Obi Land

Parallelism
1:Noble . 2:Sasuke's Smile . 3:Demon . 4:Absolute Power . 5:Asylum . 6:Silent . 7:Hidden

Chapter One: Noble

On the ship only Nobles were permitted to take a shower every night. Slaves were chosen individually to take a shower only when a Noble wished for something from him or her. Many of them went at least a month without a shower before they were selected for even the smallest task. No one questioned this fact; it was forbidden to question the Nobles. The Nobles ran the world as well as the ship, and if anyone ever tried to escape them, whoever it was would fail and then be put to death. It would be a painful death.

A number of months ago, the ship had raided another ship, killing off the Nobles on it. They claimed that these Nobles were lead by a child who wanted to go against the law of the other Nobles. There were apparently a number of such ships, but the slaves knew that all Nobles were actually in a constant battle as they attempted to take control of the world for him or herself.

After defeating the Nobles on the enemy (anyone who was not a Noble on your ship was an enemy) ship, the victorious ship had acquired all of their slaves. Most of them fit in perfectly. They behaved perfectly and seemed to blend into the ranks of slaves they had only just joined. One slave, however, stood out.

His hair was jet black, and he cared for it more than a slave should. His skin was smooth and light, but never seemed to burn in the sun. While his beauty could be accepted and considered a rare treasure in a slave, his eyes could never have belonged to one. They were cold, and hard, and they seemed to look, not through you, but into you as though he could see your very thoughts and wishes with a single glance from his perfectly piercing eyes. When he showered, instead of taking as little time as possible and getting out immediately, he took his time in the shower, and even dared to sit in the water afterward! Instead of taking a coarse slave towel to dry off, he stole a soft Noble's towel. He rarely did his assigned work; He would always have a younger, smaller slave do it instead, and if they didn't do it right, they would pay for it twice as much as he did. He spoke to other slaves too much, and dared to ask them for their real names instead of the shortened versions assigned to all slaves as soon as they are taken upon a ship.

He told them his name was Sasuke.

He could be sent to his death for any one of these things, but the Nobles didn't know. In front of them he was the perfect slave: meek, docile, respectful, seeing no worth in himself, but still pretty enough for the Nobles to stare at. No one could convince them otherwise, because they all liked this new slave that they only knew as Sa-chan. Because he was such an amazing slave, he was called on often, and showered just as often. The Nobles obviously preferred him, but they didn't really know him. The other slaves did, and they often thought to themselves (they would never say such a thing out loud) that he acted as though he himself were a Noble.

He was called again tonight. The other slaves waited patiently as he washed himself. Instead of leaving the water at its maximum heat, Sa-chan turned it down just enough for him to wash his face. Once that was taken care of, he turned to water back up, but the slaves all knew it was because he liked the warmth and not because the Nobles would punish him if he did not. He dried himself with a light blue Noble's towel, and went to his room to put on clean clothes. He shared the room with three other slaves, but they were rarely there, especially if they knew he would be.

After he had dressed himself in the appointed clothing for meeting with a Noble, Sa-chan walked confidently down the hall to the room of the Noble who had summoned him. He knew the room well; he went to it often. Outside the Noble's room, Sa-chan halted and knocked lightly on the door three times. He waited for the Noble to answer, and walked into the room.

"I present myself before the great Noble who has summoned me. I am honored to be granted the privilege of entering your presence." Sa-chan bowed down as he said this, as he was required to do.

"Okay then, Sa-chan. You can pick your head up off you knees now and come on over." The Noble said smiling. His dark eyes were nearly closed, and his silver hair fell over his face to cover the left one.

Sa-chan shrugged. He walked over to the bed the Noble was sitting on and joined him. "If you are going to make me play Go again, Kakashi-sama, you might as well just skip it and say I won."

Kakashi-sama blinked. "How'd you know?"

"I'm secretly a telepath sent from another dimension to assist you in your ability to play Go, and I think I'm failing… maybe I always beat you because I'm a telepath?" Sa-chan's face showed no signs of joking, but his voice was heavy with sarcasm.

"You really are no fun, you know, Sa-chan." Kakashi-sama wrapped his arms around the slave's shoulders as he spoke. "Why can't you just be nice to me for once?"

"I showed up clean, didn't I?"

"You hate being dirty, so that's more like a favor from me." Kakashi-sama grinned at this. "You really are the strangest slave I've ever had."

"Yea, I'll bet I am."

"Now that's no attitude for a slave to have." Kakashi-sama whispered into Sa-chan's ear. "I'll have to punish you for that, now won't I?"

"Not really, but I'm willing to bet you want to." Sa-chan answered, as a smirk played on his lips.

"You're doing it again, aren't you?"

"Doing what, Kakashi-sama?" Sa-chan spoke too innocently not to know.

"Smirking at my door when I can't see you of course! Keep this up and you'll have to start sleeping with it instead of me." Kakashi-sama spoke with false astonishment.

"But, my lord, I don't think I would know how." Sa-chan answered innocently.

"Good," was all Kakashi said for the rest of the night.

They were awakened the next morning by the blaring sound of the battle alarm. The entire ship seemed to vibrate as it went off, and Sa-chan was nearly vibrated out of bed. Both he and Kakashi-sama quickly pulled their clothes on and went to report to the main deck. The alarm was officially a warning that another ship was coming, but everyone knew that another ship meant a fight.

The slaves stood in ranks to greet the coming Nobles, and the Nobles of this ship stood in front of them. There were six of them. The two ships grappled each other, and a plank was set up so people could walk between them. The leading Noble of the other ship walked elegantly across the plank without stumbling even when the ship lurched slightly in the ocean waves. He had long black hair that was pulled back into a tail at the back of his head, and his skin was like porcelain. His eyes were a deep, blood red, and seemed to pierce you through to your heart even when he was looking at someone else.

As was required of them, the slaves knelt their heads respectively. Most of them anyway. Sa-chan looked straight at him. It was the only time any Noble had seen him behave disrespectfully, and he was whipped for it. However, he did not look away. The Noble could feel Sa-chan's eyes watching him, and he in turn looked at the slave.

"Sasuke-kun?" He asked, and his voice seemed to caress the eardrums of anyone who heard it. "What are you doing here?"

Before Sa-chan could say anything, the leading Noble from the ship he currently stood on spoke up. "You know this slave, my lord? We recently acquired him from another ship, but we have enough slaves that if he pleases you, he would cost very little."

The other Noble looked at him in a way that made it seem as though he were glaring even though he wore no expression. "Slave? My younger brother is no slave, sir. He is as Noble as myself."

"I beg your pardon, my lord, but he wore the robes of a slave, and all Nobles on the ship were accounted for."

"And without bothering to beg your pardon, my good sir, I do believe my brother is far more intelligent than you or anyone else on your ship. Sasuke-kun, come over here."

"Yes, Brother." Sasuke-kun walked over to his brother.

"Is there anyone on this ship you wish to spare?"

"Yes: Kakashi-san." Sasuke-kun pointed to the silver haired Noble.

"Very well, Kakashi-san, would you please come board my ship?"

"Of course, my lord." Kakashi smiled and walked across the plank to the other ship.

"Now then," The older Noble pulled his brother into his lap. "For torturing my dear younger brother with the role of a slave, I'm afraid I'll have to kill you all." The Noble flicked his wrist, and the ship was swarmed with Nobles and slaves alike, slaughtering everyone.

"Thank you Itachi-niisan, I really didn't much like it here." Sasuke-kun said, smiling. "I couldn't very much leave you here with these animals, now could I Sasuke-kun?" Itachi asked, and planted a kiss on his brother's lips.

Chapter Two: Sasuke's Smile

Everyone in Konoha knew the Uchiha twins. They were the cute little ones who far surpassed the other children in their studies both academically and physically. The taller one, Itachi, was the strongest, but the cuter one, Sasuke, was smarter. They were inseparable, and it almost seemed as though they were two halves of the same boy.

Sasuke always called Itachi Niichan, even though Itachi was only a few minutes older than him, and Itachi always looked out for Sasuke as though he were trying to live up to his title. They were both kind boys, but they were both distant as well.

They didn't really have any friends, but it was because they chose not to associate themselves with others. Itachi would glare harshly at anyone who went near his brother. Sasuke would glare coldly when someone approached Itachi. Approaching them both would receive a double glare as each brother sought to protect the other.

The two of them would train every day out by the big sakura tree in the Uchiha grounds. When Itachi fought, he appeared to grow years older and become a full-fledged ninja, but Sasuke moved clumsily in comparison, which made them seem much farther apart in age.

"Itachi-niichan!" Sasuke whined after Itachi tripped him, again. "Take it easy, will you!"

Itachi grinned at down at his brother. "Come on, Sasuke-kun, it's not my fault you're too slow!"

"Just like it's not my fault you got two Cs in a row on your math tests!" Sasuke yelled back, picking himself up off the ground.

"You're the one who didn't tutor me right!"

"And you're the one who won't train me right!" Sasuke grinned.

"Stop turning around everything I say!" Itachi threw a wooden, training shuriken at his younger brother. "It's not fair."

"You're one to talk," Sasuke caught the shuriken and returned the throw. "about being fair: attacking a small defenseless boy… and your own brother even!"

Itachi smirked. "Now you're just showing off." He threw the shuriken again, and followed it with a barrage of similar wooden kunai.

Sasuke dodged all but one kunai, and managed to throw back two thirds of them. "You're the one showing off, Niichan!"

Eventually the boys' mother called them in for dinner, and the wooden weapons were left outside, alone.

Sasuke ate happily; he always did. Strangers would even comment on his love of food. Itachi, however, only picked lightly at his food and quickly left to take a shower before bed.

"What's wrong, Sasuke?" His mother asked when the young boy stopped eating to look at his brother's plate.

"He ate even less than usual… What if Niichan is sick?"

She smiled, but for some reason it didn't seem like a happy smile. Sasuke had never seen her smile like the girls at school who could light a room with their mouths; his mom always smiled sadly. "I'm sure he's fine, Sasuke. You should go get ready for bed now."

"Okay!" Sasuke smiled back at her and ran off to get ready for bed.

"He looks just like you," Sasuke's dad said to his mom. "even his smile."

"Yes," she replied. "but I was hoping he'd smile like you."

The next day, Sasuke couldn't seem to find his brother no matter how much he searched. He was especially worried since Itachi hadn't eaten his breakfast or lunch. No matter how much Sasuke begged, pleaded, and ordered, Itachi refused to eat. As he was looking around, hoping to find some sign of his brother, Sasuke saw his parents running towards him.

"Otousan! Okaasan! I can't find Niichan anywhere!" He yelled, tears building in his eyes.

"That's okay, Sasuke. We know where he is." His dad didn't sound happy about this, but Sasuke was relieved. "Wait over here with your Okaasan, and I'll go get Itachi, okay?" He didn't smile, he never smiled, but his voice was reassuring. Sasuke nodded his head.

Sasuke stood patiently with his mother, until he saw a black cloud of chakra so powerful that he could see it clearly. It attacked trees and people on its own, and its master seemed almost to have no control over it. Somehow though… somehow it felt familiar. Sasuke knew this chakra, or its wielder, but he couldn't quite place who it was. He knew that whoever it was had never been like this before because otherwise he'd recognize them. Then, as the person came into view, Sasuke knew exactly who it was, even though all he could see was a distorted shadow hidden by the massive flow of chakra and the red eyes peering out between strands of dark hair.

It was Itachi.

"NIICHAN!!!" Sasuke screamed because a number of people were attacking his dear twin brother. It turned out to be unnecessary though, when Itachi easily hurled all the jounin away from himself without touching a single one of them. Their father was one of them. Sasuke ran over to where his father had been hurled. "Otousan!" He yelled again and again, but it was no use.

His father was dead. His father had been killed. Itachi had killed him. He had killed his own dad. Only a monster would murder his own father! Itachi… was a monster.

Having determined this, Sasuke hurled himself at his older twin brother, screaming a wordless cry. His vision turned red as it was clouded by what everyone else saw as a mass of chakra, and he easily reached Itachi. His brother swung him to the side, avoiding an attack but left himself open to another attempt. Sasuke took the small opening, and killed his brother with a single kunai.

Only then did Sasuke realize what he had done.

He had killed his older brother, just as Itachi had killed their father. He sat in disgust at himself for repeating the act that had earned his brother the term "monster" in his mind. Itachi would never have hurt their dad without good reason, but Sasuke just jumped in and murdered him.

And to make things worse, these pitiful excuses for fellow villagers were actually congratulating him! They called him savoir and offered him gifts as he sat beside the corpse of his own brother. They called the gruesome sight of Sasuke covered in dark, sticky blood from his brothers body a triumph. He was disgusted with every last one of them.

"Excuse me, boy." A tall man in a dark cloak walked up to Sasuke out of the throng of people. "I imagine you wish your brother were alive again."

"Yes."

"I can help you with that." Sasuke saw the man's teeth through the shadows on his face when he smiled.

Sasuke was sure he heard his mother yell, "No!" in an attempt to stop him, but he stood anyway.

"Would you?" He asked hopefully.

"Of course. Sit back down next to him, will you?" Sasuke sat on the ground beside Itachi. The man began chanting in a strange language that Sasuke did not understand as his mom began running towards him, struggling to reach him through the herd of villagers crowding the scene.

Then Itachi opened his eyes. "Sasuke….kun… I'm…hungry." He spoke softly, his voice horse, unused.

"Yes, of course you are, Niichan. You haven't been eating at all." Sasuke smiled slightly. His brother was alive again. "What do you want to eat?"

Itachi raised his head slightly, obviously weak. "I want… to eat… you." He wrapped his strong hands around Sasuke's arms and pulled him down closer to himself. "Can I, brother, please?"

"Yes, Niichan, of course you can."

As Itachi bit into his soft flesh, Sasuke smiled a smile so sad it made even the planet shed tears at the sight of it.

Chapter Three: Demon

They had captured her. The vile demons with black wings melded onto the under parts of their arms, and long, yellow fangs so deadly they made a komodo dragon look harmless, and grey skin that looked in some places as though it would fall off. They had captured her. She was kind, gentle, caring, and always stayed by his bed all night when he was sick. She had cared for him his entire life, and there was no way in hell he would let them harm her. They had captured her. The demons had captured his mother.

He had to get her back. He slashed his way through the demons, covered himself in blood so dark it was black, didn't notice when he lost his sword. There were so many of them, so very many of them. He wondered if there had been a time when he hadn't been running through this field slaughtering them faster than they could even comprehend their comrade's death. He couldn't think of one, but if he had never been away, how did he know her? She was his mother. Of course he knew her. How could he not? She was the woman who fed and clothed and cared for him. She had always protected him, and now it was his turn to protect her. He had to get her back.

He sliced them into pieces with his sword, mortally stabbed them with his daggers, and frightened the smaller ones into escaping with no more than a glance. As he fought, he didn't notice when his black eyes turned red. He didn't notice when his nails turned to claws and his teeth to fangs. He certainly didn't notice when he lost his sword. By the time he reached his mother, the dark haired boy was stained in the blood of countless demons and didn't even know what it had done to him. His mother, however, did.

"Mother… I've found you…at last…" The boy panted as he fell to the ground, smiling in relief. "Now we can go home to Father and Brother…" His mother did not reply. "Mother? Are you okay? Did the demons steal your voice? …Mother…?"

As he spoke, the remaining demons attempted to attack him and take revenge for those he had slain. He would have defended himself as well as his mother, if only he had not already exhausted himself so completely that he was no longer able to move.

As he lay on the ground unable to move, he heard a yell and the sound of demons dying. "That'll teach you!" The voice yelled at the already defeated demons.

"Hey," another voice spoke, this one female. "are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine." He heard his mother reply. "Thank you." Then he heard the sound of people running towards them from two different sides. "Darling, Itachi, let's the three of us go home now." She said as her husband and elder son arrived.

"What about Sasuke?" Itachi motioned to the boy lying on the ground.

"What are you talking about?" She replied, looking disgustedly at her younger son. "That is no more than a demon."

"Mother! He's your son!" Itachi cried out, motioning almost wildly with his hands. "He ran all the way out here without us just to save you!"

"Itachi! Do not talk back to your Mother. She's right: we should go home." His father spoke up, and began to help his wife head back towards their home. "Come on, Itachi."

Itachi was helping Sasuke stand up. "Are you okay, Little brother?" He asked smiling. "I was wrong before. You really are very strong."

"She's okay, right? Mom is okay?" Sasuke asked weakly.

"Yes, Sasuke, she's fine."

"That's good, I though maybe she wouldn't be because she thought I was a demon. I thought they hurt her so bad she wouldn't recognize me because she'd be hallucinating that I'm one of them because she's so very scared of them. But I'm glad I was wrong…"

Itachi helped Sasuke as he stumbled. "He needs medical attention, fast! Here, this will help." The girl who had spoken to Sasuke's mother before ran up and applied some kind of stinging, liquid substance to his wounds. He flinched, but she assured his brother that it was fine.

"Itachi," his mother shrieked at him. "What are you doing? That's a demon; it will attack you as soon as it can. Come away from it already and let's go home."

"Mother, its Sasuke. You remember Sasuke, right? He's my younger brother!"

"You don't have any brothers, Itachi. Now come on." Itachi's father spoke this time.

"What's wrong with you? Why won't you admit that he exists?" Itachi half yelled half snarled at his parents.

"Because he's a demon now." The guy who had killed the demons said softly. "They don't want to admit he's their son because he's been turned into a demon."

"Inuyasha…" The girl whispered. She knew he spoke from his past experiences with humans to give Itachi that answer.

"That's stupid." Itachi glared at them.

"It seems that way, but your parents don't know how to deal with him, so they've decided to push him away instead of realizing that he did this to save your mother." A dark haired man robed in black and violet spoke up from behind the first girl.

"Will you all stop talking crazy?" Sasuke screamed, reaching his hands up to cling to his head in pain. "Who's this your talking about that's a demon, and why can't I go home?"

"What?" Was the only answer anyone could think to give him.

Then, softly, a woman standing beside the robed man spoke up. "He… he doesn't know."

"Sasuke, do you remember the story about the man who killed a thousand demons and became one when he was covered in their blood?" Itachi asked softly.

"Yes." Sasuke was barely able to speak.

"You didn't realize this because you were fighting so hard, but you killed at least a thousand demons just now when you saved mom… and you're covered in their blood." Itachi carefully kept his voice and his face calm, void of any real emotion.

"Wh…what?"

"You've been turned into a demon, and Mother and Father won't admit that you ever existed because of it."

"No." Sasuke looked confused after his brother spoke. "That's just a story, Brother. You can't possibly believe that could actually happen. And besides, you said it yourself that I couldn't even kill fifty demons during the best full week of my life. You remember that, don't you? There's no way I could kill a thousand demons even if that stupid story was true."

"Sasuke… How can you say that? Just look at yourself…"

"Shut up!" Sasuke screamed at Itachi and a blast of demonic power sent his brother flying away from him. "Itachi! Itachi, are you alright!" Sasuke nearly seemed to teleport over to where he had flung his older brother. "What happened? Are you okay?"

"Sasuke… you attacked me." Itachi didn't seem capable of understanding what had just happened.

"See! I told you he would attack you! Now come home away from the demon before it kills you!" Their mother screeched and began once again to walk away from the field.

"I… I wouldn't have attacked you, Brother. And… you were attacked by this strange black thing, not by me."

"Sasuke… I can't stay with you right now." Itachi stood up. "But once you can control yourself, I want you to come find me, okay? Then we can be brothers again. Right now though, Mom and Dad need me to protect them." He left his brother sitting in a warm puddle of black demon blood.

"We have to help him…" The woman next to the robed man spoke again.

When they tried to approach him, however, Sasuke screamed and attacked them all with a blast similar to the once he had used on his brother. "We can't get near him!" Inuyasha yelled, shielded by a barrier the robed man had quickly put up.

Then, as the group watched, a blue energy sent away the black power from the boy. "What exactly are you doing?" A calm voice asked Sasuke.

"I… I don't know."

"Why not?"

"I don't know that either…"

"What is your name?" A higher pitched voice suddenly asked, as a small girl ran up.

"Uchiha Sasuke."

"I'm Rin, and this is Lord Sesshoumaru, and that over there," she motioned to a short toad demon. "Is Jaken." The girl smiled at him.

Sasuke faintly smiled back at her. "Nice to meet you."

"You say you are called Sasuke?" The man she had called Sesshoumaru asked.

"Yes."

"Forget that you were once and Uchiha. Your family has disowned you."

"What are you talking about?"

"I believe you know." Sasuke glared. "From now on you are only Sasuke the demon."

"What's Sesshoumaru doing?" The first girl asked, wringing her hands together in front of her green skirt.

"I don't know, Kagome, but you should probably stay back." Inuyasha replied without looking away from Sesshoumaru.

"Are you okay?" Rin asked Sasuke. "You look really sad." She seemed to be thinking devotedly, and then she spoke up sounding as though she had come up with a perfect plan. "I know! I'll bet Lord Sesshoumaru will let you come with us! Will you, Lord Sesshoumaru?" She turned towards the silver haired demon for this last part.

He looked at Sasuke for a while before answering then turned around. "Yes, he can come." Sesshoumaru walked away without another word.

"Come on!" Rin said happily, tugging at Sasuke's arm. He eventually stood and walked away with her.

"Wonder why he did that?" Inuyasha asked after they had left.

"Maybe because Rin wanted him to?" Kagome suggested. "What do you think, Sango?"

"I don't know… but It's probably for a similar reason to why he let's Rin follow him. At least, I think."

The man in purple spoke up then. "Could it be, that Sesshoumaru took them in because they are orphans-"

"What'd give you that idea, Miroku?" Inuyasha asked with what was far from a kind expression.

"If you had let me finish my sentence, Inuyasha," Miroku replied, slightly annoyed, "you would have heard me say like himself."

Inuyasha shrugged, and the group left it at that, returning to their regular lives of battles against demons, searches for shards of the Shikon no Tama, and annoying each other out of their minds.

Chapter Four: Absolute Power

The facilities were all a dull, lifeless grey color inside and out. Everything in them seemed to echo that dullness of color without a hint of diversity. The humans within the facilities, instead of adding a shock of color to the grey, usually seemed to share its dull depression and dreary disposition. Their lives were regulated by politicians and military officials who were nothing but jealous of their power.

Each person within these facilities had managed to bind themselves to an essence that represented some sort of superhuman power. Common ones were elements such as Fire and Water, but there were also more rare Powers such as Blood and Drain. The power of each Power varied in relation to other Powers but also depended on the individual who used it. A person's Power usually reflected his or her personality as well as the events of his or her life.

Uchiha Sasuke had one of the less common Powers. For a while, the scientists had been unable to determine what it was because it had been so long since it had found a human it deemed worthy of a bond with it. His Power was Death.

His eyes were certainly black enough, and his personality was more than cold enough, but for some reason it seemed odd for him to have his particular power. Everyone who saw him felt that there was a Power more suited to him, but not a single one of them could decide what exactly that Power was.

Sasuke glared expressionlessly at the boy before him. His hair was so brightly yellow that few could stand to look at it, and his eyes were as blue as a sky most of them had forgotten. He was by far the loudest person Sasuke had ever met, and the idiot didn't even seem to realize it. Somehow, despite his complete lack of anything resembling what most people would call a brain, this boy was still one of very few strong enough to spar with the dark haired boy.

He was about to charge forward in his stupidly blatantly obvious way, when a pink haired girl with unusually green eyes ran in and yelled, "Naruto, you idiot! You spilled your stupid ramen all over my homework again!" She was fuming, and Sasuke actually thought she would begin to foam at the mouth, but Naruto wasn't at all bothered.

"Oi, Sakura-chan, couldn't it be someone else's ramen?" He put his hands behind his head in what he meant to be a nonchalant manner.

She fumed even more. "No, you're the only one here who will eat this place's sorry excuse for pork flavored ramen!" She finished her sentence with a punch to the blonde's face. "If you ever do it again-"

"Yea, I know, you'll throw me into the pot of boiling acid they have in the basement and make me watch reruns of some stupid girly show forever, right?" Naruto was grinning because he knew Sakura would never actually do anything like that.

"We were training." Sasuke spoke coldly to the others from his spot a few feet away.

"Oh, yea!" Naruto's grin widened. "I forgot about that, sorry man."

"I- I'm sorry." Sakura blushed. She, along with most of the other girls in the facility, thought Sasuke was the most beautiful boy she had ever seen. She also found him to be mysterious and was in no way afraid of his unusual power.

Sasuke and Naruto quickly returned to their training, but were interrupted again just as quickly. Naruto had been charging towards the other boy, so he tripped and fell flat on his face when the muffled voice announced an attack over the speaker. Sasuke looked at the blonde with disdain, and walked out of the training room calmly. He was to participate in the defense of the facility starting the next day, but the voice had also told him to report.

By the time Sasuke arrived, the fighting had already begun. These attacks usually consisted of a group of Powerless humans who were jealous of those within the facility, and attacked in an easily beaten and unorganized group. This time, however, many of the strongest humans both with and without a Power were attacking simultaneously.

When Sasuke approached the field, the fighting stopped. He looked around, confused, but his face showed nothing of his thoughts. Then he heard someone say, "That's him." There was more to the sentence, but no one could hear it over the roar of the attacker's voices.

When Sasuke spoke, however, everyone heard him clearly. "Why are you after me?" Only after he spoke did anyone realize that he had both spoken the question and sent it telepathically to everyone on the field.

A tall, darkly colored man stepped forward, taking on the role of spokesman for the attackers. "Our homes and people have been destroyed because of you!"

The dark haired boy scowled. "How is that?"

"When a person has been bound to Death, he is capable of either creating more death in the world of erasing it almost completely. That's why it is such a rare Power. And you, instead of helping those around you, have increased the death rate on our world!"

Sasuke smirked. "I did nothing. Death does as it wills," A shadow appeared behind him as he spoke. "And I can do nothing to stop it."

The tall man gasped and took a step back from the boy. Then his face hardened and he yelled for the attack to continue. Instead of resuming their attack on those who had come out to fight them, the entire army of attackers swarmed towards Sasuke. He did his best to fight them off as the shadow followed him, killing a number of attackers simply by touching them, but Sasuke eventually found himself unable to fight any longer. There were far too many of them, and they were all after him.

A silver haired man who's Power was Metal managed to impale Sasuke on a blade he had formed out of his arm. Sasuke fell forward, spitting up blood. The man drew the blade out of Sasuke's body, grinning maliciously. Instead of disappearing, the shadow which had followed Sasuke touched the man who had killed Sasuke, and then leaned over the already dead human.

It moved, and part of it became a hand that reached over and touched Sasuke's wound. The boy immediately sat up, spitting out more blood. "Stop it, you bastard. That hurts." The shadow didn't stop. Everyone watched, speechlessly staring at this impossible occurrence. No Power had ever touched a human before without killing said human, and it was impossible for life to begin again with only the power of Death. Sasuke should be nothing other than even more dead than he was before. He winced one last time, and the shadow slowly disappeared.

They attackers saw their chance to kill him again now that the shadow of Death had left Sasuke alone. They charged forward as one, enormous, bulging organism. The first few to reach Sasuke, however, immediately wished they had been much farther back.

His face twisted into an expression resembling both anger and amusement, and Sasuke sent forth a black wave of power that instantly killed everyone within twenty feet of him. Seeing the effect of his attack, Sasuke smirked and immediately repeated his attack, sending it towards those attempting to kill him. Every one of them fell to the ground, effortlessly murdered without Sasuke even having to life a finger.

He grinned.

Sasuke then drew the death from those who had been mortally wounded by the attackers. They were still seriously injured, but they were no longer in any risk of dying. When the healers ran out to help the injured, all those who's Power was Life, flinched when they neared him. Life and Death were meant to be balanced at all times, but Death had giving Sasuke more power than humans were meant to have, so it invaded the territory of Life, causing pain to the humans with that particular Power. The others, however, were fine.

A council was held later that evening to determine what had happened and what should be done about it. Everyone was in agreement that Death favored Sasuke more than a Power was meant to. They also agreed that Sasuke was a powerful weapon that could be used against any future attacks. There were many that felt Sasuke was too powerful to be trusted, that he would turn on them simply because he could. They reminded the others of the old saying "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

There was only one person who could think of something to say to that: Sasuke. He smirked and replied in a calm voice. "Then it's a good thing my Power is Death rather than Absolute."

This comment would have been dismissed had anyone else said it; Absolute was not a Power. When Sasuke spoke, however, everyone realized that this "Absolute" was the Power not one of them had been able to name but would fit him so perfectly that it left Death in the dust.

They immediately ordered that Sasuke be executed for mass murder.

Everyone knew it was because they were afraid of his power, but they still had to obey orders. There was only one person who attempted to help Sasuke, and he was to be executed as well because of it.

Sasuke thanked him by leaving Naruto as the only living inhabitant of what had once been a facility to train those with Powers. The blonde followed Sasuke away from the debris.

"Sooo, where're we goin'?" He asked, plastering a mostly false grin onto his face.

"Doesn't matter."

"Eh?" Naruto screwed his face up, trying to think of what that could possibly mean. "Why not?"

The dark haired boy turned around and looked at Naruto. "They'll try to kill me wherever I go."

"Oh…" Naruto kicked the path they were on with his foot. "It's not like they can hurt you, right?"

"I can't exactly kill the entire human race… or at least I shouldn't."

"I guess."

The two boys seemed to disappear after that. No one heard anything else about them or even knew exactly what had happened. The world nearly forgot about them and the massacre they had left in their wake.

Years later, a boy appeared with a power no one was able to identify. Many people reported seeing a Power in the shape of a black haired boy with red eyes following the boy around. He would sometimes speak to the Power, and often called it Sasuke. This Power eventually came to be called Absolute.

Chapter Five: Asylum

A·sy·lum (?-s?'l?m) n. An institution for the care of people, especially those with physical or mental impairments, who require organized supervision or assistance. A place offering protection and safety; a shelter. A place, such as a church, formerly constituting an inviolable refuge for criminals or debtors. The protection afforded by a sanctuary. Protection and immunity from extradition granted by a government to a political refugee from another country.

Sasuke stared blankly at the television screen before him, not bothering to process the images before him and determine what it was he was 'watching.' Instead, he listened to the conversations of the people around him. One of the volunteers, he didn't know her name, was speaking in a soothing voice to a girl who insisted that she saw monsters. The conversation was being held on the phone, so Sasuke didn't actually know anything the volunteer didn't repeat. To his left, a brown haired boy whose name he was sure was Kiba excitedly told a few other boys about his escape a few days earlier. To his other side, a loud, blonde girl was attempting to start a conversation with Sasuke himself. If he remembered correctly, she was another volunteer, but she was on her lunch break at the moment.

She kept repeating "Sasuke-kun" in a high-pitched voice that was close enough to a squeal to plague the dark haired boy she spoke to with headaches. He glared at her out of the corner of his eyes, then shoved his hands into his pockets, closed his eyes, and raised his head to face the ceiling. "What're ya talkin' about, girl. The name's Kyou." He smirked when he turned to see the look of confusion on her face. "You should really learn people's names, jeeze. What're ya gonna do if ya try somethin' like 'at on tha wrong person and he decides ta take your head off with 'im?" He knew the inconsistency in his pronunciation of words would only confuse the poor girl more.

"I-I'm sorry. I'll just go now." She scurried off, most likely to ask why Sasuke was acting so strangely. He grinned as she ran away.

He had another meeting today with God knows who. They were all complete strangers, every one of which claimed to know Sasuke well enough to tell him how to live his life. As he watched the others in the large main room with shadowed eyes, Sasuke decided it was much more fun to scare people than to talk to the men in the white and grey room. He didn't get a choice though. He could already see the tall woman who always took him to those meetings walking down the hall. He could never remember her name, but her hair looked like straw, and she always acted like she was better than Sasuke just because she could leave the building and he couldn't.

"Well, Sasuke-kun, it's time for another session." She smiled down at him. "We'd better hurry or you'll be late."

"No."

"Why not?"

"I don't want to go. I'm staying here." He didn't look at her, but he didn't have to. She could see the black marks spreading over his body like wild flames.

"Sasuke! Control your temper, will you! You need to see the doctor, or have you decided never to leave this building again. That will be a long time considering how young you are." She scowled. "Or is this Kazuki?" She hated when Sasuke just left to let others take care of his body.

He scowled, which could only be taken as an affirmative answer to her question. "I'm not going. They don't know the first thing about me, and even if they did, they don't know the second."

"Actually, they know a lot about you. They know why you're so screwed up, and they know how to help you get back to normal. Now come on and-"

He interrupted her with an eruption of harsh laughter. "Normal?" He laughed more, unable to stop. "You really think that, don't you, Tsunade?" He would have wondered how he had remembered her name if Kazuki had not been the one speaking. "That I could possibly be normal, if I tried that is." He stopped laughing suddenly, and shot his impenetrable glare at her. "Did you ever think that maybe I don't want to be normal? None of us do."

"But… how can you want to stay like this?" Tsunade stared in disbelief. None of them had ever tried anything like this before, not even… She decided it'd be best not to think of him when she didn't need to.

"Well, it's pretty simple. Sasuke can just wander off whenever he wants and the rest of us get a turn at having a body. I'd say its pretty fun."

"Kazuki!"

"Ignore him." Sasuke's face changed to one of indifference.

"Sasuke, good. You need to come with me now." She dragged him off to a room that always looked far too much like an interrogation room to Sasuke. "You just answer everything he asks, truthfully, and try not to let the others take over unless he asks to speak to them, okay."

"Whatever." He sat himself down in the uncomfortable chair that had been placed in the room for him. The corners were sharp and the edges dug painfully into his legs.

A minute or two later, a tall, silver haired man walked into the room. He had a scar over his right eye, and his face was hidden by a green scarf. "Hey, Sasuke-kun. I think they finally ran out of good doctors, so I'll be talking to you today." His eyes curved up in what Sasuke assumed to be a smile.

"Yea, whatever." Sasuke watched the man sit down. "Talk away."

"Okay, then. I'm Hatake Kakashi. And I was actually hoping I would get to talk with one of your alters…" He sweatdropped and rubbed the back of his head,

Sasuke smirked. "Which one?"

"I'll talk to whoever will give me a straight answer."

"Then you might as well leave now."

Kakashi sighed. "Then whoever likes to talk the most."

"He talks weird." Sasuke warned.

"I'll live." Kakashi smiled again.

"Okay." Sasuke sat a few seconds before beginning to speak again. "Hey, whadaya want?"

"Well, for starters, your name might help."

"Kyou."

"Okay, good. Now is there any chance you'll tell me what happened?"

"Which time?"

"The first one."

"They all died, evr'y las' one of 'em. 'Cept me an' Itachi anyway." He grinned.

"Why did they die?" He had more trouble staying calm than he had expected, especially with a fourteen year-old grinning about the death of his family.

"Well, that'd be cuz he kill' em. But, I'll bet ya already knew that, didn'chya?"

"They wouldn't tell me anything. Who is 'he'?"

"Itachi." His eyes grew dark. "But we don' gotta worry; 'bout nothin' cuz he'll kill Itachi.

"And this 'he' would be…?"

"We like ta call 'im Ebony."

"Why?"

"Well, mostly 'cuz that's 'is name."

"Tsunade-san never mentioned anyone named Ebony. Do you know why?"

"Who did she talk 'bout?"

"Sasuke, of course, Kyou, Kazuki, Hiro, and Yuki."

"Well then it's a pretty easy one. She don't like 'im. Tha old lady's afraid of 'im." He grinned. "Poor guy, no one likes 'im."

Kakashi suddenly twisted his face into a thoughtful expression or at least the top half of his face. "Is your accent fake?"

For a second, the dark haired boy's eyes widened, but then he relaxed and replaced his earlier expression with a smirk. "Not even Sasuke ever figured that one out."

"Why did you fake it?"

"Because I wanted to. It's actually pretty fun." He shrugged. "And it also makes people take me less seriously than the others.

"How do people treat the others?" Kakashi looked confused.

"Well, all the girls like Sasuke, but they're scared of him too. No one will admit Ebony exists, and when he's out, they're usually trying to make him stop killing people anyway. They're all nice to Hiro and Yuki, but in a stiff kinda way that lets us all know it's fake. They're afraid of Kazuki too, but he's not as bad as Ebony. And none of them seem to care much about me. For a while they were scared cuz I fight about as well as the scary guys, but I never bother, so they ignored me. Then I discovered just how fun it was to freak people out when they didn't know that Sasuke had multiple personalities."

"That was a lot of talking."

"Not really. For the others, yea, but that's pretty normal for me. I am the one who came to visit with you, aren't I?"

"Good point. Do you know why you're all so…"

"Nope! But I will say Hiro's problem is he's scared of anyone with power because of how everyone died. Yuki must be Sasuke's desperate attempt to avoid violence… though why she's a girl is beyond me." He smirked. "Kazuki is with us because of Sasuke's violent nature and Ebony is him wanting to kill Itachi. I'm his attempt to deal with the outside world, which explains my amazing ability to speak to others."

"That's pretty detailed."

"Well, I'm sick of this room. Sasuke and I are kinda hoping that if I talk now, we won't have to come as much later."

"What about the others?"

He shrugged. "Who knows?" He looked towards the door. "Are we done yet, cuz I gotta go."

"Go where?"

"The restroom."

"Oh." Kakashi laughed. "Sure, we're done." He watched the boy run out of the room as fast as he could, which actually meant Kakashi was watching a blur of color after Sasuke was already gone.

After leaving the room himself, Kakashi quickly found out why. Sasuke had in no way needed to go to the restroom. He had sensed his brother's power. Though, Kakashi was beginning to wonder how many people would soon be after him as desperately as he was after his brother. If he had continued to leave as many bodies as Kakashi found himself seeing in the hall, it would be quite a few.

The blood of anyone who had been in Sasuke's way, intentionally or otherwise, was now splattered about the hall in a strange array of dried and dripping liquid. Many of the deceased's organs were hanging out, barely held into their bodies as they dripped fluids on the once clean tile floor. The eyeballs of a few had melted in their sockets and were oozing out to join the fluids on the floor.

Kakashi bent over, holding his hand over his mouth. How could such a small boy have done this? Sasuke couldn't be much over five feet tall, and he certainly didn't look strong, or cruel. These men looked as though they had been tortured, but Kakashi could tell that Sasuke had done this to all of them simultaneously, without touching a single one. He probably hadn't even stopped running down the hall. Kakashi suddenly wondered if Sasuke had even realized these men existed, but the thought disgusted him even more and he fell to the floor, the contents of his stomach spilling out.

"Kakashi! You're alright. Good!" Tsunade ran down the hall to him, but stopped when she saw the carnage Sasuke had left. "Oh my God… did Sasuke…?"

Kakashi wiped his mouth on the back of his hand and rose, shaking slightly, to his feet. "Yea. He must have been chasing after Itachi… I can sense them both from here."

Tsunade nodded. "Naruto and Neji have gone to intercept them, but I doubt they'll do any good. I haven't seen anything like this since…" She closed her eyes to block out the scene before her, but found her eyelids revealing only its twin from the past. "Since their family was killed."

"I thought it was Itachi who did that…" Kakashi said, confused.

"So does Sasuke." Tsunade began running down the hall and Kakashi followed.

When they arrived, the main room's appearance was that of a larger version of the hall they had just come from. Kakashi bent down, puking air from his newly emptied stomach. Tsunade went to see if anyone had somehow survived, and Kakashi joined her once he was able to stand again.

Neji was one of the dead.

Neither Tsunade nor Kakashi could find Naruto though. They hoped that he would be able to bring Sasuke back, but they both doubted it. Naruto was strong, but Sasuke was stronger, and unlike the blonde, Sasuke wouldn't hesitate to kill anyone who got in his way.

"Why did you let someone as dangerous as him stay here?" Kakashi shouted at Tsunade once they were sure of the absence of survivors. "If he was this dangerous, he should have been someplace where he wouldn't be able to do this. Where they could control him or… something… but not somewhere with so many innocents!" He was shaking. Tsunade looked at the floor. She knew Kakashi had once trained to be a shinobi as most of their village did, but had eventually turned to medicine because he was too kind a man to kill simply because those were his orders.

"We didn't have anyone strong enough to contain him, and we certainly didn't have anyone strong enough to… execute him." She looked away from Kakashi to stare at the floor. "I'm not even sure how we manage to keep him in this building."

"Execu- Why would you need to kill him? I know he's twisted but…"

"Itachi wasn't the one who killed Sasuke's family. Sasuke was, or to be more precise, Ebony was."

"What, but Kyou said-"

"He didn't lie to you. He and Sasuke really believe that, probably because they couldn't handle the truth. He was, however, right in saying Ebony wants to kill Itachi."

"But…why?"

"When Sasuke was a kid, everyone ignored and shunned him, or physically abused him all because he wasn't as strong as his older brother. He created the personalities of Hiro and Ebony because of that. While Hiro was Sasuke's way to cry and try to make himself feel better, Ebony lashed out at those who hurt him. At first he was no more violent than Kyou, and then he moved on to Kazuki's level. By the time I found out about him, Ebony had already killed everyone but Itachi, who was still stronger than him. Sasuke couldn't handle the thought of having killed his family, so he convinced himself that Itachi had done it. After that, whenever he saw Itachi he would go berserk and attack him, regardless of who else would be harmed in the process. I was able to convince Itachi to move to another village so we could try to help Sasuke, but… they must have sent him back."

Kakashi stared at her, confused. "Then what about the other two?"

Tsunade shook her head. "Later, we need to catch up and I've already wasted enough time." The two of them ran off to chase Sasuke once more.

When they found him, his skin and cloths were stained almost black with blood, and his hair dripped with it. Sharingan eyes stared out from a face so blood-stained they almost seemed not to be there, and the teeth bared by his grin wore the color of his kills as well. To the other side of him was Itachi. Sasuke's brother appeared to be little more than an older version of himself. He was taller. That was the only difference. His clothes wore the same stain as his brothers, his hair was wet with the same liquid, and his face was masked in the same bloodthirsty grin.

"I guess we both decided it wasn't over until they were all dead." Itachi spoke just loud enough for Tsunade and Kakashi to hear him. "Though in my case 'they' includes you, and in yours it includes me." He laughed. "Let's see which one wins."

"Mine will." Sasuke's grin widened, and his canines almost appeared to be fangs. "Because in mine, we all die."

Itachi looked confused for a moment, but quickly regained his composure. "And if I win, how do you think your 'they' will win?"

Sasuke motioned to Kakashi and Tsunade. "Because those two will kill you, or maybe him." He waved vaguely in Naruto's direction. "They may even all three gang up on you."

"What if you win, little brother?"

At this, Sasuke's grin seemed to conquer his entire face. "They'll do the same to me."

"Why do you want to die so badly?"

Sasuke's eyes flashed and he lunged at his brother. Itachi barely had time to block before Sasuke plunged a kunai through the air and towards his neck. Itachi quickly pushed Sasuke back with his free arm, and leapt back himself so that he landed facing away from a nearby building.

"No answer? Then tell me why you want the rest of us dead."

He felt more than heard when Sasuke whispered, "Tell me your reason first," into his left ear. When he swung his kunai, Sasuke was gone.

"That's an easy one." Itachi twisted his face into what barely resembled a smile. "They're much quieter this way."

"For me it's: They can't hurt me this way." Sasuke whispered again, this time in the other ear, and he caught the kunai Itachi swung towards him. "But I suppose they do talk less." He smirked.

Naruto couldn't believe what he was hearing. At one point, he and Sasuke had been something resembling friends, but as he watched the two brothers fight, Naruto began to feel that he had never met either of them in his life. Sasuke often seemed mean in his habit of appearing not to care about anyone or anything, but he had never been this cruel, bloodthirsty killer who could effortlessly torture people to death without even looking at them. The fact that Sasuke had even ever figured out how to do such a thing using only his chakra was proof enough that this figure in front of Naruto was not Sasuke.

Then he remembered that it really wasn't. He remembered the boy this actually was, and could suddenly see how this monster could have been his friend. Ebony had been okay at one point too; if you were nice to him, Sasuke, and Hiro he saw no reason to hurt you. He had even played with Naruto on occasion, at first anyway. Later on he only came out when Sasuke was being hurt, and then he would make sure they paid. For some reason every time Ebony came out, Hiro came out immediately afterwards and cried until his eyes were dry and his tongue was swollen. Then Naruto would tell him a joke that Hiro would pretend to laugh at it, thinking Naruto would feel bad if he didn't, and Sasuke would take control once again and play tag or race around the village with his blonde friend.

Now, Sasuke was reaching that deadly chakra towards Itachi and had his brother pinned down. The older brother was around a foot taller than Sasuke and weighed quite a bit more, so it took Sasuke's entire body, and some kunai, to do so. As his brother's chakra slowly twisted, mutilated, and tortured Itachi's body, he let out a sound so polluted by unbearable pain that only Sasuke, who was still lying on top of him, could tell what that horrendous sound could possibly have been.

Itachi was laughing.

Not only was he laughing, but he was wasting every last ounce of his strength on forcing himself to let out a loud, almost wailing version of what would have been maniacal laughter had he more than half a lung. Sasuke smirked down at his brother and waited for him to die. When he was sure Itachi had finally died, Sasuke stood and turned towards the others, waiting for them to kill him. They prepared for the insane, grinning, expression worn forever on Ebony's face, but instead were treated to only a calm, gentle smile.

"I won't be killing anyone any more. That's good. I always told them not to, but they never listened. Even Hiro wanted Itachi to die… and he's only six…" Sasuke's eyes closed. "Now maybe we can find peace. I told Sasuke it wouldn't help to kill his brother, but now they might listen to me." Tsunade could tell from the gentle facial expression and voice that this could only be Yuki speaking. She had always spoken against the violence of those she shared a body with, but she had never believed their life would be any better without it. She just thought it was wrong.

Sasuke took over then. They could all tell, though they didn't know why. "So, they were right then, huh?" He looked down at Itachi's body. "I did it. Don't look like that Tsunade. I did do it. Ebony didn't want to. He only wanted to kill the ones who hurt me, and some of them were innocent. I'm the one who told him to kill them all." He closed his eyes. "I remember now." He smiled so softly that the others almost though Yuki had come to speak again, but then he opened his eyes. "And I remember why I wanted myself dead too. It's odd that I'd forget something as important as that, isn't it"

"Sasuke…" Naruto stepped forward, reaching out his hand even though Sasuke was too far away for him to touch.

"Why?" Tsunade's voice didn't contain even a hint of compassion for the boy who had killed so many of her people.

He smiled. "Because I'm one of them."

"That's stupid!" Naruto screamed at him. "You think you should die just because your last name happens to be Uchiha? Was it the same for the others! The nice ones, like Obito?" His voice grew more shrilled and frantic with each word. "Or do you just like to kill that much?" His voice suddenly became cold, calm, almost not his own. "Is it fun?"

"Yea, but that's not why." The others stared at him in a twisted combination of hatred, shock, and disbelief as he stood on the bloodied field, smiling.

"Then… why?" Kakashi asked almost silently. "Why kill them all…?"

"I wanted peace. Like what Yuki says, only she thinks we can have it while we're still alive. I built myself a little asylum in my head when I was little so I could hide behind Ebony, and now, in what is far too blatant irony; I live in an actual one. Though, I was hoping for more a place of peace than one of psychos." His eyes faded to dull black orbs.

"You want peace?" Naruto asked, his voice still the strange thing that had come from his mouth before. "Fine. I'll give it to you." Bright red chakra began to flow around his body, and when he lunged himself at Sasuke, the other boy felt almost as though a giant ball of flame had been hurled in his direction.

When Naruto hit Sasuke, his hand went straight through the other boy's heart. In Naruto's mind though, the red pulsing thing in his hand wasn't a heart because Sasuke didn't have one.

"Thank you, Naruto."

Sasuke fell back, off of Naruto's arm and finally found his peace.

Chapter Six: Silent

"The dreams make no sound as they die."
"The worst thing is: knowing that I'll survive."
-Fuel, 'Die Like This'

When he was little Sasuke had dreamt of becoming as strong as his older brother, at least until Itachi killed their family, and then he had wanted to be stronger. At one point Sasuke had wished he could be friends with Naruto. Then, when they finally were friends, he left Naruto behind forever. As a child, Sasuke had distanced himself from others in the hopes that no one else would be hurt because of him. Somehow, he had never realized any of this. He simply forgot he had ever dreamt of anything and left himself in a cold, dark haze that he almost dared to call life.

"Sasuke, you're acting more depressed than usual… did Orochimaru hit on you or something?" A silver haired boy a few years older than Sasuke asked, grinning slightly but still managing to look concerned despite that.

"No." Sasuke closed his eyes and lay back on Kabuto's bed.

"Well, at least I'll be able to sleep tonight." When Sasuke looked at him confused, the silver haired boy continued. "You plus Orochimaru equals bad visuals."

"Ah." Sasuke closed his eyes.

"Then what is it? If you weren't with a guy as hot as me, I'd say you got dumped."

"What, lying next to you makes all relationship related pain go away?" Sasuke smirked.

"Apparently."

"That's not what's wrong, Kabuto."

Kabuto sighed. "Then what is. And it better not have anything to do with a boy or girl friend."

"Don't worry, Ka-pin, I wouldn't cheat on you."

"How exactly did you think up that nickname?"

"I was reading Tsubasa."

Kabuto looked confused for a moment. Sasuke had never read manga before. ""Jeeze, you really are bored, aren't you?"

Sasuke rolled onto his stomach. "Yes! He won't let me do anything just in case I get killed or injured."

"So that's it." Kabuto frowned. "He won't let you go after Itachi."

"He should have let me go months ago! But he had to keep telling me to wait till later. Now I only have one day left and he's telling me I should have already taken care of it if I wanted Itachi dead." Sasuke beat his fist against the pillow.

"Calm down, Sasuke." Kabuto grabbed Sasuke's fist and pulled the younger boy into his lap. "I'll sneak you out tomorrow, okay. We'll find Itachi, and you can kill him then."

"I'd rather go back." Sasuke's voice was devoid of any emotion, but his eyes were heavy with it.

"You can't; he'd just go after you." Kabuto adjusted himself so that Sasuke was sitting between his legs and he could wrap his arms around the raven haired boy. "And in the process, he'd be sure to kill everyone you went back for."

Sasuke was silent.

"We'll go tomorrow." Kabuto said after a pause. "And you'll kill him, then we can come back, and you can rub it in Orochimaru's face." He tried to grin.

"Yea." Sasuke twisted himself around so he was facing Kabuto. "Sure." He pressed his lips against the other boys for a few seconds, and then pushed Kabuto down. "Don't forget to wake me then." He lay on top of Kabuto without moving for the rest of the night.

Sasuke and Kabuto left the village before the light of the sun had turned from a dull, grey semblance of light to the bright yellow they were accustomed to. Neither boy was completely sure how they would manage to find Itachi, but they didn't doubt that they somehow would. Then, he stood before them, alone, and they stopped, realizing that they had managed to find him.

"Itachi." Sasuke's voice was soft, low, and dripped with a hatred so intense Kabuto took a few steps back.

"Sasuke." Itachi's voice was empty.

Sasuke lunged himself at his brother, his hand crackling with a chakra both like and unlike that of the Chidori. Itachi had time to dodge, but only barely, and he was obviously surprised by his younger brother's power. Then, he grinned. It wasn't a nice, playful grin like Kabuto's. Itachi looked as though he were about to eat Sasuke alive.

"This might be fun."

Sasuke charged towards his brother once again, screaming for him to die, but this time Itachi caught his brother and slammed him against the trunk of a nearby tree. He pressed himself against Sasuke. "You'll never be able to beat me, little brother." He whispered into Sasuke's ear.

Sasuke squirmed in his brother's grip. "Let me go." He tried to push Itachi away, but his brother only pressed them against the tree harder. "Now!"

Itachi smirked. "No."

"He said to let him go!" Kabuto launched himself at Itachi, pulling out a number of shuriken and throwing them at him as he ran. When he reached the brothers, Itachi knocked him back with his arm and left Kabuto unconscious.

When Itachi moved his arm, Sasuke saw his chance and broke free of his brother's grasp. He spared Kabuto a glance to make sure he wasn't seriously wounded, and then attacked his brother once again. Itachi, however, managed to pin Sasuke once again, this time, to the ground.

"Itachi!" Sasuke yelled angrily as he flailed about in an attempt to free himself.

"Yes?" Itachi smirked.

"Get off of me!" Sasuke freed his fist and swung it at Itachi, but the older brother pulled out a kunai and used it to pin Sasuke's hand to the ground.

Sasuke was silent.

"Now, will you be more agreeable, little brother? Tomorrow Orochimaru plans to take your body, so I was hoping to see you one last time before that happened." He planted a light peck on his brother's forehead.

Sasuke glared at Itachi but made no further attempts to escape.

"Okay, then." Itachi smirked once more and reached his hand up Sasuke's shirt. When Sasuke resumed his wriggling, Itachi stopped. "You don't like that?" He removed his hand and moved it to Sasuke's shorts instead. "Then how about this?"

Sasuke reached his head up very slightly so he could reach Itachi's mouth with his, and bit him. Itachi answered his brother with a kiss. He moved his hand away from Sasuke's shorts and caressed his brother's face. As he pressed his body against Sasuke's once more he asked, "How could you not like this?"

He took Sasuke's mouth with his once again. When he tried to reach his brother's mouth with his tongue, however, the younger Uchiha refused. Itachi had to bite Sasuke's lip, making him yelp slightly, in order to reach the caverns of the boy's mouth with his hungry tongue. Once Itachi finished the kiss, he smirked and quickly removed his brother's shorts.

"So, you have been enjoying yourself."

Sasuke's face turned red, but he gave Itachi no other answer.

Itachi leaned over his brother once again and made Sasuke his, but the younger brother never made a sound. Sasuke was silent.

Kabuto eventually woke and brought Sasuke back to the Sound Village where Orochimaru was waiting. There wasn't even time for Kabuto's punishment because Orochimaru desperately needed to switch bodies as soon as possible. They went to a room Orochimaru had prepared for this occasion.

"Don't worry Sasuke, part of you will still survive, like a small voice in the back of my mind."

Somehow, Sasuke felt that was the worst thing Orochimaru could possibly have told him. He would rather die. Then, Orochimaru began the technique that allowed him his false immortality and moved his consciousness into Sasuke's body. From that point on…

Sasuke was silent.

Chapter Seven: Hidden

"And I don't the world to see me, 'cause I don't think that they'd understand."
- Goo Goo Dolls, 'Iris'

He always wore long sleeves. It didn't matter how hot it was, or how much he looked like he was about to drown in his own sweat, his sleeves were always long. He'd use really thin material when it was hot though, so it wasn't like he wanted to ignore the heat. It seemed more like maybe there was something he wanted to hide, like for some reason he viewed his arms as bad, like they were worth the effort to hide them only in their evil. People tried all the time to make him tell them, and people failed just as often. Sometimes they'd try to roll up his sleeves or take off his shirt just because they wanted to know so badly. Their friends would talk about how stupid they'd look if Sasuke turned out to just like long sleeves.

He didn't have any friends. Plenty of people tried to walk up and talk to him, or offer him their lunch when he didn't have anything to eat, but he would always just ignore him. There were rumors about how he'd had friends when he was little, but that they'd all been killed. They said he had been one of the suspects. He went out of his way to avoid people, just like he went out of his way to cover his arms. It wasn't at all normal, but no one who mattered had the guts to call him out on it, to tell him to see a councilor or wear a T-shirt. He was so detached from everyone around him that no one had a clue where he lived.

When the bell rang and he could go home, Sasuke never looked happy. He didn't wear the indifferent look that he bore throughout the rest of the day, but he wasn't happy. There was barely a change, but a few people had said he looked angry or maybe sad. He'd grab his things and walk out, just a little slower than he usually moved. When he got outside, his older brother would always be there waiting to take Sasuke home, whether he liked it or not.

Everyone liked Itachi. The girls melted if he looked at them because he was easily the prettiest male they had ever laid eyes on. And the guys all knew he could kick the collective asses of every bastard who had ever bothered them. The teachers all worshipped his genius, and he even had admirers in the janitors because he wasn't known to have littered in his entire life. Sasuke, however, only scowled when he saw his brother and climbed in the overly expensive car he always drove.

What happened when he got home was what no one knew. His parents had always been known as wealthy, but recently their stores of cash had been running low. They couldn't possibly send their heir, Itachi, off to work too soon, and Sasuke was too young. They had eventually come up with a solution though. They'd be very careful about it, and screen every one of the people who came to buy, and they'd be sure to keep them quiet around certain people. Now, when Sasuke came home, he'd only have an hour or two to clean himself off and do his homework before his mom called him out for work. The only thing Sasuke had ever been thankful for in his work was that he'd already turned thirteen when his parents decided to whore him off to their rich friends two years before.

Sometimes the people who came were too old for Sasuke by over twenty years, and most of the time they were ugly no matter what their age. They were rarely female, and even rarer was someone who looked even remotely desirable. He was sure plenty of them had great personalities, but that wasn't the part of them he had to deal with.

Afterwards he always felt dirty no matter how long he sat in the shower rubbing his skin off with soap. He'd dig his nails into his flesh, leaving long red gashes in the hopes that it would rid him of the unclean feeling that seemed to cover his entire being. He never cried, but sometimes if he held his mouth open the water than ran into it from the shower head tasted a little like salt.

There were times when he had a night or two free, but Itachi would come into Sasuke's room on those nights without their parents knowing. Then he made his brother sleep with him, so he would never have to admit to anyone that he didn't know what to do. Sasuke hated his brother for it. Every time he saw Itachi, he remembered only the nights they spent together in his room, and how much nicer it smelled after Itachi had come than before. Itachi liked to run his fingers through Sasuke's hair, so in the morning, Sasuke would scrub shampoo into his hair until it ran into his eyes and made them red.

He would sometimes sit when he had time, and wish his life was more like the lives of those he saw every day at school. There were some people he wished he could be, that no one else in the entire school would want to even go near, but he would still have switched places with them and cried tears of joy because he was no longer himself. Other times, he would pull out the small pocket knife his father had given him when he was twelve, and hold it over his wrist, willing himself to cut, but to frightened. He cursed himself because he was too weak to change the life he hated so much even a little, and he just went along with everything he was told to do.

One night, when he was mugged while walking home from a fast food place, his throat was slit, and he hoped that he would be killed. His parents rushed to the hospital when they found out, and the doctors were able to bring Sasuke back without even the slightest bit of help from their patient. He recovered with almost record speed however, and began wearing high collars when he went to school.

He hid himself from view as much as humanly possible, and most people assumed it was because he was afraid of being attacked again. Few people spoke to him, and not even his parents knew for sure why he was so withdrawn. They did have a fairly decent guess though. They blamed themselves. They did not, however, cease to make money off of their lovely son.

When a boy walked up to him at school and spoke to him, everyone watched. He was new to the school, and didn't yet know anything about Sasuke other than what one sees while passing him in the hallway and noticing him for the last half of one class period. He had asked a few people about him during that class period, as most people did. He knew most of the rumors about Sasuke, about how his sleeves were always long, and his friends were all gone, and he was attacked and nearly killed, and how that collar was perfectly normal now even though it was fairly warm out… it probably hid a scar. There were new rumors about similar scars running along his arms, and one of the boys the new kid spoke to, mentioned something about never having seen Sasuke in shorts either.

He started out as anyone would speaking to someone who they knew nothing about other than a number of vague and speculative rumors. "Uh, hey."

Sasuke was accustomed to being approached by strangers. He had long ago accepted the fact that he was quite seriously the most interesting thing his school had to offer, and he would be approached at least once by every new student in existence. "Hn."

The other boy grinned sheepishly. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, and, I just came to this school." He didn't seem to know what it was he was supposed to say next, so he skipped right to the point. "Why do you wear long sleeves so late in the year? Aren't you hot?"

This was something new. Few people would ever come right out and ask Sasuke anything so direct. "What?"

"Your shirt. Everyone seems to make a big deal about it, and I wanted to know why."

"Why everyone cares so much?" Sasuke knew what Naruto meant, but he didn't want to talk.

"No," He grinned again. "why you always wear long sleeves!"

Sasuke stood and walked away.

"Wait! You don't have to tell me, just give me a hint or something, okay? C'mon, I'm terrible at guessing things anyway." Naruto caught up to Sasuke, and walked beside him, wanting to know his secret more than ever because of how much Sasuke obviously wanted it hidden.

"No."

"Please?"

"I said no."

"I won't tell anyone, kay? Promise, I'm great at keeping secrets! Like I never told anybody that Kiba had a major crush on Hinata in my old school. You don't know who they are, but it was a very big deal! Really! And I never told anyone my whole life!"

"You just did. That really raises my level of confidence in you." Sasuke sent a rather angry glare at Naruto and continued on his way.

That night, when Sasuke found out that he was to be killed because the money his parents would receive because of his death would more than make up for any they had already lost, he wished he had told just one person, so that maybe even if they didn't understand, they could tell someone who would, and Sasuke wouldn't have to be alone anymore. As Sasuke died, he remembered Naruto, and thought that he might have been a good person to tell. Others would find out that way, but now he would remain hidden from the world forever, in a tomb of his own making.