Chapter Text
Sasuke could only see blood. He was walking quickly to exit the academy, to go and train so he could avenge his clan. His clansmen’s eyes that slowly lost light, the young, the old, the police force, the unborn, his parents, his cousin Shisiu, his aunts, uncles, cousins, everyone he would avenge them all. He thought shaking as the bloody scenes continued to flash through his head.
“Stop.” He heard a voice say, cutting through the bad memories. He stopped and glanced around his eyes landing on the Aburame approaching him. He thinks his name is Shino? He’s too exhausted to remember for sure. Suddenly Shino was kneeling down and putting his hand flat on the ground and a bug he hadn’t seen crawled onto Shino’s hand.
“Hn,” is all that comes out of his mouth. Instead of the apology he was expecting. It was almost satisfying in a way. To see something so small that it could be missed, and cared for by someone.
Why didn’t that man have any compassion or care for the Uchiha? He clenched his fists, was he jealous of a stupid bug? Without waiting for a reply he walked away going to the Uchiha compounds training grounds.
On the way to the training grounds he kept his eyes on the ground. He didn’t know why but he could put a small bit of effort into avoiding bugs. That felt like something he could control.
Since then he’s always has been wary of bugs. Trying to avoid stepping on them. Sometimes jumping over them, pivoting to the side, or letting a bug crawl onto his hand to bring over to a different area.
It felt nice. Like he could do something. It didn’t fill him with anxiety like training where he could only think of his purpose, avenging the Uchiha clan. It didn’t fill him with pain like when he was cleaning or cooking, instead of his mother. It didn’t cause him boredom or annoyance like the academy. It just let him breathe.
That brought him guilt. He should be focusing solely on avenging and putting to rest his clan, his parents but watching bugs brought him a sense of inner peace. He began to watch bugs on flowers. He began to borrow books on plants and bugs. Justifying it as him studying up on potential poisons and medicines.
He sometimes wanted to ask Shino. After all he was an Amburame, his clan was close to bugs. He wanted to know more. He began to want to talk to Shino. But he couldn’t that would be a distraction and if he became close to Shino, he wouldn’t want to kill him to get those eyes.
Months passed and he began to glance at Shino, when he entered a room. He would observe how he would write,how he would adjust his glasses, how he walked, talked, and he found his eyes landing on Shino. Sasuke was weak yes and he felt guilty whenever looking at bugs or Shino.
He also felt an unexplainable warmth though.