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Sasuke still remembers that fateful day, very vividly in his mind.
It was the worst moment of his life, the night when the world went upside down for him.
It had been the last school day before the weekends. They had been training about handling shuriken and kunais at school, and as he had already trained in advance with his mother and brother separately, the lesson had been a breeze to him. He was once again praised by their teacher and was even asked to demonstrate for the class.
It had been a good day at school, even though he was sad that morning because Itachi had to break yet another promise of training with him after class, because he received a last minute urgent mission.
When the class ended, he didn't want to go home just yet because the thing he had been looking for that day was postponed, so he instead went to the training grounds by the school. It was a very basic one, just a clear field were academy kids can start learning how to handle weapons and practice the simplest jutsu.
It was then that he had seen her. A little girl with pink hair, her clothes a little dirty, and her hair in disarray, with her bangs almost concealing her face. She was alone in the training grounds, practicing throwing shuriken. And Sasuke had remembered earlier that day that he noticed the same kid not even throwing any shuriken during their class. He remembers her just lurking about, seemingly determined to be inconspicuous, though that was a little difficult seeing as she has, and is the only one who has, bright pink hair. When he saw her earlier, he had assumed that she probably just didn't know how to handle the weapon. He knew this classmate of his, Haruno Sakura. She wasn't part of any prominent clans, although she would often be top of the class when it comes to theory.
But now that he's watching her comfortably practice on her own, it didn't seem like she was bad at all. She could throw the shuriken, and although she doesn't really hit her target, she was still a lot better than most of their classmates. He had wondered why she had refrain from practicing at class.
He quietly watches her for a few moments. She was so concentrated in what she was doing that she hadn't seem to notice him. That was until he decided to speak.
"Your shoulders are too stiff." He tells her.
The girl jumped at his words, surprised.
"Sorry." Sasuke automatically says.
She turns to her, looking a little scared. Sasuke watches her face transforms as she recognized him, relaxed for a second, and then started getting red. She seems to be embarrassed.
"U-uchiha-san." She greets.
Little Sasuke had scrunched his nose at the formality. Most of his relatives talks that way, especially their elders, so he doesn't really like being talked to that way when he's outside the Uchiha grounds. It just felt weird to him.
"Just call me Sasuke." He tells her. "You're Sakura, right?"
Sakura just nodded.
"Well, try it." Sasuke says this time. "Relax your shoulders then try throwing again." He instructs this time.
He figured, since he can't practice with Itachi today, anyway, maybe he can just practice with her. It doesn't seem like she's the same as the other girls who kept following him around. In fact, it felt like that day was the first time he had really look at her. He had always known that he had a pink-haired classmate, but he didn't really give it much thought. She wasn't one to attract attention to herself, either. Or at least, that's his impression of her.
Sakura did try as he instructs, and her throw was significantly better. And after that, they just naturally started practicing together, with Sasuke correcting her posture from time to time, and even telling her of the advise both his mom and brother had told him.
They both didn't notice the time pass until it was already dark. They had stopped then, feeling fulfilled with their progress in their practice. Little Sakura had become comfortable with Sasuke by then, and they were talking easily--mostly with Sasuke telling his new friend all about how cool his big brother was and how he would be getting his sharingan soon, too.
They continue to talk as they left the training grounds, and before separating, Sasuke had asked her,
"Where do you live? Is it far from here?" He asks, seriously considering to walk her home. She was a girl after all.
"It's okay." Sakura had told him. "It's not too far, I can get home by myself. I'll pass through the marketplace, too so it wouldn't be dark." She assures him.
He hesitated for a moment, but eventually nodded.
"Okay, let's practice again next time." He tells her.
And that was when Sakura beamed. She had started smiling when she had started getting the hang of throwing shurikens, but that was the first smile she directed at Sasuke.
Sasuke remembered feeling a little shy, his face warming up.
"Okay!" She had told him. "I'll see you next week!"
He had watched her go first, only moving to go home himself--to the other direction, when his new friend had disappeared from the corner.
He ran towards the Uchiha estate, excited to tell his mom about the new friend he made, He hasn't really talked much to any kid his age that wasn't his cousins, so Sakura was the first friend he made that wasn't family. He knew his mom would be interested, and he thinks she'd probably be curious about her pretty pink hair. She was the only one he'd seen with such hair color.
But as soon as he entered their compound, he knew something was wrong.
It was dark, and it was too quiet. He knew it still wasn't that late for people to be sleeping. Besides, the gate lights are always turned on. But tonight, they weren't.
Feeling a little anxious, he cautiously walked towards their home. He still hasn't seen anyone on the streets, and he was getting even more scared.
He stopped dead when right before he reached his home, he saw splatters of blood on the floor.
Now really scared, with his heart pounding in his chest, he ran and entered his home, never minding removing his shoes. He needs to find his parents.
And he saw them from afar as he arrived in their dining room. Why were they on the floor?
With a jolt, he saw the red liquid on the floor. But as soon as he saw it, his was obscured. He almost screamed, but a hand was suddenly covering his mouth.
Terrified, he looks up and saw his brother. He felt so relieved it was him, and that he was okay that he started tearing up. But his brother urgently shook his head, gesturing for him to keep quiet.
It was then that he realized there were still some sounds from outside. There were people here. He had wishfully thought it might be their other relatives, but now looking back at his memories, it really couldn't have been, if his brother was desperately keeping them inconspicuous.
It was the root members.
"We have to leave. It's not safe." Itachi had said in a whisper, almost inaudible to Sasuke. But he hadn't even waited for Sasuke to reply, and simply picked him up and started escaping the compound.
He remember that moment very clearly. Because that was the first time he saw his brother cry.
They were already outside of Konoha when Itachi started explaining what happened. They didn't stop moving, though. Itachi jumped from tree to tree, still carrying Sasuke on his back as he told him everything, desperately trying to get away from their own village.
He first told him the story about the Kyuubi--almost as if it was a fairy tale story, only him and his brother was also part of it. And then he told him of the other abilities of sharingan that he still wasn't thought. And how those factors contributed to their clan being ostracized. Then he told him of the political tension.
This was when Sasuke felt that his brother was hesitating. By this time, they were already at the borders of Fire Country. Sasuke still wasn't sure where they would go now, but he focused all his attention to what his brother was saying. After all, he trust his brother. And starting that moment, he was the only family he's left.
He tried not to think of that at that moment, trying to understand, with his young mind, what exactly happened.
And that was when Itachi confessed that he had, in his own way, also betrayed their family. He had told Sasuke of the secret missions he had received of spying on their family. He didn't realize than, but now he knew his brother was only trying to prevent a civil war. He had told him about their family's plan of coup d'état, and though Sasuke was too young to completely understand, he could feel how serious the situation was,
And then Itachi told him of the last mission they--Danzo tried to order him to do. And that was to annihilate their whole family, so that the rest of Konoha will avoid the war. And Itachi had asked them for some time to think if he was going to agree to do the mission.
He told Sasuke they had agreed to give him time to decide, but it turns out that they were just words. He had been given an urgent mission so he will be away when they do the mission. Itachi theorized that they might have had other Uchiha spies. They must have planned to ambush the family when they least expected it, and had known which members of the clan to target first--the strongest ones like their father and their cousins Tekka, Yashiro and Inabi among others. If they had a spy, they would have known their locations, they might have even given them missions as well, so they will all be separated.
Just like what they did to Itachi. Because Itachi's mission wasn't a real mission. It was a trap. He had noticed at once that he was being followed as soon as he left the village. They had sent a dozen of root members to assassinate Itachi, and probably make it look like he had died in his supposed S-class mission.
But they had underestimated his brother. He was able to overpower them, and he soon knew that the family is in danger. But it had been too late when he was able to return. The battle was already lost. He had seen their mother and father's body in their dining room, and Izumi's body in front of their house. He was trying to look for Sasuke's body when he had appeared in their house.
It was lucky that he had not gone home at once. He was alive only because of that.
Sasuke was almost listless by this point, trying to process the shock, the grief, and all of the information his brother was telling him. It felt like his mind would explode from everything that he was feeling and learning, and he desperately wanted everything to have just been a dream--a nightmare.
But then he suddenly thought of pink hair. He remembers Sakura, and that somehow distracted all the other feelings as he focused on that thought. It was only then that he spoke to his brother.
He told him about his new friend, and how she knew that he had stayed in the school since he was with her. He was worried that she'd also be dragged into their situation.
But Itachi reassured him at once. They probably would just assume that he has already died. So his friend would be safe. But they would know that he's alive since the root members that they sent after him won't be coming back. So he predicted that they would blame him for the massacre of their own family.
And that was what eventually happened. A few days after getting away from Fire Country, they had heard news about their clan allegedly being wiped out by Itachi, and reports of him being a traitor to the village.
Even as a kid, it had made Sasuke very angry, enough to want to avenge his family and brother. But his brother had asked him not to. That in that moment, what was more important was for them to survive. He had told him it was a good thing that they had assumed he was dead, and that they should keep it that way.
After weeks of going from village to village, only staying in each for a few days and keeping a low profile to avoid detection, but still keeping updated with news from Konoha, they had met Obito. Sasuke had not known what was discussed by his brother and the other older Uchiha--but after their conversation, his brother had joined Akatsuki.
And in a way, Sasuke was also almost a member. He would never reveal himself to other people, but he would often help his brother when the leaders have something from him to do.
As the years past, both him and his brother grew stronger, with his brother's name gradually being more infamous for being a cruel and cold-blooded criminal, even willing to kill his own family for power.
It drove Sasuke mad, how the corrupt village had the audacity to do such a heinous crime in the name of peace, and then put on a show as if they're innocent, putting all the blame on his brother.
It made him crave for revenge more and more.
But even though he hates Konoha, he couldn't help but still try to get some news from the wretched village. It was like an obsession to him. He wanted to know everything there is to know about it, so he can plan for his revenge.
Because he couldn't forgive them. He couldn't let his parents; and relatives' death never receive justice, He couldn't let them keep painting his brother like he was the villain.
He tries not to share much of these thoughts with his brother, however, because he would always try to change his mind. He'd always tell him that their family was not completely innocent, and that though it was understandable for him to hate the corrupt higher ups, he should not include the whole village. It was only a few people who had been pulling the strings, after all.
But Sasuke didn't care about that. Didn't they also disregarded all his innocent cousins and relatives? They had relatives who weren't even ninjas, and relatives who were even younger than Sasuke when they were murdered.
So, he keeps tab on the village, he especially keeps tab on Danzo and the root, and of their government in general.
It had been when he was getting information on the new Hokage--the 5th, and the first female Hokage that he had heard her name once more.
Haruno Sakura. Now the apprentice to the Hokage.
That news had made him feel torn. He was initially relieved of finding out that his friend--who unknowingly was part of the reason he survived was alive, even a little proud of what she had accomplished. But then came the anger, and a sense of betrayal. Didn't her being apprentice to the Hokage meant that she was essentially their puppet? She would be loyal to the Hokage and the village, and it wouldn't be surprising for her to one day hunt down his brother who is wanted by the village.
He knew she didn't know what happened. He knew he shouldn't have been surprised, of course she would be a loyal shinobi to the village, isn't that also his goal before that night? Isn't that also what his brother was? His brother had even played spy for the village against their family because of such loyalty.
He had hated the situation. And it was amusing because he knew he was being irrational. He barely knew Sakura. She was a girl who he had talked to that one time only. They could barely be called friends. And he doubted she still even remembers him.
It might have been because she was the reason he survived, it might be because his memory of his was the last happy memory he had. He didn't know, but he hated that he had this weakness.
And it came true. It really was Sakura and her team who came after his brother.
Now here they were, only a few feet away from each other.
Sasuke looks on at her and her teammates--Naruto, the jinchuuriki, a jounin his brother had said was called Tenzo, and a pale guy he didn't know--he doesn't remember him from the academy at least.
He watches on the side as this shinobi from Konoha confronts his brother and his Akatsuki partner, Kisame, with Sasuke still holding his concealment.
He was a little surprised when Sakura had started screaming at Itachi in anger.
He knew for sure that they didn't know each other.
But then he had mentioned his name. She was demanding answers for the reason why Itachi killed their clan, why he killed Sasuke.
And at last after years of hiding, Sasuke felt it was the time to show himself.
His brother had seen it coming. He had quickly look at where he was with resignation in his eyes.
When he removed his concealment, the first sound he heard was Kisame's chuckle. Otherwise, it was complete silence.
It was Sakura who first spoke.
"S-sasuke? You're--you're alive."
Sasuke looked straight at her, their eyes meeting. She looked very different now, with sharper features and her demeanor showing that she has confidence now.
Sasuke shook his head at her in response to what she just uttered.
"You were right about what you said, Sakura." He told him casually. "I did die that night."
"W-what?"
Sasuke didn't reply further.
She was a smart girl, she would understand. The Sasuke she knew, the old him--the kid who would innocently help a classmate was no more.
Her friend is truly gone.
And now before her isn't that old classmate and friend.
Now he was the enemy,
Sasuke thought it was really cruel, because from how she reacted to Itachi, she probably wanted to avenge his death. It might have been the reason why it was her team that chased Itachi.
Still, it doesn't change anything for him.
And with one last thought of their last memory together, Sasuke quickly went for the attack, going straight for Sakura.
Because as long as she was loyal to Konoha, she is his enemy, too.
And if it's for his family, he can take the role of being her villain.
END