Chapter 14 A Confession That Will Never Get a Reply

"It is said that only that guy survived..."

"That's him..."

Uchiha Sasuke listened to the discussions behind him without changing his expression, but his hand holding the pen revealed his inner unrest.

"Sasuke..."

Haruko Asama raised her left hand and placed it on his clenched fist, patting it gently.

Feeling the warmth from the back of his hand, he unconsciously relaxed his hand. Meeting Haruko's worried eyes in the morning, Uchiha Sasuke lowered his eyes silently.

Since the Uchiha clan was exterminated, such discussions have continued to occur. They are completely unaware that such words carry inherent malice, and they go even further by looking at the victims with strange and pitiful eyes.

The gazes of the people around him, the pity of the adults, and the words that the man kept echoing in his ears made Uchiha Sasuke unable to suppress his anger.

"I killed them just to test my strength. As for you..."

Under the blood moon, Uchiha Itachi stood on a towering electric pole, using the sharp blood-red kaleidoscope to illuminate him as he sat trembling on the ground.

"You are too weak. You hate me, despise me, and practice to kill me."

"When you become strong, you will be qualified to be a tool to measure my strength."

The feeling of suffocation was about to overwhelm him. Uchiha Sasuke suddenly opened his eyes, and his gasping sound suddenly echoed in the empty room.

Whenever it was late at night and everyone was asleep, he would feel as if a pair of complicated jade beads were locking onto him...

After seeing Uchiha Sasuke's heavy dark circles under his eyes and his extremely abnormal mood for several consecutive days, Haruko Momo frowned and took him back to her home without saying anything.

I had just seen this warm picture of a family sitting around eating not long ago, but why... why did it seem like a lifetime ago...

On the first night staying at Haruko's house, Uchiha Sasuke curled up in the corner of the room and cried bitterly.

The cold moonlight shines through the window and falls on the lonely body.

Kara——

The door was gently pushed open, Uchiha Sasuke stopped crying but did not look up. When footsteps approached him, he felt a small, warm hug.

"Sasuke, I will always be with you."

Uchiha Sasuke cried again. This was the first and last time he showed weakness in front of Haruko Asama.

*

"That idiot seems really weird lately, doesn't he?"

Having been forced to enjoy the scene of Haruko and Uchiha Sasuke being inseparable in the morning for several days, Nara Shikamaru couldn't help feeling unhappy even though he knew the reason.

Akimichi Chouji ate his snacks while munching on them. "After all, he suffered such a blow. He and the Uchiha were always close in the morning."

The only person who could understand Nara Shikamaru’s feelings at the moment was probably Yamanaka Ino. She was crying in her heart and biting her handkerchief, “Wow Sasuke… my Sasuke…”

Part of the reason for her crying was that her beloved Sasuke seemed to have been taken away, but more of the reason was the tragedy of the Uchiha family.

Nara Shikamaru: ...

Uzumaki Naruto, who was sitting on his right, was also lying on the table in frustration. When he learned the news of the Uchiha clan's genocide, he was still picking up Haruko from school in the morning. Faced with this tragedy, Uzumaki Naruto didn't know how to deal with it.

It seemed that he really could not be of any help... Uzumaki Naruto realized this fact again.

"Would you like some water?"

Uchiha Sasuke skillfully took out Haruko Asama's water cup from his drawer, opened the lid and handed it to Haruko Asama.

Looking at Haruko drinking water quietly in the morning, Uchiha Sasuke had an unclear expression.

She was all he had left...

"I must be hallucinating!"

Yamanaka Ino was shocked. She pinched Akimichi Chouji's arm hard and had to accept the reality when he made a terrible pig-like sound.

"Wuwuwu... How could Sasuke be so gentle to a girl? I don't believe it! I don't believe it!"

Yamanaka Ino collapsed and left.

After she let go, Akimichi Choji quickly sat a little further away and sighed in his heart: A woman who has been heartbroken is really scary.

Nara Shikamaru simply turned a blind eye to it and got up and left the classroom to go to the bathroom.

By the way, bring along a little golden retriever who feels abandoned by his owner and is crying.

*

That night.

Haruko woke up from a nightmare in the morning. She was trembling all over, and Uchiha Sasuke, who was holding the other side's hand, also woke up.

Uchiha Sasuke was not the only one who suffered the blow. It was only because his condition was so bad that Haruko cheered up in the morning and took care of his emotions at all times.

Every time she lay in bed, she stared blankly at the ceiling, constantly questioning herself why she couldn't remember the plot.

In the past, she was still unaware of being a time traveler and completely regarded them as characters.

Now... the fate of the character rolled around, and she was powerless to do anything about it.

When Uchiha Sasuke came to find her, what he saw was her crying blankly.

Uchiha Sasuke didn't say anything, but he rolled up his quilt and came to her room to sleep on the floor. Sometimes they would sleep on the floor together and keep each other company.

"Did you have another nightmare?"

"……Um."

For a long time, the two were silent.

In the morning, Haruko calmed down for a while and spoke again: "I dreamed of Itachi-kun..."

Hearing the name again, Uchiha Satoru's upper body tensed up. Haruko Hayama, who was being held, naturally felt his movements, but she continued speaking.

"I dreamed that I, you, Itachi-kun, my aunt, and my uncle were all sitting together happily chatting."

"I said I was going to buy three-color dumplings tomorrow, and you said you'd become a little fat man if you kept eating like that, and then Itachi flicked your forehead..."

"..."

"Brother Itachi... why did you do all this..." Haruko Zao still couldn't believe that the one who slaughtered the tribe was the gentle big brother in her memory.

"He said that he had only been playing the role of the older brother that I looked up to, and that I...would become his tool again when I grew up."

When Haruko Zao heard this, she held his hand even tighter, fearing that Uchiha Sasuke would disappear silently in the next second.

"I will grow up, become strong, and then... kill him!" Uchiha Sasuke said with intense emotion.

Haruko didn't reply in the morning. In her heart, the person she could not forgive the most was herself.

She didn't even think about the key plot, the night of the Uchiha clan's genocide. She had been living in an ordinary and happy life and had completely forgotten about this tragedy.

If she had remembered...if she had remembered it sooner...

Wouldn't this happen...

But these regrets will only be known to herself for the rest of her life, and Haruko Hayama doesn't even have the right to feel guilty.

"Sasuke..."

"Ah."

"But...that sounds like a lie."

Uchiha Sasuke did not respond. Hidden beneath his hatred was a hidden, unknown doubt about the facts.

"He would touch our heads gently, tell us interesting stories after returning from a mission, bring us his favorite tricolor dumplings, and patiently teach us ninjutsu... How could he suddenly become like this?"

In the morning, Haruko counted the little things that she took for granted in her daily life, and now they seemed to have become as precious as the pearl in the oyster.

And... that confession that will never be answered.

In the end, they both closed their eyes in silence and stayed awake all night.