Chapter 3: Of Regrets and Atonement

Transcending Bonds

Summary: What does Sasuke see beyond his blade? That is the question he struggles to answer as he slowly remembers his forgotten past. When the question does really matter and he realizes the answer, to whom will he point his blade to: his new bonds or his old ones? Originally written by Imperialpatty

Another monsoon had come, its dreariness felt upon the city.

Uchiha Sasuke stood across a street near the commercial district of town, watching with indifferent eyes as the local police contained the crime scene. It had drawn the attention of many a curious person who all stood just behind the yellow tape wall, ever prying into situations that did not concern them in the slightest. Or perhaps it did at one point, but no longer.

Nearby a news crew had arrived to report the incident live, informing their viewers of the grisly murder of one Takamura Shinichi, a man of forty-seven years who was not only an officer of the law but the father of three, who had been walking home from a convenience store when he met his untimely end. They went into more detail regarding the city-wide alert issued by the police department for any citizens with information about the murder to come forward, and about a donation site set up by the department to aid in burial services.

Beyond that, Sasuke tuned out the rest, not wishing to hear anymore. What had happened... happened. He held no regrets over the man's death; he had done all he could and that was it. When he had arrived, Shinichi's soul had already been devoured by the Hollow. The only thing that Sasuke could do at that point was to ensure that no other soul met Shinichi's fate and slew the beast. It was all he could do. He wasn't going to let it get away with what it did or wait on the local Soul Reaper to come and deal with it.

He had done it once and it was that one time only when he felt immense regret.

It happened on a day no different from any other. The usual routines held by the humans were in full motion, the patrolling Soul Reaper was doing his job of making sure the streets of Karakura were safe from the deathly Hollows, and Sasuke was his usual self as well.

The only difference was that, at the time, Sasuke cared more for his own safety than usual. That meant avoiding the death god's gaze at any cost. Even if that cost was the dozen of lives Sasuke had chosen to ignore that day rather than the risk of being discovered. Sure, trusting his instinct was the right thing to do but he had also learned on that day that there was a time and place to decide trusting one's instinct.

There was a swarm of Hollows that day. The earthly celebration of Halloween had not helped at all, especially with specific religious sects having taken specific rituals for that specific day only. Sou Reaper patrols had been dispatched so Sasuke figured it would've been fine he just stayed under their radar. Unfortunately for him, there was a particular Hollow who had the same plan in mind. Not just it but its two "brothers" as well. They possessed the ability to dig underground creating mudholes where humans stood, the hole sucking their prey in. Sasuke gritted teeth after the trio of centipede looking Hollows devoured their meals. He had figured that any moment now, the grim reapers would swoop down and brandish their justice upon the monsters.

The trio of Hollows had already eaten six more humans by the time Sasuke pondered the thought. Something had definitely not been right about the whole situation. The Soul Reapers were supposed to have come by then but there was no forthcoming presence at all. He wanted to jump in and do away with the Hollows but he reasoned that what if at that moment, the death gods came? He would be discovered and then who knows what might have happened to him. Maybe it was a trap. Maybe that's exactly what the soul reapers were waiting for.

Meanwhile, the Hollows continued their eating spree, oblivious to the human's despair, oblivious to Sasuke's own confusion.

"This is amazing," one of them had said in-between bites. "We can eat to our content without the interference of those damned Soul Reapers."

"I agree. Big bro, this is the best." The other one said, between chomps.

The largest of the Hollows cackled. "Because we are the weakest of Hollows, the Soul Reapers are too occupied with greater presences than our own. And thanks to our "quasi-garganta" ability that nearly completely mask our presence, we can feast all we like and grow stronger. Once we are done here we shall strike another area I have in mind."

Sasuke instantly became deaf to the Hollows' cackles. He had heard it in plain language: the reason why the Soul Reapers had not arrived at the scene of the massacre was that they were not only occupied but unable to sense these... pathetic creatures.

Sasuke had gone on a personal rampage of his own that day. He had never forgiven himself for what had happened and lived with the regret of his own selfishness. This was the reason why Sasuke decided that he would do whatever he could do within his power, no matter the end result. He truly felt that if he did give his all in any situation, he would never have to live with the regret he had acquired on that day.

"Dad?!"

Sasuke became still as ice. He watched a young man in a high school uniform come to the scene, drenched in rain with no umbrella in sight. He must have run from his house when he got the call, Sasuke thought. He tore through an officer's grasp and ran over to the white shit that was stained red with the corpse's blood.

"Dad!" He shouted in agony, the kind that could only be felt from the heart. "Dad! Please not him! DAD!"

The amnesiac closed his eyes as the poor boy's mournful cries filled his ears.

He couldn't be here anymore. He couldn't listen to this.

With a final glance, Sasuke turned and left for home.

Home... was essentially the tallest skyscraper Sasuke laid his eye on. It was where he rested day-to-day, where he liked to gaze at the horizon and try to collect his forgotten memories. Alas, he was unable to remember a single thing. The reason why Sasuke had picked the tallest skyscraper was although he could not remember a thing; there was an embellished wave of nostalgia that washed over him whenever he breathed in the scenery of Karakura Town as a whole.

"Home."

The words softly escaped his lips as he came to the rooftop. The rain had stopped then, and he picked his usual spot, laid down and his eyes drew to a close.

The blaring sirens from the streets below startled Sasuke out of his slumber. Disorientation from his sleep lasted but a fraction of a second as his reflexive alertness kicked in. He saw the flashing blue and red lights paled by heavy clouds and his nose twitched. Smoke, he recognized, and dashed to the edge of the roof, trying to figure out what was burning.

It wasn't his building that was on fire. It was about three blocks away near a residential district, the wind sending the smoke towards him. From where he stood he could make out a building. Without a second thought, Sasuke immediately dropped down to the ground and hurried to the burning building to get a better grasp of the situation. Fire trucks and police cars were arriving on the scene and were out in force, as officers erected a barricade of fence to keep the multitude of people a safe distance away as firefighters darted in all directions. Despite the urgency, it appeared to be well under control and from what Sasuke could tell everyone had been evacuated from inside. However, despite the contained emergency, there was a man who kept on shouting a name over and over again.

"MASAKI! MASAKI! WHERE ARE YOU?! MASAKI!"

The man was furiously swimming against the current of anxious people, looking for the one called Masaki. Sasuke wondered who this Masaki was but even if he wanted to help, there was no possible way for a mere human to hear him out. At that time, the Uchiha observed the frantic firefighters being more anxious than ever. The man shouting the name Masaki ran up to a firefighter.

"WHERE IS SHE?! DID SHE MAKE IT OUT YET?!

"...she's on the fifth floor, trapped between a broken down ventilation shaft and a pile of rubble."

"WHAT?!" He tried to rage through the firefighters but they held him back. "LET ME GO! SHE'S MY WIFE! SHE'S PREGNANT!"

"She's pregnant?!"

"YES YOU IDIOT! NOW LET ME GO!"

"Dammit sir stop! You can't go in there! We'll try to..."

Sasuke had heard all that he had needed to go into action.

A pregnant woman was trapped and she was going to be burned to ashes with her unborn child if help came too late. The dead officer came to Sasuke's mind, as did the howls of his son. Not again. He phased himself in on the second floor and then flew three stories up. His eyes darted in all directions as if they were expecting a victim in sight. All he was met was a thick blanket of black smoke and flames burning hot as a blacksmith's forge. As he recalled, the firefighter had said that the pregnant woman was trapped between a broken down ventilation shaft and a pile of rubble. There were two problems with the statement: one, there were tons of pile of rubble and two, Sasuke had no idea what a ventilation shaft looked like. The other semi-related problem was that even if he shouted to get some response, the pregnant woman would not be able to hear a ghost.

Nevertheless, he had to do something. "Masaki!" He shouted. There was a faint - if ever slim - chance that she was spiritually sensitive and that she could hear him. He'd take anything he could get as he searched for anything that looked like a ventilation shaft.

Even as the flames consumed everything, Sasuke kept a level head. If she was still alive, it had to be in an area where the smoke was the least concentrated. Sasuke went forward, all the while making sure he was below the smoke's level, or at least as far away from thick areas of it as possible. "Masaki," he called again. The heat of the flames didn't bother him too much but being exposed for long periods would prove even fatal for him. Or perhaps they wouldn't, he had never been in the middle of a burning building but he didn't feel like testing his durability now.

He kicked down a door but found the room empty. The fire hadn't reached here yet and the damage was minimal. Sasuke turned and proceeded to force open another one. The floor had completely caved in from the center of what he could only guess was a bedroom. If she was in that room, there would be no escape from death. Sasuke snarled in frustration. Were could a pregnant woman be? He had seen a few before and they always seemed as if they had trouble moving about during the end stages except for when they had to go to-

"WASHROOM!" Sasuke said out loud. The raven-haired man braved the flames and ran deep through several hallways until he saw a door with the men's sign on it. However, when he looked on his right, a mound of debris was piled up against a scorched wall. It took him only a second to figure out that the lady's restroom was blocked by it so he went into the men's bath and then phased to the adjacent lavatory. "Masaki!"

"H-Help..."

Her voice was faint, but Sasuke could hear it. He turned and his eyes fell upon a big hunk of metal resting at an angle against a broken window, where he noticed a pair of legs. The raven-haired youth moved instantly and he pushed aside the hunk of metal. "Masaki!" There, laid on the ground, was a very beautiful woman, with sun-blessed hair, wearing an overflowing dress. Her belly was big, indicating she was near-ending her pregnancy.

She looked up at him with pained eyes. "Y-You're not... Isshin ..." Her eyes closed and her head dropped.

Sasuke wordlessly bent down, beads of sweat running down his forehead, and touched with two fingers her neck. There was no pulse.

His heart raced for a second as the worst thought possible came to his mind. A heartbeat! Sasuke hoped, prayed. There could still be a heartbeat! Without hesitation, Sasuke pressed his ear against her bosom... and was intensively relieved to hear the steady drum of her heart beating.

She was unconscious but alive.

Sasuke's eyes furrowed deeply and resolved upon himself an iron-willed goal to get the mother and the unborn child out of the raging flames safely no matter what the cost. Sasuke unsheathed his chokuto and unleashed four quick stroke. He then took a step back and then with all his might jump kicked the lacerated structure, blowing open his way of escape. Sheathing his sword effortlessly, Sasuke turned back to the unconscious Masaki, bent down, and lifted her quickly but gently. He made sure she was secure in his arms before he jumped outside.

He flew quite a distance away from the burning building and then slowly dropped into an alleyway.

Sasuke breathed heavily and glanced at the woman once more, a feeling of great relief and happiness washing over him. He hadn't failed her, not like he had Shinichi or the others. He had saved her life. Now all he needed to do was somehow figure out how exactly to get a paramedic here to check her out and-

"MASAKI!"

Sasuke quickly whipped around, startled by the voice behind him. It was the dark, bearded haired man who had been looking for someone earlier. The amnesiac was rendered immobile with the indecisiveness of the situation: how was the man going to react with a floating pregnant woman in the air? Should he make a run for it? Should he just simply hand her over to the man or-

"Thank you so much! Thank you!" The man said sincerely, trembling with emotion. Sasuke was stricken with surprise at the second human being who had the ability to see him. Words couldn't come out of his mouth so all he did was hand the woman over gently to the man.

"H-Hospital..." Sasuke finally blurted, still reeling from the shock. "She needs to get to a hospital." The dark-haired man looked straight ahead, a look in his eyes that could've easily rivaled the previous determination Sasuke had.

"I'll get her there for sure!" He declared and started to run ahead. "Meet me there!"

Sasuke then felt a drop of rain on his nose and looked up as rain began to descend upon Karakura Town and wordlessly followed the man who handed her to the ambulance. He felt compelled to be sure the couple was alright and he'd be their guardian tonight. That much he swore.

Author's Note: The "quasi-garganta" is nothing like the real thing. Specific Hollows can just temporarily create half-baked dimensional paths to reach their targets accordingly, and thanks to their weak presence they basically were below the Soul Reaper's ability to sense.

Also, just in case some of you where wondering where we are in the Bleach timeline, well now you know. And just in case you still didn't figure out, we are 15 years before the main storyline begins, in other words, fifteen years before Ichigo gets Soul Reaper powers. Now that that has all been sorted out...

Review. Favorite. Follow.

(***)

Wolf's Honour