Аннотация: Sasuke goes to bed and dreams of his mother.
Sasuke was silent, watching his confused brother, with whom he was left alone in the room. Itachi thoughtfully touched his hair, and Sasuke panicked.
The clan has been taught to notice various little things and analyze them since childhood, developing memory and attentiveness in future Shinobi. In addition, for the genjutsu masters, for whom the Uchiha clan was famous, it was vital, since in order to create illusions, you need to have a very good imagination, a special type of thinking and be able to capture reality to imperceptibly distort it.
Sasuke knew his older brother and his habits very well. Shinobi may try to nullify them, but some gestures still remain. The same Naruto, with his eternal hand-waving and different smiles, was more difficult to "read" than Itachi, who always tried to hide his emotions. Touching his hair gave him away: Sasuke immediately realized that his older brother was depressed and feeling guilty about something.
"Sasuke..." Itachi sat down on the sofa and patted next to him.
It was eerily reminiscent of that last conversation with him brother at him parents' house at sunset. And I couldn't believe that only two days had passed since that time. Twenty-four hours ago, Sasuke was one of the students of the Shinobi Academy, an exemplary son of loving parents, a part of a large, powerful, close-knit clan, and now...
His heart ached with pain and the realization that everything was different now. They are now just a handful of kids led by two teenagers. Without a home. Without a family. Without parents. They are forced to hide. After Shisui and Itachi, Sasuke was the oldest, Mina can not be taken into account, she is just a civilian, which means that you need to take some responsibility for the rest. And if the brother really decides to leave them, then...
"Sasuke, I killed Mom and dad." immersed in gloomy thoughts, as if through a column of water, he heard Itachi's voice.
"What?" Sasuke asked, looking at his older brother in surprise. He was paler than usual: after enrolling in ANBU, Itachi constantly wore a mask and hardly tanned himself.
"I killed our parents," his brother repeated. Sasuke looked into the dark gray eyes, in which pain and despair splashed, and, after thinking, took Itachi by the hand. The older brother shuddered.
"You still think I'm a dumb kid, don't you?" burying his forehead in his native shoulder and inhaling the familiar smell from childhood, he whispered to Sasuke. "I've already figured that out. I don't want to talk about it. I can't do it yet."
He felt his brother's hand gently weave into his hair and pull him closer. A hot drop fell on the back of his hand.
"I'm sorry..." Itachi said in a strangled voice, squeezing even harder.
Sasuke hugged his quietly shuddering brother and tried his best not to burst into tears. Not because he didn't want to mourn his parents, but because it would have been even harder for Itachi. His throat tightened, and Sasuke felt a metallic taste mixed with bitterness and breathed through clenched teeth. Zen-level Shinobi are free to refuse orders, they were told this in the very first year of the Academy, but in reality this almost never happened. Theoretically, Itachi could have rejected the order, but practically...
"They didn't suffer, did they?" Sasuke asked softly, remembering the alternative Shisui had told him.
"No," Itachi exhaled, apparently calming down and pulling away from himself, but leaving his hand on Sasuke's shoulder.
"A stroke of mercy..." he said, turning away from his older brother.
"You've really grown up, Ototo..." Itachi's words sounded sad as he lightly squeezed his shoulder and got up from the couch. "Come on, we should wash up too," His brother dropped it quite calmly, as if there had been no conversation, and immediately, without turning around, left the room.
Sasuke followed him.
Naruto and the three older children were doing the laundry, and Mina took their clothes with her brother, giving them yukata.
"Sasuke!" his friend smiled at him. "Come on, wash up and join us!"
"Yeah," he nodded, looking at Itachi's naked, tense back, who disappeared into the steam mist.
***
It was a busy day, and after washing, everyone went to bed, unwrapping the futons in the "children's room". Sasuke felt strangely empty, and besides, after the "cat training", all his muscles were buzzing from the exertion. And after a few exercises with the awakened sharingan, which Shisui showed him, he felt a little dizzy and his eyes hurt.
Sasuke fell asleep promising himself that he would become stronger to protect what was left of his clan.
Strange sounds woke his up, forcing his to open his eyelids and stare at the gray ceiling with incomprehension. The moon was shining through the window, dispelling the gloom of the room. Sasuke realized that he was not at home, and for a few seconds he hung there, remembering how he got to this place, until reality crashed down on him with all its horror and indifferent truth. The clan is no more. There are no parents. They are alone.
The sounds that woke him up turned out to be Yumiko's soft sobs, she was lying next to him and crying almost soundlessly, biting the edge of her futon.
"Shinobi don't cry or show emotion," Sasuke remembered another lesson at the Academy. It was also not accepted in the clan to show their feelings, but this does not mean that Shinobi do not feel anything. It was as if his parents had appeared to him in reality. Mom seemed more thoughtful than usual at breakfast. She made him lunch for two, as she had been doing for the past two weeks, and allowed him to practice longer. Maybe she had a premonition of something? And when Sasuke left for the Academy, she smiled at him and kissed him quickly, which angered him at the time, because he was no longer small for such tenderness.
Tears welled up in his eyes, and he touched his cheek, which his mother's lips had briefly touched. He took a deep breath and held it. It always helped to calm down.
"Yumiko," Sasuke whispered.
The cousin shrank back and lay still, pretending to be asleep, apparently not wanting to show her weakness even to him. She didn't have a father, just a mom, but Sasuke didn't think that would change anything. Aunt Keiko, the mother of Shisui and Yumiko, was a good, kind woman, she came to visit them many times, and they often laughed while discussing something with Mikoto-kaa-san. His aunt had a very beautiful laugh.
The memories cut my heart with pain. Now they're gone. No mom, no dad, no Aunt Keiko, no Grandpa Sawada, no Aunt Nami, whom he found one of the first. He remembered the agreement that Shisui had announced. But would it be better to be all alone? And would Yumiko, Kazuki, Mina, Sena, and the rest of the little ones have been killed? What would have happened to Itachi? Would he have been executed? Such an order is carried out and... People are declared apostates, nukenins. They were once told in lessons about such things in other villages, but what would happen in Konoha? How could this happen? Would he have been deceived all his life? Would he have hated his own brother all his life?
"Sasuke, are you awake?" Naruto's voice whispered.
Sasuke turned to face his friend and shook his head.
"I can't sleep either," he whispered almost in his ear, having partially moved to his bed. "I think Mina was crying and woke me up. And the little ones, Renzo and Yui, had nightmares. I covered them with blankets, which they crucified, and they sort of calmed down."
"Let's go to sleep," Sasuke whispered in response, listening to the measured breathing of a really asleep Yumiko behind his back. "Otherwise, Itachi will come and put everyone to sleep with the help of a sharingan," he remembered his brother's ability, which he used on him when he was too overexcited and could not sleep.
Naruto crawled back and closed his eyes. A minute later, his measured snuffling was heard. Sasuke also listened to someone crying softly in his sleep, and fell into the darkness without dreams.
***
Sasuke heard the melodious humming and entered the kitchen, smelling the aroma of food. A black-haired woman was standing at the stove with her back to him, putting breakfast for four people into bowls.
"Sasuke, I'm so glad that you're friends with Naruto, I believed that this would be the case. I promised Kushina that you and her son would definitely become friends," Without turning around, the woman said and laughed softly. The clear, beautiful laughter sounded like a bell, resonating in his heart with a strange pain.
"Mom?" suddenly recognition came. The woman's shoulders shook, but she continued her work, now packing the food into a box. And Sasuke couldn't move, walk over, or hug her.
"I'm so glad you're not mad at Itachi. My poor son, it's so hard for him. Help your brother, okay, Sasuke?" Mikoto-kaa-san turned around with a smile, holding out the bundle, which Sasuke automatically took. And then, in passing, continuing to hum, she stroked his hair and left the kitchen. He clutched at the lunch his mother had given him, smelling the aroma of homemade food from there.
But when he looked back, he saw only an empty corridor and, stirring, suddenly woke up.
"Sasuke, Shisui is calling everyone to breakfast, are you getting too much sleep?" Naruto's face flashed by, and Sasuke felt that he was clutching his blanket until his knuckles turned white, and the aroma of food printed from a scroll was floating in the room.