Chapter 5

(Jenrya Lee: Wow. I've been gone for...quite some time! Blame school. ^^ Anyway, this is an extremely important note. In the last chapter, I seemed to have not written clearly enough that Ichiga is NOT Sasuke's sister, but Yuki's sister, thus, she is Sasuke's cousin. This is my fault, and I am sorry if this confused anyone. I'll try not to make another mistake like this again. THANK YOU AQUA SO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP! I dedicate this chapter to you! So, read on!)

Four years later/ Age Twelve

            A raven haired boy rubbed his sore hands. His training had drained him of all his energy. He frowned. He was no longer a big fish in a little pond, but a small fish in a big pond. His mind wandered to his brother, like it always did. Sasuke rubbed the seal on his neck. Going through something like that, with only a one in ten chance of getting out of it alive....it changed him so much. He was so much stronger now. Was Kakashi trying to save him that time...or just stop him from being as strong as he possibly could? He didn't know who was on his side anymore. So much had happened in a year that his head hurt. He stared at his cold cereal with distaste and frowned.

            Knock knock knock.

            The boy raised his head to the source of the sound. The door. His hand automatically hovered over his kunai. A million thoughts rushed through his head. Another knock, then a voice.

            "Hey, Sasuke! Open the door! Kakashi sent us here for some stupid reason..." Naruto's loud, annoying, irritating voice passed freely through the thick wooden door into the raven-haired boy's house. He frowned, but opened the door just the same. He didn't really care if they came in. It wouldn't make the slightest difference to him. He merely stared at them, waiting for an explanation.

            "Kakashi wanted us to wait here since he had to run an errand or something. Can we come in?" Sakura asked, peeking over Sasuke's shoulder to see what his house looked like. The pale boy merely shrugged and opened the door fully, allowing his teammates to enter his house. The boy seemed to laugh quietly at an internal joke.

            'Teammates? Yeah, I'm sure...'

             The pink haired maiden looked slightly...crestfallen. Her dream boy lived in an average house, that was dark and stuffy and small. But her eyes wandered to his floor, where she saw that something red had seeped into the wooden floor many years before. She wanted to examine the stain closer, to see if it was blood. She knelt to touch it, and was hit with a wave of emotion. So much pain happened in this house. So many tears. She could feel it.

            "Wow. Your house is very nice, Sasuke!" Sakura peeped, smiling warmly at him. Again, all she was rewarded with was a cold glance. "Um...Oh! I'm sorry! It's still early in the morning...I hope I didn't wake–"

            "No one is here but me."

            "Really? Where are your parents? I heard the Uchiha clan was huge..." The dark eyed boy didn't answer her question, only rubbed his forehead. "Very nice pajamas!" The boys face turned red. A certain blond boy would have laughed if he wasn't currently slightly sorry for the other boy due to the situation he was in.

            "I woke up late. Let me change." He walked out of the room.

            Sakura waited for Sasuke to leave before turning to Naruto. "What is with him?"

            "Don't push the subject Sakura."

            "Do you know something I don't?" No response. "You do, don't you?" Again, no response. Then, suddenly, from elsewhere in the house, a loud, "OH, CRAP!" Sasuke ran down the stairs, clearly angered.

            "Get out!" He yelled, only half dressed. His pale chest was clearly visible, with all of it's dark scars and bandages. His coarse breath made his chest rise and fall. His face was white with rage. His hands shook. "You can't stay here today! No way! I explained it to Kakashi, so why he told you to come here, I don't know. But I am skipping training today. So get out." He pointed to the door with one thin, long finger. They couldn't stay. They couldn't know. He'd never let anyone see him as he really was.

            Sakura respectively turned her head away from Sasuke, and spoke.

            "Kakashi told us if we left you, we'd fail. So, obviously, he knew you'd kick us out. But I don't want to fail, so we're going with you!" The pink-haired girl couldn't bring herself to leave him. He looked as cold as ever, as mean as ever, but his soul was exposed. She could almost look into his heart and see...and see what pain it held.

            "Don't get yourself in the middle of what you cannot understand! You can't come with me! Today is a very important day for the clan!" The pale skinned, dark haired, black eyed, emotionless boy seemed in pain. Like talking about this enigmatic thing hurt too much. Like if he explained it, his body wouldn't be able to handle it. Like he'd just shrivel up and die. The green eyed girl thought for a moment, then shook her head.

            "I'm sure we can come with you!" Again, she got a glimpse at the other boy's soul. His face turned dark and melancholy, his head slightly lowered toward the floor. He glared at the same spot on the floor for a long time, and his glare was so hard, the girl thought he might burn a hole right through it.

            "You're not appropriately dressed." This time, there was ice in his voice. Ice so cold that it seemed to drop the room temperature. Ice that matched the wall around his heart. Ice that flowed through his veins. Ice that became part of his own being. If that ice left...what would he have left?

            Finally, the blond spoke.

            "Where are you going?" No longer was his voice loud and aggravating, but softer, and gentler. As if he was speaking to a child who could break at any moment.

            The other boy did not answer, but only left the room. He came back, dressed in a black suit, holding flowers. He stormed out of the house without a word. His pace was fast and hard, like if he stopped, the world would end.  His world would end. He lost too much...he shouldn't be dressed in black holding flowers wearing a suit walking fast trying to hide everything trying to be normal trying to get revenge trying to–

            He stopped walking. He heard his teammates call out to him, telling him to wait for them.

            'Friends don't exist...'

            He continued walking. His legs hurt. His heart hurt. His mind hurt.

            His teammates' voices sounded distant and far. Sasuke was just so wrapped up within himself that he didn't notice that he had reached his destination.

            The Cemetery, Uchiha Section.

            He stood there, unknowing to the fact that his face was wet with tears. He held the flowers to his chest, and walked toward his mothers grave. He heard footsteps behind him and didn't bother turning around. He didn't need to turn around. He know who was there. He knew the people, the hypocrites, behind him. First, Sakura, claiming that all children without parents grew up 'wrong'...

            No. No, that was true. Crying yourself to sleep at night, isolating yourself from the rest of the world, training until your veins screamed, until your blood boiled with pain, until the tears and blood mixed so that you couldn't tell which was which, so that you couldn't tell which boy was which....that wasn't normal at all.

            Naruto. Pretending to be happy, carefree, without a care in the world. He must hurt, just as I do. He must hurt inside, he must die inside, he must be empty inside, he must. He has to be. He must wake up at night reaching for his parents, holding them, then realizing it was all a dream. Realizing that he hadn't held them in years. Realizing that no one has held him in years. The tears flowed now, revealing the tortured boys soul. Revealing the mind of the tortured boy. He held the flowers tighter, and the thorns dug into his hand. But he did not wince, for the pain from the thorns on his hand was nothing compared to the thorns around his heart. He got on his knees, sat in front of the tombstone, hugging it, crying on it. If it was any consolation to him, well, then at least his parents were under that tombstone. And holding on to it forever might make his parents underneath realize that they had a son waiting for them to come back. Waiting for them to open their eyes. Waiting for them to hug him, hold him.

            He felt two pairs of arms wrapping around his body, drawing him close. He felt two bodies close to him, full of love and care for him. He looked up, and their faces were blurred by his tears. But he made out their faces just fine.

            Sakura and Naruto.

            He sobbed on them, letting all of his walls down. Letting them all collapse and fall and burn and break and crumble and....they were destroyed. Letting the pain escape the thorned wall and escape through his throat.

            "I miss them....I miss them so much...It's not fair..." He felt the girl's fingers run through his hair, telling him that everything would be okay, that the world was not over.

            And slowly, from within the depths of his mind, his world stopped ending. The sun had finally come out, and drenched the whole city in light. In warmth. He could not stop wailing. He could not stop crying. But his heart was still healing. He became a normal boy, longing for his parents. Longing to once again smile amongst the pain and suffering and hurt. And he was getting there. He heard another voice, just as soft as the girl's.

            "We won't leave you, Sasuke. We're right here." said the loud, annoying blond. But he was no longer loud and annoying, but gentle and soft.  Just like the girl was. Only then did the dark eyed, formerly emotionless boy realize he was begging for them not to leave him.  Begging for them to stay with him. Telling them he had nothing left but them, and he never admitted it, but he was lonely and full of hurt.

            "Grow up so that you may kill me."

            Those words rung through his head. No. He would not let some distant, intangible shadow from his past rule his life.

            Sasuke Uchiha would grow up so that he would be content. He would no longer be the boy who lost his parents and lived for revenge, he would be the boy who saw his parents die, but was able to live and see another day.

            He lived. And he was happy for that.

            Right there and then, Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto stood. The blond boy patted the black-as-night haired boy on the back, and asked him if he was ok. He nodded in response. The pink haired girl asked him the same question. He gave the same answer. And smiled.

            Several feet away, stood Kakashi. Smiling.

            And up in heaven, stood the Uchiha clan. Smiling.

The End

(Jenrya: There it is. I really hope you enjoyed it! I sure as heck enjoyed writing it! Review! Recommend it to a friend!  Tell THEM to review! ^^ I'd like to thank Aqua for a lot of the info I used in this chapter and Jesse, The Duelist of the Sands for being my Beta-Reader on this chapter. Thank you.)