Not betaed, but I'm looking for a Beta, I swear! I message several people from the Beta page and got no response. So, I message several more. Still waiting for at least one reply. Seriously. Am I that unlucky or everyone just gone to the rupture? Even a simple "piss off!" would be better than nothing. I guess this is like a smidgen of what Naruto had to experience while growing up. Not a fun feeling.

When Fate Takes a Turn

Chapter 4

Getting to Know Each Other

Raven black hair glistened in the sunlight, the front strands sticking to the sweaty face. A beautiful face: strong and defined, features sculpted from granite, with a sharp jaw and angular cheekbones. The slightly rosy complexion of the skin went well with the intense, cold onyx eyes.

Sasuke Uchiha was devilishly handsome as if molded just to spoil the eyes of every teenage girl.

Unfortunately, Sakura Haruno felt too frustrated at the moment to enjoy such a tantalizing view. Instead of watching her crush spar with their sensei, all of her attention was fixed solely on the latter.

The last minutes of today's training session mercilessly ticked away, but Jiro-sensei was yet to provide any guidance as he had promised this morning! Almost two weeks had passed since their graduation and she didn't learn anything new!

At first, Sakura was justifiably ecstatic about being in the same team as Sasuke. After the initial glee wore off, she started to realize the gravity of that fact.

The girl's brow furrowed when the memory of her father's story from the night of her graduation floated at the forefront of her mind. The story about weakness, mistake, and dead teammates—the reason why Kizashi Haruno left the ninja forces soon after entering the chuunin ranks.

Sakura had no desire to witness the annihilation of her team. She definitely didn't want to die and there was no way that she allowed Sasuke to perish. Absolutely not!

Her gaze drifted briefly to the edge of training ground where the orange-cladded boy sat hunched over something on the ground. While Naruto was an annoying idiot, she didn't wish to see him dead either.

So, she strove to become stronger, to grow into an exceptional kunoichi that her team, or, well, mostly Sasuke, could rely on.

Green eyes shifted down to look at the scroll in her hands.

It was just a simple Genjutsu, a basic one that she took from the Academy library. With her near-perfect chakra control, Illusionary Techniques seemed like right up her alley.

Her fingers tightened around the scroll.

She couldn't become a good kunoichi, worthy of standing side by side with Sasuke if that useless sensei was going to ignore her, dammit!

"Alright! That's it for today, team Seven!"

Sakura's head snapped up when she heard Jiro proclamation.

"I have some business to attend to now, so we'll meet tomorrow as usual!"

"Ah! Sen—"

The man vanished into thin air without even waiting for a reply from the three genins.

"—sei!"

Sakura stared dumbly at the empty spot where a mere moment ago their useless mentor was still standing and then gnashed her teeth. Oh, she wanted to hurl that damn scroll at his stupid mug so badly!

Noticing her precious Uchiha strolling out of the training ground, the girl rushed after him with a shout, "Sasuke-kun, wait!"

To her absolute surprise, the boy did stop. The big grin spread across Sakura's face as she approached him. Sasuke turned to face her and her heart suddenly threatened to jump out of her chest. This—this was the moment she yearned all this time! Her imagination instantly spiraled out of control. This was the moment her wonderful future husband would smile sweetly at her and call her 'Darling' and invite her to the date and maybe, most likely… No, it would definitely end up with an innocent peck on—

"You're annoying, Sakura."

Her smile died faster than wisps of smoke from the candle and she actually shuddered from the chilly glare Sasuke was giving her.

The young Uchiha spun around on his heel and marched away.

Sakura didn't move until he disappeared from her sight. She continued to stand there until a deep sigh left her lungs. Green eyes became glazed with a glassy layer of tears. As she blinked, they dripped from her eyelids and slid down her cheeks. She bit her lip tightly in an attempt to stop herself from actually crying.

"You're annoying, Naruto."

A short, bitter laugh escaped Sakura's mouth as she recalled the same words she blurted to her blond teammate. Had he also felt like his heart was ripped into shreds?

Her eyes inevitably returned to stare at the boy in question who was still busy with whatever he was doing, paying no mind to his surroundings.

Despite her gloomy mood, Sakura got curious. What was he doing there?

Now that she thought about it, it had been a few days already since Naruto pestered her or Sasuke. A frown creased her face. In fact, he was uncharacteristically quiet. Besides greetings, she didn't hear a word from him. No attempts at small talk, no invitation for dinner, no offer to train together…

Sakura glanced down at the scroll. She could ask him. She should ask him. He was Naruto, a carefree and untroubled knucklehead, happy with anyone who spared him a moment…

"Aaaargh! Don't even speak with me, Naruto! I'm so fed up with you!"

Regret washed over her like the long slow waves on a shallow beach. She knew he'd done something pretty awful to the blond. It was very selfish of her to ask for his help now and he had all the right to refuse.

Sakura rubbed her eyes and gently slapped her cheeks. Taking a breath to compose herself, she walked towards Naruto. As she came closer, she could hear him mumbling something under his breath from time to time. Sakura stopped a few feet away, hesitating to call out to the boy who was so obviously engrossed in his activity.

Naruto lifted his hand, revealing a brush in his grasp, and tilted his head thoughtfully. After a moment, he dipped the tool into the ink and proceeded to—

The girl squinted. Was he painting? Writing? She couldn't quite tell from this distance and angle.

Suddenly, there was a flutter of wings above her head and something white swooped down, landing on the blond's shoulder. Fierce golden eyes clashed with green, leaving the pinkette in a stunned daze.

An owl?

Naruto bit the end of the brush and hummed, staring intently at the thing in front of him. "Looks good," he murmured. "You think it's gonna work?"

That gave the girl a startle. She thought that he was unaware of her presence—he seemed really absorbed in whatever he was doing. She opened her mouth to ask what exactly it was.

The bird maneuvered its body around so that he could look at it too and let out a quiet, "Hooo?"

Naruto chuckled and the kunoichi realized that he was talking with the owl, not her. "Well, it can go kabooooom!" he cheered, throwing his arms to the side in a crude imitation of an explosion. "Straight into our faces!" A pause. "Let's try it!"

Sakura's eyes widened in alarm as Naruto raced through some hand seals and slammed his open palm on the sheet of the paper on the ground.

"Aaaaargh, too much! Too much!" Another pause. "…Uh oh."

It made her hair stand up on the back of her neck.

Naruto grabbed the owl, eliciting a surprised shriek, pressed it down to the ground, and threw himself on top, shielding it with his body. Next instant there was a flash of blinding light, tangible shockwave following suit.

Sakura squealed when the power behind the wind pushed her down and she fell on her butt. Luckily, it wasn't a big explosion, just the accumulation of chakra forcefully dispersing into the surroundings. She was unharmed, excluding her neatly combed pink hair that now resembled a messy bird's nest, but shocked to her core and left completely breathless.

Naruto flopped into the grass on his back, throwing his arms to the side, and suddenly burst out laughing, his whole body shaking from the force of it. The loud sound filled the empty space of the training ground and trailed beyond, sinking into the surrounding forest.

"Fuuinjutsu is so hard, 'ttebayo!" Contrary to the meaning of his exclamation, the boy's voice was brimming with pure joy and wonder. "Hey, Yuki, you alive there?"

The owl flexed its wings and ruffled its feathers, keeping a steady glare on Naruto, obviously miffed. It let out a coo of displeasure and then nipped the boy's side.

"Ouch!" the blond yelped, flailing his arms before shooting to the sitting position. "Oh, you—" he blinked at his pink-haired teammate nearby, noticing her for the first time, and trailed off, "—silly… Sakura?" Realizing how what he just said could be interpreted wrongly, Naruto's eyes widened. "Ah! No! I didn't mean you're silly, Sakura!" he flustered in denial. "Yuki is a silly bird and you being here kinda caught me by surprise, 'ttebayo!"

Hearing her own name jolted Sakura out of her daze. She huffed and started to fix her hair, staring daggers at her teammate through her bangs as she did.

"It was an accident, sorry…" The boy squeezed a tight grin. When he received no immediate answer, he sucked in a breath and asked awkwardly, "Err, um, are you alright?"

Sakura brushed her fingers through her messy hair one more time. "I'm fine," she replied curtly. She wasn't unreasonable. She understood that the explosion was some sort of accident and that the blond wasn't entirely at fault here. That didn't mean that she couldn't be pissed about it, right?! "What the hell are you doing here, Naruto?"

Naruto beamed like the sun as he snatched the piece of paper from the ground and showed her. "I'm practicing drawing this seal, 'ttebayo!" he stated proudly, unbridled passion filling his voice. "This is a Nature Concealment seal. It supposed to draw in nature chakra and then release it after activation into the surroundings. You know, in the situation you're fleeing from an enemy and need to hide? Slap it somewhere near you and the sheer density of nature chakra will hide your presence from their senses. Aren't that cool?!"

Sakura had to admit that it did sound pretty cool. She stared at the crumpled paper with slightly singed edges, few tears in it, and some kind of design drawn on it. The Sealing Techniques were the hardest to learn from all the Ninja Arts. She herself could barely understand the very basics taught in the Academy, but this seal was definitely not in any textbooks she had ever read.

The kunoichi scowled. It meant that Naruto was trying to copy the higher level seal from somewhere else, disregarding the danger his recklessness could bring. "Naruto, you can't just thoughtlessly play with jutsu when you have no idea how it actually works," she chided. "It's unsafe! Look what just happened!"

The blond gawked at her with a strange expression which Sakura failed to decipher. "Eh, but I know how it works. It's quite easy, actually. Much easier than I thought it will be," he finally said. "Each symbol in the seal has its own meaning, though it can change depending on the symbols around it, paths between them, and the placement in the final array. Like this one here, see?" He pointed at one of the symbols in the Nature Concealment seal. "If you put it between the symbols of…"

Sakura listened to the boy in silence. Because she actually paid attention, Naruto got more excited with every passing second. He rambled on and on about how this seal worked, how even the smallest detail in the design mattered, and how the seal might fail due to the single dot drawn in the wrong position.

After a few minutes of endless chattering, it dawned on Sakura that her teammate's explanation was way beyond her level. While she could hardly follow it in the beginning, once Naruto started on the intricacies of chakra paths, dampeners and accelerations, symbol combinations and stabilizing factors, it became a lost cause. She didn't know that before even attempting to draw a single seal, there were so many things to take into consideration!

Apparently, the dead last of their class wasn't simply trying to copy unknown seal. He knew exactly what he was doing. He was definitely better in Fuuinjutsu than her or any of their peers.

Sakura struggled to wrap her mind about that epiphany.

"It failed because I…" Naruto rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "I have trouble controlling my chakra so I usually insert too much. It overflows and ends up in the explosion." He chuckled bitterly before heaving a heavy sigh as his head and shoulders slumped. "I'll have to ask Iruka-sensei how to improve on it. Urgh, he's gonna nag me to death about not listening to the lessons in the Academy…"

Sakura shifted her gaze away, feeling a bit self-conscious. "I-I can help you," she stammered out, hating how feebly and unconfident her voice sounded. She twisted a blade of grass around her finger while waiting for the boy's reaction.

"Eh?"

"My chakra control is pretty good. I can give you some pointers."

Naruto looked genuinely astonished. Something akin suspicion flittered across his face, but it was too brief and too quick for the young kunoichi to notice before his face lit up with a smile bright enough to power generators. "Really?!" the blond cried out, fist-pumping the air. "Yatta! Thanks, Sakura-chan!"

"In return," she spoke quietly, this time unconsciously pulling on the grass instead of fiddling with it, "can you help me with my Genjutsu training?"

"Sure!"

It was such an instantaneous response, that Sakura's head whipped up to look at the grinning blond in utter disbelief.

"We're a team now, so of course I'm gonna help you!"

The corner of Sakura's lips quirked up. This wasn't so bad. Naruto Uzumaki was still loud and obnoxious and stupid most of the time (just not regarding Fuuinjutsu apparently), but he definitely wasn't a bad person. "Thanks, Naruto."

The boy said nothing more and continued to grin. Two genins fell into a comfortable silence for a few moments.

"Hoo!"

They both looked at the source of that sound.

"What's up with this owl, Naruto?"

"Couple of days ago I saved him from dying. Silly bird—" Naruto quickly snatched his hand away and the owl's beak clucked on empty air, "— got himself bitten by the snake."

Yuki shot him an indignant glare that clearly revealed his opinion on which one was the real idiot among them.

Naruto stuck his tongue in return.

Sakura couldn't help a giggle that escaped her mouth at their exchange.

"He's okay now, but I think he got attached to me for some reason. I named him Yuki."

"Can I pet him?"

"I don't think he'll mind."

The girl lifted her hand to carefully stroke the bird's head, eliciting a soft hoot of appreciation. "So cute," she blurted out. She continued to stroke and scratch around its ears while Naruto frowned and mumbled, "What a cheater…" under his breath.

"I wonder if he was someone's pet before," Sakura mused loudly. "He's too tame for a wild bird."

"I don't really know. I just found him under that tree." The boy pointed at the side.

Yuki also looked at the indicated direction, his gaze zeroing at the spot in the tree. Without a warning, he spread his wings and took off to the sky.

Two genins watched the owl plunging down into the canopy and emerging few breaths later with a snake clutched tightly in his claws.

"Yay!" Naruto yelled in triumph. "You go, Yuki! Show that snake what happens when it messes up with us!"

Sakura laughed again before catching herself. "I have to go now," she said, standing up and brushing the pieces of grass from her clothes. "We can, um, start our training together tomorrow?"

"Okay. Not like Jiro-sensei cares about what we're doing," Naruto stated with an eye roll.

"So true," the girl agreed before waving her goodbye, "Bye, Naruto!" and turning to leave.

"Hey! Sakura, wait!"

"Yeah?"

"I have no one else to ask, so, erm…" Naruto smiled awkwardly. "What—What kind of gift should I give to a girl to cheer her up?"

Sakura blinked. "A gift to a girl to cheer her up?"

Naruto nodded eagerly. "I was thinking about a bowl of ramen, cause ramen always cheer me up, but I don't think that's a good idea in this case," he rambled absent-mindedly. "I've seen some men in the village gifting chocolate to the women, but I'm pretty sure she's on a diet right now… Even if she's pretty enough as she is, but, well..." He shrugged and brushed a hand through his hair, looking frustrated. "Flowers? But there are so many of them, 'ttebayo! Different shapes and colors! I've no idea how to choose!"

'Oh my god!' Sakura squealed in her mind. Naruto had a girl he liked and was so concerned about choosing the right gift for her! So sweet of him!

You're annoying, Sakura.

She scowled. In comparison, Sasuke was a real jerk in this regard!

Sakura pushed Sasuke's image, his cold eyes, and hurtful words, to the back of her mind, and plopped back on the grass next to her teammate. Pushing a stray strand of hair behind her ear, she spoke, "Well, if you really want to cheer her up, you need to be original."

Naruto blinked. "Original?" he echoed as he tilted his head slightly to the side in confusion. "Original how?"

"Maybe something handmade, something you put lots of time and effort in."

Naruto scrunched his brow. "A seal?"

"No, not the seal," she said, shaking her head with an amused smile perched on her lips. "Either accessory that you made with your own hands,or—or if she's on a diet, you can choose something healthier instead of chocolate. Like, um, fruits or berries. If you add a flower as an accent, it can be a very lovely gift."

"Berries and flower, huh?" Naruto scratched his chin in deep thought. "I know!" he suddenly screamed, leaping to his feet. He crossed his fingers and a perfect copy of him poofed into existence. "Hey! Go bring one of my strawberry plants to Kiku-san."

The clone saluted. "Got it, Boss!" And then dashed away.

Sakura just stared. Solid clone? What kind of jutsu was that?!

Naruto turned back to his teammate, his grin's amplitude now cranked up past a million. "Thanks, Sakura-chan!"

His good mood was contagious, because the girl beamed right back at him.

"Kiku-san is gonna love it, 'ttebayo!"

Kiku? Sakura's mind ran through the list of the Academy girls and she was pretty sure there was no one with that name there. A civilian, perhaps? She was curious, but she wasn't going to ask, though. Nope, it was Naruto's personal matter. Not her business…

Ah, but Sakura was a teenage girl after all and she loved to gossip, dammit! Especially about the news concerning who was crushing on whom. So, of course—of course—she couldn't miss this amazing opportunity to ask, "…Who's Kiku?"

"She's the Sandaime's secretary."

"Se-secretary?!" the kunoichi shrieked, her mind reeling. Her idiot teammate was into the older women?!

The blond blinked at her strange reaction. "Well, yeah," he replied as he rubbed the back of his neck, a soft smile curling on his lips.

Sakura almost fainted. What a scoop!

"She never glares and always talks nicely with me," Naruto continued before his small smile widened into a warm grin. "She even scolds me from time to time. Besides her and Iruka-sensei no one else does that."

"Wait, what?" Sakura frowned as her brain finally decided to come back to the reality from its unexpected wild imagination trip. "Scolds you? How can you like that?" she scoffed. "My mom reprimands me all the time. I hate it!"

The boy's toothy grin closed, smoothed into a gentle, sad curve instead. "My mom is gone. So is dad," he said quietly. "When Kiku-san scolds me, I imagine that maybe it's exactly how it would feel if I was scolded by my mom."

The expression on the usually exuberant boy's feature—the sadness, the loneliness, the obvious pain, and grief—cut Sakura's breathing a little short. Her heart gave a guilty lurch. She always took her parents and their parental care as granted, and never thought about how other kids lived without any of that.

The girl felt at the loss of words. She opened her mouth several times, trying to say something, maybe to sympathize, maybe to offer comfort, but had to close it every time because nothing appropriate came to mind.

Ironically, Naruto rushed to her rescue. "Anyway," he uttered and with that all the hurt reflected on his face was gone in a flash, vanishing without a trace, swiftly replaced by a cheerful friendly tooth flashing smile. "Want to go eat together?"

Sakura's mind still tried to catch up with the fact that her blond peer just pulled a complete 180 on his demeanor so fast and so well, that she had to wonder perhaps she imagined it all. It was probably the first time Sakura was looking at Naruto properly, actually looking at him, without Sasuke constantly pulling at her attention or opinions of others muddling her view. So, she knew, deep in her heart knew that all of this was real, that Naruto masked his true emotions right in front of her.

Just how many times in the past he might have had to do it?

Sakura wanted to pretend that she had never seen this, that the light was playing tricks on her eyes, that she thoroughly misread her teammate. The instant that thought crossed her mind, she felt ashamed.

"I-I mean…" the boy stuttered, a hint of apprehension rapidly spreading across his features. "You don't need to if you don't want to. We're the team and I thought—" he cut himself off, fidgeting nervously. "Just forget it. …Are we, are we still gonna train tomorrow together?"

He sounded so unsure, like believing he was setting himself up to be rejected again.

Guilt constricted Sakura's chest like a vice-grip. There was no way that she would refuse, push him aside and ignore when he showed such a vulnerable side of himself. Her consciousness would never allow her to live with herself if she acted like she usually did in the past. Like all of them did.

"Of course," the girl replied, her tone solid and confident. She marveled at the sight of Naruto's face lighting up like a bonfire. "And about the dinner…"

"Ahahahaha," the boy laughed and Sakura winced at how strained and fake it sounded. "It was a joke. A joke!" He waved it off as unimportant. "Just forget I said anything."

"Hmm, that's too bad then," she drawled. "I'm up for some ramen today."

"Of course, you don't wa—" The rest of the words died at the back of Naruto's throat as he stared at her with wide eyes. "What?"

Sakura smirked. "If you don't want to invite me for dinner, then I'm inviting you," she stated airily. "Though, next time you'll be the one paying. Deal?"

"Ne—Next time?" the blond whispered with a certain amount of awe and disbelief. His grin returned, bright and ferocious, like a roaring inferno ready to swallow the whole world. "Leave it to me, 'ttebayo!"

Sasuke pushed open the sliding door, entered the house, and closed it with a sigh. "I'm home!" he called out as he removed his shoes and placed them neatly in their proper spot.

No answer came which was surprising. Though, it shouldn't have. Why was he surprised? There was a feeling, a barely detectable sense of déjà vu, nagging at the back of his mind.

The interior was silent and dark. The blackness seeped up through the joints in the floorboards and snaked out from dark corners and crevices, swirling in an empty house, carving strange, erratic shapes out of thin air.

The boy shook his head at his own silliness. He trotted through the corridor, past the empty kitchen, and towards the main room. The moment his hand touched the handle to open the door, he hesitated. His heartbeat increased and his stomach flipped, feeling queasy.

Something was wrong. Very, very wrong. Every instinct screamed not to open this door; that he knew what was behind it, that it was better left alone.

But he surely didn't. Right?

Sasuke furrowed his brow. Ignoring his every senses yelling, pleading at him, he tugged at the door and cracked it open just a tiny bit.

A smell hit his unprepared self like a punch in his guts. A raw, acrid, heavy, festering scent, similar to a slaughterhouse.

His eyes widened in alarm. Sasuke immediately ripped open the door and—

His father lay on the floor, eyes closed, too still, too lifeless to be merely asleep. Something wet and red seemed to drain into the wood beneath his prone frame.

—and his mother's calm eyes met his fearful ones.

A blade glinted as it made its downward descent. Itachi was the one wielding it, looming over their mother from behind, half of his face obscured by the velvety darkness.

She smiled, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth. "Sasuke," it was a whisper, a soft exhalation, the final words from the mother to her son, "live on."

There were tears in Itachi's uncanny red eyes, his Sharingan spinning and morphing into something entirely different.

"I…"his brother's mouth moved, but Sasuke couldn't—wouldn't—refused to listen and acknowledge his words, "little brother."

Sasuke woke up with a start, with a scream stuck halfway through his throat and sweat making his clothes and the bed sheets stick to his skin. He breathed out when he trusted himself enough to not let panic control him.

The last rays of the late afternoon sun fell slanting through his window, drowning the room in the bloody red light.

His nap lasted longer than he had planned.

Closed space was stifling and soon the walls closed in on Sasuke. With the nightmare still fresh in his mind, his brother's concerned—no, no, no, not concerned, definitely not concerned—his brother's cold voice still ringing in his ears, the sheer terror racing rampant in his veins, he stumbled out of his bed and ran.

Only after roaming Konoha's streets for some time, Sasuke could finally breathe. Fill his lungs with fresh air without fear of choking on a rancid stench of blood.

Anger rose inside him like a tidal wave.

Tears? In Itachi's eyes? He scoffed, fingers curled into fists, nails digging into his palms. There was no way that he saw tears in Itachi's eyes. It had been dark and his face was half-hidden in the shadows, illuminated only by the moonlight through the windows. It was blood that accidentally spurted on his face, the boy was sure of it, the blood of his victims: their neighbors and their parents.

Absent-mindedly, Sasuke rubbed the cheek when he felt it stinging. However, there was no scratch on it—not anymore anyways; it healed years ago—only unblemished, healthy skin. It took him a moment to realize that.

He hated it. He despised his brother with every fiber of his being. He absolutely loathed how that man still had such a hold over his life.

But mostly Sasuke detested admitting that he was afraid of Itachi. A mere thought of him contorted his stomach as if someone was slowly twisting a knife in his guts, paralyzed his lungs causing a feeling of being smothered by an invisible hand. Fear engulfed his senses, knocking all thoughts aside, leaving only an image of those crimson irises, drops of black swirling, changing into the Sharingan he had never seen before, and dripping blood instead of tears.

"I killed everyone to challenge myself."

Sasuke stiffened as the detached voice of Itachi resounded inside his skull.

"I wanted to find a worthy opponent to test the limits of my abilities."

He pressed his hands on his ears, but it didn't silence the voice that wasn't truly there.

"But it's not you, Sasuke."

Sasuke clenched his teeth hard enough to feel pain.

"You're weak."

If he was weak and not worth killing, what about all the other younger Uchiha kids? How could a few months old baby, from a few houses over, amount as a challenge? Or the elderly, barely able to move?

"Foolish little brother."

"Shut up…" the boy murmured as he squeezed his eyes shut, attempting to will away the taunting phantoms and the burning image of Itachi's tears that had imprinted itself onto his eyes.

Itachi couldn't have been crying. He instinctively rejected the idea of that murderer shedding tears over the slaughter he laid upon their family.

"Hey, kid, you alright there?"

Sasuke's head snapped up, wild onyx eyes landing on the woman standing in front of him. Then his gaze drifted past her shoulder and onto the signboard.

Dango shop.

Of all the places his feet could have brought him, it had to be Itachi's favorite shop.

Sasuke felt sick, acid rising up his throat. He quickly backed off from the lady who watched him strangely and darted into the nearest alley, away from all the prying eyes of passersby and dango shop's patrons.

"If you want to survive, if you want to kill me, grow stronger, Sasuke."

Sasuke leaned his hands against the wall and threw up.

"Because one day I'll be back to finish what I started."

He kept puking until there was nothing left and even then he continued to dry heave for a while.

"I do hope you'll be strong enough to face me then. Don't disappoint me, little brother."

Sasuke wiped his mouth with the back of his hands, lips thinning. As he was now, he had no chance to stand against that man.

He was so weak. If they met now, he would be dead in a heartbeat.

He punched the wall.

Still too weak to face him. Or even survive him.

Another punch landed on the hard surface, leaving a smear of blood behind. The boy ignored the twinge of pain in his knuckles.

Pathetic. He was simply pathetic.

Sasuke rested his forehead on the brick wall, soothingly cool against his too hot, too tight skin.

He refused to die before he had an opportunity to plunge a kunai into Itachi's heart.

But how the hell he was supposed to grow strong enough to defeat, to kill that vile creature that was his older brother? To gather the courage to confront him, to look into his eyes without his heart trembling in fear?

His team was completely useless. An annoying fangirl and an incompetent loser. And while their temporary sensei offered all of his attention to Sasuke, for some reason the man rubbed him the wrong way. Not to mention, that the jounin didn't teach him anything useful.

He never heard a pair of footsteps approaching the entrance of the alley and became aware of their presences only when two young voices spoke simultaneously.

"Sasuke?"

"Sasuke-kun?"

"Admit it, Sakura," Naruto insisted, putting his hands behind his head as he strolled forward with a wide grin plastered on his face. "It was too funny when that pooch peed on Sasuke!"

"No, it wasn't," Sakura argued. She looked genuinely upset on behalf of their brooding teammate, however, the corners of her lips kept twitching despite her effort to hold herself from smiling. "Poor Sasuke-kun, he looked mortified."

"Do you remember his expression?"

Sakura snorted, but shook her head resolutely.

"Ehhh, just admit it!"

"What? No!" she refused firmly.

The boy made a silly face, some kind of strange mix of looking constipated, embarrassed, and ready to blow up.

The laughter tumbled out of the girl's mouth without her consent and she got it under control only after a few moments, but was unable to get rid of the joyous grin. Playfully pushing Naruto, she demanded, "Stop it!"

"Hehe," the blond chuckled smugly as he continued to walk along the street. "And I even told him to let the dog sniff around. Serves the bastard right, 'ttebayo!"

Sakura was about to open her mouth and reprimand Naruto for calling Sasuke names, but sharp whispers and hushed words inevitably drew her attention. She glanced at the few civilians gathered at the side of the street, talking quietly among themselves. That was not what surprised her, though. No, it was their countenances of pure hatred, their cold eyes fixed solely on them, the sneers on their faces that sent chills down her spine.

Sakura looked around at the other people and actually flinched at the amount of animosity their presences seemed to raise from the passersby.

"I hope we get the mission to walk the dogs again!"

Her gaze snapped back at Naruto who happily strode forward, oblivious of such a bizarre reaction from almost everyone around them.

"N-Naruto…"

"Hm?" The boy halted and turned around to face her. "What's wrong, Sakura?"

"Why—" Only now she noticed how people gave way to them as if they were afflicted with some sort of lethal disease. It was creeping Sakura out. "W-why are they looking at us like that?" she whispered, her voice trembling.

Naruto swept his eyes across the street and people in it. "Oh," he said as he lowered his hands, his previous joy nowhere to be seen now. "They aren't looking at us."

The girl frowned. "What do you—?"

"It's me," Naruto cut her off softly. "They are looking at me like that."

Sakura stared at him, unable to wrap her mind about the reason why villagers would… Her eyes widened as her accidental meeting with Naruto on the second night after graduation came to her mind.

"I was born that day. Some people think that it's enough to put blame on me."

"Sorry," the blond apologized, his eyes fixed firmly on the ground, ashamed. "I'm so used to that, I forgot that it would definitely bother you. Wasn't thinking when I insisted on walking you home."

That was one of the most heartbreaking things Sakura had ever heard in her entire life. No one should be used to something like that. "Naruto," she began, but wasn't quite sure how to proceed from there.

"Come here, Sakura." Naruto tugged her, pointing at the dark entrance of one of the alleys. "I know the shortcut through there."

The girl allowed him to pull her across the street and into the alley. She could almost physically feel everyone's glaring eyes on herself, their contempt, resentment, and malice burning into her flesh like brands. It was a horrible, suffocating, unbearable feeling. Only once they rounded the corner, Sakura could finally breathe again. She stared at the orange-cladded boy's back, green eyes glinting with unbidden tears.

How could Naruto endure such treatment and still be able to smile as he did?

The blond abruptly stopped and Sakura who was following close behind walked straight into him. She groaned, rubbing her nose, then glanced over Naruto's shoulder to see what he was looking at. She squinted at the somewhat familiar silhouette in the foggy half-darkness of the alley.

"Sasuke?"

"Sasuke-kun?"

The young Uchiha's head whipped to look at them so fast that they winced. That should have hurt.

Their eyes met and Naruto instantly went on high alert. There was something wrong with Sasuke: every muscle in his face tense, onyx eyes wild and unfocused, and his whole body displayed all kinds of alarming signals.

Sakura gasped when she saw the black-haired boy's bloody knuckles. "Sasuke-kun, are you alright?!" she panicked and wanted to rush over to him, but Naruto's outstretched hand stopped her from approaching. She glared at him.

"Wait," the blond muttered, but never spared her a glance, all of his attention on their third teammate.

He had seen something like this before, when he was much younger, during one of the people-watching games with Dog. There was a man in the crowd who suddenly freaked out seemingly without a reason, yelling something about 'they are coming!' and 'I'm gonna get rid of them all!' Someone tried to calm him down and was attacked in return. Dog just sighed then, said he'd be back soon, in a blink of an eye subdued the lunatic, and whisked him away.

A retired ninja, the man explained later when he returned, unable to deal with the demons of his past. The meaning was lost on the young Uzumaki at that time, but as he grew up, he finally understood.

Sasuke's state didn't look as bad. He was yet to fully fall for his demons of the past. Goodness knew, after what had happened to his family, there should have been an entire army of those.

Naruto had to do something, to snap his teammate out of it before he hurt himself again or worse—hurt someone else. "Yo, Sasuke!" he greeted him with an easy-going two fingers salute. "Wanna go for a round?"

A brief flash of surprise in those too dark, too intense eyes was a good sign.

Sakura scowled. "Naruto, what are you—?"

"To spar with you?" the Uchiha sneered, his voice rich with mockery and disdain. "A loser like you?"

Naruto ignored the insult. "Are you too much of a scaredy-cat to fight me?" Sasuke twitched at the comment, eyes narrowing in rage, and the blond smirked. "Come on, Bastard, follow me!" He promptly darted around the Uchiha and out of the alley. Once back on the street, he glimpsed over his shoulder.

Sasuke was hot on his heels.

Naruto grinned. Good.

It took them a few minutes to reach the closest training ground, smaller than the one Team Seven usually used, but similar in its geography with a forest surrounding it from all sides.

Naruto dug his heels into an impromptu stop, skidding through it due to his momentum, his body in a process of whirling around to defend himself. Sasuke was already upon him, his arm reared back for a powerful punch. The blond successfully evaded it, but the next instant the world tilted when his legs were kicked from under him. His back hit the ground with a shocking force. He had only a second to orient himself, because Sasuke aimed a kick at his stomach and he had to quickly roll away from it and to his feet, engaging his opponent in pure taijutsu combat.

Sasuke was clearly more skilled, his moves more fluid and less wasteful, even in his current mental state. For every Naruto's strike that connected with some part of his body, he returned two, sometimes even three. Good thing that the blond was so durable and possessed ridiculous stamina.

In one swift movement, Sasuke caught Naruto's wrist, twisted it sideways, and kneed him in his guts. The boy grunted at the flare of pain, his mind scrambling for a solution. To earn himself some leeway, he pulled a random practice seal from his weapon pouch and slapped it on the other genin's chest.

It worked like a charm—the Uchiha's eyes widened and he immediately let the blond go, backing away from him. He ripped the seal off as he did, threw it as far as possible, and then distanced himself even further away from it, waiting until it exploded.

Which was just an assumption on his part, because it never did. It landed harmfully on the ground and stayed there like a piece of paper it was.

Sasuke gritted his teeth and turned back to Naruto, eyes blazing, only to meet with the sight of a cluster of twenty-something of him. He had no time to fully process how that was possible, because all Narutos were already charging forward, splitting into two smaller groups to close in from either side.

Clicking his tongue, Sasuke retreated backward, trying to avoid getting flanked, all the while running through a sequence of hand seals. Chakra swirled in his stomach, rising up, burning his throat. The moment it became almost unbearable, he took a deep breath and then released a torrent of roaring fire at one group.

The real Naruto yelped in surprise when his view was suddenly blocked by the wall of flames. Luckily, he kept to the back of the group and managed to dodge to the side on time. Almost on time. Heat scorched his exposed skin as the fireball blew past, taking out all his shadow clones and setting his left sleeve on fire. With a hiss, he scooped the handful of soil and threw it to extinguish it.

The burns hurt, badly, and his blood was boiling.

Naruto glared at Sasuke who plowed through the second group of his clones with a kunai in his hand. He knew that currently, the other boy wasn't completely in his right mind, but going against your teammate without any regards of safety was definitely—absolutely!—not alright.

Damn bastard!

Blue eyes flicked at the abandoned seal on the ground, an idea popping in his head. Naruto's lips curled into a smile, sly and wicked. The moment Sasuke got rid of the last shadow clone, he pounced on him again.

To lure his opponent towards the seal ended up being harder than the blond had thought at first, but he managed after a couple of failed attempts. Two genins came to a stalemate right above it, eyes locked in a staring battle, pushing at each other but neither getting an upper hand.

"You're weak, Loser," Sasuke seethed, lips pulled into a mocking sneer. "You'll never become the Hokage being so weak."

"Not your business, Bastard!" Naruto snarled, equally ferocious. "I have more important goals now than my dream of becoming the Hokage! And for that," he slammed his foot down on the seal, pumping chakra into it without reservation, "I'm gonna kick your ass!"

Sasuke's eyes widened. His stand against Naruto slightly faltered.

The chakra's overload exploded a second later. The force behind the shockwave threw both boys to the opposite sides, engulfed in light and pain and deafness.

The air left Naruto's body as he slammed against the tree and slid down. "Crap…" he croaked before coughing to clear his mouth from dirt and small pieces of debris. No wonder there weren't that many Seal Masters around. Failing in fuuinjutsu was life threatening!

"Sasuke-kun!"

The blond blearily opened his eyes and squinted at the blurry pinkish blob on the other side of the training ground. He blinked several times in an effort to regain his vision, then heaved his bruised and aching body up and limped towards his two teammates.

"I'm fine," Sasuke snapped at Sakura who tried to help him up before shoving her away. "Get lost. You're annoying."

The girl wilted like a flower without water under his harsh words.

"Don't be such a jerk," Naruto growled. "Or do you want to get your ass kicked again?"

Sasuke looked at him, his black eyes clear now, sharp again, void of previous madness. "Hn," was all they heard from him before he pivoted on his heel and stalked off without any further comments.

At least the bastard was limping too, the blond noted with smug satisfaction, no matter how hard Sasuke tried to hide it.

Sakura scowled and rounded on Naruto, "What the hell you were thinking?! You could have seriously hurt h—!" Whatever she wanted to say stuck in her throat as she took in the boy's condition. "Are you alright?!"

Naruto blinked, looked down at himself. His orange jacket had lots of rips and tears in it, some smudged with blood, its left sleeve completely destroyed by the fire, sticking painfully to his burned skin. "I don't think I can fix the jacket. What a shame. I really liked this one, 'ttebayo," he muttered, justifiably upset. "I'll have to buy a new one… This month's budget will be really tight, I still want—"

"Who cares about that?!" Sakura yelled, throwing her arms up, seemingly ready to pull her own hair from frustration. "You need to go to the hospital!"

Naruto stared at her like she said something crazy. "Well, okay, I'll go tomorrow after—"

"Now, Naruto!"

"Eh? But it's not really—"

"Do you want to get your ass kicked?"

"Okay! Okay! Sheesh…"

"Dammit…" Sasuke cursed silently as he had to take another short break in his slow trek home. His whole body ached, especially his back and his leg, and he experienced a mother of all headaches. His collision with the tree was definitely going to leave a long-lasting bruise, he could already feel it forming.

And all that damage was done by Naruto, the loser, the dead last of their class, the clanless orphan…

Sasuke frowned at his last thought.

No, that was not right. They learned about the Uzumaki clan in the history classes and while the teacher insisted that the blond wasn't a member of that clan, that he had been given the name randomly, that he had nothing to do with them, the young Uchiha knew that there was no way that the orphanage bestowed the clan's surname for someone who didn't have a single drop of their blood. Extinct clan or not.

Naruto Uzumaki carried the same burden of being the last of his clan.

From that day, a small amount of respect attached itself to the blond Uzumaki. The strange feeling of kinship bloomed inside Sasuke's heart without his permission. No matter how hard he tried to stomp it, to smother it, to get rid of it, it never faded.

Instead, he started to ignore it, shunning Naruto like everyone else.

They had something else in common—their equally absurd ambitions. Sasuke always found solace in this fact. Naruto screamed his dream of becoming the Hokage for the whole world to know, and he silently swore to kill his older brother.

And now Naruto had changed his goal, shifted his focus to something else, and left him stranded alone on the road leading to what sometimes seemed an impossible objective.

It shook him more than he would have ever admitted. Like his whole world was suddenly thrown off its axis.

The boy cursed again, pushed away from the wall, and continued his painstakingly slow journey to his empty apartment.

He felt lost as never before.

Naruto could actually hold his own against him now. Somehow he became stronger in a couple of weeks, even without real guidance of the jounin sensei.

Was that because he found a new ambition to work towards?

Sasuke snorted.

No way.

But what if… What if he—maybe, just maybe—tried to do the same, to find another dream for himself? To let go of his desire to kill Itachi? Would that allow him to grow stronger?

That dreadful night a part of him died together with his clan, his family; perished in bloody and unjustified murders—the part that had plans for the future, that was capable of yearning more than just to see his brother's corpse at his feet.

Sasuke wished nothing else. He had nothing else left, only his anger, his misery, and his grief.

If he didn't kill Itachi, the latter was going to kill him. There was no point of thinking about the time to come if he was not strong enough to survive an encounter with the older Uchiha.

How Sasuke was supposed to find an exit or a way to break this cursed circle?

A/N

So, yeah, Sasuke has issues. Because, you know, that's what happens when a person, not to mention a child, survives such a traumatic event. Who knew.

And as you may have noticed (it's pretty obvious really), the Uchiha massacre went differently in this AU. I love Itachi character, I really do, but not how he was structured in canon. For being a genius, he was dumbass of the highest level. Pulling 180 on the villainous character in the middle of the story and trying to portray him like some kind of martyred hero is not the way to go about it.

Also, the fight scenes… yea, like the majority of fanfiction authors, I'm also bad at them. I tried to make it more engaging, more inventive, but I'm bad at actually thinking up how the battle should proceed. Hopefully, it wasn't the most boring part of the chapter. Tell me what you think!