Chapter 26

"Faster, Sasuke!"

Sasuke gasped as Itachi's foot connected solidly with his chest and he was thrown backwards yet again, but into the trees this time. Wood splintered and shattered at the impact and Sasuke cried out with pain as the air was knocked out of him and he hit the ground hard, landing in a crumpled heap. He could barely move the pain was so great this time. That had been the final blow. The battle was over and he had lost, yet again.

Sasuke forced his head to look up when he heard footsteps approach him and locked eyes with an identical pair of dark obsidian eyes.

Pathetic, was what his brother's cold eyes said. Sasuke didn't need to hear him say the word out loud to know that that was what Itachi was thinking. He had seen that look too many times after too many matches to be able to mistake it for anything else.

"Brother-"

"You disgrace the Uchiha," Itachi said coldly and it still felt like a knife wound through Sasuke's heart, even after having heard it so many times.

"You're still too slow, Sasuke. Still too weak and still too inexperienced. A human could probably defeat you. You'd be lucky to last an hour on the surface." Itachi turned away and Sasuke watched his older brother go, completely unscathed, for what felt like the hundredth time.

"Sasuke!"

It only took half a second for Tenten, Hinata and Neji to reach him from the other end of the training ground with vampire speed and they pulled him to his feet. Sasuke fought to keep his shaking legs from crumpling underneath him and coughed up blood and shakily wiped his mouth.

"He really did a number on you this time," Tenten said in a low voice, winding Sasuke's arm around her shoulders to help support him. Sasuke didn't reply. He watched his father shake his head with disappointment from the far end of the field before Fugaku disappeared. Neji supported the other half of Sasuke's weight, his mouth set in a grim line.

"Are you alright, Sasuke?" Hinata asked timidly, her glowing silver eyes worriedly taking in his bruised, battered and bloody appearance. She reached out to touch a bruise on his cheek and he bared his fangs at her.

"I'm fine!" He snapped and immediately regretted his sharp tone when she drew her arm back quickly and darted to Neji's side, hiding her face with her hair, but Sasuke hadn't missed the hurt in her large eyes. Neji narrowed his eyes with anger but said nothing.

I'm sorry, Sasuke thought out to her but refused to say the words out loud as they began the slow and torturous walk back to the Uchiha Compound.

"That was uncalled for," Tenten hissed into his ear but Sasuke ignored her and kept his gaze trained ahead.

xxx

Mikoto was already waiting for them by the time the four of them had reached the gates to the main Uchiha manor, but by then Sasuke had already healed enough to be able to walk well enough on his own without needing Tenten and Neji's support.

Sasuke knew he must have looked terrible, his clothes torn and his skin covered with dirt, blood and unhealed cuts and bruises, because he watched his mother's dark eyes widen with worry.

She was in front of him in seconds, fussing motherly over him: lifting his arms to examine his wounds and brushing his fringe aside to see the cuts and bruises on his face. Sasuke stood still and said nothing as his mother once again took in the aftermath of his training with his brother.

"Oh, Sasuke," she whispered. Her voice was despaired.

Just be grateful there were no broken bones this time, he thought darkly, turning his face away from her so that he didn't have to see her worry about him.

"Thank you," he heard her say, to the others, and he didn't turn to look at them. He heard the familiar sharp rush of air that signalled that they had disappeared with lightning speed and remained silent as Mikoto helped him up the steps to the manor.

They wound through the many hallways and corridors of the enormous house in silence; Mikoto knew not to press him and he was grateful.

"Do I disappoint you?" Sasuke asked at last when they reached the corridor that led to his bedroom and Mikoto looked sideways at him incredulously, like she had never expected him to ask such a question.

"Of course not!" She exclaimed, "You could never disappoint me, Sasuke. You should know that."

"But I disappoint Father."

Mikoto's mouth set in a hard line as she turned her gaze back ahead of her. "He expects too much of you in too short a time," she said quietly, "He forgets that you are not Itachi." Sasuke felt the knife in his chest twist painfully.

I am not Itachi, he thought bitterly. How could he ever hope to be? Itachi was a prodigy, a genius, one of the rare gifted individuals that only sprang up once every few hundred years or so. What took Sasuke weeks and sometimes months to learn took only a few days for Itachi, what Sasuke failed at Itachi always excelled at, which was everything Sasuke's older brother did.

"You're right, Mother," Sasuke said darkly as he stepped through his bedroom door. "I could never be like him."

Mikoto's eyes widened in horror. "No, Sasuke. That's not what I meant-" But Sasuke had already shut the door. His eyes darted around him and he grabbed the closest thing he could, an antique porcelain bird, and roared as he hurled it at the wall opposite him.

It shattered on contact, spraying shards of porcelain and glass everywhere and Sasuke looked down at the new cuts in his skin from where the shards had rebounded and hit him. He took a few steps forward and sank down to the ground, leaning his body into the fork between two of the walls and closing his eyes.

He heard his door open again softly and heard the soft footsteps that belonged to his mother. She knelt beside him and Sasuke made no move to stop her as she pulled him gently to his feet and sat him down on the corner of his bed.

She set a tray down on the desk beside him, laden with bandages, plasters, a bowl of water and damp cloths.

Sasuke didn't protest when she pulled his ruined shirt over his head, revealing all the wounds on his bare chest, and wordlessly went to work, cleaning the dirt and dried blood from his skin before cleaning the cuts and bandaging them. There was nothing she could really do about the bruises but Sasuke watched his mother work with wordless admiration and appreciation.

Mikoto straightened up when she was finished and set the roll of bandages back down on the tray.

"Thank you," Sasuke murmured, his eyes trained on the floor, expecting her to ignore him after the way he had behaved earlier but she smiled down at him and gently kissed his forehead before gathering up the tray and making her way over to the door.

"I've raised two very handsome, wonderful and talented sons, Sasuke," she said to him once she had reached the doorway. "You don't need to be your brother."

She closed the door softly behind her and Sasuke fell back onto his bed and covered his eyes with his hands.

xxx

The dining room was silent except for Itachi and Fugaku talking quietly to one another.

"Bring the girl in," Fugaku called at last and Sasuke watched as a tall, willowy human girl stepped elegantly in the room and moved gracefully to Fugaku's side. "Master," she said softly and Sasuke gripped his glass of deer's blood tighter when Fugaku handed the girl a slim knife which she took and slid across the crook of her elbow in one fluid movement.

Blood started to run down her arm the minute she pulled the knife away and she smiled sweetly as she accepted Fugaku's extended glass and held it against the cut, waiting for it to be full before handing it back to him. Sasuke gripped his glass tighter when she did the same for Itachi before curtsying and leaving the room.

She stopped next to Sasuke's seat on her way out. "Can I offer you some, Master Sasuke?" she whispered and it took all of Sasuke's will to refuse before she left the room, taking the tantalizing smell of human blood with her.

"You should have accepted, brother," Itachi said silkily, raising his glass to his lips and Sasuke felt his stomach twist with nausea and disgust. "You won't get stronger otherwise."

"Drinking the blood of humans was what we were created to do," Fugaku said harshly but fell silent when Mikoto lifted her hand and gave them both a withering look.

"Leave him be," she said softly and brought her own glass of deer's blood to her lips. "At least he has the will power not to crave it the way you two do." Fugaku snorted.

Sasuke snarled when Itachi's eyes fell on him again because they gleamed with malice and condescendence. You still need Mother to fight your battles for you? They asked and the corners of Itachi's mouth curled upwards in a sneer.

Sasuke had had enough.

He stood abruptly and slammed his glass down on the table. He didn't know who this Itachi was; this wasn't the brother he remembered growing up with. Sasuke stalked furiously out of the room.

"Sasuke!" Mikoto called after him but Sasuke heard his father silence her. "Let the boy go," he heard him say.

"The 'boy'," Sasuke hissed to himself.

It didn't take long for Sasuke to escape the confinements of the large mansion and soon he was racing down the many roads of the Uchiha Compound, one of the largest compounds in the Leaf.

He burst through the great double gates and only stopped running once he had reached the training grounds.

"Fuck," he snarled with frustration and anger and ripped a large branch from the nearest tree easily and hurled it violently at another, enjoying the sound of the splintering wood as the tree moaned with protest.

"Now what did those trees ever do to you, Sasuke?"

Sasuke spun around in the direction of the voice and frowned when his eyes found the dark silhouette of a slender figure.

"Ino," he said simply and the figure suddenly appeared only a few feet away from him.

The light from the crystals above made Ino's flawless skin glow silver like moonlight and her pale blonde hair was pulled behind her head in a waist-length pony-tale. Her glowing pale blue eyes were like icy skies. She was wearing, as always, clothes that flaunted her slender figure, revealing her flat toned stomach and long slender legs.

Sasuke blinked and she was behind him. He felt her cool breath on his neck and her body pressing against his back. "You're so tense, Sasuke," she breathed.

He knew that this wasn't love but Sasuke wanted nothing more than to forget Itachi, to forget Fugaku and even Mikoto. Even if it was just for a little while he wanted to forget about his weakness and his family's expectations of him.

So he let Ino turn him around slowly to face her, let her lead him into the cover of the trees. She leaned her back against the tree's trunk with a seductive smile on her face and gripped the front of his shirt. She pulled him roughly toward her so that their bodies were pressed tightly together. His palms rested on the tree's trunk on either side of her head and she tugged him forward so that their lips met.

"My powerful king," she whispered against his lips.

xxx

"Come on, Sasuke! Harder! Faster!" Tenten screamed at him and Sasuke growled and doubled his efforts to destroy the crude wooden figure in front of him. Ironwood, the strongest wood on Earth.

"Deliver the final blow!"

Sasuke spun on the ball of his foot and brought his other leg round with all the force he could muster, picturing Itachi's face where the dummy's head was. A kick like this would have taken a human's head clean off.

"Do you love her?" Tenten asked abruptly and Sasuke stopped his kick in mid-air, stunned, and brought his leg back down before it struck home. "What?" He looked up at where she was lounging lazily on a tree's branch about a foot away from where he stood.

"You were with Ino again this morning. I can smell her all over you." Tenten propped herself up on her elbow. "Do you love her?"

"No."

Tenten stretched. "I actually already knew that. I just wanted to make sure."

"Hn." Sasuke rolled his eyes in annoyance, his muscles aching to continue their violent assault on his wooden opponent.

"Then who do you love?" Tenten asked and Sasuke glowered at her. He wasn't even sure why she was even asking him such questions.

"No one."

She smiled slyly. "You aren't in love with me are you?" Sasuke snarled at her with irritation, feeling his cheeks heat up and Tenten laughed down at him. "It's a joke, Sasuke." Her playful grin faded and became replace with a grave face. "God, I miss your sense of humour sometimes."

Itachi's smug face flashed before his eyes, followed by his father's disappointment.

"I don't have time for love," Sasuke muttered, turning away from her but Tenten's brow furrowed with concern. "Sasuke-"

"Be quiet." Sasuke turned his attention back to the dummy. He spun on the ball of his foot to deliver the final kick and was satisfied when its head was sent whistling through the trees.

"Dead," Sasuke said quietly, looking up at the trees for Tenten, but she was gone. He frowned with confusion.

"Don't let your guard down!" Tenten rammed him from the side, the force of the impact bringing them both to the ground. Sasuke felt her fist hit his eye as they rolled across the ground, fighting viciously, and he snarled angrily. "What are you doing?!"

"Protecting you from yourself!" She snarled back, just as angrily and Sasuke froze with surprise at the tone of her voice. He became still and lay on his back and Tenten sat on his chest, using her strong hands to pin his arms to the ground. Her eyes were furious, despaired.

"You're being consumed, Sasuke," she whispered and he could only gape up at her, the impact of her words hitting him like a bucket of ice-cold water.

"No time for love," she echoed and snarled down at him, baring her fangs. "Ever since you started training with your brother you've become a complete asshole, Sasuke! It's like all you think about is beating him and now you don't have the time to deal with anything else. All you do is compare yourself to his and your father's expectations. That isn't living, Sasuke."

"But I need to get stronger."

"You will get stronger," Tenten said in a low voice, her eyes boring into his. "When you have a reason for getting stronger."

Sasuke opened his mouth to protest but Tenten silenced him. "And you can't do it alone, Sasuke." She climbed off of him and offered him her hand. Sasuke stared at it for a few stunned seconds before he took it and she hauled him easily to his feet again.

"Find your reason for getting stronger," Tenten whispered, "And the chances are that you'll be theirs as well." And then Sasuke was alone.

xxx

"Where're you going, Sasuke?" Ino walked alongside him as made his way to the opposite end of the Village.

"Somewhere to clear my head."

The blonde placed her hand suggestively over his arm. "Can I come with you?"

"No."

Ino dropped her hand, surprised. "Why, Sasuke?" Sasuke stopped walking and turned to face her properly, unsure of how to say exactly what he wanted to say. Reading his expression, Ino frowned. "What is it, Sasuke?"

"We need to stop seeing each other," he said abruptly and the blonde's eyes widened, but she said nothing, waiting for him to explain himself.

"I don't love you," he shrugged awkwardly, "And you don't really love me. At least, I don't think you do." He paused and started walking again, his voice taking on the familiar bland tone he was used to using. "That's all I have to say."

Ino suddenly spun him around to face her and Sasuke looked down at her with surprise. Her face was unreadable as she studied him but there was something in the blonde girl's eyes that made Sasuke cautious.

"We'll see what happens," she said finally, her voice sugary sweet but to Sasuke it sounded like her saccerine tone was covering up something sinister. He shrugged the feeling away and nodded before she released him and he continued on his way again.

It didn't take him long to reach the surface after that. It was 2am so Manhattan was about as quiet as it ever got. He didn't stray far from the tunnel entrance, knowing that vampire squads from the Stone were on patrol and would kill him without hesitation.

He watched the stars and cars on the streets, perched lightly on the flat roof of a small café building, closed for the night. He wasn't nervous because he had been to the surface before, but he remained alert.

xxx

"I want your son put in a squad and sent to the surface tonight," Tsunade said with finality in her voice and Sasuke felt himself shiver from the opposite side of the door, from excitement or dread he wasn't sure.

"Please, not yet," Mikoto begged, her voice thick with tears, "He's still so young. He doesn't need to see the horrors up there just yet."

"The boy's talented, Mikoto Uchiha," Tsunade said, sounding resigned, "Like his brother. I've seen him train. And we need numbers. The enemy's becoming bolder as we speak."

"Let the boy go," Fugaku said quietly and silenced his wife's protests. "He needs this, Mikoto. He cannot remain inexperienced. He will not be able to survive otherwise."

Mikoto's choked silence told Sasuke that she had given up and had accepted his fate.

Sasuke turned away from the door and felt his chest become heavy. He shivered again and this time, he knew it was from dread.

xxx

Sasuke's eyes darted around him frantically as the last member of his squad hit the ground of the alley. Dead. He hadn't known his squad members, but that hadn't stopped his blood from turning to ice in his veins. His squad had been doing well. They had lasted almost two weeks before a large squad had managed to take them by surprise.

"One left," a voice hissed and Sasuke took off up the nearest wall at top speed. He had always been fast and if he could just reach another allied squad...

He leapt to the next roof, his blood pounding in his ears and his body fuelled by adrenaline and built-in survival instincts. An enemy was closing in behind him and Sasuke seized an old, rusty flag pole and launched himself around at his enemy. He pulled a silver blade from his belt and drove it into the vampire's throat. With a gurgling sound, the Stone vampire toppled over the side of the building and out of sight.

Sasuke kept running, leading the remaining enemy to where he knew another squad was patrolling and it didn't take long for the night to once again be filled with the feral shrieks of vampires in battle.

Sasuke ducked, barely missing his opponent's blow. It had been three days since he had last consumed blood and his reflexes were beginning to slow. He managed to spin the enemy vampire girl around and break her neck, but only after her clawed fingers had viciously ripped open his side.

The battle in the alley was over and he had taken off again. He hadn't thought much about his wound until his vision began to blur from blood loss and his movements began to slow and become almost sluggish.

He collapsed forward, in front of an apartment building he was sure and felt the rain land lightly on his face and patter softly on the concrete around him.

Sasuke fought for consciousness and was just drifting away when he could hear the sound of feet running toward him, splashing through the rain on the ground. He felt two hands grip him under the arms, not strong enough to be vampire hands. Human hands.

Then the world turned black.

xxxxxxx

Sakura gazed up at the stars, obscured by all the city lights of Manhattan, even at midnight, dangling her feet restlessly over the edge of the roof of her old apartment building. Being up on the surface made her uneasy; past memories of past battles in alleyways and abandoned warehouses flashed before her eyes, but Sasuke had insisted.

Sakura glanced sideways at the figure sitting beside her. Sasuke's eyes scanned their surroundings intently, like he hadn't seen them for ages and Sakura realized that he hadn't; he had been under Ino's spell for so long.

"Is it still the same?" she asked softly and Sasuke smiled sideways at her before turning his gaze back a head of him. His voice was quiet. "Nothing's the same for me anymore."

Sakura wasn't sure of how to reply to that and instead refocused her attention back to the sky and then to the street below them. The silence wasn't uncomfortable. It was a comfortable silence and Sakura was more than content to just sit on the rooftop with Sasuke beside her. She could feel tingling tendrils of electricity dance across her skin where their fingers touched. She felt safe as long as he was with her.

"You know I sometimes wonder, Sakura, what would have happened if I hadn't met you," Sasuke said at last, "And if I had survived."

Sakura watched him curiously but he continued to look ahead of him, his eyes distant.

"I sometimes wonder if, given the option, I would have joined Ino willingly," he continued, memories darkening his already black eyes. "And it sickens me, but I usually come to the conclusion that I probably would have."

Sakura felt her breath hitch uneasily. "Why, Sasuke?"

He shrugged as if the answer were the most simple thing in the world. "Ino made me feel powerful when I could never fill the expectations of everyone else. I would have joined her to just spite them all."

Sakura pushed her unease away. "It doesn't matter. Don't linger on the past," she whispered and reached up to take his face in her hands and turned it to face her. He looked down at her intently and Sakura straightened herself so that their faces were almost level and only inches apart.

"I'll tell you what would have happened," she said softly and pecked his lips gently. "I would have still been stuck in this shitty apartment building, alone and without a real family. I wouldn't have had a life."

Sasuke shook his head with a sad smile. "You would have had a life, Sakura," he said and Sakura felt his breath fan across her lips lightly and frowned.

"You would have had a life free of war and free of the constant danger that comes with knowing about the shadow world."

Sakura released his face and pulled away. "Bullshit," she snapped and Sasuke raised an eyebrow, "Yeah?"

"You act as if humans don't ever go into war," she answered, rolling her eyes and gestured to the distance in front of them with her arm. "There are countries that are at war right now. And I may have been free of the danger of the shadow world, Sasuke, but that wouldn't make me free of the danger of the human world."

Sasuke watched her with a straight face, his eyes on her and her alone. Sakura looked at him with exasperation, wanting him to really hear and understand what she was saying.

"As a human I would have still been weak and defenceless. Nothing would have stopped me from being mugged or raped or kidnapped. Killed." She saw Sasuke's eyes darken as he pictured what she said and then gave him a small smile and touched his face to gain his attention again. "At least now I can defend myself, Sasuke, from both the dangers of the shadow world and the human world." She moved closer to him again and felt his arms wind themselves around her and wound her arms around his neck.

"I have a life now."

She felt him smile against her mouth.