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Oh no. Sasuke had to relive the massacre every night. Every thought, every moment he was alone, he thought of it. Thought about what happened. How his own brother murdered their clan, leaving one survivor. Sasuke was unaware of the reasonings behind it. The Third thought him to be immature and knew it was unwise to tell the truth to the young gennin. Sasuke was known for having a hot temper.
That fateful night changed the Uchiha boy. His life was perfect. He had a caring mother, a doting big brother, then, there was his father…. Whom, Sasuke believes went to his grave hating his youngest son. Because Sasuke was the weak one between the two. Things didn’t come natural to him which angered Sasuke. Why was Itachi so much better than him? What did his older have that he didn’t? It fueled the heat within his chest. A deep hatred for his brother began that fateful night.
In that same house in which his clan was killed, the same room he had then, became his room for four years after their death. He was broke and poor, having nowhere he could call home. Sasuke stayed in that house until he graduated from the academy and is the rank he is today. Finally living in a little apartment that he somehow manages to pay the rent, buy food, etc.
Not a single soul came to his aid that night. He awoke in a hospital yes, but no one was there to talk to him about it. Sasuke felt the Leaf didn’t care. The Hokage showed his true colors then. Right now, Sasuke wouldn’t stand a chance and through all of this has, and still calls Konoha HOME. That same place is where he will be buried. Right next to his family if he can.
Everything was swarming throughout the young mindset of the Uchiha as finally, he heard the other’s words. Stopping just long enough to listen then be on his way. It seems getting the bridge builder and that brat was the only way the Wave had any change of no longer being under Gatou’s rule.
All the ninja from Konoha could do was try. There were no guarantees.
Returning to the little home of said bridge builder and that Inari kid felt tiring. The tension filled the home and every person in it was doing everything they could not to blow up. Or, anything out of portion. The blond had too be talking nonsense. Listening to him ramble on and on slowly drove Sasuke crazy. He had enough, standing, glaring at Tazuna, “Look, this bastard is going to keep running all over you people unless you defend yourselves! How is this village supposed to survive with people in it who won’t stand up for what they believe is right?” Sasuke had tried being somewhat reasonable with the man.
Inari was a whole other matter as the kid ran out of the tiny home, Naruto following suit, “He’s right you know. If you want something done, you gotta stand up and fight. It’s how you make your point known. People will realize you mean business and will believe that anything is possible.” That grin often reminded those around him of the sun and Naruto rarely got it as a complement. Eventually, those who thought him to be annoying started thinking like he did and acted on it.
The Wave’s people need to act and fast.
Word got around a few hours later that Tazuna and Inari were going to help, stand up for the Wave’s people and their rights. It had all kinds of commers within the village talking, gossiping.
“Did you hear that Leaf kid got Tazuna to help?” A rather older man, husky, clearly a sailor.
“No, I can’t imagine him lending a hand. We’re as good as dead.” A child speaking to another.
“What worries me the most, is that kid with the fan on his back.”
“Oh yeah. The only surviving Uchiha clan member. Must be hard knowing there aren’t anymore around. Hundreds of them were killed that night.”
“I saw that same kid. His eyes were red and black. What could that be? It didn’t look too helpful.”
“I saw that kid too. He got mad at that old man that came form who knows where. Wonder why though. You’d think someone from the Leaf would be kind towards an older fellow, right?”
“Who knows. That kid can’t be trusted.”
Sasuke messed up. The people were talking. Most worried about the kid snapping on Kagami. They concluded Konoha’s Uchiha wouldn’t be helpful, but rather, hateful. These people decided to keep an eye on him.
After leaving Sasuke, Kagami went down to the docks where the fishermen moored their ships and unloaded their hauls. The equipment of their trade was left everywhere now that it saw little use. Nets and rusty arpoons, coils and coils of rope, thick, thin, long and short, not to mention empty paint buckets formerly used to store lure, now empty. It stank of fish and guts and old rot, both from the sea and from blood and catches that had slipped off overstuffed crates to lie forgotten on the street.
Needless to say, no food was lost these days. Put together, all the fishermen in Wave were barely catching enough to fill a third of a crate, so every fry was precious. They were going out to sea much less frequently and for much shorter periods of time, afraid of the warships patrolling the waters in Gatou’s name.
If two decades ago anyone had told Kagami that one day he would be coming to the sea shore to find solace, he would have called them mad. He had hated the ocean and lakes and rivers and any bodies of water large enough to engulf a man since he was a child. The sight of it had been guaranteed to make him break out into cold sweat. Somewhere along the way, until his teacher’s tutelage, that fear had given way to a profound dislike, the kind that snarls lips at the mention of it, but no longer prevented close encounters.
Since Kagami had come to Wave, that feeling had done a surprising volte-face, associating itself with nostalgia to become the exact opposite. The reasons that had made Kagami hate it were now the reasons that led him to seek it when he needed to sort his thoughts and clear his head:
Water had taken his brothers. Then life had cut him off from the rest of his family. Konoha had been left out of reach, behind an impenetrable wall, shearing half of Kagami’s heart out as it had slammed down. Now, the water was the only thing that he could touch to make himself feel closer to his family.
He sat at the end of the pier, looking at the horizon, with Tazuna’s incomplete masterwork of a bridge dominating the landscape to the right.
“What do I do?” he murmured to himself.
The way he saw it, he had two choices. Either walk away from this village that had been his solitary haven for the past decades and find some other place to hide out in isolation for the rest of his days -- or stay and confront the ghosts of his past failures that had found him in the form of one angry little boy called Sasuke.
He knew which course of action he wanted to follow. But he was old and weary. Could he really muster up the strength for one final try at making his old dream of peace and unity in the Leaf come true?
He made the decision without even realising it.
A shape on the horizon drew his attention. It took a bit for the for to make itself known, cutting across the fog rising from the surface of the water.
A dark bow of a warship, with Gatou’s flag flapping in the wind at the top of the mast. Trouble had come to the village, just as he had predicted, just as he had warned Sasuke. The only thing that he had not foreseen was that the corrupt magnate would arrive so soon after his hired shinobi’s defeat.
Kagami ran in search of Sasuke. The Konoha team needed to be prepared for the worst.
