In good company
Two: Level 12
"Wake up, boy," Rin's says, loud in his ears. Sasuke rolls onto his stomach and buries his face into her scales, groaning. He feels the sticky weight of Rin's guck around him, healing him, warm and comforting.
When Sasuke killed Orochimaru, he nearly died. Not because of Orochimaru's battle prowess, but because Orochimaru was so deeply embedded into Sasuke that cutting him out was nearly fatal. Rin saved Sasuke then, out of sheer will and a strange sense of compassion that Fudo later explained as an evening of debts: Sasuke killed Orochimaru and freed the snakes from an oath; in return, the snakes saved his life.
All Sasuke remembers is waking up in a dark tunnel, naked, swimming in his own filth and surrounded by a sticky gel that he realized later was Rin's guck--the same she uses when she gives birth to her snakes. Rin healed him in one of her nests, a deep burrow that reached so far down in the earth that sometimes, Sasuke could feel the rumble of a distant volcano and the shifting of the earth's plates.
He swam around in that gel for two weeks, until he was strong enough to walk, passing between sleep and wakefulness. All he remembers is Rin's glowing eyes, looking down at him, and her careful, careful coil around his body when he woke up screaming from nightmares. When he finally emerged on the surface again, dripping wet from her care, stinking of all things foul, and still naked as the day he was born, Sasuke looked up and saw Rin's face, proud and fiercely protective. Well, boy? Rin said that day in snake tongue, and it was the first time Sasuke understood her strange, booming hiss.
"I know you're awake," Rin snaps. "You want me to eat you?"
"No," Sasuke groans. His voice is muffled by her scales. Around him, the chill of night makes him shiver and he curls into a small ball, the guck settling around him more comfortably. He rubs some into his left arm to hasten the healing process.
"That's disgusting, kid," says a voice, and Sasuke snaps awake.
Rin laughs, her voice making her body shake slightly. "This boy here likes to be pampered," she says and bends her head down. Sasuke's about the size of Rin's tongue so two licks, and he's clean again.
"Pampered, sure," Sasuke mutters--if getting trashed to a bloody pulp and then covered with disgusting muck is snake-lingo for pampered, then he can do without it thank you very much--and activates the sharingan. They're still there. "Are they real?"
"They're spirits," Rin explains. Sasuke hisses Kanaye's version of testes several times over.
"How can he see us?" asks the man with white-hair.
"Because he's half-spirit himself," Rin goes on, slowly picking her words. "Of sorts."
"He's half spirit," Sarutobi repeats and looks at Sasuke, eyes narrowing slightly. There's a flare of chakra in the air, and then it settles again. "I don't fully understand."
"My boy killed Orochimaru," Rin mumbles and her body moves into a tighter coil at the memory. "He almost died doing it because Orochimaru was a part of him. For freeing us from Orochimaru, I brought him back from the dead and gave him new life. At a junction half-way between this world and ours."
The blonde--who looks so much like Naruto it makes Sasuke shiver--looks impressed despite himself. "Spirit boy Uchiha, then," he repeats. "That certainly makes things more interesting."
"And who are you?" Sasuke snarls, angry now. They intruded on his life, and here they are, under a cloudy moon discussing his half-spiritedness, or whatever it is that Rin did to him. The fact that she never told him fuels his anger even more.
"The father of that Fox-child," Rin explains. "You should pay your respects if you want the Fox-child to be your mate."
Sasuke blushes a deep, deep red and kicks half-heartedly at Kanaye who's probably the one who told Rin. Out of everyone else, he's the only one who can get away with gossiping like that. Fudo and Ishi are sleeping in tight coils a distance away. Kanaye himself looks half-asleep and doesn't pay attention to Sasuke. "I'm not--"
"You're growing old, boy," Rin interrupts. "Time for you to find a mate and sire children. You're the Snake Master now, start acting like it."
Sasuke very faithfully and successfully buries himself into a sulk. "Ah, Rin," Sarutobi murmurs, interrupting. He has one hand clamped firmly down on the blonde's shoulder, who looks just about ready to blow a fuse. "If we could perhaps get on with the introductions?"
"Of course," Rin says politely and reads off in snake tongue, "The one with black-hair is Shodaime, Senju Hashirama . The First Chieftan. He knew your ancestors, once a long time ago when the Uchiha clan was still nomads. His expertise is forest jutsu, weakness is fire. His left arm is a little damaged from a battle." Sasuke glances briefly at him and gives Rin a quick nod to show that he understands.
"The one with white hair is Nidaime Hokage, Shodaime's brother. His name is Senju Tobirama. He's a feisty one, so don't anger him. That day with your Chidori, he is the one who shut down all your chakra pathways. Very powerful, strength is water and earth jutsu." Rin is a snake so she trusts no one. Even Hokages are potential threats, in her mind. "You already know the Third Chieftan, Sarutobi Hiruzen. He is your ally, out of all of them."
"And the blonde? You said he was Naruto's father..."
"And the Dog-master's master. He also knew your ancestors," Rin says, thoughtfully. She watches the blonde for a moment before saying, "His name is Namikaze Minato, Yondaime. He's famous in our world."
"Why?"
"He sealed the Demon Fox in his son." Sasuke already knows this but he doesn't say anything because for some strange reason, Rin is being open with her knowledge today. If he interrupts her now, it's unlikely he'll ever hear of this again. The ghosts wait patiently for Rin and Sasuke to finish their conversation. "Demons are spirits like us," Rin says, "But when a spirit like kyuubi becomes too attached to this world and tries to stay longer than is asked or needed, it turns evil. It becomes infected by the pettiness and ugliness of your world."
"And me?" Sasuke asks and hates himself the minute he says it. It's a stupid and childish question, by any standard. On any other day, Rin would hit him for saying something like this.
Today, though, she answers him. "You, boy," Rin says, sounding amused, "Are a bastard of both worlds. Now go along. I don't have all day to waste with you." Sasuke stands up slowly, testing his strength and measuring the extent of his wounds. His leg is more or less healed, his body feels a little overtaxed, but he can still make it back to the Village if he wants to. "Next time," Rin snarls, "If I get word about you playing with thunder unnecessarily, I won't be so kind."
"I understand," Sasuke says and tries to look sincere. He still wants to whip the Hyuga boy with it, but knows better now. Rin doesn't look convinced so Sasuke rolls his eyes and tries again. "I understand, Rin."
"Be warned," she says, and then she's gone, leaving nothing but air. The snakes and Sasuke start falling towards earth. Fudo and Ishi are the first to wake up and they both vanish with small pops. But Kanaye is still a young snake, and he depends on Sasuke to appear and disappear out of this world. So together--Kanaye hissing his scream and Sasuke cursing it--they topple nearly five hundred feet downwards.
It's instinct, so Sasuke closes his eyes and feels something slicing painfully out of his back, his shirt ripping off his shoulders and whipped away by the wind. His wings are what's left of Orochimaru in Sasuke. But Rin has morphed them into something less unpleasant and more sustainable given Sasuke's body. They're not hands anymore because Rin stream-lined them to avoid any unnecessary chakra use. Now they're more bat-like--because Rin knows Sasuke well enough that if he woke up with feathers, he'd commit ritual suicide.
It takes a few flaps and fifty feet before Sasuke can fly properly, but Kanaye's already toppling to the ground so he makes a mad dive and catches him a few feet above the canopy, arching sharply back into a horizontal trajectory to avoid the leaves and branches. Kanaye slithers up his hand and coils tightly around his neck, breathing heavily. "Better late than never, right," Sasuke mutters, and gives a few gigantic flaps to regain altitude.
"Next time," Kanaye mutters a little darkly, "Sooner would be better."
"Go back," Sasuke says, and makes it an order. The snake looks up at him as he does the seal and vanishes. Sasuke looks over his shoulder to see if the ghosts are following him and smirks when he sees nothing. "And stay away," Sasuke yells to no one in particular because he has better things to do than be haunted by ghosts. Satisfied, Sasuke turns back towards the Village, only to come face-to-face with the ghosts, floating pleasantly in mid-air. He tries very, very hard to stop but it's too close so he barrels right through two of them, his wings nearly freezing at the touch. He finally stops a few feet away and turns around to stare at them, wings flapping a little frantically to stay in place. "You can fly?"
"Actually, Sasuke, that was our question," Sarutobi explains . He looks pointedly at the wings. Sasuke ignores him and moves angrily away from them. They float alongside him, matching his speed.
The white haired man (Nidaime, Senju Tobirama, earth jutsu specialist, dangerous, Sasuke reminds himself) is sitting cross-legged, and looks utterly unaffected by the wind in his face. "Impressive," he says, "Half-spirit, can fly, has the chidori down, can manipulate thunder...What else can you do, boy?"
Sasuke ignores him and picks up more altitude when he spots the Village walls in the distance. God only knows what the guards would do if they saw him in the air. The men follow, looking down at the Village which looks small and huddled from such height. "It looks peaceful," the Shodime says fondly.
"Looks can be deceiving," Sasuke mutters one of Kakashi's lines automatically and flushes when all four heads to look at him. He glances in the direction of the Village of Sound. Before, when Orochimaru was still alive and burning his way to Konoha, Sasuke could see billows of smoke miles and miles away. Now, the horizon is finally, finally peaceful.
But Akatsuki wants Naruto and they're getting impatient, Sasuke can feel it in the air. He knows his brother better than he knows himself, so Itachi must be getting restless now. Each minute that he wastes is a minute that the bond between Naruto and Kyuubi strengthens. And the harder it will be for them to separate the two. Something will happen soon, he thinks, and shivers at the thought.
"I'm going home," he announces, and dives down.
**
Sasuke doesn't know how to land yet because he doesn't fly very often. So instead of lighting gently onto his window sill, he crashes through the window, topples into his reading table, and tumbles right into his closet.
The closet doors break with his weight and when Sasuke finally stops--upside down, head bent at an odd angle on the carpet, legs up in the air--he hears laughing. It's Naruto at his bedroom door, holding onto the frame for support. "Oh, that's funny," Naruto breathes, wiping away tears from his eyes. "That's just precious. Why didn't I have a camera on me? Sakura! He's hooome!"
"I heard," comes a voice from behind Naruto, and there's Sakura looking very, very dangerous in the moonlight. "I would love to stay and kick your stupid little ass, Sasuke, but my mother would kill me if I stayed out any later. Now."
She smoothes down non-existent wrinkles on her outfit. "Naruto and I have spent a considerable amount of time making you decent dinner becasue we're terminally and chronically kind like that. Make sure you eat everything. Naruto will take care of the wing scars." She sends a glare in Sasuke's direction and rounds on her heels, but not before pecking Naruto on the cheek lightly.
Sasuke hears the loud banging of the front door and then silence again. "Take a shower, Bird Boy," Naruto orders, grinning still, "I'll set the table." And he's gone too.
"Are they dating, the Uchiha and your boy?" Comes a voice. It's the Nidaime, if Sasuke were to take a guess.
"No," says Yondaime, forcefully. And then, "I hope not."
"Shut up, Hokages," Sasuke scowls and heads into the bathroom to take a quick shower. By the time he's out again, the smell of something tasty is floating pleasantly into the bedroom. Sasuke picks his way through glass shards, scattered clothes, scrolls and finds Naruto filling up a glass of water from the tap.
"Thank fucking god," Sasuke breathes and settles down at the table with a groan. His entire body is aching now. "Goddamn Kakashi--" Naruto rounds on him, disapproving already at whatever Sasuke's about to say, so Sasuke doesn't finish sentence. He eats without saying anything else as Naruto goes about cleaning his kitchen, like he does every time he visits. Later, Naruto patiently bandages up the scars on his back, hand smooth and gentle even though he mutters under his breath about Sasuke, and look who's the idiot now, you bastard. Sasuke doesn't say anything, just lies on his stomach with his face buried into the pillow to hide his winces.
At around ten o'clock, when Sasuke's resting his head on the back of his couch with his feet kicked up on the coffee table, Naruto says next to him, "If I fall asleep here, I better get the bed, Sasuke." Sasuke scoffs and tries not to notice when Naruto shifts closer to him with a yawn and goes back to watching the movie. Sasuke follows suit and within the hour, gathers that the hero's mother-in-law wants him dead. There is also a dog involved.
Naruto falls asleep with his head on Sasuke's shoulder, breathing deeply. Scowling--hating himself for this, because his mother taught him manners, damnit--Sasuke picks up Naruto and eases him into his bed. He doesn't try to think about the sight too much because he's wanted Naruto in his bed so badly for so long, he's starting to suspect that maybe his cock is broken. When he settles down in his couch, so unbelievably angry that he has to sleep on a couch in his own goddamn home, he hears a reluctant Yondaime sigh, "I guess my son could do worse."
**
Later that night, Sasuke has an unbelievably erotic dream that starts, pleasantly enough, with Naruto spread out on his bed, fingers tracing his tattoo lazily, eyes hazy with lust. Four minutes into the dream, Sasuke has Naruto bent over the Hokage's table and is having the time of his life--"Yes," Dream Naruto whispers and makes high, breathy noises in synch with Every. Single. Thrust. Dream Naruto is so very, very easy it makes Dream Sasuke hard all over again and they go at it for Round Two. "Yes, please, Mr. Uchiha," Dream Naruto The Personal Assistant With A Wild Side breathes, and Dream Sasuke The Boss With Unbelievably Comfortable Office Chairs obliges.
And then, there's water in his face.
It's Kakashi.
Sasuke groans awake and doesn't even bother hiding the evidence of his dream. It's Kakashi, for gods' sake, he thinks. The man actually walked in on Sasuke with his hands down his pants during a mission. "This," he says coldly, "Better be good."
"Was I interrupting?" Kakashi asks innocently, and tilts his head. Sasuke really doesn't want to jerk off in the bathroom with Kakashi in his apartment, so he closes his eyes and thinks about unpleasant things. It isn't very difficult, and by the time he remembers the sight of his mother crumbling to the body, Naruto is nowhere near his thoughts.
"What?" Sasuke asks again when he opens his eyes.
Kakashi's face goes serious. "Training," he says, and disappears.
"Now?" the Yondaime asks.
"I suppose," says Shodaime. "He did say training, correct, Tobirama?"
"Yes, Brother," Nidaime mumbles, yawning loudly. "Let's follow them."
The watch reads 1:02 p.m., and outside , the sky is still dark and clear. Sasuke picks his way through the bedroom where Naruto is sleeping heavily and heads towards the bathroom. Being Kakashi's student has taught Sasuke many things. Of them are: protect your teammates, there is always a hidden truth, know your enemy's strengths and your own weaknesses. Another is this: If there is training at midnight, you better take less than 5 minutes to get ready for it.
Sasuke spends 2 minutes and 13 seconds in the bathroom and comes out dripping wet from a cold shower. He tugs on clothes--randomly because he doesn't want to turn on the light even though Naruto is most definitely awake. "Training?"
"Yeah," Sasuke mutters and finishes checking his kunai holster. 3 minutes 9 seconds. Naruto falls silent again and watches Sasuke tie on his hitai-ate. They both know--almost everyone knows--that Sasuke and Kakashi train like this at the dead of night, when no one is watching to steal coveted sharingan secrets from them.
3 minutes 45 seconds. Sasuke approaches Naruto and holds out bandages, which Naruto quickly wraps around his left arm, blue eyes so bright, they look unnatural. 4 minutes 12 seconds. Kakashi will be waiting on his roof somewhere. "Try not to get your ass kicked too bad, you bastard," Naruto's mutters and settles under the covers. "Be home soon."
Sasuke lingers by Naruto's side for a moment longer, trying to hold in that urge to lean down and kiss Naruto. "Don't stay up," he mutters, and leaves when Naruto hm-s under his breath, already half-asleep.
Kakashi is waiting when Sasuke climbs up to the rooftop. Together, they slip over buildings towards the Village training grounds. "What's wrong with you," Kakashi mutters by way of hello and balances on a roof edge. They're close to downtown, and Sasuke can see the lights and laughter in a distance.
Sasuke isn't sure how to answer that because the reason will sound a little ridiculous, no matter how he phrases it. I see dead people sounds embarrassingly tacky, and I'm half-spirit sounds like something Sakura might say when she's stoned sky high. So he settles for a shrug.
"You're getting paranoid," Kakashi mumbles under his breath and moves slightly. Sasuke tenses in anticipation of a fight because Sasuke may have kicked Orochimaru's ass from here to the seventh layer of hell, but if Kakashi really wants to, he can have Sasuke writhing on the ground, trapped in some sort of horrible mangekyou illusion within seconds. "Whatever it is, it's affecting your ability to function."
"I'm not paranoid. Just because I'm late to training and--" Sasuke asserts and flashes his sharingan to see if the Hokages are there. They are, hovering a few feet next to him. The Yondaime is next to Kakashi, watching the jounin with open fascination. "Fuck," Sasuke snarls under his breath because they're stalking him now.
"It's not about the training, Sasuke," Kakashi interrupts sternly. "It's about your behavior. You're seeing things, attacking fellow Konoha shinobi, and then get beaten to a fine pulp by your own snakes. So," Kakashi ticks off, unusually talkative, "Explain."
"I'm not paranoid," Sasuke asserts, and clenches his hands into fists. He's been tense and shaking with anticipation and frustration for the past few days. Kakashi interrogating him like this isn't helping anything. "I'm just--" Seeing dead people. "And besides, it wasn't my fault. That stupid fuck Hyuga got so goddamn friendly with Naru--" He snaps his mouth shut when Kakashi's one visible eye curls up into a smile.
"Oh," Kakashi says, and stretches. "In that case. There's going to be a change of plans." He jumps onto the streets and motions for Sasuke to follow. When Sasuke lands next to him, Kakashi loops his hand around Sasuke's shoulder, friendly and comfortable.
"My boy," he says very, very solemnly. "Let's go have some fun, shall we?"
**
"I," Sasuke says and slaps a chip on the table. Asuma looks impressed, but he's drunk, so it isn't much of a standard. "Raise you fifty." There is a buxom woman hanging off his arms making crooning noises, and Sasuke has to admit, this is one of Kakashi's better ideas. It took some convincing, but somehow, Kakashi managed to slip Sasuke into the bar. Sasuke figures it has to do something with the twenty that Kakashi slipped into the bartender's hand, and the fact that Sasuke looked very much like he needed a drink.
"All right, Uchiha," Genma says thoughtfully, and then, "I see your fifty and raise it twenty-five."
Sasuke figures that it's a bad idea squandering his money away like this, but heck. He takes another drink and puts his arm around the woman next to him. "Oh," says the woman, and licks his hear. "Oh," Sasuke mimes, and gives her ass a squeeze.
"Get a room," says someone, and Sasuke yells back, "In a minute."
"Condom, condom," Genma tuts and pushes two into Sasuke's hands. "Remember. Sex lasts a night, but--"
"Syphilis lasts a lifetime," the men intone around the table. Asuma leans over a little and whispers loudly, "There's an alley--"
"On ninth and twenty-second? Good place, but the police are about apparently," Kakashi says and ducks behind his cards before slapping chips onto the table. He also has a woman hanging off his arm, although she's wearing much, much less. "Gai, buddy," Kakashi says, and impossibly, the woman's kimono slips off her shoulder even more, "Your game."
"This is deplorable," says a voice. It's the Shodaime.
"The Shodaime," Sasuke says conversationally. "Thinks this is deplorable."
The men nod their heads sagely, and Gai offers, "I happen to agree. But." He throws an arm around his woman forlornly. "I'm going to have to fold. Your game, Genma."
"Sasuke, I've always known you to be a steady-minded, decent boy. Put down the sake, drop the cards, leave the woman, and go home," says Sarutobi, trying to sound patient.
"Sandaime thinks I should go home," Sasuke mutters, and considers his cards and then Genma's face. He's bluffing. The woman nearly climbs onto his lap and rubs her breasts up against him enticingly. "Well," Sasuke says, and then, "Twenty."
"Daring game," says the Nidaime, and then, "Genma's not bluffing."
"Stop encouraging him. Kakashi, I can't believe this is the kind of example you give your student. I taught you better than that," Yondaime snarls.
"The Yondaime," Sasuke announces, raising his voice to be heard over the yelling at one corner of the room. The woman is giving him a lap dance now, so Sasuke figures it's time to go. He gets up and the woman follows, smiling lazily up at him. Nice, Sasuke thinks, and settles his hand around her waist. "The Yondaime thinks he taught you better than this, Hatake," Sasuke explains very seriously, and entirely misses the look that Kakashi gives him. He puts his cards face-up, thinking that he'll win, but then Genma spreads his cards out and Sasuke says goodbye to the last mission's savings. "Oh well," Sasuke sighs and looks down at the woman. "Let's go."
The men say 'good-bye' and 'come again later' and 'you owe me, man' to Sasuke as he slips out into the night. The voices in his mind are yelling now--of all the indecencies, Shodaime scowls; only sixteen, Sarutobi moans--but when he turns the woman into an alley, they go silent.
Three hours later, the woman has to walk Sasuke home, mostly because Sasuke is so drunk he can't even see straight anymore. He's pushed her up against some wall twice already and made her come so hard she's offered to pay him for the night. When Sasuke looks confused, the woman pushes the money back into Sasuke's pocket and gives him a free blowjob.
Sasuke's joints are finally relaxed and the woman's laughing in his ear smelling of lilies and wine, so he doesn't bother to be quiet when he stumbles into his apartment. "I'm home," Sasuke yells for the heck of it, and the woman squeezes the front of his pants for the effort. "All right, leave now," Sasuke says half-heartedly because he has training tomorrow. And he's run out of condoms.
The woman pushes him down onto the couch and smiles, her rouged lips indecently smudged. "If you want to do this again sometime later..." And she slides a piece of paper into his hands. "I won't charge." For some strange reason, Sasuke finds this funny, so he starts laughing and falls onto the couch, loose limbed. He hears the door close, and then, finally, Sasuke slips into a sleep.
**
"Aw, goddamn," Sasuke says and touches his head to see if it's still there. It is. So he says again, "Goddamn."
There are loud clangs and thunks and more noise than could possibly warranted for--Sasuke squints at the clock--eight in the morning, so Sasuke buries himself under his pillow and breathes in deeply. His insides are churning, his head his pounding, his tongue is stuck to the roof of his mouth, and he's fairly certain that this is what hell must feel like.
"Shut up," he says at the noise, but it gets louder, so he tries again, "I said, shut the hell up--"
"I heard," comes a very, very cold voice. Sasuke lifts his head and stares at the figure until it swims into view. It's Naruto, Sasuke tells himself, and slowly sits up, cradling his head. He forgot that Naruto slept over.
"Goddamn Kakashi--" But Sasuke doensn't have time to finish his sentence because an egg flies at him and splatters neatly on his chest.
For the next three hours, Naruto yells incessantly and interrupts himself to solemnly throw a piece of furniture or a sharp object at Sasuke. Nearing the fourth hour, a shuriken flies by Sasuke and lodges itself neatly into the wall. "What the fuck, dead last!" Sasuke yells and dodges another kunai. He's slower than usual because, he has to admit, he may still be inebriated.
"You came home drunk," Naruto roars, and the sofa is hurtling towards Sasuke, who only barely dodges it. It crashes loudly into the wall, rebounding with the impact force. "And with a woman hanging off your arm, no less." Naruto howls and throws a pot at Sasuke. The handle lodges itself in the wall and a scroll comes hurtling through the air. Naruto runs a hand through his hair, tugging at it in his frustration. "I'm going to kill you!"
A pan makes enthusiastic acquaintance with Sasuke's head.
**
Kakashi looks smug when Sasuke finally shows up for training, bruised and a little bloodied. "Feel better, Uchiha?"
Sasuke glares at him. "No," he mutters sullenly. "Naruto found out."
"Oh, wow," Kakashi says and pats Sasuke's shoulder in a brotherly gesture. "Tough break."
"You have no idea," Sasuke confides and rubs at his head. Naruto is already explaining the entire ordeal to Sakura who looks alternatively shocked and angry. "Piss drunk with some whore," Sasuke hears and then Sakura gives him a dirty, dirty look.
Kakashi watches the two of them thoughtfully. They've taken a small break for lunch, and Naruto and Sakura show no inclination of talking to either Kakashi and Sasuke for the rest of the day. "You used condoms, I hope."
"Yeah," Sasuke mutters and looks away from Sakura and Naruto. "I'm not stupid, Hatake."
"Get yourself tested anyways," Kakashi instructs. "Ask Shizune after training. She's discreet about these things."
"Fine," Sasuke says. Naruto yells "kill him" and Sakura nods a little too enthusiastically. Suddenly, their voices drop into hushed whispers. They must be plotting his death, Sasuke figures, and settles down next to Kakashi with a sigh.
"I can't believe this," comes the Yondaime's voice. "I can't believe he's having this conversation."
"At least," Nidaime offers, "He's being a responsible adult--"
"Responsible? He took the boy out for a night carousing. What part of that is responsible--"
Sasuke resolutely ignores the conversation. "I have a hang over."
"I do too," Kakashi puts in pleasantly and Sasuke gives the jounin a side-long glance. He doesn't look it.
"My insides may be compromised."
"That happens," Kakashi tuts and hands Sasuke the bottle he brought with him to training. "Drink this. It'll help you keep hydrated." Sasuke follows the order and nearly gags at the liquid. It's foul, by any standard, but if it'll help him get through the day...He takes another swig before returning it to Kakashi.
"I can't believe this," Yondaime breathes again. "I just can't believe this."
"We going to train today?" Sasuke asks because he's starting to wonder how much use it'll be. Hung-over, he knows he'll get his ass kicked into the ground by Naruto and Sakura. Probably end up tied up-side down to a tree and listen to their rant about the dangers of alcohol, gambling, and sex with strangers. Knowing Sakura, she'll also probably show him horrifyingly vivid pictures of STDs for emphasis.
"Maybe, maybe not," Kakashi mutters and pulls out his book. Sasuke stares for a few moments, unable to take his eyes away from the cover. Kakashi fumbles around his pocket and pulls out another book before handing it to Sasuke. "Relax," the jounin says and leans back into the tree shade. Sasuke glances at Naruto and Sakura, still hissing and whispering like angry pit vipers, and takes the book. He's becoming like Kakashi, he realizes, and finds that it doesn't disturb him as much as it should.
In his ear, the Nidaime snickers. "Hey, this is actually good reading material," he points out and the other three mutter curses under their breath about the dissolving standards for shinobi and the state of the world. The Nidaime ignores them and says, "Flip the page, you're a slow reader."
He's on chapter 3 when Kakashi asks, voice mild, "Oh, Sasuke, how do you know about my sensei?"
"The Yondaime...Namikaze Minato," Sasuke mutters under his breath and feels the air still around him.
"That's right."
Sasuke realizes that Kakashi is very, very serious all of a sudden. He's treading on dangerous grounds. "I won't bring him up again."
"Good," Kakashi says and falls silent. A few seconds later, as Sasuke's flipping a page, Kakashi offers politely, "I knew an Uchiha before you."
Sasuke always makes it a point not to think about Kakashi's sharingan because it belongs to one of Sasuke's kin. He's not sure he wants to find out who because it would mean that Kakashi killed him. There's no other way to explain the mangekyou. "I don't need to know," Sasuke says and holds his breath. "It would be better if you didn't tell me. For your sake."
"Because you'll kill me."
The Yondaime gasps and there's a cool touch on his arm. Sarutobi says, "Steady, Sasuke. Don't get--"
"You have the mangekyou," Sasuke says, slowly choosing his words. "So yes, if you tell me, I'll kill you."
"Uchiha Obito," Kakashi says, finally, and Sasuke feels the blood drain from his face.
Sasuke remembers Uchiha Obito, his father's youngest step-brother who lived with them in the main house. In his dreams, he sees a man--boy, actually--with goggles, a smile and gentle hands. He has pictures of himself playing with Uncle Obito, latched onto the man's neck and grinning toothlessly at the camera. And when his uncle died, Sasuke remembers how his father locked himself up in the family hall for three days.
"So," Sasuke says and shuts the book slowly. "It belongs to Uncle Obito. You killed him."
"You didn't even know him," Kakashi puts in pleasantly.
"He was my uncle," Sasuke says and swallows on that feeling inside him, that familiar, bitter feeling. "I knew him."
"No," Kakashi repeats, and takes a swig from the bottle before offering it to Sasuke, who doesn't take it. "Just because he's related to you doesn't mean you knew him."
Sasuke feels the anger rising like bile in the back of his throat, can taste it sharp and tangy on his tongue. "The day before he left for his last mission, Uncle Obito gave me his favorite pair of goggles, said that once I got the sharingan I should wear them to protect my eyes," he bites out, and remembers those goggles, lying at the bottom of a trunk in his closet. "I still have them."
"I didn't kill him," Kakashi says finally and presses a scroll into Sasuke's hand. It's from the Hokage's archives, a mission report. "It was his gift to me. This--" he points at his eye, "And his friendship."
Kakashi disappears.
**
Shizune gives him an sharp look when he walks in and asks to be tested, but doesn't say anything. "All right," she mutters, and slides a needle into Sasuke's arm without much warning or grace. "The results for a full panel will take two weeks," she says as the small vial starts to fill with blood.
"Right," Sasuke sighs and looks around. The room is polished and crisp with a window overlooking the Village. Ever since Tsunade became Hokage, more funds have been funneled into the hospital and the results are showing.
"Kakashi get you into this?"
"No," Sasuke says forcefully, and then, just as forcefully, "Yes."
"Well," Shizune sighs and snaps a white sticky label onto the small vial of blood she's drawn. She writes down his name on the label before sliding the vial into a plastic bag with large red lettering on it. "At least you're being responsible about it." Sasuke scoffs and waits as Shizune, a little unnecessarily, puts a gauze pad on the injection site and tapes it up. She considers Sasuke for a moment before saying, "You're a mess."
"I'm fine," Sasuke says and gets to his feet.
"Sit down, and take off everything except your underwear," Shizune orders and points to an examination table tucked neatly at one corner of the room. Sasuke grumbles under his breath but obliges anyways, wincing a little when his pants catch on a bruise. He gets onto the table, soft and cushioned with a thin, white strip of paper laid out on it.
Shizune's a fast worker, Sasuke knows from experience, so she goes about healing him without any further ado. Her hands skim down his neck, prodding, fixing, and easing chakra pathways. When she gets to his left arm, she whistles. "Well healed, who did this?"
"Snakes," Sasuke says, and ignores the look that Shizune gives him. By the time she's done with his left arm and his legs, it's nearly dusk. Sasuke knows from the way his body moves easier that Shizune must have spent a considerable amount of chakra, but she doesn't even look like she moved an inch.
"Come back in two weeks for the test results." Sasuke nods his understanding and pulls on the rest of his clothes, silently grateful for her healing. Shizune fumbles around in the drawer before pulling out a small bottle of pills. "This should help the muscle ache. Take one every four hours or two every eight hours for the next three days."
Sasuke pockets it and is about to leave when Shizune clears her throat and pulls out the scroll that Kakashi gave him. "And this," she snaps, holding it up in the air, "Is top secret. I don't want to know how you got it because you need at least Level 12 clearance to open it." Sasuke watches the scroll with narrowed eyes, fingers twitching by his side. "Whoever gave it to you assumes you know how to unlock it," Shizune goes on.
"I'll return the scroll once I'm done to the right person," Sasuke says a few seconds later, once he constructs a sentence that doesn't reveal too much.
Shizune hesitates for a moment before handing them back to Sasuke. He's nearly out the door when shes adds, voice cruel and unforgiving, "You've betrayed Konoha once already, Uchiha. Careful."
**
"What's Level 12 clearance?" Sasuke asks the minute he's gotten onto a rooftop and away from any eavesdroppers.
"I established a system when I was Hokage," says the Nidaime, "That categorizes levels of confidentiality and disclosure. When I was Hokage, there were 1 through 8. I didn't set up a Level 12."
"I did," says the Sandaime, and his voice comes from behind Sasuke. "It was after the incident with your brother, Sasuke. It requires direct orders from the Hokage."
"What did his brother do?" Nidaime asks, and if he were a real man, anyone less than a Hokage, Sasuke would have killed him on the spot. But he's dead, and Rin warned him about Nidaime's temper.
So he answers him instead and makes sure that his voice is completely neutral. "He murdered the Uchiha clan."
Nidaime is silent for a moment. "You're alive."
"For his amusement," Sasuke says dryly.
"You were there, boy?" It's the Yondaime.
Sasuke has never been asked this, and he's never told anyone. When the police finally came to his house, they found Sasuke in the middle of digging graves with his bare hands, nails long ripped off from his fingers. He'd already buried most of the people and was dragging his aunt's mangled body towards the burial sight when someone knocked him out from behind. The next thing Sasuke remembers was being in the Hokage's personal study. Sarutobi had looked at him with concerned, old eyes then, telling him Cry, boy, it's all right, you can cry if you want. And Sasuke couldn't. A million worried faces swirled around him for the next few days after that, and Sasuke couldn't cry, wouldn't cry, didn't even talk.
Eventually, people got the hint and dropped the subject. "Yes," he says and jumps across a street and onto another building. "I was."
"You saw it all?" The Yondaime again, and Sasuke really wants to kill him now.
"Most of it." The most vivid of them all was his Mother, standing up a little defiantly over her husband's body and Sasuke, hand resting protectively on her stomach, and saying, Itachi, I love you, and Your brother, your sister, over and over again. And Itachi, without so much as a glance, made a sharp twisting motion, and Mother crumbled to the ground, her insides slipping out, and along with it, what looked horribly, terribly like a small baby hand.
Sasuke remembers his Mother, so desperately trying to push the little hand back in and screaming at Sasuke to Run, chocking back blood and tears and watching as her love and life bled away. And Sasuke hadn't run because his Mother was crying, so he tried, very earnestly, to help her push the small hand back into her stomach. When Itachi finally left, Sasuke had quietly dragged his Mother's body to some corner of the compound and started to dig a grave with his bare hands.
"Who did he kill?" the Nidaime asks.
"Everyone," Sasuke says and closes his eyes against the image of it.
"Why?" It's the Yondaime now.
Sasuke, over the years, has come up with a lot of different answers for that question. He's a cold-hearted bastard just doesn't cut it, He wanted the mangekyou sounds a little feeble. But Sasuke knows his brother. He got the mangekyou by killing Shisui--who is such a bright presence in Sasuke's memory, always a warm laugh, ghost fingers ruffling his hair, and memories of splashing around the river learning how to swim.
If Itachi wanted to avoid going blind, all he needed to do was kill one Uchiha with the sharingan. Itachi doesn't do anything without a reason. He's clean, efficient, quick, never redundant. So, Sasuke has, over the years, come up with a lot of different answers and finally decided on this: "He got bored."
"He got bor--"
"Enough," says the Shodaime, interrupting any more questions. "That's enough."
They're silent until Sasuke finally settles in his kitchen with the scrolls laid out. He's about to snap the scroll open when Sandaime interrupts, "If you do it wrong, it will'll you."
"Thanks, Hatake," Sasuke growls. "That's just fucking brilliant. Kill your goddamn student while your at it."
"Language, boy," the Shodaime breathes. "Honestly, listening to you sometimes...Well, open it."
"Let's begin," Sarutobi says with a heavy sigh. "This always takes a while."
**
When Sasuke finally manages to open it an hour later, the scroll rolls open and he scans the title. It's a summary of a mission with the ink so soaked into the parchment, the text is a little blurry. "This doesn't look too important. Why did they seal it with Level 12?"
"It has information about the sharingan," Saindaime explains. "An Uchiha was also involved. It was a precautionary measure."
Sasuke grunts his understanding and goes back to reading the neatly packed writing.
Members: Namikaze Minato, Jounin; Hatake Kakashi, Jounin; Uchiha Obito, genin; and Inuzuka Rin, medic-nin in training, genin. Mission: Scout and encounter possible Rock-nin threats. There are small profiles on each of the members and Sasuke reads them hurriedly. Hatake Kakashi, it says. Jounin, Age 13.
"Thirteen," Sasuke reads out loud, disbelieving. He's known, peripherally, that Kakashi is a force to reckon with, that he's some sort of genius prodigy of Konoha. He's heard rumors, whispers of the Copy Nin and his lineage. Now, he understands.
He reads through the report, told from several different points of view. They separated into two groups, the report reads, to cover more ground. Namikaze one group, the other three another group. They spotted four possible threats. "During the first encounter, Uchiha Obito activated his sharingan successfully," the report reads. "During the second encounter, he was a casualty."
Casualty, and the word makes Sasuke grit his teeth. Such a simple word, it's lost its weight over the years for him. But then he remembers his grandmother's broken wails when she got the news about Obito's death, and his father's and uncles' stony silence.
He takes a deep breath, because this is Kakashi's past, more than the jounin has ever, ever willingly given up. When Sasuke first met Kakashi, the jounin had blankly pointed out that he didn't like any of Team 7, that he didn't particularly feel like telling them much about himself, and that everyone close to him is dead. Over the years, his curiosity about Kakashi slowly faded away. Now, though...
The rest of the report reads like bullet points meshed together: About how Rin was taken prisoner, about how Kakashi abandoned her, about how Obito went back to rescue his teammate, and about how Kakashi later followed Obito back. There, the report goes on, Obito risked his life to save Kakashi. Rin, a medic nin, performed a surgery and transplanted Obito's eye, and Obito died in enemy terrain of hypovolemic shock. His body was never recovered.
Sasuke tries to imagine the boy in his memories lying in a puddle of his own blood, blind to the world, shivering until he slipped towards his own death. The image comes easily enough because this is a report written by an experienced ninja and it details every single moment of the encounter with excruciating imagery.
Sasuke's Uncle gave his eye to Sasuke's teacher, and it must be some sort of strange, twisted symbolism because Sasuke can't explain the coincidence of that no matter how hard he tries. Maybe that's why Kakashi agreed to take on Team 7, Sasuke thinks, and then remembers what Kakashi told them the very, very first day.
"Ninja who don't follow rules are trash," Sasuke mutters to himself, and starts to roll up the scroll again. "But ninja who don't take care of their friends--"
"Worse than trash," the Yondaime finishes next to him. "You're a lot like him when he was younger."
"Uncle Obito?"
"No. Kakashi," Yondaime says patiently. "Just like him."
"I even made the same mistakes he did," Sasuke says, tired now, and lowers his head to the table waiting for the visitor he knows he'll have.
Kakashi arrives nearly three hours later, around midnight, and slips into the kitchen. Without saying hello, he fumbles around the fridge but emerges empty-handed. "You don't have much to eat here," he mutters and pockets the scroll in one smooth motion.
Kakashi and Sasuke are socially demented enough that they will pretend that this never happened. Both of them know this, and neither will say anything. "I'd have to kill Naruto for the mangekyou," Sasuke drones and watches Kakashi's face carefully. There's no change of expression.
"Or," Kakashi points out politely, "You can kill Itachi."
Sasuke smirks and gets to his feet. "I think I'm going to get completely wasted tonight."
"Sure," Kakashi says, and this time, when they head out the apartment, none of the Hokages say anything. But a few hours later, when Kakashi and Sasuke are solemnly finishing their third bottle, the Nidaime says, "Easy, boy. That's enough for the night. Go easy there."
"All right," Sasuke says and swallows another cup, putting it down with a thunk. He gets up a little unsteadily to his feet and places his share of the bill on the table with a curt nod to the bartender. A few more visits, Sasuke figures, and he'll be considered a regular.
He manages to take a few teetering steps towards the door when Kakashi appears next to him, and supporting each other, they stumble back to Sasuke's apartment. Kakashi makes sure that Sasuke's safely sprawled onto his couch before saying, "Obito's grave. It's by the hero's stone. On the hill." He vanishes. Sasuke falls asleep and wakes up the next day an hour late for practice. He heads towards Memorial Hill.
Unsurprisingly, Kakashi is there, head bent in contemplative silence, eyes trained on a name on the large, onyx-blue slab of stone. It takes Sasuke a few minutes to find the name, and when he finally does, he goes still like Kakashi. They stand there in silence for nearly two hours. When, finally, they head towards training, they're both three hours late.
**
Sakura vanishes mid-way through training saying that she wants to go over some lessons with Shizune before the day's over. Kakashi disappears soon after, and then it's Naruto and Sasuke, sparring as usual.
Sasuke throws a kunai and misses. Badly. Naruto looks at the kunai that landed nearly eleven inches away from him with wide eyes, going still with surprise. "Um, Sasuke," he points out, giving him a little wave, "I'm over here."
"Goddamn son of a fucking--" Sasuke propels himself into Naruto and pushes him into the ground, snarling. Naruto goes completely still for a moment before flipping them over. He straddles Sasuke, thin thighs pressing against Sasuke's sides, and considers the man underneath for a few moments, eyes furrowing in concentration. A little distractedly, he pushes the hair away from his eyes, smudging dirt onto skin as he does it.
And then, "You're drunk."
"Mildly," Sasuke snaps and kicks to get Naruto off him. The blonde doesn't move, just leans down closer, breathing heavy in his anger. He has one hand pressing heavily into Sasuke's chest, another around Sasuke's throat to keep his face still. Naruto opens his mouth to say something loud and disapproving, when Sasuke interrupts, "Not today, Naruto."
Naruto throws up his hands and punches Sasuke's chest a little weakly, argument gone. They've known each other long enough that they can measure the weight of each other's silences from two miles away. So Naruto understands, instinctively, that something is wrong. "I reserve the right to yell at you about this later."
"No, this conversation ends here," Sasuke says and shifts a little so Naruto's perched a little more comfortably. Naruto scowls, visibly fighting the argument crawling up his throat.
"I think they're getting just a little too comfortable, don't you think?" Comes an amused voice. It's the Nidaime. Naruto reaches down and absent-mindedly rubs off dirt from Sasuke's chin, frowning still. "Yep. They're gettin' real friendly--"
"Oh my god, stop looking at Naruto like that--"
"Namikaze," comes a weary voice. "Let them be."
"I'll kill you, Uchiha, you hear me?" Sasuke casually lets his hand drop high up on Naruto's thigh, near his waist. Naruto doesn't notice. "Oy, that's it! Let me at him--Let me get my hands on him--" Sasuke tunes out all the yelling about his near and imminent death and focuses instead on Naruto.
He's sweaty, a little dirt-stained, and his hair's hanging loose and long around his face. The blonde started to put it up in a ponytail like Iruka a week ago, but today, his band flew off sometime during their scuffle. This is a near-exact replication of three of Sasuke's dreams (where Naruto pushes Sasuke flat and rides him until they both come hard enough to shatter the edges of the world) so Sasuke takes advantage of reality for the few minutes it'll last. "No," Naruto growls and hits Sasuke again, still lightly. "I get to yell at you about this later. That, or I'll kill you."
Sasuke smirks. "You can try."
Naruto scoffs and fumbles around his pocket. A split second later, he's tugging the hair out of his face and up behind him. One snap, another, and then his hair is in a small, neat pony-tail, only a few wisps of stray blonde hair floating around his face. Sasuke tries very, very hard not to reach up and pull Naruto's hair loose again. "Fine, then. I'll yell at you now."
He takes a deep breath. But since Sasuke still has a slight headache from drinking too much, he puts up a hand to stop Naruto. The blonde snaps his mouth shut, looking triumphant. "Later," he concedes, and watches Naruto get to his feet and hold out a hand for Sasuke to take.
"I'll treat you out for ramen."
Sasuke doesn't take the hand and stands up, grumbling, "I can pay for myself."
"Not from what I hear," Naruto drawls out, grinning widely. It makes his eyes slit and the scars on his face deepen. "You owe Genma a lot of money, apparently." Naruto turns on his heel and heads towards Ichiraku, tugging at Sasuke's arm in his impatience. "Ramen is waiting for us, so stop being so slow," Naruto says and makes the food sound like someone important.
"It's not going anywhere, dead last," Sasuke mutters and fall into step. "And if I'm slow, that makes you immobile--"
"Hah!" Naruto rounds on him with a pointed finger, voice raised to a familiar yell. "I was just going easy on you today, you drunk bastard!"
Sasuke snatches Naruto's index finger and squeezes lightly. "Slow," he says and the taunt doesn't hold as much venom as it usually would. It sounds flat, uninterested and pale.
Naruto's face stills and slowly, carefully, he takes Sasuke's hand in both of his, expression softening. "Sasuke. What happened?"
Sasuke can feel four sets of eyes on him, can sense their chilly presence in the clearing somewhere. Sasuke's sharingan swirls to life. The Yondaime is still there, head bowed and gaze on the ground somewhere by Sasuke's feet. This is their grief, his, Kakashi, and the Yondaime's. He has an entire clan on his shoulders, all their deaths piled one on top of another on his shoulders, and now Uncle Obito's. He can carry that too, he knows, but Itachi hadn't killed Obito, so maybe he doesn't have to keep it tucked close to his heart. Maybe--
"I found out how my Uncle Obito died," Sasuke answers and watches Naruto's face go through a sequence of quick emotions. He holds onto Sasuke's hand for a moment longer, blue eyes dulled with an emotion that Sasuke can't quite place.
"That's no reason to get drunk, you nincompoop," Naruto yells suddenly, and lets go of Sasuke's hand with an indignant huff. In the next second, he's stomping off towards the ramen stand. Sasuke follows, lips curling into a small smile when Naruto begins a long and detailed explanation about how Sasuke (very obviously) has a drinking problem, the downside of alcoholism, about how if Sasuke's going to be drunk all the time, he's going to be even more of a pain in the ass.
Sasuke hm-s and ah-s at the appropriate moments and dutifully ignores Naruto's father's wild, indignant howls and threats.
**
Shikamaru and Ino are at the ramen stand, and when Naruto walks in, Shikamaru's expression shifts slightly from dead-bored to mildly-bored. Naruto takes this as an enthusiastic hello and barrels into Shikamaru with a hug. Sasuke watches, hands clenched at the sight until finally, Naruto lets go and yells, "Shikamaru!" into Shikamaru's face.
"Naruto," Shikamaru says, face slipping back into dead-bored. He glances at Sasuke. "Uchiha."
Sasuke nods at Shikamaru and watches as Ino lunges. "Naruto," Ino moans and drags Shikamaru away from the blonde. "Stay away from him! You've taken Sasuke, so leave Shikama--"
"What's wrong with you, woman?" Shikamaru scowls and shrugs away from Ino's touch, rolling his eyes.
"Shut up," Ino growls and turns to Sasuke with a smile. "Sasuke! How are you?"
"Fine," Sasuke sighs and settles down across from them. Naruto is already enthusiastically ordering at the counter, hands flying about more than the process warrants. A minute later, Naruto returns with two bowls--one miso, another plain. "Finally," Naruto breathes and digs into the ramen without further ado. A split second later, his bowl is done and so is half of Sasuke's.
"Mine, damnit," Sasuke snarls and snatches his bowl back from Naruto. The blonde has the decency to look hurt before turning to Shikamaru. "So how was your mission?"
"Troublesome," Shikamaru says and gets up. He glances briefly down at Sasuke. "I'm stepping out. Smoke." It doesn't really sound like a question or even an invitation to Sasuke's ears but he understands the nature of the issue.
"Smoke? What smoke?" Comes the voice of the Shodaime.
"Sasuke," comes Sarutobi's voice, sounding very serious. "Drugs are not the answer."
"Sure," Sasuke says and ignores the dirty look that Ino and Naruto give both of them. He's pushing past Naruto when the blonde gives him a hard, hard slap on the back of his head. Scowling, Sasuke follows Shikamaru out the restaurant. Shikamaru flips open a pack of cigarettes and offers one to Sasuke.
It's become a routine now, ever since Shikamaru once walked out of a stuffy protocol meeting and found Sasuke smoking languidly. Give me one, Shikamaru had insisted, and together, they ignored the meeting that they were bound by honor and duty to attend. The next day, Tsunade called them into her office and yelled nearly two hours for blatantly disrespecting their superiors.
Sasuke and Shikamaru had listened patiently, and once they were outside, compared notes on how big (exactly, as per Sasuke's observations using the sharingan, and Shikamaru measuring the shadow) Tsunade's breasts were. It was, all in all, a strong bond.
"They smoke?" Comes a disbelieving voice. It's the Shodaime, sounding exasperated. "Sarutobi, what kind of children did you--"
"I didn't know either," Sarutobi says, and then, "Sasuke, you and Shikamaru need to stop right now." Shikamaru lights up before holding up a still-burning match for Sasuke. They take a few relaxing puffs--the voices never shutting up in Sasuke's ears.
Finally, Shikamaru offers, sounding casual still, "I heard some rumors about Akatsuki's whereabouts."
The Hokages fall silent. "Oh?" Sasuke says and watches people walk by the ramen shop. Inside the restaurant, Ino is was waving her hands about in the air. Naruto has an expression of understanding on his face. They're probably complaining about him and Shikamaru, Sasuke thinks and looks away.
"They're recruiting," Shikamaru mumbles. "Someone named Pein."
"The leader," Sasuke explains and flicks off ash from his cigarette. He blows out in a thin, steady stream and watches as the smoke billows and then vanishes. "Any word about what they're recruiting for?"
Shikamaru shakes his head and annoyance flits across his face, as brief as a cloud passing. "They're in Amegakure."
Sasuke grunts and takes in another deep breath. "Full of missing nin. It's prime real estate." In the restaurant, Naruto is talking now, face scrunched up in anger and frustration. Ino is giving him sympathetic looks. "Names and locations?"
"No locations yet. But a few names. First, Kabuto," Shikamaru says, voice pitched low.
"Kabuto's dead." Sasuke breathes in on the cigarette again, the red ember flaring to life briefly at the end of the stick. "I would know. I killed him. Your contacts?"
Shikamaru gives him a look. "I don't give names, Uchiha." He looks away and back at Ino and Naruto who are now both sipping serenely at their drinks. "You sure he's dead? He's a skilled medic."
"I'm sure," Sasuke says and remembers pushing his hand through Kabuto's chest, grabbing the man's heart and squeezing the life out of it. "Look, if your intelligence is--"
"My intelligence is fine. I get perfectly good sources come to me with sightings of Orochimaru. Kisame and Itachi are in Amegakure, last I heard," Shikamaru picks up where he left off.
Sasuke doesn't flinch at the name anymore. He's had nearly a decade to practice that. "And?"
"Diedara and Sasori are recruiting in the Sound Village. What's left of it anyways."
What's left isn't much because right before Sasuke left, he leveled it in a short, vindictive 16 hour period. He pardoned everyone under Orochimaru and Kabuto, told them, "Run."What's left, Sasuke thinks, watching as the fire crawled slowly up the cigarette, isn't much at all. "Well. They won't have much luck there."
Shikamaru gives Sasuke a sidelong glance. It's generally not talked about in the open, but there are more rumors swirling around Sasuke's experience in the Village of Sound than there are about Hatake Kakashi's hidden face. They range from mildly accurate (Orochimaru tortured Sasuke) to asburd (Orochimaru pimped Sasuke to raise funds for their traitorous cause). "I think they're after Naruto again," Shikamaru says. "Can't map out their movements for sure yet, but...I'm willing to bet they'll start heading towards Konoha fairly soon."
The Yondaime breathes, "The kyuubi. They want it?"
"Yes," Sarutobi says, his voice heavy with resignation. "Your son...Is never as safe as you'd like him to be, Namikaze. They tried and succeeded in kidnapping Naruto once already. I apologize."
Sasuke's eyes instinctively seek out the blonde, who is now digging into his bowl of ramen. Ino is still talking, tugging absent-mindedly at her hair. Shikamaru follows Sasuke's lingering gaze. "Time to tell the Hokage?"
"Yes," all four voices around Sasuke insist.
"No," Sasuke says and wonders just how safe Naruto is in Konoha, wonders if he will be able to protect him, wonders if he can hide Naruto away somewhere, far from all of this, and lock the door with his own bones.
"I'm with you there," Shikamaru says, and then, "You going after them?"
"No," come four voices.
"Yes," Sasuke says.
"When?" Shikamaru asks, putting out his cigarette.
Sasuke drops his cigarette onto the ground as well and grinds his heel into it. "Soon. I have to heal, and--" He looks at Naruto again. "Take care of a few things." Together, they walk back into the restaurant.
**
"You're out of your mind," the Shodaime sighs heavily. "Four generations and Uchihas are just as stubborn as they were--"
"They'll slaughter you," the Nidaime points out casually. "You actually think you can do this?"
Sasuke rolls his eyes and turns on the sharingan to look at the four Hokages. They're sitting across from him on the floor in a tight semi-circle, looking down at the map that Sasuke has spread out in front of him.
"I'm was once an A-class missing nin," he says, face neutral. It feels like he's interviewing for some job and is reading off his resume. "I killed Orochimaru and Kabuto. And I leveled the Village of Sound. I maimed nearly a hundred nin that day, the weakest of which was chuunin-level, and I came out without a scratch. And my sharingan is more developed than you think. So yes, I'm fairly certain I can do this."
Nidaime's eyes widen slightly, but he recovers quickly. The others are all stone-faced. "Akatsuki is composed almost entirely of S-classed nin," Sarutobi says. "Go tell Tsunade, you can't fight all of them."
"Who said I was going to fight all of them?" Sasuke puts in, and leans back against the side of his bed. "And if I alert the Hokage, she'll play by the rules and ruin everything."
"Boy, the rules are what keeps everyone alive in this village," Nidaime growls and Sasuke feels a cool, threatening touch on his neck, the same he felt when he was aiming a chidori at the Yondaime.
"What makes Akatsuki dangerous is not their strength. It's because they don't have any rules. If they catch wind that the Hokage is mobilizing against them, if they see even a single Konoha nin trailing them, they will attack. Like you said," Sasuke says, and bends over the map again. "They're mostly S-class, and we can't hold them back, not with the finest of Konoha. Orochimaru alone nearly toppled this Village once before, and he was gracious enough to do it in broad daylight. Akatsuki won't be so kind."
"You seem to know a lot about this, boy," Shodaime points out and strokes his chin thoughtfully. "That medic nin called you a traitor, didn't she?"
Sasuke stills and wonders how he's going to answer this question. A year ago, he sat in front of a panel of equally powerful ninja and had to explain himself to them. The Council, all withered and bent over but still pulsing with dark, powerful chakra, had listened patiently to him and in the end, granted him freedom. But then, he had Orochimaru's mangled, rotting body by his side as evidence to back him up. Now, he has only his word. "Three years ago, I betrayed Konoha. Joined Orochimaru because he said he'd give me power." His hand automatically goes to his neck where the curse still is still etched into his skin, a dead reminder of his choices. "And then I returned."
Yondaime's eyes narrow dangerously. The blonde leans forward, tugging his red coat angrily, the way Naruto does at his orange jumpsuit when he's upset. "You're going to kill Itachi?" the Yondaime seethes. "That's your grand plan to keep Naruto safe? You stupid, selfish brat."
"Pein, not Itachi. I'm going to kill Pein." Sasuke interrupts and, a little unnecessarily, points at the map. "Here, here, and here--that's most likely where they're set up. The Land of Rice Fields is predictable enough, and if I were Itachi..." Sasuke takes a pen and makes two markings. "Here. A floating HQ, base stations at the four corners of the country."
The Nidaime disappears for a split-second, only to appear right next to Sasuke, bending over the map thoughtfully. "Manpower?"
"Ten core members, twenty auxilliary ninja at any given time. A leader, two vice-captains, three lieutenants. The others can be anywhere."
"They've sent two to the Village of Sound, though," says the Shodaime, and he appears on the other side of Sasuke. "Diedara and Sasori."
"They're lieutenants," Sasuke says and then taps the back of his pen on the map again. "Which means they'll take a team with them. I'm guessing--"
"They'll probably scope out the entire country while they're at it," Shodaime says. His slightly-transparent finger sweeping over the large area of the Land of Rice Fields. "You sure you took care of everyone?"
"Everyone," Sasuke asserts. "I made sure. The Village doesn't exist anymore."
Nidaime gives him a smirk. "Impressive, boy."
"Not something to be proud of," Sarutobi points out and closes his eyes. "I won't approve of this."
The Yondaime looks torn between contributing to the planning strategy and holding out like Sarutobi. Sasuke meets his eyes, and then pointedly at the picture of Team 7 he has on his night stand. The Yondaime follows his gaze and his stare lingers for a few seconds before he disappears. With a pop, he appears right across from Sasuke.
"Here," Yondaime says and points at a small village at the edge of the Land of Rice Fields. "It's a strong-hold of missing nin passing through the borders. Can you get any intelligence on this region?"
Sasuke grins and does a few seals. A small coral snake appears. "Yuuta," Sasuke greets and lets the snake crawl up his arm. The snake looks at him with blank, cunning eyes. "Yes?"
The Hokages look expectantly at Sasuke, so Sasuke lets the snake crawl onto the map. "There," he says and points to the village. "I want you to scout and keep me updated. Tell me what you see, keep track of the chakra signatures of everyone who passes through."
Yuuta considers it, tilting his head slightly in a nod. Sasuke does a few more seals and four black nearly identical snakes appear. They're small enough that they can be mistaken for lizards or maybe gorged worms. "Your reinforcements for now, if you need more, ask. Station them accordingly. Report back when you get there and establish base."
"All right," Yuuta hisses, and disappears with a pop. The four black snakes vanish an instant later.
"It's far," Shodaime says immediately. "Your chakra can't extend so much, Uchiha."
"I don't need chakra for my snakes," Sasuke interrupts.
"Right, right," Nidaime says dismissively, smirking. "Forgive us, we forgot. You're Spirit-boy."
"No," Yondaime says, "He's Bird-boy." The Shodaime sniggers despite himself. Even the Sandaime's lips twitch. Sasuke ignores all of them and goes back to the map.
**
Two hours later, Sasuke orders take-out and is digging his way through his third box of food when the Nidaime looks up from the map and asks, "What are you? A pig?"
Around a mouthful, Sasuke shrugs. "Let him be," Shodaime says in exasperation. "The boy is still growing."
Sasuke is about to say something when he hears the front door open. He pushes the map under his bed with one hand and rolls out a nondescript jutsu scroll with another. By the time Naruto waltzes in, Sasuke is eating his food again, sharingan gone. Naruto drops into Sasuke's bed without even a hello and sighs heavily. "I'm in love," he moans. Sasuke very carefully and very slowly puts down his food. "I was walking back from talking to the Tsunade hag, right?" Naruto turns onto his side, and he's close enough that Sasuke can feel Naruto's breath reaching the back of his neck. "Right?" For added measure, Naruto threads his fingers through Sasuke's hair and gives it a hard yank. "Right?"
"Right," Sasuke says dutifully and slaps Naruto's hand away.
"Anyways, Granny got mad at me about something I said and kicked me out of her office, so I was upset, and then guess who I walk into!"
"Who?"
"Guess," Naruto prods and yanks at Sasuke's hair again.
Sasuke hates this. "The Hyuga," he bites out and hears Naruto's delighted 'exactly.'
"And guess what Neji did!"
Sasuke really, really hates this. "Bought you ramen."
Naruto chuckles again. "Yes, but it gets better--"
"Please, do tell," Sasuke bites out and feels a cooling touch on his shoulder.
"Kid, here's the rule," Nidaime explains slowly. "In unrequited love, you have to at least pretend to be happy for the other person."
"Oh my god, get away from my son," Yondaime moans. "I mean it." Sasuke ignores both of them.
"The waitress at the Ichiraku bought me ramen too." He cackles a little maniacally. "Two bowls of ramen. Free."
"So who exactly," Sasuke snaps turning around to look at Naruto in the eye. They're very, very close now, noses almost touching. "Who exactly are you in love with?"
Naruto gives him an odd look. "Ramen, obviously. I got my second bowl to go and brought it here for you." He taps the end of Sasuke's nose, smiling. A little dramatically, Naruto says, "To spread the love." Sasuke swats at him and goes back to the scroll. Which, he realizes, he laid out upside down in his haste. Scowling, he rolls it close and tugs out another from his desk. "Hey, Sasuke," Naruto mumbles in his ears.
"What?" Sasuke forcefully reads the introduction to himself. The sharingan can be contained in three stages. With sufficient chakra control, the user can un-package each stage as necessary.
"You know what you need?"
"What?" Sasuke knows this scroll already, has perfected it nearly four years ago. The first stage begins with minimal chakra input to the area behind the eye. It allows the user to memorize motion.
"Love," Naruto breathes wistfully. "All you need is love."
"No, Naruto, what I need is a drink and a smoke and you out of my apartment," Sasuke mutters and rolls up the scroll. Naruto is in one of his moods again, the playful, annoying one. The times when all the blonde wants to do is get under Sasuke's skin with his excessive, flamboyant happiness.
"Poor boy," Naruto croons and pats the top of Sasuke's head, smoothing down the hair there a little. "Such a poor baby. No one to love him. But it's okay Sas-u-ke. I'll love you. I'll give you all the love in the--"
"Naruto," Sasuke says patiently. "What do you want?"
"Nuthin'," Naruto nearly sings and pats Sasuke's head again. "What were you and Shikamaru talking about today?"
"How unbelievably dumb natural blondes are," Sasuke seethes and digs viciously into his food. Fucking Hyuga had dinner with Naruto. Again. What were they? Dating now?
"I think I might dye my hair," Naruto says speculatively. "Brunette? What do you think?"
"I like you blonde," Sasuke mutters and gets to his feet, kicking empty take-out boxes out of the way. When he looks down at the bed, Naruto is running contemplative fingers through his hair, which looks...different. Softer, smoother, crafted almost. There are wild, delicate wisps around Naruto's face, framing it now, and Sasuke realizes just how much of a heart-shape Naruto's face is. "What did you do to yourself?"
"Huh? Ino said I needed a haircut." He puts his hand up and inspects his nails, which look polished and smooth. "She also said a manicure wouldn't do me harm. It was odd. But hey, Hinata, Sakura, and Tenten were there, so it wasn't too bad. We watched the Kazekagure nomination process on TV. I think Gaara's going to win, by the way." Naruto tugs absent-mindedly at the ear-piercings he got nearly a year ago--three, packed together on his right ear's cartilage. "Anyways," he says, "We pigged out on junk food."
Sasuke sniggers. "I didn't know it was girl's night out today, dead last."
"Ha very ha," Naruto says and follows Sasuke out into the kitchen, tugging at his large white shirt that looks three sizes too big on him. "Just 'cause the girls are starting to like me now, too--"
"Because you're one of them," Sasuke snaps and finishes the rest of his food before opening the fridge. There's a thirty-pack sitting innocently on the top shelf with a post-it note in Kakashi's hand-writing: Drink responsibly. Grinning, Sasuke grabs a can and shoves the take-out box back into the fridge.
He's about to kick the fridge door close when Naruto stops him and leans down. He rummages around before emerging again with the empty take-out box in one hand and the post-it not in the other.
"Responsibly," Sasuke intones, seriously, and brings the can up to his lips. Naruto grabs it without further ado and drops both the take-out box and the can into the trash can. He moves about the kitchen before pressing a glass of water into Sasuke's hands. "Stop drinking so much. And, seriously. Brunette?"
**
Sasuke spends the next three hours watching Naruto patiently iron all his shirts and pants, thwarting his efforts to convince Sasuke into getting a manicure, and eating ramen. "Stop eating so much, Sasuke," Naruto interrupts himself and folds up a shirt neatly. "Anyways, as I was saying--What was I saying?"
"A bug fell in your food," Sasuke prompts and attempts to drop a noodle into his mouth while lying flat on his back. It's mildly successful, but he gets some soup juice on his nose.
"Right, so I'm thinking, heck, I killed one of Shino's bugs, he's going to kill me, right? So I sit there, freaking out for about ten minutes until I realize, maybe I should run for it, you know? Take off." Naruto turns to put away the shirt in Sasuke's closet and his voice becomes muffled. "But I figure, that's a pretty rude way to go about things. I mean, if I killed one of your snakes by, you know, drowning him in my soup, and took off without telling you, you'd be pretty upset."
"I would," Sasuke says noncommittally and slurps a noodle out of the cup that he's balanced on his chest. He's getting good at this.
"See what I mean?" Naruto says, and turns back to ironing one of Sasuke's pants. "I decide, I should just get this over with. So I turn to Shino and say, All right, Shino, I love you, you know that, right?"
The ramen cup on Sasuke's chest nearly topples over, but Sasuke catches it and eases it onto the ground. It's Shino now? "God fucking damn it," he hisses. Just how many boyfriends does Naruto have?
"Who's Shino?" The Yondaime's voice thunders in the room.
"Another boyfriend?" Sarutobi offers. "He's a nice boy, Minato. Don't worry."
"Really in demand," Nidaime puts in.
"I mean, makes sense," Shodaime says, quietly. "You have a good-looking son, Namikaze."
"Thank you," Yondaime says grudgingly and they all fall silent again.
"And Shino goes, Sure thing, Naruto. And I say, I drowned your bug in my ramen." Naruto heaves a deep sigh. "He let me have it. But about half-way into trashing me around, Shikamaru figures it's a good idea to point out--hey, Shino, buddy, this doesn't look like one of your bugs at all."
"That's nice of him," Sasuke scowls and closes his eyes.
"Isn't it," Naruto says dryly. "After I broke my finger, too. Look, Sasuke, the stupid bastard Shino did to my finger. I mean, it's healed and everything." Sasuke obligingly turns and looks. Naruto's finger looks perfectly fine. "I mean, for a bug, it was pretty dramatic, you know?"
Sasuke refrains from mentioning that Naruto is drama on two legs, that everything about Naruto--from the way he walks to the way he breathes air--is dramatic, and that Naruto shouldn't be the one criticizing other people on excessive amounts of drama. He says instead, "Right."
Naruto goes back to ironing, grumbling under his breath about how there's wrinkles so deep in these things that--"Hey, can I have this shirt?"
Sasuke doesn't bother to look, just closes his eyes and pillows his head. "Sure."
"It shouldn't be too big on me," Naruto mutters. Sasuke listens to the sliding of fabric over skin and tries very, very hard not to let his mind wander. Then, Naruto mutters, "So it's kind of big. But still. Not bad."
Naruto has one of the largest wardrobes that anyone owns, save Sakura. The ridiculous orange jacket gets thrown over most shirts, but usually, Naruto walks around with shirts of all colors, logos and brands, all just as loud as he is. Sasuke glances at Naruto and smirks. The shirt dwarfs Naruto, makes him look even shorter and skinnier than usual. "Keep it. Payment for doing my laundry."
"Don't push it, bastard," Naruto growls and wields the iron threateningly. "Let me remind you, if it weren't for me, your apartment would be a biohazard."
"You're just a neat freak."
"It's Iruka-sensei," Naruto mourns. "All his fault. Blame him. He practically raised me that way. Although..." Naruto trails off, making a face at some memory. "The lesson didn't really stick until I began to travel with Jiraiya. That man lives like a--" Naruto makes an expansive gesture, but doesn't finish his sentence. "I mean, the man didn't do laundry for months on end, and if we stayed at any place for longer than a month, it was awful. Did I tell you about that time when--"
"Iruka?" Comes a voice.
"Ah, Namikaze, I never got around to telling you," Sarutobi explains quickly. "Iruka-sensei is a chuunin at our Village. He took care of Naruto for the majority of his childhood, even risked his life to save him once. They're very close."
"And before I forget. About Iruka-sensei," Naruto says and puts away the last piece of clothing. He snaps the closet door shut behind him and starts to fold up the ironing table, which he leans against the wall. "I think you should have dinner with him later this week."
Sasuke groans and buries his face into the pillow. His last encounter with Iruka was right after he came back from Orochimaru. "He always yells at me."
The bed dips with Naruto's weight, and suddenly, Sasuke is falling onto the floor. Naruto settles in with a happy sigh. "He's just worried," he says, looking over the edge of the bed at Sasuke.
"About your or about me?" Sasuke snaps and sits up, rubbing at his head. It probably bruised that time. "If I remember correctly, most of conversations are about doing things to my private parts if I hurt you again. "
"I like this Iruka," Yondaime says. "He and I--we understand each other."
Naruto grins and turns onto his back. "Go away," he commands regally. "I'm going to bed."
"In my apartment," Sasuke scowls but heads towards the living room anyways.
He's settling down in the couch when Naruto yells, "Oh please, you mooched off me for an entire month, you bastard." Sasuke doesn't say anything, just turns onto his stomach. "And I took care of your sorry ass, might I remind you," Naruto says again from the bedroom.
Sasuke remembers very little of this month, mostly because he was out cold from some strange jutsu he got hit with. All he remembers is waking up and finding Naruto curled beside him, smelling of fresh laundry and shampoo. "Good fucking night," Sasuke yells and pulls the pillow over his head.
"Yeah, well, sweet dreams," Naruto yells back, making it sound like an insult. "You prick."
A few minutes a later, the Nidaime says, speculatively, "They may actually be married."
"Shut up," the Yondaime grumbles and takes a deep breath to start yelling at Sasuke again about all the nasty, inhuman, and cruel things he'll do to Sasuke if he touches Naruto, thinks about touching Naruto, if he even thinks about thinking about touching Naruto.
Sasuke gets no sleep that night, but in the morning, Naruto makes him omelets and coffee and serves them with a sleepy grumble before vanishing into the bathroom. As Sasuke eats, he can hear Naruto singing loud and off-key, and it makes the Yondaime's now-routine bitchfest much more tolerable.
End of Part Two