Sasuke's dreams were killing him. In his dream, he was back in his old house. After seeing his mom's corpse, he'd frozen. But then he thought that the killer might still be in the house.

He forced himself to quietly tiptoe to the kitchen, trying to find one of his parents' phone. There was a terrible smell coming from the kitchen that was very similar to the smell in the living room. Only this time, it was accompanied by the smell of something cooking.

Sasuke didn't make the connection right away as his mind was running slow from shock. He walked into the kitchen all the way to investigate the smell. Sasuke saw bloodstains all over the floor.

One of the bloodstains led to the oven while others led to the refrigerator, trashcan, and counter. Sasuke followed the stains leading to the oven and had a terrible feeling.

Something was telling him that he would regret opening the oven for the rest of his life if he did it. But Sasuke was in a trance. He felt like he had to open it. He NEEDED to open it to find what was in there.

Sasuke didn't know how to use ovens so he opened it without turning the heat off. A blast wave of heat hit his face and he almost closed the oven. The numbness from the terror of seeing his mother's mutilated corpse overrode his survival instincts.

Sasuke opened the door all the way and what he saw scared him- no-it horrified him. There, in the oven, was a crispy brown head that looked like a cooked chicken. Sewed to it was two legs that held the head up.

Too scared to check what was in the fridge, Sasuke ran out of the house and frantically knocked on his neighbor's door. When the lady answered the door, he explained everything that happened without details.

Then, Sasuke woke up.

Sasuke had forgotten that he was supposed to be at school early when Kakashi woke him up. Even though that was true, he still woke up early. The nightmare of his parents had him practically leaping with glee that he was woken up.

Sasuke got ready for school, packed a blade for in case he needed it, and got dropped off. Apparently, Kakashi wanted to go do some things before coming to school himself. That was good in his case.

Suigetsu, Karin, and Jugo were at the front of the school. Luckily, it was a warm day so it was the perfect temperature that morning. "Let's go," Suigetsu said impatiently, "I need to buy some Hydros."

Karin pushed her glasses up and glared at him. "Shut up, Suigetsu. We get there when we get there. Let's go." Suigetsu looked appalled. "I said 'let's go' too but you got mad at me, you hypocrite."

Karin grit her teeth and started walking. Suigetsu chuckled and turned to Sasuke. "Women, am I right?" Sasuke didn't say anything. "So, who is it we're meeting?" He asked.

"It's this guy, Kabuto. He annoys the shit out of me but he's above me so I can't talk shit to him," Suigetsu replied. Sasuke knew he could interpret Suigetsu's dislike for this Kabuto guy in multiple ways.

Suigetsu could see himself in a position below the guy because he was in no position to complain. After all, he bought drugs from the guy. If Kabuto was pissed, he could just not be his dealer anymore.

Suigetsu could also see himself below this Kabuto due to lack of power. If the guy was really tough and carried a gun, then Suigetsu wouldn't be able to risk openly hating him.

Sasuke didn't know which of those or both applied to Suigetsu but all he knew was that he, himself didn't like the sound of either of those. Karin took a left turn and they were headed down the apartment side of town.

This guy either wasn't rich or just thought it was a great place to meet up. The sky was grey; Sasuke was grey. He didn't care if Kabuto would pull out a gun on him anymore. He just wanted the cigarettes.

Sasuke was feeling incredibly down and rubbed at the cuts on his shoulder to be in pain. The pain in his shoulder wasn't painful enough and he needed something more.

Sasuke didn't want to resort to this but he reached behind him to unzip the smallest pocket in his backpack and took out the blade he'd packed. He made sure everyone was facing forward and put his hand under his sweater to cut his stomach.

Sasuke's stomach was more sensitive than his arms so cutting it helped him a lot. When he finished, he put the blade in his pocket.

"We're almost there," announced Karin. The walk to the apartments was surprisingly quiet. Sasuke expected Karin and Suigetsu to be arguing half the time. They took a right turn to a valley of apartments and then kept walking straight.

Sasuke had only been to this area of apartments a couple of times in his life so he had no choice but to trust that the others knew their way back to the school. They took a left and entered a small park that was circled by apartments.

There was a man with silver hair and glasses standing at the park. "That's him," said Suigetsu. Sasuke felt numb. Kabuto shook Suigetsu, Karin, and Jugo's hands when they reached him. Then, he took a long look at Sasuke.

"Who is this?" He asked them. "I am Sasuke." Kabuto gave him a troublesome, teasing smirk and held out his hand. "Pleasure to be in business, Uchiha." Sasuke suddenly felt very awake and alarmed. How did this guy know his last name.

Sasuke made a subconscious decision to be careful around Kabuto from then on. Sasuke carefully shook Kabuto's hand. "So, what brings you here, Uchiha?" Suigetsu, who had a surprised look on his face, asked, "Wait. Kabuto, you know him?"

Kabuto answered the question with another teasing smirk. "I need some cigarettes," Sasuke told Kabuto. Kabuto's face got serious and Sasuke knew he meant business.

"That'll be $10." Sasuke felt nervous but forced himself to be as calm as possible. He supposed that the fact that he was making a drug deal hadn't really kicked in yet.

The reality of what he was doing hit him and his mind had clear thoughts. I'm really doing this, Sasuke thought; what if I get caught? It was the first time in a while that Sasuke felt a whiplash hit of sudden worry.

He should've thought this through before forcing himself to go. Then, Sasuke felt numb again. A numbness that made him feel down. He wanted - no, needed - a cigarette.

Sasuke looked into Kabuto's eyes with dead ones and no longer cared if he got caught. Karin handed Kabuto Sasuke's $10. Kabuto reached into his pocket and looked around to make sure no one else was around.

Then, he held out a pack of cigarettes. Sasuke looked around to make sure no one was watching as well and then took the cigarettes and quickly shoved them into the pocket of his pants.

Sasuke wasntsure if he should say "thanks" or not and just turned to Suigetsu because Suigetsu was closest to him. Suigetsu nodded at Sasuke and gave him a proud smile.

Suigetsu clearly thought he was responsible for helping Sasuke improve his life through experiencing how great drugs were. "Heh-hey. You're one of us now." Sasuke wanted to deny it but it was true.

Suigetsu, Karin, and Jugo were known for being delinquents who did drugs. Sasuke hung out with them and did drugs too. He wasn't exactly sunshine and rainbows and he broke rules often too. Now, he did drugs.

He was one of them now.

"What do you need?" Kabuto directed his attention to the others. "I need some Hydros," said Suigetsu. Sasuke had never heard of Hydros before. He hoped it wasn't an illegal drug. He'd already bought cigarettes illegally.

He didn't need to get involved in the illegal buying of illegal drugs too. Sasuke simply didn't have the energy to deal with police. Kabuto started walking the opposite direction. "Follow me."

Sasuke felt uneasy. He wasn't in any position to piss Kabuto off because he'd just bought cigarettes from him and the dude could either snitch if he wanted or not sell to him again.

Not only that but Kabuto could probably kill him if he wanted to. Sasuke didn't want to die from pissing off a drug dealer. He wanted to die from his own hands.

Reluctantly, Sasuke followed. Kabuto was either walking to a car or an apartment. The first was preferable. If he was trying to kidnap them, he wouldn't be able to fight all of them and cars were more in the public. People would hear you better if you yelled outside than inside.

Anything could happen in a house. Someone could murder him and get away with it for at least a few days. They followed Kabuto and Kabuto landed in front of a small grey SUV. Sasuke felt relieved and his trust in both Kabuto and Karin, Jugo, and Suigetsu deepened.

Kabuto opened the car door that led to the driving wheel and leaned in. Presumably, to find some Hydros. "Aha. Found them," he announced after only a minute. Sasuke slightly wondered what Hydros looked like.

Sasuke's slight curiosity dropped the second Kabuto held up what it was he found. Keys. They were keys. They were going to a house. Sasuke felt annoyed with himself for assuming that the drugs were in the car.

But Sasuke blamed his self hate on Kabuto and felt a sense of resentment toward him. "The house is this way," Kabuto said, gesturing towards a townhouse in front of the car.

"I usually don't show newbies this place but since I know all about you, I could blackmail you easily to keep your mouth shut," Kabuto told Sasuke. Kabuto acted as if it was no big deal to invade someone else's personal life.

Sasuke glared at Kabuto in deep frustration. Kabuto could blackmail him into anything if it was true he knew everything about him. How could he get out of this? Kabuto laughed.

The bastard! Sasuke couldn't hold his anger and swung his arm toward Kabuto. Kabuto didn't even try to block as Sasuke's knuckles came into contact with his nose. The sound of a snap seemed to echo.

Karin gasped in shock and Suigetsu smiled in amusement while Jugo looked concerned. Kabuto just stood there...and laughed..? Sasuke waited for Kabuto to do something but instead, he just got up and walked towards the house.

"You coming? He's waiting." Sasuke didn't know how to feel about the fact that Kabuto kept with his cocky attitude. Sasuke settled with glaring at him again and followed him to the house.

They weren't even halfway through the walkway before the smell of cigarette and things Sasuke couldn't name flooded his sense of smell.

Kabuto knocked on the door and Sasuke felt frustrated again. Kabuto either didn't live alone or this wasn't even his house. The feeling of uneasiness was overflowing and Sasuke just wanted to get everything over with.

The door opened and Sasuke felt severe discomfort over seeing what the person who answered the door looked like. It was a man with long hair and looked sickly. He was very pale and very skinny.

The man definitely looked like he was hooked on meth or something just as bad. Sasuke almost backed out but figured that upsetting this man would be worse than pretending to be fine with him.

This man had definitely killed someone before. He had the air of someone who had no conscience and the eyes of a predator who saw the world as his prey.

Sasuke regretted everything with meeting Kabuto before but that was basically welcoming the event in comparison to how badly he regretted co.ing face to face with this man.

Sasuke felt like a different person; like he wasn't himself. He usually didn't care much about anything, let alone feel so uneasy. He was overwhelmed and didn't have any experience in situations like this.

Sasuke calmed himself down, regained his composure, and put his usual blank look back on his face. Again, he didn't care if he died. Life sucked.

With a new kind of self confidence, he faced the situation head on. He got himself in this situation and he would get himself out of it. He just needed to stay cool.

Sasuke walked toward the man and held out his hand. "I'm Sasuke. " the man chuckled and rather than feeling uneasy, Sasuke felt annoyed. This man was trying too hard to be intimidating.

The man took Sasuke's hand. "Ah, yes. I know all about you. I was wondering when I'd meet you. My name is Orochimaru." Orochimaru's hand was very cold. His eyes were cold too. A cold intense green.

Sasuke was confused as to why or how both Orochimaru and Kabuto knew him but in the moment, he didn't care. He'd find out some other time when the information would come to him.

"Come in. I'd like you to try something." Sasuke felt like he had no choice. He didn't trust this but at the same time, he felt like shit so bad that he honestly didn't care if he died in there.

Sasuke was probably going to kill himself someday anyway so who cares if he'd become a drug addict?

Orochimaru opened the door wide and moved to the side to let them all in. Sasuke, feeling numb, walked past Orochimaru and went inside the house.