5 Tears and Fists

Sasuke gradually awoke from his nap and slowly opened his eyes, he could hear the calm peaceful breaths of the child next to his bed. 'I guess this world has some decent painkillers' Sasuke thought to himself as he examined the child. Floating above the childs head was a text box that read [Naruto U.][Level 3]. 'Naruto' Sasuke thought, 'to run into the main character here, right after I entered the world and finished the tutorial, that old man must be intervening in this world again.' Sasuke continued watching Naruto as he waited for a doctor or nurse to enter the room and give him his release forms. Naruto's chest was wrapped in gauze for his ribs, the gauze had some dried blood splotches from the stab wounds that were stitched shut. Naruto's left arm, from his elbow to his fingers were in a cast, his left leg was in a complete cast from the top of his thigh to the toes on his foot. "Kid had a rough day" Sasuke quietly mumbled to himself but not silent enough as he noticed Naruto starting to stir awake. Sasuke glanced at Naruto's face noticing the six distinguishable whiskers near his mouth and highlighter yellow colored hair. Naruto sluggishly opened his eyes ceaselessly staring at the ceiling as he waited to fully awake. "Sup whiskers" Sasuke said to Naruto after a few minutes of him looking at the ceiling. Naruto turned his head to look towards Sasuke as his face started to form a smile. As Naruto opened his mouth to respond, the door into our room was aggressively opened and a nurse put her head into the room.

"Sasuke Uchiha you are now free to leave" she hastily spoke, not even waiting for Sasuke's reply, the door was closed and she was gone. Sasuke scurried to the edge of the bed preparing to hop off the bed as he has done every day of his life. As his butt left the bed and his body waiting for his feet to reach the ground, Sasuke realized in that moment he felt much shorter. Sasuke's feet finally hit the ground as his mind was not use to his body's height or weight he stumbled and crashed into the ground. 'Of course, I'm in an eight year old body, hard to notice when you are lying in a bed' Sasuke conceded to himself. He could hear Naruto start giggling as he watched the train wreck of Sasuke's first steps. As Sasuke was lying on the ground he caught a slight shake in the corner of his eyes. He saw his health bar finished shaking and noticed one point missing from his max health, 'as long as I don't fall seventy eight more times, I won't die' Sasuke playfully thought. Sasuke carefully pushed up off the ground and stood tall, as tall as any other eight year old would. He noticed that he was wearing a disposable top that went from his shoulders to his knees. He grabbed the bed with his hand and cautiously step by step made it to the chair close to his bed. His clothes consisting of a shirt, shorts and sandals were folded up atop the chair. "Well get better" Sasuke awkwardly mumbled to Naruto, "and careful it's a long distance from the bed to the ground" Sasuke lightheartedly warned Naruto. As Sasuke finished dressing and walked to the door leading to outside the room he saw Naruto out of the corner of his eye wave goodbye to Sasuke.

Sasukes first step outside the hospital and onto the busy street, the warm afternoon sun warming his body making him feel alive, 'I should find my house before anything' Sasuke realized. As he looked around the streets of Konoha he came to a sudden awareness, 'wow, neither I nor the original Sasuske knows where we are.' Sasuke saw a mother and child a few steps away from him making their way through the town. "Excuses me Ms. I am a little lost, could you give me directions to either the ninja academy or the Uchiha compound." Sasuke asked the mother, "Sure little one, the academy is only a few streets up and to the right." She smiled sadly, knowing that she was speaking to the last of the Uchiha's, an orphan at the age of eight. After Sasuske said his thanks, he started heading in the directions of the academy, taking in the sights, sounds and smells around him. He could hear the stalls trying to entice people to see their wares, and the different smells that came from people cooking fresh food in a makeshift restaurant cart. Sasuke looking from face to face seeing only happy genuine smiles wondered to himself 'how could people that smiled like this, be the same people that stabbed and beat a child almost to death?'

"Finally" Sasuke exclaimed as he started to recognize parts of the street, certain distinct buildings leading him to the path to the Uchiha clan compound. As he walked up the entrance of his clans' homes he saw the high walls and a metal gate that were usually guarded only letting Uchiha's in. Sasuke stepped through the metal gate and into the isolated town, only hearing the quiet wind gently rustle past the walls of houses. Sasuke quickly picked up his walking pace as he started seeing dry blood pools on the streets wanting nothing more to escape the left over carnage that happened. Sasukes house rapidly came into view as he made it off the street and started heading towards the door to his new and old home. As Sasuke slid the sliding door open he started to get flash backs of what happened the night the original Sasuke died. Walking into the home his feet without thought took him closer to the room where Sasukes parents were murdered, before he even got one step into the room the flashbacks started becoming more real. He could smell the blood 'it is not real, it is not real,' he chanted in his head. As he made it to the room that was the resting place of Sasuke's parents. The flashbacks merged as he gazed at the room and he no longer saw Mr. and Mrs. Uchiha but he saw his mom and his sisters kneeling in front of a man wearing a mask of an infant crying holding a gun pointing it at Yunas head. "No" Sasuke roared as he bolted and tried to tackling the man in the mask before he could shoot his sister. As Sasuke flew through the air and crashed into the wall. He looked around from the crumbled position his body was in to only to see an empty room.

"I can't stay here" Sasuke all but screamed as he scrambled to get to his feet out of the house as swiftly as he could. As he rushed past the sliding door and into pathway leading from his home to the street he collapsed onto the floor. His lungs gasping for all the air in the world as he felt like he was suffocating. Tears welled up in his eyes as he was still trying to find enough oxygen, "I hate feeling helpless to protect the ones I love" he yelled as loud as he could but came out soft as a whisper. Still struggling to breath he pounded his fist into the ground and cried, letting all his pent up emotions that he was holding onto be released through his tears and his fists. He slowly sank into sleep with his last thought repeating over and over in his mind, 'I will be strong, I will take control of my own life and no one will be able to threaten my life or the ones I love or they will die.'