Uchiha Sasuke entered the room twenty minutes after class started. Utilizing his skills as a shinobi-in-training, he managed to enter without anyone noticing. That, and today's lesson had already bored most of the class to sleep--only a handful of his classmates were still awake, and only a few of them were actually concentrating on the flustered Iruka-sensei as he lectured on the advantages and disadvantages of the different types of wood used in replacement jutsu. So, naturally, the majority of the seats were already full.

Sighing resignedly, Sasuke made is way over to the only unoccupied chair. Thankfully, it was near the back, so he wouldn't draw too much attention, but unfortunately, he was forced to sit next to her.

Her father glared at him, believing that he was still fast asleep in the hospital bed.

"Are you sure I have to be the one to take him in?" he had ask, not even bothering to hide the contempt in his tone.

A tired sigh.

"Yes, Hiashi. It's stated in Fugaku's will that, should something happen that would leave him incapable of being raised by one of his clan, custody of him would transfer to his best friend."

The other man snorted. "Hokage-sama, that was long ago. Things change. Surely someone else would be willing to be his guardian."

"You signed the agreement, Hiashi, not I. Fugaku wanted him to be raised by a family that would care for him, no matter how different it was to his own."

"But--"

He twitched in his half-waking daze, causing both men to fall silent.

"Consider it a long-term, S-Rank task, since you seem so eager to insult the integrity of your cousins. I will not consider failure, and if you decline, I suppose that I won't be able to trust the Hyuuga with some of the more serious missions."

Another sigh, this one from a different mouth.

"As you wish, Hokage-sama."

Luckily, she didn't notice him as he sat down and slid his bag under the table; she was so immersed in the lesson that she hadn't even realized her neighbor was drooling all over her notes. He leaned forward and laced his fingers together, pretending to be deeply interested in the diagrams on the board. Nevermind that he wasn't even listening, nor the fact that he hadn't even pulled out a notepad or pen. He only stared at the board, watching as the chalk lines began to change.

The black of the board became the night sky, with the blazing white moon shining down on the chalk compound. Homes were trashed. Bodies littered the streets like pieces of garbage. Blood mingled with the stray raindrops, tainting the ground with a cesspool of carnage. And all of it was captured in the gaze of a single man.

Itachi.

"S… Sasuke-san?" Sasuke heard the hesitant voice and glanced sharply to his left, glaring at the opaque-eyed girl. She shrank back, a small squeak escaping through her mouth as she quickly looked down at her hands.

"S-Sorry. But you were sw-sweating and… and br-breathing loudly."

"Hn." Sasuke returned to his staring, though he forced himself to remained unfocused.

Hyuuga Hinata was definitely becoming a problem. He had only been living in the Hyuuga Clan's grounds for a week, and he had already spoken to her more in those seven days than he had in his entire life. They had mostly been one-sided exchanges, with her doing most of the talking (which wasn't much to begin with) and him responding with a grunt or simply ignoring her. The genocide of the Uchiha was still too fresh in his mind, not that time would do anything to heal the ache in his soul.

No, the only thing that would make him whole again was the utter destruction of the one who had caused so much pain.

Uchiha Itachi.

He could practically feel the concern radiating off the Hyuuga girl as she stared at him. Sasuke did his best to ignore it and tried to think of something that would keep him distracted.

Training. I'll go to one of the lesser used ones, maybe seventeen or forty two. I'll start out with target practice, then move on to practice the Great Fireball Technique.

"Sasuke…"

I wonder if I'll be able to make it as big as dad's was. If he was still alive, he could have taught me how to improve it. But now I'm on my own.

"Your lip… it's bleeding…"

All alone.

"Sas--"

"What?"

The entire class started as the Uchiha prodigy shouted. None of them could fathom why he was panting or why he was scowling at their timid classmate, Hinata. Those that looked closely could see the small tremble racking her body as she fought hard not to cry. Or faint. But the only ones that noticed were Iruka, Aburame Shino, and Nara Shikamaru. The rest of the class's attention was preoccupied by the disheveled Uchiha.

"SASUKE-KUN!" His name was shouted simultaneously from the throats of every female inside the large class room. Well, all except one. And that one was too busy clenching back tears, not that she would have done it otherwise. That was one of her better qualities. Sasuke gritted his teeth and closed his eyes, trying to rein in his temper as the class steadily devolved into chaos.

"When did you get back, Sasuke?"

"Why didn't you tell me you were coming today? I would have saved you a seat!"

"Yeah! Come sit next to me, Sasuke-kun!"

"Are you insane? He's sitting next to me."

"You're so delusional. My table has the only empty seat. Move it, Naruto."

"Ow! Sakura-chan, why--"

"Shut up and move!"

And so on and so forth. He sat back down in his seat, glaring at the floor. He found a pencil resting near his foot and picked it up, playing with it to keep himself preoccupied. It seemed rumors of the massacre had been quelled quite efficiently. Either that, or parents were too afraid to let their children know that one of their own had turned against his village and become a traitor. Whatever the reason, his "friends" were oblivious to the reason why he had missed so much school.

Itachi stood over him, the ninjato he pointed at Sasuke slick with their clan's blood.

"All right, all right. Settle down everyone," Iruka slammed his fist down on his desk, sending papers flying up into the air. The class fell silent almost immediately, tensing more and more with each throb of the pulsating vein in their teacher's forehead. "It's time for lunch, anyway. We'll continue the lesson in an hour."

The class gradually filtered out of the room, some eagerly bolting from the class to reserve their favorite lunch-time spots while others, mainly, the girls, lingered around the Uchiha's desk. When they realized he wasn't going to acknowledge them, they took the hint and left with the others. Soon, there were only four students still in the room, besides himself.

Haruno Sakura stood at the edge of the desk, a small blush on her cheeks and a bento clutched tightly in her hands. His eyes flicked over her before returning to his hands, but the pinkette seemed to take that as the go ahead to continue.

"Sasuke-kun, would you like to--"

"No."

"But--"

"No."

"I--"

The pencil made a louder-than-normal crack as it splintered. The two ends shot off to opposite ends of the room, the point barely missing Sakura as it shot into the wall behind her and imbedded itself into the plaster. She froze, her hands shaking slightly as Sasuke slowly opened his clenched fist and let small chunks of lead, wood, and sawdust fall onto the table.

"I'll, uh, ask you some other time." she amended and quickly scurried out the door. He stared at the pile on his desk for a few minutes before closing his eyes and laying his head on the desktop. He could hear the slight rustling of papers as his sensei picked up the stray pieces and returned them stacked to his desk. Muffled grunts and snorts traveled from the other side of the classroom as Akimichi Chouji devoured his lunch. The boy was too eager to eat to have bothered to move outside, and his friend, Nara Shikamaru, had returned to his mid-morning to late-afternoon nap.

He also heard the Hyuuga moving beside him. Each of her movements were delicate, as if going too fast or picking up something the wrong way might break her. Someone so frail could never be a shinobi. He smirked despite himself, though it quickly vanished when he felt her poke tenderly at his arm.

"What?" he snapped. This girl just didn't know how badly he wanted to hurt her. And he had thought she was one of the less annoying females. Well, now that he was living with her, he had discovered the truth; that she was just as obsessed with him as all those other harpies. A single-minded, self-centered--

"Y-Your lip. I was t-trying to tell you before. You b-bit it and it started b-bleeding."

He didn't loom convinced, but casually licked his lips. Sure enough, the metallic tang of his own blood enveloped his senses, and he spat it out before he could stop himself.

Blood. Blood everywhere. On the walls. Soaking into the ground. Covering their bodies. Coating his blade as he plunged it into their father's chest. Staining his hands as he tried staunching the flow.

She offered him a napkin and he took it without a word, soaking up the small red stain that trickled from his split lip. He tossed it aside, ignoring the disapproving look in her eyes as he littered. But instead of calling him out on it, she remained silent and placed a slim black box in front of him, identical to the one in front of her.

"Y-Your lunch." she murmured and folded her hands in her lap.

"Not hungry." he grumbled and slid it over to her. To his surprise, she shoved it right back and placed a pair of chopsticks into his hand. He stared her down, fully prepared to give her one of his trademarked scowls, but the new look in her eyes stopped him in his tracks. The usual soft, shy roundness to them was gone, replaced by what he could only assume was her rarely-seen glare.

He felt himself smirking again, though for an entirely different reason than before. So the Hyuuga isn't as much of a pushover as I thought. He decided to humor her and opened the box in an exaggerated motion. It was filled with a simple meal; plain white rice, some pickled fruits, a boiled egg, and a slice of some sort of cooked fish. He frowned at the contents and picked around, aware that Hinata was watching him closely and had unconsciously started to hold her breath.

He picked up some of the fruit, pickled plum by the look of it, and plopped it into his mouth. He chewed experimentally before scooping some rice to take the taste away and trying the meat. Broiled salmon, though he had only had it a few times himself.

Hinata seemed satisfied that he was eating and started to breath again. It was as if skipping a meal was some grave offense to her. She would have had a heart-attack if she knew how many times he had skipped breakfast or lunch in favor of training.

Itachi guided his hands as he showed him how to throw his first kunai at the age of five. Father looked on, his arms crossed and an unreadable expression on his face as Sasuke's weapon stuck into a tree five yards from his target. He watched as his father shook his head in disappointment and left, his back blurry from the tears welling in his youngest son's eyes.

"Next time, Sasuke. You'll get it next time." Itachi smiled down at his younger brother, the simple action making his sadness vanish.

Sasuke stared at her out of the corner of his eye. He had never had a girl force him to eat. His mother and aunts, sure--his mom glowered down at him, blocking the door and refusing to move until he cleared the last of the natto off of his plate--but, not someone outside of his family. She had seen earlier, when Sakura had tried giving him a lunch. The pinkette hadn't pushed him because she didn't want to upset her obsession. But the Hyuuga girl didn't seem to care if he was angry or not, as long as he ate.

Perhaps she wasn't just like the other girls.

She seemed to sense him staring and turned to him, smiling hopefully. "Is it g-good?" she asked with that tell-tale tremble, a sure a sign as any that she was still wary of the newest member of her family.

"It's… adequate." he shrugged and took a bite out of the egg.

Hinata hadn't expected that; her face clouded and she laid her chopsticks down in favor of worrying her hands. The corner of Sasuke's mouth twitched as he kept himself from grinning.

"I expect tomorrow's to be better."

Now he had to fight to keep the line of his mouth stern. She gazed up at him, her eyes bright as a small smile pulled her lips back. There was no reluctance this time, no grimace or hesitation; she seemed truly heartened by what he said. And her happiness made him feel… lighter. For some reason, the dark thoughts that weighted down on him had vanished, leaving him relaxed for the first time in a long while.

And for the moment, he was content to let that feeling linger, and enjoyed the rest of his meal with the Hyuuga girl in a companionable silence.

A/N Hello all! Sorry for the late update. The following ones will be a bit sporadic as well, because life is, well, time-consuming. I hope everyone enjoyed Sasuke's POV, and weren't too confused by it. He's basically having flashbacks, like a war veteran, and if he seems a bit more irritable than usual, then keep in mind his entire family was wiped out less than a month ago. I don't know about you, but I'd be a little short-tempered myself. Also, I pumped this out in a few hours, so excuse any mistakes. And what else... oh, the rest of the chapters will probably be of a similar length, as this going to be short, around ten chapters or so, and will time-skip a bit. Nothing more than a few weeks though, so don't fret! Anyway, thank you for reading, and don't forget to let me know what you think!