[sorry for taking so long to update and sorry it isnt exactly a very long chapter, but remember, the more reviews i get the sooner I'll begin the next one]

Asa sat at the short-legged table, Tomo curled up beside him as he held the black chopsticks in his hand, slowly eating dinner with his freshly-bathed uncle. Dinners were not usually very eventful, of course neither of the party were used to be talkative among others. Their housemaid, Miss Kata, set down steaming hot bowls of meaty soup infront of them, wiping her hands off on her brown apron as she went back to the stove.

"Are you keeping up your grades at the academy?" the older man finally broke the silence, the steam from the food rising before his tired features.

"Other than some stupid writing assignments, yes uncle" he mixed some of the rice in with the brother, taking the chunks of meat covered in the white stuff before eating it.

"No assignment is stupid Asa, are you at least making a passing grade on them?" he took both of his soft-skinned hands to sip from his large cup of green tea, most men would have been drinking had they been off on stressful missions for three weeks, but Itachi was better than that.

"I cannot complete them, they all were something about the past or family" he stirred a single chopstick in the stew; he never liked bringing up the 'f' word with his only close relative.

"That is no excuse Asa, contrary to what you would like to convince yourself of, you do have a family which does have a history" he held a piece of the browned meat in his hand out to the side, Tomo quickly coming over and gingerly took it from the palm of his hand before receiving a scratch between the ears.

"Neither of which anyone in this so-called 'clan district' will tell me about……." It had always been a running joke with the two that this place, because of its long-standing walls, was not the Uchiha district but rather the Uchiha prison.

"That is not under their control, as hard as it is you cant blame them for something they don't even know themselves"

"I came from somewhere, but nobody around seems to know or care where that was, even you refuse to tell me who my parents were" he pushed his bowls of food away, having lost his appetite. With a sigh his tired uncle stood and walked out of the room, wrapped up in his dark red kimono, he always left the house when this sensitive subject came up.

Asa and Tomo just went to his room, feeling disappointed in himself for upsetting the only person in this world that cared for him.

The Gardens

It was a crescent moon out tonight, and despite the air being warm out, the clan leader still felt a chill in his body. He could not blame his nephew for behaving like this. He had every right to know about his father, but Itachi could not being himself to tell him everything, for he knew what the outcome would be, and to see his little brother leave the village to never return yet again would be unbearable, it is what sent their mother to her grave, and it might do the same to him.

Looking to the left of the path, there was an old weeping willow tree, its long, sad vines covering up decade-old family secret. Straying from the trail of stones he walked through the barrier of vegetation. Finding his paper lantern he lit it with a small spark of fire from his fingers, lighting up the area around him.

Walking up to the old tree he slid his hand inside a natural hole in the center of its base, feeling around until he felt the cold metal beneath his fingers. Grabbing a hold on the item he pulled it out. It was a basic issue Kohona headband, the blue cloth tattered and dirty from age. This had one belonged to his little brother, the one whom no one but himself knew of any longer.

He fingered the grooves of the villages symbol, he remembered the day he had found this. It was among the rubble of the hunters destroyed castle, it could have only belonged to one teenage ninja. Clenching it sideways in his hand he closed his eyes and looked up, seeing little breaks in the thick foliage above to see the star-filled night.

"Oh otouto, what do I do with that child of yours……………"

Asa's Room

The young Uchiha stared at his bedroom ceiling, one hand behind his head, the other holding Tomo next to him.

Silence. He could not stand it! Even tonight the insects and birds of the night would not relieve him of the curse of quiet. For whenever it was completely without noise in the life of Asa Uchiha, the sounds would come. Not natural sounds of pots clanging or people talking, but unnatural, like those from a distant memory, or in his case, a late nightmare.

Weapons sliding from their sheaths, a woman screaming, dogs gnarling and barking, glass breaking as it his the floor, all these would torture his mind. He clenched the sides of his head, as if trying to escape it, what he would give to be able to run from this, he did not know what it was or what it meant, but he was something that would hunt him down, never letting him escape its grasps.

Dark pupils rolled to the back of his head as his body began to shake and convulse, everything going black, he felt as if he were falling, spiraling down a never-ending black hole, destined to die if he ever hit the bottom.

Suddenly he was pulled out of it by something wet on his face, his mix-furred friend had sensed his distress and had rescued him from the unknown evil. Finding himself covered in sweat and panting for breath he sat up on his thin mattress, burying his face in his only friends thick fur as he had to find himself again.

The Next Morning

Everyday Asa would become more and more like his father before him, but not in the ways Itachi would have liked. The deep, dark bags under his eyes told him of sleep that had been lost, his messy hair and disheveled look told him it had been an unpleasant loss. If he had not had to tell himself hundreds of times before that this was his nephew sitting before him and not his own brother, he surely would have had a slip of tongue when greeting him.

"Good Morning nephew, sleep well?" the question was purely rhetorical, but the tired and stressed look that he read in the youngest ones face disturbed him to no end. He could see in those foggy windows to his soul that something was not right. Of course, he had been like that from the day he found him, shyly mingling among other children while holding that wolfpup tight in his small arms.

He sat down wordlessly, Tomo laying down beside him, resting a warm chin on his knee. Folding his legs he took his eating utensils into his hand, barely eating from the variety of foodstuffs set before him by the housemaid. He did not feel up to eat, or up to going to the academy, the thought of living and breathing was coming close to being on that list aswell, but of course, you cannot always get your wish.

Uncle Itachi could sense his lack of luster for life, but he knew a way to get his kin to cheer up abit.

"Change into some light clothes and bring your weapons of choice, no academy today, I'm training you"