The Path A Ninja Walks...

Chapter One

Homeward Bound

A/N: I have decided to re-write this story to limit down the cringe I had in its original form- HaHa to be fair I had started this story and have been developing it since I was 12 back when Naruto first came out before Shippuden- From here on in there WILL be new content- and some ol content will be removed.

Sorry for this inconvienience, but I hope you will enjoy its re-birth!

Sincerely,

Akarii Rose

XXXXXXXXXXXX

No...Please!

"Sasuke!"

No...No...Saseme!

Sasuke bolted upright in a cold sweat, tormented by the nightmares of the memories that continue to haunt him since that dreaded day... the day the sand men came and took his twin sister away...

Saseme...I'm so sorry!

Saseme...will you never forgive me, for being unable to save you that day?

Saseme...I wonder...do you continue to hate me to this day?

xxx

The shadows were shifting.

Thud...Thud...Thud...

One after another the bodies fell. There was so much blood...

"Sasuke?" had her twin not returned home yet? She had been sick with a fever and sleeping away most of the day...but...the house was so dark now...and quiet.

What time was it?

"Itachi? Are you home?" her voice was so soft...so small, raspy from the irritation in her throat. Small feet padding down the hall peeking around corners..she couldn't have been more than 7 or 8 years of age when she saw this horrific scene. Her twin brother shoved across the floor- before the fallen, bloodied bodies of their parents. She wanted to scream...but swallowed it back- not wanting to signal the culprit if they were still around...

Had someone broken in!?

The place didn't look ramsacked, she her confusion only grew. She wanted to run to aide Sasuke- but his eyes shifted toward her when he took notice, and with them, he warned his twin to stay hidden, and try to escape-

"Why?..." he was questioning someone.

The Assailant?

But wait...even she recognized this man...

"Itachi...?" Their oldest brother...

But...Why...?

In a scrambling of other memories not far from this night, she saw herself being taken away from her home. Screaming and crying for her twin, the only family she had that remained...

And he did... nothing.

Her eyes open slowly, forcing herself to rise up from her bedding. Her dark hair a mess around her and eyes looking sleepless despite having slept for endless nights riddled with nightmares...

She stood in the reflection of a sand dusted mirror. Her eyes have dazed over, lifeless and distant. A raspy male voice spoke out to her from the shadows of the doorway...

"Why do you still wear that crest?" he asks,"...It's trash."

"Maybe so..." She responds coldly,"But it is still my family's crest."

"...I am your family now." he says in response as he slowly slithers his hands around her waist and pressed his face gently into her hair,"You don't need anyone else...just me."

"Y-Yes...of course you are right." she spoke nervously, a chill shooting through her as his voice in her ear made her skin prickle.

"...If you dare turn against me, Saseme...I will kill you."

Her dark eyes widened, and she swallowed a large lump in her throat.

"...But of course you won't." he said coldly as he ran his fingers slowly against her cheek and gripped her chin tilting her head up to face him,"Saseme is a good girl, no...you won't dare disobey."

"Of course I won't." she responded cooly, remaining still before him,"Everything will go as planned."

He stood before her, unmoving, staring her down in silence.

"...Then, I will see you soon." he said to her, to which she responded:

"...Yes, you will."

And I swear, by then...

I will have saved you...

Gaa-chan.

Watching the boy's back intently as he walked away, burning his motions into her sharingan until he was gone and she had looked back at herself in the mirror.

The memories of us, were pleasant ones...were they not, my dear brothers...?

She thought to herself, eyes closing, to play through the scenes of the past that she could still see.

xxx

"Saaseemee!" a young Sasuke called out with both hands cupped over his cheeks,"Come out already!"

"...Still can't find her, little brother?" an older Uchiha chuckled, watching the young one stumble about with little success of their "missing" younger sister.

"No I can't, no matter where I look!" the young one pouted and crossed his arms, pondering where he could possibly try next.

"I see, perhaps you should head home then." said the older,"I will keep looking for our sister."

"No fair! Why can't I come, Itachi!?" Sasuke pouted,"She's my twin I should be the one to find her!"

"Mother and Father will worry if you are out too long." said Itachi,"You should go, stall for time."

"I-I know, but-"

The older brother chuckled and motioned the younger one forward. Puzzled, the younger one obliged, only to be met with a jab to the forehead.

"...I'm sorry, Sasuke. Next time."

Looking rather unamused, the younger brother gave the older a look of defiance before finally sighing in defeat.

"Fine!" he pouted,"But you better find her, quick!"

"Of course, Sasuke." Itachi said with a gentle smile,"Thank you."

With that, the younger brother stuck his tongue out and bolted off toward home, to buy time for his missing twin to return. Though as the older brother waved him off, he needed not to travel far from the tree he stood under, giving it a few knocks before speaking.

"Okay, Saseme, he's gone now." he chuckled,"But you know, you're causing him an awful lot of un-needed grief, you little monkey."

Down popped the head of a young girl, almost identical in looks to Sasuke who just ran off.

"It's not my fault that he didn't think to look up!" she huffed, swinging from the branch she clung to with her feet.

"...So you used Chakra to get up into that tree?" Itachi chuckled,"That's quite an advanced technique for one of your age." he said to her,"It's even considered advanced for me."

"Y-Yeah..." she muttered weakly,"And it's much harder than it looks...I think...I'm about all out of Chakra."

"What!?" His eyes widened as he watched the small child fall weakly from the limb, "Saseme!"

"I swear, child...you and Sasuke are going to be the death of me someday."

"Hehe, sorry Itachi." the small child stuck her tongue out cheekily as she lay slumped weakly on his back.

"You are advanced in your ability little sister, but you lack skill of control...If you're not careful, the drain could end you."

"...Perhaps that would be better for Sasuke." she said softly with a pinch of sadness that caused worry in the older brother.

"Now why on earth would you think something like that?" he asked in concern as he adjusted the girl's weight on his back.

"I dunno..." she sighed,"I just feel like Sasuke doesn't like me sometimes." she closed her eyes for a bit as she continued,"It's not like mother or father care to notice anything I do..."

Itachi held a silence as he glanced back at his younger sister's weakened state.

"Saseme...you and Sasuke are twins, but you are not the same." he said softly,"For you two are very different people." he chuckled lightly focusing on the road ahead as he continued,"You, Saseme, learn things faster than Sasuke does...I am sure that frustrates him sometimes." he sighed,"But this does not make you smarter than him, nor vise versa. You two just learn differently. Everyone does."

Though this talk her older brother shared, did not seem to console her.

"I can assure you, Saseme, Sasuke does not 'dislike' you." he said softly."If anything, he is beyond proud of you."

"Are you sure?" she asked with a hint of doubt in her voice,"Because he sure doesn't act like it."

Itachi gave an amused chuckle to his sister's claim before flipping her over his shoulders into his arms, leading her into a squealing giggle fest.

"Saseme-chan...let me tell you a little secret about us big brothers." he grinned,"It's true, we don't always say 'I Love You' but we always show it."

"Really? Always?" she blinked,"How so?"

The older brother gave a warm smile and a playful poke to her forehead, causing a squeak to be released from her lips before rubbing the red mark that he left behind.

"...In our own, strange way." he smiled.

"Pfff...Ne...Itachi?"

"Yes, Saseme? What is it?"

"You...Sasuke...me...we're pals right?"

"Pfff...Pals, you say?" Itachi chuckled in his amusement,"It's quite obvious you grew up with brothers." he teased.

"Are we not?"

She looked up at him with dark, innocent eyes that melted his heart as he chuckled.

"Yes...I suppose we are."

"We'll always be together, forever! Right?"

"Ah..." this sentence seemed to throw Itachi off guard in a way that left his sister in slight confusion,"Well..." he spoke softly,"Listen close to me, Saseme...I must tell you something very important."

"Oh...Okay." she watched as her older brother kneeled down to his knees before her.

"When you close your eyes and listen to your heart..."he said softly,"There will be a voice inside that whispers to you, of the things brought and given to you by those you love and meet." he blinked,"Now, I want you to close your eyes, and listen closely to your heart's message about me."

Raising an eyebrow in confusion Saseme closed her eyes and listened, as her brother said.

"Do you hear it?"

"I...think so." she said softly,"It says-" before she could finish, her brother pressed his finger gently to her lips to silence her.

"Don't tell me what it says..." he said softly,"Just believe it." he smiled,"That voice in your heart...always listen to it...and always believe it."

xxx

I should have noticed then...

As my big brother cried while acting so strangely, that naivete consumed the mind and soul of innocence.

xxx

"Ugh, stupid twin sister! You're lucky I covered for you!" the older twin hovered over his sister's futon," You would have been in big trouble if not for me and Itachi!"

"Yeah...thanks for that."

The twins stared each other down before both bursting into a fit of hushed giggles so as not to wake their sleeping family.

"Man I dunno what you're gonna do without me when we finally start at the academy in different classes."

"Aren't you the least bit nervous, Sasuke?"

"Me? No way!"

"Well...I'm glad to know one of us isn't scared."

"I said I wasn't nervous, Saseme...not that I wasn't scared." the older twin smiled and layed on his belly next to his sister.

"Really?" she blinked, rolling to her side to face him,"But you're not scared of anything."

"That's not entirely true." he said softly,"When I think about what might happen to you when I'm not there...I get scared sometimes."

The younger twin smiled and slowly rose to Sasuke's level.

"Somehow, knowing that even my big brother gets scared for me, makes me not so scared anymore." she giggled.

"Yeah? Well don't get used to it!" he huffed, papping her in the face with her own pillow,"Just because we will be in different classes, doesn't mean I won't be better than you!"

xxx

On that day...

I trusted broth of my brothers.

...An unforgiving mistake.

xxxxx

"We're arriving, Saseme." an older male spoke ahead, pulling her away from her memories. shifting her eyes to meet with the fellow escorting her back to where she first called home- Returning after 4 years, and 3 days of travel later...she could see the gates to the Hidden Leaf Village in the distance.

Yes...

A mistake.

...One that I will be sure to never make again.

To be Continued