The Choice

Chapter 2

Sasuke's POV:

I awakened to the sound of muteness until it was interrupted by leaves rustling, and someone or something moving outside. A concept drifted into my head; my clan's recognized for their exceptional vision, but my eyes, my eyes are not activated yet. I can never equal my Oniisama; he's the best of the best, and so humble. My eyes may not operate, but my ears, on the contrary, are the best of the best. My curiosity grabbed hold, and I got out of bed composedly, not desiring to awaken anyone, particularly Father. He, along with everyone in the clan, don't accept me as one of them because I haven't blossomed yet. Oniisama may, but I don't know if he does or not; he's the only one who speaks to me nicely, but he isn't around much. As I'm waiting for my eyes to adapt to the dark, I examine the time, 4:40 am.

"Who would be up this early?" I pondered.

I began working through a list of clan members in my head promptly before I open the door to try and rule out who may or may not be outside. When I exited the doorway to my house, I saw no one in the compound. What I overhear is a different result, besides the loud creak from the door, there as an audible gasp and a muffled noise that I couldn't make out from the doorway, and then some leaves rustled outside of the compound, but there was no wind. Inside the house behind me, I detected father stir and mother breathing heavily, likely another nightmare about our clan's slaughter fulfilled from one of us; she would never go into detail about it, and never mentioned who made the killing in her dream. Oniisama was quiet as per usual.

Still, my curiosity levels were spiked now, who or what was it? Where were they going? What were they doing in the darkness this early in the morning, and many more questions overwhelmed my attention. I studied for a place where I could get up and over our wall without waking anyone so I could pursue this enigma. I glanced to the right and regarded only houses, but to the left, there was a barrier of towering redwood trees.

"Perfect!" I squeaked, not desiring to alert the unexplained objective of my presence.

By the time I got up, I hardly got a glimpse of what it was, but thanks to the moonlight streaming through the branches, I was able to catch a glimpse of this yellowish blur around 6 feet off the earth, the rest was black, hidden under cover of night. So bizarre, so of course I had to observe it and try to figure out who or what it could be. I remained a minute behind before departing into the trees overhead the path that thing travelled on.

"They're quick." I managed as I migrated swiftly and silently.

After following the stranger for roughly 20 minutes, my body began to grow weak and froze. My eyes fastened on the area the figure invaded, The Forest Of Death, interesting. This area is forbidden, and those who go in are said never to return; that's not entirely true as part of our exams were in there. Some participants did not return alive, and others never found, but our team survived. I shake my head to rid of those thoughts and decide to leave the person alone before turning to head back to the Uchiha compound. I hope I can get some practice in with my Oniisama, maybe get something to eat, that is, if I can make it back in time for breakfast and Father allows me to. I quietly take my time to make my way across a few tree branches to move away before I start running from tree to tree back to my home.

When I land on the ground on the other side of the compound's wall, all is silent, but I see the natural candlelight in the kitchen window, signalling that someone was up waiting for my return. I swallow hard, knowing already what would happen and think about turning around and coming back later, but I know that would only make the situation worse. There are two ways to deal with this fear; I can fear everything and run, or I can face everything and rise. That is proof that my choices have consequences, mine is regretful, but the result is nothing new to me.