Not even a day later, after a short nap, I got a knock on my window. A summons for a mission.
"Maa...guess I'm called in for a mission already." Things must be dire if they needed me. I looked over to see the bird hadn't disturbed Aurora. She'd taken to sleeping with me again, worried I might not wake up. I assured her that that would never happen, but she insisted anyway.
Aurora really wanted to go visit Sasuke, but I had a feeling something was going on with Sasuke. I didn't want her to see him spiral, but I had to take her to Iruka's anyway...Against my better judgement, I decided to take her there. She practically skipped the whole way there, excited to see her friends. I envied her innocence, never wanting it to fade from her.
Just as I had thought, Sasuke wasn't in his room. I reached my chakra out and sensed him and Naruto up on the rooftop. Scooping Aurora up, I quickly made my way up there, practically dropping her when I saw what was going on. Sasuke and Naruto were using their most powerful jutsus against each other. If the chidori and rasengan collided it would create quite the show, but that wasn't they worrying part.
"Stooop!" Sakura cried, running between them in an effort to stop them."Both of you please!" Neither of them heard her at first, but it was too late by the time they did see her. I grabbed their wrists swinging them away from each other, both colliding into separate water tanks, blowing out the othersides. It would have killed Sakura...they would have killed her all for a little spat.
"You two! What are you doing up here?" I briefly wondered where Naruto had learned such a technique, before coming to the conclusion that the old sanin had done it. "Why are you so obsessed over you superiority complex, Sasuke. Chidori isn't an attack to use against a team mate. Were you trying to kill Naruto?" Both water tanks had damage, but in different ways. Sasuke's was bent, blown from both sides. Naruto's though...the metal had twisted very little from the first blow, but the back of it was completely blown away, leaving a giant hole. This behavior...it must have come his encounter with Itachi. Sasuke glared at me, angry at stopping him, but I saw a small bit of regret in his eyes. He glanced at Aurora and Sakura, the regret in his eyes showing even more as he saw the look of fear from the three year old.
Aurora was hiding behind a distraught Sakura, scared at what she had just seen. The pinkette was sobbing uncontrollably, upset her friends nearly killed her and each other. As if on cue, Sasuke decided to flee, flipping off of the building. That's when he saw the hole created by Naruto's rasengan. His eyes widened for a second before he glared once more. I let him go for now, a certain Sanin showed up and I wanted to talk to him.
"You were the one to teach Naruto that technique? I feel that Naruto too young to be able to control a technique like that. Even if it was meant to protect him from the Akatsuki..."
"To be fair... chidori is too much for Sasuke too...I never thought Naruto would use it against his teammate…" Jiraiya countered, but was as regretful as I was about our students using their power against each other.
I left him to deal with Naruto, I'd deal with Sasuke, but first I had to calm Sakura down and get Aurora out of here. I landed back in front of them, Sakura looking up from crying.
"It's alright, things will go back to how they used to be." I gave them an eye smile to try to calm them. I hoped they didn't pick up that I had no idea if things would be ok. I picked Aurora up and quickly left, tracking down the fuming Uchiha. She buried her face into my flak jacket, upset and very confused at what was going on.
I tracked him down in a tree, Aurora had pointed him out just before I felt his chakra. I briefly wondered if she was a sensory type ninja before focusing back on the situation before me. Sasuke was spiraling down towards the darkness and I had to try and stop him. I told Aurora to stay on the ground as I leapt up into the tree, quickly tying him to the trunk of the tree to keep him from running.
"What's the meaning of this?!" Sasuke barked, angry I'd snuck up on him and tied him down.
"If I didn't do this, you'd just run away…" He turned his head away from me. "Sasuke, stop seeking revenge. I've seen it time and time again in our line of work, those that tasted revenge still weren't satisfied. It ends in tragedy." I tried to warn him. "You'll only hurt and suffer more...even if you succeed you'll be left with an emptiness."
"What the hell do you know! Don't act like you understand!" He yelled. "What if I were to kill the ones you love most? How far would you stray from your words...I can make you feel true pain!" Down below us, I heard Aurora cry loudly at his words, which got his attention too. I saw his face soften for just a second, realizing what he just said. He'd have to kill her, someone he also cared for.
"That would work, unfortunately Aurora is the only one left. The others...are already died or have been killed." This shocked the raven haired boy. "I lived in a hard era, I understand the feeling of pain and loss. We aren't the lucky ones, but we aren't worse off. Both you and I have found precious people, a new type of family." I told him. He looked down towards her, the first time he looked at her this whole time. She was crying harder now, not like how Sakura had been but out of fear. She was scared of her appointed brother. She feared he would harm her after putting all her trust and love into him.
"Sasuke...you should know from your own experience that the chidori was a power given to you to protect those important to you. It shouldn't be used against your friends, or for revenge. You should know what that power should be used for." I told him as I untied him, looking down at the crying girl to make my point. I gave him a final warning as I jumped down to get Aurora. "Think long and hard on it, if you can do that." I left him then, picking her up once more to go to Iruka's. I missed the hurt look on his face.
Aurora was unhappy for many reasons. One, I was leaving and two she had seen Sasuke fighting the darkness within him; the heartbreaking part was that she now feared him. She'd told me after calming down enough to talk; she didn't want to die. Iruka had his hands full with her, but I had to go on my mission. I didn't want to leave her in this turmoil of harsh reality, so I tried to reason with her.
"Sasuke will be alright. He's just...confused right now. I'm sure by tomorrow he'll be himself again." But even she didn't believe me. I wasn't even sure if I believed myself.
Iruka's View:
As expected, Kakashi was called for a mission and was at my door with Aurora. This time though, she was very upset but not about Kakashi leaving her like usual, Saksue had upset her.
Kakashi explained the incident before leaving with an apology. He never did that...I worried this was affecting him just as much. I held the crying girl in my lap until she finally settled enough to tell me what was wrong.
"Uka...why does nii-san hate me…" Aurora asked, he voice raw from crying. I took me a second to realize she meant Sasuke. I didn't realize she looked up to him that way. It broke my heart to see her struggling with this.
"He doesn't hate you, he's...just lost right now. Tomorrow I'm sure he'll be back to himself." But the look she gave me said she'd heard that already. She was about to cry again, but I held her tightly to show her she was safe. "He...well he's in a dark place right now, but we'll be here for him, ok?" It seemed to cheer her up a little, but the reality was there was nothing we could do. It was up to Sasuke to decide what he wanted.
Sasuke's View:
When he left, the image of her face was still burned in my mind. I never wanted to see those eyes look at me that way again. Why did I care? She was just my teacher's kid! One that latched on to me and...no...she'd become more than that. I...thought of her as a little sister. It was hard for me to admit, but the fact was she'd become a part of my life I wasn't sure I could snuff out. I couldn't bring myself to move, too much swirled through my mind...and his words floated back up.
Damnit...damnit! I cursed myself for doubting everything again, closing my eyes in frustration. What was I going to do? As soon as that thought came up, four strangers appeared before me.
What they said...what my brother told me...I needed to leave. Leave everything behind, including my new found family. It wasn't as hard as I thought, if I only thought of them as no more than acquaintances I'd met in my life, I could let them go.
Without really thinking, I found myself passing Iruka's home. I paused, sighing and went up the tree to look in the window. Aurora was asleep on the couch, her face serine, far from what it had been when she last saw me.
For a moment, my heart ached, thinking of all the pain I'd be putting her though. It passed just as quickly, knowing she'd probably forget about me after a few years. I was surprised when her eyes slowly opened, luckily she wasn't looking at me. Deciding it best to just go now, I quickly turned to leave; but a dark thought crossed my mind. What if I used her to get my mangekyou sharingan? It would be easy, she wouldn't fight back...NO! She was a child…
I took off, running from the house, never looking back. I had to get away from her. I couldn't hurt Aurora, no matter how hard I tried to convince myself.