Chapter 25 - Blurred Vision

Yakata had never thought of his house as small. There wasn't much to compare it to, anyways. The only person in the village with a bigger house was the elder, really, and that was because, well, he was the elder. Of course he got a bigger house.

Houses just generally remained the same shape and size in his village, for convenience and such, and this did not change after the landslide. Yakata's house, just like everyone else's house, had a big main room, with a hearth, and two (or three, if you had wood and skill or something to give to the carpenter) side rooms, separated by sliding wooden doors. Of course, bigger families expanded their houses with the addition of children, normally, but not by much.

And then there were buildings like the school house and the temple, which were supposed to be big.

And then there was Sasuke's house. It was enormous.

Yakata tried hard not to stare as Sasuke opened the front gate and led him in. Still, he couldn't help himself. "This is… this is where you live?"

"Well, of course," Sasuke said. "You expected something different?"

Yakata didn't reply. He was already feeling a bit overwhelmed, after having to fill out a visitor's form at some official-looking building near the center of the city. People were staring at him already.

"Don't worry, they're staring at me, not you," Sasuke had said, in a vague sort of reassurance. Yakata had no idea how Sasuke knew this, but it felt better to trust him.

Sasuke told him to take his shoes off in the foyer, and put down his pack on the floor. "Ino! I'm back!"

"I'm in the living room!" a female voice said.

"Leave your bag on the ground, we'll come back for it later," Sasuke said, so Yakata did so, placing it next to his shoes. They went down the hallway together, and Sasuke opened a sliding door to their left, where the tinny sounds of dramatic speech were seeping into the air.

A skinny, yellow-haired woman in a purple dress sat at a low table in front of a couch, watching a large television and eating from a bowl of rice crackers. Yakata had seen televisions before, but there wasn't much of a use for them out in the country, since they were so expensive, and they required so much electricity to use. Most people just had radios, if anything.

She didn't look at Sasuke as she talked. "How'd your trip go?"

"Splendidly."

"What'd you do out there?"

"What I needed to."

She sighed. "Anything more specific? You kind of ran off without much explana…" She finally turned to look at them. Her eyes were strange and beautiful, Yakata noticed, a glass-like green, without any black to them. "…Sasuke, who is that?"

"This is Yakata," Sasuke said. He put his hand behind Yakata's back. "Yakata, this is my wife, Ino."

"It's… it's nice to meet you, ma'am," Yakata said, bowing, to be polite.

Ino's mouth was shaking, slightly. "Sasuke, who is that?"

"He's exactly who you think he is," Sasuke said.

"Sasuke, what does that-"

"He's going to be staying with us until the end of the summer."

Ino's mouth stretched wide. She breathed in and out through her nose, then, said, "When was this decided?" She turned the television off when it began to laugh, glaring at it, punching the button on the remote with her thumb.

"I arranged it with his parents. I'm going to be training him until the harvest."

"Training…?" Ino began to stand.

"By the way, have Inou and Karai been keeping up with their training?"

"Sasuke, answer my question, please!" Ino said.

"You answer mine, first." Sasuke's eyes narrowed.

Ino pressed her lips together again. They were painted a subtle pink-tan. "They've been training very hard, Sasuke."

"Are they out training, now?"

"Well, yes, but-"

"And Takeru and Hajime, where are they?"

"I don't… know, they both mentioned having things to do-"

"Well, call them all home. And cook something good for dinner tonight, something special."

"Sasuke, but - can you at least tell me why? And you haven't told me a thing about that boy!"

"His name is Yakata. Not 'that boy.'" Sasuke rolled his eyes. "And the dinner's for him. I want to introduce him to everyone."

Yakata's eyes kept darting between the two of them, through the entire exchange. Sasuke's hard face, then Ino's thin, baffled one, then back to Sasuke.

Then he remembered: she was the one that had discovered his father's letters, hadn't she? Was that why she looked so surprised? It seemed the most likely option.

"Just… where did you find him?" she asked, after closing her eyes, taking a deep breath in, and out, and then opening them. Her body seemed suddenly smaller.

"I'll explain everything later. Now, make sure the children are all home for dinner, I know you're able to do that," Sasuke said.

"Of course, Sasuke…" she said, softly, and looked at Yakata. There was understandable confusion in her eyes. "Er, Yakata, was it…?"

"Yes, ma'am," Yakata said.

He saw her stiffen. Her thin shoulders rose, slightly. "…what would you like me to make you for dinner?" She was suddenly smiling, and it almost scared Yakata, how quickly she had put the expression on her face.

"Oh, I, I, I don't mind, ma'am, you can, um. You, you can make anything you want, I guess…" Yakata said. He almost couldn't look at her without cold awkwardness settling into his stomach. "I'm, I'm not picky, really…"

Ino's smile fell, very, very slightly. "Of course... I'll make… stir fry, then, that usually serves a lot of people."

"I had stir fry yesterday," Sasuke said.

"Well, Sasuke, was there any way for me to know that?" Ino said. She put one hand on her forehead, and the other one on her hip.

"Actually, if, if it's more convenient for you, that's, that, that's fine with me…" Yakata said.

There was a pause. "Fine, then, we'll have stir-fry," Sasuke said. He began to leave. "Come on, Yakata. I'll show you the old compound, since this'll take a while. It's not too far away."

"Oh, uh, okay," Yakata said. He followed quickly behind, only getting another glance of Sasuke's wife, who held her elbows and pursed her lips, watching them leave.

The old compound, or whatever it was that Sasuke called it, was a short walk away from the house. There was a very big wall around it, and a gate, though there wasn't much behind it. Above the gate was a strange insignia in faded paint, a circle, half-red, half-white. "So, so what is this place?" Yakata said.

"It's where I grew up," Sasuke replied. He put his hands in his pockets, looking up at the gate. "Nobody lives here anymore, though."

"Wh-why's that?" Yakata said.

Sasuke didn't say anything.

Then, Yakata saw a sign, by the gate. "UCHIHA MEMORIAL: These grounds, the former site of the Uchiha clan's compound, stand as a memorial to the lives lost on the night of October 23th, Akiwa 37 (8 BU). May such atrocities never occur again."

And then, Yakata remembered something that Sasuke had said, something about how he and his children and Yakata were the only things left of the Uchiha clan.

He decided not to ask about it again, feeling incredibly unsettled. "So, so, um what… what did you want to, to, show me here?" he said, instead.

"I just thought it'd be nice to show you where… your father and I grew up," Sasuke said. "There's a lot to see here."

"Oh, okay, then. L-lead the way, I guess!" Yakata said.

So Sasuke did.

As they went along, Sasuke talked; about how that used to be the bakery, how that used to be his mother's cousin's house, that was his great-uncle's house, that was where he used to go and get his clothes repaired.

"There's something to be said about Uchiha handiwork," Sasuke said, proudly, wistfully. "There's something in the stitches that other tailors just can't replicate."

"I see…" Yakata said, because replies were necessary things in instances like this.

Yakata's replies became smaller and smaller, the more Sasuke showed him of the compound. The way that Sasuke talked about the places they were visiting made it seem like they were grand monuments, or the homes of wonderful people that you'd have to be crazy not to love.

But there weren't any buildings. Anywhere. Just dry earth and weeds, and rubble, here and there.

The ghosts of houses, maybe. But Yakata couldn't see them. The people who used to live there were just as gone.

"And this was where my house was," Sasuke was suddenly saying, pointing to another empty space. It was large, and barren. Just like the rest of the compound.

But Yakata found it suddenly hard to breathe. His chest felt tight, his hair was standing on end.

He couldn't say anything. He couldn't move.

And he felt very, very cold.

"…Yakata, what's wrong," Sasuke said. He bent down, slightly. "Are you okay?"

Yakata tried to swallow. He shook his head.

Sasuke put a hand on his back. "Calm down. You're fine." It was almost a comfort, but mostly a command.

"I, I, I, I just… I, I don't feel good here…" Yakata managed to choke out. His breaths were deep. His jaw rattled.

Sasuke was quiet for a while. His hand felt strange on Yakata's back. He could almost feel Sasuke's fingers trembling, too - or was that just his own trembling? "Let's go somewhere else. I'll show you my favorite place."

"O-okay," Yakata said. And he went along with Sasuke's arm on his shoulder, pushed toward their destination, as the chills slowly began to fade away.

By the time they made it to the lake, he could breathe again.

"Here," Sasuke said, walking out onto the dock ahead of him. He had finally taken his hand off of Yakata's back. "I used to come here to think when I was younger, when I needed to clear my mind. Still do, really."

"It, it's pretty…" Yakata said, and he really meant it. It was the only thing there that didn't make him feel supremely uncomfortable. The sky was just beginning to turn a yellowish-gold, and it made the surface of the water shine like polished stone, or glass.

Sasuke sat down at the edge of the dock, cross-legged, and motioned for Yakata to do the same. "I think it might be a good idea to just slow down a bit. We're both a little tired."

Yakata just nodded, and sat. His head tilted sideways, his shoulders slumping. He felt his shirt sticking to his back - had he really been sweating that much?

For a while, there was a silence, and calmness.

And then there was the woman's voice, a high-pitched, breathy yell, as if she were extraordinarily winded. "…please, please, calm down! They're gone! …is that him?"

Yakata had no idea that anyone could get to their feet and dash out of sight as fast as Sasuke did a moment later. Yakata's hair rustled in the wind he left behind.

By the time Yakata got to his feet he saw Sasuke yelling at a woman with long black hair a bit away from the dock. He couldn't quite hear what they were saying, but the words "Leave us be!" and "Enough!" were loud enough to make it Yakata's way. They were Sasuke's words.

An instant later, Sasuke was at Yakata's side, and he had his hand in a grip on Yakata's wrist. "We're leaving," he said. He walked very quickly, avoiding the black-haired woman, who just stood where she had stopped, a sleepy, befuddled look on her face.

"Wh-what happened? Who… who was that?" Yakata asked. Sasuke was pulling at him, and he pulled hard. It almost hurt.

"Her name," Sasuke said, "is Murasaki. If you ever run into her, don't listen to a word she says. She is sick in the head and she hates our clan and she speaks only lies. Stay. Away. From her."

Yakata had never heard anyone sound so angry.

He promised he would stay away.

"And another thing, Yakata."

"Yes?" Sasuke's grip was tight.

"Do not ask or even talk about your father to anyone but me, do you understand?"

The cold feeling in Yakata's stomach returned. "Wh-why not?"

"…my wife and children didn't know him very well, when he was still alive. If you asked about him they'd just get confused. I want to save you the embarrassment."

Sasuke's grip was very strong, and there was absolutely no kindness in his voice. Yakata's chest felt cold, and tight.

(But what about everyone else…?)

He promised he would do that, too.

They went back to Sasuke's home. Yakata's wrist was a little sore, and he rubbed it after Sasuke let go, once they had reached the gate.

Some of his family seemed to have manifested while they were gone. As they were taking off their shoes, a girl in a pale green blouse came down the stairs. Her black hair fell over her shoulders and well past her waist, to her knees. She had the most beautiful eyes Yakata had ever seen, half-closed, with heavy lashes. He couldn't tell where the black ended in them and the color began.

They were gone in an instant, however, as she turned back and started walking up the stairs again, before she could even reach the floor.

Sasuke's eyes were narrowed.

"Who, who was that?" Yakata said.

Sasuke didn't answer.

Yakata went over a handful of names again in his mind. Five children, two of them female. The one named Karai was eleven, around his age. So she must have been…

"Nadeshiko? That, that was… that was Nadeshiko, wasn't it?"

Sasuke still didn't look at him, but he stopped taking his shoes off for a moment. "Yes," he said, very quietly, as if speaking any louder would break something. "It was." He continued on with his shoes, pulling them off forcefully.

Yakata could smell cooking meat, now, faintly, and sesame oil.

"You're a mess. You should go take a bath. I'll show you where the bathroom is," Sasuke said. His voice was low and flat.

Yakata couldn't disagree. So Sasuke showed him where the bathroom was and left him to his own devices.

For reasons he could not quite process, strange tears started leaking out of Yakata's eyes about halfway through the bath, after he managed to figure out which shampoo was which and rinsing out his hair. They were thick tears, and quiet ones.

He figured he was just homesick, as he wiped them away with the back of his hand; the tears ceased as suddenly as they had come.

(Though some part of him, oh, some part of him, was wondering if he was really making the right decision.)

(Why was Sasuke in such a bad mood, he wondered? Was it because of him?)

(And even in the warmth of the bath he could still remember that chill he had felt in front of Sasuke's old home, the place where he was not meant to be, he just knew it.)

When he was finished, while drying his hair with a towel, he found that fresh clothes from his pack had been left out for him; the dirty ones he'd been wearing had disappeared. Confused at first, he smiled a little and put them on, some warmth returning to his chest.

Maybe this wouldn't be so bad.