Afraid of the Dark

Afraid of the Dark

Chapter 4: Running From A Forgotten Past

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"There are a lot of things I can take, and a few that I can't. What I can't take is when my older brother, who's everything that I want to be, starts losing faith in things. I saw that look in your eyes last night. I don't ever want to see that look in your eyes again." Signs. M. Night Shyamalan

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12 Years Later...


"Get up!"

Sasuke felt the wind leave his body as he was unceremoniously pushed out of his bed and onto the floor.

"What the fuck? I'm going to have another bruise on my arm," Sasuke muttered to himself tiredly, his face pressed into the plush carpeting of his floor. Even though he’d been quiet his words were still heard and answered.

"If you would get up on time, you'd have less bruises on your body," Naruto said, smirking. Sasuke couldn't see Naruto, but he didn't need to see him to picture the smirk: he could hear it in his voice. Sasuke growled darkly from his place on the floor. The lights in his room were turned on (there were always some light on in their room after all), but Sasuke knew that outside it would still be dark out.

Had anyone else pushed him out of his bed so rudely and roughly, he would have bounced back to his feet, punched them squarely in the face, used one of his well known judo kicks followed promptly by a lovely toss to the floor which would end with Sasuke slamming his elbow down into the sternum of his victim. Sadly, he was used to his best friend's more vivacious ways of waking him up. It irked Sasuke that it didn't bother Naruto’s methods as much as it used to.

If Naruto were patient (which was very, very rare) he would just gently shake Sasuke awake. If Naruto were slightly annoyed at his attempts to wake Sasuke up (which was the majority of the time) he would bounce on the bed until Sasuke woke up. If Naruto wanted Sasuke up as fast as possible (which didn't happen that often, but much more often than Sasuke would like it to) Sasuke would wind up face first on the floor.

"I would have less bruises on my body if you didn't roll me out of bed and onto the floor so often," Sasuke hissed angrily. Part of Sasuke wanted to stay on the floor. Having gotten used to Naruto randomly throwing him off the bed, and not understanding why Naruto was not deterred from doing so to him after many a death threat, throttlings, and beatings from Sasuke, Sasuke had made sure to heavily carpet his side of the bed. It resulted in (minus the initial air leaving his body onto the floor) him feeling quite content to lie on his heavily padded floor.

Something about Naruto had both a calming and irritable affect on Sasuke. He’d want to throttle Naruto one moment and then feel content to lay still for ages the next.

Of course Sasuke only did that when Naruto had left the room already and when there was little threat of Naruto coming back into the room and pouncing on him. Since Naruto had not left the room, Sasuke decided it would wound his pride too much to remain face down on the floor. He pushed himself off the floor, standing slowly so he could glare properly at Naruto who only grinned back at him in response.

"That glare won't work on me! You know what today is, right?" Naruto asked, looking excited, his bright blue eyes alive.

"Yes. So?" Sasuke asked, turning his back on Naruto as he headed to his side of the room to search his drawers for something to wear for school. He couldn't help but smirk as he heard the sound of annoyance that came from Naruto.

"You're such a bastard," Naruto grumbled as he too turned to his side of the room, searching through his drawers for something to wear. He sounded so dejected that Sasuke decided to not play this little game with Naruto.

"Happy eighteenth birthday Naruto," Sasuke said, turning around to face Naruto and gave him a half smirk before turning away again as they both changed.

"Thanks!" The dejected tone vanished instantly. Naruto was never one to hold a grudge. Instead, his mind wandered to something else. "Wow...eighteen. I remember when six seemed like I was old. What did we call ourselves at six?"

"Grown-up kids," Sasuke said, shaking his head at the memory. It seemed like ages ago that he had been a frightened six year old, thinking that he was more grown-up than Naruto for being all of six years old.

"Grown-up kids. Haha. Whatever happened to big boy?"

"Grown-up kid sounded cooler," Sasuke said, shaking his head at the thought.

"Does eighteen make me a young adult now?" Naruto asked. Sasuke shrugged, not answering him as he continued to get dressed. An unnamed article of clothing hit Sasuke in the back of his head. Sasuke's whipped around to yell at Naruto.

"What was that for?!" Sasuke demanded angrily.

"You didn't answer me!" Naruto accused.

"I shrugged my shoulders. It's an answer," Sasuke bit out, throwing the black piece of clothing back at Naruto. Naruto caught it, and Sasuke watched as Naruto pulled the black, long-sleeved shirt over his head.

"Well usually you grunt or make some other weird noise when you give your dissent."

Sasuke merely stared at Naruto, a look of slight shock on his face. Naruto turned to look at Sasuke and frowned at the expression on Sasuke’s face.

"What?" Naruto asked.

"You're wearing black. And you used the word dissent. How do you know what the word dissent means?"

"You're an asshole! I'm not stupid; you’re the stupid one you jackass!" Naruto yelled at him, looking around him for something else to throw at Sasuke before his efforts were thwarted by a new presence.

"Naruto-kun, watch the language. Sasuke-kun, don't antagonize him on his birthday," Uchiha Mikoto said as she waltzed into the boys' room, scooped up their discarded pajamas from the floor into the wash basket on her hip, and swept past Sasuke to give Naruto a peck on the cheek. "Happy birthday!" Mikoto said, smiling happily.

"Thanks Auntie!" Naruto said grinning at her happily.

"Was that permission to antagonize him on other days besides his birthday?" Sasuke muttered darkly to himself, but, as Mikoto was his mother, she had that knack for hearing him anyway.

"Of course not. I should have specified: especially not today on his birthday," Mikoto said, smiling kindly as she ruffled Sasuke's hair affectionately before sweeping out of the room as quickly as she had come in. Sasuke fixed his ruffled hair back into place before he turned back to Naruto and frowned at him.

Naruto merely smiled back at him.

"Why are you wearing all black?" Sasuke asked, noticing again that Naruto was wearing all black. It wasn't just the form-fitting, long-sleeved shirt that was black; the pants were too. Sasuke idly wondered if Naruto even owned black pants. Sasuke looked at the pants again, his frown turning into an annoyed scowl.

Apparently Naruto didn't own black pants.

"Those are mine!"

"Aww, come on. They fit really nice. You're not wearing them today. You're wearing that," Naruto said, pointing to the ensemble that Sasuke had on. When Sasuke continued to scowl, Naruto added, "I'll wash them!"

"Mom will wash them, and that's not the point. You didn't ask, and I still don't get why you're wearing all black. It looks weird on you." Sasuke's frown returned. Naruto was a happy person by nature, and seeing him in all black on his birthday of all days just didn't seem like Naruto.

"I'm in mourning," Naruto finally said, with a sigh.

Naruto was in mourning? Sasuke's body felt like a wave of cold water swept through his body.

For twelve years Naruto had lived with Sasuke and his family. For twelve years, Naruto had become Sasuke's closest friend. For him to be in mourning, and for Sasuke not to know about it made Sasuke's thoughts rush back to nearly twelve years ago when Naruto had first come to live with them. Something nagged in the back of his mind.

Naruto had come to live with them because his mom was in a coma. The thing was, Naruto hardly ever visited his mother at the hospital. Sure she was in a coma, but Sasuke was sure that people should visit their loved ones in the hospital more.

Had Naruto’s Mom died and Naruto hadn’t told Sasuke? Was he mourning his mother?

Sasuke put a hand to his head, feeling a headache coming on at the thought. It always seemed to hurt his head when he thought about how Naruto’s mother was in the hospital, as though there were something wrong with that memory. He shook his head and focused his attention back onto Naruto.

"Mourning?" Sasuke asked quietly.

"Of my youth! Didn't we just say I'm a young adult now? I'm no longer a kid! Isn't that so sad? Plus, all day today people will notice that I am wearing black and will ask me why and I can tell them because I'm in mourning, and then they'll ask me what I'm mourning, and I can tell them my youth because I turned eighteen today. Then everyone will know that today's my eighteenth birthday!" Naruto said enthusiastically. Sasuke's eye twitched.

On second thought, that seemed very much like Naruto, using a twisted and weird way to get attention.

"Don't let Lee hear that you're mourning your youth. He may do something to try and bring it back to life," Sasuke warned him.

"Yeah, yeah, but I'm not in the same class as him this year. I got moved up a class a while ago," Naruto said, seemingly hurt that Sasuke hadn't remembered that his improved test scores had gotten him moved up to a higher-class level. Sasuke all but rolled his eyes. Naruto had been at the bottom of their grade's test scores for their whole middle school experience.

Finally, Sasuke had been tired of people calling his best friend a dead last and a loser (despite the fact that Sasuke had started the name calling in the first place) and had helped Naruto bring his scores up. They rose so much that he had moved up so that he was actually in the same class level as Sasuke. Naruto now had the lowest scores in their class, but the low scores there were better than most of the high scores than in the other two lower leveled classes.

"Lee will still find out some how," Sasuke warned. Sasuke didn't particularly like Lee, even if Naruto did. Lee had been an upper classman that had had to repeat a grade level due to an injury that left him in the hospital and out of classes for quite a while.

Naruto looked thoughtful as the two of them descended the stairs to head to breakfast.

"That's true. He just seems to know things. I still don't know how he found out I no longer had a crush on Sakura and threw me a party because of it," Naruto said, thoughtfully. Sasuke turned to look off to the side. He had told Lee because as lame as it was, Sasuke had been thrilled when Naruto had finally decided he didn't like Sakura as much as he used to. Not having many friends – no one really besides Naruto actually – he'd had to tell someone. As he couldn't tell Naruto, Lee was the only person Sasuke had thought of to tell who would share his ‘enthusiasm’.

He'd deny that to anyone who asked him though, and if Lee ever told anyone, Sasuke would find a razor and shave Lee's head and eyebrows.

"Good morning otouto. Happy Birthday non-otouto," Itachi said monotonously from the kitchen table. He wasn't even looking up at them when they entered, his head stuck in the newspaper. If it weren't for the fact that Itachi always greeted them in such a way, no one would know he had just spoken to them from the way he was intently reading the stock market information on the Nikei Average.

"Morning Itachi! And thanks for the b-day greeting! Guess what? Today I'm going to..." Naruto began rambling off a bunch of random information to Itachi. Itachi sat, reading the newspaper, his eyes roaming over the stock charts and numbers on the paper before him, his face never once implying he was listening to any words that came out of Naruto's mouth. Naruto, for his part, didn't seem to notice that Itachi was blissfully and effectively in tuned with his numbers.

Sasuke had also always got the distinct impression that Itachi had more trouble than not ignoring Naruto. Itachi seemed fond of Naruto, but he also seemed easily annoyed by him. Naruto tried too hard to make Itachi pay attention to him, and Sasuke was both irritated and jealous by this fact. He wasn't sure if he was jealous due to the fact that Naruto was trying to get his brother's attention or if it was because Naruto wasn't trying to get his attention.

"Here you go birthday boy! Your favorite for breakfast, Naruto," Mikoto smiled gently as she placed a large bowl of ramen in front of Naruto, effectively taking his attention away from pestering Itachi.

She likewise set a plate of food in front of Sasuke and Itachi. Naruto shouted an enthusiastic Itadakimasu! as he eagerly began to inhale the bowl of ramen in front of him. While ramen flowed into Naruto's mouth, no words flowed out of him and the room was silent of talk for a minute.

"Morning." Uchiha Fugaku entered his kitchen gracefully. All eyes turned to him. Everyone murmured a polite and respectful good morning back, Naruto grinning at him happily. Sasuke watched his father look curiously at Naruto as he gave him a once over. "Black suits you. You should wear it more often. It makes you seem much more mature. And now that you are eighteen, you ought to act like an adult."

"Uh-thanks?" Naruto made it a question at the backhanded compliment.

"In fact, as an eighteen year old, I think it's high past time you got your own room. Your Aunt Mikoto and I are having a new king-sized bed brought in this afternoon to the third floor guest room."

Naruto seemed temporarily shocked at this news, his mouth hanging open slightly. Sasuke’s shock was less noticeable, but the weight of Naruto moving out of their room seemed to hit him painfully right in the gut.

"But-" Naruto began, ready to protest, but Fugaku cut him off.

"And it will be much healthier for you and Sasuke both. Two eighteen-year-old males sleeping in the same bed is preposterous. You are young, and as such, will want to explore the opposite sex at some point and time. If you are brining a girlfriend back to the house, it's hard to do so when you not only share a room, but the same bed."

Naruto's face turned a bright shade of red at what Fugaku was implying, and Sasuke hoped that he wasn't blushing either as his father had implied that he expected him to be bringing home women to share his bed with.

Naruto looked like he wanted to protest, but didn't quite know how to do so. For the past twelve years they had shared the same room and the same bed. It was just how they had grown up together. Making Naruto move out on his eighteenth birthday didn't seem fair. That wasn't a birthday gift at all. That was punishment!

"Now you both should head off to school before you're late," Fugaku said.

"I'll drive them," Itachi said, getting up from the table. Sasuke looked at his brother. Itachi never offered to drive them to school. They always walked. Sasuke saw out of the corner of his eye that Naruto was likewise staring at Itachi with disbelief on his face.

Itachi's eyes met Sasuke's. It felt like Itachi was trying to silently tell him something, but what, he didn't know. Maybe Itachi was trying to get their minds off of the shock of Naruto moving into his own bedroom?

"Get ready, now," Itachi said quietly, his gaze leaving Sasuke's to lock eyes with Naruto. "Unless you want to walk in the rain on your birthday," Itachi said.

"Rain?" Naruto asked. As if on cue, a heavy downpour began to beat against the roof of the house.

Mikoto looked at Itachi questioningly. Fugaku's eyes narrowed at his eldest son. A strange tension filled the kitchen. Naruto looked across the kitchen table at Sasuke, and they both shared the same look of confusion. They both felt the tension, but Sasuke could tell that Naruto was just as clueless as to what was going on as he was.

"Sweetheart, I know it's Naruto's birthday, but you really don't have to do that. I can drive them-"

"It will be a much grander entrance for him if he goes in my car than yours, Mother. I need to leave for work early anyway," Itachi said, and he all but swept out of the kitchen. Sasuke and Naruto shared another look before they both hurried off to get their things.

Five minutes later, Sasuke and Naruto sat in the back of Itachi's brand new, and very expensive Mazda Nagare. Sasuke had never been in the car before, and he had to admit that while it was a very sleek and intense looking car, the unconventional seating style threw him off.

The driver's seat was located front and center, leaving the other three passenger seats to be spread out behind the driver as though banded behind it. Naruto and Sasuke sat in the two closest to the doors, their books stacked in the middle seat between them. Their umbrellas sat folded and dripping on the floor of the car.

As the backseat was shaped more like a U than a traditional backseat, Sasuke felt as though he were sitting almost face to face with Naruto with Itachi as the focal point.

"Don't forget to buckle up," Itachi said as he started the ignition and pulled out of the driveway.

Naruto didn't look at all deterred by the car's strange appearance, instead seemed excited by it, his mind completely off of how he would move into his own room later on. That piece of information apparently bothered Sasuke more than Naruto.

"I still can't believe you got this car. It wasn't supposed to make production past a concept car for all those car shows. What's your gas mileage on this? This has a hydrogen fueled rotary engine, doesn't it?" Naruto asked excitedly.

"Naruto, I didn't offer to take you to school in my car for you to gape at it. I didn't even offer to take you to get you out of the rain," Itachi said coolly.

"What are you-"

"I'm not taking you to school at all," Itachi said briskly.

"What?" Sasuke demanded.

"What?!" Naruto all but screeched. "But – but today's my birthday! What was the point of me wearing black if I can't tell peo-"

"The fact that today is your birthday is the exact reason that you can't go to school today," Itachi said, his voice calm, and strangely cool. Naruto just stared at Itachi, and Sasuke did likewise. "I know that Mother and Father think nothing of it, and I know that neither of you remember it, and that's my fault. I shouldn't have tampered with your memories, but those things will come for you Naruto, and when they do, they will come for you too Sasuke. Our parents can't run any longer from their past crimes. They think the house is protected, but the defenses have been breeched before."

Sasuke and Naruto shared a look, and it reminded Sasuke of the look that he and Naruto had shared in the kitchen. Something had been going on that had made the room feel incredibly tense, and whatever it had been it was manifesting itself now in one very bizarre circumstance.

Itachi was talking crazy talk. Erasing memories. Their parents having past crimes. Yet Itachi’s expression made Sasuke wonder if Itachi, at least, really believed what he was saying.

"Are you kidnapping us?" Naruto asked in disbelief. Itachi didn't answer. His eyes were focused on the road in front of him. Sasuke's eyes lifted to watch the expanse of pavement in front of them, and nearly yelled out in shock when he realized they were right upon a red light with no signs of slowing down.

Itachi's hand flew to the gearshift, throwing the car's speed higher as they sped through the red light, horns honking.

"What the fuck are you doing Itachi?!" Naruto yelled out, his hands gripping for something to hold onto.

"This is insane! What the hell is going on?!" Sasuke demanded, likewise trying to find something to grip onto.

"Slow down!"

"Itachi, stop the car!"

"Damnit!" Itachi cursed as sirens began to blare behind them.

Sasuke looked at his brother mortified. Itachi's face was set in its usual cool mask, but for the first time in a long time, his eyes betrayed his true emotional state.

Fear.

Itachi was afraid.

Fear gripped Sasuke's chest at the look in Itachi's eyes.

"What's goi-" Sasuke's words were stolen from his lips as the air left his lungs.

His mind barely registered the sight of the other car slamming into theirs before everything was a whirl of chaotic movement.

The sound of tires sliding on the wet pavement was followed immediately by a loud screeching noise. Sasuke's body slammed to the right; his seatbelt constricting on his stomach and chest as his right arm slammed into Naruto's. His head hit the back of the car and the world went black.


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When the ones who are truly brave are afraid it means only one thing: all hell is about to break loose. ~ Jelp

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Next Chapter: Too Many Questions


Sorry for the slight delay in updating. And I’m also sorry to say that I don’t think I’ll be able to get out an update next weekend as I’ll be away. I’ll see what I can do though! Things have been a bit hectic, but on the bright side (for me) I got a wedding dress last Saturday, and it already came into the store! Yay!

Hope you liked the fic! Let me know what you thought! ~ Jelp