There was an advantage in being the second born, of being the spare. One of those was the freedom, with the privilege. Itachi had to follow his father around, learn everything he could but he wasn't allowed to make a single mistake. Sasuke, still had to follow his father around, but he was granted the freedom of making mistakes, and sometimes he was just granted freedom, like today.

Sasuke wanted answers, and he knew his father was the key to getting them. He knew he would be busy the next few days, he would be distracted planning the meeting with Senju Tsunade, this was his chance to sneak into the archives. The place where most, if not all, his family's history lay. There he was sure to find answers, if not he would go to the girl. Sasuke, however, already knew the girl would be a dead end, years of knowing her as just the girl was a testament of how little information she gave.

He forged the scroll that would allow him access, it took him hours to get it right, but he was positive it would even fool his mother. As he finished up, there was a knock on his door, hiding the scroll, he got up to open it. He was surprised to find his brother. "Shouldn't you be sleeping? You have a busy day tomorrow."

"I wanted to talk to you."

"In the middle of the night?"

"Yes, I actually wanted to wake you up." He went into his room, gesturing for Sasuke to close the door behind him. Once he sat on the bed he said, "I wanted to ask you about the girl, and figured waking you up in would be easier." Sasuke waited for the question he knew was on his family's mind,"now that you know what she is, has she changed her behaviour?"

Sasuke wanted to tell his brother that it was none of his business, to leave him alone. The girl was his burden to bear. The way his brother was watching him, as if waiting for an outburst, stopped him. Sasuke knew that since discovering that the girl is a curse, he hadn't been himself . He had tried to act normal about it, pretend it didn't matter, after all she only lived in his head, but it was a lie. "No."

"You don't have to lie to me, I am here for you, you are not alone in-"

"Aren't I? What can you do if instead of being sad, she becomes angry? Up until a few days ago, I thought we were in my head! But now I don't know! I don't know anything." He tried to keep his voice from rising, but the anger, the unknown, it was all getting to him. He was surprised when Itachi reached for his hand, unclenching the fist he hadn't even known he formed.

"Sasuke, you must not let her become an obsession. Many men have fallen to the curse, you must not let yourself fall." Itachi was practically begging, if his father saw him now he would be ashamed of his heir."Do not go into the archives, you are giving in to the curse, you must fight this before it takes hold of you."

It shouldn't surprise him that his brother knew what he was planning. He didn't answer him, but the silence was answer enough for Itachi.

Sasuke tossed and turned that night, he didn't think sleep would come, but when it did he was shocked that the girl ran to him, hugging him tightly, and that she was still only five. "I'm sorry about the other day, but it hurt too much."

He pulled her away, but held on to her shoulders, "what hurt too much?"

The girl looked away before answering, "what you said."

"What did I say?"

She pulled away from him, he saw the tears where threatening to fall, she wiped them away. "Doesn't matter." Then almost as an after thought, "I didn't know if you would come today, but I still got you these flowers!" She pointed a few feet away, where she apperantly dropped them in her rush to hug him." Mom says that you should always show you're sorry."

To Sasuke the flowers mattered little if at all, he knew once he woke up the flowers would no longer exist. He had been so surprised that she was no longer mad that it took him a moment to remember to take advantage of her naivety at the moment. Wary of pushing the girl, he started testing the limits, "why are you so small?"

"Duh, cause I am five! But once I am six, I am going to be taller then Asura is now! He always laughs at me for being short but he is seven so he had had more time to grow! But I'll show him!"

What he wanted to know was why she wasn't his age, so her answer was useless,but really what could he expect from a five year old? "Do you remember why you were mad at me?"

She at least had the decency to look a little ashamed when she quietly said, " no." However she wasn't done talking, her voice sounded older, when she said "but I wouldn't feel small if it didn't hurt." Her voice aged down again, "wanna go see the flowers from the other day?"

Her eyes were pleading with him to say yes, so he agreed. The girl immediately ran away, yelling back, "catch me if you can!"

He let her run ahead already knowing there would be a path showing itself. Sasuke was amazed by the mood changes of a five year old, he was actually enjoying it. What bothered him was that there were hints of the older girl there, which meant that the girl may not be as innocent as she looked. Knowing that, he wondered how much of her was actually five and how much was twelve years old? Either way, it didn't sit well with him to use her childhood innocence like that, but he also knew the safe route was to not trust her.

The path slowly revealed itself and with it trees began to rise. He could hear the girl giggling ahead of him, but like the last time he took this path, the world around him became dark. Suddenly he couldn't hear her anymore, but he knew he wasn't waking up. Suddenly it looked as if someone had uncovered the sun, and she stood in front of him."You shouldn't be here yet. You aren't ready, it's not safe until you are."

He quickly defended himself, "you are the one that was bringing me here."

"I cannot control what she does but, do not follow her to the flowers." The she grabbed his hand and began to pull him in the direction he came, when he didn't budge, "do you trust me?" Before he could answer her, she looked down. "Of course you don't. You think little of me, I know this." She let go if his hand then, Sasuke was ashamed of his urge to reach for hers.

He wanted to tell her she was wrong, but the words got stuck in his throat, instead what he said was, "and whose fault is that? Wasn't it you that betrayed me?" He could feel the truth in his words, even if he didn't recognize them, the echo once more in his head, never again.

Once more the world turned black, when he woke up in his room he felt like he had been punched by a mountain. She had kicked him out, but she had weakened herself doing it. Sasuke knew this, he wasn't sure how, but he knew it. Fully aware that sleep would evade him he considered the girl again, there was a clear disconnect between the five year old and the one his age. The one his age wouldn't let him go to the flowers, but the five year old clearly wanted him to go. She even said he wasn't ready for whatever was with the flowers. The question was could he trust her? A dark part of him told him no, but the other part reminded him that up until recently he had trusted her blindly. No fear of her whatsoever, and now he still didn't fear her. He feared the hold she had on him, what she represented, but he didn't fear her.

He found this helped him, it strengthened his resolve to solve the mystery. When morning came he joined his family for their breakfast, his father then announced he and Itachi would be out all day. Itachi invited Sasuke, no doubt knowing what Sasuke planned to do in their father's absence.

"I think it's a great idea, it would be a great opportunity for Sasuke to learn." He's mother was in love with the idea, eyes bright, "the more you learn now, the more you can help Itachi in the future."

His father looked to him expectantly, "I can't today. I already moved my lesson with Kakashi once." It wasn't necessarily a lie, he did move his lesson, to the next day.

His father nodded in understanding, his brother remained unconvinced. "I am sure he won't mind if you move it again, he is always late for his lessons, think of it as payback."

"I would rather not risk it." His voice came out sharper than intended, but his mother came to his defense.

"Itachi let him be, if he doesn't want to miss his lesson, there's no need to push it."

His father then added, "besides these meetings are more for the future clan head, Sasuke has no need to be there."

Yes, thought Sasuke sardonically, the spare is not needed. While he was glad to have gotten his way, he wasn't happy with how quickly his father threw him to the side , of how unimportant his role was. His brother must have noticed how his mood had soured, because suddenly he asked his father,"do you know when we will leave for the meeting with the Senju?"

"Either tonight, or early tomorrow. Depends on what's decided on the meeting."

"You weren't supposed to leave for three more days, why so suddenly?"

He stopped paying attention after that, his brother providing him an answer he hadn't even sought, it meant less sneaking around at least. He knew he could wait for his father and brother to leave, but he also needed to consider that his father would never give anyone full access to the family archives without him being near by. Everyone knew Fugaku was a careful man who broke the rules for no one, there was no exceptions. Though, his mother had laughed, when he told her so, she had said, "there are some he has already broken the rules for, but that's our secret. Okay?"

His father and brother went to their business, and he said his goodbye to his mother and went on his own. The archives were kept in an unassuming temple, hidden underground, only a few knew how to get to them. The choosen elite guards, the elders, the clan head, the heir, and the spare. He knew perfectly well that if his parents were to decide to have another child, that child would not be allowed to know the location of the archives not unless one of their older children died, his own mother didn't know.

Walking into the temple, he wasn't surprised to find it empty, this temple was chosen because it was so unimpressive no one would look twice at it. Finding his way down he saw the first guard, weapon ready he said, "if you have permission to be here, show my the scroll."

It was strange to be ordered around, to be shown no respect, he wondered if his father was also treated as such when he came. He showed the man the scroll, he let him pass. He was slightly disappointed that the guard let him pass, after all these were supposed to be elite guards, the best of the best, or close to it at least. He went through the same process four more times before reaching his destination. When he was allowed into the actual archives he was astounded by what he saw, it was larger then the temple. He suddenly realized that he didn't know where to start, was there a section on the curse?

He thought back to his mother's tears, the way his father always kept a close eye on him even when he seemed uninterested, his brother's fake smile when he told him. He knew the only true source of information he had, was himself, so he started there. It was weird to read about himself in such a distant way, even more to discover he had a stronger sharingan then his brother. His father didn't like him using it too much, but by the sounds of it, was to protect Itachi as the heir. Apperantly his father trusted his fellow clansmen very little, he had a fear they would pick sides, Sasuke's sharingan was stronger which was something that was of high value, something that could potentially split loyalties.

While Sasuke may have learned about the strength of his sharingan, he learned nothing of the curse. There was no mention of the curse in any of the scrolls about him, but why? His family's reaction clearly meant that the curse was something worrisome, if the strength of his sharingan, if the reason his father didn't let him train with it was written, why wouldn't the girl be mentioned?

A/N: someone wanted this to have more before their birthday but never said it when it was... I had to rush... sort of, most of this was already written when I put the first part up... I was originally going to post a different story today, but like I said someone wanted an update for their birthday... so now you know, if you want me to update say its your birthday..this is a very weird AU that I've been creating for months but never once knew how to start it because it has a lot of.. plot (?)... I don't know how else to explain it... hint of the story without giving to much away there is magic, but the extent of it is still unknown to me...

Also I don't mind updating the stories within beginnings, but eventually I do plan to separate the multi-chapter ones from here, they would be edited and fixed more detailed, like I said beginnings is about glimpses, in which you guys pick which to prioritize later. The Bet for instance will not be getting any more plot moving updates in Beginnings, though I think I am all for one or two more updates for Curse on here. Once Timely is finished, or even before it is, leave a review letting me know which story you would like to be the next main focus, whichever gets more requests gets to be the next one. You can vote more than once, be demanding if you like, you can pick more than one. I have too many ideas, as you guys can tell by the variety here, and I don't want to be one of those writers with too many stories and no updates on any of them. Focus is key...

and because also is my favorite word...HAPPY BIRTHDAY hopefully you enjoy this update