Hi. So, I should be writing Pinwheels... but instead you get this. It's the first of a series that's mostly unrelated, but set in the universe of my story, Pinwheels of Red and Black. For anybody finding this new: it's basically exactly the same, except with an OC who is Sasuke and Itachi's younger sister and three years younger than Sasuke. Which I understand is quite annoying for anybody who doesn't like OCs, and I don't blame you if you don't want to read it. As the fanfiction summary says, it's a bunch of stories that wouldn't have fit in the original story; scenes that we see from Reika's point of view in somebody else's, things that Reika could not possibly have known, and scenes that just didn't fit with the tone of the original story. By the way, I am taking requests on scenes that anybody might want. Obviously, they have to be Pinwheels related.

Summary: Because no one could truly be unaffected by something like the massacre.

Anniversaries

It was late, Sasuke realized, glancing around. He'd been practicing with shuriken in the Academy training yard, but he hadn't meant to spend so long doing it. Mother had expected him home hours ago.

Sasuke gathered up his shuriken and put them away quickly. Hopefully his mother wouldn't be too worried about him. He wondered momentarily if Little Sister would be worried – but no, she'd probably just smirk at him knowingly, unsurprised at the late hour. Reika was rarely concerned about anything.

After he finished cleaning up, Sasuke grabbed his bag and ran for home. Running all the way, it didn't take him long to get back to the compound.

The gate to the compound is still open, Sasuke noted. That wasn't too strange, though; maybe the guards were just waiting a little longer today. They did that sometimes, changing up the times that they closed the gates, since they didn't want to get predictable.

Eager to get home, Sasuke ran into the compound. It seemed really dark, somehow, as if the clouds had blocked out all the stars. It was cloudy, but even more so, all of the lights were off in the houses.

That's weird, Sasuke thought, getting worried. It's not that late… has everybody gone to bed?

Feeling eyes on him, Sasuke gasped and spun around, looking frantically in the direction he'd felt the eyes. There was nothing there.

Disquieted, Sasuke continued on his way to his home. His mother would have waited up for him, he knew, so he could ask her what was going on. Maybe Little Sister would still be awake too – she was good at distracting him.

Sasuke turned a corner, further into the compound – and there were bodies lying around the area, blood everywhere.

"W- What… what is this?" he stammered. He continued forward, terrified of what might have happened.

Reaching his house, he found all of the lights off there too.

"I'm home," Sasuke called as he entered, his voice shaking against his will. He slid his shoes off quickly, running further into the house.

There was no answering call of "Welcome home!" as there should have been.

Only silence.

He slid to a stop in front of the door to his parents' room. "Father! Mother!" he called, knocking on the door.

"Sasuke, don't come in," emerged from the room. It didn't sound like either of his parents – it sounded like Itachi.

Sasuke ignored the advice, pushing the doors open warily. He barely noticed as the doors closed behind him.

Stepping forward, he nearly tripped over a dark shape slumped on the floor.

"Little Sister?" he gasped, recognizing the figure. She was positioned on her side, facing the door, and looked as though she'd collapsed abruptly. Her face was slack and pale in the moonlight, and she didn't so much as twitch. She looked dead.

Sasuke glanced further into the room. In the center of the room, there was a much larger, shadowed shape. It didn't look right to be a person. He stumbled further into the room, stepping over Reika, and took another look at the distorted figure.

He was right, Sasuke noted with growing horror. It wasn't a person; it was two. His parents, lying on the ground together. His father was slumped over his mother, and there was blood splattered around them. They were clearly dead, covered in their own blood.

"Father! Mother!" he screamed again, unable to help it, and stumbled a couple of steps further into the room.

Itachi stood just behind the prone forms of their parents. His faced was hidden in shadow; Sasuke could barely see him at all.

"Big brother! Big brother, big brother!" he said, panicked, taking a couple of steps forward. "Father and Mother, they-! They're-!" Sasuke was practically sobbing. "Why… why? Who could have -! This is…"

A shuriken flew past him, tearing the sleeve of his shirt and cutting his arm. It slammed into the door, where it stuck.

"Foolish little brother," Itachi said impassively. He closed his eyes, taking a breath.

Itachi's eyes flew open, meeting Sasuke's. Rather than their natural black, or even the normal red with the black tomoe of the Sharingan, Itachi's eyes contained an odd black design inside the red iris. It was the same design Sasuke had seen in his eyes before – when he had confronted the other Uchiha.

Sasuke only had a fraction of a second to process it, drawn into a different world. He screamed, even as he lost awareness of his surroundings.

His father faced away from him. "As I thought, you are my child," he said inscrutably.

Everything changed quickly, falling around him until he was in a different memory. "When your father talks to me, it's only about you," his mother told him secretively, smiling.

It was almost like he was flying, except really everything was falling. His sister beamed at him, childlike and yet somehow not. "We're family, of course," she said cheerfully, a shadow lurking behind her eyes.

The world fell, and he was looking at a smiling Itachi. "We are unique brothers," his brother said. Though he was smiling, he somehow looked sad.

Everything dropped out from under him, landing him in a new memory. "Forgive me, Sasuke. Again, next time," Itachi said, poking him in the forehead playfully.

The real world faded back in, and Sasuke was once again aware of the bloody room, the corpses of his family. He had fallen to the ground, he realized, and pushed himself up slightly. He couldn't seem to actually move very well.

"Why… why did you…?" Sasuke trailed off, unable to finish the question. Why did you kill our family? went unspoken.

Itachi seemed to understand, staring coldly at Sasuke. "It was to measure my capacity," he said.

"To test your capacity?" repeated Sasuke, horrified. "That's only reason? That's it? Just… just for that?"

"It was essential," Itachi said simply.

Sasuke practically shook in anger. He could suddenly move again, the adrenaline overpowering whatever had been keeping him immobile. Slowly, he began standing up."That… that's… complete crap!" he shouted, rushing at Itachi.

Unaffected, Itachi punched him in the stomach. Hard. Sasuke's breath was knocked out of him, and he crumpled right back to the ground.

He stared at his parents' dead bodies, now right in front of him. Tears formed in his eyes, a couple leaking and falling down his cheeks.

No! Sasuke thought.

He shot up in bed, breathing hard and covered in a cold sweat. Turning on the light – just in case – he glanced at the clock beside his bed. It read 11:06. Sasuke exhaled heavily, rubbing a hand over his face.

I only got two hours of sleep.

But he really didn't want to go back to bed. He was furious with himself; he'd gotten over this, or at least the nightmares part of it. It had been a year.

Exactly a year, in fact.

Sasuke sighed and drew up his knees, burying his face in them. Exactly one year ago, to the day, Itachi had slaughtered the Uchiha clan.

Sasuke glanced at the wall, on the other side of which he knew was his sister, sleeping peacefully. Since the massacre, he had found out that she wasn't dead, though she had seemed to be. In the beginning, when he had had nightmares near every night, she hadn't had any at all.

Admittedly, he was a little jealous.

He needed to sleep, he knew… but he didn't want to. He rolled over, pulling one of his scrolls out of his bedside table, and tried to concentrate on it.

Three minutes of reading the same couple of lines, stopping to glance around the room, and then reading the same couple of lines again later, Sasuke gave up. He threw the scroll across the room. It hit the wall with a satisfying thump and fell to the floor. Growling to himself, Sasuke rolled out of bed and started pacing the room.

He was twitchy, and he couldn't ignore the feeling that he was being watched, nor the feeling of impending doom.

Something bad is going to happen! His nerves insisted. Sasuke shoved them down firmly, but still found himself unable to stand still.

He stalked towards the door.

Maybe I'll just check on Reika…

Logically, he knew that nothing would happen. Just because it was the same day didn't mean anything…

But this time last year, he'd thought his sister was dead. The rest of his family was dead, but she wasn't, and he didn't ever want to feel that way again.

Sasuke slipped out into the hallway, and there was a light on in the living room. Now suspicious, his heart beating wildly, terrified that on this day of all the days, he sneaked out into the living room.

The light was on, and so was the T.V, though it was muted. There was a small lump in the center of the sofa in front of the T.V. It was Reika, curled up into a ball.

Wondering if he'd misjudged her – maybe she had a nightmare too – Sasuke wandered out further into the room.

Reika glanced up at him, her face unreadable but slightly red, her eyes just the slightest bit puffy. A moment passed in silence, and Reika scooted over on the sofa, making room for Sasuke on one of her sides.

Sasuke kind of wanted to cry again – he was so happy that she wasn't dead – and he willingly accepted the offer, sitting next to her. Reika immediately moved back over next to him, curling as close to his body as she could get, and rested her head on his shoulder. Glancing down at her, Sasuke found her eyes wide open and focused on the T.V. Clearly, neither of them wanted to sleep.

That was okay with Sasuke, though.

With a slight mental shrug, he leaned against her, resting his head on hers, and watched the silent T.V.

They might not have been okay, not by any means, but at least they were together. Sasuke figured that was far better than nothing.

Itachi's eyes opened slowly, his heart steady and his face expressionless, and he sat up calmly. One of the most basic rules of ninja, especially criminals, was to be emotionless and stoic at all times. Even for a fourteen-year-old after having a nightmare.

Using the sky, Itachi gauged the time. He decided that it was not quite midnight. Kisame still had the watch for several hours before Itachi was supposed to take over. Itachi debated his options. They had a job – because it was a mere mockery of a true mission, and didn't merit being called such – planned for the next day, and Itachi would need to be rested for it. However, most ninja were adapted to working with sleep deprivation, and Itachi was no exception. Additionally, it was unlikely he would get much sleep even if he tried, as the nightmares would simply continue to wake him.

Course of action decided, Itachi shifted to lean against a tree. "I will take the watch." His voice cut through the silence, startling Kisame, though he made a valiant effort to conceal that fact.

The twenty-five-year-old blinked at his younger partner, unused to taking orders from a fourteen-year-old. "Why?" he wondered. S-class missing-nin were not known for their generosity.

Itachi just stared at him, unemotional and intimidating. Kisame relented quickly, unwilling to challenge the last Uchiha. Kisame fell asleep quickly, as all ninja learned to do, and Itachi was left alone in silent darkness.

He didn't mind. He had known what he was doing.

Itachi didn't deserve comfort. Not after what he'd done.