The Uchiha Massacre - 2

After their Hyuga friends had departed, Sakura turned to a crestfallen Haku.

"Haku-kun, are you alright?" She asked.

Haku sat down on the rim of the currently empty fountain and sighed. He was exhausted, bruised and out of chakra. Of course he was alright.

"I just...I don't know if I hurt Gaara somehow." He confessed his guilt.

Naruto folded his arms, "Gaara has been like this before, remember? When we first met Ero-sennin?"

Haku looked up at him, "Oh yes! He was acting strangely then too..."

Sakura was baffled, "What happened when you first met him?"

"See Gaara was really sick or something when he first showed up," Naruto summed up the events, "So we had to take care of him."

"And he doesn't sleep." Haku added.

Again, she was perplexed, "What do you mean he doesn't sleep? How can someone not sleep?"

Naruto shrugged, "Gaara's weird like that. He just doesn't."

"I don't think he can sleep Naruto, at least recently," Haku corrected, "He's afraid to."

The blonde scratched his head, "Oh yeah...he said that he hears voices, didn't he?"

Sakura frowned. She was growing more and more concerned for the red haired boy. Besides having to put up with Naruto's denseness and Haku's brilliance, she knew little of any other obstacles he may have faced.

"I don't think that you hurt Gaara that bad anyway..." Naruto continued, "I mean, it looked like he was the one beating you up Haku!"

Haku brushed a spot of wet sand from his forearm, "I suppose so."

"If you weren't tired, you would've beaten Gaara-kun I think," Sakura added, "Naruto just happens to be really good at messing things up."

The blonde huffed at the pink haired girl, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"If you hadn't made Haku-kun run around like crazy before, Gaara-kun wouldn't have hurt him so badly!" Sakura retorted.

"So what if Gaara is super strong?" Naruto looked at Haku's bruised face, "Haku looks fine to me!"

Haku couldn't help but smile, which only added to Sakura's annoyance.

"Boys..." She muttered to herself, not understanding how they could be so ignorant.

Naruto seemed to be on his own level of brainlessness at times.

"Is anyone else hungry?" Haku asked, hoping to lighten the mood.

"Yeah!" The Kyuubi container had only one thing in mind, "Why don't we go to Ichiraku Ramen and eat? That place is supposed to be great!"

"Um, Naruto-kun, we don't have any money…" The pink haired girl sighed.

Disappointment washed over his face. The cruelty of the material world hath no mercy on even children.

"But I guess we can go to my house and eat!" Sakura quickly added, not wanting to dampen her friends' spirits.

Haku nodded, but Naruto looked hesitant.

"I thought your parents didn't like me, Sakura-chan." Naruto reminded her.

She frowned and then resolved, "Oh, well, we can just eat outside then...I don't care what they say!"

Naruto's grin reassured Haku and Sakura that he held no grudge against the less hospitable people of Konoha.

Haku followed behind Naruto and Sakura. They led him around, showing him their places of interest, which included numerous ramen stands and even the Ninja Academy.

While excitedly explaining to Haku that in a few days they would attend the Ninja Academy together, Naruto noticed a familiar face quietly traveling down the opposite side of the street.

Sakura looked at the distracted blonde, "What is it now, Naruto-kun?"

She and Haku looked curiously towards the distraction. It was a boy with raven black hair, and equally dark eyes. He was walking by himself.

Naruto's mouth acted on its own, "Hey! Sasuke!"

"Do you know him?" Haku asked, impressed that Naruto knew so many people.

Sasuke looked up, nearly startled, and watched Naruto jog across the street and fall in step with him. A girl with pink hair and another young boy followed him.

The young Uchiha recognized the loud blonde after a moment, "Oh...hello Naruto."

Naruto was grinning again, "Hey Sasuke, I didn't get to thank you for calling off those Chunin from a while ago!"

The other boy nodded, remembering how Naruto had been attacked for no apparent reason. Sakura and Haku, however, had no idea what their loud friend was talking about.

"It was no trouble," Sasuke answered simply, "Uh...how have you been?"

He could only guess what had happened to Naruto during the time he had disappeared with no explanation for over a week.

"Great! I went to train by myself for a while!" Naruto answered, "Oh, and here are my friends: Haku," He gestured to the dark haired boy, "And Sakura-chan!" The girl with the pink hair nodded to him.

Sasuke had seen Sakura around town once or twice, but he had never seen the likes of Haku before, "Are you from around here, Haku?"

The dark haired boy shook his head, "No, my homeland is in the Water Country. I came here for ninja training."

The Uchiha boy wondered to himself why he had come to Konoha rather than train in the Hidden Mist Village he had been told about. He chose not to say anything about it.

Frail-looking Haku didn't at first appear to be ninja material in Sasuke's opinion, "You want to be a ninja?"

He nodded and Naruto added, "Yeah, we're all gonna be ninja!"

"That's right." Sakura agreed.

A small glimmer of pride flickered across Sasuke's face, "I'm going to be a shinobi too."

It seemed to be a recurring goal around Konoha, Haku figured.

The raven haired boy turned around and displayed the fan emblem on his back. Sakura was the only one who remotely recognized it.

"I've mastered a fire jutsu that my father taught me," Sasuke announced proudly, "So he has allowed me to wear the Uchiha clan crest."

"A fire jutsu?" Haku was interested. How many types of jutsu were there?

"Hey! We can use the Transformation jutsu!" Naruto was beaming, "And Haku can do this cool thing with water..."

"Why don't we show each other our jutsu then?" Sasuke asked, "I was going back home, would you like to come with me?"

Sakura was excited, "You'll let us go with you to the Uchiha estate?"

He smiled at her, "Sure, it'll be fun."

Haku was very interested in seeing a fire jutsu as well as making another friend, "I'd like to see your home, Sasuke."

Naruto nodded, "Yeah! And, uh...could we maybe get something to eat?"

Sasuke gave him a puzzled look, "...alright."

The sun had set the street lamps buzzed on.

On the way to the Uchiha compound, Naruto and Haku described their meeting (as well as an absent Gaara) to Sasuke and Sakura. The story entailed the kindness of Hiroshi and the perverted ways of the toad sennin Jiraiya.

"Naked ladies?" Sasuke was befuddled by the stories of the old sage.

Naruto disliked recalling Jiraiya's vulgar hobby, "Yeah, the guy's totally gross! Gaara knocked him out of the tree then so he'd stop looking at-"

"He did it twice?" Sakura asked, "I didn't know Gaara-kun tried to beat up Gama-sennin more than once."

"Gaara isn't afraid of Jiraiya-sama at all." Haku explained, wondering why that was.

"Yeah! He's great like that!" Naruto laughed, remembering how Gaara had so easily made a fool of the sage.

Sasuke would make it a point to meet this 'Gaara' they were talking about one day.

After turning onto a street that led into the Uchiha district, Sasuke noticed the uncanny silence. It was very out of place.

Naruto kept on talking, oblivious to the worried look on the other boy's face.

He paused. A foreboding feeling sunk into the pit of his stomach. Usually, at that point in the day, Sasuke was used to returning home and hearing the chatter of his kinsmen. He hadn't been expecting the stillness of the place.

"Is everything alright Sasuke?" Sakura looked at him quizzically, as did Haku.

Sasuke frowned to himself, "It's just that..."

He couldn't put his finger on it. He took a few hesitant steps onward. Maybe he was imagining things?

He had just gained his father's approval and met Naruto and his friends. It was possible this feeling of uneasiness was temporary, caused by the new changes in his life. That was what he was thinking until a metallic smell caught his attention.

You can feel a change but you can't smell it. Can you?

Suddenly he felt nervous, and somewhat embarrassed that he broke out into a paranoid run in front of his companions, who only shouted after him in confusion as he tore down the street.

'It's alright. I had a long day...Maybe I'm just-'

Sasuke finally stopped at the end of the ally and rounded the corner.

The smell, the smell...

You can smell change.

"Sasuke-san, are you okay?" Haku asked after he, Sakura and Naruto had caught up to him.

He said nothing.

Haku almost took it as a rude gesture. After all, he and his friends were worried and didn't find running around a way to be welcomed into someone's home. He could at least nod his head if he didn't feel like talking.

Naruto was about to speak up about finding a snack when he had turned to look at the street before them. He didn't want to believe his eyes.

They were all lying on the ground.

A hush fell upon the four children, and for a solid minute they stood, surveying the countless corpses lining the entire street. There were so many, old and young alike, dead and still and laying as if some cruel artist had painted them into such graceful positions.

Dark hair hid many of their faces from view, but those less fortunate had eyes open wide and glassy like red and beautiful marbles. Crimson covered the clothing of every individual, their throats and sides torn open.

The sight and smell made Sakura nearly gag.

Haku felt his stomach heave and he was sick on the side of the road for a moment. Naruto stood by him, a dark look on his face, not caring that the farm boy had almost vomited on his shoes.

"What happened?" The blonde's voice was barely above a whisper.

What had happened?

Sasuke felt compelled to casually ask his auntie Shizu who was only a few meters away that very question. He came to the hasty conclusion she would be unable to answer; she was slumped over on the ground just past her doorway, surrounded by a ruby pool.

He was suffering from a complete mental shutdown. How had this happened? Were they all dead?

They couldn't all be dead. There were so many people in the Uchiha clan; some may have been on missions...

Sasuke was trying to fool himself and failing miserably. Many of his immediate family: grandmother, uncle, cousin…they were present and unmoving.

Dead.

The word stung his thoughts. He had never had to think about death before.

'What if mother and father...?' His heart was hammering, 'What if...Itachi! Is he alright? I've got to find them!'

Sasuke bolted down the road, completely forgetting his companions.

It was true, he loved his parents, but he would be unable to bear the death of his beloved older brother. His image gave speed to his feet.

"Wait! It isn't safe!" Sakura cried and followed him without a moment's hesitation.

"Eh? Where are you going?" Naruto was just about ready to run after the two, before realizing that Haku was bent double at his feet, "Haku?"

The dark haired boy was shaking uncontrollably, and his dark eyes were wide and misty.

Blood.

The smell and the sight of it…it made him remember so vividly, so perfectly the death of his parents. He had no way to remind himself that this was another person's family, or that they were possibly in a lot of danger themselves staying there.

He was drowning in the inescapable and gruesome memories of his parents and their final moments. Haku lurched forward, bawling at the top of his lungs and giving Naruto a terrible headache.

"Whoa! Haku! What's the matter?" Naruto took the trembling farm boy by the shoulders and gently shook him, desperate to snap him out of his sudden fit.

His mother: stabbed to death. His father: skewered on a shaft of ice.

Haku could see them so plainly, as if they were standing in front of him, and he could even hear his father's distant, accusing voice.

It was all his fault.

Monster.

"NO!" Haku sobbed helplessly onto Naruto's shoulder.

The blonde began to realize that they would be unable to follow after Sasuke and Sakura, and even worse, they wouldn't be able to leave the scene of the tragedy until Haku overcame his haphazard nervous breakdown.