Chapter 10: For Sasuke
"I'm telling you, it's not normal what he's been doing," Seamus said, "it isn't like him, not one bit."
The four Gryffindor boys were clustered together at the breakfast table, leaning inwardly slightly as they discussed the sea change in the behaviour of Neville Longbottom that they had all witnessed.
"People can change," Dean said equably, "it doesn't mean it's a bad thing."
"Yeah, but hanging around with those two," Seamus said, "I mean even by the standards of those ninjas they're not exactly normal are they?"
Dean shrugged, "So they've got pudding basin haircuts and thick eyebrows, so what? I've known people like that. Admittedly most of them were chavs, but they don't act like chavs."
"It might be better if they did." Harry said, "Talking about love, passion and the power of youth all the time. I mean you get a bit fed up of it after a while don't you?"
Ron grunted.
"I'm just saying it could be worse," Dean said, "he could be wearing red and gold spandex."
Seamus sniggered at the ridiculousness of the image, and Harry found that he too could not imagine such a thing without laughing.
"Well, if Neville starts talking about the glory of youth he's sleeping out in the common room I can tell you." Seamus said, "I'm not having that rubbish in my bedroom."
"Too right." Ron said.
Harry wondered why Ron was prepared to answer Seamus but not him, "We have to admit though, he's improved a lot in just a few days, I don't know what's come over him."
"I'll bet you don't." Ron muttered darkly.
"I know what you mean," Dean said, "who ever would have known he was that good. He managed to throw off the Imperius curse first time, and McGonnagall admitted he'd done bloody well."
"Even Snape would have admitted he's getting better if he wasn't such a git." Harry said.
Ron made a noncommittal noise.
That does it. Something's definitely up with him. "What's going on, Ron?"
"Eh?" Ron said, as if he couldn't hear Harry even though they were sitting next to one another.
"What's up with you?" Harry said more firmly, "You barely talk to me any more, most of the time you just sit there sulking. I want to know why?"
"I'm not sulking." Ron said moodily.
Dean tapped Seamus on the arm, "Seamus mate I, um, I really think we ought to get back to the common room."
"I'm not finished eating yet." Seamus said.
"Yeah you are!" Dean snarled, dragging Seamus away and out of the Great Hall by one arm.
"Seriously mate, tell me what's going on." Harry said.
"Mate?" Ron said, "Who are you talking to?"
"You!" Harry yelled.
"Oh I'm you mate am I?" Ron said, "How nice for me."
Harry was fast loosing his patience, "What the hell is the matter with you?"
"The matter with me?" Ron said incredulously, "The matter with me? You think that this is my fault?"
"I can't see who else's fault it could be." Harry said.
"Well I don't know Harry, why don't you turn the judgemental mirror the other way and see whose face is reflected back at you, except that you can never do anything wrong can you, Harry? No matter whose lives you ruin it's never your fault is it?"
Harry shook his head, "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Don't lie Harry, you know exactly what I'm talking about." Ron got up angrily, "And you bloody well know you do too."
Ron stormed out, knocking over Dennis Creevey and yelling at him until the First Year cried. Harry was left alone, pondering how things had changed. First Neville had started acting so very differently from the round faced boy they'd known for the past four years, now his best friend had morphed beyond recognition. What had happened to this place that his world had suddenly started turning upside down?
Having the gall to blame me for what's been going on? As it's my fault. Acting like he doesn't know what's the matter. More like he couldn't be bothered to find out, tear himself away from her. I mean didn't he notice, did neither of them realise.
Ron was immersed in his bitter thoughts as he stormed through the corridors, pushing first and second years aside on his way up to Gryffindor Tower. Harry and Hermione, Hermione and Harry, his two best friends, it was almost unbearable.
How can Harry not realise what she means to me? And then he just swoops in with one stupid promise and she's only got eyes for him. Is that fair? Is that what a mate does? He couldn't have betrayed me worse if he'd started snogging Ginny. I mean, I had a hard enough time getting Hermione to notice me as it was, but now, how can I compete with the Boy Who Lived? Who'd want me, when she could have him instead?
And that was the rub, wasn't it? Ron had come from a family where he wasn't the best at anything. He wasn't as smart as Bill or Percy, he wasn't as good on a broom as Charlie or the Twins, he wasn't as fierce and feisty as Ginny. And he'd come to Hogwarts and become best friends with somebody who was braver, more intelligent, more heroic and better looking than he was. More famous too. Who cared about Ron Weasley when there was Harry Potter standing right next to him? And he put up with it, and he accepted it, and he lived with it each and every day, and was it too much to ask that Harry should once in a while turn around and notice that; perhaps throw him a bone every once in a while? Ron didn't think so. Wasn't it enough that he was everything Ron never had, that he had to yank Hermione out of Ron's reach as well?
Sasuke sat on the shore of the lake, staring down into it's depths just like he had used to stare down into the lake back home. The lake outside their house, where his father had taken him to practice his fire-style jutsu, where he had to sworn to avenge his clan upon his brother Itachi.
Like that came to anything. I wasn't anywhere near Itachi's league. He was right about me from the start.
Sasuke closed his eyes, and listened to the gentle breeze and the sound of someone creeping towards him from the direction of the school, "What do you want, Sakura?"
"I, I brought you something to eat," Sakura sat down next to him, "I thought you might be hungry."
"I'm not."
"Sasuke," Sakura put one hand upon his shoulder, "you barely eat, nobody sees you sleep, you don't talk to anybody, won't you tell me what's going on with you?"
Sasuke shrugged off her hand, "You wouldn't understand."
"Please, Sasuke, I want to help you."
"You can't help me, no one can." Sasuke said, thinking of his brother and how he had failed to help even himself, "Now please, I'd like to be alone."
Sakura looked away for a moment, back up towards the castle and away from the lake, "I know that you don't like me Sasuke. Even before we really knew each other you couldn't stand me, do you remember?"
"No." Sasuke said, "Not really."
"Oh," Sakura could not disguise the hurt in her voice, "well, it doesn't really matter; it was a long time ago."
"Sakura? What did I say?"
"I was whining about Naruto, complaining about how bratty he was, because he was all alone, and then you told me that it wasn't about having parents, and that I had no idea what it was like to be alone, or isolated. Then when I asked you, 'Why are you saying this to me.' You turned around and said, 'Because, you're annoying.'"
"Oh." Sasuke blinked, "If it doesn't matter, how come you remember it?"
"Because," Sakura hesitated, her voice small and quiet, "because it mattered, to me."
"Why?"
"Don't you know?" Sakura said, "Sasuke, I won't pretend that I know what it's like to be alone, that I understand your pain, that I know what you've been through but, please Sasuke, can't you say that you don't have to be alone any more. All those missions we went on as Squad Seven, with Naruto and Kakashi Sensei, didn't that show you that you don't have to be alone, that none of us has to be alone."
"I chose this loneliness when I chose the path of the avenger." Sasuke said grimly.
"But what good will revenge do you even if you do achieve it?" Sakura shrieked, tears falling down her face and making little ripples in the lake water as they landed, "It won't bring your clan back, it won't bring you happiness. It won't bring either of us happiness. Sasuke, I'm so in love with you it hurts sometimes, can't you see that?"
"You don't love me, you can't love what you don't understand." Sasuke snapped, "You think you love me, but all you really love is an idea, of what you think I am, or what I should be."
"No, that isn't true." Sakura said, "Maybe it was, at first, but not any more. I understand that you aren't the perfect boy that everyone thought you were at the academy, I understand that you're carrying so much pain and anger inside of you that it's tearing you apart, I understand that you think nobody can help you at all, but that doesn't mean I don't want to try. I don't know if I can fix you, I don't even know if I can make you happy, but that doesn't mean that I don't want to try; because I do love you Sasuke, with all my heart, and every time I have to see you in pain it kills me. Please Sasuke, you don't have to be alone any more."
"Yes, he does." a deep voice came from halfway across the lake, "He must walk alone in darkness every day until his revenge has been fulfilled."
Sasuke looked up at the familiar sound, and saw Itachi standing in the middle of the lake, suspended on the surface of the water by his chakra, looking down upon him.
"Little brother," Itachi said, "we meet again."
"No." Sasuke could barely feel his limbs, his entire body seemed to have frozen up on him. He couldn't move, he could hardly speak, the only thing he could do was shake in fear, "No it can't be, not here, not in this place."
"Why not?" Itachi said, "You came, why could I not follow? Silly little brother."
He began to advance on Sasuke.
"No," Sasuke cried out, wanting desperately to scrabble away, to turn and flee, but not even having the self control to do that, "stay away from me!"
"I must speak with you, Sasuke." Itachi said, continuing to advance.
Sakura stepped between the two Uchihas, kunai in hand, "Not one step closer." Though she tried to sound brave, her voice could not disguise the fear she felt at facing the great Itachi Uchiha, the greatest ninja ever to betray the Hidden Leaf Village, the only ninja Lord Orochimaru ever feared.
Itachi's face was blank and expressionless, "You really hope to stand against me? Are you so foolish as to actually believe you can?"
"I don't know." Sakura said, "But I won't let you hurt Sasuke any more."
"Sakura, go," Sasuke said, "he's too strong, he'll kill you."
"I won't leave you Sasuke," Sakura said, "I can't. Not even if it means my life."
"Very well then," Itachi said coldly, "Mangekyo Sharingan!"
"Leaf Hurricane!"
Itachi retreated as Kakashi, his headband up to reveal his own Sharingan eye, performed a copy of Guy's taijutsu and landed on the water in front of his two Genin.
"Kakashi Sensei-" Sakura gasped.
Kakashi's eyes closed briefly, a sign that he was smiling under the mask, "You were very brave, Sakura, now I need you to get Sasuke up to the castle immediately; then find one of the wizard teachers and tell them that there is an enemy on their grounds. I'll stay here and hold off Itachi."
"You didn't do so well the last time you tried." Itachi said.
Kakashi placed one hand on his arm, spread his free head out and activated his Chidori, "You may be the most gifted Leaf Ninja since the legendary Sannin, but I will not abandon my comrades to die."
A flicker of a smile crossed Itachi's face, "I would be impressed by your courage, if I didn't know that it was all an attempt to trick me." Itachi spun around and sidestepped, to reveal Neji Hyuuga attempting to sneak up on him from the other side of the lake.
"Gentle fist art, forty eight palms one hundred and ninety two fists." Neji said, abandoning subtlety and being discovered and leaping to the attack, channelling chakra to the tips of his fingers in the Hyuuga fighting style.
"Neji, no!" Kakashi shouted.
Itachi effortlessly dodged Neji's first blow, grabbing his arm as he did so and fastening his other hand around Neji's neck, forcing him to look upwards into Itachi's mangekyo sharingan eyes.
Instantly Neji began to scream, to cry out and writhe in pain, and Sasuke knew that he was experiencing the full power of the Mangekyo Sharingan, Itachi's ultimate power: 72 hours of torture and pain condensed into just a few moments of time in the world outside. Having experienced it himself, Sasuke could imagine nothing worse.
Neji collapsed, half submerged in the water, and Itachi turned his attention back to the other three ninjas.
"Sasuke, in time you will understand that there was a reason behind everything I have ever done." Itachi made a hand sign, and teleported out of sight in a puff of smoke.
As Kakashi scooped Neji up in his arms to take him to the hospital wing, and Sakura helped Sasuke up, one thought and one thought only was prevalent in Sasuke's mind: Itachi could come for me at any time. And there is nothing I can do to stop him.
All I do or have ever done, I do for Sasuke. Itachi, transformed into Mad-Eye Moody, crept into the now empty Great Hall with a small piece of paper clutched in his hand. I tried to make him stronger, now it appears that I miscalculated. I have weakened him. He is too weak, certainly, for what they have in store for him; and I will not see the last of the Uchiha fall when it is in my power to prevent. Sasuke's life was always the price, always the reason for everything that happened.
Itachi approached the Goblet of Fire, and as he raised the hand bearing the scrap of paper it could be seen that the paper had the name 'Naruto Uzamaki' written on it.
Everything I do, Sasuke, I do for you. Itachi thought, throwing the paper into the wooden goblet.
