Lost in His World (A Sasuke Fanfic)

⇜Chapter 9 ⇝

             Sasuke Uchiha. He’s very unpredictable. What is he planning to do to me now? I stared at him in fear as he touches my face. His face still looks so cold but there’s no trace of the horrifying eyes anymore. Instead they look rather…gentle. But their gentleness didn’t lessen my fear at all.

             When Sasuke’s hand gently moved to hold the back of my head, I automatically closed my eyes, expecting the worst. So I was so surprised when I felt him gently pulled me to his chest and embraced me.

             I opened my eyes to see if he’s really holding me in his arms. It’s true! I’m really surrounded by his arms.

            Why is he…? What’s going on?

            My head is resting on his chest and I could hear his heartbeat. They are providing me with an amazingly calm feeling. I closed my eyes once again but this time not out of fear.

            “I’m sorry”, I heard him say, almost in a whisper. His voice felt like a lullaby for some reason and I felt completely relaxed in his arms. I buried my face in his chest and let myself enjoy this feeling. I don’t know why but I feel so safe being wrapped around his arms. Without me intending it, my arms slowly moved to wrap themselves around Sasuke’s waist.   

            We stayed in this position for a moment longer before I sensed him move.

            “We have to move. It’s not safe here”, I heard him say.

            I looked up to meet his eyes. They still look gentle but they also reflect a sense of urgency and seriousness.

            “Why? What is it?”

            “The other anbus will come out and get us soon. And also…”, his gaze shifted from me to the man-made clearing that serves as a road behind me. “…he’s almost here.”

            I turned to look at where he’s looking. I don’t see anyone.

            “Who?”
            “Shikamaru. I think he’s coming to get you.”

            With those words, I turned to look at him again. Is he really concern about me? I thought he wanted me gone?

            “Let’s go”, he said before he carried me in his arms and headed to the opposite direction as where he’s expecting Shika to come from. All I could do was wrap my arms around his neck as he jump from tree to tree. He’s moving so fast that I could barely see where we are going. Sometimes I feel like we will hit a tree and I would close my eyes. But we never hit anything. A minute later and I have trained myself to trust Sasuke’s instinct. I just look at where we are going. I don’t close my eyes anymore even if I still feel like we are going to crush in to a tree sometimes.

            Sasuke navigated straight through the trees for another minute before he turned to the left. About a minute or two have passed before we are finally out of the woods, which I know is a part of Konoha territory. Sasuke jumped on the roofs of the houses without making any sound. How he does it is a mystery to me. I noticed though that we are moving through a part of the village with hardly any people walking around. I guess he really wants us to get to wherever he’s taking me without anyone noticing.

            When we started to move deeper into the village, Sasuke moved even faster. Ahead, I saw several houses, bigger than any of the others I’ve seen, surrounded by tall brick walls. It seems like we are heading towards that compound. My guess was confirmed when we reached the compound and Sasuke jumped down into the backyard of the biggest house in it. He gently put me down.

            I looked at the house. It’s old and seems like it needs a little bit of cleaning for I see some dust already starting to build up on its wooden floor. But it still looks nice. It’s a traditional japanese house just like all the others. One thing I noticed though as we were jumping from house to house earlier is that no one seems to have lived here for a long time. It has a feeling of being a ghost town. It’s like a small village within a village, but with no people.

            “What place is this? Where are we?”

            “This is my home”, he answered while looking at something behind me. My eyes widened in surprise. This IS his home!? I am IN the Uchiha compound! I never thought in my life that I’d ever get to be in the Uchiha compound. When I read the manga or watch the anime, I always thought that this is one of the places in Naruto that I really wanted to see. And now I am here! With Sasuke.

            I turned to see what he’s looking at. What’s in front of me is a plain brick wall about 7 feet high with a symbol painted on it. A fan. The Uchiha clan’s symbol. There are several of them painted from one end of the wall to the other.     

            “Why are we here?”

            He didn’t answer.

            “Sasuke?”

            “Get behind me, quickly”, he ordered. His face is more serious than I’ve seen it so far. He’s looking up and seems to be anticipating something or someone to come from the other side of the wall. He’s making me nervous.

              About a minute have passed when Shikamaru appeared from where Sasuke had anticipated someone to arrive from, and jumped in in front of us.

            “Sasuke…”

            “If you take one step closer I’ll rip both your feet from their sockets.”

            Shikamaru didn’t move. But he doesn’t look that worried either. He looks like he’s studying Sasuke. A moment later, he let out a sigh and said,

            “Just an hour ago you wanted to kill that woman yourself. Now you are protecting her?”

            Silence.

            “Anyway, this is such a drag but I gotta take her now, Sasuke. And don’t worry, she’s not a prisoner anymore. I am here to take her to her new apartment here in the village by Tsunade-sama’s order.”

            I blinked several times. What did he just say? He is to take me to MY NEW APARTMENT?

            “How do I know you’re telling the truth?”, Sasuke questions Shika.

            “I wouldn’t lie to you. Think about it, Sasuke. If I lie to you now then I’m going to have to fight you sooner or later. And that would be such a drag. I’d rather watch clouds”, Shika answered then put his right hand in front of his mouth while yawning.

            “Tsk. You are such a lazy ninja. You’re wasting your time and talent. If you spend half of the time you spend watching clouds training, you might be a jounin now.”

             “Maybe. But that is such a…”
            “A drag, I know. Everything to you IS a drag.”

            Shikamaru just shrugged his shoulders.

            “So, miss…”

            “Mika”, I interrupted him, letting him know that he can call me by my first name.

            “…Mika. Are you ready to go see your new place?”

            “Ahm. I-- I guess so”, I answered. I’m not really sure how I feel about this. I mean it’s nice that they are giving me an apartment but wouldn’t it be more practical if they just let me stay with a family? I wouldn’t stay here long anyway. Right?

            With that thought lingering in my head I left the Uchiha compound with Shikamaru. Sasuke showed us to the gate but didn’t say a single word before we left. He just closed the huge double door. There’s no ‘goodbye’ or ‘see you later’. He’s back to the usual cold and indifferent Sasuke Uchiha.

            I let out a deep sigh. I can never figure him out.