MANA [Sarutobi Konohamaru]

Chapter Six

Mana woke at the sound of Sasuke's voice banging on the door. Still a bit sleepy, she tried to walk straight out of her room. Upon opening the door, she heard her father's voice calling after Sasuke to not come in the room. Curious to what it was, she went to her parents' room.

"Take care of Sasuke and Mana." She heard her father say.

"I will." Itachi said.

Confused. Mana was about to open the door when the sound of the sword slashing flesh and something falling to the ground stopped her from moving. When silence came, and the sound of sobbing was heard, Mana finally have willed her legs to move.

Inside the room, she saw Itachi standing, his back facing her.

"Itachi-niisan... what's going on –"

Mana stopped on her tracks, her eyes trailing at the blood on the floor and to the bodies of their parents. Her heart dropped at the sight of them. Then her eyes went to Itachi, who held the weapon.
Fear came to her. It froze her to the ground. But with fear came confusion, and the question ran in her mind endlessly, but refused to believe it.

"Itachi-niisan... who –" Mana trembled.

When Itachi's hold on his sword tightened, and the sight of his eyes were seen, Mana's whole body shook, and her breathing became uneven. She looked into her brother's eyes, his Sharingan was different from the other ones she would see –

Itachi's katana was raised above her, and his eyes still bloody red.

"Please, don't kill me! Itachi-niisan –"

"Mana!"

Mana woke with a sudden jerk. She felt her heart pumping fast, and her body trembling. She reached her hand to feel her heart and it was indeed beating faster than normal.

Sasuke sat down beside his sister, worry written on his face. A few minutes ago, he woke to the sound of his sister crying, he went to her room to wake her, but when he approached her, Mana started thrashing and was crying out in her sleep, and the moment she cried Itachi, Sasuke knew it was more than just a bad dream.

"Mana." Sasuke began.

A sob came from Mana, crept her hand to Sasuke's, and with trembling hands, she held on to him.

"Mana, it was just –"

When Mana looked up to him, Sasuke's heart beat skipped. Her eyes were not her usual onyx ones, rather, they were red with its two tomoe.

It's happening again, he thought.

The trauma of witnessing their parents' bodies before her, and realizing that it was Itachi's doing have created a trauma in Mana that awakened her Sharingan. And whenever she would have dreams of that night, Mana would unknowingly activate her Sharingan, a defense mechanism as Sasuke would put it.

"Onii-san, they're all dead..." Mana cried. "Itachi... killed them..."

Bringing his sister into his arms, Sasuke lets her cry as she told him her dream. It was always the same, her waking up in the night at the sound of his voice, then following the sound of their father, and just before she could open the door, she would hear the sound of their bodies falling. When she would open the door, she would see Itachi, his eyes blood-red and in his hand was his blood-stained katana.

"Onii-san, please don't leave me..." Mana cried.

"I won't." Sasuke said, burying his face into Mana's hair. "I promise."