Naruto quickly rubbed the tip of the orange crayon on the paper as he slouched on the wooden floor, leaving thick scattered orange hues on the drawing.

"Dobe," Sasuke called – his slightly squeaky voice reflecting how annoyed he was.

Naruto ignored him – his tongue licking his lips as he focused on filling the white shape on the paper with color.

"Naruto," Sakura shyly called, anxious that he might not like being called by his name.

"Just wait—" Naruto said, finishing his task. He sat up to admire his work and smiled. "Perfect! Beat that, Teme!"

Sasuke frowned at him. "You tore the paper," he said.

Naruto looked confused at him. "What—?"

Sasuke only pointed his stubby finger on the jagged rip line on the paper, separating Naruto's work with the paper he and Sakura were working on.

"OH! NO!" Naruto exclaimed, furiously scratching his head in panic.

It was almost noon and Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura were grouped together for a poster-making activity assigned to their primary school class. After discussing a story they read that day, their teacher decided to have the students create posters of the part of the story that they especially liked.

Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura were not great at drawing. But having more experience with scribbling things in her spare time, Sasuke and Naruto told Sakura to be in-charge of making the outline of the drawing – their own impression of Momotarou the Peach boy, beating the last devil in Devil's Island. They then decided to color the drawing together – Sasuke taking charge of Momotarou because he had always been praised by the teacher for being neat in coloring his art works; Sakura taking charge of the background; and Naruto taking charge of coloring the devil which he decided should be in mix of orange and red.

And being rivals with Sasuke, Naruto took it upon himself to make sure the devil looked better than Momotarou.

"NO! NO! NO!" Naruto said, forcing the ripped poster papers to magically stick together. He was about to use his saliva to glue the paper together when Sakura anxiously stopped him.

"M–maybe Iruka-sensei has sticky tape," she said, holding Naruto's arm.

Sasuke sighed and rolled his eyes. He turned to look at Iruka, who was frowning at the poster Shikamaru, Chouji, and Ino were working on in another corner of the room.

He was probably trying to figure out what they were trying to draw.

"Iruka-sensei," Sasuke called, raising his hand up.

The girls in the classroom, including Sakura, couldn't help but look at him as his cool voice echoed in the room. Sakura quickly looked away to hide the blush on her face.

This was the fourth time in the school year that she was grouped with Sasuke in a school activity. At first she thought it would be awkward since she had a crush on him, and he didn't seem to like any girl who admired him. But they never had any issue with their activities, probably because she also did her best to keep herself in check when she was with him. Then also, there was Naruto who always took Sasuke's attention away from her.

"Yes Sasuke?" Iruka asked, smiling at him.

"Do you have a sticky tape we can use?" Sasuke asked. "Dobe ripped our poster."

"I DIDN'T MEAN IT!" Naruto shouted.

Iruka sighed and walked to his table. "You're lucky I do," he said fishing out a roll of clear sticky tape and a pair of scissors from the drawer. He then walked to their group and knelt on the floor to see how the poster should be fixed.

"Wow," he gasped. "This is pretty good."

"Of course, it's pretty good," Naruto proudly said, smiling at Iruka. "I colored the picture!"

Iruka sighed, smirking at Naruto. "Really..?" In truth, the most unappealing part of the poster was the glaring patch of orange that was probably Naruto's work.

"She drew that," Sasuke said, pointing at Sakura.

Sakura couldn't help but blush. "N–No, Sasuke-kun and Naruto thought of how it should look like," she shyly countered.

Iruka looked amazed at Sasuke nonetheless. He was never one to praise someone else in class, much more a girl. He didn't even praise Naruto, his best friend, when Naruto beat his score in a quiz.

"Yeah, Sakura-chan's an artist!" Naruto proudly added. "…Unlike Teme here!"

Sasuke glared at him. "You tore her work," he spat.

Iruka smirked. Sasuke even referred to their group poster as Sakura's work. Perhaps the youngest Uchiha did inherit his mother's humility, and not just the infamous Uchiha pride.

"It was an accident!" Naruto reasoned, frowning at Sasuke. "Neh, Sakura-chan," he said, holding Sakura's hand. "I didn't mean it, I swear!"

"I–It's okay," Sakura shyly said, smiling at him.

Iruka raised a brow at the irritated expression on Sasuke's face. He was either unhappy at what Naruto did, or he was unhappy about Naruto holding Sakura's hand.

He cleared his throat. "Well," Iruka said. "This isn't something a sticky tape won't fix just be careful next time, okay?"

"Yes, Iruka-sensei," Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura answered.

Iruka proceeded with fixing the poster paper.

When the bell rang, Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura were almost done with their artwork.

"Okay," Iruka said, calling the attention of his students. "I'll sign my name on what you've finished today, and you'll continue your work tomorrow."

The students lined up to show their posters to Iruka – their things already tucked in their backpacks.

"The story said millet dumplings," Naruto said, frowning at Chouji, Shikamaru and Ino's poster. "Not pork barbeque!"

"Pork barbeques taste better," Chouji reasoned, already munching on a pack of chips.

"But you changed the story!" Naruto insisted.

"Troublesome," Shikamaru muttered, yawning.

"Iruka-sensei specifically said we should create our own version of Momotarou!" Ino defended, keeping her distance from Sakura.

Sakura sadly looked away.

Sasuke raised a brow.

"He said draw your own version of what Momotarou and the characters looked like, not change the story!" Naruto said. "And why the hell does your Momotarou have the same duck-butt-hair Teme does?!"

Sasuke glared at Naruto.

"He still came from a peach," Ino defended, blushing at Naruto's last comment. "And he still beat the devil!"

"But he ate pork barbeque in your poster!" Naruto retorted.

"…Because it tastes so much better!" Chouji explained.

Shikamaru looked sleepily at the poster Sasuke held in his hand. "Nice," he said. "You drew that, didn't you, Sakura?" he said, glancing at Sakura.

Sakura blushed.

Ino frowned and crossed her arms over her chest. "I draw way better than Forehead-girl!" she said.

Sakura frowned. "Whatever, pig," she muttered.

"…Billboard brow!"

"Fat!"

"Who..? Me?" Chouji asked, looking at Sakura and Ino and pointing at himself.

Sakura and Ino froze.

Shikamaru smirked. "Oi! The line's moving," he said, pointing to the students in front of Naruto and Chouji.

"Oh! Wait!" Naruto and Chouji said, running to catch up. Ino and the others followed.

"Cool," Kiba said, glancing at the poster in Sasuke's hand from behind Sasuke. "Why is Momotarou's eyes red?"

"…'Coz he's angry," Sasuke answered.

Kiba nodded, still looking at the poster. "I didn't know the devil was a giant fox."

"It's Dobe's idea," Sasuke muttered.

Kiba frowned. "But you didn't include the dog that helped Momotarou!"

"Let me guess," Naruto said, smirking at Kiba. "You made the dog the hero of the story in your poster."

Kiba blushed. "What are you talking about?"

Shino, standing beside Kiba, unrolled the poster paper in his hand revealing a hand-drawn picture of a giant white dog biting a devil's leg. In a corner was a boy seemingly ordering the dog – most probably Momotarou. Around them was a swarm of what seemed to be a group of insects fighting devils.

Naruto and Chouji burst into laughter. Shikamaru and Sasuke smirked.

Kiba blushed. "Momotarou wouldn't have beaten them all without the dog!"

Naruto and Chouji just continued to laugh.

Kiba shyly looked at Sakura for help. "I'm right though, neh Sakura-chan?" he said, taking Sakura's hand in his.

Sasuke glared at Kiba.

Again with the hand! Couldn't they just talk to the girl?

"Y–Yes," Sakura shyly answered, smiling at Kiba. "The dog helped Momotarou a lot."

"But he wouldn't have helped him if Momotarou didn't feed him," Naruto said.

"Yeah," Chouji agreed.

"The dog risked his life for Momotarou!" Kiba defended. "Momotarou didn't exactly sacrifice anything when he gave the dog a dumpling!"

"I'd like to remind you that the dog we're talking about here is Momotarou's dog," Shikamaru said, yawning again. "Not Akamaru."

"The dog in the story would have been like Akamaru though!" Kiba insisted.

Naruto and Chouji laughed once more.

Sasuke rolled his eyes.

Kiba had always been obsessed with his white poodle – Akamaru. Well, he wasn't really a poodle. No one even knew the breed of the dog. They were only known as Inuzuka dogs, since Kiba and his clan were the only ones who bred them.

"Hinata drew your poster," Shikamaru told Shino.

Shino nodded, rolling their poster.

"Neh, Hinata-chan's here?" Naruto asked. "I thought she already left. Where is she?"

Shino pointed to the girl hiding behind him, and stepped away to reveal her.

Sasuke sighed.

The Hyuuga princess looked like she had a fever – her cheeks and earlobes scarlet upon looking at Naruto.

"Hinata-chan!" Naruto greeted, smiling cheerfully at her.

Hinata looked more feverish than before. She mustered a shy smile before successfully looking away.

"You really drew your poster?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. The idiot really couldn't get a hint.

Hinata had no choice but to look at him again and nod.

"COOL!" Naruto exclaimed. "You're an artist too!"

Hinata's blush turned a shade darker.

Sasuke and Shikamaru were smirked, wondering if the Hyuuga princess was going to faint soon.

"Next!" Iruka shouted, forcing Chouji to quickly offer their poster to Iruka. "The nine of you sure aren't ready to go home yet," he muttered.

"We are!" Ino, Chouji, Naruto, Sakura, and Kiba replied.

Iruka tried not to chuckle.

The nine of them seemed closer to each other than the rest of the class. Perhaps they were friends in their previous life.

"You're walking alone?" Sasuke asked Sakura when she bid them goodbye.

They reached the crossroads where they usually took separate ways when heading home. Ino had gone ahead, saying she had chores to do in their flower shop. Hinata had walked home with her cousin, Neji, who always fetched her from school.

Sakura shyly nodded in response to Sasuke's question.

"Neh, we'll walk past your house on the way to Ichiraku anyway," Naruto said.

"Yeah," Kiba agreed. "Let's just walk there together."

"B–But I—"

"WE INSIST!" Naruto, Chouji and Kiba cheerfully shouted.

The pink hue on Sakura's cheeks turned several shades darker, seeing how the other students in the area looked at them. "O–Okay… Thank you," she said, bowing.

"YEY!" Naruto, Chouji and Kiba cheered.

They all walked to the path that led to Sakura's house.

"This is my stop," Sakura said as they walked by an apartment complex. It looked old and slightly worn – several cracks adorning some of the walls. The steel gate hiding it from the road was rusty and its concrete fence was decorated with teenage vandalism.

Sasuke and the others looked at the apartment building.

"Neh, Sakura-chan," Chouji said. "You live here?"

Sakura shyly nodded. "I live in the third floor."

Chouji frowned.

"What's wrong?" Naruto asked Chouji.

"I just heard some rumors," Chouji answered. "Neh, you're not alone in there, are you Sakura-chan?"

Sakura looked a little confused at Chouji. "No," she said. "My mom is a housewife. I'll be with her."

Chouji nodded.

"Spit it out, Chouji," Kiba said, nudging Chouji with his elbow.

"I was just curious, okay?" Chouji shyly defended.

But Shikamaru and Sasuke knew something else was up.

"Alright then," Sakura said. "Thanks again! Bye!" She ran toward the apartment compound.

"See you tomorrow!" Naruto, Chouji, and Kiba said.

Sakura chuckled and smiled back at all of them, waving her hand. "Sure!" she said. "I'll see all of you tomorrow!" She then opened the gate of the apartment complex and walked inside.

"Let's go to Ichiraku!" Naruto excitedly said.

Shikamaru nudged Chouji. "What's with that?" he muttered.

Chouji glanced at Shikamaru. "I just heard some lame story about a crazy guy moving into town," he answered.

Sasuke looked grimly at Chouji. "He moved in Sakura's apartment complex?" he asked.

"I didn't really get the address so I'm not sure," Chouji said. "I mean, how many creepy apartment complexes are here in Konoha, right?"

"But that's the only known 'creepy apartment complex' in Konoha," Kiba said, nodding toward Sakura's apartment building.

"But that's not the only creepy-looking apartment complex in Konoha," Chouji reasoned.

"How crazy is this guy anyway?" Naruto asked as he led the group to Ichiraku.

"He just looks like he's crazy," Chouji answered. "He doesn't talk much."

Kiba burst into laughter. "So he looks like Sasuke!"

Sasuke glared at Kiba.

Naruto laughed. "Maybe the crazy guy is Teme! Your news is wrong – he never moved into Konoha. In the first place, he doesn't move! Hell! He doesn't even talk!"

Kiba and Chouji laughed out loud.

Sasuke frowned and glanced back Sakura's apartment complex. It wasn't the only house with crazy rumors. The Uchiha compound had been rumored to have ghosts because it was always quiet. It wasn't their fault Konoha needed every Uchiha in the force all the time to close criminal cases.

The Hyuuga compound on the other hand had been rumored to be a house full of zombies who sat all day, probably due to the fact that deep and regular meditation was part of their clan's strict traditions.

And Naruto's house was rumored to be the house of the flame-haired witch, basically because his mother had quite a temper.

So the tale about Sakura's apartment complex wasn't unusual.

"I thought she's friends with Yamanaka," Sasuke muttered, directing the statement to Shikamaru.

Shikamaru sighed. "Girls are troublesome," he said.

"You're saying they're not friends anymore?" Chouji asked.

"Probably," Kiba said. "That would explain the exchange of insults."

Naruto frowned. "What happened to them?"

Kiba snorted. "Blame him," he said, pointing at Sasuke.

Sasuke raised a brow at him.

"Ino and Sakura's friendship is just one of the many girl-friendships Uchiha Sasuke ruined," Kiba continued.

"What's Teme got to do with this?" Naruto asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Shino asked. "They're both crazy about Sasuke."

Sasuke scoffed and rolled his eyes.

…They just had to blame it on him.

Naruto frowned. "I so don't see what they see in Teme," he said. "I mean, I'm way better than him in everything."

Shikamaru, Chouji, and Kiba snorted, rolling their eyes.

"…And I look more handsome than him!" Naruto continued.

Shikamaru, Chouji and Kiba burst into laughter.

Sasuke smirked. "Dream on, dobe," he said.

Naruto frowned. "It's true though!"

Shikamaru, Chouji and Kiba laughed louder. Shino smirked.

They turned in another corner, looking excitedly at the comic books on display in a bookstore. Sasuke especially looked at the poster of a ninja-themed shonen manga he and Naruto were reading.

It was said to be loosely based in Konoha's history, but the author changed the names and some of the details. Sasuke especially liked one of the lead characters a member of the Uchiwa clan in the story. He had a feeling the character's back-story was based on one of the many myths surrounding the Uchiha clan.

According to the poster, the store was scheduled to release the new volume the following month and had opened their counters for advance-orders. Sasuke smirked. Maybe he should reserve a copy for himself, just to make sure he had a copy of the book before it ran out. The manga was a hit in the area, and it usually ran out of copies on the first day its new volumes were released.

"—see how Forehead sat beside Sasuke-kun? She's so annoying!" Sasuke heard someone from afar say.

He turned his head and looked across the street. A group of girls – classmates of theirs – walked passed with ice cream cones in their hands.

They continued to talk about how "Forehead" always seemed to do everything to catch Sasuke's attention.

"Bullies," Shikamaru explained, glancing at the group of girls Sasuke was looking at.

Sasuke looked at Shikamaru.

Sakura being bullied was old news. She had been a cry baby since preparatory school, and he'd seen other kids in class make her cry. He always thought it was because she was weak – easy to taunt and hurt. And kids, being naturally selfish creatures, feel empowered when they make other kids cry – not that Sasuke had his fair share of making kids cry. That wasn't the Uchiha way.

"She's still bullied?" Sasuke asked, pretending he hadn't noticed how Sakura cried in the playground when it was time for their class to play outside.

Shikamaru sighed. "Isn't it obvious?" he said, looking bored at Sasuke.

"Neh," Naruto interjected – a frown on his face. "Why is Sakura bullied anyway?"

"I think it's her forehead," Chouji said. "It's big."

Naruto scowled. "It's not that big," he said.

"Yeah," Kiba said, nodding. "It's not exceptionally big."

"The hair..?" Chouji asked, shrugging his shoulders.

"Her pink hair..?" Naruto asked. "But it's cool! I mean really! How many girls in the world can pull off pink hair! And it's natural! Cosplayers even buy wigs to get pink hair."

"Yeah," Kiba said, nodding again. "She actually looks pretty cute with pink hair."

"Jealousy..?" Shino asked.

"You mean those girls are jealous of Sakura?" Kiba asked.

"That's possible," Shikamaru answered. "Girls especially tend to hate other girls who have some sort of advantage against them."

Chouji frowned. "I don't see why Ino would like to have Sakura's forehead or Sakura's hair though," he said. "I mean, she seems really proud of her body parts."

Naruto and Kiba frowned.

"Why are they jealous of Sakura then?" Naruto asked.

Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "Troublesome," he muttered. He glanced at Sasuke and noticed the frown on his face. It spelled "no idea."

Shikamaru raised a brow. For an Uchiha, he was dense.

The first time Shikamaru heard Sasuke talk was in preparatory school, when he spotted him talking to a sobbing little girl seated in a corner of the school playground. He thought Sasuke was mute and telepathic since he rarely spoke and only Naruto seemed to understand what he was trying to say when he grunted.

But he actually spoke one complete sentence when he stood in front of the weeping pink-haired girl. Shikamaru still remembered the words he said because it was his first insight to the Uchiha clan's innate trait.

"You're weak."

It's the stupidest thing to say to a broken-hearted girl, and Uchiha Sasuke said it. Add to that the fact that he stared at her for a while. She stopped crying when he heard him speak. They stared at each other for a moment before Sasuke walked away. And Sakura didn't cry again. She just watched him walk away.

Sadly, almost every girl who was into Sasuke – basically all the girls in the class who wasn't a Hyuuga – saw what happened.

Uchiha Sasuke never spoke to anyone but Naruto back then. So to see him talking to a pink-haired girl with a huge forehead for them was just ridiculous. Why talk to the odd ball when he could talk to the prettiest girl in class?

This was of course, for Shikamaru, absurd. Sasuke just insulted a crying girl. And it made the Uchiha look more attractive?

Insane!

After a few minutes of walking, the group reached Ichiraku and all the conversations about Sakura was replaced by talks about which food is the best in the world – Naruto, of course, saying ramen was the best food man invented.

"So what did you and your friends do today?" Mikoto asked, smiling at Sasuke as he answered his home work in the living room.

She had just helped him understand some of the concepts he didn't quite understand in his lessons for the day. Though Sasuke didn't like asking help when it came to learning things – an Uchiha thing – he liked it when his mother gave him a hand, and Mikoto enjoyed it knowing that she might not be able to do so again when he grew up.

"…Aside from having lunch in Ichiraku, of course." Wednesdays, after all, were already known to the kids' parents as the only day in the week when Sasuke and his friends spend lunch in Ichiraku with Naruto.

"We read Momotarou the Peach Boy in class," Sasuke answered, scribbling the answers on the equations written on his notebook. "Iruka-sensei grouped us, and assigned us to make posters of our favorite part of the story."

"Oh?" Mikoto asked, glad that Sasuke was being talkative about their school activities. Normally, he would just shrug his shoulders and say they did lots of things. "And who were you grouped with?"

"Naruto and Sakura," he answered, knowing his mother didn't like it when he called Naruto "dobe."

"Sakura?" Mikoto asked. "Is she the blonde girl who always hugs you?"

Sasuke frowned. "No," he snorted. "That's Yamanaka. Sakura's the one with pink hair."

"Oh!" Mikoto excitedly said. "That girl you bad-mouthed in preparatory school! You're in good terms now, I presume?"

Sasuke looked up at his mother with a hurt frown on his face – his lips in a pout. "I didn't bad-mouth her," he said.

Mikoto smirked, raising a brow. "Really? Didn't you call her weak?"

"She was weak!" Sasuke defended.

Mikoto frowned. "…While she was crying?"

Sasuke looked shyly away. "I was being honest," he reasoned. "There's a difference."

Mikoto rolled her eyes. "There's a better way of telling her she shouldn't cry, Sasu-chan," she said poking Sasuke's flushed cheek.

"Why do you like talking about that anyway?" Sasuke asked. "Past is past!"

"So you don't do it anymore?" Mikoto asked, smiling playfully at Sasuke. "Insult girls, I mean."

"I don't even talk to them," Sasuke muttered.

Mikoto gasped. "You don't talk to Sakura-chan anymore?"

"I talk to her," Sasuke answered.

Mikoto smirked. "She's an exception then."

"She's usually in my group in class activities," Sasuke answered, not realizing his mother was subtly teasing him.

Mikoto nodded, smiling widely at her son.

Sasuke, unlike his older brother, seemed more reserved probably because his looks caught him too much attention from almost everyone around him. She could still remember how some of the elementary girls in his school followed him to the house.

The number of girls stalking him also seemed to affect his interaction skills for the opposite sex. He rarely spoke to girls. And when he did so, it was usually because the girls were part of the Uchiha clan – cousins and distant relatives. Haruno Sakura was the first non-Uchiha girl Sasuke spoke to.

"She's cute," Mikoto said, smirking at Sasuke who was still focused on finishing his homework.

"Hn," Sasuke nonchalantly replied.

Mikoto stifled a laugh knowing his 'hn' meant 'yes.' "Hn is not a word, darling," Mikoto reminded Sasuke.

"Hn," Sasuke replied – his eyes still fixed at what he was writing.

Mikoto rolled her eyes. "Where on earth did you get that habit anyway?" she asked. "I never heard your brother say that."

Sasuke smirked. He developed the habit in his attempt to keep away from people – especially girls – who initiated conversations with him. Then he read about how his favorite character in the shonen manga he and Naruto read used it too.

And 'Hn' became a language, much like Shikamaru's 'Troublesome' language.

Mikoto stood up, seeing Sasuke was almost done with his homework. "I'll start making dinner," she said. "Do you like to eat anything in particular tonight?"

"Nope," Sasuke said, closing his notebook. "I'll eat anything you make, Okaa-san."

Mikoto chuckled. "Alright then," she said, walking to the kitchen. "Could you be a dear and turn the TV on? I think the news is on."

Sasuke turned the TV on before picking up his things from the living room's center table. The narrations of the newscaster quickly filled the room. "I'll just take my things upstairs," he said, sprinting to the stairs.

When he came back, the newscaster was introducing another breaking news report.

"Is Aniki coming home tonight?" Sasuke asked as he walked down to the stairs.

"He should," Mikoto answered. "I haven't received any calls from them yet so he and your father should be home for dinner tonight."

Sasuke nodded and plopped down on the sofa to watch the news.

Unlike other kids his age, Sasuke liked to watch the news. But he didn't watch it to be more informed on what's going on in the world. He liked to watch it because he liked seeing his relatives' faces flashing on the TV screen, especially his older brother, Itachi.

Itachi was considered a celebrity in the field of criminal investigation because he had solved a number of criminal cases at the age of twelve, and had been recognized as an expert detective at the age of sixteen. Many of the criminal cases featured on TV were assigned to him, so the news reports would always end up showing him examining a crime scene or show interviews of him about a case.

Sasuke's father, the head of Konoha's defense department, was also a celebrity. But he was rarely featured on TV because he wasn't contacted by the media unless the news needed the opinion of someone really high up the political ladder.

Then there were Sasuke's cousins, aunts and uncles who usually lead the crime investigations.

Sasuke took the TV remote from the living room table to increase the volume of the TV when Itachi's face flashed on the screen.

An excited smile crossed his face.

"Aniki's on a new case!" Sasuke exclaimed.

"Oh?" Mikoto asked, walking to the living room.

"No comment," Itachi said as the reporters swarmed him – taking pictures and videos of his grim expression.

Sasuke knew it was wrong to be excited and happy when Itachi had work because that meant Konoha wasn't safe, but he just couldn't keep himself from feeling proud about his brother's achievements.

Then he read the caption on the screen:

Police retrieving casualties, red alert on Konoha borders

"Oh dear," Mikoto said – her face grim as the reporter spoke about 15 corpses recovered from the crime scene.

Sasuke hadn't processed what the news was about though. He was busy admiring Itachi's cool profile on TV when an image of an apartment complex flashed on the screen.

Sasuke froze – dropping the TV remote control on the floor.

"Sasu-chan?" Mikoto asked, looking at Sasuke.

She noticed the shock in his face and quickly knelt down to comfort her son. "Sasu-chan—"

"That's Sakura's house," he whispered as the TV showed the image of the apartment complex were Sakura went to that morning. Aside from the cracks on the walls, and the rusty gate, it was filled with police authorities and medical people rushing large black bags into coroner trucks.

The area was surrounded with a yellow police tape. Itachi proceeded with checking talking to the investigators after answering some questions from the media people.

Sasuke's eyes fell on the caption on the screen.

11dead, 5 children – no survivors so far

The image of Sakura smiling and waving back at them flashed in his mind.

"Sakura," he gasped.

Mikoto quickly held him against her chest, whispering words to comfort him. He couldn't seem to understand what she was saying though.

All he could see was the coroners walking out of the apartment, with a black bag that was big enough for a child with the same age as Sasuke to fit inside.