𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗺𝗲 𝗵𝗼𝘄 ; 𝘂. 𝘀𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗸𝗲

𝗉𝗋𝗈𝗅𝗈𝗀𝗎𝖾.

A nightmare some would call it, but no. for sasuke this was reality.

Watching his clan be slaughtered mercilessly one after the other was his reality. Blood covered every inch of the streets he'd walk everyday and every wall in the place he once called home. The pictures that decorated the walls portraying a happy home, were now covered in the dried crimson substance.

Mindlessly sasuke made his way down the hallway of the house. Images of the night before coming back to him every so often. The dark eyed boy came to a halt as a photo caught his eyed. Everyone's face in the photo had been covered with blood except for his very own. How odd. He dropped the picture frame, not even reacting to the shattering of the glass.

In that moment, he could care less, it's not like his mother would be there to scold him or anything. He resumed wandering around his home aimlessly.

Nausea consumed him as he inched closer and closer to the room he dreaded the most. That room. The very room he had watched his parents speak their last words and breathe their last breaths.

He rested his hand on the doorknob, but he knew he couldn't enter. He didn't want to relive those moments again, so as quickly as he placed his hand on the doorknob he removed it. Resting it at his sides, grazing the hospital gown he wore in the process. Tears pricked his eyes as he fell to his knees in despair.

"Why me?" he whispered to himself. His voice was filled with pain, no longer laced with the seemingly permanent playfulness it once had. All of it had been sucked out of him the moment his brother placed him in tsukuyomi and forced him to watch the death of his clan, his family and friends, countless times. The images burned into his memory for as long as he would live.

"Why me?" he shouted, a choked sob following. He clutched his head as hot tears ran down his cheeks. The pain in his chest intensifying. "Why why why?"

In that moment Sasuke had never felt so vulnerable. So devastated. So alone.

In another land, a small girl shook in terror.

Her big brown eyes widened in fear as she gripped the cold metal kunai covered in blood. Everything was soaked in the red liquid. The walls, the floor, the bed she stood before. Everything.

With her heart pounding in her ears, she took one shaky step. tears began to well up in her eyes as the memories of her actions prior flooded into her head and the screaming echoed within the walls of her skull.

"No!" she shrieked, squeezing her eyes shut. The tears she tried to hold back escaping and running down her chin freely.

"Finish what you started, Junko." said a man. The man she had looked up to the most. The very man who was forcing her to do this heinous act.

She reluctantly opened her eyes and walked closer to the person who lay on the ground. Their body was littered with cuts; injuries the young child had inflicted on them. As Junko came closer, the woman raised her hand to press it against her cheek, a loving look in their eyes despite the pain she was in.

"mama..." Junko said, sorrow filling her heart as she leaned into the gentle touch. "I'm so sorry, mama. Please-"

"Junko, what did I say!" her father growled. "There's no time for apologies."

She sobbed in response, her tears hindering her vision. Nonetheless she raised her kunai and brought it down, causing it to pierce through her mother's chest. Junko let out shaky breaths as she watched her beloved mother take her final breath, a single tear running down her cheek. Immediately she hunched over and retched. The image of death was not something a six year old should have been exposed to.

"Every good shinobi has to experience loss. Whether it be by someone else's hands or their own. It's inevitable."

That was the last thing the small girl had heard before she passed out.