"Sasuke..."

He stirred restlessly. Just a few more minutes, he thought and groaned lightly.

"Sasuke..."

He heard the flip of a light switch and, from behind closed eyelids, could see that someone was standing before the doorway. From the mild floral scent, he knew it was his mother. "Wake up, Sasuke," she called gently. "It's time."

His eyes snapped open to darkness. Sasuke groaned, his body feeling stiff and his muscles strained. His chest and left arm were heavily bandaged, and he realized the reason for his discomfort was the fact that he'd been lying on a wooden floor for some time. Sasuke blinked. The ceiling that came to view as his eyes adjusted looked eerily familiar. Slowly, painfully, he turned his head to the side. Beside him on the ground were chalk lines, somewhat faded and worn with time. They were shaped in the the form of two bodies: one lying on top of the other. Sasuke's heart seized.

He shot to his feet, only to have his legs buckle and force him to his knees. The room, this room, began to tip and sway around him. "No..." he managed to gasp.

There was someone, he realized, standing a few feet away in front of a table. There were candles set up on it, all arranged and lit like a mini shrine. "You're up."

Kakashi. "You..." Sasuke growled, trying once more to climb to his feet and failing miserably. He held himself up with one hand and tried not to look at the outline of his slain parents just inches away from his fingers. He glanced back instead at the doors and the open night sky beyond. Chains and broken seals lay carelessly in the moonlight. "What have you done?"

"This?" Kakashi waved innocently towards the candles on the table. "I'm paying my respects." He walked over and offered a hand to the boy. "Something you haven't done in a while, I think."

Sasuke slapped the hand away with a sneer. "How dare you? This room was locked for a reason!" Kakashi watched with mild surprise as the boy, fueled by his outrage, attempted to stand a third time. This time, he succeeded. His eyes were wild with outrage and horror. "HOW DARE YOU!"

Kakashi would later admit that he did not expect Sasuke to lunge at him at that moment and in his condition. He'd jumped with the surprising agility of a cat, but his attack on a whole was clumsy. That tended to happen when one was driven purely by emotions. It took less then five seconds for Kakashi to grab the boy and pin him to the ground before any punches could be thrown. Five seconds too long, he thought to himself. I'm getting too old for this. He was breathing heavily now, both from the adrenaline and exertion of holding down the struggling body beneath him. "Stop. It. Sasuke."

Each word was pronounced distinctly, and the boy stopped immediately. But Kakashi did not loosen his hold. Instead he leaned over deliberately, close enough to feel Sasuke's breath on his skin. Close enough to see his own breath tickle the dark hair at the nape of his neck as he bent over the boy's ear. When Kakashi spoke again, Sasuke shivered. "Your parents are watching," he whispered, his tone dangerously - sensuously - low. "I won't fight you." He paused to listen to the somewhat irregular breathing of the boy.

Sasuke was suddenly struggling again. "Get off me!"

Kakashi complied, but only because the feel of the boy's squirming against him was ... uncomfortable. "You're weak," he said, turning his back on his young ward to say his final prayers before extinguishing the candles one by one with his fingers. "You need to rest." When he looked back, Sasuke was on his feet again, indignant and panting heavily. Kakashi shook his head and sighed. "You shouldn't push yourself so hard."

Sasuke opened his mouth to speak, or perhaps to yell some more, but was stopped short when he was stricken by a sudden burst of pain in his chest. He screamed in agony and clutched at his chest, crumpling once more on the floor. He was lifted up almost immediately and carried out of the room. Moonlight illuminated the profile of his sensei's face looming over him. "I'm taking you to your room," he explained gently as they passed familiar, empty hallways. "Your wound reopened. I'll need to rebandage it."

Sasuke nodded feebly, still clutching his chest tightly. He could feel the blood soaking through. After what seemed an eternity, he felt himself laid down on a mattress. A cool hand touched his forehead and brushed away damp bangs from his face. When had he begun to sweat? Sasuke had no clue.

Kakashi's eyes narrowed and noted how the boy's breathing was coming faster, harder, more erratic. "You're feverish," he said, troubled. This isn't right. He made to get up and call for some help, but a small hand shot up and grabbed him by the wrist. Kakashi looked down in surprise.

"Wait," Sasuke whispered, his feeble grasp already slipping from the jounin's wrist.

"Sasuke..."

The boy couldn't help but smile. "Mother... she used to say my name like that." The older man's eyes widened momentarily. Sasuke was getting delusional. Again, a small hand reached up searching for him. Kakashi met it with his own and folded both palms over it, enveloping it completely. "I'll take care of it," Sasuke murmured as he began to slip from consciousness. "It's just me. I'll be alright."

A few seconds later, his hand went limp in Kakashi's. The jounin nervously brushed at the unruly bangs on Sasuke's forehead once more. When he felt sure the boy was still alive and was merely sleeping, he placed the small hand gently back at his side. "Okay," he whispered. He didn't like it, but he would tend to the wound and trust that Sasuke was not entirely delusional to not know what he was talking about. Guilt also kept Kakashi from leaving the boy's side. After all, had he not provoked this by bringing him into that room? It was cruel, but he had wanted to know. He'd heard stories and speculations about what played out in that room, how the clan leader and his wife - Sasuke's parents - had been slain, but gossip was nothing compared to seeing it with his own eyes. To see it in Sasuke. It was wrong and it was utterly selfish of him, but to stand any chance of helping the surviving Uchiha, he had needed to know. At least, that's what he told himself. He put a hand on the boy's shoulder and squeezed softly. "I'm sorry."

And Kakashi sat, tormented by his guilt, and waited.

The chase was on. The trees he passed were reduced to nothing more than shadowy blurs. The exposed skin of his face, his arms, his legs were covered with small cuts from stray branches he failed to avoid. His heart raced with exhilaration and fear. After a few minutes, feeling he'd gained enough ground to afford himself a quick rest, Sasuke jumps down to the base of a large tree and quickly hides in the underbrush. This time, he would not get caught. Huddled amongst the thickest bushes, Sasuke draws his knees up and wraps his arms around them. He leans his head back against the tree and closes his eyes, trying to quiet his breathing. He figures he'll count to fifty before he starts moving again.

1...2...3...

Briefly, he remembers a time when a certain obnoxious blonde had somehow managed to sneak up behind him. That idiot, he thought, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips. Somehow, that incompetent excuse for a ninja had gotten past his guard in a way few ever could. Even now, he was momentarily distracting him from his current situation. It was annoying.

...26...27...28...

His eyes open a slit. There is something moving towards him. Unconsciously, he holds his breath and waits.

...39...40...41...

His hands fall from his knees and hang loose but ready at his side.

...48...49...

Fifty, he mouths silently. Every muscle in his body tenses, but the forest around him remains still. Slowly, he draws a kunai from his pack and prepares to leap from his hiding place running. But a fraction of a second before he moves, a flock of birds bursts from a nearby underbrush.

And it's too late.

"SASUKE!"

He blinks, gasping as a sudden flow of much needed air fills his lungs. His heart is pounding painfully against his chest. Gradually, he becomes aware that he's sitting up on a mattress. His eyes clear and he finds himself face to face with a rather shell-shocked Kakashi. One hand is holding Kakashi's arm firmly, fingers turned inward with intent to pierce skin. He'd pulled the older man towards him and locked him down, close enough for his other hand to draw a kunai from the jounin's pack and push it onto his throat.

Shit.

Sasuke lets go immediately and bows his head to hide his face. He tries not to see the stain of blood on the small blade in his hand nor the cut he'd just inflicted on the older man's neck. "You woke me," he mumbles apologetically.

Kakashi stumbles back, one hand already on his neck feeling through the cut fiber of his mask at the wound on his neck. It stung, but it wasn't deep. Sasuke had stopped just in time. He eyes the boy wearily in the darkness. "You were having a nightmare."

A pair of large, dark orbs stare back at him from beneath a curtain of equally dark hair. Something stirs in those eyes before they're cast downward again, away from him. Something Kakashi wasn't meant to see. "You're reflexes are good," he says absently, filling the awkward silence. It's why you've grown so fast, isn't it? "I'm glad you're okay now."

"Am I?" The words are spoken hardly over a whisper, but Kakashi hears them. Sasuke looks down at his hands, at the bloodstained kunai, and throws it back against the wall. "Why did you bring me here?"

Kakashi rises to his feet slowly. He knows Sasuke is watching him, but he cannot see the eyes beneath the curtain of hair of his strategically bowed head. There is danger in the air, warning him. But this is Sasuke, he argues with himself. I shouldn't be afraid of him. "Because I needed to know."

A hollow laugh pierces the space between them. "You didn't find me then, did you? My brother found you." The laugh grew louder, bolder and more sinister. The sound chilled Kakashi to the bone. "He told you to bring me back." Eventually, the laughter died down, and Sasuke lay back on his mattress. The moonlight highlighted the delicate profile of his face. But his eyes remained closed, refusing to look at Kakashi. "Well, I guess peace was not meant for me either."

For a long time, Kakashi stood there studying the still form of his young ward in the pale light of the moon. It was hard to reconcile that such a fragile looking creature could be inflicted with so much ... so much terrible things ...and still appear so serene, so deceivingly innocent in his sleep. Humorlessly, Kakashi thought, I've been outdone in the tragedy department.

The boy's lips moved suddenly. "Kakashi-sensei, what are you thinking about?"

Dark eyes opened slowly and stared blankly at the ceiling, awaiting a response. Kakashi rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. "I was thinking... how sad people exist in the world."

He turned on his heel and walked out of the room, not bothering to look for a reaction, if any, from the boy. "Sleep well, Sasuke."