"Such a pretty young couple," a voice croaks from a darkened alleyway and he stops walking, leaving her to turn around in confusion. The full moon lit up her pale face in white light and he met her eyes as his eyebrows furrowed in thought.

"Sasuke?" she ventured, squeezing his hand and sending him a gentle look of confusion. The night was silent with no footfalls or distant sounds to permeate the air and a sudden chill ran through him-

"Just married?" the voice crooned and out from the alley stepped a wirey women. Her face was kind and the laugh lines and sun spots only made her appear more endearing, like a grandmother.

"Oh, hi ma'm," Sakura cheerily responded, always making an effort to be friendly to strangers, but Sasuke only looked on, his eyes narrowing and his jaw clenched.

"I rarely see so much love between two people," the woman continued, almost ignoring Sakura's greeting and instead focusing on Sasuke. He was tense, a pit of dread was bubbling in his stomach and the night air was suddenly cold.

"Who are you?" he snapped suddenly irrationally irritated with this woman. Sakura tugged on his arm, a sign of warning, but he ignored her protest and looked at the woman with disdain.

"How rude of you to look at me like that? And here I was, about to grant you two such good fortunes. After all that you have been through, I thought it would be fair for the other lives you will live, but-"

"What are you talking about?" this time it was Sakura with a steely voice and hard eyes.

"Be quiet girl!" The woman commanded and Sakura felt like she had lost her voice. She tugged on Sasuke's arm with desperation as she tried to yell, but nothing came out of her mouth except a breath of frustrated air. The air became thick and Sasuke felt very clearly that something very bad was about to happen.

"Who are you?" he asked, his voice even but strong as anger began to course through his veins.

"I can feel the heat, the anger, in you boy," she continued, ignoring his question, "You are an Uchiha through and through. Do you know why the Uchiha have an affinity with fire?" Sasuke nodded his head and gripped Sakura's hand.

"We-"

"Your clan is cursed to attempt to wield the most volatile of elements. You believe you can tame fire? The Uchiha's are a prideful clan, but what do you perceive to be your biggest curse?" Sasuke stayed silent as the woman paused. Sakura's grip on his arm was beginning to hurt, but his body felt heavy, too heavy to move away, "You, dear boy, are cursed in many ways. The curse of your clan, the curse of hate, the curse of tragedy... I could go on but I think dear boy, you are beginning to feel the hatred inside of you come to life as I speak." At these words, the woman began to laugh, an eerie sound that caused goosebumps to break out on Sasuke's arms. Sakura whipped her head to look at Sasuke.

"Go away you old hag! You know nothing about me!" Sasuke spat out, the anger inside of him beginning to boil over into his voice. At his words, the woman only began to laugh louder. Sasuke, suddenly overcome with fear and desperation moved towards the old woman with rage burning in his heart.

The moment he went to grab her hand, he found his body frozen.

"Sasuke Uchiha," the woman spoke, her voice deeper and somber, "You dare attack me? And here I was doing you a favor, helping out a man who doesn't deserve a shred of happiness after the sins and crimes against humanity he has committed-"

"You don't know the first thing about Sasuke!" Sakura's voice came out raspy and soft, but the anger was still audible.

"Shut up, you insolent girl!" The woman whispered and again, Sakura's voice was gone, "Sasuke and Sakura Uchiha, you two are bonded together through indisputable forces, a match made from the start of time. However, there are crimes and actions that I cannot forgive. There are people that do not deserve redemption. You will leave this life in the flames you attempt to control, a fitting death for a murderer and his partner, and your souls will be cursed to never connect again. Sasuke and Sakura Uchiha, everything you love will incinerate."

4.

There's a boy named Sasuke with dark hair and dark eyes and pale skin that grows up with a doting mother, a kind older brother and a stern but loving father. He is part of a prominent clan (his mother explains that prominent means important) and his father is the head of this clan and is a Very Important Man and Sasuke should be proud to be his son even if his father is never home to tuck him into bed. Sasuke knows that his father loves their small little family, but it still makes him sad whenever his father is not home for dinner.

Still, Sasuke has a wonderful childhood: he comes home from school every afternoon to cut up tomatoes and his mother's warm smile and lets his brother tell him bedtime stories every night before bed. He studies hard in school and is the top of his class in every subject, but making friends is one of the only things he doesn't excel at and his lack of a social life worries his mother. Sasuke, however, prefers to spend his free time with his older brother reading.

The backyard of Sasuke's house sits along a small forest at the edge of Konoha, their hometown. The forest is filled with running trails and natural springs as well as wild animals. On Saturdays, Sasuke and his mom will take long walks in the morning before the heat becomes unbearable. The forest is a place of serenity and calm, a drastic contrast to the big city that the Uchiha's live in and the corporate world the governs their family.

In his eleventh year of life, on a warm night in March, his mother and father host a family reunion. The air is warm and dry, but dark clouds hang in the sky. An odd sense of dread washes over Sasuke as soon as he steps outside into their family's backyard. Despite the merry atmosphere that his extended family emits, there is an eeriness that irks the young boy. Sasuke looks at the forest behind his family's house and sees something that shouldn't be there: a person hiding in the shadows that the trees cast.

"Itachi, look," he says, desperately pointing to the trees with wide eyes, but his older brother just smiles and continues to talk to his cousins. No one else notices the person standing in the foliage of the forest with red eyes that practically glow in the darkness.

"Sasuke, if you want to, you can go into the forest for a little bit. Just make sure you're back in time for dinner so mother doesn't' get upset, okay?" Sasuke nods at his brother, an expression of wonder on his face as he walks away from his family.

He takes deliberate steps into the forest.

He doesn't walk out of the forest for three years.

His mother, with more wrinkles outling her delicate face, looks out of the window in the kitchen one morning, only to see a body lying on the edge of the forest. The dark hair and ruffled clothes (that look so much like her missing son) make her rub her eyes and blink before her face morphs into an expression of confusion. She drops the plate she's holding and the pieces shatter throughout the kitchen.

She runs out of the backdoor.

Sasuke Uchiha returns home one summer morning three years after disappearing into the forest. He is still wearing the same clothes he was wearing at his family's reunion, but his hair is longer, his face leaner and his body is taller. His mother finds him asleep, his legs curled into his chest and his hair wet with dew, on the grass that sits between the forest's edge at the Uchiha's backyard.

The years following are intertwining whirlwinds of confusion and doctor's appointments and meetings with phychiatrists. The famous Sasuke Uchiha, the boy who came back, doesn't remember the three years he spent spirited away: a national phenomenon the country has become engrossed with. The elders of his family claim that spirits took him, while his parents fear that he was kidnapped and the memories are so horrible they're been repressed, and Sasuke is left with a blank period in his brain.

The Uchiha family spent three years looking for their son: sending out search parties, posting flyers, doing everything they could and now that he's back, the cracks in the foundation of their family are growing wider and wider and Itachi knows that soon they will fall apart.

Times wears on, never stopping, and Sasuke grows up. There are things that the Uchiha family hides: The scars on Sasuke's abdomen, the antidepressants Mikoto takes in the morning, the late nights Fugaka works and the noticeable silence that surrounds the mansion. The grounds are kept up by a loyal staff, but even the most beautiful flowers can't replace the lack of warmth that the occupants emit.

Sasuke goes back to school years after he returns. Behind by a few years, but a determined student, he quickly rises to the top of his class, but there is something, an aura he emits, that keeps away his classmates. He doesn't like small talk, never has, and this trait makes it hard for any of his classmates to strike up a conversation. His mother doesn't allow him to participate in outdoor sports so he spends his physical education periods in the archery classroom with only two other students. The sport itself is a quiet affair and the other two archers are introverted, so Sasuke is always grateful for the silence that the practice period gives him. There are girls that find him attractive and he has found one too many love notes stuffed into his locker, but Sasuke doesn't respond to any of them, not out of malice, but mostly out of embarrassment. None the less, this action only seems to encourage more love letters and cause an increase of animosity from his male classmates.

Sasuke vividly dreams every night when he closes his eyes. He dreams of other lives his soul has lived, or perhaps is living right now: a police man, a lawyer, a soldier, a ninja, a hero and a villain. His dreams are rarely anything but depressing snippets of a life only half lived. He is constantly overwhelmed by a sadness that permeates into every part of his day and makes it difficult for him to get out of bed every morning.

Mikoto calls it depression, but Itachi, as he always has, understands his little brother.

Sasuke joins the school newspaper his final year of high school due to insistent urging from his mother to get involved. The club is small, only four other members besides himself. The students are odd and Sasuke often spends his time writing columns on tedious matters (like the changing lunch menu or the school festival) but somehow he finds that he enjoys the tougher stories, the mysteries he has to solve.

"You know," Ino, a blonde girl in his grade that spends almost every second of her free time painting her nails,"On days like these, I wish our school had more mysteries and scandals. Like I don't care who was sucking face with below the bleachers-"

"Weren't you just talking about Neji and Tenten sucking face underneath the bleachers?" Shikamaru drawls with a smirk.

"Irrelevant-" She shouts before continuing, "Like things that are illegal or mysteries!"

"You just want to be Nancy Drew!" Chouji adds before opening a bag of potato chips.

"I do not! You two are so mean! That is what I get for being the only girl on this paper!" With a huff, she turns back to her computer and scowls.

"There are no mysteries here, the last interesting thing to happen in Konoha was when this guy-" Shikamaru points to Sasuke who is reading a book at his desk,"-disappeared and then reappeared. You could write a story about him!" Sasuke looks up from his book and scowls at Shikamaru who just shrugs in response.

"I decline." Sasuke states, his face in a grimace, before he turns back to his book. Chouji laughs before eating another potato chip and Ino's face reddens.

"A mystery?" Kakashi, the club sponsor, asks as he looks up from his computer.

"No," Sasuke answers not bothering to look up form his book, "There are no mysteries here."

"I know of a mystery for you all to immerse yourselves in!" Kakashi is smiling as he grabs their attention.

"What is it?" Ino perks up and the rest of the boys raise their head and look at their teacher.

"Did you know? Sasuke wasn't the first boy to go missing in those woods," he starts and Sasuke finds his eyes widening as Ino gasps, "There was a girl, a few years before, but-"

"But?" Ino asks, genuine curiosity in her voice.

"-when she came back form the woods, she had lost her mind."

"What do you mean?" Sasuke carefully asks, his voice quiet and his eyes narrowed.

"The rumors were that she claimed she had gone to another world full of ninjas and chakra, all nonsense of course, but she couldn't grasp that what she had seen were mere delusions," Kakashi's voice was sad as he continued, "She was only eleven at the time and her parents thought it was temporary psychosis, but as time wore on, it became clear that the poor girl has lost her mind. She tried to climb up walls, throw knives and-

Goosebumps break out on Sasuke's skin as his teacher keeps talking.

"-eventually, she locked herself in a shed in her backyard one evening and lit it on fire. She would have been rescued, but..."

"But?" Sasuke whispers, a chill running down his spine.

"But there was a tank of gas and the shed exploded. Her parents were devastated: moved away a month after."

A flurry of motion from Ino makes the other occupants of the room turn her way as she types on her computer.

"Oh my god," Ino whispers as her body freezes with her eyes fixed on the computer screen in front of her. Sasuke Chouji and Shikamaru rush to see the computer screen and- "I knew her." Ino whispers again, her hands covering her mouth and Sasuke feels the air leave his lungs-

-I KNOW YOU I KNOW YOU I KNOW YOU-

"Sakura Haruno," Kakashi announced from the front of the classroom with a melancholic expression on his normally placid face, "that was her name. My parents were good friends with her parents and they owned that bakery on 2nd street. She was a very smart girl, i think the top student in her class at the time. It was all very sad. I'm surprised none of you know about it, she was the same age as you all."

A picture of a girl with strawberry blonde, almost pink, hair stares back at him and Sasuke feels sick as memories overcome him-

-"If you were to stay here with me, there would be no regrets"-

and he runs to the bathroom and vomits until he's dry heaving and tears are rolling down his face.

Sasuke dreams of infernos and burnt flesh that night.

Sasuke will join the police force and after years of searching, will find his passion with the missing person's division. He will spend the rest of his life rescuing numerous children from kidnappings. He will find joy when he returns the children to their loving families, but the image of green eyes and pink hair will haunts his dreams every night until the day he dies.