Hello everyone, I'm back – with Chapter 28 of I Bleed Black. So did you all miss me since Tuesday, when I posted Chapter 27? Neh? You didn't? Awww… man… and here I thought I was special. Mou…and here I was actually putting my ego like a balloon. Oh well, here's to whoever wants to pop it (raises pepsi can). Moving on to the story.

I Bleed Black

Chapter 28

Naruto fell asleep almost immediately after eating once he had finally made it to the kitchen. Like many nights before the boy had lost his memory, Sasuke stayed up. He was in his normal chair beside the boy's bed.

Naruto… he thought, looking at the blonde fondly. You… I… almost lost you forever. Sasuke reached out and touched a hand to the blonde's face, brushing the golden bangs out of his eyes. He felt a burning in his chest as he remembered things that he never wanted to remember.

Sasuke had always known that if he made a friend, something like this would happen. That's one of the reasons that he was a loner. Naruto was not the only one to fall victim to Tomoe's urges and advances. Lightly, Sasuke traced the black tattoo that was located at the base of his neck. The memories of that night would never leave him. He had never truly gotten over it. It still haunted him. His past…

Sasuke believed that he would never be free of it. It would haunt him for the rest of his life. It would slowly eat away at his soul until there was nothing left of him except an empty shell.

Sasuke remembered his vow – his promise to Itachi's grave. He would avenger his brother's death. That's was what he said. He had done what he planned on devoting his entire life to. He thought that he would die in his quest before he was able to complete it or have a mortal wound and then dealing his father the same blow: something cliché like that. But now his life purpose was done. There was nothing left for him.

Sighing, Sasuke looked around for pen and paper. He had to write. If he didn't, he didn't know what would happen. Writing and drawing were the only outlets that he had. He had to be strong. The only times that he was allowed to be weak was when something happened to Naruto.

Like that…

Sasuke had drifted back to that night – so long ago. He felt tears burning his eyes but didn't let them fall. Blinking rapidly, he spotted a pen on the floor and grabbed it. Uncapping it, he began to write on the paper he had spotted under the bed.

Bound, gagged

Fear, Hate, Pain, Blood

Tears fall down my face

Struggling, thrashing

Ever maddening

Why me? Why am I…?

Unable to think

Unable to comprehend

Enter, Exit, Enter, Exit

Can't scream or make a sound

Too weak for life

Too weak for death

Dying, lying, trying to get away

Voice whispers softly in my ear

Purring, hurling, choking

Need to get out

Need to break free

Pain, cuts, needle pricks

Can't think, can't feel

Can't believe this is real

Can't believe it's what I feel

Binds broken, I can finally breathe

Pain overtaking me

Tears fall from eyes that swore

Not to cry ever again

Accidental birth, accidental death

Accidental tears, accidental jeers

Accidental screams, accidental dreams

Vanish when my life is spend

Marked… vomiting… crying… I wish I could die

Is this what I have to pay for my life's rent?

Sasuke looked at the completed poem. Why did he write so openly? Tears stung his eyes as he remembered it. It wasn't like he wanted to remember. It wasn't like he wanted these memories at all. He felt a few drops of tears slide down his cheek.

It was stupid, really. He didn't have to cry about old wounds. He didn't have to stare at the scar for hours, did he? No, Sasuke was strong than that.

He had to be. If he wasn't, if felt as though he would die. If he didn't, everything would come crashing down. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

Everything hurt… just like it had back then. The Uchiha felt as though he had been paralyzed. He thought he couldn't move. He tried to close his eyes to shut out the memory, but that only made the vision clearer. Without realizing in, the brunette fell forward and into a dream.

A nightmare he had had for ages.

One that he wished would leave him. It never did.

Bloody and torn, a small boy of about eleven curled up in the corner of the room. His father, drunk yet again (Tomoe had been drinking even more since his wife's death only three months before.) The elder Uchiha had taken off his belt and whipped the skin off his young son.

"You fucking son of a bitch," Tomoe growled, his voice full of hatred. Sasuke curled around his legs even more. His mind was pleading for it all to stop. He wanted to finally die. He wanted to be anywhere but here.

Anywhere but here.

Sasuke looked up shakily when Tomoe hadn't attacked or said anything for a few minutes. His eyes widened when he saw the man standing there, completely naked. The drunken haze seemed to have left the man's eyes, leaving only lust.

Sasuke shivered. He didn't want to know why his father was standing inches from him, completely naked, looking at Sasuke as though he was some kind of sex-toy. He shook his head, ridding himself of the thought.

Then came the part that Sasuke would always remember in later years.

His father grabbed the scruff of the boy's neck, throwing him onto the floor. The younger Uchiha landed sprawled, wincing as his wrist twisted at a strange angle. Tomoe was straddling his son, ripping off all the boy's clothes. Sasuke tried to fight it, tried to scream, but the only "reward" he got for this was a gag and a shirt tangled in his wrists so he couldn't separate them.

"Such a girly body… so soft," Tomoe murmured slowly, his voice thick with something that Sasuke could never understand. He trailed a finger down his son's chest, making the smaller brunette shiver with fear.

"You're mine, Sasuke," Tomoe asked as he finally rearranged himself to be able to screw his own child. "Do you understand that?"

Sasuke tried to scream, but the gag was preventing the sound from getting anywhere. He could do anything. Even squirming hurt. He couldn't move. Fear rushed up and down his spine, coupled by the pain that flooded him whenever his father thrust in.

Shivering, the boy closed his eyes. He didn't want to see this, he didn't want to believe this was happening. Nothing could be like this… why was this happening to him?

When blackness began to overtake his senses, the boy welcomed it with open arms.

Sasuke was startled from the dream by someone calling his name. Blinking his eyes, he groaned and stared up sleepily. Sitting there with a worried expression on his tanned and whiskered face was none other than Uzumaki Naruto.

"Sasuke?" Naruto asked. "Are you okay?"

Sasuke nodded after a moment, feeling the warm light of the sun that was trailing in the window. "I'm fine… it was just a nightmare," the Uchiha assured his friend.

Naruto gave him the "don't-bullshit-me-asshole" look, which made Sasuke look away. He couldn't stare Naruto in the eye. The two were truly the same right now. And these memories… he wanted them to leave him.

He was sure that the blonde was feeling the same way that he was right now.

Both kept silent, each absorbed by their own thoughts.

It was Naruto who spoke first.

"Did… was your poem telling the truth?" Naruto asked softly, almost inaudibly.

"What?" Sasuke wanted to know. He had phased out, only hearing the last part of the blonde's question.

Shyly, Naruto took the poem down from where he had put it before trying to wake his roommate up. "Um… this one," he said in a quiet voice.

Sasuke stared at the neat words on the page, blinking. His mind was trying to figure out how Naruto had seen this. That was when he remembered that he had fallen asleep on the paper last night.

Good reasoning.

"Yeah," he grunted. He put on his stoic mask again.

Naruto punched the boy in the eye, making Sasuke fall over. Looking up through a swollen eye and a healthy one, Sasuke glared.

"What the fuck, dobe?" he snarled.

"What do you mean, 'what the fuck, dobe'?" Naruto growled back, just as vehemently as Sasuke's words had been. "I'm not the asshole who pulled up his fucking mask again – even after we swore not to use masks around each other!"

Sasuke's eyes narrowed into a scowl. He shrugged. "I don't want to talk about it, okay?" he snapped, going over to his bed. "I'm gonna get some rest, don't bug me."

As he fell asleep, Sasuke wondered if he should apologize when he woke up.

Naruto stared at the sleeping Uchiha. "Bastard," he muttered affectionately. A small smile touched his lips and he lay down on his pillows again, finding slumber once again.

Kyuubi-kun's Korner!

Okay, this chapter is done. Sorry for the memory… I was in a weird mood today. The poem, called "Rent" was written during Photography because that was when I was writing this. Bah… anyways, moving on. Thanks to everyone who has reviewed and read. I loves you all! Ja ne!