Crimson Seal - 5
Here's to sating your curiosity.
The sun was shining as he made his way home, his footwear drumming out a steady beat as he walked. He was surrounded by short stone buildings, mainly shops that occasionally had a house attached on the ground floor rather than it being on the second floor. They would be closing in a few hours when the sun set for the day, but for now they were busy and Sasuke found himself enveloped in sound.
"I'll have a pound of those," a villager said, pointing at something on the cart.
"Sure thing," the owner replied, already grabbing the item and weighing it out before putting it in a bag.
"Apples for sale!" another store owner exclaimed from their own store front.
He steadily began to drown out the voices, first the loud yells, then the usual steady voices, before moving on to the quiet murmurings beneath it all.
"Oh, that's him. It's horrible what happened back then, isn't it? I can't imagine what it must feel like to have not only your family, but your entire clan killed by your elder brother." His feet suddenly refused to move as the villager continued to whisper, "It had to have been awful to go into that house to find his parents dead."
There was a grunted agreement from another one as they lifted something from a shelf. "True, but it's old history now. The real mystery still at this moment is why Itachi did it and why if he killed his parents he didn't kill his brother. Compared to the rest of the clan at the time he was young, inexperienced, and would have died easily if his brother did try and kill him."
"He wasn't there for the massacre, remember?" the other villager pointed out. "His brother disappeared after the clan was killed."
"Itachi hasn't disappeared off the face of the world. Rumor has it that he's with the Akatsuki now."
"The Akatsuki? Isn't that that organization of S-rank criminals?"
"Well, Itachi is an S-rank criminal so I'm sure it suits him to be around others of his kind."
"Yeah, a group of murderers, just like him. Must be why he chose them as his new family-"
Sasuke couldn't listen to them talk about his brother like that anymore. He turned swiftly on the heel of his foot, his footfalls coming down harder than before as he walked over, eyes narrowed as he felt his very blood become akin to liquid fire in his veins.
They didn't see him until he was standing right there, the two still talking about his clan, his family, his brother, as if no one could hear them just because they were whispering. Well, he could hear them. "Itachi isn't a murderer and he's my family so stop talking about both of them." The two became instantly quiet as if they had just been publicly lashed in a town square. "My clan may be dead but that doesn't mean you talk about them as if they're a pile of garbage. They kept the peace in this city before that day, protecting imbeciles like you so respect their memory instead of trampling all over it," his words came out in a growl before he turned away walking down the road quickly and ignoring the looks from anyone that had turned and looked at the spectacle as if it was some sort of circus.
Damn it. He barely restrained himself from kicking a rotten orange in front of him and giving them more to talk about after he left. Because they would start again, but now it would likely be more than just those two. Damn them all. Couldn't they ever shut up about it?
At least it wasn't as common anymore, like in the first year after the massacre it was a large topic of conversation. Granted, most people had the sense to talk about it behind closed doors, but there were some that expressed their opinions openly. Those were the people he really couldn't stand. It had been years now and he would still catch them talking about the massacre as if it had just happened yesterday.
It was even worse when they started talking about the whereabouts of his brother, as if they knew it for a fact. The one might have called it a rumor, but they spoke about it as if it were true. Maybe it was. Maybe his brother was with the Akatsuki now for whatever reason, but that didn't matter. Since everyone thinks Itachi killed the clan it's not like he could come back to the village anyway. They would force him out the moment they saw him, send the Anbu he had been apart of to get him not only out of the village, but out of the country.
If the only place his brother could be without some idiot chasing him away was the Akatsuki then so be it.
The door slammed behind him as he entered the still deserted house. It was disturbing each time he came through the door to not be greeted by his mother and Itachi - when his brother had been home that is, the Anbu had kept him busy most of the time - usually ignored by his father if he was home. It was only in the year before the massacre that his father's attitude about him started to change, telling him he didn't need to follow in Itachi's footsteps, that he should learn at his own pace. His father had been giving him the same respect he had been giving his brother before he was killed. His mother had been kind as always, encouraging him to do his best and bandaging him up when he trained too hard.
Everything had been getting better before that day. That night. When he...
He was walking back to the house after using his family's private training grounds that would be open to friends and other clan members sometimes. When they got permission or were told that's where one of them was and needed to speak with them that is. Besides those rare occasions it was mostly his brother and him that trained there. Sometimes his mother would be there, but his father rarely went as he was too busy with the police force and likely didn't need the extra practice to keep his ninja skills sharp like mother. Why would he when he got all the practice he needed in the field at work?
As the tall buildings were beginning to shrink around him, the cables on shorter poles as he walked he wondered if father would teach him a new Uchiha technique tomorrow. He would have an extra hour before work so it was possible and certainly something for him to look forward to.
If not though maybe he could convince his brother to help him with his shuriken technique. That would be nice after the days Itachi had spent out on another Anbu mission.
Or perhaps-
He stopped walking, glancing around quickly to find the source that had just made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. There was nothing he could see though; no twisted shadows that might be hiding someone, just silent buildings that contained sleeping villagers. His eyes landed last on a pole for the cables, the place where he had felt eyes the strongest.
There was nothing there.
Sasuke sighed, moving his gaze to the Uchiha compound but finding that he couldn't make himself take another step forward. All the lights were out, there wasn't a single candle flickering in a window. That was weird. Most people may be asleep at this time but like with every other clan or village there were a few night owls up as well. Especially in a village of ninja. So why weren't they up while the majority were asleep? Just why? "Why are all the lights out?"
Even after speaking aloud no answer came to him and after another second passed he was able to move his feet again and he was running forward. Past the buildings of the village and into the compound, nearly coming to a screeching halt when he saw the bodies that littered the pathway, the blood splattered over stone and glass alike. Just this one path looked as if a river of blood and organs had swept through it. He didn't want to know what the rest of the compound looked life now with his question answered.
There wasn't any lights on because they were all dead.
All dead.
Wait. No... no, no, no.
"Father! Mother! Brother!" he cried out as he sprinted forward past the ghastly sight of even more bodies, making his way towards his house. A house that looked largely untouched from the gore surrounding it and he dashed inside, calling out for his parents.
No matter how he raised his voice no answer came to him, just his own voice echoing down the hallways and into large empty rooms. They had to be here somewhere. Maybe they couldn't answer him?
He ran from room to room, stopping at the last door to find himself shaking from head-to-toe. The air was thick with the smell beyond it, of iron, blood. It made his head spin, vision going nearly black as he tried to focus. He knew before he opened the door what he would find.
Their bodies.
His mother and father were lying face down on the ground. If it weren't for the angle of their bodies, the blood blooming out around them they could have been asleep. As hard as it would have been he could have thought they had been so tired they just passed out there on the floor. If only their chests rose and fell with a breath, if only.
His eyes were stinging as he stepped into the room, staring forward at that one patch of floor, unable to tear his gaze away. "Mother," he croaked out. "Father." Sasuke stumbled over the floor boards, barely catching himself on the stained floor as he found himself staring at the blood. His own hands now covered in their blood.
It felt like an hour had passed by the time he was able to tear his gaze away, smearing blood onto the wall as he stood up. His whole body felt entirely too heavy to be moving around but he made his way across the room, scanning the floor for his brother's body. Looking for drops of blood away from his parents, each with a hole in their chest and a slit throat.
He didn't want to think about what had happened to them, who had done it. He just wanted to find his brother. Alive. It wouldn't matter if he was injured or bleeding, as long as he wasn't dead like everyone else.
He hadn't found him though. Sasuke remembered stumbling back into that room with his parents, legs collapsing beneath him the instant he stepped inside. The same place the police found him later that night. Everything after that became a blur, just instances of clarity. Like when he first heard someone accuse his brother of killing the entire clan. Just because they couldn't find him.
Sasuke wanted to find him. To ask what had happened that night while he was training so late. To know who had killed everyone. The likelihood of finding him was the equivalent of finding a viper in a coil of rope though. When he became a genin maybe he would have a chance to find him and speak with him. Maybe. He would keep hoping.
Hoping that his life could go back to what it was before that day. Even if it was without his mother and father.
A clang sounded as the pot connected with the counter. The flow of water coming from the kitchen spout was constant as Mikoto grabbed another dish from the stack to her left while speaking over the constant noise in the room, "So Sasuke, how did the training go over on the grounds today?"
"Great," he replied quickly as his gaze was still on Itachi. He hadn't moved or spoken since coming into the room after mother insisted he be there to spend some quality time with the family.
It was her excuse to see Itachi he supposed since he was hardly ever home after advancing to chunin status. "Itachi? What about you? How did your last mission go?"
"Went off without a hitch," his brother finally spoke, his own gaze not lifting from the grains of wood of the table.
"Oh? What was it for?" Mikoto pressed for more information as she scrubbed at a stubborn dirty plate.
"Escorting a painter to a small town." Itachi seemed to be giving her the bare minimum of a response. In a sense it was the usual way he spoke, quick and precise, but he seemed almost... tense.
"A painter? That must have been nice. What sort of paintings did they specialize in?" His mother was obviously fishing for a more dedicated response.
"Landscapes."
Sasuke turned his head just in time to see his mother looking at Itachi, pinching her bottom lip in thought before she was turning back to the sink. "Sasuke." She must have given up on her eldest son. "What did you work on while you were training?" He didn't answer at first, still wondering what was up with his brother until there was a prompting, "Hm?" from his mother.
"The kunai and taijutsu, mostly the latter," he replied, looking back to his mother now.
She let out an amused laugh. "You were using the gauntlet, then?"
"A bit," he confessed, even though he knew he shouldn't. Mainly because his father said so. Something about him being too young and the gauntlet before for intermediate skills, not beginners to the ninja trade.
"Don't worry. I'll keep it a secret." Mikoto turned, winking at him before her gaze landed on Itachi. "You'll keep the secret too, won't you Itachi?" she asked with a grin.
His brother still didn't move, just said, "It's safe with me."
"Good to hear it." His mother turned back to the dishes, glancing out the window as rain began to fall. "I hope this weather doesn't continue for the weekend. It would be a waste of some nice family time if we couldn't go out to the training grounds together." There was only a muttered agreement from Itachi. "Hinata's birthday is on Sunday, isn't it?"
Sasuke blinked, turning to look at his mother with a raised brow. But she didn't offer up any explanation for such a random announcement, just kept washing the dishes while humming softly under her breath as if she hadn't said a word.