Chapter Five

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When they finally made it to the bottom of the pool, Sasuke started walking across the floor moving toward a secret entrance that could not be seen until he placed his hand on the wall and forced heat into it. The stone wall moved out of the way like a portal into the underworld, the only difference between what that experience would be like compared to the experience that was happening it was just a beautiful sight. Sasuke held his hand out to Sakura and led her into the impossible room. A living room is what it resembled; a soft comfy sofa was in the middle facing a waterfall of lava passing through a hole in the floor, with rocks lining the outside of it, lava passing through each and every one of the walls making it look as if it was a beautiful picture. There was a hallway like structure that must have led to a bedroom, but Sasuke gently grabbed a holed of Sakura's hand and led her into the kitchen area. The first thing that she noticed was the amount of counter space that was available next to a window that looked out to a stunning view of a lava valley. By the time Sasuke sat down at the table and motioning for her to join him, Sakura was already in love with the place.

"So why did you decide to bring me down here?" Sasuke folded his hands in front of his mouth and gave a charming smirk.

"What if I said, to take you captive so you won't tell anyone else about my secret." Sakura sat forward in her own seat ready to challenge him.

"Then I would say what about my friends?" His smirk left his face as he contemplated the answer.

"I would just have to kill them." Sakura stood up so fast the chair that she was sitting in fell over from the force.

"You wouldn't dare!" Sasuke sighed and dropped his hands onto the table.

"I would, if they ever gave me a reason to."

"Then you should kill me. I'm the one who technically betrayed you." Sasuke closed his eyes then reopened them.

"I'm not going to kill you…" Sakura gave him a look that could murder if he didn't change his statement and fast. "Or your friends." Satisfied, Sakura nodded her head then replaced the chair to its original place and sat down. Sasuke's smirk slowly made its way back onto his face and relaxed in his chair. "The real reason I brought you down here was to sort out some issues that we have had in the past."

"What issues? We have only met once before this time."

"Fine, sort out some issues that will surely find us in the future." Sakura nodded her understanding and urged him to continue.

"So what are you suggesting?" His eyes flowed around the room until they rested on her again.

"Well, first when are we going to meet again?" Sakura wasn't surprised by this first one so she already had an answer prepared.

"I'm free right now, and next month around this time. That will give me enough time to get some clearance from the government." He nodded and continued on to the next.

"All right, what are we going to do about your friends?" She sat back in her chair thinking about her answer carefully.

"Well, you could explain to them why I have to be here just about every month, and I'll explain to them why you live down here. That is when you actually tell me what the hell you are doing down here." Sasuke shook his head then sighed.

"Later, now what are we going to do about keeping me a secret? Since you seem to have the most trouble with this one." Sakura huffed then crossed her arms over her chest.

"I won't tell anyone else, does that fix that one?"

"Yes that will do for now."

"Good, now why don't you tell me why you are even down here in the first place so I'm not guessing at ridiculous things?" Sasuke sighed then moved his head so that his long bangs were covering his eyes. Should he tell her? Could he tell her? He hardly knew anything about her, and yet he had shared so much of his home with her. Still, she didn't hardly know anything about him other than he lived in a volcano and can control the lava that surrounded the area; but did that give her the right to know everything about him and his family?

It was a hard decision to make, but as Sasuke observed her looking at him from across the table scrutinizing his every move, studying him. He took in a silent breath, preparing himself for anything as he moved to get up and make his way over to the stove. Looking back at her eagle eyes he questioned her with his own eyes if she wanted something to drink. She just studied him more.

"Stop stalling." Sasuke let a light chuckle escape his lips as he went to making a special tea that his mother used to make. She called it Bengal Spice, but for the life of him, he couldn't figure out why. All he knew was that it would help ease his mind when he started spilling his guts about his past and all that it would entail.

"I'm not stalling, do you want some tea?" Sakura shrugged her shoulders as watched him move around the nice open kitchen sifting through cabinets grabbing two coffee mugs, two tea spoons, and a kettle. She listened quietly and found a pleasant humming tune as Sasuke reached the sink with the window over it. After the kettle was full of water, he placed it over the stove in the corner and started to heat it. A few minutes past with the silent tune being the only thing keeping the silence between the two not awkward. Not that it would have been. Sakura could hardly contain herself from not asking what he was singing. It was almost hard to believe that a guy like Sasuke would be making tea humming a pleasant tune to go along perfectly.

"Where'd you learn it?" Sasuke stopped in his movements then glanced back in her direction.
"Learn what?"

"The song you were singing." He turned back toward the stove to conceal a light pink color that threatened to highlight his cheeks; but Sakura didn't miss the action and smiled pleased with herself for catching him off guard.

"I wasn't singing." Her smile widened.

"Oh, then I guess it was the little fairies prancing about that was humming it." He shrugged his shoulders casually.

"Maybe." Sakura couldn't stop the giggle that escaped through her lips.

"Then the one I heard singing had a pretty manly voice." Sasuke paused in his actions again and turned around to face her.

"Will you drop it? I was not singing." She raised her hands in surrender.

"All right, all right you weren't singing. Jeez." He nodded his head in satisfaction and lifted the whistling kettle off of the stove. Sakura gasped when his hand touched the metal part and he didn't drop it from the pain. Then she could have kicked herself for not remembering that he just took her through a pit of lava and they both lived. He sent a smirk her direction before setting it down and bring the two mugs over. Once she took a small sip from it she was pleasantly surprise that it didn't taste like the tea she was expecting it to be, it didn't matter now that she set it aside and went back to studying him again. Sakura found that she really liked studying him and his subtle reaction to the slightest things. Before she could point out his fidgeting fingers he cleared his throat and started speaking.

"Listen Sakura I'm not really sure what I should tell you and what I shouldn't so I'll start with the basics." He took in a deep breath then continued. "I was raised here by my mother and older brother. I'm not too sure what happened to the rest of our family but I do know that they went separate ways after some of our population was discovered by a man named Gato. He was a short man who believed he was very powerful in stature."

"So how did he find you guys if you live in the volcano?" Sasuke took in another breath seeming to gain some of his confident self.

"Well that was the time when we used to come to the surface for celebrations. He witnessed my cousin's birthday party and our secret was reviled by it. You see when my kind parties, we party and that means anything goes. This was back in the day when we weren't afraid to converse with others that were different than us, so when he showed himself to us we were glad for his company. Just one more to add in the celebration. Then my cousin was ready to go home, but the rest of us weren't so he went home by himself. After he left, Gato left as well and the rest of us just kept partying into the late hours of the night."

"It wasn't until we made it home we started getting attacked by men with guns. My father ran them off while the rest of my family booked it underground. After the men were gone, nobody could find my cousin. We searched for hours but nothing came up, so my family split up to search other territories. Years later we received word from my uncle saying that the ones sent to different countries were all killed and that they were coming home right away." Sasuke shut his eyes and took a steadying breath. Sakura leaned forward.

"What happened?" He opened his eyes slowly, almost as if he was in a daze. Sakura wanted to move closer to him, but the table prevented that from happening.

"They never came back, so my father sent out a search team to retrieve them, but the search team didn't come back neither. It became very clear very fast that my kind wasn't welcome in society; but my father wouldn't quit, he continued sending more of my family out to bring the others home. He didn't understand that he was just sending them to their deaths. My bother tried to reason with him, but he didn't listen."

"After five years of this endless search, my father decided that he would go and bring them back. My mother and brother pleaded with him so he would stay, but he didn't. There was nothing in the entire world that would have kept him home knowing that Uchiha's were being slaughtered right and left. You see my father was the clan leader, and he felt that it was his fault that they kept dying, what he didn't understand was that it was Gato who was telling those men to kill us. He said that we were a menace to the human race and we should be demolished before we decided to wreak havoc on the world." Sakura reached her hand over to Sasuke's clinched fist and gently squeezed it, trying to offer up any kind of reassurance that she could.

"Sasuke, you don't have to continue." He shook his head then met her eyes. His dark ebony orbs burned with such intensity that it was hard for Sakura to hold his gaze. Her eyes shifted down then up again. "I'm serious…" Sasuke gritted his teeth in irritation cutting off her sentence.

"No, you need to know what happened so you won't repeat it."

"But you could continue later." Sakura stated calmly.

"No you don't understand Sakura, I have to finish now or else I won't finish at all." She nodded in understanding then sighed and got up to get another cup of tea.

"Fine, but let me get you another cup, all right?" Sasuke nodded slowly then leaned back into his chair shutting his eyes. When she set the full cup in front of him, he gladly took a sip and cleared his throat. Before he could continue were he left off Sakura placed her hand on his shoulder. When he looked up she had a soft smile on her face.

"How about we move over to the living room, I'm sure that sofa is just as soft as it looks." Sakura said as she started to head in that direction. Sasuke picked up his mug and followed her. Once they were settled on the couch a companionable silence fell over the two. Sakura was enjoying the warmth that came from the lava fall as it cascaded down into the depths of the floor. After a few minutes passed Sasuke set his empty cup down and took in a deep breath and continued.

"After a few months passed my mother started losing sleep, and my brother would spend most if not all of his time trying to find leads on our lost relatives. He never left for more than a few hours at a time fearing that if he wasn't around then our home would be attacked. Once day when I was exploring the outside of the cave, my brother came bursting through the bushes telling me to run. I did so without question, it didn't take long for him to catch up to me for he was always the faster runner; but no matter how fast we were moving I couldn't block out the sounds of gunfire and the bullets whistling past my head. We ducked and dodged, but it was no good. By the time we made it to the tunnel, he had already been shot twice, once in the arm and once in the hip."

"I scurried up into the tunnel as quick as I could, but I wasn't fast enough. My brother used his good arm to shove me in before turning around and taking on a fighting stance. I stopped midway through and turned to watch."

"There were ten men with their weapons poised and aimed ready to take out my brother, but before the first one could give the order to fire my brother raised his good arm and lava burst through the walls and floor consuming the men instantly. You see my brother was technically the leader or the clan since our father didn't return, and anyone could tell that he was up for the job. He was strong willed, powerful, considerate, compassionate, and a born leader. My father used to call him the pride of the Uchihas, but not even he could defeat the forces that attacked our home. After the ten were defeated more swarmed in and started shooting their rifles blindly while lava was shot at them from all over."

"One of their rifles got a direct hit on my brother's good arm, the others used the opportunity to fire off three more shots, he dodged the first two by swiftly stepping to the side, but the third grazed the side of his neck. There was so much blood, but he still stood. I remember screaming his name when he slammed his foot into the ground causing more lava to flood the area. Only one of the men avoided it and shot rifle blindly; but it didn't matter it struck him right in the chest. He turned in my direction and fell to his knees coughing up blood, when he looked up he said 'sorry Sasuke I couldn't stop them, it's up to you now.' He collapsed face first into to ground." I climbed out of the tunnel and ran over to him, when I reached his still body I turned him over on his back pleading for him not to die." Sakura scooted over to Sasuke and placed her head on his shoulder. He was stiff as a board, with eyes distantly watching the lava trail patterns on the wall.

Sakura almost wanted to cry, and if she would have been alone in her own house she would have; but she wanted to stay strong for Sasuke. He trusted her enough to spill all of his secrets just so he wouldn't have to be alone anymore. Sakura started to ask herself how long Sasuke had actually lived down in this secret paradise by himself. Months? Years? Just thinking about it, made Sakura wanted to wrap her arms around him and devote herself to him right then and there; but her still thinking mind wouldn't let her latch onto a guy that she had only ever talked to twice.

"I just could grasp the fact that he was dead. My brother dead… it was just unthinkable. He was the strong one, he was the first born, he was my brother…" Sakura felt moisture hit her forehead and realized that Sasuke was crying. She wrapped her arms around his waist and held him close to her. His arms were just lying by his sides, his head was resting against the back of the sofa, and his eyes were still watching the lava run down the wall and through the floor.

"Can I ask you a question?" Her question was met with silence so she took it as a yes. "What was his name? Your brother I mean." He closed his eyes.

"Itachi." It was just a whisper, but Sakura heard it.

"Thank you." His head inclined toward her acknowledging her thanks, then he took in another deep breath and continued.

"The last man standing there, looked down to the ground then at his rifle, then he looked at me. I didn't know what he was going to do, but it didn't matter anymore. My brother, no… my whole clan was gone except for my mother and I. Sometimes I wish he would have finished the job, but he just threw his rifle into the lava Itachi had summoned and left. I still don't know why he didn't kill me, but whatever the reason he just left."

"After that people stopped looking for my kind, and my mother and I lived peacefully for several years. She still believed that our family was out there somewhere, trying to make it back; but I always knew they wouldn't come back. I knew that they were murdered just like my brother." Sasuke brought one of his hands up and wiped the tears away from his eyes, he was still staring blankly at the wall, but there were no more tears shed. Sakura couldn't get one thing out of her head so she decided one more question wouldn't hurt.

"So what happened to your mother? I haven't seen her around here, does she go somewhere else?" Sasuke took in a shaky breath, caught off guard.

"She died… in her sleep about two hundred years ago." Sakura's eyes widened but she didn't say anything. What was there to say? Sasuke had been living alone for two hundred years and he was still alive? Wait was it even possible? How could anyone live that long, even if they did live in a volcano?

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AN: Well I know that this is a week late, but hey it's my longest chapter yet. I fell a little bit behind in my NaNoWriMo, but I hope to make it up this week. Wish me luck, and if you would drop off your thoughts on my progress that would be awesome. :)