Sasuke was still lying under the bed and stared into space. His tears had run dry but he was still shaking uncontrollably. His head felt completely empty and he couldn't bring himself to move, so he just lay there not knowing what to do. He just wanted to stay under this bed forever so he would never have to face the cruel reality of what had just happened.

But suddenly he heard some strange crackling sound. He strained his ears and now he heard it clearly. There was something outside his door. And it was coming closer. The fear crept back into Sasuke's bones. He wanted to run away, but he was too scared of what he would see when he left his hide-out.

He could hear the noise was now directly in front of his door. He saw smoke entering the room from under the door. The next moment that door was gone as it was devoured by the flames, which had already spread throughout the hallway.

'So that was their plan.' Sasuke thought. 'They set the house on fire to get me out.' They had probably surrounded the house and were waiting for him to come out of the house in an attempt to escape the flames.

Just these flames had already reached his brother's body and started to devour it. Sasuke watched horrified as the body in front of him caught fire and the flames kept on crawling towards him. He finally snapped out of his paralysis, realizing that if he didn't go now it would be too late. His mother and brother had done everything to protect him, he couldn't just let himself get killed now or they would have died in vain.

Sasuke collected all his strength to overcome his fear and leave his shelter. He was scared to turn around, as he knew that his mother's body had to be on the bed, but he didn't have the heart to leave his mother just like that. He slowly turned his head and just when he faced the bed another lightning lit up the room. Sasuke instantly regretted having looked back when he laid eyes on his mother's dead body staring at him, the fear still reflecting in her eyes. Her whole upper body was covered in blood, a kunai was still stuck in her chest. Her cheeks were wet from the tears she had shed. But that wasn't all. Blood was running down her face, pouring out of her forehead. Sasuke's eyes began to water again as he read the words carved into his his mother's forehead: 'WHORE'

But he didn't have much time to digest what he just saw, as he felt the heat inside the room was becoming unbearable. He ran towards the window and tore it open. Then he hesitated for a moment. It was obvious that it was a trap, but what other options did he have? If he stayed here he would burn to death, that was for sure. If he left the house he had at least a small chance to escape. He jumped out of the window and looked around. The garden seemed to be safe for now. Their house was surrounded by high walls, so most of them were probably waiting for him at the entrance. He couldn't be sure that some of them weren't watching the walls as well though.

Sasuke stopped for a moment to think straight when it hit him: their secret passage! Yasuo and him had found it some weeks ago. It was basically just a hole in the wall, but that hole was one a place of the wall where their house walls and the walls of the neighbouring house intersected. Actually Sasuke had always assumed that the walls were made from one piece of solid concrete but at that time they discovered that it was actually two walls next to each other, with a small passage between them, just wide enough enough for Sasuke to walk through.

The young boy ran over to the entrance of the passage and quickly removed the planks they had put there to keep the secret passage just that, secret. He rushed in and sneaked along the path, trying not to make any noise. After some time he had finally reached the end. There was another hole in the wall, which couldn't be seen from outside, as a bush was growing just in front of it. Sasuke had always wondered if someone had build this passage on purpose. He just couldn't imagine that a wall would break in two such convenient places.

He silently slipped out of the wall and ran into a small forest, where he hid under an old tree to catch his breath and to find shelter from the pouring rain.

-.-.-.-.-

Itachi was walking along a path leading through the woods when he finally saw light break through the endless rows of trees.

'Finally!' Itachi thought relieved. 'At least I won't have to worry about someone hiding behind the trees any more.'

He had just finished a mission in the Land of Earth and all he wanted to do now was to go home and get some rest. The mission hadn't been too difficult, he just had to take down some crooks who were terrorizing the area, but it had been a long journey and he hadn't got enough sleep in days. Thinking about the past nights, a yawn escaped his mouth.

Suddenly he stopped. If his ears didn't deceive him he had heard some voices from afar. He strained his ears.

"There he is!", "We found him!" whoever these voices belonged to, they seemed to be angry.

'That doesn't sound good!' Itachi thought and hurried towards the end of the woods.

-.-.-.-.-

"There he is!", "We found him!" the voices made Sasuke jump. 'No, no, no, oh please no!' he thought desperately. How could they have found him that quickly?

He promptly stood up and ran further into the forest, but it was to late. He heard the men's voices from afar, but they were coming closer with every second. Suddenly he had reached the end of the forest and was now standing on a small platform. There was nowhere left to go as his path was cut off by an abyss at the end of the platform. He looked down and saw that it had to be at least 25ft to the ground, no way he would survive a jump from up here. He looked around. All he could see was the forest in front of him. No matter where he went he would only bump into his attackers.

Before Sasuke could come up with an escape plan he saw his uncle step out into the light, grinning at him maliciously. "We found you. Now be a good boy and come over here."

From sheer fear Sasuke took a step back. In that moment a stone broke off the abyss, causing Sasuke to lose his balance. All he could do was to close his eyes before he fell.