A/N: And now, ladies and gentlemen, the long-awaited recount episode! I hope you enjoy.


Chapter 14: On That Day


It was an unusually warm day in early May. Sasuke glanced around as he rode his horse, taking in the beautiful scenery. He took a deep breath of fresh forest air and smiled to himself. The birds were singing, summer was on its way, and this latest trip with his father was going to be a great one.

Not only would he be visiting Morino, a place where he had a few childhood friends, but he was actually going to be able to sit in on an actual meeting with the leader of the village to figure out what they should do about a growing rebel group!

"My first council meeting away from the castle, with an actual village leader," he thought to himself gleefully. "Not only that, but seeing Hasu and the others will be awesome!"

He turned to look at Naruto, who rode next to him. The blond boy grinned back at him.

"Aren't you pumped?" Naruto asked, bouncing in his saddle. "I'm excited to see the others again!"

"Right?" The boy agreed with a smile. "It's been far too long since we've visited. I wonder if Gina's older sister got married yet."

"Bleh, who cares about marriage yet?" The boy made a face, sticking out his tongue. "Girls are weird. You aren't ever gonna get married, are you?"

"Not right now," the prince admitted, softly biting his lip. "I mean, I'm technically second-in-line for the throne, or so Father says. Maybe one day I'll marry a high-society girl and be the ruler of some far-off country."

"I wonder if your dad would ever betrothe you to Gaara's older sister!" Naruto snickered. "Nah, she's mean."

Sasuke laughed along with him. "Yeah, that'd be weird! Doesn't she hate us or something?"

"You boys stay alert," Fugaku admonished with a smile at their antics. "The road to Morino isn't as safe as it used to be."

"Yes, Father," Sasuke obediently replied. Naruto just groaned.

"Don't sweat it, King! I'm sure nothin's gonna happen this time." Naruto insisted.

"Even though you said that the last time," Sasuke reminded.

"And the time before that," Fugaku added, a playful twinkle in his eye.

"Wha? Just because it happened before don't mean it's gonna happen again!" Naruto grumbled.

Sasuke and his father just laughed. After a moment of pouting, Naruto joined in.


When the group had finally arrived at Morino early in the morning, Naruto and Sasuke jumped off of their horses and barely managed to tie them to a post before running off to greet their friends.

The village leader's children, Hasu and his six-year-old brother Jun, greeted them happily. Sasuke bade the village leader a polite hello before running in to Hasu's room.

As the third-youngest of seven children, Hasu didn't have a grandiose room. He shared his with his twin brother Isamu.

The eldest, Hajime, who'd just turned eighteen, greeted the boys by snatching up Naruto and giving him a noogie.

"Hey, hey, lemme go!" Naruto cried, laughing as the teenager rubbed his head.

"Good that you visited, squirt!" Hajime cried. "I can finally get my revenge upon you!"

"If it's for last time, I already said I was sorry!" Naruto replied.

"Sorry won't cut it this time, young man!"

Sasuke watched with amusement as the two battled in the hallway. As usual, Hajime had the upper hand over the tinier, skinnier blond, but Naruto proved to be formidible in his attack.

Suddenly, the boys' mother popped her head around the corner with a disapproving frown. "Hajime, aren't you supposed to be getting ready for that meeting with your father?"

Immediately, he dropped Naruto, and with a nod and a "Sorry, Mother," he excused himself from the boys with a sheepish, "I promise we'll play later."


For some reason, he had the strangest look in his eye. It was almost as if he was anticipating something to happen, now that Sasuke reflected on it six years later. As if he knew what was going to happen in only a short hour, something he just couldn't look the young prince in the eye for. It only made the following deaths of the village leader's whole family feel a little better, but Sasuke still felt horribly guilty for the younger ones when he learned of it.


Sasuke watched him go in surprise. "I didn't know Hajime was so..."

"Grown up?" Hasu finished for him. At the answering nod, he sighed, "Yeah, Ma's had him busy ever since his birthday last winter. He never has time to play with us anymore. I mean heck, even Jirou still plays 'Warrior' with us, and he's almost eighteen too."

"Wow," Sasuke managed to utter. Then he shook his head, turning to face the brothers. "So has your room changed much?"


A while later, Sasuke had bade the brothers goodbye and he and Naruto had dressed up to go to the meeting with the king.

"I'm so nervous," Naruto admitted, bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet. "What if something really does happen this time?"

"For your sake, I hope you were right in saying we'll be fine," Sasuke replied, shooting him a tiny glare.

The boys made their way into the meeting hall, where the king was already seated with two empty seats beside him.

"Good timing, boys," he greeted them, patting the armrest of the chair. "Have a seat. The meeting will being shortly, just as soon as Isao and his eldest get here."

Sasuke nodded primly and took his chair, folding his hands in his lap to appear more grown-up. Naruto sat right beside him, resting his chin in his hand, bored.

Somewhere during the excruciatingly-long ten-minute or so wait, Naruto leaned in with a frown. "Didn't something about Hajime seem... off somehow?"

"Like what?" Sasuke asked, his brow wrinkling in confusion. "Like how he avoided my eyes?"

"Yeah, like... like how I used to look at your mom when we'd slide down the banisters," the blond replied. "I dunno... if you ask me, it kinda reminds me of the way your cousin looked before the explosion at-"

Only seconds afterward, the sound of an explosion shook the building, along with the sound of people shrieking in panic.

Sasuke and Naruto jumped in fear, while Fugaku pushed his chair back and turned to look out the open doorway.

"Children, stay here," he ordered. "Men, come with me!"

One by one, he and his soldiers left the meeting hall, leaving the confused, terrified preteens huddled together underneath the table.

"Sasuke, I'm scared," Naruto whimpered, tears threatening to fall from his eyes. He held his friend tighter. "I- I don't wanna die! Not like Mama and Daddy did!"

"We'll be fine, Naruto," Sasuke promised, but deep inside he felt frustrated at how helpless they were in that moment. He could only hug Naruto tighter as explosions continued to rattle the village. The sound of people screaming, the sound of horses whinnying... he clenched his eyes shut for a few moments to try and block it out in vain.

Suddenly, his eyes snapped wide open and he heard a familiar voice among the crowd screaming. A voice he hadn't heard in years, but one that still resonated within his mind as her.

"Sakura!" He shouted, rising up and accidentally slamming his head against the bottom of the table. "Ahh- crap-"

"Sakura? She's here?" Naruto asked, wide blue eyes alert. "Oh no-"

"Stay here, I'll see if I can find her." Sasuke ordered, crawling out from underneath the table as the pain subsided somewhat. "I'm sure Father's sending soldiers back at this very moment to protect you. Don't move! I'll be back once I get her!"

With that, the prince raced out of the building, dodging kunai knives and the occasional arrow.

"Sakura!" He screamed, trying to see through the commotion of dust kicked up by the horses. "Sakura, where are you? It's me, Sasuke!"

He ran through the village, looking high and low. Between the homes, in alleys, even where the fighting was going on. Still, he didn't see her unforgettable strawberry-blonde tresses anywhere.

"Sakura!" He called again. His voice was hurting to match the pain from hitting the table, and his legs were growing weary, but he wouldn't stop until he found her. "Sakura!"

Finally, he came to a stop against a building, catching his breath. He still heard the battle, but the villagers had stopped yelling so loud. Now all he heard was the battle cries of his father's army against some kind of terrorist group.

He spotted a house up the road that he hadn't looked around yet. "If there's anywhere else she could be, it'll be there!"

With one careful look around to make sure he wouldn't get hit or trampled, he bolted towards the farmhouse. The peaceful blue of the river near it made him a little calmer for a moment before he remembered his mission.

"Sakura!" He called, looking through the windows. He searched for her through the crop field near the forest's beginning again, but still, nothing.

Just when he was about to give up, though, he heard something. Something that sounded weird.

His ears picked up the sound of water splashing above the usual sounds of the river water going by. He turned, confused, seeing only the calm river, although it now seemed... red?

His heart skipped a beat when he neared it. "No... it couldn't be. J- just a fish."

And then, when his eyes roamed the slow-moving water, time slowed down to a snail's pace. His heart stopped. His mind went totally blank.

The only word his stunned brain could conjure was "N- no..."

The red was what caught his eyes first, along with the slight smell of blood.

He could only stare at her unmoving body, face-down, that... that red matting her pretty hair...

He collapsed to his knees, the tears blurring her body in his vision. "No. No. No."

His body was stuck on that word, a broken record playing over and over, with different intensity every time. "No. No. No."

He sat there for what seemed like forever, just staring at her body until someone touched his shoulder.

He could smell the familiar scent of blood, mixing with the perfume of lilacs she'd flaunted (when they were eight), and that's when the dam snapped.

He clenched his eyes shut, the tears rolling down his cheeks, as he shrieked, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

He could barely hear someone's voice and felt the sharp prick of the edge of a kunai knife over his anguished wails. His front hit the ground, and he slammed his fist against the rocks, the pain of jagged edges against his hands fading away to the emptiness that was what he felt inside.

"NOOOOOOO!" He continued to scream. "AHHHHH - AAH- GYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"

"SAAAAAAAAAAKUUUURAAAAAAAAAAA!"


"The next thing I knew, Father was holding me in his arms, and I was wrapped in a blanket," Sasuke explained, his tears drying now. "Apparently, I'd over-exerted myself from the grief and I'd been captured by the leader of Riot herself. My mind totally shut down. I don't even remember anything about my brief kidnapping, only that I kept smelling Sakura's lilac perfume. For months afterward, I kept dreaming of her ghost following me. I kept seeing her everywhere."

He chuckled wryly. "It's almost like she was haunting me from beyond the grave. I couldn't get that scent out of my mind for days. It took me quite a while before I could stand smelling fresh lilacs again."

Naruto nodded, his face solemn and sad. "Damn, that must have been... just awful."

"It was way more awful than how you're describing it, yes," Sasuke snapped. "I felt like my very soul had departed from my body. All I could do was sit there. My brain just wasn't... wasn't acting right."

The blond sighed, wrapping an arm tighter around his best friend. "I have no idea what it must've been like, but... one thing has kept me awake at night since Morino."

"What do you mean?"

Naruto turned and stared him dead in the eye. "You were kidnapped, yeah, but... when we got to the point where you could've seen her, there... there was no body. The only thing we saw was a piece of her dress caught to a rock. We found the bodies of Hajime, his brothers, Gina, her sisters, the village elder, but..."

Sasuke felt like the air had been punched out of him. "What are you trying to say, Namikaze?"

"I'm saying," the boy continued, "that perhaps Hinata's and Sakura's 'deaths' are linked somehow. What if... what if she's actually alive?"


A/N: HOLY SHIT, GIVE THE BOY A TROPHY! DING-DING-DING, SOMEONE FINALLY FIGURED OUT THAT SAKURA'S PROBABLY ALIVE, AND IT'S KONOHA'S NUMBER-ONE KNUCKLEHEAD!

All joking aside, yes, this is the full account (from Sasuke's side!) about what happened in Morino! Sooner or later, we're gonna have to see about Sakura's side, so stay tuned.

Please tell me what you thought, feel free to speculate, and I'll see you guys next week.