Chapter 1
A different path
"You're joking right?"
His tone was cautious, laced with utter disbelief at the words coming from the youngest Uchiha.
They had gone up to the company's roof for a quick break when the Uchiha suddenly hit him with an insane conversation starter.
It caught Shisui by surprise but he laughed it off as the raven's poor attempt at conversation.
He simply was not willing to believe that Sasuke Uchiha didn't want to work in the family business.
It was simply barbarous!
For the Uchiha's, this company meant everything.
It was passed down from generation to generation, each making it surpass its levels until the company held the number one spot in all of Konoha.
But suddenly, the next guy in line after Itachi didn't want any part of it?
Shisui wasn't buying it.
"You think I know how?" The raven remained stoic, paying no mind as Shisui made an incomprehensible expression.
Sasuke stared ahead, it was getting around evening and the sky that was usually painted with scattered hues of blue slowly started shifting pink and yellow as the clouds dispersed and enveloped the sky in a beautiful sunset.
He enjoyed visiting his father's company around this time because of how busy it got.
It was interesting seeing people with completely different lives having a good time working here.
In a way, he felt guilty by not feeling drawn to this place as much as others before him—it felt as if he was somehow being ungrateful for not appreciating the company his ancestors and father had fought so hard to build.
But he knew this was just not what he wanted—not what he was meant for.
He knew that unlike Itachi he would not excel in this type of work.
It wasn't like he didn't try—he did.
However, trying can only get you so far and it was almost painfully obvious that his 'trying' wasn't even merely satisfactory to his father, all it accomplished was to disappoint him.
And as always, disappointing his father led to him being lectured about how he couldn't do anything right and how his brother was and always would be better than him at everything.
Maybe he had a point—maybe Itachi really was and always would be better but Sasuke couldn't find it inside himself to really care.
Yeah, it pissed him off how his brother was just so fucking perfect and Sasuke's inferiority complex often times became more than clear but still, Itachi and him weren't the same and much to his father's disappointment they never would be.
Most of that disappointment was obviously directed to Sasuke who directly quoted from Fuagku, "could try and be more like his brother" or whatever the fuck that meant.
"I don't want this. I never want this. We all know Itachi is a better fit than me anyway,"
Shisui took in the weight of his words, the raven wasn't completely wrong.
Not to offend him or anything but the guy seriously sucked at the whole business thing. He thought back to the time when they first met—
Well, it technically wasn't their first time meeting since Shisui was well acquainted with Itachi and they were all related—but still, when Sasuke first joined the company as a trainee, Shisui was personally appointed by Fugaku to mentor him.
It was fine at first, the kid worked diligently and efficiently—always focused and Shisui had no doubt he was in the process of being able to even overpass Itachi.
It was naive thinking but Sasuke showed great understanding in all of the required fields until he was put to the test with a client and Shisui deadpanned when the realization hit him that the kid actually had no damn social awareness or skills.
He of course had to step in so the company didn't lose such an important client due to the raven simply staring them down as if he wanted to kill him whenever he asked questions—no seriously, the threatening aura emitting from Sasuke was even enough for Shisui to be on edge.
In the end, it was all resolved as soon as Shisui asked the raven to step out of the room for a bit and cool down.
Shisui thought fondly at the memory and chuckled, out of all things he expected the kid to not be good at, social skills were the least of his worries.
In the business world, being able to socialize was key.
Unfortunately for Sasuke, speaking to people was never his strong fort, always answering with a "Hn." or moving his head in affirmation or disagreement.
Shisui was one of the few people who actually got words uttered from the raven.
"So then what? You know Fugaku plans on having you join the company and he won't be taking no for an answer," He decided not to pay attention to what Sasuke said about Itachi, not like he was going to disagree.
After only two years of working in the company Itachi was already made vice president, serving right under Fugaku.
It was a great accomplishment. Considering how Itachi was barely in his twenties, not many could have done what he did or be willing to live their life with such heavy responsibilities on their shoulders.
But Itachi could.
He spent his days in the office, his nights in the office, and his mornings in the office—he never rested.
Lack of free time didn't throw Itachi off edge, he worked even harder and genuinely seemed to be into working for the company.
He was happy doing all of it, where others would've failed with the workload and given up, Itachi never once failed and even enjoyed it.
"Father won't know, at least not yet."
Shisui was drawn out of memory lane by the raven's bold words.
He saw Sasuke staring off as he delivered the phrase calmly, like keeping shit from Fugaku was the easiest thing ever.
Like Fugaku wouldn't raise hell if Sasuke didn't work for the company—like Fugaku wasn't capable of cutting the kid off entirely.
Yeah—he totally wasn't.
Shisui worried as the assumptions raced through his head, because spoiler: all of them ended horribly and were all insanely fucking accurate predictions as to what would happen.
He had no clue what the fuck was running through the damn Uchiha's head as the rooftop door closed shut and Shisui was left alone to his thoughts, dread settling it.
Sasuke Uchiha was going to literally raise hell on earth.
After the conversation with Shisui, Sasuke headed out of the company despite his father's complaints about him leaving early when his shift wasn't even near finished.
He still didn't understand why Fugaku was so insistent when he knew how Sasuke was.
When Sasuke was merely sixteen, conversations about him joining the company were already in suit.
His father held the same high expectations for Sasuke as he did for Itachi despite them being two years apart, the only difference was Itachi actually met them.
Unlike Sasuke who no matter how hard he tried it was never enough for Fugaku.
Nothing was ever enough.
Even now that he was seventeen, his father kept pushing and pushing until he finally agreed and joined as a trainee—not because of Fugaku but because of his mother practically pleading, "Just try it, please?" with those big doe eyes every Uchiha couldn't resist, especially not Sasuke.
Disappointing Fugaku was one thing, but disappointing his mother was a whole other situation.
That was one thing he would never do, he would never disappoint his mother no matter what.
Just the thought of Mikoto scrutinizing him with disappointment replacing her usual warm and soft expression caused Sasuke to clench his fists tight, his knuckles almost turning white.
He was drawn out of his mind when he heard a bottle shattering nearby and he looked up to realize he had no fucking clue where he was.
Just great, he was lost now.
The raven sighed, obviously annoyed with the predicament of not knowing where he was.
Not shortly after, he heard shouting and ignored it at first—believing it was some junkie drunk out of their mind, not like that was uncommon in Konoha. Every alley you walk past, rest assured that you'll encounter at least two or three drunks.
He didn't know when Konoha had suddenly gotten so hung up on drinking—but it happened.
Now everywhere you went, bottles were scattered all over the place accompanied by people on the ground obviously knocked out after their excessive alcohol consumption.
The shouting gradually got more intense and Sasuke suddenly worried, don't get him wrong, he didn't have any sort of hero complex and was definitely not willing to rush to whoever's aid but still—what the fuck was going on?
He was just curious, that's all.
Only thing is, Sasuke Uchiha did not get curious.
However it seemed like today was the day to suddenly have a change of heart because he of fucking course started heading directly towards the sounds of the shouting.
Usually, he would turn a blind eye to it and instead try to find his way home but something about this felt different—it felt like he was meant to go wherever the shouting was coming from.
He didn't know what any of that implied but suddenly it was as if his legs got a mind of their own and started picking up pace towards the shouting, like he was forcefully being drawn towards it.
It was dark and surprisingly crowded as he came to a halt, bright yellow lights obstructed his vision.
Where the fuck was he?
Sasuke looked around only to realize he was now surrounded by a bunch of random people enthusiastically reacting to a…boxing match?
Sasuke even felt himself paying attention to the match albeit being confused as to when the hell he even made it into the place.
Was it when he was walking towards the shouting?
He had no idea but whatever was going on seemed more important at the moment.
There were two guys in the ring, one with an odd bowl cut and green shorts adorned with orange designs, the other one with surprisingly red hair and a red birthmark on his face, unlike the other guy he was wearing black shorts with some sort of creature design—Sasuke had no fucking idea what it was really.
From what Sasuke could see, the bowl cut guy said something to the red hair one and from the looks of it, it wasn't something like 'I hope we have a good fight' because as soon as the referee gave the clear for the match to begin he practically assaulted the bowl cut guy.
One hit, two hits, three hits, blood practically sprawled all over the ring.
That had to hurt, Sasuke winced.
It kept going on like that for a few minutes, the red hair guy practically had control over the entire match.
Before red could land another hit, the bowl cut guy finally defended himself and struck him right in the jaw with an uppercut.
It was obviously a strong blow as red practically stumbled backwards and shook his head quickly as if trying to get rid of the pain and back in the game.
It was fascinating.
Sasuke pretty much muted the other people around him as they cheered on who they wanted to win, he was completely entranced in the fight.
He had seen boxing matches before but none like this. None of the matches he'd watched online or the ones he went to watch with Shisui gave him the same excitement this one did, the type of excitement that makes him want to jump in the ring himself and give it a try.
He had never actually boxed before but something—probably his insanely big ego, gave him the idea that he would be exceptionally good at it.
Maybe that was the adrenaline talking but the more the fight went on, the more he itched to get a piece of action himself.
By the end of the match both the fighters were bloody and badly bruised, both of them gave an amazing performance but in the end, red came out victorious.
There were barely ten seconds and the guy ended it with a jab, completely at ease.
Sasuke heard the crowd go silent as red's fist came into contact with the bowl cut guy's face and he dropped in an instant, everyone was left in utter shock, even Sasuke.
It was so—so quick, anyone would've missed it had they not been watching intensely. Bowl cut guy hit the mat with a loud boom, it clearly wasn't a normal jab—that or red was just insanely strong to deliver a blow like that.
The silence wasn't temporary as the crowd descended from their shock and started cheering loudly.
Once bowl cut regained consciousness they shook hands, for some odd reason despite losing he had a big grin on his face as red smirked ever so slightly, and then just like that the match ended.
Both fighters exited the ring and the referee announced a recession before two new competitors started their match, the crowd yelled out in distaste at having to take a break but soon calmed down as soon as drinks were mentioned, courtesy of the referee.
Sasuke had left as soon as the match between red and bowl cut ended, his itching for a piece of action still wasn't satisfied as he headed home. While walking he kept thinking about the match, how it started and how it ended.
Gaara's move was what really got a hold on him, it was just so perfect.
There was no room for mistake in his move, it was just so calculated and perfectly executed.
A part of Sasuke wondered whether he could do that as well.
Gaara wasn't the only one, Lee also had some incredible moves that kept Sasuke's blood pumping in adrenaline, like that powerful uppercut he landed at the start.
Obviously Sasuke had found out their names by asking while the match was still in session.
There was some guy near him loudly shouting so he took it as his opportunity to ask, "Hey, who are they?"
The guy was a bit put off since Sasuke quite literally stared him down, but he still answered him before going back to whatever he was doing.
Sasuke drifted from his thoughts as he neared the area to his home and sighed in relief at being in a familiar street—he still didn't know how he left that place when he literally had no idea how he even got there.
He decided to go through the back door so he didn't wake anyone up, he didn't have to be a genius to assume it was fairly past midnight.
Sasuke set his shoes down and didn't bother to put house slippers on as he ever so quietly tried to go upstairs—he was successful until he forgot about that fucking squeaky step on the stairs and he froze as everything pretty much went to shit.
"Where were you?"