6Sasuke
Sasuke tried his best to make his father proud.
He tried his best to train.
He tried his best to be polite and mind his manners like a good Uchiha.
But he also tried his best to make the tomatoes grow, and his father didn't like that.
Sasuke sat on the back porch and tried not to cry. Father had hit him again today. The bruise was likely already beginning to darken his cheek. He didn't even understand what he'd done wrong.
All Sasuke had done was ask Mother for the pretty plant at the store. It was supposed to be his birthday shopping trip. Normally, birthday shopping trips meant that Sasuke got to pick any one thing from any store. He didn't understand what had been so bad about asking for the bamboo tree. Sasuke had thought it looked pretty and his fingers had itched to run along the leaves and feel their texture. The soothing chakra running through the plant had felt nice too.
Now Sasuke regretted asking for the plant. He didn't understand why asking for it had been wrong, but he still regretted it. He regretted it in the same way he regretted the light brown shade in his eyes or his inability to produce amazing Katon Jutsu like his Aniki.
Sasuke regretted it, but didn't know how to change it.
He tried and tried to do cool jutsu like Aniki, but he couldn't make it work. Sasuke even tried to make his eyes change; he would occasionally spend hours in the bathroom willing his reflection to change. Yet no matter how much he tried, nothing ever changed. Sasuke's eyes stayed light brown and his father still cringed at his jutsu.
With a long, probably un-Uchiha like sigh, Sasuke stood and wandered over to the family's small garden. It was a garden Aniki had helped him plant after he had seen Sasuke watering his cousins' flowers. It held watermelons, potatoes, lettuce, and Sasuke's personal favorite, tomatoes.
Right now, the tomatoes were almost ripe. It would only be another week or so until the delicious red fruits would be ready. Though a warm orange, the tomatoes still held bits of yellow or green and had yet to show more than a few splotches of true red.
Sasuke hummed as he looked at the plump fruits. He wished they would grow faster. Sasuke reached out and trailed his hand along a tomato stalk. It felt fuzzy and prickly if he pressed to hard. Underneath the texture his fingers could feel, Sasuke could just make out the slow sensation of water and minerals traveling within the plant. When Sasuke rubbed the leaves, he could feel the warmth of caught sunlight beneath his palm. It heated the stolen bits air and water together slowly, like Mother's oven.
Sasuke sighed and dropped his hand. He didn't know why he could feel what was going on inside the plant. He didn't think it was normal; no one else talked about it. Sensing chakra was one thing, but no one talked about sensing plants. And really, what good would sensing the insides of plants do? It couldn't help Sasuke become a ninja or make his father proud. It wouldn't even do anything other than let Sasuke know exactly how long he'd be waiting before the tomatoes ripened.
Six days, eighteen hours, twelve minutes, and fifty-six seconds until the first of the tomatoes ripened to optimum potency.
Why couldn't it be sooner?
Sasuke wished he could make the leaves process the sunlight faster. He wanted to reach down to the roots and pull up all the water he could in one big yank!
But wait… couldn't ninja do that? Certainly, no one in the Uchiha clan did water jutsu, but Sasuke was sure other ninja could. And if other ninja could, then maybe if he tried really, really hard, he could pull up extra water, or make the leaf work faster?
Sasuke crouched down and placed his hands around the base of one of his tomato stalks. He took a moment to think about what he was doing before summoning his charka. The blue flickered around his fingers before sinking into the earth below and dancing about the intricate root systems hidden there.
Maybe if he twisted his chakra a little to the left… and moved it like that…
Grab the water with the earth… mold the two together and breathe the will of life… urge it live… to GROW!
For a single second nothing happened. During that second, the back door of the house opened for Itachi Uchiha to visit with his younger brother. From a second story window, Fugaku Uchiha happened to glance out of his office window.
The second passed and Sasuke found himself being jerked away from his tomato plant by strong, young arms.
"Otouto!" The sharp gasp jarred Sasuke almost as badly as the sudden stop moments later.
"A-Aniki." Sasuke stuttered. He blinked up at his brother in shock and a little bit of exhaustion. Somehow, he felt as if he's just spent an hour working on Katon jutsu. His head was fuzzy, and the boy could practically feel a head ache slinking its way in.
Above him, Itachi's face peered down at him anxiously before he glanced back in the direction they had jumped from. Something bright and awed flickered over Itachi's face like firelight but Sasuke didn't quite catch the meaning behind it. His brother's arms held him securely and Sasuke was reminded of when he was very young and carried around on Aniki's hip.
"Sasuke… what… what did you just do?" Itachi asked in amazement. Huh?
Sasuke wiggled in his brother's grasp and peeked behind himself at the garden. The sight of the biggest tomato plant Sasuke had ever seen shocked him. Its heavy, fruit-laden limbs sprawled over his small eight by eight-foot garden like what Sasuke imagined an octopus would look like. The small, barely three-foot-high stalk, was now a large, thriving bush. Though only a bit taller than Sasuke, the plant was bowed over from its heavy produce and spread out along the ground for about ten feet around the main stalk. Even the leaves were bigger. Before, the leaves had been a good bit smaller than Sasuke's hand. Now, Sasuke could see a few that would be able to cover his face easily. Even the fruit had swollen past its normal proportions. Many of the red tomatoes were as large as or larger than Sasuke's head.
"The tomatoes?!" Sasuke gasped as he stared at what had been a young tomato stalk with nearly ripe produce. For a moment more, Sasuke simply gaped at the massive plant. How had it grown so fast? Had… had he done that? How? …Why?
"Boy!" Sasuke flinched as his father's harsh tone rang through the air. Sasuke looked up to see his father leaning out from his study window. The man looked incensed. His ears were red with anger and his nose had crinkled with rage and disgust. Itachi put Sasuke down gently and stood. The big brother put his hands on Sasuke's shoulders in a show of support. Sasuke trembled in fear and exhaustion.
Father looked angry. Angrier than Sasuke had ever seen him. Why? What had he done?
Fugaku leapt from the open window down to the lush grass below. The earth cracked a little beneath the Uchiha's feet in his rage. The tall man strode angrily over to Sasuke and Itachi. His footsteps burned the grass away in a fiery show of the Uchiha head's dark emotions.
Itachi stepped in front of Sasuke. The teenager's arms spread slightly in a protective gesture. Sasuke reached up and fisted the rough fabric of his brother's ninja attire as he sensed his father's angry chakra approach. His heart-beat thrummed fretfully inside his chest as his blood turned to liquid cold in his veins. Sasuke buried his face into his brother's body. His fists trembled in fear.
"Father, Sasuke is-" Itachi began.
"Step aside, Itachi." Fugaku ordered angrily. His burning footsteps had halted a few feet in front of Sasuke. This close, the roiling, angry, fire-tinted chakra made Sasuke feel like he was too close to an open flame. It felt stifling and his breath hitched in terror. In front of him, Itachi stiffened and breathed in sharply.
"I will not, Otou-san." Itachi replied. His voice shook slightly with an emotion Sasuke couldn't grasp. Itachi shakily widened his stance and Sasuke could feel his brother's muscles fretfully tremble before stilling. Itachi's soft, dying-ember chakra warmed beneath his skin. Sasuke could feel as the quiet ashes of his brother's chakra were slowly stoked to a searing flame. Still though, nervous flashes of yellow blinked in and out of Itachi's chakra furnace.
"Itachi, step aside. That child is an enemy of our clan. I refuse to allow such an atrocity under my roof any longer. He's proven himself to be no Uchiha." The words were vicious and bit out as if they physically pained Fugaku to admit. The Uchiha clan head took another step forward. Fugaku's burning flames roared murderously and Sasuke whimpered from their heat. His eyes watered and he hid his face more deeply in his brother's shirt.
Father's words hurt just as bad as his burning chakra. Though instead of his body, Sasuke felt them rip and burn at his heart. Why? Sasuke had only ever tried to please him, to make him proud. Why… why didn't Father love him? Why was he an enemy? Was he really… an atrocity?
Sasuke stilled when Itachi turned to him. Sasuke peeked at his brother's coal colored eyes with his own wood colored gaze. Though Itachi's chakra was stoked in preparation for battle, Sasuke found no anger or rage there. Instead, the protective love of his brother still gleamed like the embers of a dying fire. Soft light and little smoke, but still so warm. The nervous energy that had rumbled through Itachi's chakra coils curled into sparks of determination.
"It's okay, Otouto." Itachi murmured softly as he settled one of his hands on Sasuke's hair in reassurance. Sasuke blinked up at Itachi before the elder sibling turned back to their father. "Father." Itachi's voiced became cold and frosty. The gentle warmth he had spoken to Sasuke with froze over. Dense flames burned white-hot as Itachi's chakra forge hit the hottest blaze Sasuke had ever felt from his brother.
"My brother… you mistreated him, because of this? He holds Konoha's most precious, sacred heritage; he is the last to hold such heritage. Sasuke is Konoha's last piece of legacy! He is the last remnant of the first Hokage! How! How could you do this?!" Itachi's voice rose in an uncharacteristic display of his anger. Fugaku's voice rose to match.
"He is everything the Uchiha stand against! He is the embodiment of why the Uchiha are not given the respect they deserve. He is why the Uchiha are stuck on the outskirts of the village, hated and mistrusted! You do not understand what this child is, what he will do when he is older! I will not let such poison fester in my own house! He is no Uchiha! I refuse to allow my greatest mistake to continue to grow within my own house!" Fugaku roared. Rage and hurt burned through Itachi's chakra coils. His bright flames had Sasuke cringing. It was hot, Sasuke was sure his brother could have melted glass. However, when Itachi spoke his voice had become bone chillingly cold. Fugaku breathed in sharply and Sasuke felt his own shock when Fugaku's chakra flames were doused abruptly. It was as though someone had thrown water onto his flames.
"Sasuke is no mistake and I've had enough of you treating him like one. I've never understood why you disliked him so much. I knew he was an illicit child, but that alone didn't seem to justify your treatment of him. Mother never even raised a fuss over it after the first few months. She loves him unconditionally. Even now, I don't understand why you can't. But rest assured, I won't ever let Sasuke need your love again. From now on, I don't want you to go near him. If you ever hurt him again, I'll tell the Hokage and personally ensure that you are never able hurt anyone, ever again." And with that, Itachi hefted Sasuke up and onto his hip, turned, and left. When Sasuke next looked into his brother's eyes, the young child was shocked to see bloody tears and an entirely different kind of Sharingan looking at him from his brother's eyes. Sasuke began to cry.
Itachi held onto Sasuke tightly. He rocked the child gently and murmured soothing words into the sobbing child's ears.
Oh, how he hated Fugaku. Never before, not even for traitors or enemies of Konoha, had Itachi felt such deep-seated hatred.
When Itachi had walked outside, he had been shocked at the extremely natural-feeling chakra Sasuke had managed to create. For a split second, Itachi had just stared in awe as his little brother's chakra caused the tomato plant to grow rapidly. That awe then turned to alarm when Itachi realized just how rapidly the stalk was growing and how much chakra it was draining from his little brother. Itachi had immediately shunshinned over to Sasuke before leaping away as soon as he had grabbed his little brother.
When he had landed, the tomato plant had grown over ten times its original size. Itachi had stared at the plant in a mix of awe and shock. Sasuke… his little brother had just used earth and water chakras to grow a tomato plant to over ten times its natural size. This… this couldn't be possible! The only way to control a plant's growth was through…
Itachi had sucked in a deep breath and looked down at Sasuke in shock and awe. He had always known Sasuke had come from an illicit, one-night stand Father had had with a woman outside the clan, but he could never have guessed the woman was a Senju! For a few minutes, Itachi had been unable to bring himself to do anything other than stare at his little brother's pale face and brown eyes.
Then Father had appeared in a blaze of anger. At first, Itachi's shock and awe had over-ridden his normally high intelligence and he had been unable to guess the reason behind Fugaku's anger. However, as the conversation had continued Fugaku's stance had become increasingly clear. He had wanted to kill Sasuke.
Cold horror stole over Itachi's heart even as he continued to rock his little brother to sleep. Had Itachi not decided to head outside to find Sasuke right then… Fugaku would have killed Sasuke. The only reason he hadn't was because Itachi had intervened.
He could still feel it. The cracks that had spread across his eyes as his father had continued to spew his hatred. They had burned when Itachi had finally realized the truth. Fugaku would have murdered Sasuke. His father, who Itachi loved despite Fugaku's arrogance and close-minded attitude, was going to take away his little brother, Itachi's greatest joy and reason to live.
Itachi had felt something snap. Perhaps it was his sanity or maybe the love he felt for his father. Either way, a burning rage, so hot it was cold, had over come Itachi. It was as if all of the love he had ever felt for his father had died. No, it was as if Fugaku himself had died, for Itachi was sure he would have experienced the same trauma. Every inch of trust and faith was burnt until not even ashes remained. Instead of holding love and admiration for his father, Itachi's heart ripped open and spilled everything out. All that was left was a gaping hole of lost innocence and familial trust. And from that gaping hole, Itachi pulled his determination and will to do absolutely anything to protect Sasuke.
In that moment, Itachi would have killed Fugaku with no regrets. It was only the frightened, trembling hands of his innocent little brother that had stopped him. Blood had dripped from his burning eyes but Itachi had not cared. Instead, he had told Fugaku exactly what would happen if he ever dared to harm Sasuke again. Itachi didn't care if it meant prison, there was now no one and no thing more important to him that protecting Sasuke. Father was dead to him. Fugaku had destroyed any fatherly bond the minute he had tried to kill Sasuke.
Now, as he sat with a sleeping, little Senju brother, Itachi's resolve only grew and tempered itself. No matter what, he would protect Sasuke. Both for himself, and for the village.
Sasuke was the only known Mokuton user to receive the ability naturally after the first Hokage. Every other user had been artificial and subpar at best. Not only that, but he was currently the last Senju living in the village and the second to last Senju in existence. As far as Itachi was aware, Lady Tsunade was the only other living Senju, and Itachi wasn't quite sure if the sannin was still alive. It had been several years since anyone had heard from her.
Either way, Sasuke was the very last living, loyal Senju. He was all that remained of Konoha's most iconic clan. In Itachi's arms, was one of Konoha's most important treasures.
ATTENTION!
Hi! This is a one shot prologue that is finished as is. It is a stand alone piece that will not be added onto. Please do not follow it and expect to be notified when I post the actual fic. This is just a one shot that comes before Sannin Switch and helps set the stage. The main fic, Sannin Switch, will have three different Prologues posted as separate one shots because they A) are one shots, B) Do not actually influence the main fic too much) and C) represent each perspective/character that I will be using as main protagonists in Sannin Switch.
SO PLEASE! If you want to be notified of when I post the next piece of this series, either follow me or check my stories somewhat regularly. I don't plan on working too much on Sannin Switch until this upcoming fall, but who knows... my plot bunnies might start running circles around my brain again.
As always reviewing is polite and a great way to show that you actually enjoyed these few thousand words I've slaved over and want more.
~Blitza
