Sasuke's emotional side is what I like the most about him.
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I've witnessed multiple times that people consider Sasuke to be emotionally unstable and overdramatic.
I understand where this opinion may come from, but from my perspective, his emotions are what make his character unique in the first place.
When we first meet him, we see this stereotypical emotionless cool guy who doesn't give a fck about people around him. However, as the story proceeds, we see that he was quite emotional when Team 7 passes Kakashi's test. Sasuke openly showed his dissatisfaction — he frowned and his expression changed. Compared to Itachi, who really showed a new emotion once in a while, Sasuke seems to me like an emotional person.
Based on his emotions, he covered Naruto during their fight with Zabuza and Haku. And when Naruto surpassed him after the fight with Gaara, and Itachi's kind brotherly torture, Sasuke lost his temper and freaked out at Sakura's care...
It came from his childhood when he was an emotional kid. I think that due to his appearance, Sasuke might seem like an emotionless character, but I believe that he lost this side of himself after he killed Itachi and was trained by Orochimaru — a literal madman. I guess it was absolutely rational in his conditions, because Sasuke by his nature was not a cruel person, but when he was surrounded by sordid people like those two, he had to lock up his emotions to control the situation.
Obviously, after he found out that Itachi was forced to carry out the massacre of his clan by Konoha's leaders, he was a hollow of emotions. But even in this situation, he acted on his emotions — like when he attacked the Kage Summit. It was not a rational decision; he didn't gather information, nor did he thoughtfully prepare for fights.
I think because of those outbursts, people think of him as overdramatic, but they forget that Sasuke was manipulated by Itachi in the first place, and by Obito after that. He was a mentally destroyed character with no purpose in life after Obito kindly shared part of the truth about the Uchiha Massacre.
I think that Kishimoto-sensei really made a well-developed character with a purely human reaction to the situations, because Sasuke really loved his brother. So I think it was a relief for him to find out that Itachi was not as guilty as he had thought him to be. But he was already 'in the darkness', and therefore he couldn't find a better way out of the situation than vengeance — because it was the goal of his life, and literally the only way he had learned from childhood to solve a situation.
⊹₊ ⋆ ⊹₊ ⋆ ⊹₊ ⋆ Uchiha Sasuke x Original Female Character ⊹₊ ⋆⊹₊ ⋆ ⊹₊ ⋆
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⋆ Summary: Miyuki is drowning in loneliness in the big city, feeling cast aside by life. But there is one person for whom she is much more than just a young woman who came to Tokyo looking for a better life.
⋆ Genre: ⬩➤Original Female Character⬩➤ Established Relationship ⬩➤Slow Build ⬩➤Tokyo ⬩➤Alternate Universe - Modern Setting
⋆ Word Count: 2,144
Miyuki was standing in the shadows of Tokyo slowly drowning in the midnight drowse. Streetlights were glowing in the darkness, casting twisting shadows on the storefront signs. A cigarette was sparkling between her fingers like a lonely star in the sky. Unfortunately, today it was covered by heavy clouds which resembled the dust fluffs. She was looking for them, but it was useless.
“This fruitless endeavor is no less useless than me trying to adjust to the new AI system at work”, Miyuki muttered under her breath, looking at the smoke which was twisting like a gray ghostly snake in the cold wind. She rested her elbows on the balcony railing. The grey office suit, classical for female “white collar” workers, was crumpled after a long day of sitting in the same pose. She had a skirt that reached the knees but was quite tight and uncomfortable to wear, but Miyuki did not have either time or a wish to search for a new one. All skirts were either too tight or loose around her hips, and she believed that she had the standard size…
“Things change too quickly in this fleeting world”, she murmured, taking a long puff. Her white blouse became transparent on the elbows where it touched the metal railing. The yellowish light of the lamps in the neighborhood made the city’s black-and-blue silhouette somewhat cozy. Miyuki involuntary started thinking about her position in “Konoha Corporation”. She was an old-fashioned interpreter, the one who used paper and electronic dictionaries to look for a word. However, the new technologies – helpful as they were – jeopardized her position. Labor requirement changed drastically. She fell victim to the stuff cuts.
Miyuki looked at the lonely flower standing on the tiny table of the balcony. It was a gift from a college. She remembered that day…
Ino, who had a sweet floral perfume cloud all around her tall figure, stood beside her as they were waiting in the queue at the café. Her colleague from the Human Resources Department bitterly pointed out that one of the shareholders of the company, the worst of the worst, Uchiha Madara, had complained about the overstaffing in the company.
“He is surely about to buy a new yacht or a mistress”, Ino added with utter disgust taking a step back when Ten-Ten passed by with a red tray. “He is the scum of the Earth, this man. I have so much work now, and all hatred from my colleagues will be aimed at me. It is all because I must carry out the orders of the CEO, Hiruzen does not have an opinion of his own. He should be at the facility, not in the head office”.
“I would advise keeping your complaints to yourself, especially here”, Miyuki said, nodding towards the colleagues. They had the weary expressions of people whose reticence kept them from agreeing with outspoken Ino. “You know, the competition in the labor market is high”.
“Yes, for people like you and me. He wanted to lay off the Human Resources Staff, interpreters and translators alike”, Ino smiled bitterly. The cold light of the lamps in the form of golden drops reflected in her eyes, clear like an aquamarine in the sunlight. Miyuki had never seen her cheerful and flirtatious friend with such vacuous eyes.
“But how is the company supposed to work internationally and manage thousands of people?”
“AI. New technology. New problems”.
“And unemployment as old as time”.
Miyuki leaned on the balcony railing. She enjoyed looking at the cars and people. The motion meant life, and the city was living life at its fullest when she felt being cast aside by Tokyo.
“What does it mean to me? Going back to my village? I don’t have money to go abroad, neither do the foreigners need losers like me. They also have problems with employment… Probably, I should have studied maths. I could have been an IT-specialist, and I wouldn’t have been replaced by AI”.
Miyuki detested herself for whining and complaining, but it was the only option she had left. There was no beer in the fridge.
“Ino’s father runs the flower shop… I can work there!”
Miyuki glanced back at the flower on the table. She had once witnessed a fragile girl, looking like a porcelain geisha, who was carrying a load twice her weight.
“Well… Probably, I will try to… become an AI trainer… to make more people like me unemployed. But this technology is so good and helpful. I can translate more for the same pay, but Madara wanted a twenty-buck machine to replace a thousand-dollar employee”.
She huffed smoke out of her nose like a tired dragon who was too exhausted to fight back against the knights. Little raindrops fell on her head, short-cropped hair hung in lank, wet locks. She could not care less about her appearance or her health at the moment. All her thoughts were whirling around the feeling that she wasn’t enough to survive in this city. Miyuki was not prepared to find herself cast aside so quickly. Nevertheless, she did not get the notice of termination. Yet. Her hunched figure on the tiny balcony was one of the small fragments that made this city look busy and lonely — at least for villagers like Miyuki.
“I will try to learn some difficult language… I do not know… They’re going to partner with France. It will be French! I do not have a gift for languages, but I know that French is somewhat close to English because of the conquests of William the Conqueror and… something else. I will find a way out from this sordid situation no matter what…”
“Are you sure?”
This voice. Sasuke.
Miyuki jumped and turned around. He was leaning against the doorframe. His dark clothes – the black sweater and the trousers of the same color — blended into the darkness. Only his leather jacket reflected the dim light of the single reading lamp. The gleams of light on his leather jacket were as bright as his eyes, even though they were of the deep, dark color.
“Are you begging to get fined?”
“The words of a dude who broke into my appartement without permission”, Miyuki was more than happy to see him there. She really needed someone to cry on. There was no beer in the fridge after all.
“Smoking on the balcony is illegal and using keys that a rightful owner kindly gave me is an expression of free will”, Sasuke said, tossing those keys in his hands, but hid them in the pocket of the jeans.
“It is illegal to be such a wet blanket!” Miyuki entered the room. The cigarette was dangling from her mouth, still smeared with nude lipstick.
Sasuke barely squeezed through the bookshelves that formed a half circle in the bedroom, which was akin to the pantry in his uncle’s house. But there an old — or, how it was fashionable to say now, “vintage” TV set was wedged between those bookshelves, and in the middle of the room there was a futon which she had never put away in the built-in wardrobe.
The zataku, a low-legged table, was placed by the window.
The whole room was decorated in weathered autumn colors, and even the zabuton, the cushion for sitting, was of reddish-brown color with a touch of pink hue. Miyuki once commented that the colors of the dying autumn held various shades of melancholy. Sasuke just said that it made the unseen sentiment material, in other words, visible not only to the eyes of an owner, but those who are close to her as well. Someone like him.
“Someone here should have a head on the shoulders, not in the clouds”.
“I would prefer mine to be in the clouds or not on my shoulders at all, because it has unpleasant thoughts to say the least”. Miyuki approached the built-in wardrobe.
The doors made of white laminated chipboard were covered with multiple watercolour illustrations on tiny square pieces of paper. Those were the landscapes of her village. Ōkura, mura of Yamagata Prefecture, was painted by the colors of memories and emotions that Miyuki had been guarding for years which she spent away from her home.
Many of the watercolors depicted mountains and forests under the heavy cloaks of snow. She remembered majestic heights of Mount Gassan in the morning haze. White snow on the summint among grey clouds carrying hues of shinome – light orange and light pink colors mingled when the sun rose in the East. Among those papers there were images of Hijiori Onsen – crystal snow was falling on hot and wet rocks, melting immediately, while a figure of an imaginary character who is supposed to be a villager is sitting in the cloud of vapour. It was an ancient volcanic crater, and she enjoyed imagining how horrifying the explosion was thousands of years ago. She painted traditional houses, vending machines from the 90’s, narrow streets, and a long river flowing among the greenery of fir trees.
“I think that you need to go on vacation to your hometown”. Sasuke sat on the zabuton she had given him and fixed his gaze upon her face. He had never failed to catch her rueful expression. “You are missing it, Miyuki”.
“I will miss my position at “Konoha” as well…” she sat in front of him on the zabuton. Tucking her legs under herself, she felt somewhat secure, more than she had on the balcony. Probably, it was Sasuke’s presence that healed her wounded soul.
“Pretend to be sick. Ask Sakura to give you a fake sick note”, he uttered it with an impassible expression, which made Miyuki laugh.
“You speak of violating the law as if it is something mundane”.
“You may not believe it, but obeying the law is not as widespread as you might think”.
“In your circle. I’ve never met a person who was willing to ask a friend to risk their job for a vacation”.
“You may ask your superior. I do not quite remember who it is…”
“Kurenai. I know, I know… but after your uncle decided to lay off half of the department, I am not sure if it is a wise decision to make”.
Miyuki felt like the world itself hindered her from being happy and satisfied. She did not want to be struck off the list. It was a Herculean task to find a new position with a salary large enough to cover bills. However, all the dark thoughts she had been cultivating in her mind for months were erased by his presence. His breathing filled the dead silence of a little appartement. The sounds of him moving – creaking of a leather jacket, rustle of jeans were music of another life, when they had travelled around Kanagawa Prefecture. It was another life promising a lightness of soul — not the dangers of being jobless or even homeless.
“He is an asshole. Unfortunately for all of us Madara-sama will outlive both of us. He is this type of person who will celebrate a hundredth birthdayjust to avoid the misfortune of passing his fortune to the family”.
“How disrespectful of you!”
Miyuki chuckled but it came out as a bitter laugh. Sasuke only shook his head and suddenly smiled. His smile was a rare occasion as snow in Okinawa. He was by her side when she was at war with herself. It was like that even back then, after one of the corporate karaoke parties, she was reeking of alcohol when she met him who had overdone sake somewhere else. He had tried to help her out of a ditch — only to fall in right after her. They somehow managed to get out together, soaked and covered in mud.
“I can express myself only with you, Miyuki”. He leaned in and she followed suit, and then their foreheads almost touched.
“I do not know what will happen next, and I barely can affect decisions of an old dotard, but all we can do during hard times is holding together”.
His breath was warm against her face, and she felt her hollowed soul filling with warmth of understanding that she was not fighting alone against a storm of circumstances.
“Like mandarin ducks”, she murmured softly, closing her eyes.
Darkness slowly devoured light of a single lamp and distant glitches of Tokyo.
“That’s too vanilla a comparison. I prefer wolves of partners in crime”.
She knew, even with her eyes shut, that he was smiling. Probably, because she did not see it.
“Wolves are cool, but I don’t know if there are any near my village”.
“We will discover together. I’ll talk to Kurenai-san. I think I will find a legal way for you and me to visit Ōkura”.
And Miyuki knew that Sasuke always held to his promises, and that was good.
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⏾⋆.˚ P.S. It is my first story which was written in English 🦄
I'm Author007 on AO3, and I've decided to publish my short stories here.
Why short?
Because English is not my first language, and writing in English is a challenge for me. I think I need to be humble and start with a shorter format. Besides, it's been a long time since I've written something on a whim.
I want to share my stories with an audience all around the world.
Since I'm a big fan of Naruto, I intend to write fanfics about this anime/manga. However, I also like Supernatural, Lucifer (the series), Castlevania (the series), and history. I've also started watching Nana (ready to suffer), so one day I might write something about those stories too.
I'm quite new to posting my personal thoughts online, but hopefully I'll overcome my shyness.
