Chapter 19 What really happened that night!

"I wonder what really happened that day. I mean, sure, I have heard that Itachi killed his whole clan. But, why did he leave his little brother alive? Because he loved him? No way. If he loved him, he would have been kind and killed him. Because Itachi was tired with the killings? That's stupid. Nobody wipes out a whole clan, including all the underage shinobis wannabes, and leaves a survivor. Because Itachi wanted his little brother to have his revenge? That's dumb! The little whelp doesn't have enough talent to kill Itachi. Besides, if Itachi wanted to die, he would do the job himself.

And why did he kill his clan in the first place. To measure his capacity? That's so stupid I'm not even going to comment on that. So, what really happened that night?

It's not that I actually want to ask him. I don't want to see Itachi angry"

Hoshigaki Kisame

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Sasuke was up and holding a kunai before he was aware of what had awoken him up. Then he heard a small sound in the floor below. Immediately he knew that the sound came from his parent's room. No thief was stupid enough to enter the house of a shinobi.

That meant bad news.

He considered waking up Sakura, and decided against it. If they were Orochimaru's henchmen, they would be after him. He could easily lure them away from her.

He got closer to the stairs, when the first shadow covered the window. Sasuke launched a shurinken, but it was repelled by a kunai. Sasuke was already jumping forward, when he froze. The shinobi was wearing a Leaf Headband. Who was after his life? The Hyugas? Spies from Orochimaru? Tsunade had finally decided to kill him?

The doubt was fatal as two more shadows jumped from the stairs, and Sasuke was soon surrounded by three sides. The shinobis rushed at him, but Sasuke managed to duck and get out of the triangle after stabbing one of the shinobis in the arm. The shinobis moved slowly, since they were not used to the place. Sasuke was getting ready to use Katon, when another chakra flared.

"Everybody stop!" It was yelled by a shinobi wearing a mask of a crow.

"Kakashi-sensei?" asked Sasuke, trying to keep his cool, but not lowering his attention. "If you wanted for a cup of coffee, you could have just knocked."

"We thought you had gone to Orochimaru" Kakashi said.

"That's funny. I thought Sakura had told you that I was going to train new jutsus" said Sasuke, that was noticing that nor Kakashi, wearing the ANBU uniform, not the other ANBU were lowering his weapons "If I had gone to Orochimaru, I wouldn't be here. Don't you think?"

"What new jutsus have you learned?" Kakashi asked with a stern voice.

"I haven't finished developing one" Sasuke explained. He started to think of something in case Kakashi asked for details.

"Everybody out of the house" ordered Kakashi, taking off his mask. After the ANBU disappeared, he continued speaking. "Where is Sakura?"

"In our room" pointed Sasuke.

Kakashi looked at the room. His stare turned hard when he looked back at Sasuke

"You sleep in the same room?" He yelled, glaring at Sasuke, who started to look for excuses quickly.

"As a matter of fact, we sleep in the same bed" said a new voice. Sakura "You don't have to worry, Kakashi-sensei. Sasuke promised that nothing of what you are thinking would happen between us until we were eighteen, and we Uchihas always keep our promises."

Kakashi looked for a few seconds at Sakura, who was leaning against the door frame with a calm smile. Then Kakashi's carefully neutral eye turned to Sasuke.

"Sasuke, I know you left. Sakura had been crying."

"I am sorry sensei, but Sakura and I had a discussion and that's the reason..."

"Sasuke, this is Kakashi-sensei" Sakura simply said. Sasuke raised his eyes to see Sakura looking right at him. Those words had a pleading tone to it. He understood at that moment that he was going to die because of Sakura. He would die either at the hands of Itachi because he didn't go to Orochimaru for power, or he would die executed at the Leaf because Sakura trusted people too much.

She was just too nice, and he was an idiot for doing what she wanted.

"Are there any microphones still around the house?" asked Sasuke.

"No, you always seemed to find them after a few hours, and since you always broke them, the ANBU eventually gave up."

Sasuke sighed. He was going to make a serious, very serious mistake. Who cared if their teacher was out of their secret?

"There is no much to tell. I went to Orochimaru, changed my mind halfway and went back.. That's all." That was it, putting his life on the hands of another person. That was against everything he believed. Damn Sakura.

"You are not the type to back down from your decisions" said Kakashi.

«Right on the mark», mentally agreed Sasuke. Usually he would have gone to hell without even bothering to look back or to think about the risks, if that was required to find his brother. He had changed, and he didn't know if he liked it. He was almost scared of himself.

Kakashi stood silently, while a cloud covered the moon and his expression was hidden. Finally Kakashi sighed.

"Thanks for the trust Sasuke, I won't tell anybody. However, if you betray the Leaf again, you may not have another chance."

"Thank you, Kakashi-sensei." Sasuke said, partially relaxing... Then the cloud moved, and he saw Kakashi's eye, looking right at him with a multitude of feelings. The feelings disappeared, and his expression was again nonchalant and friendly in less than a tenth of a second.

"I'll be leaving now." Kakashi explained winking at him "Be a nice boy, Sasuke. Don't do anything I wouldn't do."

"I wonder what things he wouldn't do." Sakura said with a good humored voice as Kakashi left.

Sasuke was silent. All of it happened too fast. What had he seen on his face? Anger? Shame? Pity? Embarrassment? What the hell was going on?

"Sasuke, if he was just angry because we just slept in the same room, what do you thing would happen if he knew why we married?" said Sakura.

Sasuke laughed, and totally forgot about Kakashi's strange look.

When the morning came, Sasuke watched silently in the kitchen table as Sakura used a spatula to sadistically torture the charred black omelet and hummed to herself.

"Sorry, the omelet got a little black." Sakura said. Sasuke silently wished there was even a little yellow in the omelet he was going to have to eat for breakfast. "You don't mind, do you?"

"Not at all" he confessed. "I love your cooking. The worst part was that he was saying the truth. He loved her scorched meals. He loved eating her cooking, even the "pork" she made. Hai, the one he wouldn't even give to Itachi. Sure, he wanted to torture and kill his brother, but there were some things you just don't do to a fellow human being. Giving the food Sakura made to somebody else was one of them.

Naruto had "developed" a new strategy, and he wanted to explain it to Sakura and Sasuke. That strategy involved both of them maintaining a considerable distance from the fighting and doing nothing while the "main character" did all the work.

He was still explaining this new strategy when Kakashi appeared.

"YOU ARE LATE!" Naruto yelled.

"I am sorry. I was very tired because there was a false alarm. There was a report that one chuunin was going to become a missing-nin, and we had to go after him. Although it was a false alarm, I had to be up late and so I'm very tired.

"YOU LIE!" yelled Naruto" that's what you have been saying for months!"

"Well, I was really tired." said Kakashi smiling and looking sideways at Sasuke and Sakura, who were looking away with innocent expressions.

At that moment Sasuke felt an oppressive feeling on his chest. In the next second a green form suddenly appeared in front of him.

"Sasuke, I will give my all today for defeating you! Let's fight for love and righteousness!"

Sasuke understood that he was having a nightmare. Or maybe he had been killed by Itachi and he was in hell, a hell where weird big-eyebrow freaks appeared around you doing big thumb up signs, adopting weird poses and saying stupid things.

"Sasuke, you are my eternal rival. Heaven itself smiles upon us as we face each other!" continued Lee.

Damn Gaara for not killing Lee when he had the chance. You could never trust psychopaths with a demon stored inside.

"Sasuke, in the name of our rivalry, I want to challenge you: Let's run together to a place and back! Whoever is faster will win! This is an endurance challenge!" yelled Lee to Sasuke, Sakura, Naruto, Kakashi, the bridge, and anybody that was not more than ten thousand meters away.

Sasuke considered that this time Lee's challenge was almost normal. Certainly better than last time, when he had been forced to hunt for fishes in the river using only his mouth. He had almost drowned.

"Where?" He sullenly said. Then again, Gaara could have killed him too. Damn useless sociopath.

"That's the spirit! Now we can battle each other, and as we battle, we improve ourselves in mind and spirit!" yelled Lee. Sasuke was thinking the same. If he could kill Lee, the whole world would really improve. Humanity as a whole would improve.

"Where?" Sasuke repeated. He should have gone to Orochimaru when he had the chance. Orochimaru might have killed him, taken over his body, or even destroyed his soul... however, anything would be better than staying in the same village as Rock Lee.

"Let's run to Huki Mountain and back! Whoever arrives to the doors of the Leaf is the winner!"

Huki Mountain, Huki Mountain. Funny he didn't remember the name. He had always the first in geography class... Hold down... Huki Mountain?

"Lee" Sasuke slowly asked. Not even Lee would be that crazy. "Isn't Huki Mountain inside Stone Country? That's more than a week from here!" Sasuke had tried really hard to understand Lee. In a Village where children were trained to be killing machines, it was obvious that there were bound to be some really mentally disturbed children, but Lee was... Well, Lee was just too much Lee.

"OSSU!" yelled Lee, as if the doctors of the hospital had gone too far with the painkillers when he was hospitalized.

Anybody would think that Lee was kidding, but Sasuke knew that Lee was not kidding. He was just plain mental hospital material.

"That's great Lee! Let the flames of youth guide you!" yelled another green form.

Sasuke understood. Hai, he understood everything now. The reason Lee was crazy was because he had a crazy teacher. The reason Kakashi was always late was because he used to have Gai-sensei on his team and he didn't want to arrive on time. The reason Itachi had gone on a rampage was because Gai-sensei was in also in his team. The one responsible for all the evil in the whole world was in front of him with ridiculously huge eyebrows.

And to his right, Lee was crying, while Gai sensei cried too and hugged him.

"I'll do my best sensei!"

"You are great Lee!"

And they hugged as they cried.

The true reason Itachi didn't kill him was because he wanted him to suffer near one of Gai-sensei's students. That bastard! It was bad enough that he had killed his family, it was bad enough that he had caused him fear of making a single friend... but to subject his own brother to the deepest hell of desperation... Oh the humanity! Even Kakashi was in the conspiracy. He had thought that when Kakashi had removed the ANBU that had been guarding him, it was an act of friendship. Actually, it was part of the evil plan.

"Let's start." Sasuke said with the same enthusiasm as inmates sentenced to death prison when they walk to the execution chamber.

"HAI!" yelled Lee raising one fist. Sasuke was thinking how happy he would be if Itachi had killed him.

They were in position

"Get ready, set, And GO!" yelled Gai, who had come from hell to haunt him.

Lee literally exploded as he ran pass the gates of Leaf Village. Sasuke didn't move. He sighed and smiled, standing up. At least two weeks. At least two weeks when he would not have to listen to "Flames of youth" again. What else could he ask? Well, except torturing his brother to death for hours

"You aren't running?" asked Sakura

"Default loss. I don't mind." answered Sasuke. The world was such a beautiful place. He would be nice from this day on. He would buy flowers for Sakura. He would never call Naruto dobe again. He would totally respect Tsu...well, he would totally respect Kakashi "I'm ahead 51 to 17, anyway."

"Sasuke-kun" said Sakura, and his voice was firm "Lee may be a little weird... well, he is a wacko, but at least he is giving his best against you. He really respects you."

"Aa" he said. He could buy a present for Sakura that very day, for example.

"If you are not running, then I'm running."

"Aa... What?"

"It's the honor of the clan at stake" she said simply, while she moved to position.

"I'll do it" said Sasuke, after briefly considering suicide as an easy escape route.

He moved into position while he wondered life had to torment him so much. First he had been born into the Uchiha family, and he had needed to work his best for years. He had a genius as an older brother, so his father never acknowledged him. Finally, his brother had slaughtered his whole family, and he had needed to live a dark life where nobody could understand him. Well, he could manage with that, kind of. He had been doing it his whole life.

He had even been able to cope with the fact that he had as teammates a stalker and the worst student of the Academy (well, he had thought of them just like that at the beginning). Then he had gotten drunk, made love and married Sakura. Well, fine. He was even kind of happy. However, he then was then appointed by Lee as his "eternal rival", and now it appeared that destiny was truly his enemy. He couldn't even escape from his "challenges" as he had married a person that had learned somewhere about "clan honor"

He concentrated on the road ahead and started running. If he was doing it, he was going to win.

"Isn't he smart?" Asked Sakura with her usual "madly-in-love" expression, as she saw Sasuke running at low speed "Instead of running fast, he is saving his energy for winning later."

Kakashi rolled his eyes, while Gai left, probably to instruct his other students about "the flaming youth".

"Sasuke is really unlucky." Kakashi finally said "I have been having challenges with Gai for years, and he has never asked me to run that far."

"That's no luck, Kakashi-sensei" said Sakura smiling in a weird way "I just had to "accidentally" meet Lee after training and complain to him that Sasuke was not training enough at endurance and running long distances."

Kakashi looked surprised at Sakura and at Naruto that was also smiling.

"Sakura, you..." Kakashi said, without understanding what had happened with Sakura. That ability to plan ahead, out maneuvering other people... that came from...

"Kakashi-sensei, we are going to skip training for a few days. Naruto and I have some work to do" Sakura explained, whose smile had returned to her usual "Haruno Sakura" way.

"Sakura, what are you planning?"

"What am I planning?" Asked Sakura with an innocent voice "I don't have an enormous dream, like Naruto and his dream of being Hokage, and Sasuke-kun and his dream of revenge. My dreams are more "boring", like being with the person I love, becoming a jounin, keeping the people I care close to me, protecting the village and especially being happy with Sasuke-kun. But" Sakura then looked at Kakashi and he thought he was watching Sasuke's eyes. Full of that same cold, angry fury "that doesn't mean I am not planning on doing my best to realize my dream."

Kakashi took two steps backward. He finally understood something. Haruno Sakura had disappeared when he wasn't looking. The person that was looking at him was Uchiha Sakura.

His chest started to hurt.

"Sasuke-kun is afraid to love or even to relate to other people" continued Sakura "He is afraid people would leave him again… He hates loneliness, but he is too afraid of loss to overcome it. My plan is simply to fight that loneliness. I don't want to erase the past or the old memories, but I want to create new memories. I don't want him to keep living in the past."

Kakashi remained silent.

"Naruto used to have birthdays with Iruka-sensei. My birthdays used to be with my family and friends. However, Sasuke hadn't celebrated his birthday since he was seven years old because it reminded him of his dead family. You should have seen his face when he opened the door and he saw the surprise birthday party Naruto and I had prepared for him... That face of blissful happiness... I want to create more new memories like that."

Kakashi still was not answering.

"We are sorry that we are missing class, sensei, but don't worry. In a few days we will be back." She promised, as she and Naruto left.

Kakashi decided that he would need to talk to Sasuke again.

Sasuke finally stumbled past Leaf's Village walls, thirteen days after starting the race. Only pure proud stubbornness prevented him from falling down.

"You're fast" said Kakashi who didn't raise his eyes from his book.

"Aa" muttered Sasuke. He quickly moved to most important matters "Did I win?"

"No. Lee reached the Leaf five hours ago."

Sasuke finally collapsed on a bench.

"Damn it!" He tried to stand, but his legs refused to move.

"I can piggy back you to your home if you want to."

"I am too old for somebody to piggy back me, sensei."

"Very well." said simply Kakashi. "Can we talk for a bit?"

"Whatever" Sasuke said, while he mentally shuddered. Kakashi probably wanted to make some small talk to reinforce "male bonding" that so many senseis liked to do. Did he really think he was in the mood to talk being hungry, thirsty and extremely pissed off? Damn his legs for not allowing him to run away.

"I am glad you have decided to play your cards in the Leaf, but I really think you should either stop your revenge or stop your relationship with Sakura."

Great, just great. Kakashi-sensei wanted to make a long teacher-student talk about his life. Kakashi probably was expecting that he would totally open up and end up crying on Kakashi's shoulder.

"You will only hurt each other more. You can't be a human and a demon at the same time. You have to choose" continued Kakashi.

Sasuke's mind was already traveling away from him, returning once in a while to give the generic response and to keep in touch with the conversation.

Their first wedding anniversary was the next day. He should probably buy her something. Dunno. What do people buy on marriage anniversaries? Flowers? Jewelry?

"After all, it's not that you married her by your own will and you already know she is not pregnant" Kakashi was saying. Sasuke nodded and went back to his worries about if writing a poem himself would be more romantic than just buying a present. However, he just couldn't shake the thought that some obvious fact was staring straight at him.

Then his heart stopped beating.

"Kakashi-sensei" said Sasuke, interrupting Kakashi's comment about being honest with oneself, or something like that "How did you know we thought Sakura was pregnant?" One of the very first things Sakura and he had agreed on was to never, ever, tell anybody about that night. Not even to Naruto or Kakashi.

Sasuke was looking straight at his sensei's face, and he saw it. He hated his eyes to death the next second, but he had seen it. Just for a hundredth of a second, he had seen a flicker of panic in Kakashi's eyes.

"Isn't it obvious? You try to get away from her touch every day, and one night you both get drunk and start kissing and the next day you're both married. It was easy to guess that you ended spending the night together." Kakashi said.

"Of course" admitted Sasuke who outwardly was smiling and relieved. Inside he was dying. Hai, what Kakashi said had made a lot of sense and he usually would believe it... Except that he had seen fear in Kakashi's single eye. "You were saying...?"

Kakashi quickly, far too quickly, went back to the lecture. Sasuke went back to his own world, but this time worrying about quite a few things. "Why did you marry?" That was a normal question that should be asked, after they had showed up married. They were too young, after all. However, Kakashi hadn't even bothered to ask, as if he already knew. Instead, he had resorted to beating him up. Just how many times had he seen Kakashi angry? And how many times Kakashi had retorted to violence? His actions had been very weird.

Waking up from a hangover was confusing at best, if his one-time experience was right. However he had woken up Tsunade, and she had immediately reacted, opposing the wedding, instead of asking the usual questions about what the hell was going on. It was as if she already knew what was going on.

He had mentioned the circumstances of his accidental marriage to the Sound Four, and they had started to laugh. Well, it wasn't really funny that he had married a girl after spending the night together. However, if they had married because he thought they had spent the night together, and actually it wasn't true, well, that was funnier.

The twin brother, whatever his name was. He had killed him quick, but he had always gotten the impression that he wanted to say something else. What else could be said?

He was a cynic. He had been born that way the day his childhood ended. Maybe he still trusted others too much.

After ten more minutes, Kakashi's dialogue/monologue ended. Sasuke made a few comments, most of them in disagreement, said something about training the next day and walked to a destination.

Jiraiya, one of the strongest shinobis in the history of the Leaf, one of the three legendary sannin, widely considered the strongest of the living shinobis of the Leaf, one of the very few people that faced Uchiha Itachi and lived to tell the tale, was finishing his new porno book, doing the final touch on the descriptions, when he felt a presence near.

"How do you do, Jiraiya-sama? I am glad you have returned from your travels. We haven't been properly introduced. I am Uchiha Sasuke, from the Uchiha clan."

Jiraiya turned and he saw the person responsible that his plans of training Naruto away from the Leaf were delayed. Not even one gathering after returning from a cruise for gathering information, and people kept coming to interrupt his inspiration.

"Handsome face. Would you like to do some modeling for my book?" He asked to throw off Sasuke.

"I already have an exclusive contract with somebody." said Sasuke, smiling softly. "I came to ask you a question, Jiraiya-sama."

"What do you want?" Jiraiya stated while his attention returned to his book. When Sasuke didn't answer, he raised his eyes, only to be glared by Sharingan eyes.

"Akatsuki. Who are they? What do they want? How can I find them?" Sasuke asked.

"I can't tell you" answered Jiraiya putting down his pen.

"Why not?" Sasuke asked with open hostility.

"It's too dangerous. They are too strong for you."

Sasuke glared at Jiraiya, but was actually smiling inside. Everything was going as expected. If they were going to give him information, they would have done so already. He didn't expect any help from the Leaf to find his brother, anyway. However after refusing to grant that request, which he had the right to know, the true reason he was here would be easier to be granted.

"All right" he said and turned as if he were leaving. Then, as an afterthought, he partially turned. "By the way, you have traveled a lot, haven't you? I am learning some new jutsus, and I was curious if there was any way to create false memories using advanced genjutsu" He had done his homework: Tsunade, expert in taijutsu, Orochimaru, expert in everything, and Jiraiya, expert in ninjutsu and genjutsu. If everything that had happened that night was an illusion, Jiraiya could give him information about it.

"Memories? No, impossible. Genjutsu is just illusions. You can't create memories from it."

"What if... what if the victim was drunk or in a very toxic state, where he couldn't really set apart reality from a dream? The memories could be very confusing... like a dream."

Jiraiya looked sadly at Sasuke and sighed.

"I know the reason you are asking me this."

"You do?" Sasuke, his lungs forgetting how to work.

"You are wondering if what your brother did to you was just genjutsu."

"You got me" Sasuke lied "and the answer is?

Jiraiya sighed.

"Sorry, but genjutsu is just that, an illusion. Memories can't be faked. Even if he had used genjutsu before, the brain can notice the difference after the genjutsu has disappeared. You would almost immediately recognize if it was genjutsu or not."

"Aa" Sasuke said,

"You are also subconsciously wondering something, but your conscious mind still can't even think about it" had said the old witch Kikkyo-san.

"So you even know about the questions I don't know I have?" He had asked.

Well, he already had that question: What really happened that night?

He had considered the possibility that the whole thing was just a genjutsu, made by Kakashi, who already knew his plans of leaving the Leaf. However, if genjutsu didn't create memories, it meant that he and Sakura had definitely spent the night together.

The question was how Kakashi knew about it. They had agreed not to tell anybody. He doubted very much Sakura would tell anybody without asking him first. Besides, considering the appearances, Tsunade already knew that they had spent the night together when she had woken up, before anybody could have informed her.

Logically speaking, the options were three: Either he was wrong, and it was just plain paranoia due to Itachi's betrayal, or Kakashi had drugged them to make them spend the night together, something very unlikely considering Kakashi's usual concern for the well-being of his students, or...

Or...

«Or... Sakura actually wasn't drunk when she had sex with me, and it was a plot with Kakashi and Tsunade, as a way to make me feel guilty and convince me to stay in the Leaf», considered Sasuke, while his heart broke. He didn't want to believe it, but there were too many suspicious elements in the whole story.

A heart is the size of one and a half of an adult fist. It distributes blood with oxygen around the body. It expands and compresses 100,000 times a day, 35 million times a year, 2,800 times in a lifetime.

Sometimes they break.

It may take a lifetime to mend it. It may mend partially in just one year.

If it breaks a second time, sometimes it doesn't ever mend.

"Sasuke?" said a voice from far, far away, even if the owner of the voice was just one meter away from him.

"Aa?" said Sasuke. Jiraiya was looking at him with apprehension.

"Never mind. For a moment I thought you looked like Itachi."

"Aa." Pause. "Was that praise or an insult?"

"You don't know?"

Sasuke thought about it.

"No, no really." Sasuke turned and left. He had to do some research, which would determine the path he would take for the rest of his life.

I want to dedicate this chapter to all my reviewers and to my devoted betatester foxfire327.

So... I promised you a big surprise, and here it is. Everything that was the truth in this fic, it may be a lie. What is the truth? Where are the lies? In this chapter I wanted to clearly show a difference between the first part Sasuke-Kakashi, kind of warm, the second part, Lee-Sasuke, hilarious, and the third part, with Sasuke-Kakashi-suspicions really dark. I hope I succeeded.

A fair warning: The title of this fic is "The Uchiha Tragedy" The ending may NOT be a happy ending, but it doesn't mean it's going to be a bad ending. It just means that all the paths are open, and the future is undecided. The story may end with Sasuke killing Sakura while the kyubi destroys the world, or it may end with Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto hugging each other after each of them realizes their dreams. The future is open.

I also wanted to thank all the reviewers, because I always read the reviews, and I like to know what people think so I can write better.