Chapter Four: Day Break

Homura, now panting, was relieved to find himself seated on a bed in his chambers. He quickly touched Koharu to release her from the genjutsu as she apparently hadn't been able to do so herself. The boy that was now facing him was much older, and fairly composed, his lips curled upwards in a cruel smile and his crimson eyes remained fixed on him.

"There they are. The eyes of the devil. How foolish was I to imagine that I'd never see them again?" Homura managed.

"I promise you this will be your last time."

Koharu had heard Sasuke's vow, but she found that she could not concentrate on the battle unfolding before her. She could barely look up as the two men charged at each other. She hardly flinched as a loud blast and the following crash echoed in her ear from not too far away. She knew what she should do. She should be alert in order to survive, so that she could be of help to her partner. They should hinder the troubled boy as much as possible while calling for reinforcements. They should do whatever they could for Konoha. Wasn't this, like everything else they've done, justifiable because they had the best interests for the population at heart? Why then, wasn't she able to secure this plan that they had worked out so long ago?

Only when she saw his determined face appear before her once more did she finally know exactly what had to be done.

"I suppose this means that it is now my turn?" she tried to ask him this gently, but her coarse voice had long since lost the smoothness of youth.

He had no reply.

"No questions?"

To this he stepped closer towards her, she would not pull away from him.

"Quite a few. But do you have any answers?"

"That I'm willing to share?"

"Hn" He was leaning on his katana, but she knew that this did not mean he had his guard down.

"You must want to know, quite desperately, why we took such harsh action? That is to say, what made us make that fatal decision we made."

The look in her eyes was quite distant, but Sasuke assumed that all elders shared that look, as though they were always remembering the past they had once lived.

She continued softly, "That your clan was a troublesome matter was no secret to anyone in charge in Konoha. It was a series of individual incidents that had charged the village's peaceful air with the electric notions of rebellion. We were quite fearful that a civil war was upon us. It wasn't simply the fear that we would be overthrown, though I must say some worried about that issue more than others, but can you imagine what an internal war would bring about? How would we be able to keep that a secret from enemy villages? How would we defend ourselves should we be attacked? How many lives would be lost?" She ventured one look towards him only to discover it was meaningless to do so, the boy conveyed no emotions.

"We were all left scrambling to fix the upset, we were willing to do anything- such were the Hokage's orders. I'll tell you this now, as far as what was suggested, no one ever considered a- a genocide! We tried to patch up the shaky bonds, we were even hopeful that we had managed to succeed. So it was a single, independent event that occurred shortly afterward which led us to believe that we truly had no other option."

Koharu had to admit that, had she been younger, the look the boy now gave her would have left her anxious and quite upset.

"What event?" he asked coldly.

She had already made her decision and with a short, hesitant intake of breath, she continued on, "It was a prophecy, or should I say- a vision."

"A vision?"

"Some ninja are gifted in such a way, surely you've heard of-"

"I know what visions are, and the speculations that concern them," he replied irritably, "what kind of vision?" he stressed every word.

"The vision was quite vivid, it was reoccurring, there was no doubt of its accuracy-"

"What was it of?" he snapped at her.

"It was of the elimination of Konoha," She paused slightly to look into his crimson eyes. "By a member of the Uchiha clan."

Sasuke scrutinized the look Koharu gave him while watching out for any intruders that might appear in his peripheral vision. He had been wary that this conversation was just a ploy to slow him down. He noticed the blood pounding in his ears, and faintly in the distance, the chirping birds awaiting the break of dawn. The question lingered on his lips for a single moment. He considered, for another, if she'd answer him truthfully.

"Whose vision?" He wondered if she could, just as Madara had, change the course of his life with a few simple words.

She paused then; there must have been something she was worried about. She answered him nevertheless. "A little girl." Her simple answer was followed by a longer pause. Sasuke deliberated if Koharu's old mind was having trouble conjuring up the details.

"She's around your age actually."

Little girl's faces darted across Sasuke's mind and he willed the thoughts to slow down so that he could pick the most appropriate candidate.

"You know her quite well."

Sasuke's eyes widened at what he was told. His mind had brought up the required image- and with it quite a few useless details. His stomach churned. A golden glow spilled over Koharu's wrinkled face, amplifying the slashes that marked many years of struggles. Desperately hoping she had done the right thing Koharu turned to watch the sun's orange rays gradually break through the late night's thickest cloak.

A/N: Let me know what you think! Where the writing triumphs and where it fails, and most importantly, if you'd be interested in reading what's to come.

Lutrashinobi as Betareader