Chapter 15 Love Triangle

W-Who do I like? W-Well. I... I like... Well, I like s-somebody. Y-Hai, I r-really like s-somebody. W-Who? Well, I... I l-like... N-N-N... N-Na... N-Na-Na... S-Sorry, I h-have to leave

Hyuga Hinata

Sasuke woke up, and noticed that he was in his bed, but that he wasn't alone. They had their party, but he was very tired afterwards. After Naruto had left, he had gone straight to bed, and before he knew it, Sakura had followed him.

He had thought about telling her that it was definitely not a good idea for them to sleep together. Even if nothing were to happen between them. Still, there was a fact he couldn't deny: When he was with her, he didn't have nightmares. However, there was the risk that the bond between them grew stronger, and he couldn't allow it. He was an avenger; he didn't have time for himself. He didn't have the right, like Kimimaro had pointed out.

Sasuke stood up and looked at her adorable face. He couldn't let this go on. He had to act. He had to use his determination to stop this relation that was doomed from the start. That was it. He would act far more coldly around her. Eventually, she would get tired of him. If she wasn't pregnant, he would leave. She wouldn't be too saddened.

Sasuke smirked, satisfied with himself since at least there was a plan to follow. He went to the bathroom for a quick shower. The shock came when he saw Sakura's toothbrush near his. His bathroom apparently had become their bathroom.

After a few minutes, he heard Sakura waking up too.

"Good morning" she said with a smile

"Morning" he said, and he noticed too late that he was smiling. Shit! Sakura was really the most annoying woman in the world.

He had to sit down while Sakura quickly took charge of the kitchen, which was now formerly his, preparing their breakfast. She started talking about the party. Sasuke was silent, this time refusing to speak, while he told himself that the plan was already in motion. Eventually Sakura stopped talking, but she was still smiling to him. Her smiles were almost worse than her kind words.

He thought about telling her that he didn't love her, but he had already said it with disastrous results. He settled in being silent all the way through the rest of the day, including the training.

Thirteen hours later, the training had ended. It had been a lot of hard work, and Sasuke wanted nothing more that to return to his house.

"Sasuke-kun, let's go home" said Sakura.

"No" he replied with the usual one word answer, and went the opposite direction.

Itachi was annoyed with Kisame's weaknesses. He was waiting in a park, close to the beginning of the red district, where Kisame had gone to relieve himself of "travel-stress". They were supposed to meet with the rest of Akatsuki to discuss the change in strategy, and there he was, wasting his time.

He had rejected the offer of Kisame to go with him. To indulge in that kind of inane activities was not only frivolous, but also dangerous, because in the lovemaking process, there were multiple moments when openings were made. In his line of business, those openings could be very easily death traps.

He was the perfect warrior, because he never left any openings. That was the reason that he knew there were some annoying flies around.

He had started feeling them ten minutes ago. His Sharingan eyes saw everything. First it had been a couple that walked hand to hand. They seemed normal; they wore elegant clothes, and didn't look like the type at all to do manual labor, except their fingertips were too callous, too much for normal people, but normal for shinobis. They had started making out under a tree, close to him, but he could see that they were shy about it, like if they were not used to it.

Next it had been the old couple that had arrived and sat in a bench. They acted as if the old man was tired, but his breathing was normal. Finally, a woman had been walking with a young kid and they had sit next to him. That had been probably the worst mistake, because the kid was too cocky, and he had actually looked at him, sizing him up. That was the problem with shinobi kids; they were always too brash, thinking everybody could die except for them.

Their six enemies, who were still hiding their true nature, had put him in the middle of a triangle. He didn't make a move. He could kill them in one second, but he decided to wait to more people to show up. It would be easier if all the people tracking him were in one place.

The seventh one came.

"Howdy, sir. You seem the sturdy traveler type. You probably often need medicines. This medication has immediate effects on contusions and fractures." The man that had suddenly appeared started in a perfect salesman smooth talk.

It was actually pathetic, Itachi decided. The athletic way he moved immediately singled him out as some kind of fighter. The silent way he walked, letting the air flow around him was proof that he was more likely a shinobi.

"You should keep it for yourself. You are going to need it more than me."

"Why do you say that? I'm just a normal street-seller."

"You try to be" Itachi softly said. "But even if you dress like one, there is something you can't hide: The stink of blood. No matter how many times you wash, it attaches to your body, and you can't let it go. I'm guessing you have killed around one hundred people"

The salesman just smiled. It was the smile of a predator.

"So, your sharingan eyes also allow you to smell blood?"

"Just superior Shinobi abilities. The kind of abilities you will never get."

"You are being kind of unfair, Itachi-san" smiled the salesman, showing that he knew who he was. The other six shinobis had already completely surrounded Itachi, and were getting closer. "I can't smell blood, but I am really good at guessing the number of victims, as soon as I see their killer."

"Aa" Itachi said, not interested. He could feel the other shinobis still getting closer, ready to jump on him.

"When I see you, I easily guess the number of your victims is around fifty times my own number, including of course, your whole clan" the anger of the voice was increasing, Itachi noticed. A Shinobi should never show his feelings, but the hate and the intent to kill of this one was pouring out of him. It reminded him of his little brother. "Including, of course, Ayanotsuke. Uchiha Ayanotsuke. Do you actually remember her? Her, and her little brother Shimpei?"

Itachi finally understood the identity of his enemies: Leaf's Hunter-nins. If they came to him knowing his reputation, they were probably good. They would be suitable as a way to mitigate the boredom. He tried to remember about that Ayanotsuke. He had a photographical memory, but he had barely thought about his former clan for years. He could also feel the shinobis grabbing his hidden weapons. They were ready to attack

"Hai, I remember her." He finally said. "After I killed her parents I entered her house. She was in the door of the room of her baby brother holding a kunai. She was willing to die protecting him." He coldly looked around him, looking to the shinobis that were ready to strike, and back to their leader "I killer her. Next I went to the cradle, and I killed the baby."

The six shinobis were professionals. They didn't react at all. The seventh one was emitting an intense intent to kill. He was too involved. He would leave this one for last.

"She was my girlfriend. You killer her! You, bastard! SHE WAS PREGNANT!"

"Aa." Itachi said, bored. "If you leave now, I won't chase you."

"NOW!" He screamed

Itachi smiled

"NOW!" said a voice, and then some battle noises. Kisame, who had been very satisfied with himself after strangling the whore, turned around. There were some bushes, and behind them something had happened. He went around them and looked

There were some bodies that had been disemboweled and hacked. He had to count the heads to realize there were six corpses. Still, that was not that frightening.

There was another one still alive, but his arms had been hacked off. He was looking with a mixture of hate and fear to the one standing over him while he bled to death. Still, it was not that frightening.

Itachi had one foot on the shinobi. He was smiling. The smile was wicked. That was frightening

"I didn't get your name. Well, doesn't matter." said Itachi. He made some seals, and fire came from his mouth to the two stumps of the fallen shinobi. The shinobi screamed, while the hemorrhage was contained as the wounds were seared.

"In the long days to come, and endless nights, remember that the reason you are alive, is because I chose it. Hate yourself for being weak" He said. He grabbed the shinobi and punched him down unconscious.

Itachi looked down on the shinobi. He looked up at Kisame who jumped.

"Kisame, let's go. Someone is bound to come sooner or later. Hunter-nins have usually a medic with them to retrieve the bodies after the battle and heal the wounded." Itachi said, and his face was back at normal.

Kisame just stared at the massacre. He had just realized that the massacre had taken place from the moment he heard the "NOW" to the moment the noises finished... barely a few seconds. Was Itachi human?

"What are you waiting for?" said Itachi, and there was a little annoyance in his voice

"Sorry, sorry, sorry, I was just... Never mind" Stuttered Kisame. Itachi was the only one that had the ability to make him stutter. Itachi was usually very easy-going and he never complained about anything. However he could never figure out what was the red-eyed shinobi thinking.

They took off, moving quietly but fast, hiding their trail. It was one week later, close to the date when the Akatsuki were meeting, when Kisame finally dared to strike a conversation with Itachi

"Itachi... the hunter-nins you killed some days ago..."

"Aa?"

"Why did you let one of them alive?" said Kisame. If Itachi didn't want to answer, he would not insist.

"Because he annoyed me" Itachi said.

"Wouldn't it be easier to just kill him?"

"That's the reason you are stupid." said Itachi. Kisame had killed people for lesser insults, but he knew better than to retort to him "If you kill, it's the end. If you let him off alive, every second of his life will be hell. He will be haunted by regret and nightmares, as there are things worse than death. I reserve them for people that bother me."

"He can kill himself"

"He can't" said Itachi speaking to him like if he were talking to a five-year old child "He needs to be alive to hate me."

Kisame thought about Itachi's brother

"Itachi, do you hate your brother?" He asked. He immediately regretted it. Itachi had never spoken about him. If Itachi didn't want to talk about it, he shouldn't be the one bringing him up, for his own security.

"My brother?" Itachi asked. He smiled. That was the first time Kisame had seen that nice, curious smile in Itachi's face. He didn't even know Itachi could smile like that. He wouldn't have believed if anybody had told him about it. "To hate your own brother. Can there be anything more pointless and tragic?"

Itachi walked on, while Kisame stood, too curious to not consider asking about it, and too smart to risk angering Uchiha Itachi.

If anybody asked Sasuke why he was training in the middle of the night, he would have answered that a shinobi should always train in different kinds of settings including, of course, in the night. If anybody asked him if he didn't want to return to his house, he would have said that that was a very stupid question. That was his house. Nothing would get him away from it

So, long after midnight, he was still training. He was running around a hanging and moving log, with only the light of a far away torch to allow him to see it. He was throwing shurikens with lethal precision.

The plan was moving smoothly. He only had to be cold to Sakura for a few months. Sakura would eventually get fed up with him. The chances that she got pregnant after just one night weren't that big, anyway. He would leave and nobody would really miss him.

Still, there were other things that were bothering him. What was that question that he didn't even know he had? Shit, going to that old woman had given him more questions than answers. What was the deal with the Kyuubi? Wasn't it dead?

"H-Hi"

Sasuke span around, all shurikens at the ready, adopting a battle stance for pure instinct. The one that had gotten close without him even noticing was a young shinobi with pure, white eyes.

"H-Hi, S-Sa-Sasuke-kun" said Hyuga Hinata, from the Hyuga clan.

"Hey" he said. It wasn't any of his business, but she appeared to be really sad.

They fell silent. Sasuke looked at her. What did she want with him? He and she were not friends. They were just classmates. He couldn't recall a single time they had spoken with each other. Well, neither of them liked to talk, anyway.

Even if they both did, it was unlikely they had anything to talk about. She belonged to the Hyuga clan; he belonged to the Uchiha clan, period. Sure, Hinata was a nice enough girl, but she belonged to the clan that had acted really fast to claim itself as the strongest ever in the Leaf, after the Uchiha clan was destroyed, and therefore not around to prove they were the strongest. Not to mention, that the Uchiha and the Hyuga clan shared a bloody history together. Not to mention that the Uchiha Tragedy stemmed from the conflict between the Uchiha and the Hyuga clans.

"H-How are y-you doing?" She said shyly.

"Fine" he just said.

They both fell silent again. Sasuke had to admit that out of all the women in the world, it was a good thing he had married Sakura. If he were to marry Hinata, any children they would have would not learn to speak in ten years at least.

Hinata was still staring at him, but she lowered her head whenever he looked at her. He tried to concentrate on shuriken-throwing again, but after five near-misses, he gave up

"What do you want?" He asked angrily. Why everybody conspired to not let him alone?

"I h-heard you w-were w-wo-wounded" she stuttered shyly

"Hai" he just said. Damn the Hokage for telling everybody. Actually, his hand had hurt for the whole day, not too mention his face. Still he was too damn proud to confess.

"D-Do you w-want this ointment? I-I ma-made it myself" she said.

"Sure" he said after carefully thinking about it. He usually would reject that offer, but it was Hinata that she was offering to him. Surely there were no strings attached. Everybody in the class knew that the one Hinata liked was Naruto. Well, everybody but the idiot himself. It wasn't like she managed to hide it. Naruto was just an idiot.

Sasuke looked up. Hinata was offering him the ointment but she wasn't moving. He sighed, muttering against all weak shy people in the world. He got closer to her. She lowered her eyes while he took it. Sasuke had the time to take a good look at her. She looked really unhappy.

"You OK?" He asked. She didn't answer, she just nodded.

Sasuke sighed. Hinata was taking her shyness two steps too far. It was that dove's fault. Hinata looked even more miserable each second, not even raising her eyes. Shit, he had to train. He had to get rid of her.

"Hey, listen" said Sasuke, looking for something nice to say "Why don't you come over to my house tomorrow? I'll invite Naruto too, and you two can talk a little bit" Great, great, just fucking great. Now he was concerned about Naruto's love life. Why did she appear to be even worse now? Hell, he was trying to be nice here. He hadn't been this nice in years.

"S-Sasuke-kun" she said, with her eyes closed, wherefrom you could guess some tears "I l-l-lo-love you"

His first reaction was to feel the need to smash his head against something. His second and third reactions were the same. Why was she crying? He was the one that was suffering the harassment! Finally, he calmed down, and looked for an excuse.

"Sorry, I like someone else." He said, and the expression in Hinata's face appeared to be one of relief. Or was it pain?

"S-Sorry!" Hinata said, and ran away.

Sasuke sighed. What the hell was that? Could it be that she had faked her feelings for Naruto to hide her true feelings for him? No, that was ridiculous. Maybe she had realized she was in love with him after he married, and that was the reason she looked so sad? No way! Shit! That was too much melodrama!

Sasuke tried to concentrate again on shuriken-throwing again, but he still couldn't get his head out of another question. He had other girls confessing her feelings to him. He had always rejected them. Still, that was the first time he had said that sentence "I like someone else" What had he meant for that?

Well, it was actually a good idea. It he had just rejected her, she could have come back later. The excuse was perfect.

Why was that the first time he had used that excuse?

Seventeen misses, later, Sasuke decided that he had to go to his house, even if it were just because he couldn't find missed shurikens in the dark.

He walked as a shinobi, in total silence. He entered the Uchiha's compound, and for the first time in a long time, he thought it was really depressing. He could feel the spirits of all the dead people who had died on the streets glaring at him, the last survivor. The streets were totally silent. Sasuke knew it was not because the people in the houses were sleeping. It was because they were dead.

He entered his house in silence, hoping not to awake Sakura. She was there, sleeping in the couch with the lights on. She had probably been waiting for him and fallen asleep.

Sasuke sighed while debating with himself if leaving her there or taking her to their room.

Their room. That was rich. It was supposed to be his room. No. His plans insisted that the love, crush, or whatever silly emotion Sakura was feeling for him had to be gradually erased.

Still he couldn't leave her like that. She could catch a cold, even if he left a blanket with her.

Sasuke lifted her and tried to carefully take her to her room, or where she was supposed to sleep. He decided to train more about sneakiness when she wrapped her arms around him. He stood still for a few seconds while she awoke, and the thoughts that this position wasn't that bad slipped through his defences. He let her down

"Sorry, I fell asleep" she mumbled.

"It's late. Let's go to sleep" he said.

"Hold down, Sasuke-kun. Please, use this" she said as she gave him a cream.

He looked at her surprised. His hand had hurt during training, but he had been sure that he had hidden his pain for everybody. She was more observant than what he had given credit for.

"It's not necessary. It doesn't hurt" he lied.

"Just let me use it on you now" she said "It's going to hurt more tomorrow"

"I don't care" and this time he wasn't lying.

"The thing is, Sasuke, I do care" she said.

Sasuke gave up and let her do whatever she wanted. He had already decided to put in motion his plans.

When they went to bed together, she waited until her respiration confirmed that she was fully asleep. He slipped to the guest's room. It was just the first step, but a necessary one. The bond between them couldn't grow stronger. It shouldn't. He didn't have the right to love her. It was just the way things had to be.

He closed the eyes...

They fought. Under the Red Moon they fought. Inside a storm of flames they fought. On a pool of blood, they fought. Surrounded by corpses, which Sasuke didn't have time to identify, they fought. Using his skills which he had perfected with Orochimaru, they fought. Sharingan eyes following each other's movements, they fought. Fire and water, earth and wind, they fought. Feelings exploding, they fought. Hate released, they fought.

Itachi was strong, but Sasuke of the Sound had sacrificed his whole life, his past, present and future for that fight.

Finally, Itachi turned and tried to flee.

Sasuke laughed, and ran. Using one of the corpses as protection, he went through the flames, and stabbed Itachi from behind with the Chidori. Blood poured from the mortal wound as his hated brother staggered and fell.

Sasuke laughed, free, at least. He had become a demon, he had turned against everything he loved for revenge, but it was done. He had killed him.

He turned around, and he saw that the corpse he had used as protection was actually Sakura's. He screamed.

He looked at his brother. He saw that the one he had killed wasn't Itachi. It was his own face the one that lay lifeless on the ground. He screamed.

He looked at a mirror, and he saw his true face. It was the face of Itachi. He screamed.

He was still screaming when someone hugged him. It was Sakura, which was still alive. He hugged her fiercely. He needed a few seconds to understand that it had all been a nightmare. Feeling ashamed with himself, he tried to pull away, but Sakura wouldn't let him.

"Go away. I don't need you" he weakly said.

"I do need you" Sakura said. That sentence broke all Sasuke's reasoning. She did? That was bad. It was his fault that her parents didn't even want to talk to her. It was his fault that they had slept together the other night.

Sasuke finally laid back, with Sakura still hugging him. After a few seconds, she had already fallen asleep.

Sasuke sighed. The next day. The next day he would find out about Hyuga Hinata's strange attitude. The next day he would be really cold to her. The next day he would put his plans in motion and she would eventually give up on him. The next day he would be the Avenger again.

Just that day, he would relax just for that day.

Sasuke, with his conscience waning put his arm around Sakura. He fell asleep.

"This brand of kunais is expensive, but they have seals wrapped around the handle. As soon as they are thrown, they explode in contact with any surface. They are ideal for setting traps." explained the salesman

"I'll take five" said Sasuke, who intended to develop a combo with them. "Could you put them in a box?"

"Sure. Are they for a present?"

Sasuke thought about it, and he answered, with far more words than he usually did, a usual occurrence lately

"Hai, they are a present for an idiot. He got drunk, and slept together with a girl who wasn't even her girlfriend. They had to marry the next day." He smiled "Do you find it funny?"

The salesman looked at him with a confused look.

"Well... Not really."

"Neither do I" confirmed Sasuke. He thought about the Sound Four "Neither do I." and after a few seconds, he repeated. "Neither do I."

He started to think about the words of that crazy witch, especially about the comment about the question he didn't even know he had. The sense of humour of the Sound Four had saved his life. Why was he so bothered by their laugh?

His trail of thoughts was interrupted when he saw a girl waiting for him outside the shop. A girl that had occupied a long series of thoughts that day

He walked towards her

"Hi Hinata" he said

"H-Hi" She didn't even raise her eyes. Her white pupils were red with dried tears. He raised her chin and looked straight at her eyes.

"Can I kiss you?" He asked.

Well, this is it. Next chapter in the saga. I promised a love triangle, didn't I? And what is Sasuke doing with Hinata!

Also, I gave you a Itachi appearance for all the Itachi's fans out there. In a way, whichever girl that ends up with Sasuke also has to deal with a love triangle, because Itachi is always present in Sasuke's life. Everything he is, everything he desires, it returns back to Itachi and the massacre of the Red Moon - hey, cool name! ;) – He can't even have a friend because of the curse Itachi placed on him. Itachi is like part of Sasuke's genes.

Many people praised the dreams sequences I wrote, so