Disclaimer:Again, I don't own Naruto, or any of the characters in it.

Chapter 3: A Quiet Morning

A bird chirped. Then a few more. And then it seemed like a whole forest full of birds were in full cry as a flash of lightning shot across the ground and exploded into the chest of a pink-haired kunoichi. She gasped as a rivulet of blood trailed out of her mouth and onto the arm that was half-buried in the girl's body. That hand slowly withdrew, clutching the shredded and gory fragments of a heart as the female ninja's eyes closed and she sagged. Her lips tried to form a name as she died, but only a wordless hiss came out. She fell back.

The red-eyed youth who held the heart gazed dispassionately at the broken body underneath him. Holding his hand out, he squeezed the blood out of the heart and let it drip over the corpse. After that was done, he shrugged and walked off into darkness, discarding the heart as he went.

The man woke up screaming.

Beside him, a woman stirred. She pushed back the covers of the bed they were in and regarded him quietly. "Was it that nightmare again?"

The man nodded, unable to speak. He shook with suppressed emotion. Gently, the woman reached out and put a hand to his shoulder. Slowly, she gathered him into her embrace as they fought through the storm of emotion together. Her night robe fell slightly open, leaving a shoulder exposed, and he traced the discoloured outlines of a wide, irregular scar on the flesh with his finger. The woman noticed and put her hand over his, calming the shaking fingers by entwining them with her own.

"Shh… It was a long time ago. It's over now," she said. "You're at home, and you're safe. And I'm safe, and the world is at peace. And you're helping it to be so."

Gradually, the man calmed down. Both of them relaxed their grip on each other, and the man tenderly cupped the woman's face with both of his hands. He kissed her softly in gratitude, and it was about to deepen into something more when a wail arose from the next room. Both of them broke off in muffled laughter mixed with annoyance.

The man glanced out the window. Dawn was just breaking. He turned back and found his wife regarding him. A puzzled frown arose on his features. She smirked at him.

"Don't pretend you don't know. Today is Thursday. It's your turn," she stated, pointing a thumb back at the thin door behind which the increasingly frantic cries were being heard. "Besides, it was probably you that woke him up."

The man shot a dark look at her, but she only smiled and sank back into the pillows. "It's my day off, and I'm going back to sleep," she said, nuzzling deeper into the bed, seemingly oblivious to the cries.

With a sigh, the man got out of bed and pulled his robe around him, padding his way into the next room. A small baby was there, bawling lustily. The man smiled slightly as he picked the infant boy up and cradled him to his chest. He rocked the baby slowly to quieten him, noticing as he did so the brilliant green eyes and black hair the boy had. His heart gave a twinge of pride at the tiny hand that gripped his finger with unusual strength. Finally, after so long, his last goal had been accomplished. In this boy lay the future of his clan. When the green turned to red, he promised himself that he would be ready to teach his son life's most important lesson.

But then again, look how long it took for me to learn that lesson. Perhaps he will inherit his father's pride and stubbornness as well. I hope he would never have to pay the cost that I did to learn where true strength comes from.

His thoughts flashed back to that fateful day when a ragtag group of shinobi had burst into the ritual chamber and interrupted the process of transference. How he had nearly killed the one that had now come to mean the most to him. Every day, he gave thanks for the tackle that caused him to miss her heart and hit the shoulder instead. He was the only one fast enough to have a chance of intervening, and it was a good thing he was in love with her at the time, too.

By now, the baby had quietened, and was staring up at him with big, concerned eyes. So like his mother's. And so different from his uncle's. He suppressed a shiver at the thought, and gently put the baby back into the crib, covering him with the soft blanket that had a fan symbol on it. The little infant soon fell asleep again, still clutching his father's finger with a tiny fist. Grow strong, my son. Not in your hands only, but more importantly, in your heart.

A loud knock at the front door diverted his attention. He gently disengaged his finger and moved over to the big entrance of the mansion. Upon opening it, he saw a well-known face.

"Chief, the Hokage requires your presence for a meeting. Also, I've brought word from the hospital that your wonderful wife is needed again. Hunter-Nin Team 2 is back with the missing-nin, but he seems to have been drugged and they can't find the antidote to it."

"I'll inform my wife, and tell the Hokage I'll be there in half an hour."

"Acknowledged," the messenger saluted and streaked away. The man stood at the entrance, watching him disappear. He's still faster than me, after all these years. I'm lucky to have a friend like him dedicate himself to protecting our family. With a wry expression, he turned back to the mansion, giving silent thanks to nice guys and their promises.

He stopped by a little room in the corner of the mansion, as he had done every day for the last 8 years. Quietly entering, he looked down at the body of the comatose man lying motionless on the bed. The nurse arose from her seat and bowed.

"Has there been any change?"

"I'm sorry. All his vital signs are strong, but he still remains brain-dead," the nurse replied.

"Continue to watch over him."

"I will," she bowed as he left. It was a depressing sight, and he did not want to stay there any longer than he could. But he forced himself to go every day, to remind him of the danger he faced in struggling with the darkness within. That is the price of pursuing power at any cost. It eats at you, tears you up, and leaves you with nothing in the end. It is too bad that you did not learn that in time, brother of mine. You killed all of your precious people before they could bring you back from the darkness. You weren't as lucky as I was.

He reached his own bed, and gently tried to wake his wife by shaking her. She refused to get up at first, so he was forced to use the last resort. He tickled her. She woke laughing.

"You're wanted at the hospital. The Dog and Bug team are back with a drugged missing-nin. They need to you find the antidote," he told her. "And the Hokage called a meeting I have to attend."

"I'm never going to get a break," she sighed. "Remind me to strangle Hokage-sama when she's not looking." She quickly dressed and then brought his face mask to him. In a daily household ritual, she kissed the inside of his mask, and fastened it on to him so that he would bear her kiss on his lips the whole day.

TheChief of Konoha Policeand his wife,Head Researcher of Konoha Hospital, left their house together.

Author's Notes:

By now, you would have realised that I'm deliberately avoiding the names of the characters, which was pretty hard to do in this chapter. Don't worry though - it's not going to last forever! Just until all the main characters have been introduced again. For the readers who think that this Sasuke might be a little too fluffy and OOC to be realistic, I was actually trying to project a Sasuke that has come to terms with his need for revenge, and started to revert back to the nature of the little boy whose loved ones were so dear to him. Dedicated to dazdnconfusd730, who is writing a much better future fanfic than I am, called "Walking Corpse".