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The Book of Love [Chapter 3]

Sarada only managed to make it as far as the street corner before tripping over and landing face first into the dirt. She slowly flipped over and sat up, only to see a blurred line of porcelain slugs on the street, neatly in form of of a sweeping curve around the opposite side of the street and past the next corner over. She quirked an eyebrow at this, and after reaching for her fallen glasses, got up. Slightly wobbly and strained from the fall, she made her way around the corner, only to find even more slugs, all lined up in an elegant formation across the way.

Sarada looked at them with suspicion, slightly irate at the idea of her father having bought out an entire country's worth of tacky little statuettes. She only looked even more annoyed when she actually saw him bent down on the floor, slowly arranging the figures in a uniform line. Did he seriously have that much time? "What are you even doing?" She put her hands on her hips, leaning down towards her father.

Sasuke didn't respond to the question. Instead, he simply stood up, quickly towering the other who had looked at him with contempt and disrespect. "You know what I'm doing." He extended his hand out to her before letting it fall beneath the cloak once more. "The more important question is, why you were causing your mother grief?"

She flinched at the comment. "Huh?"

"You know better than to leave while she's talking to you."

"How did you know that any of that even happened?"

From underneath his cloak, his only hand shuffled around and came to reveal a black cellphone. It seemed rather old, with a screen the size of his thumb, but new enough that it had a colored screen. On this screen, it showed Sakura's face, looking completely mortified in the front gates of Konoha. The embarrassment from being scolded had Sarada slowly contorting her face in the same manner. It was certainly not a flattering look on either of them. "There's electricity in Konoha," he replied.

There was a momentary staredown between the two of them, and it wasn't long until Sarada folded, looking away in shame. Sasuke simply continued to look at her, and she could feel his glance burning at her cheek. He merely squatted down to be at her level and put his hand on her shoulder.

It didn't take any convincing to get her to talk. "Mom told me about when you went to some village out in the woods. You met a girl named Yuki. There was a murder and you sent a message out to my mom to come help even though you wanted her to stay away—It's...it's all lies! It has to be! It makes no sense!"

Sasuke nodded. "Of course it doesn't. It's not true." She glanced up at him, seeming somewhat redeemed by his agreement. Of course, the stern expression on his face didn't let up. It wouldn't be so simple. "Your mother is right, I did end up calling for her. However, there are certain details she probably changed… left out… things that would happen when you don't get the story from the person that was there. For example, your mother most likely would've had you believe it'd only been a short while since I left the village… maybe a few months at most. It'd been two years."

"Two years?" She parroted her father in question, looking at him with slight shock. He nodded to him and patted her shoulder. "Two years. Maybe a few months more. We hadn't spoken since then, but I was back in the Land of Fire because I had heard that there were displaced refugees trying to get back to the Land of Water. The few exchanges over letter we had were fairly brief."

"But the snowstorm stopped you?

He shook his head at this, moving his hand to his knee to keep himself steady. The stubbed arm hung lower to balance himself out. "It only slowed me down. I took shelter in caves at night or behind a thick brush from the trees."

"Mom said you used your fire jutsu to make an indent in the tree."

Once again, he shook his head, but now he would stand up straight right after. "No… that's impossible. The tree would've caught alight."

Sarada nodded knowingly, and she saw her father smirk at this. It was almost light-hearted, but in his eyes, there was a glimmer of disappointment.

"At least you have the common sense to not believe everything you hear. Everything you see. It's a good skill." He motioned her to follow him and began making his way down the line of slugs until he reached the corner, and jumped up onto the rooftop before taking a seat there. Sarada would follow in his steps exactly, placing herself beside him on top of the apartment complex that they lived in.

"She made it sound so much more immediate… some of the things she said..." She thought for a moment, looking down to the tiles that they were sitting on. She felt his heavy hand on her shoulder and looked towards him, only to find similar eyes staring right back.

"The story is more romantic that way; it's the way your mother had always thought it as. But I didn't meet Yuki in the midst of a snowstorm while crammed into a hole in a tree. She was standing in the middle of the road and pointed me in the direction of her village. I was given my own lodge. It was small, and filthy, with holes that let in the draft, but it was slightly warmer than the blizzard that was outside. I took what I could, and didn't complain."

She looked at the man with hesitation, and glanced right back at the floor, her eyes making quick, short movements. "Did the… conversation you had… the one with Yuki..." Once again, her eyes returned to him. "Did it happen?"

The father went from staring at his daughter to the sky, squinting slightly as the sun blinded him. The wind started to pick up, and with it, the cloak he had started to shift, moving freely in the wind. It slightly obscured her sight of him. "Some of it."

"Which parts?"

"The important parts."

She didn't understand what this meant, and glowered at the floor, feeling frustration rising again. Sasuke was quick to correct himself, knowing that patience was running short. "What's important is that I mentioned her. It was therefore asked of me to bring her to the village… at the edge of the Land of Fire. I knew it would take a couple of days just to get the message to her. I also knew I thus couldn't just sit around and wait for her to come help the village."

"So what did you do? You don't know how to heal people like she does, do you?" She leant closely, surprised at the idea that her father could have been a medical ninja.

He quickly shook his head again. "I sent a message to her, and went on the move."

The hawk beat its wings against the ground, a massive bracelet on its foot. It lifted itself from Sasuke's arm, and went in the direction of the wind, due south towards Konoha. It had always been the path of least resistance, and if there was a response letter that would come to him instead of help, it wouldn't be in his hands for at least a week. He turned away as the bird faded into distant clouds and ran towards the frozen river. It was his only lead, and the best place to start searching for answers.

It was a short dash, as the man nearly slipped on the ice and fell flat on his back. The only thing that had caught him was the edge of the bank, where a box full of live bait was dented by his foot as he came to a halt.

"Eh?" One of the three men who sat around a hole in the pond looked towards the direction of the sound, and saw the man who had kicked at their box. "Hey! Careful with that! How are we supposed 'ta fish if we ain't got no bait, eh? Fucking watch it there!" Standing up to face Sasuke, it was seen that his left leg was missing. In its place was a peg leg made of welded iron which held the Hidden Mist Village's symbol. He was definitely one of the men he was looking for. Glancing towards the other two for a moment he saw one missing an eye, the socket indented and sewn shut whilst the other's body was riddled in scars. The three of them were sure to have experience fighting.

"Do you know anything about the murders that have been happening in the village?" Sasuke was direct, quickly getting to the heart of the matter. He didn't want to spend longer with the men than he needed to—stopping the culprit before they struck again was more important.

They, of course, gave him the obvious answer. "We ain't seen nuttin'. Look, that village is suspicious of us outsiders already! No one will even sell us bait for fishin'! But they don't fucking mind when we got fish to sell don't they?"

"You're talking to the wrong people, kid," said the one missing an eye. He scratched at his peppered beard before throwing his line into the small hole.

None of them seemed very interested in doing anything else that wasn't catching fish. And so, Sasuke did the only thing that could be done in such a situation. The moment that they turned their backs on him, he kicked over the live bait with a clang, letting worms, smaller fish and insects escape.

The three of them immediately turned around and stood up in unison, glaring at the lone shinobi. "What, you think we're playin' around, kid? We'll chop you up and use you as bait! Jashin smite you, you piece of shit!"

"Jashin?" This definitely caught Sasuke's attention. He'd traveled around long enough to know what that name meant. "You're one of those people, I take it?" His eyes locked onto the one with the missing leg. "Part of that cult?"

"Shit," the man cursed underneath his breath before turning to the other two. Neither of them knew what to say. "Look," the one-legged mist ninja turned to Sasuke, "whatever you think, it ain't us—honest and for true! We used to worship that guy… do all the sacrifices and whatnot, but we've changed. The war has changed a lot of things." The other two nodded.

The sound of birds rapidly chirping was already heard as Sasuke's hand was immediately enveloped in electricity. The three took a step back at this, but Sasuke quickly filled the distance by charging at the one closest by, immediately piercing his body with the chidori. They yelped in shock as the cloaked man had immediately and effortlessly pierced through their friend's heart.

It was a quick death, and the moment Sasuke felt the body of the man start to slump over him, he'd carelessly pull his hand out, letting him fall right on the floor and roll back into the frozen river's ice. Blood poured out of him, making an already difficult surface to walk even slicker. It stood out stark against the blue and white hues of the surrounding area. Sasuke raised the bloodied hand, letting the sparks dance against his hand once more as the chakra once again was made visible.

The others seemed to prepare themselves for the fight, raising their hands to make signs, but before they could utter a single syllable, the two were already falling against the floor, with holes the size of fists in their chests.

About an hour had passed before Sasuke returned to the village itself, his clothes wet from snow and dirt. His fingernails were caked with filth and blood. There were no longer dead men on the ice. It was for the best.

"The problem is solved," he opened the door to the leader's home before even knocking. He'd have of course, expected the man to wait, but found no one in particular when he stepped inside. Slowly Sasuke walked through the whole house, hand on his katana. A soft thud came from the very end of the home, and the man was very quick to make his way over, slamming the door open to find two of the three children huddled together on the bed. They screamed at the sight of him, his current look not doing him any favours to calm them down from their hysteria.

Sasuke was very careful to not agitate them any further and knelt at the bed to look them in the eye. "What happened?" The smaller of the two boys sobbed out, "Th-They took her!" before burying himself into his older brother's arms. He was also crying, but seemed to be holding most of it in, in attempts to comfort the other. He saw a familiar face in that and shut his eyes, trying his best to avoid thinking about it at the moment.

"Do you know… who it was? What they looked like?"

Neither of them said anything in response, and so Sasuke stood up, his sharingan activating at that very moment. "Lock the door when I leave. Don't come out until your father comes home. And with that, Sasuke was gone with a gust of wind to follow that slammed the door right shut.

He knew where to go first, but before he had gotten there, he found something he didn't expect. The crowd was massive. It could have been the entire village, and they were all huddled closely, trying to peek over each other's shoulders. Mothers covered the eyes of their children and father's weeped openly. With his eyes, he could see and understood that he was already too late.

Sasuke jumped over the crowd and into the opening in the center, his headscarf covering his eyes with shadows. Yuki's hands were bloody, and the young girl was in the arms of her father, gasping desperately as blood drowned her by the fresh wound in her neck.

"I've done all I could...it'll be over soon," the woman simply looked away, unable to bear the sight of her.

The father—the leader of the village immediately turned towards Sasuke the moment he stepped forward. "You..." he eyed him with a familiar hate that Sasuke knew very well. "You said you'd take care of this! Look what you've done! MY DAUGHTER IS GOING TO DIE BECAUSE OF YOU!"

Sasuke said nothing to this, and merely stood as the whispers about him picked up from the crowd. He knew he had failed.

As he looked down to the leader, shame covering him like a cloak, he felt the eyes of the entire village on him. They judged him with contempt, and few even stepped back with distrust in their eyes. The man before them had spoken... and it was then that Sasuke decided to disappear, with a flash into the night.

Despite all that happened, he did not leave the small forested village. He had promised to solve the case, and was determined to do so—even if no one appreciated it or trusted him to do any good.

How could he be called a redeemed man if all he did was leave misery in his wake? Many watched him pass by for those two weeks, and no one dared to get close to him. Even Yuki, who knew it couldn't have been him seemed distant. He was alone again, and it was not until the end of that second week that he was approached by her.

"You do not think I did it, but you want me to help you with a lead?" Sasuke's face was covered by the shadows of the cloak which hung over his head. The strong winter winds did not blow it off, because they carried in the direction he was going.

"No, but if I don't follow along, they'll ostracize me too… and how can I help people if they don't trust me with their wounded and ill?" Yuki held onto her own cloak, facing the winds herself. She did not look at Sasuke, and hid beneath the cover of it's hood.

He himself simply shook his head. She was unlike her in this manner. That woman would have betrayed any and every civilization in the shinobi world to stay at his side.

Yuki shoved at Sasuke's shoulder with her hand, barely moving him. "What's wrong with you? I need you in on this! This is serious!"

"I know it's serious," the Uchiha agreed, "and I'll help you, but we need to find this man soon. There soon might not be any more people to kill."

"Agreed. Go on ahead. Try to ask questions, but try not to make sure that they don't think we're connected."

Was he even capable of helping at this point? Without the support of the village, he could barely get a loaf of bread at the end of the day—let alone some answers on what's been going on. People died all around them and corpses became a regular sight, yet they only eyed him with a sense of blame, as though every life that came after he had killed those men were his responsibility.

Sasuke pressed on either way, and simply set aside a rising urge to let them all rot and continued his investigation. If he could not help make the world a better place after he nearly ruined it, what good was he as a person? What could a man heal when his body was a weapon from the gods themselves?

Sasuke never had a true ninja way, as Naruto would call it. His calling since the inception of the man he had known his entire life was to take revenge on those who had harmed him, his family, and loved ones. The life was too familiar and it was too easy to fall on those old habits. To survive in this world with changed eyes… to make sure he didn't become the person he had been destined to become, he had to change. But into what? How? He doubted himself and knew all he wrought could not be surpassed with compassion alone.

He looked down to the snow beneath him. "I need..."

There was a flash of light. The force of him flying came before he could hear the sound nearly rupture his ears. Sasuke's body broke through wooden homes that were incinerated by the blast that came in his wake. The fireball engulfed half of the village, and what remained would be charred ashes.

It started at the longhouse.

Sasuke could barely move, let alone try to see what happened. Still, through the ringing he heard the shrill screams of horror. Entire families had been wiped out. Those that survived the blast were gravely injured, and sounded together into a low hum of agony.

"HELP!" He heard one man scream as he had been impaled by a wooden beam. Others were not quite so lucky.

Sasuke struggled to get up. He needed to get to the epicenter. He needed to know what happened! However, a shadow danced upon the roofs and the wreckage, and instantly, he realized what happened. It was the culprit again.

As soon as he was on his feet, he made his way to the longhouse, only to see in itss stead a beam of light that reached on beyond the clouds that swirled above him. Massive pieces of the earth, wood, and other debris also encircled the strange beam. What was it? He questioned to himself. "Is this from a jutsu?" He did not build any courage to approach the light, but before his fingers could brush against it, it disappeared, and with it, all that floated in the air fell upon the ground, killing even more people.

"Sasuke Uchiha!"

He turned around to see the leader. He trembled weakly but his steely eyes were firm against the Uchiha. His right arm was gone, and in its place blood oozed out. One of his eyes was closed—gone. Sasuke looked to him, and saw himself.

"Get out."

He said nothing in return, and continued to stare.

"GET OUT!"

There was a moment of silence between them before he turned around and began to walk the opposite way. He could hear the pained voices of people, screaming as the world burned all around them. The sky turned red, and Sasuke started to run.

He could see them again with his eyes closed. He felt small then, as they were all cut down, horribly mutilated by steel and raw power. Sasuke knew it wasn't his fault, but what could he do? They were dead.

The bleakly lit moon grew larger in the sky before turning black. His pupils dilated as everything else turned black too. People who suffered and were dead on the floor were simply outlines that oozed blood darker than night. They weren't just the faces of the people he distantly knew by name… some were his friends… family… all dead like the village. Compassion was his weakness, and it was eating him alive from the inside again.

Sasuke fell upon his knees and screamed at the top of his lungs, hands to his ears as his forehead pressed deep into the snow. He couldn't stop the thoughts. He felt them racing faster than he could hope to stop them. They burned at him, making him quake as he huddled himself together into a ball, still on his knees. The cloak covered his body, and so he was a figure amongst them too. Of course, he knew he had run far. He was alone.

The memories and visions clouded him. He couldn't tell what was real anymore, and so when he looked up, he could find no source of comfort. At least not, until he heard a voice.

"Sasuke."

It was a familiar voice. He remembered her healing. Her bloody hands while he had lost his own.

"Sasuke."

No, it wasn't her. She was too far away.

"Sasuke."

He felt himself slipping out of his own consciousness. Biting his lip, he knew he needed help, that he couldn't hope to piece anything together. He was as broken as the world he saved. However, she was out of his reach.

"My sins have nothing to do with you." Sasuke remembered those words he told her. "This is my journey of redemption."

She had looked to him with those eyes of her's; She had asked him to come along.

"I'll see you when I get back."

He made a mistake.

"Sasuke!"

A hand touched his shoulder. He looked up, his body shaking and his breath shallow. It was Yuki.

"I saw him. I saw the way he was heading."

Sasuke said nothing.

"If you want to make things right, we need to catch up to him." With those as parting words, she went off, leaping into the trees as she had done before when they first met. Sasuke furrowed his eyebrows before wobbling up to his feet and following from behind.

The path he followed led to an abandoned building about a mile off from the village. It seemed decrepit and in no sort of working order. Pieces of the roof were gone, and while Sasuke would have normally used this as his entrance, he was stopped by the arm of the other, halting him from going.

"You don't know what's in there. Let me go first. You're not the only one who can actually stand a chance against them." She looked back at him with a slightly cocky smirk, and before he could say anything on the matter, she slowly walked in, with one hand out signaling to come in when she gave the say. And so, he waited.

It was not long before he heard a scream, and immediately burst in to see what happened, only to see Yuki and the glistening of a blade at her throat. Slowly, it cut through her, and the moment it finished on the other side, she dropped onto the floor—dead.

Sasuke flinched at this, before his frowned deeply. "Damn it," he said under his breath, "I shouldn't have let her come in here alone."

"You're quite right, Sasuke Uchiha."

From the shadows came a man, and he wore on his sleeve a very familiar insignia. One that immediately reminded him of the mist ninjas he had slaughtered at the river. "Another one, huh?" He felt almost immediately vindicated. "I thought I killed all of you Hidden Mist cultists."

"Ah, but you killed the wrong cultists. My friends weren't welcomed at the village, so I decided to start killing the people, one by one. When I heard that you'd killed them all in your little investigation, I decided to return the favor by killing all the people at that pitiful excuse for a clinic! That Jashin wishes for all people to burn in the raw chaos is just an added bonus." He put his hands up before shrugging. "Who would have guessed? Treating people like monsters turns them into monsters. Revolutionary idea, isn't it?"

Sasuke balled up his hand into a fist before immediately letting it open, releasing a massive ball of chakra. Electricity sparked and danced in his hands again and almost entirely enveloped his arm.

The mist ninja laughed heartily at the technique before speaking bitterly, "Yes, that's it. You killed them with that, didn't you? Felt them die in your arms?" He put up a fist before water began to swirl around him, coming in from the darkness. It instantly froze into place, making a shield around him. "YOU'LL PAY FOR KILLING MY FRIENDS, UCHIHA!"

Sasuke immediately bolted towards the man at lightning fast speed, at which moment the ice turned into water again. It slowed him down just enough for the mist shinobi to jump away. He grabbed a kunai from his holster as Sasuke drew out his sword, and as the two landed back on their feet, they immediately lunged towards each other.

In the dark, one could see the sparks fly. The equally strong metals clanged loudly and pierced the silence filled only by the storm that had picked up outside. It was enough to make the windows burst and brought a biting chill to Sasuke's body. With this, he slowed down—a fatal mistake.

The ninja grabbed the sword with his hand this time, and kicked the man away. Of course, Sasuke's grip was stronger, and he only managed to slash his hand with that move. He screamed in pain, before making his hand into a fist to stop the bleeding. "Fine… I guess we'll both be fighting with one hand tied behind our back." He dropped the Kunai at that moment and made a hand sign close to his face. "Water style, Water dra-"

Sasuke had come back and kicked the man in the face, causing him to fly right into the reinforced steel walls of the building. "You talk too much." He stood in stance, allowing for lightning chakra to surround the blade. It was enough to light up some of the otherwise pitch black barn.

His voice could be heard ringing through this darkness. "Fine, Uchiha… I guess we'll be fighting lightning with fire."

This time he heard the sizzling first, and then he saw the light. Beneath Sasuke's feet, right where the other had been standing before, ten explosive tags were set off, and the Uchiha man was sent flying sky high before immediately hitting the ground.

Everything went black.

Sasuke heard his laughter in the distance but by the the time he looked up, he saw him standing right above him. He felt the heavy stomp from steel bottom boots crush his back and slam him back into the ground.

Slowly, the man bent down, pulling the katana from Sasuke's holster. He chuckled at this, and gave it a few swings before immediately latching his hand onto as much of Sasuke's hair as he could grab.

With his hair firmly gripped in his hand, the shadowy man swung around his head, maneuvering him in whichever way he felt. "So this is the true strength of the Uchiha clan, is it? You're weak… too weak to even save a damn village full of refugees, eh Sasuke Uchiha? How can you give them your word to save them when you can't even save yourself?!" He switched grips on the sword and raised it high above his head. "Well, allow me to save you the trouble of dealing with your utter failure! It's for the best… when your word is as good as dogshit."

"You're wrong," Sasuke glowered up at the man, only to have his head shaken and moved around again, so that his head was pressed against the cold steel floor.

"No, you are."

At that moment, the sword swiftly came down.

...

Sasuke's eyes opened wide as he jolted awake and suddenly grew still. His sharingan eye, still activated, searched the room, only for him to realize it wasn't even the same place as before. There was a pain in his ribs as he fixated on a single object, a shadow seen from the light of the door as it flooded part of the wall. The door was only slightly open, but he could see the shape. It was a woman… familiar and comforting, but barely visible. Through the glimmering haze, there was nothing else to look at, and so his eyes closed. A pounding thud began at his head, compounding with the pain in his abdomen, making it difficult to concentrate. When he opened his eyes once more, the sharingan was gone.

His eyesight blurred as he looked up again, seeing the outline of the figure leaning to hover over him. He groaned as the pain of his broken and exposed flesh began to overtake him. He felt weak, coldness coursing through his veins. His body was failing, and yet he was still alive. He shouldn't have been… he could feel the gaping hole in his stomach. Most of it had been closed, unbeknownst to him, but the phantom pains lingered… the emptiness remained like the feeling of being able to grip with his left hand when nothing remained. His eyes watched listlessly, and he felt his body rise and stir.

"You're awake..."

"Sakura?"

The figure hushed him and placed a hand on his stomach as they sat beside him. Colours flashed brightly into his eyes, and they shut quickly in reflex. The pain was white hot, searing into the very center of his body.

Sasuke felt as the room spun in his head, and with each passing moment, he only felt sicker. The fact that she shifted him to sit up slightly in her arms only made things worse. The next noise of pain was more of a gurgle than a strain or a shout, and he quickly reflexed away from her—to the side—in order to retch. However, despite his delicate state, she responded to it by passing her hand over the Uchiha's forehead.

It was a gentle touch.

Opening his eyes, he saw her face in the green light, concern etched into her face. As she gingerly pushed him down to his back, he noticed various things about her. Her eyes were bloodshot and her movements slower than usual. How long has she been awake? He asked himself in thought. Relenting to the concerns in his head, he felt a sinking in his stomach. There was a better question to ask.

"How long have I been out?"

Sakura looked at him, and he at her. As always, she broke contact first. "Two weeks."

He barely heard it but it struck him, and his eyes trembled as his hands did—in utter horror. They flickered red, as he sat up again with dire consequences. Sasuke screamed and immediately fell sideways into the other's arms. His organs were not yet done healing.

"Don't do that," she raised her voice at him, and put the man back down to the floor, so that she could use both her hands to heal the damage to his abdomen.

"Sakura," he took her glowing hand, squeezing weakly. He felt that it was drenched in blood. The sharingan that had activated through a surge of adrenaline faded out slowly, leaving only his soft onyx eyes. Shutting them, he could feel the pain radiating from within his skull… from his stomach… chest… everywhere.

"You need to rest, Sasuke. You're lucky to even be alive… you..."

His soft grip grew firm, as he used what was left of his strength. "Sakura, I need you to tell me if the people in the village are okay."

"Sasuke," She diverted her sight from him. "We're not at the village. I never got there. I found you on the floor in front of an abandoned building—you were dying! I couldn't just leave you there… Sasuke—."

He yanked his hand off of her's and turned away.

Shit.

"So you don't know anything about what's going on?"

"I haven't been there, no. I came with a team of medics… they went on ahead, but I haven't heard back from them."

He turned away his head and scowled, his eyes hidden by the shadows as he bit his lip. By this point, either everyone was dead, or the culprit was gone, or both.

Shit!

Sakura's expression hardened at this, and she balled up her fists tightly. "You can't be so hard on yourself. You did everything you could. I'm just trying to make sure you're okay. I mean, you won't be able to keep your promise otherwise, right?" The silence between them only riddled the woman's heart with guilt, as she could see his body struggling to move… trembling in pain both in body and mind. "I… I'm going to get some more bandages." Awkwardly, she left the room. Looking to the spot that she was sitting at, Sasuke could very clearly see two rolls of fresh bandages and grimaced. Yet another thing he messed up.

Taking another look around the room of the cabin, he found the surroundings familiar. The dusty hearth, the rickety floors and the holes that let in draft were all there. Of course, the part that struck him him as odd was that he was not cold… in fact, he was very warm. Very comfortable… but why? He didn't have his cloak and the few thin blankets that they had were on the floor beneath him, drenched in his own blood. Could it be Sakura's doing? A genjutsu to comfort the ill and injured?

No, such a thing couldn't exist. But then again, couldn't it? Things looked bleak in the room… dark with hard shadows that covered everything in sight. In comparison, Sakura was lighter… her hair was a bright pink and her eyes pierced with a green that could be seen even in the darkest night… almost as bright as her healing technique.

Maybe it was a genjutsu...

Maybe it was just Sakura...

Maybe it was the culprit, and he was still on the floor of that abandoned building—wait.

Sasuke's eyelids fell shut.

Was he dreaming?

...

He woke up in the steel building, looking up at a destroyed fan that spun with a shaking motion. It was barely functional, as the blast had destroyed most of the objects inside of it. His body had been slammed against the wall, and he lied face up before it. Slowly, he stood up and pulled at his cloak with his hand. Yes, it was colder now… and the pain that he felt in his dream racked at his body, but it was manageable.

Slowly, he stepped closer to the darker part of the building and soon he heard the soft straining of someone trying to get up. They strained, but hearing the shuffling of their sandals on the floor, Sasuke knew that he wasn't done yet. Looking not too far ahead, he saw his katana lying on the floor, and hurried up to grab it before he was attacked again. As he stood in stance, he couldn't shake away his dreams… the words that she told him.

"You can't be so hard on yourself."

No, he had failed too many times. Hurt too many people.

"You did everything you could."

Sasuke gripped at his katana harder. He knew that it wasn't enough. How many times had he failed her? Failed other people that needed him?

"I'm just trying to make sure you're okay. I mean, you won't be able to keep your promise otherwise, right?"

"COME OUT HERE!" He shouted into the blackness, only to receive no response. It was a breaking point… his limit was being reached, and his thoughts raced as he tried to keep his composure. Still, he was tense, and the weight on his shoulders only seemed heavier. What was he going back to?

Only the soft, strained creaking of the broken fan struggling to work could be heard, broken and ineffective.

Finally, Sasuke caught the sound of the culprit, sucking through their teeth, making small noises of pain as he moved closer to the spotlight, where Sasuke stood beneath.

"You had to to mess things up for me, didn't you?" Their voice changed as a small explosion of air went off… almost as if a transformation had worn off. The voice itself was very familiar, and he narrowed his eyes. "You should have left after you got half the village killed."

Sasuke's sharingan eye immediately activated at this point. It was no byakugan, but a strange thing revealed itself to him when he activated it. Their chakra system… he'd seen it before as well. Could it be...?

"The game's over… Yuki."

She stepped out from the shadows just enough so that most of her face was visible. Her eyes were wide and seemingly, she smirked at Sasuke's comment. "Oh, but the game's just begun! I managed to throw you off my trail until now, haven't I? If you'd only have stayed oblivious for a little while longer… things would have been very different."

Sasuke readied his sword against her. Almost immediately, electricity started to surge from it, dancing wildly against and through the steel.

"No time for words anymore?"

"You talk too much," he repeated.

"Fine… let's do this." The woman formed a sign and immediately lunged at him.

"Wait… you can't be serious. You're going to end the story here?!"

The male put out his hand, palm facing upwards as though he was trying to explain something. "Do you at least understand why the story is important now? Why your mother decided to use this as the starting point?"

"Well..." Sarada seemed calmer at this point, and at the very least, not annoyed by how the story turned out. "At least the two of you were in the same room. Even if it was fake."

It was clear that she didn't understand. Sasuke kept his eyes on the skies, fixated on the slow moving clouds that now blocked the sun. "It's a catalyst. The beginning. I've done many things by myself, but those years away weren't as important as—"

"But you just said it was a dream..."

"It was." While Sarada was now laying down on the rooftop, her father stood up and shut his eyes, seemingly allowing himself to get lost in thought. It was a good five minutes before either of them said anything, and this time, it Sasuke was the one who broke the silence. "I can't even say that this alone brought me back here, but the event weighed most heavily on my mind on my decision to return. Konoha was not my home." He turned to look at his daughter, whose attention was caught by this. "I only cared about the people. The important people. Home was where they were. If I saw too much of what life could be like," he paused, letting his eyes drift to their home's balcony momentarily, "I wanted to heal, to learn, to understand the same world with different eyes. I could never do that in a village. Not in Konoha or anywhere else."

Sarada sat up, not allowing herself to break contact with her dad. She looked curious, and though she felt very nervous, she steeled herself. It was all very difficult to digest. Of course, the next question in particular was very unnerving for her. "Why would you let something like that drive you back home? You literally spent most of my life away from Konoha! You didn't even write to us… but you're saying that you would have come home immediately if you didn't keep moving?"

Sasuke nodded, watching his daughter's expressions carefully. He was concerned, but she didn't resist his answer, when she would normally just begin demanding more. Instead, her question was soft spoken.

"Why?"

The Uchiha patriarch squatted down again to somewhat at her level. He still looked down at her, but not by much. He tried his hardest to formulate the words in his head. "Back then, there was nothing holding me back from coming home. That's all I will say on the matter." He looked down towards the street, watching as a cat started playing with the slug statuettes. When the one he swatted disappeared in a loud explosion of smoke, it quickly darted off in fright. "Sakura and Naruto worked very hard to keep me around, so to speak. Most other people would have quit. I was… very stubborn."

"But you're here."

Once again, there was a nod of agreement. "It speaks well about how long I can stay away when it's against their wishes."

"And you leaving for eight years wasn't against mom's wishes?"

"Your mother understands when not to ask questions." It was a warning.

Sarada frowned but said nothing. She could not find words for him, and instead could only feel her heart beating and sinking to her stomach. Eventually, she managed something, and tried to look at her father to say it. However, she couldn't, and so she looked to her feet as she spoke. "You don't have to be alone."

Sasuke looked to her firmly and spoke the same. "I never said I had to either; we three are connected."

They look at each other for a moment. And the quiet between them was very brief.

"Papa, why do you love mom?" One of the questions that had lingered since she had asked her mother the same thing about her dad. Sasuke looked on, and responded in kind, "Why do you love your mother?"

"Well, she's mama. Sure, there's Uncle Naruto and Konohamaru-sensei, but she was there the whole time."

Sasuke went quiet at this point and jumped down from the roof, leaning down to rearrange the slugs on the floor in a way that would cover up the somewhat gaping hole left behind. Sarada herself was left on the rooftop, and she only stood up, not following back down.

"H-Hey… aren't you going to respond?!"

"I believe I already did," he shouted back to her from his spot.

Sarada jumped down from the roof, seemingly confused and about to ask something else. Instead, before she was able to get anything else out to him, Sasuke tapped her forehead and simply said, "In time."

"But..."

"In time."

Sarada touched the spot on her forehead and blushed slightly. Of course, Sasuke wouldn't have seen any of this; he worked to fix the small frail slugs on the floor and seemingly focused himself on the task. Still, it didn't mean he wouldn't speak.

"I'll continue the story."

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