you WILL suffer the consequences. You ever come near me again or Naruto, I will not be afraid to take you out – you understand. You would wish everyone at that party had handed you over to the police". Sasuke's voice was cold and the hatred was so clear cutting that every word made Fugaku flinch violently.

"What do you have to say then? Can you justify this with a story about why you hate me so much? Why you hate hypnotism? Because I can not think of anything that can make me let you off and not kill you now", Sasuke demanded. Fugaku patted the space of the stairs next to him.

"Sasuke", he croaked, "I hope you listen, I hope you hear me out and I know now that I deserve any punishment thrown at me. This whole situation has opened my eyes. I should never have hurt you in the first place – I have been overreacting all these years and I'm so sorry. I know that in no way makes up for it but I plead that you hear me out before you exact your revenge on me. I will not do anything; I will accept whatever it is". Fugaku sounded so solemn that Sasuke was taken aback slightly. He had never heard his father talk the way he was but he still wasn't going to forgive him yet. Sasuke sat down on the stone steps as far away from his father they would allow him.

"Are you going to explain or just sit there in self-pity?" Sasuke asked after several minutes in silence.

"Well, you see Sasuke. I have never been able to do hypnotism – I never possessed the skill to be able to manipulate one's mind. My father tried everything he could possible to make me become a successful hypnotist. No matter what paces he put me through, no matter how much I tried, I couldn't do even the simplest illusion on anyone. I was disappointed but not as much as my father was disappointed in me. I...I was devastated as my father began to put more and more distance between us, focusing on my brother who had more skill. I was jealous of him and I hated him. He went off to war and died and I was yet again devastated".

Fugaku stared up at the cloudy sky of the day before continuing.

"Well, I was so bad at hypnotism; there was nothing I could connect with my father on. I lived there and grew up in a house that always had awkwardness about it. I lived with my mother and my father, my brother's death hung over us all badly. I eventually left home, got married and had you and Itachi. It was when you were very young, barely a year old, when we first came to this hotel. I was really happy I got to come here and I was with my family – it was the best start to living with my family. It was that night that I walked down to my parent's room and I knocked on the door. I could hear raised voices in there – of course it wasn't the first time I heard them fight, all marriages have arguments, you've heard me and your mother fight before. I opened the door and I was knocked out by some force. I was hypnotised by your grandfather. This was the first time he had ever hypnotised me unless he was trying to teach me. He didn't even think to waste his talent for hypnotism on me – he saw me as a waste. But he did something terrible. He needed to cover it up. It was something I had only remembered when he died so many years after".

Tears poured out of Fugaku's eyes as he looked down and he refused to look at his son who was staring intently at him. Sasuke was more intrigued about something that could bring the hardened man in front of him to tears.

"My father killed my mother", he whispered.

Sasuke gasped. He turned away from his father and stared at the floor. He could hear his father's sobs. He couldn't bear to look at such a broken man even if he was the one who had caused him so much pain and the pain to Naruto. He stared at the floor and tried to remember the day that his grandfather had died. He remembered the sudden lurch of hatred that arose in his father, why one minute he was sad and the next he were angry. The fact that his father ran out on his own father when Sasuke was paying his respects to his body, while he had shouted at Sasuke to get a move on and to leave his grandfather without finishing his prayer for him. It was something that Sasuke had forgotten about until this moment. He turned to Fugaku who had stopped crying though the evidence remained on his face.

"How?"

"Well, I walked in and I was hypnotised straight away. But I remember – the hypnotism my father used on me had broken because of his death and the memories of all the things he made me do appeared – like cleaning up after he had hurt her. He stabbed her at least five times with a knife for no reason at all as far as I know. But I was susceptible to hypnotism so easily as I had no trace of the gift. He was bending me to his will so he didn't even have to touch after, even after she was dead. He would willingly have made me accept the blame if his plan that she died of natural causes hadn't gone so smoothly. He wiped my memory and I never remembered it once until he died – and I never told you".

Fugaku turned to Sasuke.

"You must have realised the change in me when your grandfather died didn't you? I was so much more bad tempered, I was extremely angry, anything to do with hypnotism I just wanted it gone, away, out of my house. I didn't want to see that art anymore. I was...a broken man. I hurt you to mend myself and I was wrong. I know you still hold that heavy in your heart and possibly even some of the scars from your countless operations to save your life that your mother came clean about. You carried the biggest reminder to what I had been forced to do and I knew you didn't know – and I had no intentions of telling you. I just wanted you to do what I said, desperate. And so I tried to force you into it all. It was when you hypnotised your mother that I really snapped – the memory came back at such full blast, the anger, the hatred, it made me think of my own mother and how she had fallen victim to him. My father".

Fugaku paused momentarily, clearing his throat to continue.

"I also have another confession to come clean about. I was also very jealous about how well you connected with your grandfather. It was the kind of affection he never showed me. That was also another reason why I was so angry at you. I don't think you ever noticed that either. There was a lot of information – important information – that I kept from you and I apologise for that as well".

Fugaku took in slow deep breaths as he tried to find what was left to say to end the story. He refused to look at his son again until he had found the right words.

"I don't expect you to forgive me for pushing my pain on you. And I never expect your friend, your companion to forgive me either".

"He will", Sasuke muttered quietly.

Fugaku turned to look at Sasuke, a puzzled expression on his face.

"Naruto is the kindest person I have ever met. He protected me, maybe at the cost of his own life and he was the one who pointed out to me that something must have happened to you to make you turn the way you did. If he makes through this alive, if there was ever a person to do so, it would be him and he would forgive you. I, however, cannot accept this so easily. You didn't have the right to make me suffer like you did. You really have hurt me so much and that won't go away. I think I might accept your apology but I don't know if I want anything or not to do with you".

Fugaku sat in silence just staring at his youngest son before he nodded at him.

"I guess there really isn't much left for me to say. Except once again, I'm really sorry".

Sasuke got up and walked down the steps and started to walk back up when his mother Mikoto ran out, panting hard.

"Sasuke, hurry! It's about Naruto!"

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