"Weak...pathetic...Did you really think you could find me and avenge your so-called clan?" A deep voice echoed through the stillness of a completely dark room.
Unable to see anything around him, Sasuke attempted to move his arms and legs, pressing his mind to follow the sound of this familiar voice. However, upon many attempts, he realized that his body had been restrained from any movements.
"Who are you?! What do you want?!" Sasuke diverted his eyes in multiple directions, following the sound of the voice resonating in the darkness surrounding him.
"You lack any power. Have you forgotten about that night? If only you weren't so weak." A dark figure appeared in the still room slowly inching their grasp towards Sasuke's neck.
Sasuke could feel his throat tighten from their grip, forcing the life out of him as he struggled to fight back. However, no matter how hard he attempted to make his body do anything to fight back, his body still remained confined to the figure's torturous domain.
As the figure's face moved closer and closer, it eventually became clear that it was none other than his older brother.
"I-ta-chi..." Sasuke weakly utters followed by a cough of blood. He could feel himself growing more and more angry and provoked by his presence, but there was nothing he could do.
Nothing he could do to save himself and nothing he could do to kill that very man he hated right in front of him.
"Let me remind you once again..." Pressing their grip even tighter on Sasuke's neck, the figure widened their eyes and in a split second, Sasuke found himself reliving the moment his parents and his clan were murdered. The sight of blood, the sound of cries. It was enough to torment his soul just like that night.
"Itachi! Stop this! Stop!" With the slight bit of tears coming down, Sasuke shut his eyes attempting to remove himself from the horrifying sight released by his brother.
After a moment of this unbearable compression on his throat and his vision becoming blurry, Sasuke finally manages to slip his body out of their grip, immediately shooting a fireball jutsu in front of them. The figure forms into a cloud disappearing in sight as if they were never really there from the start.
"Itachi! You coward! Stop hiding and fight back!" But before Sasuke could get any further from where his body had been trapped initially, a flock of crows had dispersed toward his direction, disturbing his surroundings, and emitting jolts of continuous pain in his body.
"Itachi! Stop this!"
"Itachi—!"
Sasuke's eyes immediately parted, his mouth panting from what he had just realized was only a dream. He could feel his forehead, neck, and his palms had been sweating from the unpleasant events and as he turned his head to look in the direction of his giant apartment window, he noticed the light of day had already made its way through the cracks of his closed curtains.
Dreams about his older brother had become more frequent and Sasuke had grown more and more eager to train himself harder and harder. Staying later than usual.
Luckily there were no missions for Team 7 today so it was the perfect day to visit the training ground once again, now that it was his turn according to schedule.
After getting ready and packing his bag for an all-day training, Sasuke proceeded to head out of his apartment, strolling along the busy crowd of people shopping the stores that stood along the pavement.
As he proceeded to make his way further from the center of the village, Sasuke halted his steps. The gentle wind had passed through him as he tilted his head to face an entrance to a compound enveloped in restricted signs.
Two of the same symbols were engraved on the blue fabric covering almost the top half of the wooden gates. The Uchiha crest on the fabric appeared to look as if it was now dancing in place. A remnant of the clan that once resided.
Sasuke stood silently, gazing at the symbol. But the more he kept his gaze on it, the more it pained and provoked him. It always did. It didn't help that the dream he had of his brother forcing him to relive that night replayed in the back of his mind while he stood in front of where it all happened.
The compound wasn't on the way to his training ground, yet something inside of him was pressing for a reminder, and seeing it again sure did a great job at resurfacing that burning feeling of hatred.
After collecting his thoughts, Sasuke picked up his feet again, heading in the direction that led him towards the training ground.
"Sasuke! Wait up! Where are you going?" Sakura jogged her way over to Sasuke as he kept his walking pace, facing forward on the stone path ahead of him.
"To do some training," he responded, his mind still focusing on the path ahead. He thought hard about what to work on, what he lacked as a ninja. How he could keep improving and perfect his taijutsu and his ninjutsu.
"Training? On a day off like this? Come on! You should join me for a walk instead! A-and we can grab something to eat together. M-maybe we could even watch a movie together. There's this new romance movie that just released. I-if you're down for it. What do you say, Sasuke?" Blushing with a bit of excitement as she walked alongside him, Sakura kept one arm behind her back while twirling her hair with the other, and keeping her gaze to the side to hide the tint of red growing on her cheeks.
An interval of silence followed her words and it became embarrassing once again to be treated as if she was a ghost existing beside the pondering boy.
"S-Sasuke?" Sakura focused her attention on the silent boy and as she was about to repeat her question, Sasuke halted his steps before responding with honest words in his cold most serious tone.
"Sorry, but I don't have time to leisure around. Instead of spending the energy thinking about boys, you should focus on training yourself to get even better." Sasuke thought about Sakura's lack of contribution to the team.
He found Naruto and himself doing most of the fighting and planning whenever they encountered enemy ninjas. In all the cases, Sakura would always be guarded and saved.
Feeling his words stabbing her once again, Sakura stood in silence, clenching her fist as she lowered
her head, inching to let out some tears.
Sasuke glanced over in her direction before proceeding to head forward, relentless of his words.
"Uh!" Hinata's body landed on the wooden floor beneath her. Her forehead now bleeding from Hanabi's sharp powerful kicks.
"Again." The man repeated after countless rounds of observing his two daughters exchanging their taijutsu. In every round, Hinata would always get taken down despite her efforts at defending herself and fighting back.
Bringing herself up once again, Hinata panted and then walked over to the center of the room, standing, mirroring her sister before bowing for the new round.
Keeping her stance firm and her muscles tight, Hinata tried to deflect Hanabi's incoming attacks and in the same matter of seconds, she aimed her palms at her, landing a few hits. However, it didn't take long until Hanabi had once again taken her down from the lower end.
This time, Hinata could feel the pain emerging through her hips as she attempted to get back up.
"Again." The man repeated once more. A hint of continuous disappointment displayed in his expression from the fallen girl ahead of him.
No matter how many times Hinata had been taken down, she couldn't show her weakness. The tears pushing to fall out of her eyes from enduring all the pain had to become an imagination.
After all, she wouldn't want to. Not when her father was watching them again after she'd been mostly away for her missions as a Genin.
After another round of taijutsu between the two, Hinata had face planted herself this time, keeping her body trembling on the wooden floor. Tears had finally escaped her eyes as she kept her face planted and hidden from her father's view.
"Hanabi, great job. You can leave now." The man nodded at his younger daughter before unfolding his legs to stand up from the cushion he sat on.
"Tell me, haven't you been training on your own, yet you are nowhere near as good as your younger sister." Hiashi kept a cold and composed tone as he kept his glare on the girl lying motionless.
Hinata stayed silent, quietly sniffling from all the pain affecting her physically and mentally. She became too tired to attempt to get back up knowing that she would have to face her father's disappointed look.
"You should know better to sit up and face your own father when he's talking." Narrowing his brows, Hiashi expressed an irritation to the sight of his daughter's disrespectful behavior.
Weary from the overwhelming pain and emotions inside, Hinata slowly picked up her body, sitting with her legs folded before the tall man's intimidating figure.
"Yes, father..." Hinata responded, trying her best to keep her body posture straight.
"Five years. You are five years older than Hanabi, yet you have continuously proven to be nothing but worthless to this clan." Hiashi continued
"Weak...pathetic...". Those words continued to echo through to her ears pinning her mentally, however, these words were nothing but words she hadn't heard before. And like always, Hinata kept the frustration to herself, making sure to avoid showing any signs of indignation.
When all that was left was silence in the room and the presence of her father had ceased to exist within her parameter, Hinata slowly picked herself back up to her own two feet, wiping the blood that had now slightly dried out from her forehead.
Sasuke inhaled and as he exhaled, crimson had overtaken his onyx pair, activating his Sharingan.
The moment he'd activated them, his body immediately disappeared from the dirt ground and appeared high into the air, instantaneously aiming and landing a mix of multiple kunai knives and shurikens at different target points laid all across the training ground.
This was just another round of training his Sharingan and his accuracy but at an even faster rate this time than the one before.
To step it up even further, Sasuke was now initiating a new round where he would land a knife at a nonobvious target in addition to landing ones that he could already see. A target hidden in plain sight.
Gripping on to multiple kunai knives, Sasuke once again lifted himself from the ground and as his body reached mid-air, his hands forcefully and immediately released the knives.
The sound of several knives stabbing directly at the wooden targets had always released a feeling of satisfaction. Now if he could redirect the last kunai and get it to aim at the target out of sight, then he would feel even more accomplished.
Sasuke promptly stood in silence listening to the sound of metals clanking, hoping they had intercepted and deflected directly at the hidden post. However, the moment after the sound of metals made contact, the kunai he'd thrown had instead been redirected across his right shoulder, forging an open wound as it made its way past him.
With the sharp pain now surfacing and noticing the sleeve of his navy blue shirt drenched in blood, Sasuke landed his foot in the dirt ground, panting from the unexpected outcome.
Instead of attending to his injury, Sasuke thought about how frustrating it was for him to miss his target, for him not to see that coming, and for him to fail at intercepting his kunai with his own skills.
Just as Sasuke was about to restart himself, this time being more attentive to his aim and his surroundings, the sound of a light footstep crushing a leaf from several feet away had traveled to his ears, causing him to aim his kunai directly at the sound.
Hinata jolted in place, panting from the sudden attack, her eyes wide open from the kunai almost directly hitting her in the head. She had been watching Sasuke silently beneath the shadows of the trees, trying her best to be hidden from sight as he went about his training.
"Who's there?" Narrowing his eyes in the direction of the sound, Sasuke kept a calm yet irritated expression, unafraid of who or what was going to come out from the dimly lit part of the forest.
After a moment of silence, Hinata finally emerged out of the shadows and into view, slightly holding her palms in front of her as a way to show she was unarmed and harmless.
Sasuke had noticed the bandages wrapped around her forehead and wrapped around her palms. It slightly piqued his curiosity but it wasn't in his nature to really think too deeply about it.
"S-sorry. I...didn't mean to startle you. I was just watching...seeing the way you train..." Trailing off on her words, Hinata could feel herself growing nervous from what she was about to request.
Everyone including herself had always been aware of Sasuke's skills and his abilities. Seeing him during his training today and how well he executed each step, Hinata couldn't help but rally up the confidence to ask for his help.
If training alone wasn't working and if training with her clan only reminded her that she was of no value, maybe it was a better option to ask someone who wouldn't judge her. Someone who could guide her like last time.
"Can...you help me with my training?" Hinata asked in a shy manner, holding her palms into a ball in front of her.
"What?" Slightly confused and surprised by her request, Sasuke kept his gaze on the girl standing with her head facing the ground.
"I...want to get stronger...I...I was hoping you could help me with my training," she continued with a soft yet steady tone. Her heartbeat increased slightly as she now directed her gaze over at the boy standing ahead of her on the training ground.
Sasuke stood silently for a second before responding to her request. It didn't make sense for someone with her status to ask for his support on something like training. She had family and friends who were available. A powerful clan she would much better off learn from.
"Why me? Don't you already have people who can train you?"
"Um...th-that's true...but—."
"Aren't you already doing enough training on your own?"
"Y-yes, but—."
"Then I don't see why there's a need for someone like me to help you."
"W-well...I was hoping I could learn from someone else—."
"I'm sorry, but I'm not in a very good mood right now. I can't help you."
Hinata could feel her heart beating louder and louder from the words being exchanged. The growing tension from Sasuke's cold responses had now tensed up her muscles as she continued to stand in place, trembling with anxiety.
She couldn't bring up the fact that she hated the way she was being treated in her clan. No matter how much she trained on her own, she could never catch up to her sister or her cousin.
"B-but last time—."
"Last time was just out of pity." Sasuke glared even deeper, letting his words come out as if something had taken control of him to fabricate what he actually meant to say.
The lingering frustration from his performance serval minutes ago was yet again reminding him of how weak and unprepared he was, and how much more work he actually needed to get done in order to be stronger.
"...o-okay...s-sorry to disturb you..." Embarrassed by the thought of actually reaching out, Hinata slowly shied away, backing one foot behind her, and getting ready to leave the training ground.
But before she could she could turn away from Sasuke, a sound of discomfort was emitted out of his mouth.
"Tch!" Sasuke immediately gripped on to his wound, annoyed by the emerging pain and the continuous flow of blood soaking his shirt.
Gasping from noticing the blood transferred on his palms and seeing that his right shoulder had been bleeding, Hinata quickly removed her bag, rushing toward Sasuke as she unzipped it, pulling out her medical supplies.
"Y-you were bleeding this whole time! Wh-why didn't you say anything?" Expressing her concern, Hinata pulled out her bandage wraps and some ointment, panicking at the sight of how serious his wound appeared.
"I'm fine. It's not that bad." Sasuke responded calmly, slightly shocked by Hinata's quick reaction to seeing his injury.
"P-please let me tend to your wound. The more you leave it that way, the more it'll become infected." Having experienced a lot of injuries herself, Hinata was well aware of how bad your health could get if cuts like these were left untreated, especially a bigger cut like the one on Sasuke's shoulder.
Hesitating to allow her to get any closer, Sasuke eventually gave in, dropping himself to the ground. The amount of blood he was losing and the burning pain had led him close to fainting.
Hinata slowly lifted Sasuke's sleeve, gently pressing the wound with a clean cloth to try and stop the bleeding. She applied some antiseptics and once the wound had been cleaned, Hinata gently applied some of her ointment directly to the affected area.
Sasuke had noticed how nervous she was, but despite the stress he imagined she dealt with, her face stayed calm and composed. Her tender expression emitting a sense of warmth and selflessness.
After Hinata finished wrapping Sasuke's wounded shoulder with her bandage wrap, she immediately packed her things, preparing to leave the training ground like she had planned before.
Sasuke watched her pick up her bag as he maintained his body sitting on the ground, and as he heard her footsteps growing more and more distant, he let out a sigh before uttering words he hoped he wouldn't regret saying.
"If you want to get stronger...perhaps we can both train each other."