Chapter Text
Sasuke Uchiha was cursed.
There was really no other way to explain it. He’d been cursed ever since he’d locked eyes with his brother that night, ever since he’d heard those horrible words, words laced with jutsu and malice, words that crawled into his brain and heart and latched themselves like a rotted parasite.
“You will kill your closest friend. Receive the Mangekyo. And then, you will challenge me.”
It was a curse, a horrible destiny that Sasuke couldn’t break away from. A jutsu compelling him to fulfill his brother’s demands. He will kill his closest friend. It was certain, solid, immovable and unbreakable, and Sasuke knew he couldn’t get around it, no matter how desperately he wanted to.
Unless, of course, he had no closest friend.
Sasuke had researched the matter extensively, desperately hoping that he’d somehow misinterpreted. But he could feel it, could feel the heavy weight of jutsu laid upon his heart, and he knew he’d understood.
His brother already had a jutsu technique that could force its target to live through horrible realities. And it didn’t take terribly much investigation to find evidence that the Village Hidden in the Sand had a long, dutifully researched history of puppet manipulation jutsu stored away for any curious visiting shinobi to find.
Itachi had cursed Sasuke that night in every way possible, and his words had put a compulsion jutsu on the younger brother who’d done nothing but look up
to him.
So as soon as Sasuke had one, he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from killing his friend.
But Sasuke refused to let Itachi win.
He put a wall around his heart the moment he could, an icy fortress meant for shutting out the rest of his classmates, teachers, well meaning people on the street who wanted to console the poor boy who’d lost everything in one night. He made himself cold and aloof and rude, sneering and scoffing and every other unpleasant behavior he could think of. It worked fine for the random Leaf Village adults, who gave up trying to speak with him after a while, instead just eyeing him from a distance and whispering. Sasuke wasn’t sure if these whispers were about his horrible past or his snobby and obnoxious present, but he didn’t show on his face that he cared. He was performing a service to the Village, after all, and he couldn’t afford to slip up. The first person he allowed himself to befriend would die. Simple as that. So the more he let people believe he was an intolerable brat, the less they’d try to be that friend. It was much harder for Sasuke to remain distant around the people who still tried.
The trying people in question were mostly lower performing underclassmen in the academy who fawned over his skills in training sessions. They were obviously just trying to flatter him so that he’d help them train, but he was honestly grateful for that. If they weren’t being genuine, they were easier to keep at arm’s length.
The only one he didn’t understand was Sakura Haruno.
The girl wouldn’t give up, a skill which he supposed would significantly help her as a ninja as much as it hurt his attempts to shake her off. He couldn’t understand why she was so interested in him; she was an extremely bright student, with him and her constantly vying for top spot in every class, and she was pretty enough to surely get any guy she asked out. But she seemed stuck on Sasuke, for some reason, and she wouldn’t drop him and move on no matter how offish he acted to her.
He considered acting fully unkind to her to get her to leave him alone, but the thought made him squirm. There was something about her bright eyes and cheerful smile that he couldn’t bear to be the one shoving a cloud over. He debated dropping school altogether, but that was out of the question.
Because his research had led to another uncomfortable and undeniable conclusion: the best way to lift a jutsu was to have the original caster do so himself. Sasuke knew that ‘best’ in this situation really meant ‘only.’ Itachi was far too skilled for any medical ninja to be able to lift the jutsu he’d placed; the few that had treated Sasuke those first horrible days after had done nothing to lift the constricting weight of his curse from his heart. So, of course, this meant that the only way Sasuke could ever be free of his curse and able to finally make a friend would be to hunt his brother down and force him to lift it.
Unfortunately, the Village Hidden in the Leaves had strict rules about who could come and go, and even stricter rules about a certain Uchiha kid coming and going. Sasuke couldn’t tell if they just didn’t want the embarrassment of their anbu’s failure to protect the clan known to other lands or if they just didn’t trust one of the last sharingan users off on his own, but for whatever reason, it would be difficult to leave the Village for anything, let alone an extensive and elaborate hunt for his elusive brother.
So if Sasuke wanted to be able to leave the Village and gather information, it would have to be as a ninja. Usually they worked in three man teams, but that could work to Sasuke’s advantage. If the other two ninjas were friends with each other , then they could occupy themselves just fine while he stayed off on his own and researched.
That was a lot of what Sasuke did these days. Researched. Researched, trained, and worked on rebuilding the destroyed little corner of the Village that had once been the Uchiha clan’s home.
It was a difficult task and far beyond him when he’d begun it as a child, but he’d been to so many funerals in a row that he’d needed to do something else, anything else, or he’d have burst, and seeing the remnants of every fight his brother had won that night, displayed vividly in each shard of broken glass and splinter of shattered wood, made Sasuke feel ill.
Part of him wanted to run from this miniature town and never return, but he knew staying would be to his advantage, in the long run. The anbu had taken away…everyone, and cleaned as much as they could, but even so, no one dared step foot inside the walls now.
So no one would be around to be kind to Sasuke and weaken his resolve.
It was perfect, really, even if returning there every day made his chest twist, right under the residuals of Itachi’s jutsu. It was just seeing the empty streets cluttered only with the Uchiha crest. It looked wrong, duplicated and plastered everywhere. He wished there was something next to it. Anything, really.
He’d tried to add designs when he repainted the boundary’s inner walls, painting leaf symbols and the crests of his classmates’ clans and even birds and clouds and flowers, and it did feel less empty after he’d done so. He’d been fairly satisfied with himself, then. He was still pretty satisfied now.
Today, his repair project was to finally finish fixing up the general store. He’d been using it as his refrigeration system lately, since his own house’s kitchen was quite small. Though maybe it felt small because the kitchen and Sasuke’s own room were the only ones he’d refurbished. Every other room in the house had been locked and barricaded, and he hadn’t entered any of them once in the years since he’d lost everything.
But the general store had been sitting mostly completed for so long that a few weeks ago Sasuke decided to just commit and finish it. And now, all he had left to do was finish building a few shelves, and it would be done. It’d feel nice to complete another building, and the shelves wouldn’t take too long, which gave him plenty of time to get in some extra training. Their final exams were coming up soon, and while he didn’t have any concerns about failing, he did want to work hard to beat out Sakura for top spot.
He stepped over the threshold into his town and exhaled. She’d been extra persistent today, and her bow had been very pretty. He wished he wasn’t cursed.
But that just meant he needed to graduate fast and climb up the ranks as soon as possible. There was only so much research that could be done within the Village, and even less that could be done without having a ninja title. He was itching to get better books. Maybe even get his hands on puppet jutsu research from the Land of Wind.
His hands were loose on his backpack as he walked down the center of town, eyes glancing over the hard work he’d put in these past years. The shops lining the entrance looked nice; if he used his imagination, it could almost be like the town was simply away at an assembly of some sort, headed back home now.
Of course, Sasuke’s imagination rarely worked with him for something like that.
Itachi had left more than just a curse with Sasuke. He’d infected his very subconscious with their final conversation, and that subconscious didn’t like what it had seen. So now, every so often, Sasuke could almost see Itachi, like a ghost in his sharingan, hazy in his vision but lingering ever present. He knew it was his imagination, knew it wasn’t real and, even worse, was childish to not grow out of such a response, but he’d never been able to shake it. He tsked. As if Itachi hadn’t ruined enough of his life, he couldn’t even be lonely in peace.
He dropped his head back to stare up at the sky as his feet took him to the general store. The clouds were nice today, but a bit dark. He’d overheard Shikamaru and Choji planning to go watch them on the roof after school. Distantly, Sasuke wondered what the appeal of such an activity was. Wouldn’t it be boring? Sasuke usually hated sitting still, always needing something for his hands to do. That’s why his endless renovations were so nice. He always had something new to do whenever his brain got too fried reading the millionth book on jutsu reversal only to find the same conclusion over and over and over.
He dropped his head back down when he reached the general store and took a breath, closing his eyes to do so. Maybe he could make a special dinner tonight, celebrating a finished building. Plus, it’d bolster him up for his big exam. He was certain he could beat Sakura this time. He just needed to study genjutsu a little bit more; that was where she usually edged past him. And how hard could genjutsu be anyway?
His brother could use it. With no effort at all.
Sasuke frowned and stepped forward into the general store, dropping his bag onto the floor as he did.
“I’m home,” he told the empty store -well, empty beyond the shadow of Itachi lingering in his peripheral vision- and put his hands on his hips with a squint. “I’m here to rescue you, shelf-less floor.”
The floor in question didn’t reply. Quite rude. Sasuke stepped forward and got to work.
~~~
By the time the moon had risen in the sky, Sasuke had finished all but one final celebratory shelf, stepped out to practice his fire jutsu -screw genjutsu anyway, why would Iruka Sensei even put it in?- and cooked his meal on the stove in the back kitchen. Now he took the finished bowl and set it on the old checkout counter before turning to the last shelf.
“Just you and me,” he said, his expression serious as he lifted a hammer and nail. “Let’s end this together.”
He was too practiced by now for such a task to take too long. When he hammered in the last shelf support and shook it -a very professional test of load strength- he turned to where he’d propped the last plank of wood, lifting it with a slight heave and slowly, meticulously, placing it on the supports.
He took a step back. Tilted his head. Took another step back.
“And we’re done!” he finally declared, pointing. “That’s another win for Sasuke, tally it up.”
He turned to his plate of food and grabbed his chopsticks, collapsing back against the counter as he lifted them to his mouth and took a satisfied bite. He savored how the food tasted like victory, and he grinned back at his work.
“I hope shelf building is on the practical exam,” he said with a nod. “No way I’d lose to Sakura then. I’d be top of the class.”
“Top of your class, hm? Well, if you keep up this kind of work, you might even match your brother.”
Sasuke frowned at the memory, his dinner suddenly tasting bland. He turned to place his elbows on the counter, his eyes lingering on his bowl. He’d gone to this store with Itachi, tons of times. He’d try to get his brother to buy him all sorts of things -candy, toys, books- but all he’d ever get was a teasing tap to his forehead and a, “maybe next time, Sasuke.”
“Some next time,” he mumbled, stabbing his chopsticks disinterestedly back into his plate. Maybe he hadn’t earned this celebratory feast yet. All the shelves were still empty. What kind of a store had all empty shelves?
He tapped at his chin with his chopsticks, considering how to resolve this. The easiest solution would probably be to just buy things from other stores in the Village to display here. Maybe he could do that after school. Or would before school be better? Less students milling about, talking about silly things like spending the afternoon watching clouds and eating snacks and laughing together.
Sasuke dropped his cheek into his hand, putting the chopsticks back into his plate and swirling it to wrap up the noodles better. He’d go into town in the morning and pick something up. Maybe a new bowl to have his actual celebratory meal in.
He wondered if the clouds had been pretty, or if Sakura’s bow had been a new purchase. He wondered if it would be too late to win any of these people back
over even if he did lift his curse. He’d spent years pushing them away, not even explaining why, because someone might be sympathetic towards a poor cursed kid, and sympathy easily led to friendship. So no one knew he was cursed, and therefore no one really knew why he acted so cold and distant to everyone, or that in his heart he desperately craved someone, anyone really, to simply ask him how he was doing.
Admittedly, he felt fine today. He’d made significant progress by finishing the store, and his fire jutsu had been strong. He just wished he wasn’t cursed.
Well, actually, he wished a lot of things, but those were unchangeable.
He hoped he wouldn’t be too late when he finally did find his brother and take his freedom back. Though, he supposed, he knew there was at least one person who’d probably still give him a chance.
He felt a small smile on his face and wondered what Sakura was up to right now.
~~~
Sakura Haruno, right now, was trying not to cuss out the lock she was picking.
It was incredibly infuriating that she could get past three layers of genjutsu traps but end up stuck on the simple lock on Iruka’s door. She blew a strand of hair out of her eyes and tried to concentrate. It only took a few more tries before she heard the click she needed, and she brightened up with a beam as the door slid open.
She tucked the stray tuft of hair back into her bow and glanced around the darkened school hallway before slipping into Iruka Sensei’s office, eyes darting around. While she had confidence in her ability to dispel Iruka’s genjutsu traps for at least several minutes, she didn’t have any desire to hang around here longer than she needed to.
Fortunately, it seemed that Iruka’s focus had been mostly on the door and the actual important documents, stored off to the side. Sakura’s goal would be considered much less of a security risk than those mission files.
Well, that just made her job easier.
She rooted around her teacher’s desk before finding her target: the papers for the final exam they’d be taking shortly. She beamed and flipped through the pages, resisting the urge to laugh aloud. These questions were painfully easy. Which was good. Now all she needed was to find out what the practical exam would be and start mentioning it in conversation enough to hopefully get it through Sasuke’s socially thick skull to subliminally influence him to practice it. She needed Sasuke to pass this exam so she could get the pair of them on the same team when they graduated.
After all, Sasuke was the easiest way to get to a sharingan. Especially with that Kakashi ninja being a lost cause and Itachi Uchiha tucked away somewhere in the Akatsuki.
Personally, Sakura didn’t understand what the appeal of the sharingan was. She supposed it could be the reason why Sasuke was somehow rivaling her for top spot in all their classes -which was infuriating - but he never seemed to use it in practical lessons.
Whatever. If her employer wanted a sharingan, Sakura would get him a sharingan. Even if she had to deal with the most obnoxious brat in the Village to get it.
She found a page of Iruka’s notes and perked up, scanning it quickly, and it was all good news.
“Clone jutsu and substitution jutsu,” she mouthed, scanning the page a few more times to make sure she didn’t miss anything. That was perfect! Those weren’t too hard to do, and, even better, they were both something they’d been practicing recently, which meant talking about it wouldn’t be suspicious. It’s like Iruka was doing her job for her.
She felt a twinge of guilt at the thought. Iruka was a kind person; he didn’t deserve to be tricked. But Sakura had a responsibility, and she intended to fulfill it.
She had first entered her boss’ employ when she’d been made aware of a rumor surrounding her father. Apparently, he’d lied about an injury to dodge fighting in the battle against the Nine-Tailed Fox, the one which had killed the fourth hokage. If something like that became public, her father could be arrested for desertion, and even her mother could get in trouble as an accomplice. Sakura had panicked when she’d found the information, because if even she could find it, surely a skilled investigator could.
She’d intended to take the evidence and flee the Village with it, hoping that would be enough to ensure her parents couldn’t be forced out of their happy, peaceful life by bitter anbu soldiers, but she hadn’t even made it to the outer gate when an odd looking ninja intercepted her.
“And where are you headed in such a rush, miss?”
Sakura placed the documents behind her back, eyes wide. Genjutsu clouded this man, its tells so obvious for Sakura, as they always seemed to be. “You’re not a Leaf shinobi.”
The man laughed, a bit cold. “And you’re not out for a walk.”
Sakura grit her teeth, adjusting her footing, but before she could even consider what to do, the man had disappeared.
Sakura’s eyes widened. Where did he-?
“Interesting,” the man’s voice said behind her, and she jumped and shrieked, tripping away. He lifted his gaze from where he’d been reading her carefully stolen evidence and grinned, his tongue running along the edges of his teeth. “Sounds like Mr. Haruno found himself in a pinch, hm?”
“I won’t let you take my dad!” Sakura said shakily, grabbing a stick off the ground and holding it forward like a kunai knife.
“Hm? Oh, it seems we have a misunderstanding,” the man said, placing his hands placatingly against his chest. “I don’t intend to turn in your father. In fact, I think perhaps we could help each other.”
Sakura’s first job had been slipping past a genjutsu barrier to copy a folder’s worth of information from a jonin’s private office. Apparently, her ability to recognize genjutsu so easily was rare and therefore valuable.
Sakura liked being valuable.
That first job had been done as a favor; in exchange for her services, her employer made the investigation into her father get swept casually under the rug. But under the rug didn’t mean it disappeared, and Sakura could never quite shake the worry in the back of her mind that somehow it would come back up.
So when the man had come to her again for another job, she’d accepted without hesitation. She would do anything he asked as long as he kept her family in their safe and peaceful lives. The man would pay her back with information rather than funds, but she didn’t mind. Every successful job resulted in a scroll on her bedside vanity the next day, neatly tied with a purple bow and containing a new genjutsu lesson. She relished these little rewards, savored the fact that she was gaining skills none of her classmates would have.
Especially, she felt a smug satisfaction whenever she’d place higher than the oh so precious Sasuke Uchiha on anything related to genjutsu.
But despite how highly she regarded her employer’s rewards, she didn’t know much about him personally;
all of his requests came through another leaf ninja who worked under him, the same one she also reported back to post-job. He was also most likely the one leaving the scrolls for her when she finished, but she could tell from the writing that every bit of information had come directly from her boss.
She didn’t feel slighted that she knew so little about him personally. In fact, she knew it would be smarter not to ask. The anbu couldn’t make you talk if you had nothing to say.
In fact, she’d only heard the man’s name once, when the ninja who worked under him had let it slip. The name felt dangerous on her lips, and she’d never said it aloud before. Hopefully, she would never have the need to.
She brought her attention back to the present and replaced the tests and notes exactly as they had been, or at least as exactly as she could manage. She slipped out of the office easily, replacing the lock and genjutsu barriers before turning and striding back down the hallway with purpose in her step, enough to give no one any reason to question her should she be spotted.
Though her mind still lingered on her curiosity; why would her boss need a sharingan? He hadn’t given a specific reason. Maybe he just wanted to study one, to observe. Yes, that was reasonable.
She sighed, brushing her hair out of her face, reminding herself of that. It’s reasonable. This is reasonable.
She took another breath as she reached the end of the hallway and pushed the stairwell doors open, jogging down the steps once she did. This was for her parents, after all. Any extra benefit of knowledge given to her was just that: an extra benefit. Besides, what was the harm in helping another curious ninja research interesting jutsus? The lack of communication between villages was only detrimental, to everyone involved.
She wasn’t doing any harm by just helping someone research. She repeated that to herself as she finally pushed the doors open to the moonlit sky. What she was doing was perfectly reasonable. Anyone in her position would have done it, done anything they could to protect their family.
So yes, as long as her parents were safe and happy, Sakura would gladly do whatever Orochimaru asked of her.
And if she learned more jutsu than that brat Sasuke Uchiha in the process, then…that could only be considered a plus.
Notes:
Thank you for reading, and please leave a comment if you enjoyed! <3
(P.S. pls respect God's name in any comments, and thank you in advance for leaving one, they make me super happy!! :D)
Chapter Text
Sometimes, when Sasuke blinked awake in the mornings, tucked into the same sheets he’d had since he was a child, there could be a few seconds where he didn’t remember anything except sunkissed blankets and warm coziness, and Sasuke savored those few seconds. They didn’t always come, and this morning was one of those unfortunate ones where he woke up remembering, but when they did, and he could forget everything else for just a fraction of a minute, then it made sleeping at home worth it.
Today, though, he simply sat up with a yawn, his eyes lidded with sleep. He rubbed at them, blearily wondering if he’d overslept his plans to go into town early today.
He stood with a few stretches before getting dressed, patting at his hair to try and smooth it as he looked around for a hairbrush.
“Morning,” he told the empty kitchen with a yawn when he reached it, rummaging around for some rice to boil. He poured a generous amount into a pot and let it get started as he turned his focus next to assembling his bento box for lunch.
It was quiet, this morning. Not much wind to brush the trees against each other outside, and no rain to provide gentle percussion onto the roof, despite the previous day’s dark clouds. Maybe it had rained while he slept.
He yawned again as he carefully positioned vegetables into the bottom half of his box, glancing every so often at the rice, but it appeared to be taking its sweet time, which meant Sasuke would need to wait for it.
So he turned around to lean against the counter, and he had a sneaking suspicion the kitchen wouldn’t be so empty when he did.
The ghost of Itachi -if a living person could even have a ghost; he was certainly haunting Sasuke, at least, so the title felt appropriate anyway- was seated at his usual place at the table, his eyes lazily watching the ceiling. Sasuke frowned.
“Good morning,” he said pointedly, a small scowl on his face.
“Good morning,” Itachi’s ghost said pleasantly, and Sasuke tsked and turned back to monitor his rice.
“I don’t want to talk to you,” he said airily.
“You’re the one starting the conversation.”
Sasuke scowled.
It wasn’t terribly long before the rice finished, and soon Sasuke had a nicely wrapped bento and a rice bowl for breakfast, and he glared at Itachi as he ate it.
“So,” Itachi said finally, his eyes still lingering on the ceiling. “What are you going to get in town-?”
“HA!” Sasuke shouted, pointing, his mouth still half full of rice. Itachi glanced down, and fortunately his eyes weren’t red.
Sasuke triumphantly continued, “you started this conversation!”
Itachi raised an eyebrow. “You’re imagining me, Sasuke.”
Sasuke flushed and scowled deeper, lowering his hand, and Itachi laughed lightly. “You always get so worked up over the smallest things.”
“Smallest?!” Sasuke jumped up, his own dark eyes flashing. “The smallest things? Look around you! Is this a small thing to you?!”
Itachi didn’t look. He didn’t answer, either, just kept watching Sasuke with a calm expression, and it made the younger boy’s blood boil so hot he could feel it eating away at his insides, and suddenly, breakfast didn’t feel so appealing.
“I’m going to town,” he muttered, taking his bowl and moving to the cabinets to place another over it as a cover. Maybe he could have it during dinner.
He took several breaths to try and calm down, and he wished there was some sort of noise outside to help, but there was nothing. Nothing at all anywhere in the Uchihas’ little corner of the world, except for a boy, a ghost, and dozens of empty buildings.
Well, he could work on one of those things in town today. He packed his bag, set his shoulders and strode to the doors, arranging his face back into its practiced glare.
He cast an annoyed glance at his yard. Technically he’d fixed it up too, but there hadn’t been much there to renovate anyway; just a big yard that he’d used to play in.
And not always alone, either.
He remembered one time, when he had been extremely young, he’d just learned about fireflies, tiny insects that could light up and dance through the sky.
He’d been fascinated, but devastated to learn that they were only around for a brief period of early summer, and that it would be nearly a year until they returned.
Itachi had heard of his sorrows and found him sitting outside and sulking about it.
“What are you so gloomy about now, Sasuke?” Itachi asked, shifting to sit beside him on the deck and tapping him on the forehead with an almost shaky exhale, and Sasuke looked over with a pout.
“I want to see fireflies,” he said stubbornly.
“They’ll be in the forests around the village in summer,” Itachi said, lowering his hand and tilting his head. “We can go see them then.”
“I want to see them now.”
Sasuke crossed his arms with a huff, fully aware that he was being difficult, but Itachi simply exhaled a small laugh and looked out at the yard.
“Hm…well, I can’t get fireflies here, but,” Itachi said, standing and forming a few quick signs. “I think I can pull off something .”
Sasuke watched with sparkling eyes as Itachi’s jutsu activated, and tiny sparks flew from his mouth and spiraled around through the air, drifting in the breeze just like the pictures he’d seen earlier today.
Itachi sat back down beside Sasuke and bumped his shoulder against the younger boy’s. “Well? What do you think?”
“It’s perfect!” Sasuke gasped, staring around.
“You know,” Itachi said thoughtfully, “some places have firefly festivals where they catch them in jars and things. And, it just so happens that we still haven’t gotten rid of those old jam jars from ages ago.”
Sasuke jumped to his feet, his eyes wide and face broken into a smile. “I’ll go get them! Will you catch fireflies with me?”
Itachi gave a smile back at him. “Of course. It’s intensive coordination training, you know. Catching a moving target.”
Sasuke felt like his excitement would soon burst out of him. He turned and ran back into the kitchen to those old jam jars that Mom insisted she could find a use for someday. He felt practically giddy; not only had Itachi made his dream come true, but also this could end up being a way to train with Itachi, like Sasuke’d always ask him to.
He grabbed the jars and ran back outside, holding them out as Itachi stood, wincing a bit as his hand dusted over his ribs, but the moment passed quickly, and soon he was taking one of the jars from Sasuke with an important nod.
“Now,” he said seriously, “the trick to catching a moving target is to aim where it will be, not where it is. Yeah?”
“Mhm!” Sasuke said with his own serious nod, turning towards the field of tiny, fiery sparks. “I’m gonna catch all of them!”
Itachi laughed. “Only if I don’t get to them first.”
The two brothers chased the fireballs around the yard, Sasuke laughing brightly at each attempt despite missing just about every one.
“Here, Sasuke,” Itachi said, stepping behind him and putting his hands on the jar beside Sasuke’s. “See how that one’s drifting left?”
“Mhm,” Sasuke said, staring intently at it.
“Well, to catch it, you have to guess where it’s going to be, based on what it looks like. So if it’s going to the left, then we know to aim to the-“
“What are you doing, Itachi?”
Sasuke turned at his father’s voice and held up his jar with a bright smile. “We’re training!”
But Dad didn’t even look at Sasuke, and Sasuke slowly lowered the jar again, dropping his gaze.
“Yes, Sasuke is helping me train,” Itachi said casually, and Dad tsked.
“You have a very important meeting in town in ten minutes,” he said, and Itachi blinked slowly at him.
“I’m in the middle of a very important meeting with Sasuke right now,” he replied, and Sasuke couldn’t help but smile, his eyes still down. “It’s only a five minute walk to where I’m going next anyway.”
“Arriving on time is a courtesy, Itachi.”
“I’ll still be on time if I leave in five minutes.”
“Itachi.”
“You should go,” Sasuke said, turning to fully face Itachi now. He didn’t want Dad and Itachi to sit here for the five minutes arguing with each other; that would ruin the happy memory.
Itachi blinked down at him, and he nodded, hopefully encouragingly.
Itachi exhaled and walked towards Dad, his face settling blank. He tapped Sasuke on the forehead when he passed him, his shoulders relaxing just slightly as he did, before saying, “sorry, Sasuke. Some other time, okay?”
“Mhm,” Sasuke nodded, rubbing at his forehead as he watched Itachi walk away. The miniature fireballs remained even as he did; Itachi was still using his chakra to keep them there, for Sasuke. Sasuke couldn’t disappoint him after that.
When Sasuke went to bed that night, Itachi still hadn’t returned from his meeting, but Sasuke placed the jam jar outside his brother’s bedroom door, now completely full of the tiny fireballs. When the sleepily determined Sasuke laid down in his own bed, he wondered if Itachi would be proud that he’d caught them all.
Sasuke flushed at the memory now, turning distinctly away from the yard and pressing on out of the Uchiha town and in the direction of the Leaf shopping district closest to school.
When Sasuke reached the store that always had the best inventory, he walked in, his expression bored as his eyes darted around to take in as many ideas for shop-layouts as possible.
There were only a few people in the store, which had been the goal; the blond boy who always sat on the swing was crouched by the ramen shelf, intently staring between two options in his hands; a pair of dark haired women were ordering tea from the man working behind the counter; a masked Leaf ninja was seated at one of the counter stools, lazily reading a book with a cover that probably should have been kept in private, and a blond uniformed anbu next to him was focusing intently as he tried to untangle what looked like a string of bells.
Sasuke felt an uncomfortable clench in his stomach at the sight of the anbu and opted to ignore him, instead turning to start searching the shelves for something interesting to buy. His earlier idea of a new bowl drifted across his mind, and he turned his direction to land at that shelf.
The bowls meant for adults weren’t particularly interesting, clearly designed for function over form. The kid bowls were at least different. There was one shaped like the head of a cat, which was honestly pretty funny. Maybe it would look nice on a general store shelf.
He heard the ringing of the front bell as the entry door opened, and the voices of Shikamaru and Choji drifted in.
“-doesn’t need to be all we do, you know,” Shikamaru was saying. “If you want to play ninja, we can play ninja.”
“With just two people?” Choji asked, and Sasuke watched the boys pass the aisle he was in out of the corners of his eyes.
“Sure, why not?” Shikamaru said, turning to walk down the shelf behind Sasuke. “Here, these are the flavors you said, right?”
“Yeah, but we should try all of them, in case you like the others better-“
The boys’ conversation was overshadowed by the door flying open again, the sound of the bells almost drowned out by the voice of the man who’d practically leapt into the store.
“Kakashiiiii!” a bowl-cut-haired ninja declared, beaming. “I thought I saw you through the window! You’ve got such a youthful spring in your sit this morning!”
“Hello Guy,” the masked ninja, Kakashi, replied, his attention not leaving his book.
Guy did not seem to mind that Kakashi’s focus was clearly elsewhere. “How surprising to see you out in a shop this early! I can’t help but wonder if you’ve got some time off before a mission, perhaps! I’m headed off to one soon- my students are buying supplies for it now. Which means I, too, have some free time!”
“Mhm,” Kakashi said blandly, and Guy pressed onward.
“So I suggest a new challenge!” he practically shouted. “Let’s see if I can edge that lead I have over you a bit further! And if I can’t, I’ll do one hundred push ups before my mission. But you may be wondering what the challenge is before agreeing to it!”
“Not really.”
“Who can do the most consecutive cartwheels!” Guy declared before leaning closer to the masked ninja. “What do you say, Kakashi?!”
Kakashi finally turned his head, stared blankly at Guy, and answered, “yeah, okay.”
Sasuke’s jaw dropped at the reply, but Guy didn’t seem surprised in the least. He clapped Kakashi on the back as the man stood, and Guy began to march them to the exit, now launching into an explanation about the technical rules of the cartwheel contest.
Sasuke realized he was staring and promptly closed his mouth, pinking and turning back to the shelves. Now that the extremely loud ninja had left, however, Shikamaru’s and Choji’s conversation became clearly audible again, both boys having raised their voices to hear each other over Guy.
“No way, you’ve got the best taste for these kinds of things,” Shikamaru was saying, his words accompanied by the crunch of chip bags. “If your recommendations have never let me down before, why wouldn’t I trust them now?”
“Well, then I’ll try the weird flavors,” Choji said, though he was slightly drowned out by laughter from the pair of the women who had been ordering tea earlier.
“Tell me how they are. Ugh, is this how much each one costs? What a drag. C’mon, let’s see if they’ve got any new trading cards.”
“Oh, yeah! You still need a fire cat, right?”
Sasuke realized quite suddenly that he didn’t want to be in this store anymore. He didn’t want to leave empty handed, though; his hard work on the Uchiha general store deserved better than that. So he grabbed the cat shaped bowl he’d been considering and marched to the counter, making sure to send a sour glance in the direction of Shikamaru and Choji and to definitely not ask if Shikamaru got that fire cat card he’d been mentioning between classes for the past week.
“Is this all, kiddo?” the counter worker said with a kind smile that Sasuke scoffed at.
“Isn’t that obvious? Do you see anything else in my hand?” he shot back, shoving the bowl forward and grimacing at the scraping sound it made across the counter. The worker’s eye twitched at the noise, but his smile remained, even if it was a bit less kind than it had been.
Sasuke’d handed over his money and was waiting for change when the bells rang again to indicate a new customer, which Sasuke would have ignored if not for…
“Sasuke!!” Sakura’s voice chirped as she practically fell into the counter beside him. He glanced over, taking in her appearance in a split second before turning his gaze back forward. She had the same bow as yesterday, tied more to the side than she’d had before. And, as always, she had her beaming smile locked onto Sasuke’s indifferent glare, and he wished he wasn’t cursed.
“It’s so funny to run into you! I didn’t expect to see you here, but then I looked through the window, and poof! Here you are!” she chattered, leaning forward to get a better look at him, which he turned away to avoid. “What are you buying?”
“Bowl,” Sasuke said shortly, glaring at the casual and very slow movements of the counter worker who was packaging the bowl up in thick paper wrappings.
“Ooh, fun!” Sakura said as if he’d said something remarkably interesting. “What kinds of things are you going to put in it? School supplies, maybe? That’d look super cute- oh, speaking of school-“
“You should put in ramen!!”
Their conversation -if they could even call it that- was interrupted by a loud voice about an inch from Sasuke’s ear, and he was able to genuinely glare at the cause of the disturbance.
“Naruto, stay out of other people’s business!” Sakura huffed, crossing her arms, a comment Sasuke couldn’t help but find somewhat amusing from the girl who’d just butted into Sasuke’s day in a rather similar manner.
“You were talking loudly!” Naruto fired back, and the counter worker finally finished wrapping Sasuke’s bowl and placed it gently back down on the counter along with his change. “ And you were talking about ramen!”
“We were not!” Sakura shot back, leaning further forward to better yell at Naruto, and Sasuke took a step back, subtly taking the bowl and money. “You’re the one who brought up ramen!”
“You looked at a perfectly nice ramen bowl and said put school supplies in it!” Naruto replied as Sasuke began to edge towards the door. “That’s a crime! I had to save Sasuke from that terrible idea!”
“Bowls can be used for more than one thing!”
“Yeah, like different types of ramen! Now you’re getting it-!”
“You idiot!”
Sasuke was out the door before they could notice that he’d left, and once he was out of their sight, he allowed himself a snicker. Those two could rile each other up so easily. Shikamaru and Choji would probably be talking about it in class later; maybe Sasuke could overhear their jokes. That sounded nice.
He held his new bowl closely as he walked, pocketing his change quickly before placing his second hand back around the ceramic cat. It’d have to have a place of honor as the general store’s first item post-rennovation. Maybe it could go right in the center of his big celebratory shelf.
Or maybe he should test it out first, have tonight’s meal in it. He could make something with the leftover rice from breakfast…
His thoughts were interrupted by something dropping from the air over his shoulder and into the wrapped up bowl he was holding with a crunchy plunk . He stared at it blankly, confused. It was a package of trading cards. He glanced over his shoulder.
Sakura was behind him, landing from where she’d presumably jumped to make the throw, and she cheered, “right on target!” as she tripped a few paces to catch up with him.
“What?” he asked, too confused to remember to be a jerk, and she beamed again.
“Shikamaru and Choji were getting some to open together!” she said, pulling another unopened pack out of her bag and practically fanning herself with it. “I thought it seemed fun, but only when you do it with somebody else, yeah?”
“Yeah, so go do it with somebody else,” Sasuke said, taking the pack and tossing it back towards her with reluctance heavy on his heart and completely absent from his expression. “You and Naruto seemed perfectly fine with each other. Why are you bothering me?”
Sakura simply laughed as if he’d told a hilarious joke. “Naruto? Please . Y’know, you get so cranky in the mornings sometimes, Sasuke. Would it kill you to lighten up a little?”
No, but it would kill you. Sasuke simply turned his face away, remaining silent. He could see his brother drifting in and out of focus in his peripheral vision.
“Besides,” Sakura continued, “I know I could sure use the mental break. Iruka Sensei’s totally working us too hard! All these clone jutsu lessons are crazy difficult to understand- have you gotten the hang of it yet?”
“Yes, but so have you,” Sasuke said, confused. “Your clone jutsu’s one of the best in our class, like your jutsus always are.”
“Well, sure, but- wait, huh? What did you say?” Sakura asked. Something in her expression shifted past the generic and constant cheesy smile to a genuine surprise, and Sasuke inwardly kicked himself for complimenting her. That was not standoffish or aloof.
“I mean- I mean don’t come begging me for help,” Sasuke said, forcing a scowl back onto his face. “Or waste my time. Yeah.”
He picked up his pace to split away from her, his glare edging back genuine again as irritation clenched in his gut. Why wouldn’t she just leave him alone? She was far too kind to be with someone who acted like he did towards her, and every time she made him push her away, it felt worse than the last.
She had no idea what he’d give to spend a morning with her opening card packets until they found a fire cat, which they could triumphantly deliver to Shikamaru and earn an invitation to his and Choji’s cloudgazing sessions. He wanted it so badly it made him sick, but he couldn’t have it . Not yet, not until his brother’s jutsu was lifted and he wouldn’t be forced to kill her or them for their friendship.
He took a breath, steadying himself. He just had to get to school, and it would be easier. Hopefully. Sakura could get distracted by Ino or annoyed by Naruto and therefore ignore Sasuke between lessons, at least. And it wasn’t hard to avoid meeting anyone’s gaze during those lessons.
A rather noisy commotion ahead pulled Sasuke from his thoughts, and he blinked and looked up to see Guy and Kakashi ahead of him, both still cartwheeling down the street. Guy had since been joined by what looked like a miniature version of Guy, identical from the green jumpsuit to the bowl haircut, who was now also cartwheeling and who Guy appeared to be shouting instructions to. Two other kids, a girl with space buns and a boy with long hair, were trailing behind this flashy display, both carrying shopping bags and equally annoyed expressions. Probably Guy’s other students, and based on their expressions, it seemed this kind of thing wasn’t necessarily unusual for them to experience.
Their little competition had apparently gathered a small crowd, all curious to see which ninja would win -or maybe just wondering what could possibly be going on- and, hidden among the cluster of people, Sasuke allowed himself to laugh with everyone else, his face finally breaking from its stoic and emotionless mask that he usually kept so tightly plastered on in public.
Guy tilted off course and veered into a trash can, ending his run and chance of victory when Kakashi made a single additional cartwheel to win before sitting down on the ground and pulling out his book again, apparently oblivious to both the cheers of the crowd and to Guy’s immediate jump into his hundred-push-up punishment.
Sasuke relished the last few moments of laughing and cheering while he could stay faceless in the crowd, and when he dispersed to head to school, he felt notably happier.
~~~
Sakura opted to trail Sasuke more loosely after their conversation outside of the shop. She’d been frustrated by that stupid Naruto kid interrupting her subliminal messaging, and then annoyed that her boss’ target was too bratty to even let her try to manipulate him, but then he’d done something odd. A few things odd, actually.
He’d complimented her jutsu skills. Which meant he’d actually paid attention to her in class.
He’d admitted it, right then: he knew that her clone jutsu was already developed, and, even further, that the rest of her jutsus were usually top of their class too.
Had Sasuke actually been watching her progress during practical lessons? He’d always come off as the most self centered guy possible, distant and uncaring towards anyone and everyone, and that was on a good day. No one had ever questioned this, after what had happened to him; the boy had seen his family’s corpses. The very possibility of such a thing was enough to make Sakura feel ill, so she couldn’t imagine experiencing it. So if Sasuke wanted to be an angry, selfish brat, then sure, he had every right to be.
But something was different today too, not just in his odd and out of character attentiveness. When Sakura simply trailed him rather than press another conversation, they’d come across a bottleneck in the road; Kakashi and his rival in another stupid competition, the same as they always seemed to get into, were gathering a small crowd around them with their antics. And while Sakura didn’t care to watch two grown men act like little babies, she was curious to see Sasuke’s reaction.
It was like she was watching a different person.
A part of her wondered if somehow Ino had cast her mind transfer jutsu on Sasuke to prank Sakura for her ‘against-better-judgement’ crush, but Sasuke never reacted to her being behind him. He laughed, and cheered for Kakashi, and there wasn’t a trace of his usual harsh persona that would always nip at any polite words Sakura tried to send his way.
She grew curious then, curious about Sasuke’s odd behavior. A single morning wasn’t exactly enough to be more evidence than a fluke, but Sakura was willing to observe and hypothesize as a little side quest. If everything went to plan, she’d be stuck with this guy for the foreseeable future anyway, so what harm was there in a little further investigation?
And if it turned out that instead of a teammate who snubbed her at every chance he had, she got a teammate who actually acknowledged her jutsu skills, then, well…she wouldn’t be opposed.
Notes:
Update on where I'm at in Shippuden: the new Team 10 is heading out to find Hidan and Kakuzu again (we're skipping filler arcs btw pfpfp)
Ty for reading and I hope you have a lovely day! <3
Chapter Text
Shikamaru and Choji, unfortunately, spent the whole time before class began complaining about homework rather than joking with each other, much to Sasuke’s annoyance.
He dropped his cheek into his hand with a bored sigh as he watched the other students milling about their desks waiting for Iruka to show up. Sakura, surprisingly, had gone to Ino first, opting to simply wave cheerfully at Sasuke instead of starting a conversation. Naruto had gone over to interrupt the girls, however, and was now engaged in a heated argument about ramen flavors with Sakura. Ino had given up on pulling Sakura’s attention back and had instead turned to chat with Kiba, both playing with Akamaru. Hinata seemed to be trying valiantly to get Naruto’s attention, but her quiet stammers were lost over Naruto’s loud voice.
On the other side of the room, Shino sat behind Shikamaru and Choji, reading a book and nodding with interest every so often. Sasuke wondered distantly if there was any chance the book was from the Land of Wind.
When Iruka did enter the classroom, morning classes went without much excitement, which was just how Sasuke liked it. He could quietly take in information, and when the lessons were hard enough, even Sakura was invested enough to not send beaming smiles back at him, which meant he could let his expression soften to neutral rather than cold.
But the day took a turn when the afternoon had practical lessons, and Iruka announced that it would be group substitution jutsu training. Sasuke practically groaned.
“You’ll be in teams of two,” Iruka explained, lifting a foam ball out of a box on his desk. “One person will lightly toss this ball at their partner, and said partner will try to substitute themselves with one of the provided logs by the side of the training area before the ball hits them. Let’s head out!”
“Iruka Sensei?” Choji asked, shoving his hand in the air, and Iruka smiled.
“Yes, you can pick your partners,” Iruka said, and Sasuke was up immediately. He had a very narrow window here to avoid a very complicated next hour.
“Hinata!” he said as he arrived behind her, and she startled out of what she had been saying, which was another attempt to get Naruto’s attention. Sasuke put his hands on her shoulders and began steering her towards the door. “Let’s be partners.”
“Uh- okay?” Hinata managed, confused, but he wasn’t sure why she would be. She or Shino were his usual go-to partners in group activities, since Sasuke hadn’t heard Shino speak a single word to anyone in all the years they’d been classmates, and Hinata was too shy to even befriend Naruto, who she’d been trying to get close to for years now, let alone befriending someone like Sasuke.
As he practically pushed Hinata out the door after Iruka, he heard Sakura go, “oh, good luck out there Sasuke!” and Ino, rather loudly, complain, “girl, have some self respect.”
Ino had originally joined Sakura in her crush of Sasuke, but, unlike Sakura, Sasuke’s constant cold rudeness had led her to drop her attentions pretty quickly. For a while, Sasuke had been curious about her clan’s powers; mind transfer could easily have been the compulsion jutsu Itachi had learned for Sasuke’s curse, after all, but a bit of research into the matter had dispelled that theory. The Yamanaka family’s technique was genetic, passed down through their sky blue eyes- an optical jutsu that was incompatible with any other similar technique, which meant no one with a sharingan could also use mind transfer jutsu. So that meant it couldn’t be his brother’s jutsu, which put Sasuke firmly back in square one.
He heard Naruto cheerfully say, “we can be partners, Sakura!”, and Ino scoffed, “as if! Sakura, let’s team up!”
“Yeah, okay!” Sakura said brightly. “We can stand next to Sasuke!”
“You’re hopeless,” Ino groaned.
Outside, Sasuke tried to avoid this fate by standing beside Shino, who’d teamed up with the currently very animatedly talking Kiba. Shikamaru and Choji were on his other side, and Naruto had ended up paired with Iruka rather than another student. Iruka tossed one ball to each team, and Sasuke caught his and turned his attention back to Hinata only to find pink in his peripheral vision.
He startled and turned to find that Sakura had shoved herself and Ino between Sasuke’s and Shino’s groups, and he scowled. She simply beamed and waved.
Sasuke opted to simply huff and turn back to Hinata, who was watching Iruka expectantly.
“Okay everyone!” Iruka called, pointing. “The logs are here, so this is where you’ll be aiming your substitution! There’s one pile per team, so try to stay in that pile’s area. We don’t want to be interfering with any of our fellow ninjas’ hard work.”
Sasuke nodded and turned to Hinata, who gasped and turned her attention too.
“Ready?” Iruka called, and multiple people lifted their foam balls. “Begin!”
Sasuke wound up and threw with a bit too much force, and Hinata shrieked and ducked rather than trying any jutsu. Ino substituted before Sakura’d even thrown, and Sakura’s ball bounced off the log and hit the ground. Shikamaru’s lazy toss didn’t even make it to Choji, who blinked at it, then at Iruka, and then substituted anyway. Kiba’s substitution didn’t even happen, and Naruto tried to jump towards the ball to substitute and instead landed flat on his face.
“Ino, Choji, excellent work,” Iruka said as both returned to their places. “If I had to be especially picky, I’d say Ino, you should wait until the projectile is already thrown. If you’re too early, an enemy ninja would see and simply stop their attack. Choji, if it doesn’t look like the projectile is going to hit you, don’t waste extra chakra dodging. Conserve it instead. But both of you did excellent work in the technical performance, so well done. Okay, now let’s give our partners a try.”
Sasuke turned his attention to Hinata, who was practically hugging the foam ball. He wondered what Iruka would think of his own substitution. Would he even watch? Sasuke usually did well enough that Iruka didn’t give commentary; the teacher probably didn’t need to waste time watching. Even if Sasuke really wanted someone to watch him.
“Sorry, Sasuke. Maybe next time.”
Sasuke rubbed the back of his hand over his forehead with a frown.
“Ready?” Iruka called. “Go!”
Hinata tossed the ball gently, but at least it looked like it was going to hit Sasuke’s chest, unlike Shikamaru’s. A split second before it hit him, he substituted, and landed atop the pile of logs with only a slightly stuffy feeling in his head from the rush of the movement. He straightened up and heard a clatter of wood to his side from Sakura’s substitution, followed by another clatter from Iruka’s.
“Excellent work, Sasuke and Sakura,” Iruka said as a second later, Shikamaru appeared. “Shikamaru, well done, but you’re a bit late, though I’m sure you know. A late substitution however could still be effective for an escape.”
“What a drag,” Shikamaru muttered as Iruka clapped once as he returned to his spot.
“Okay, everyone,” he called, “let’s try throwing at whatever pace we feel comfortable- let me know if you’d like any help!”
Sasuke supposed that answered the question of whether he’d get commentary. He strode back to his own spot, Sakura skipping beside him.
“You did super well, Sasuke!” she said cheerfully. “You must be practicing!”
“Mm,” he said with feigned disinterest, reaching his spot and lifting the foam ball again, eyes landing back on Hinata. He wished Sakura would stand on the other side of Shino so he didn’t have to do things like this.
“Can you actually try on this one instead of wasting our time again?” he called to Hinata before throwing the foam ball as hard as he could towards her face.
“Sasuke!” Ino scolded as Hinata simply dodged again. “Can you quit being such a jerk all the time?”
“If she’s not taking it seriously, why is she even here?” Sasuke shot back as Kiba scowled, “dude, lay off. We just started.”
“I think it’s excellent,” Sakura said, crossing her arms with a nod, and Sasuke tsked. Seriously?!
She continued, “he believes in Hinata, so he’s trying to bring out the best in her! Isn’t that sweet?”
Sasuke turned to her, reddening. “That isn’t-!”
He was interrupted by the foam ball colliding with his cheek with enough force it made him reel slightly.
Hinata gasped and squeaked, “I’m sorry, I thought you were ready-!” but Ino laughed aloud and shouted, “ha! Nice throw, Hinata!”
“Yeah!” Choji laughed as Shikamaru chimed in a disinterested, “nice throw,” as he missed his own again by several feet to Choji’s left.
“Yeah, go Hinata!” Kiba laughed as Shino nodded and Akamaru sounded like he was laughing too, and even Sakura hid a snicker behind her hand, and Sasuke just felt his flush creeping deeper across his face, his hands twitching at his sides.
The worst blow of the group, however, came when Naruto, who had not performed a single successful substitution in his life, pointed at Sasuke and laughed aloud with a, “ha! You look like an idiot!”
Sasuke grabbed the ball off the ground and threw it at Naruto now, and it slammed into his face, causing the boy to squawk as he tripped back and landed on his butt on the ground.
“Sasuke,” Iruka scolded, and Sasuke was livid that he was the first to be reprimanded for this. “You shouldn’t be using our training tools to attack someone. Everyone else, you shouldn’t make fun of your fellow ninja’s misfortunes.”
“Come on!” Naruto complained as he stood, and Sasuke locked his gaze on the boy, his chest heaving now. “Sasuke’s supposed to have super genius eyeball jutsu, and we can’t even tease him for not seeing something two feet in front of-?”
Sasuke didn’t realize he’d run forwards until his fist connected with the side of Naruto’s head.
The entire class shouted or gasped as Naruto went sprawling with a squawk, and Iruka sharply snapped, “Sasuke!” but he didn’t care.
Naruto was back up quickly, and he jumped forward to tackle Sasuke, but Sasuke was ready for him. He substituted with the ball he’d thrown before, and when Naruto yelped aloud in surprise as Sasuke appeared behind him, Sasuke slammed a kick into the boy’s back, sending him crashing back down to the ground until Iruka arrived and physically lifted Sasuke into the air with an arm wrapped around his middle.
“Get off me!” Sasuke snapped, kicking, but Iruka didn’t do so until he had moved several paces away from Naruto, who stood again, rubbing mud off his goggles.
“Sasuke, apologize for hitting Naruto,” Iruka said sternly. “And Naruto, apologize for teasing Sasuke.”
“Huh?” Naruto asked, pointing at himself. The rest of the class had gone quiet, watching the exchange, and Sasuke scowled, genuine anger licking up his insides and heating the spot over his heart where his curse rested. Naruto continued, “why do I have to apologize?!”
Sasuke simply shoved away from Iruka and stormed back towards the school, not bothering sticking around for another comment about the power behind his eyes. He ignored Iruka calling for him to come back and instead turned at the gate to the main schoolyard, not stopping until he reached a secluded bench under a tree by the building. He sat with a huff, pulling his knees to his chest and glaring at the ground in front of him.
He hadn’t activated his sharingan a single time in the years since he lost his family. Some part of him had always feared that the sharingan was tied to his curse, that as soon as he used it, that would be the activation required for his brother’s compulsion jutsu to take over, that as soon as he used the power he’d once been so proud of, he would lose himself.
So he supposed his brother took that away from him too.
It wasn’t fair. He didn’t want to be hated, didn’t want to be someone the class enjoyed watching suffer. He was doing all of this for them, knowing fully well that one of his classmates was the most likely to be in danger.
He dropped his cheek onto his knees and glowered. Why should he care if they hated him? He should be glad that his plan was working, glad he could successfully push them away so much. So why did he feel so empty? Like there was nothing inside his chest except a jutsu curse.
Even Sakura had laughed. He sniffed slightly.
“Sasuke.”
“I’m not apologizing,” Sasuke said immediately, and he heard Iruka sigh and sit beside him.
“He shouldn’t have brought up your sharingan,” Iruka said, and Sasuke stilled. “But you shouldn’t have punched him. He might not even notice that you don’t use it anymore. He didn’t mean any cruelty.”
“I don’t use it because I don’t need to use it,” Sasuke said flatly. “They’re all much worse than me, so there’s no point in wasting my energy.”
“Sasuke,” Iruka exhaled, though he didn’t sound impatient. “It’s okay to still be angry. I still get angry too. Sometimes I miss my parents so much it makes me feel sick. But taking that anger out on other people never makes it feel any better.”
Sasuke didn’t look over at him, but rather kept his glare locked on the grass. “I’m still not apologizing.” His voice sounded oddly thick.
Iruka simply watched him for a moment. “There’s a jonin in town with a sharingan, Kakashi Hatake. I’m curious if you would like to meet him. Maybe he can show you some of the good things a sharingan is capable of.”
Sasuke blinked a few times. He’d never heard that before. The name sounded familiar, somehow, but he couldn’t place it- not that it mattered. He’d know if there was really someone in town with a sharingan.
Sharingans were a genetically passed down ability attached to the user’s eyes. Only the Uchihas had this power, and every Uchiha but two had been killed. Sasuke was certain of that. The only way for someone else to have a sharingan would be to cut out their own eye and shove an Uchiha’s eye in its place. Whoever this Kakashi guy was was probably lying. “Why would I want to meet someone like that?”
Iruka placed a comforting hand on Sasuke’s shoulder, and the boy froze at the touch, unfamiliar and immediately overwhelming. “Any power is just that: power. It’s not inherently good or bad on its own; it can be used for anything you want. Some people might use it for horrible things, yes, but that doesn’t mean that’s all it can ever be. You don’t have to be afraid of yourself, Sasuke. I’m sure you can do wonderful things with your sharingan.”
You’re wrong , Sasuke thought, his eyes wavering, and it was suddenly too much again. All my sharingan can do is wait for my curse to make me a murderer, and then it’ll become something much worse before it sends me out to finally die to my brother.
But before Sasuke could even string together a weak and insulting reply, their conversation was interrupted by a shouted, “Iruka Sensei!!”
“Naruto, I told you to practice with Hinata!” Iruka called crossly, turning his head. “Don’t butt in-“
But butting in seemed to be Naruto’s biggest skill as he ran to land in front of them with a big smile. “I know how Sasuke and I can apologize to each other! Let’s get each other ramen!”
“Naruto,” Iruka scolded as Sasuke quickly, and hopefully discreetly, rubbed at his eyes. “You should apologize to Sasuke by actually telling him you’re sorry-“
“No. Ramen’s fine,” Sasuke said, leaning to finally get his shoulder away from Iruka’s hand. Naruto was someone he had no concerns about a friendship happening with, which meant a stupid outing like this could get Iruka to drop the whole incident without others seeing Sasuke apologize for something and start warming up to him. He had to solidify his resolve here. No wavering.
This was a service to the Village.
And a slight to his brother, too. Distantly, Sasuke wondered if Itachi was out there somewhere waiting for him, angry that he’d taken so long to come challenge him. Somehow, the thought gave little comfort.
“Really?” Iruka asked, surprised at Sasuke’s response as he glanced between the two, and Naruto snickered with a thumbs up.
“See Iruka?” he said proudly. “Ramen can solve any problem.”
Sasuke simply glared at him, but Iruka gave a kind laugh.
“Well, if you’re both in agreement, I suppose I can take you to Ichiraku after class.”
“Huh? We have to finish class?” Naruto gaped.
“Of course we have to finish class!” Iruka replied before turning to Sasuke. “Shall we go back?”
Sasuke nodded and stood, glaring to the side rather than meeting either of the others’ gazes, and he trailed behind them back to where the other students were still practicing.
Hinata ran immediately over to Sasuke, her eyes wide as she stammered, “I’m r-really sorry for hitting you-“ but Sasuke waved her off with a, “whatever.”
“Are you okay, Sasuke?” Sakura asked with her own wide and innocent eyes when he and Hinata returned to their spots.
“Yes,” he said shortly. “They’re just foam-“
Their conversation was interrupted by Sakura suddenly being replaced by a log as Ino’s ball bounced off it, and Ino complained, “aw, I thought I had you that time!”
As the lesson progressed, Sasuke and Sakura both completed every substitution attempt they made, and Naruto did none.
Shino’s substitutions seemed to be having difficulties accommodating for the insects he used with his technique, resulting in multiple instances where Shino substituted without bringing his insects with him, leaving a swarm of confused bugs that made half the students scream as Iruka had to pause class until Shino could collect them all again.
Ino began getting the hang of her timing pretty quickly, and Kiba’s substitutions started actually working around halfway through their allotted time, both to Iruka’s delight. Everyone cheered when Shikamaru actually managed to hit Choji with the ball, much to the boy’s annoyance.
As the lesson edged near its end, though, Hinata was still struggling. She’d instinctually dodge Sasuke’s throws rather than trust that substitution would work, and eventually Iruka came over to talk to her.
“I’ve seen you do plenty of substitutions in class before,” he encouraged, “so I know you’ve got it in you. Don’t worry if the ball ends up hitting you, or if you mistime it. Just give it a shot, okay?”
“Yeah, you can do it, Hinata,” Naruto shouted. “You’ve got so many skills!”
“N-Naruto?” Hinata gasped, staring at him, and Iruka held up his own foam ball with a smile.
“Mind if I try a throw?” he asked, and Hinata positioned herself with a serious nod. Sasuke watched as Iruka gently tossed the ball through the air, and Hinata braced herself. The ball bounced lightly off her chest, and several seconds later, she substituted; very late, but the first time she’d genuinely attempted it that day.
Iruka perked up as Naruto cheered and Ino called, “nice work Hinata!”
“Yes, excellent job!” Iruka praised, striding over to her, and Ino leaned to Kiba, whispering in a loud voice, “all it took was no Sasuke,” to which Kiba snorted a laugh, and Sasuke glared at them.
The school day ended when the lesson wrapped up, and Iruka walked around with a box for everyone to return their supplies to as Sakura and Shino helped pick up the logs.
Sasuke had almost forgotten about the apology ramen he’d agreed to until Naruto arrived beside him with a massive grin.
“What do you want?” Sasuke asked with irritation in his voice, and Naruto gave a thumbs up.
“Ramen!” he said brightly. “Iruka’s treat, remember?”
“You two are getting ramen?” Sakura asked, suddenly arriving at Sasuke’s side with an armful of logs. “Can I come with?”
“Of course!” Naruto said excitedly, his eyes widening at the very idea.
“Naruto,” Iruka said as he arrived too, the box tucked against his side. “Don’t just agree without asking Sasuke-“
“Yeah, she can come,” Sasuke said immediately. Having a third party there would likely make Iruka unwilling to bring up what he considered to be a sensitive subject, which would be an easy way to dodge any more consoling. And the easiest way to get Sakura off of Sasuke was to get her and Naruto in the same place together. Then, hopefully, their bickering would draw most of Iruka’s attention, and then all Sasuke had to do was quietly eat some ramen and go home without Iruka pressing this issue any further.
Iruka looked surprised by Sasuke’s response, giving a confused, “really?” but his reaction paled in comparison to Sakura’s.
Her entire face lit up as she cheered, “thanks! I’m so glad!” and practically threw herself around Sasuke’s arm to hug it, dropping the logs she’d been holding in the process. He tugged his arm back, overwhelmed immediately by the contact. He hadn’t been hugged in a very long time. In fact, he’d barely been touched , and Iruka had already pressed against his comfort level by putting his hand on his shoulder earlier.
Sakura, as usual, appeared undeterred by his rejection as she instead scooped up the fallen logs and asked Iruka to send a teacher to tell her parents she’d be home later before launching into chatter about how impressive Sasuke’s substitutions had been as Iruka took the logs from her to put them away.
“You did it well too!” Sasuke finally snapped at her, frustration leaking into his voice. “Why’re you only focusing on me?”
“Yeah, Sakura, you got every one!” Naruto said, and Sakura scowled at him.
“You’d think anyone was impressive! You didn’t get it once!” she said, and Naruto jabbed his thumb into his chest with a grin.
“Yeah, but I’ll get the next one I try! Believe it!”
“I’ll believe it when I see it!”
“Well you’re gonna see it!”
Sasuke let them argue as he stared up at the sky, waiting for Iruka. There were much fewer clouds today than yesterday. He wondered if Shikamaru and Choji would still go cloud watching or not.
The other students began to filter out of the building to leave for the day. Kiba was animatedly talking with Shino and Ino, who leaned to wave and shout, “see you tomorrow Sakura!”
Sakura turned and waved back, and Kiba leaned to whisper something to Ino that made the girl laugh aloud. Sasuke opted to glare the other direction.
When Iruka returned from the school building, he had the three kids’ backpacks and a smile. “Are you ready to go?”
“Yeah! Ramen always tastes the best after hard work!” Naruto said, bounding forward.
“I bet it tastes better after successful work,” Sakura snarked, and Naruto turned to stick his tongue out at her.
“Now, Sakura,” Iruka scolded gently, “any genuine effort is always worth rewarding.”
“Yeah, yeah,” she said, rolling her eyes before turning back to Sasuke. “Do you get ramen often?”
Naruto made Sasuke’s job much easier by literally stepping between them to answer, “all the time!”
“I wasn’t asking you!” Sakura snapped as Sasuke hid a smile by pretending to glare up at the clouds again. This was going to be a long afternoon of forcing himself to stay cold and rude, but he would do whatever he had to. He wouldn’t slip up, just like he hadn’t slipped up, all these years.
Sasuke took a breath in and out and firmly settled his glare onto his face as he set his shoulders and began the walk to Ichiraku Ramen.
Notes:
There is a reason why all of the current academy students are future Konoha 9 members, but it doesn't get explained until a little later pfpfpf
Also everyone's reactions to Sasuke getting hit by the foam ball is a jjk reference lol
Update on where I'm at in Shippuden: Sasuke just recruited Jugo to his team, and it looks like Kakashi backstory is up next!
Ty for reading and I hope you have a lovely day! <3
Chapter Text
Ichiraku Ramen was a small place, just a dingy little stand with a counter tucked away by a few hanging tarps.
“Naruto! Iruka!” the man behind the counter said warmly when they arrived, and Naruto ran forward to sit at one of the stools. “Oh, and two new friends!”
“We’re not friends,” Sasuke said quickly, a tremor of fear spiking through him at the man’s mistake, but he was surprised to hear that Sakura had said the same thing, her unimpressed expression aimed at Naruto.
Iruka gave a sheepish laugh. “Classmates of his.”
“Yeah, Sakura and Sasuke!” Naruto said, and the man brightened up and leaned forward.
“ The Sakura, eh?” he asked with a knowing expression, and Sakura snapped, “what’s that mean? What are you telling people?!” and the bickering was off to an early start.
Sasuke took his time considering the menu; he should try some new things, probably, and then try to make the ones he ended up liking in his own kitchen. He’d managed to successfully sit at the end of the group, Sakura between him and Naruto, to hopefully optimize the pair’s bickering, but Sasuke’s periphery could still feel someone sitting in the seat on his other side.
Or, more accurately, some ghost. He opted to ignore it.
“Mr. Ramen Man!” Sakura said, leaning forward. “Can we use our own bowls for your ramen?”
“Hm?” the man asked. “I suppose that’s fine- heh, Mr. Ramen Man. I like that.”
“That’s a perfect nickname,” Naruto said with wide eyes as Sakura turned to Sasuke, who remembered to glare at her.
“You should use the new bowl you got!” she said cheerfully, and he reddened.
“What?” he asked, his grip tightening on the strap of his bag. The childish cat face bowl that was definitely not the sort of thing a harsh and cynical person would be carrying around all day? No thanks.
“So you do agree it’s for ramen!” Naruto said victoriously, pointing at Sakura before turning to Iruka with an almost insulted, “she said to put school supplies in a ramen bowl!”
“The audacity,” Iruka said with a fake gasp, and Sakura gave a genuine gasp.
“I just said you could! ” she insisted, and Sasuke was almost home free again except for the worker turning towards him.
“I’d be happy to use your bowl if you have one,” he said pleasantly, and Sasuke considered it. With the other three occupied with their conversation, making a fuss over not wanting to use the bowl would just draw unnecessary attention back to himself. So he reached into his bag and handed over the wrapped up bowl, and the man took it with a nod.
“I’ll be very careful with it,” he said, and Sasuke glared to the side with a, “whatever.”
His gaze aversion unfortunately put Itachi’s ghost into his line of sight, so he distinctly turned back to the others. He wasn’t making any friends here. He was just…getting dinner, and people his age happened to be here. It was different. It was safe. It was fine.
“So, Sasuke,” Iruka said, shattering Sasuke’s hard work of being unnoticed. The man’s voice was pleasant, and Sasuke glared at him. “What made you pick that bowl?”
“I just wanted one,” Sasuke huffed, turning his glare back towards the shop where the two cooks were working.
“He bought it this morning!” Sakura said cheerfully, rooting around in her bag. “And that reminds me- we never opened these!”
Sakura produced three packets of trading cards, and Naruto perked up.
“Oh, hey, I’ve seen those! We can each open one!”
He reached forward to do so, but Sakura leaned away from him and further into Sasuke, who bristled at the proximity.
“Hey, back off, they’re for me and Sasuke,” Sakura retorted, but Naruto crossed his arms.
“There’s three ,” he pointed out, and Sakura nodded.
“Yeah, ‘cause I assumed Sasuke would throw out the first one, so I got him two!” she explained happily, and Sasuke flushed.
“You think I’d throw out something you bought with your own money?” he asked, his voice distinctly hurt. He’d always hated being wasteful, even before, and -though he wouldn’t be admitting it out loud until his curse was nothing but an unpleasant memory- he couldn’t help but treasure anything that he received that he hadn’t had to get for himself. It almost never happened, usually just when Iruka would bring in treats for the class to reward them when everyone did well on a test, but whenever it did happen, Sasuke found himself always selfishly enjoying it.
“Yeah, Sasuke’s a dumb jerk, but he’s not that mean,” Naruto said, reaching his hands out in a grabby motion. “C’mon, I want to open one!”
“Naruto, don’t call people dumb jerks,” Iruka said, and Naruto turned to argue that that had actually been a compliment, leaving Sakura free to turn to Sasuke.
“So what do you think?” she asked, and Sasuke wished he wasn’t cursed.
“I’m not really interested,” he lied. “Trading cards are for kids.”
“Yeah, and so are cat shaped bowls.”
Sasuke pinked. Sakura continued, “c’mon, it’ll be fun!”
“Pass,” Sasuke said flatly, and Naruto turned back around and stuck his tongue out at Sasuke.
“You’re no fun sometimes,” he complained, and Sasuke scoffed. Yes, that’s the goal , he thought rather smugly. Though, somehow, that smugness felt a bit more hollow than it once had.
“Okay, fine, you can open one,” Sakura said, handing Naruto a pack and sternly warning him, “don’t expect this to be a habit! Buy your own next time.”
“Sure thing!” Naruto said excitedly, tugging the packaging open and sliding the cards out. “Hm, let’s see…here’s a plant thingy…a different plant thingy…what is this, Iruka Sensei?”
“Looks like a paper crane,” Iruka said pleasantly, and Naruto pulled the card back to himself, studying the picture.
“Ooh, origami!” Sakura said with excitement, leaning over to look too. “Wait, is that one in the picture made out of cheese?”
Sasuke resisted a strong urge to investigate himself.
Naruto laughed aloud. “It totally is! Ha! Hm, sooo here’s a yelling cockroach, a big frog wearing a bathrobe, a cat with fire jutsu-“
“A fire cat?” Sasuke asked before he could stop himself, leaning forward to look. That was the one Shikamaru wanted- maybe Sasuke could trade Naruto for it and get it to Shikamaru somehow. His eyes strayed towards the extra card pack sitting so innocently on the counter.
“Yeah, look!” Naruto said, shoving it in Sasuke’s face as if the boy would be able to even see it this close.
Sasuke’s mind provided a plan quickly. “Bet I can find a better one in my pack than that.”
“You’re on!” Naruto said as Sakura happily slid the pack over the table.
“And Naruto will pay for the winner’s ramen!” she said as Naruto squawked, “huh?!” and Iruka chuckled.
Sasuke and Sakura opened their packets in unison and began rifling through them. Sasuke had no idea what even constituted ‘better’ for this competition, but he just needed to find one that looked cool to trade with Naruto. Though, now that he thought about it, was there a way to get the card to Shikamaru without giving away that he’d been the one behind it? It wasn’t very likely. Naruto or Sakura would probably talk enough about this for someone like Shikamaru to piece together what had happened.
He opted against trading for the fire cat. Maybe he could get Naruto to talk about it in front of Shikamaru, and then-
His train of thought was interrupted by Sakura laughing aloud, and both boys turned to her.
“Sakura? What happened?” Naruto asked, and Sakura triumphantly held one of her cards forward for them all to see.
“It’s Sasuke!” she said, brandishing the card, and Sasuke squinted at it.
It appeared to be a spiky black sea urchin with grumpy eyes, the name Meguro written across the top in tight but swooping letters.
“Me?” Sasuke asked, scowling, and Naruto laughed, “yeah, it so does look like you! You’re even making the same face!”
Sasuke tsked, but Sakura shoved the card into his chest, beaming.
“Check it out!” she said before turning back to her own deck, and he scrambled a bit to catch it before it fell. He turned back forwards, examining it. There wasn’t much to the card, actually; it had a few special moves listed -he’d heard this was a fighting card game- including one about shooting its spikes as projectiles and one where it spun around to cause a whirlpool that rotated cards to different players.
“Hey, hey, hey, I’ve got a great idea!” Naruto said, interrupting Sasuke’s thoughts. “Let’s play a round and fight each other! That way I’ll prove that my cards are the best and that I’m paying for nobody’s ramen!”
“Ooh, what do you think, Sasuke?” Sakura asked, leaning further into him, and he leaned away.
“Play on your own,” he said irritably. His lean had gotten him far too close to Itachi’s ghost.
“I thought you said you’d be better ,” Naruto dragged out the last word, and Sasuke glared at him as he continued. “Sounds to me like you’re all talk and too scared to take us on! A little scaredy fire cat!”
“No way,” Sakura said, shaking her head as Naruto giggled and brandished the fire cat card. “Sasuke’s no coward! You’ll join, right Sasuke?”
She turned to smile at him, but her expression faltered at his, and she added, “er- you okay?”
The short answer to that was no , but Sasuke fought to bring his face back under control and, through his brother’s laughter ringing in his ears, he gritted out, “I’m not a coward.”
Sakura glanced at Iruka, who was shifting in his seat, and Sasuke needed to pull himself together now if he didn’t want them to ask about it, but, somehow, Naruto came to his rescue.
“Then prove it!” he said, slamming down a card with a determined grin. “I play frog wearing bathrobe, which means I get a card from your deck! Pay up!”
“Naruto-“ Iruka started, but Sasuke seized the opportunity immediately.
“Take one,” he said, holding out his deck with an almost convincing sneer. “It’ll be the only useful card you have all game.”
“Oh yeah? Well don’t be crying when I beat you without even needing to use this card- believe it!” Naruto said, grabbing a card from Sasuke’s deck and pulling it into his own, staring it down intently.
“So- are we playing?” Sakura asked, glancing between the two boys with hesitation.
Sasuke dropped his elbow against the table and practically drawled, “well you two are losing ,” and Sakura’s expression shifted.
“Is that so?” she asked smugly, pulling a card from her own deck and slamming it down. “Then I’m going next- one head of the three-headed fire dragon! Which means everybody here has to burn one card apiece. Put ‘em in your discard piles, boys.”
“Huh?!” Naruto exclaimed, staring at the twisting dragon design on Sakura’s card, and she smiled sweetly at him.
Sasuke scanned his own cards, determined to not be undone. He knew the basic rules of the game from overhearing Shikamaru and Choji; each card had its own powerup upon being played, but it couldn’t use any attacks the same turn it was played. So there was no benefit to putting a generic fighter out; he needed something that would make a big entry.
“Featherbull,” he said finally, placing the card down. “Which skips past the next two players…oh, I guess that means I get to play again, hm?”
He sent a smug smile to the others, and Naruto scowled as Sakura propped herself up to read the card. Sasuke instinctually rotated it so she could read better, his attention on his next move.
“Well, for my attack play, obviously I’m going to attack Naruto,” he said, and Naruto snapped, “what do you mean, obviously?! Sakura’s card just put yours in card jail!” and Sakura gave a dramatic laugh.
“Everyone knows you save the best fight for last,” she said. “Sasuke knows that our brawl will be the greatest, so it must be battled long and hard with the perfect opponent card-“
“I’m playing rock with legs,” Sasuke interrupted her. “It goes into an opponent’s roster and blocks one of their cards from attacking. Sakura, would you put this one on your fire dragon head?”
He sent his smuggest smile yet as Sakura snatched the card out of his hand with a huff, and Naruto pointed and laughed at her.
Sasuke perhaps got a bit carried away as the game continued. He, Sakura, and Naruto were all deeply committed to winning the meaningless competition, pausing only to eat their ramen bowls when they arrived. Sasuke expected Naruto down his as fast as possible, but the boy instead declared that good ramen must be savored before falling into an argument with Sakura about the most recent move he’d played trying to sneak in an extra card while the others were distracted by food.
Sasuke took the arguing as an opportunity to peacefully enjoy his ramen. It tasted better than his usually did; probably some ingredient this shop used on that menu. Or maybe it just tasted nicer because of the cat bowl. He snickered at the idea and opted to ignore the likely answer that it tasted better simply because he hadn’t made it alone in his house.
Once their ramen had finished, however, they were back locked into their game. Iruka had simply left them to it back when they’d begun, himself instead pulling a book from his own backpack and reading it casually, though he glanced over every once in a while, a small smile on his face.
“Hm, well…” Sakura said, examining her remaining cards closely. She definitely had an advantage, unfortunately, having four cards still in play on the table compared to Sasuke’s two and Naruto’s one, but Sasuke didn’t intend to go down without a fight.
“C’mon, take your turn already,” Naruto complained, crossing his arms and leaning forward. “I’ve got a really good move up next, believe it!”
Sasuke scoffed aloud. Naruto’s only remaining card had one total move, which was literally, “yell,” which did one hit of damage from the in-game reasoning of it being annoying to the other active cards. It was quite fitting, actually.
“Hm, well that’s a shame, Naruto,” Sakura said, “because I don’t think you’re going to get to take it. I play the Sasuke sea urchin, Meguro, who can rotate one card from everyone’s hand.”
Sasuke’s eyes widened slightly, staring down at his own two cards. One of them was some henchman card, which meant it could do pretty much nothing without his second. He has a suspicion he knew where Sakura’s move was going.
“So,” Sakura said, “I have to take a card from my left, and Naruto only has one -thanks for that- so I’ll take the…yelling cockroach.”
“My ally!” Naruto shouted, slamming his hands against the table in distress, and Sakura pulled the card to herself with a beam.
“And then I move the Rock With Legs card Sasuke so generously gave me at the start of this game back into Sasuke’s roster,” she said, sliding the card over and turning her beaming smile now to Sasuke’s scowl, “which blocks his card. Very sad. And then I’ll move Sasuke’s henchman card to Naruto, and since the henchman can’t do anything without another card and Sasuke’s card’s blocked, I guess that means no one else can play, so…”
Sakura leaned back, jabbing her thumbs against her chest and declaring, “I win!”
“How’d you do that?!” Naruto squawked, staring at their three hands of cards, and Sasuke tsked. He hadn’t thought Sakura would use Meguro’s rotation move, since she’d end up stuck with Naruto’s dumb yelling card -which was the only one he’d had for several turns by now- and the fact that she’d outsmarted him made him flush.
“Congratulations, Sakura,” Iruka said, looking up from his book with a smile. “Sounds like you all fought valiantly.”
“Mhm!” Sakura said, nodding excitedly. “That was fun!”
“Of course you’d think that,” Sasuke said, crossing his arms with a small pout, and Sakura giggled as she rearranged their cards back to each person.
“Aw, don’t be so grumpy all the time,” she said, shifting to rifle through her own cards and pulling the sea urchin one out again. She placed the card in front of her face and put on a voice, “I’m Sasuke and I’m gonna storm away now because I can’t handle losing to a girl, grumble grumble grumble.”
“I don’t sound like that!” Sasuke snapped as Naruto cackled with laughter, his previous displeasure forgotten. Sasuke huffed. “And what does you being a girl have to do with anything?”
Naruto grabbed Sakura’s hand and pulled the card in front of his own face, putting on his own, much worse impression. “I’m Sasuke and I’m gonna storm away now because I can’t handle that the next hokage Naruto had better cards that me-“
“You lost too, idiot!” Sasuke snapped as both Naruto and Sakura dissolved into giggles as if this was the most hilarious joke they’d ever heard.
Sasuke, however, refused to be outdone and instead picked up the yelling cockroach card Sakura had used from Naruto, holding it in front of his face and mocking, “well I’m Naruto, and I still think I’m gonna be the best even though all I did for the last five turns was yell. Believe it! ”
“I was gonna win! Believe it!” Naruto protested with a point as Sakura simply laughed harder, waving her hand in Sasuke’s direction, and he grinned.
Sakura straightened up, wiping a tear of laughter from her eye and glancing at the setting sun behind her. “Aw, it’s so late already! I should probably head out- thanks for inviting me!”
She beamed at Sasuke, who flicked the card in his hand back towards Naruto with a secretly-pleased, “yeah, whatever,” and Naruto gave a thumbs up and said, “we should get ramen again sometime!”
“Only if you guys keep letting me beat you,” Sakura said with a mischievous glint in her eye as she turned and handed the sea urchin card to Sasuke.
He blinked at it, surprised, and Sakura explained, “come on, you’ve gotta keep it. It’s like looking in an aquatic mirror.”
“Oh, shut up,” Sasuke said, snatching the card with another grin, and Sakura hopped off the stool and tugged her bag on.
“Oh, and good job with the substitution jutsu today, Sasuke!” she said brightly as she headed to the street with a wave. “Your practice has really been paying off!”
Sasuke blinked at her, surprised, but she didn’t wait for a response, simply striding purposefully off to the street. Naruto perked up and turned to Iruka.
“Hey, hey, hey, Iruka!” he said, slapping at the man’s arm. “Can we go practice substitution jutsu some more? I know I’m gonna get it this time!”
‘ Believe it! ’ Sasuke mouthed as Naruto said it, and Iruka put a hand on the boy’s head with a kind, “sure, Naruto, I’ve got some time- Sasuke, did you want to stay any longer?”
“No,” Sasuke said, standing himself now and lifting his bag to pack his new cards into it before taking his ramen bowl.
“Would you like us to walk you home?”
“No.” Sasuke turned to duck under the hanging tarps, hoping to leave before Iruka remembered that they were technically supposed to be apologizing to each other here.
Once on the street, he exhaled, feeling notably more relaxed. That had gone much better than it could have, which was something he should celebrate. Maybe he could buy some dango on his way home? Or did he still have some from his most recent grocery run…?
The wind was a bit cold, blowing through the streets and making him pull tighter against himself. He hadn’t brought a coat with him this morning, not anticipating staying out so late after school. He wondered what renovation he should pick up now that the general store was essentially finished. There was still a back corner of the library that he’d never gotten to, even though he spent so much time in that building. That corner was more about fairy tales and legends from the Uchihas of the past- stories his parents would once tell him before bed.
Sasuke frowned at the thought. He didn’t particularly want to spend time among those stories. But- that wasn’t because it hurt Sasuke to do do. No, because that would mean Sasuke was weak, and he wasn’t weak. He just didn’t want to go into that corner because…um…because that big painting on the wall back there, the one of the moon princess and Madara Uchiha from one of those stories, was really fragile now after Itachi broke the frame when they were younger. It had been one of the only times his perfect brother had ever done anything wrong before…
Sasuke shook his head. No, it was just because that painting was old, super old, and so renovating around it could damage it. And Sasuke didn’t want to risk damaging a precious Uchiha heirloom, right? Of course not. So he’d stay away from that corner altogether. Maybe he could fix up one of the restaurants…
Sasuke let himself be lost in thought as he made the journey home, uninterrupted by any of the people he passed on the street.
“I’m home,” he told his empty house when he arrived at it, removing his shoes and stepping inside. His first stop was the kitchen, where he placed his new bowl in the sink to wash it, his eyes almost sleepily unfocused. He supposed he still got a bit tired from substitution jutsu; maybe he should practice more. Sakura seemed to think him practicing was essential.
He stifled a yawn as he rinsed his dish and looked around for a towel. Maybe his task for the day could be getting the bowl placed in the general store, and then he could work on some homework due later in the week and go to bed early. Though something felt different about this evening, different in a way he found he liked, and he wasn’t exactly eager to miss out on it by going to bed.
He realized that he hadn’t even taken off his bag when he came in, and he hypothesized that the different feeling was just sleepy confusion. He laughed a bit to himself at that, lifting the newly cleaned bowl and heading back outside, wondering if being dazed and confused was how Naruto felt most of the time. Though he supposed ‘sleepy’ really wasn’t any way to describe the endless energy levels of Naruto Uzumaki. Believe it.
Sasuke snickered.
When he arrived at the general store, he stepped inside with confidence, walking to the shelf he’d decided was the important one and placing the silly cat head bowl purposefully onto it. He took a step back to examine his work quizzically. It looked off, sitting alone on the shelf; he needed more items. Did he have anything else he could put next to it, even just temporarily…?
An idea entered his head, and he perked up, rooting through his bag until he found his goal.
The Meguro sea urchin card glared grumpily up at him, and he blinked at it a few times, the voices of Sakura and Naruto imitating him drifting through his head.
But, somehow, this time didn’t feel like all those times Itachi’s voice would ripple through his memory; Sakura’s and Naruto’s teases didn’t feel so cold, didn’t feel malicious at all, actually. They didn’t clench over his heart where his curse sat. Sasuke didn’t know what to make of that.
He placed the card on the shelf, propping it up as he examined it. The drawing was quite silly, the dark sea urchin glaring grumpily forward, and he couldn’t help but laugh.
Sakura and Naruto were right. It did look like him.
“You have such kind friends, Sasuke.”
Sasuke froze as the voice of his brother’s ghost stabbed a blade of ice through the previously warm and happy moment.
“They’re not my friends,” he said automatically. “I don’t have any friends.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes,” Sasuke said, gritting his teeth, his hands twitching, but a weight began forming in his chest. Had he let his guard down? He hadn’t even noticed that he’d stopped seeing his brother at Ichiraku, too focused on the game and the jokes among the three students, and suddenly Sasuke felt ill. Had he slipped up? No, there wasn’t any chance something so simple as one dinner was enough to be considered a friendship. Letting his guard down once wasn’t enough to undo all the work he’d done all these years. It was okay. He was safe. He hadn’t ruined everything by playing their game and laughing with them and allowing himself to feel happy from their company-
“They’re not my friends,” he repeated quietly, and Itachi’s reply landed the finishing blow to the evening he’d been so stupidly enjoying.
“Of course, Sasuke. If you really want to take that chance.”
Notes:
Back to Sakura POV next!
Update on where I'm at in Shippuden: we are in the middle of Deidara vs Sasuke
Ty for reading, and I hope you have a lovely day! <3
Chapter Text
Sakura arrived home to her apartment by throwing the door open and cheerfully half-singing, “guess where I was?”
Her parents looked over from their spot on the couch, her dad in the middle of reading as her mom was halfway through some long, handwritten list, probably about something from work.
“You’re pretty late,” Mom said, placing her elbow over the couch.
“Didn’t Iruka Sensei send anybody to tell you?” Sakura asked, straightening up midway through taking her bag off. “I told him to- maybe he forgot, it was while we were cleaning up-“
“No, no, one of the other teachers came by,” Dad said, standing with a smile. “But she didn’t say many details, so come on! Don’t leave us hanging!”
Dad limped over towards her, his smile growing bigger, and Sakura’s gaze lingered on the brace strapping up his leg. The ‘injury’ he’d received the same day news broke that the Nine-Tailed Fox was headed for their village, the injury that he’d cited to let him retire early from the anbu and avoid the fight.
Sakura pulled her most impressive acting to the forefront. She needed her cover to be strong, even with her parents.
This was all for her parents.
“I,” Sakura said, placing a dramatic hand on her chest, “was getting ramen with Sasuke Uchiha!”
Both parents lit up, though admittedly her dad more than her mom.
“How fun!” he exclaimed, clapping, and Mom leaned forward.
“Did he pay for your meal? Never trust a boy who won’t treat you to dinner,” she said with a friendly shake of her finger, and Dad laughed.
“Sweetheart, they’re just kids. It’s not like they have a big paycheck,” he said. “I can pay you back some if you had to cover it-“
“Oh, no, I didn’t have to pay at all,” she said, practically preening, and she hoped they didn’t find out that it was because Iruka paid rather than Sasuke.
“Really? What a kind boy, then,” Mom said as Sakura hopped over to her, pausing to hug Dad tightly as she did so. “You know, so many people seem to think he’s rude, but I can’t imagine the Sasuke from all your stories of him living down to that reputation.”
Sakura landed on the couch with a plop and managed to not laugh. Yeah, because the Sasuke from her stories was basically imaginary.
Although, he’d been acting oddly different all day; this morning, when he laughed with the crowd, and then during dinner, when he’d played a card game with them and actually laughed and joked and smiled . It was almost uncanny. She still hadn’t ruled out Ino’s mind transfer jutsu.
“Well, of course our girl would only choose the best of the best,” Dad said, dropping heavily down on Sakura’s other side and beaming at Mom. “She takes after me like that.”
Mom smiled back, and Sakura giggled, kicking her feet slightly as she continued, “but yeah, we got ramen and played a card game! It was super fun.”
Oddly enough, she didn’t really have to lie for this story; it had been fun. It felt strange to not embellish so much.
“Well I’m glad,” Dad said, leaning back against the couch. “But did you eat too much ramen to be too full for mochi?”
Sakura lit up. “No way, never! What flavor?”
“Strawberry, of course,” Dad said, ruffling up her hair behind her bow before making an unsuccessful attempt to stand up again. “Oh, why’d I sit back down- hey Sakura-?”
“I got it,” Sakura said, standing to take his hand and help heave him upright again. He certainly did seem to have a barely usable leg, but, then again, Sakura seemed madly in love with Sasuke Uchiha. She couldn’t let her guard down.
Mom stood too, walking behind them to the table, and asked, “what card game did you play?”
“It’s sort of like a ninja monster trading card fighting game?” Sakura said, sitting at the table. “Like each card has special moves and a health bar, and you try to get other cards out, ‘cause you win as soon as you’re the only player who can still make a move. And guess what?”
“Your analytical and strategic mind crushed Mr. Second-Best-at-Genjutsu?” Dad said, and Sakura bounced in place and pointed.
“Exactly!” she said as Mom sat in her chair too.
“Well, I’d expect nothing less from the brightest future genin in the Leaf village,” she said, placing her chin in her hand with a smile, and Sakura felt pride warming her cheeks.
“Thanks,” she said as Dad returned from the fridge and placed a plate of mochi in the middle of the table.
“Strawberry for my favorite strawberry,” he said, kissing the top of her pink hair, and she beamed, leaning forward to take one of the mochi balls.
“So, Sakura, what led to you and Sasuke getting dinner?” Mom asked, her voice calm, and Sakura thought hard.
Describing how she crashed what was most likely an Iruka-supervised ‘hey Naruto I’m sorry for punching you in the middle of class’ effort from Sasuke would probably not be the best option. “Well…we were finishing our substitution jutsu practice, and he mentioned getting ramen after school, so I asked if I could join. And he said he wanted me to!”
That part was technically pretty accurate. Sakura was still honestly confused as to why Sasuke had said she could tag along. Maybe her persistence was finally paying off, so he’d open up to her more, and that could only lead to good things.
“How sweet,” Dad said, taking a mochi ball himself as Mom nodded importantly, holding up a finger.
“That means next time, he should come to you first,” she said, and Sakura rolled her eyes.
“Mom,” she sighed, but Mom straightened up.
“You can’t be the only one initiating here,” she said, nodding again. “You have to make sure he wants you too. You’re far too wonderful to be chasing after someone who doesn’t care enough to do it back.”
“Mhm,” Dad said, nodding too as he took another bite, and Sakura laughed.
“Well, obviously ,” she said, as if that wasn’t what she did 99% of the time.
Sakura did feel a bit guilty about lying to her parents about this, but she knew it was for the best. The less they knew about Orochimaru, the better. Besides, if today’s trend of Sasuke-not-being-the-worst continued, maybe she wouldn’t have to lie so much.
“He and I both got all our substitution tries in class today,” Sakura said happily, leaning to grab another mochi. “I think we’re both gonna do really well on the final exam.”
“I know you’re gonna ace the final exam,” Dad said, leaning back. “And Sasuke will get a 99.9%, ideally.”
“And invite you for celebratory crepes,” Mom added with a serious nod, and Sakura grinned.
The trio chatted as the mochi pile got smaller and smaller until Mom stepped in to insist they not eat all of it at once, and Dad pouted as she sternly told him to put it away.
Eventually Sakura excused herself to her room, grabbing her bag again and heading down the hall of their apartment, curious if there was any chance she’d see a certain purple-twine-tied scroll on her desk.
But it was empty beyond a few books, a box of hair bows, and a small toy anbu soldier her dad had gotten for her before she was even born, back when he was still an active anbu himself. She tapped the toy soldier on the head with a smile and sat at her desk, rooting around in her bag for her new trading cards.
Ironically enough, when she’d started playing, she intended to let Sasuke win and then gush about how strong and smart and blah blah blah he was, but she’d gotten a bit carried away as they continued playing, and she’d almost forgotten that she didn’t actually like either Sasuke or Naruto.
The game had been genuinely fun, and teasing the boys had been even more so. She couldn’t help but laugh again at the memory. Her new research into whether or not Sasuke could actually be friendship material was going quite well.
Plus, the blushy little pout he’d done when he lost was kind of cute, too.
Sakura blinked in surprise at the thought, blushing herself. She opted to shelve that concept for later. Sasuke was her target, after all, not her friend. She didn’t need to be getting silly ideas like that.
She placed the trading card pack on her desk and sorted through them, sticking her tongue between her teeth. It was obvious that this game was some key to getting closer to Sasuke, so maybe she should get the three of them new packs before school tomorrow-
No, wait. The two of them. Naruto didn’t need to be involved.
She leaned back in her chair, dropping the cards back into her bag and tugging the bow out of her hair, placing it back into its box. Maybe next time she should let Sasuke win so that he didn’t get annoyed and refuse to play anymore. Plus, maybe his victorious grin would look even cuter than his defeated pout had.
She shook her head. She had to stay focused here. Focused on her mission. If she could get close to Sasuke before even ending up on his team, that would make her job much easier. And surely there’d be a spectacular reward for giving Orochimaru the chance to study a sharingan up close. Maybe he’d share what he learned about it with her .
She couldn’t help but grin at the thought. Her boss was a much better teacher than Iruka, and probably better than most of the jonin who took over the graduated genin groups. She wished Iruka would at least let Sakura and Sasuke try something a little more advanced rather than having them trudge through substitution training they’d been doing perfectly for weeks now.
Maybe she was being too harsh on Iruka. He was at least nice about it to the other students who weren’t doing so well, unlike some of the teachers she’d had in elementary school, who’d criticize the less adept students so harshly that many of them opted to transfer to a different course of study for a few years, instead waiting to pursue genin status until they were a bit older and more experienced rather than potentially having a failed test on their records.
Naruto, presumably, had been advised of this better route too, but he’d opted to take the graduation test anyway, because he was totally gonna get it first try, believe it!
Sakura giggled slightly and gave a slight sigh. Well, it didn’t matter that most of her old friends had given up on their dreams. She wouldn’t lose sight of hers. She knew she could pass this final exam with no difficulties at all, and prove to Orochimaru that he hadn’t made a mistake in sharing his knowledge with her.
And, hopefully, her success could get her a little bit more of that knowledge..
She stood and took a step back, closing her eyes. She’d already been practicing substitution jutsu today, so now she should try clone jutsu.
She lifted her hands into the needed position and began to practice.
~~~
Early the next morning, Sakura purchased four new packs of cards -one for each of them, plus an extra in case Sasuke was just delirious yesterday and would be back to his usual nonsense today- from the same store, smiling brightly at the cashier as she thanked him before running out the door and almost colliding with Shikamaru and Choji as the boys were walking in.
“Sorry!” she called over her shoulder as she scanned the crowd, looking for Naruto or Sasuke-
No, just Sasuke. Why did she keep pulling Naruto into this? She’d even bought one of those packs for him, hadn’t she?
Well, maybe Naruto could be useful to her efforts. Him egging on Sasuke had pulled the boy into their game yesterday; maybe he could do some of the leg work to give Sakura more opportunities to win Sasuke over.
“Hey, Sakura!!”
She turned in surprise as the boy in question bounded into her line of sight, holding a trading card and beaming. “Guess what Sakura?! I just traded the fire cat card with Shikamaru and got this one instead!”
He shoved the card in her face, and she had to lean back to see it. It looked like some sort of fairy with pink and white flower wings with the name Blossoms written across the top.
“It’s you! See?” Naruto said eagerly, and Sakura felt herself grow just a fraction fonder towards the kid.
She pulled out her newly purchased packs with a grin and said, “think any of these have a better Naruto?”
Naruto brightened up and said, “let’s find Sasuke and see! Hm, which card would make a good Naruto? It’d have to be the strongest and most powerful and-“
“Naruto, you can’t even do substitution,” Sakura reminded him, and he pointed at her.
“I’ll do it next time! Believe it!”
“You said that before,” Sakura teased with a laugh before her eyes noticed a familiar fan symbol walking in front of her. “Oh, perfect! You’re already here! Hey, Sasuke!”
The boy didn’t turn at her shout, but that wasn’t terribly unusual for him. She bounded up beside him anyway, Naruto on her other side, and held out one of the card packs.
“Guess what I bought?” she practically sang, waving the cards enticingly in front of him, despite his continued ignoring. “I figure we can pick our favorites from the decks we got yesterday and add them into these! Maybe we can play during lunch, or after school if Naruto wants to spend his whole lunch time savoring the gorgeous flavors of his ramen- “
“Hey, it’s you two’s fault if you don’t appreciate fine cuisine, believe it,” Naruto said, crossing his arms.
“Right, ‘cause your palate’s just so refined,” Sakura teased, turning back to Sasuke. “Sasuke, back me up here; you always have super nice bento lunches, so I know you’ve got better taste than Mr. Ramen.”
“Don’t act like that nickname’s anything other than an honor,” Naruto said stubbornly, but Sakura’s attention stayed on Sasuke, who had continued ignoring them the entire time she was speaking. Annoyance tugged at her mind, but she suppressed it, and, focusing on the purple twine-wrapped scroll she’d be getting for this later, she made her tone sweet again.
“Sasuke? Helloooo,” she said, waving the trading card pack in front of him again. “You know, one of these could have a friend for Meguro inside-“
“SHUT UP!” Sasuke snapped suddenly, grabbing the card pack out of her hands and throwing it into the mud behind them. Sakura gasped at the sudden movement, staring at the cards as Naruto stepped between her and Sasuke, practically snarling at the other boy.
“Hey, what’s your problem?” he huffed. “You made such a big deal yesterday about how you wouldn’t throw away something Sakura bought-“
“To get Iruka off my case!” Sasuke shouted, grabbing Naruto by the front of his jacket, his eyes livid, and Sakura took a dazed step away from the jarring change. “I only went with any of you at all to get Iruka to quit bothering me! Why would I ever want to spend time with a couple of nobody losers like you?!”
“What are you trying to say?” Naruto snapped back, grabbing Sasuke’s wrists, but Sasuke let go immediately at the contact, shoving Naruto backwards as he did with enough force to send the boy crashing to his butt on the ground.
“Don’t make me explain myself!” Sasuke shouted, his entire body shaking. “How dare you two come up to me and start acting like we’re friends or something?! I never wanted to spend time with either of you! And you!”
Sasuke turned to Sakura, who gasped. Sasuke’s eyes drilled into hers now, and she could only imagine what a sharingan would feel like.
Sasuke’s words were just as harsh as his gaze. “You need to quit following me around like some lost puppy! I’m not interested in you, and I never will be! And you! ” He rounded on Naruto now, who had jumped back to his feet with a scowl. “You need to grow up and accept that Sakura only pretends she wants to get ramen or play cards or anything with you as a way to get to me! So quit acting like the three of us are close now or something! We’re not close, we never will be close, and we are not friends! ”
Sasuke turned on his heel and stormed away, seething with anger, and Sakura simply stared.
What was that?
She’d been so excited after the breakthrough with him yesterday -she’d even gotten optimistic - and now suddenly he decided to act worse than before?
Sakura found herself scowling now, her hands twitching at her side. This brat was impossible to deal with! At this rate, how was she supposed to even tolerate him long enough to get him to Orochimaru?
She closed her eyes, taking a few breaths to calm herself. So what if Sasuke just dragged them all three steps back in her plan to win him over? She’d just have to come up with a new, better plan.
Irritably, she thought that maybe the better plan was ditching Sasuke entirely and trying one of the other two sharingan users.
But no, her instructions had been very clear. Sasuke Uchiha was the one Orochimaru wanted. It had to be Sasuke.
“Er- Sakura?”
She opened her eyes again and blinked in surprise to see that Naruto had turned back towards her, his head tilted in confusion. “You okay?”
She scowled and snapped, “what’s it to you?” before storming away.
The worst part of Sasuke’s little speech was that he was right. She was using Naruto to get to Sasuke, and it infuriated her that this motive was so easy to read.
She’d need to get better. If she couldn’t get herself on a team with Sasuke, she’d probably get pulled from this sharingan mission, and then maybe get pulled from all future missions. She couldn’t afford that.
So she set her shoulders and strode forward, her mind spinning as she tried to develop a new plan.
~~~
Sasuke, quite frankly, felt horrible.
His brother’s ghost wouldn’t stop laughing at him, and he’d been too sick with worry this morning to be able to eat any breakfast, and now he’d probably ruined any chance at even having a friend after he lifted his curse, judging by the faces of the only two who might have still gone for it.
He should be happy they looked so angry at him. His outburst had clearly undone any accidental friendliness he’d carelessly caused yesterday. They couldn’t get close yet, so pushing them away should feel good.
Instead, he just felt sick.
The moment he arrived in class he told Iruka that he suddenly felt unwell and intended to go back home and rest for the day, and Iruka’d had the audacity to look worried about him.
“Was it the food?” he asked. “I’ve never had any problems there, but-“
“No. I just feel sick. Can I have today’s classwork?” Sasuke asked through gritted teeth, and Iruka gave a perturbed hum but fortunately turned to get the papers Sasuke’d asked for, and Sasuke grabbed them and marched away again before the man could comment any further.
He saw Naruto entering the building first, and the boy stuck his tongue out at Sasuke, who ignored him. Good. No attempt at reconciling there. He nearly made it out of the school before spotting Sakura, who’d apparently paused to talk with Ino by the front gates. She glanced up at him, and he turned his face away, glowering, until suddenly he felt something collide with his head, and he startled.
“Oi. Jerk,” Ino’s voice said, and Sasuke turned with a scowl, but he was surprised to find that Sakura was the one with her hand out, clearly the source of the throw.
Ino crossed her arms. “Sakura said you dropped something.”
Sasuke blinked and looked down before flushing. It was the trading card pack, crinkled and muddied from the throw he’d hated making.
“Yes, I wanted to return it to you,” Sakura said, her voice sweet and her face blank. “Since you’d never throw away anything I bought, right?”
She tilted her head and blinked innocently, and Sasuke felt his entire face reddening, his scowl deeper than it had been all day. He snatched the cards up from the ground and stormed away, forcing himself to keep quiet, to keep everything locked up tight in his chest where his curse rested.
He kept himself wound that tightly the whole walk home, through the Uchiha town doors, down the street, into his house, his room, his bed.
He tugged his blanket over his head and simply glowered . He hated it. He hated his curse, he hated his life, he hated his brother, he hated it, all of it, so overwhelmingly so, and there was nothing he could do about it.
Despair pulled hard on his gut, as it often tried over the years, and Sasuke curled tightly around himself. Was there any chance his brother would even lift his jutsu? How could Sasuke ever be strong enough to force him to? Itachi had always been miles above him, the perfect shinobi who never saw a jutsu he couldn’t master, and Sasuke was always behind him no matter how much effort he poured into catching up.
He squeezed his eyes shut and forced himself to take deep breaths. No, he could do this. He could win. The good guys always beat the bad guys, even if the odds were against them. That’s what all those old stories always said. The fourth hokage beat the fox. The Hidden Sand beat the Hidden Stone. Madara beat the Moon Princess. The hero would win, and Sasuke was the hero.
And his brother was the villain.
Sasuke could tell that his brother’s ghost was sitting on the foot of the bed, leaning against the wall, so when Itachi finally spoke up, it wasn’t surprising. “You should eat something, Sasuke.”
“Shut up,” Sasuke mumbled, probably muffled by his sheets.
“You’ve barely had anything since yesterday.”
“I don’t care.”
“You don’t care if you sit here and starve?”
Sasuke poked his head out from under his covers and glared at Itachi, who was watching him with a blank expression. “What do you care if I do?”
Itachi tilted his head. “Do you really have to ask that?”
Sasuke huffed and pulled his blankets back up.
Itachi had always been the one to take care of Sasuke when he was sick. Sasuke had always hated admitting it to either of his parents, because being sick meant he wasn’t being useful, and he didn’t want to risk seeing disappointment in Dad’s eyes.
But sometimes he was too sick to pretend he wasn’t, so when he shut himself up in his room, Itachi would always notice and arrive at his door with warm soup and a cool cloth for his forehead and a book from the back corner of library Sasuke refused to fix up now, and Itachi would sit by him and read those old legends -although, admittedly, he never told the Moon Princess story. He never seemed to like that one, despite it being their parents’ favorite- and he’d even make little fire shapes the best he could to help the scenes come to life.
Sasuke always felt better after Itachi took care of him.
“I hate you,” Sasuke said, and he clung greedily to the gentle memory of being cared for by his brother, to the last scraps that remained of what had once been Sasuke’s happy life.
“I hate you,” Sasuke echoed, and he wished desperately that Itachi was really here to tuck a blanket around him or press a towel against his head or bring bowls of warm fluffy rice and stories to tell until he felt better.
“I hate you,” Sasuke whispered, and it wasn’t even true.
Notes:
I spent one of my lunch breaks at work this week outlining the history of ninja wars for this au's lore ^.^ I've got multiple extensive bullet lists/backstories, I'm very excited about it
Anyway, update on where I'm at in Shippuden: Itachi vs Sasuke! Large amounts of genjutsu crows! Potential eyeball loss cliffhanger! Lots going on, but I miss Naruto, he's been kinda irrelevant to the plot for a large percentage of Shippuden :')
Ty for reading, and I hope you have a lovely day!
Chapter 6: The Graduation Exam
Notes:
I meant to get this posted over the weekend :') I hope you enjoy! <3
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Life went back to normal for Sasuke in the next week, or maybe just a little bit worse. The others in class seemed to find his treatment of Sakura to be a personal offense to them specifically, and most now regarded him with several more degrees of coldness in classes.
The exceptions were, of course, Naruto, who seemed to have decided that Sasuke was now his life nemesis for throwing Sakura’s card packet, and Sakura herself, who was quickly back to sunshine and smiles like nothing had happened.
Sasuke opted to ignore all of them and focus on studying for his final. Getting a high score could get him on a team with a better jonin, and that could lead to better missions and better information to research.
He spent most of his afternoons training or studying at the lake by his house. He wondered once, as he laid on the grass watching a white-feathered bird cross the sky above him, if he shouldn’t be neglecting his renovations so much. He’d decided on his next project, a restaurant close to the town gates, but he hadn’t even begun planning how he was going to fix it up.
He supposed it wouldn’t matter if he delayed his work until after the exams. His kitchen was still perfectly fine to eat at for now.
It wasn’t like he really needed the bigger space. He frowned.
The morning of their graduation exams finally arrived, and Sasuke opted to get to school early to avoid seeing anyone on the way. Itachi walked beside him, which was getting more common these past days, but he provided no commentary, and Sasuke wasn’t interested in starting a conversation, so he barely minded the ghost.
He kept his eyes instead on another of the white-feathered birds that fluttered above his head, drifting lazily in the cool morning breeze. The species was common in Konoha, and the familiarity was comforting.
He kept watching it as he passed Choji and Shikamaru sitting on a bench outside of the same shop they always went to in the mornings, Shikamaru lazily flicking through a new card pack and complaining about how much of a drag Choji was being for worrying aloud about the final.
Sasuke ignored them.
He saw the bowl-cut-haired ninja in a circle with his three students, his own hand in the middle of said circle. The miniature version of him also had his hand in, and both were chanting, “team! Team! Team! Team!” as the other two students looked at each other with annoyed dismay.
Sasuke ignored them too.
The bird landed on the fence by the school’s entrance, and then Sasuke’s only companion was his brother’s ghost. He took a breath and stepped inside the building, making his way towards his usual room.
Iruka was in the classroom alone when Sasuke arrived, and he looked surprised when the boy entered.
“Sasuke! Is everything okay? You’re quite early,” he said as Sasuke moved to his usual seat.
“Everything’s fine,” he tsked, wishing Iruka would quit acting so nice to him all the time.
“You don’t have to be worried, Sasuke,” Iruka said kindly. “I’m sure you’ll do well on today’s exam.”
“Of course I will,” Sasuke snapped. “I’m the best in our class at everything.”
Iruka raised an eyebrow. “We’ll see what Sakura has to say about that, hm?”
Sasuke pinked.
The students began to file in quickly, most apparently wanting to get to class early due to nerves. Kiba was the first in, bouncing as he walked, but when he scanned the room and saw only Sasuke, he frowned and marched to his seat instead, whispering to Akamaru encouragements about the test as if the dog was the one about to be taking it.
Hinata was next, hovering at the door for at least three minutes before Naruto, surprisingly, arrived next behind her.
“What’s up, Hinata? It’s just a door,” he said loudly, his voice all confidence, and she flushed and turned, her eyes widening. Sasuke tsked at the sight. She was so obvious about her crush that if it was for anyone other than Naruto, the crush in question would have figured it out for sure.
Sasuke wondered if Iruka thought the same thing about him and Sakura. The thought only made him pink deeper.
“N-Naruto?” Hinata squeaked, the word that comprised at least half of her vocabulary, and Naruto gave a big smile and thumbs up.
“This door’s not gonna bring us down!” he said, taking his other hand and practically shoving her through the frame, and she tripped and nearly fell with a shriek.
Iruka straightened up to check on her, alarmed, but she caught herself with her trip and turned back to Naruto, eyes wide, as the boy obliviously continued, “see? No worries at all, believe it!”
“Naruto,” Hinata echoed, squeezing at the front of her hood. “I- hope- you do well-“
“Huh? I can’t hear you,” Naruto said loudly, stepping forward after her, and she buried her face in her hood now.
“Test!” she squeaked, and Naruto just stared at her.
“Uh…test?” Naruto asked, tilting his head, and for a moment Sasuke genuinely thought he’d forgotten the graduation exam was today. But then, of course, he said, “you mean the one we’re all gonna pass, believe it!”
He smacked Hinata on the back in what was probably meant to be a friendly gesture, but this one sent her fully to the ground, and Iruka actually jumped up this time, hurrying around his desk to check on her, and Sasuke turned back to the door to avoid watching that train wreck continue.
Shino was next into the room, his expression blank and disinterested, and he sat at his desk without comment to anyone. The next was Ino, talking over her shoulder to Sakura, who bounced in with a cheerful smile that, for the first time in years, didn’t go towards Sasuke.
Sasuke kept watching, dropping his chin onto his arms, but she didn’t look at him, just kept chatting with Ino, both’s laughter just a bit too high to be unaffected by nerves.
It felt odd to not be smiled at. It was a stupid thought, but it dug into Sasuke’s brain like claws and wouldn’t leave. Sakura didn’t smile at him. For the first time he could remember, Sakura didn’t even look at him.
Choji and Shikamaru were the last in, and it was obvious that they only weren’t later due to Choji’s nerves. Shikamaru wandered over to Ino as Choji ran to his seat, pulling out notes for some last minute review like Kiba and Hinata had begun doing, and Sasuke just sighed, glancing up at the ceiling.
As soon as this test was done, they could go home. They needed to come back tomorrow to check the posted grades for who passed and sign off that they’d seen their results, and in the afternoon there’d be a formal graduation where they’d receive their headbands. Sasuke intended to wear his over his forehead, protecting himself from unwanted pokes.
At least, that’s what he’d decided back before…everything. It felt wrong to give it up now.
Sasuke didn’t really have any other plans for the rest of the day. He supposed that meant he could finally get started on the restaurant renovations, or practice his fire jutsu, or even check those same handful of Land of Wind books that the Hidden Leaf Village had access to for more puppet jutsu research. None of these activities sounded interesting , but they were probably important. He still had a long, long way to go.
But first, he had to not let some stupid mistake mess him up here. He shouldn’t get ahead of himself; he could spend the next few hours focused on the exam, and then deal with everything else after.
He lowered his gaze and found Sakura again. She was tucking her backpack under her desk, and then, when she was finished, she turned her head and smiled at Sasuke.
Relief flooded Sasuke’s chest as he smiled back before sitting up and taking a breath. Everything was back to normal, that meant, which was good. That would make focusing a lot easier.
With every student already present, Iruka stood and informed them all that if everyone was in agreement, he could start the written test early and give them a little extra time to work.
A few minutes later, the papers were out, and the graduation exam began.
~~~
“That was kinda fun!” Sakura said cheerfully as she stepped out into the afternoon sun, and Ino stared at her.
“ Fun? ” she echoed incredulously. “You thought a test was fun?”
“I mean, like, seeing everyone’s practical!” she said.
“I think it’s cruel and unusual punishment, having to do it in front of everybody,” Choji piped up from behind her, and the girls turned to see both Shikamaru and Choji, and Sakura grinned at them.
Shikamaru snorted a laugh. “You did find, Choji, quit being a drag.”
“I substituted too late!”
“But you substituted,” Ino said with a point. “If the timing was off, Shikamaru should be penalized for being a terrible partner during all our trainings.”
“Ugh,” Shikamaru rolled his eyes as Choji stepped forward to finally force the two boys to be in line with the two girls rather than behind them.
“You should have asked Iruka to go in a different room,” Sakura said. “He did it with Hinata.”
“No way,” Shikamaru said, waving his hand. “That’d make you look like a coward.”
“Excuse me, are you calling Hinata a coward?” Ino asked scathingly, putting her hands on her hips, and Shikamaru tsked.
“Don’t be a drag. It’s not cowardly for a girl to do it.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Sakura snapped, and Choji pulled Shikamaru back a step.
The group continued to bicker all the way past the gates and down the street, and Sakura’s cheerful mood couldn’t be fully interrupted no matter what stupid comment Shikamaru was unsuccessfully trying to defend. She was beyond confident that she’d passed her exam, maybe even gotten first in the class. Sasuke had done well in the practical, which meant her mission was still on track, and she allowed herself an afternoon of not spending time with him as a reward for her successful subliminal messaging. It was exhausting pretending to like Sasuke so much.
Although, there had been another odd moment this morning. She’d send an obligatory smile his way, but instead of scowling or turning away in a bratty show of annoyance, he’d smiled back. Simply, maybe even genuinely.
Sasuke was a really weird kid.
“I know what to do!” Ino interrupted her thoughts by throwing her arm around Sakura’s shoulders. “Let’s get ice cream to celebrate finishing our exams!”
“Yes!” Choji said, his whole face lighting up, and Sakura beamed.
“What a drag,” Shikamaru muttered as he made no effort to not follow them to the shop.
Sakura noticed Hinata just before they all turned on a street corner, and she held back with a wave. “Hey, Hinata! We’re going to get ice cream; want to join?”
“Hm? O-oh!” she said, surprised. “Wh-who?”
“Me, Ino, Choji and Shikamaru,” she said. She knew Hinata probably wanted Naruto there, but the poor kid had been the only one in the class unable to do either practical jutsu in front of everyone, and she had a suspicion that he might want to take some time to himself after that.
Though, admittedly, she didn’t understand that kid at all, so maybe he’d already be in the shop when they got there.
“O-okay. If they don’t mind me joining,” Hinata said, fiddling with her hood string, and Sakura perked up.
“Of course they won’t! Hey, guys! Hinata can join us!”
The group, who’d stalled at the corner, didn’t let her down.
“Cool!” Choji said as Ino cheered, “oh, yay, I’m glad!” and Hinata hid a smile in her hood.
Sakura ordered for Hinata when they did reach the ice cream shop’s counter as Choji took at least ten minutes trying a sample of every flavor and describing them in depth to Shikamaru so the boy could analyze the best flavor combinations. The gaggle of students all sat together at one of the back tables, asking what each other had gotten for certain questions and enjoying that the test was finally done.
Sakura enjoyed the company. Soon, these friends would be fellow ninja. She couldn’t help but beam at the thought. She had no doubts that the whole group currently enjoying their ice cream would do fine in their graduation exams. The only people probably in danger of failing were Naruto and Kiba.
Sakura took a lick of her strawberry cone with a beam. They were almost there, after all these years of studying and training, and the idea of waiting just another day was almost unbearable.
But, she supposed, patience was a ninja skill. So she let herself instead enjoy the bickering company, satisfied for now with the knowledge that the next time they’d all meet up, it would surely be as genin.
~~~
The next morning, Sakura was so excited to find out her score that she woke up at least three times before the sun rose before finally giving up and standing to get breakfast.
Her parents weren’t far behind her, surprisingly, and when she asked, her dad explained with a cheerful, “we just couldn’t wait to find out!” and Sakura beamed.
They ate quickly and headed out as the sunrise was edging gold over the streets. There were quite a few people out already, despite the early hour; most of them were dressed in ninja attire, likely out preparing for or perhaps coming back from a mission.
Sakura beamed as she saw them. As soon as she saw her name on that results paper, she’d be one of them too. She felt practically floaty with excitement.
The trip over was slow moving with Dad’s limp, helped only slightly by his cane, and Sakura tried to contain her excitement as they walked. The air was cool, a lingering chill from spring still hanging around, and Sakura rubbed at her arms.
“Do you need a jacket?” Mom asked, leaning forward. “You can have mine-“
“No, I’m fine,” Sakura said with a laugh. “I just really want to get there.”
“I hope they have the scores up already,” Mom said with a sigh, and Dad clapped her shoulder.
“Well, it won’t take them long to calculate that Sakura’s obviously the best, so they should have it soon,” he said, grinning, and Sakura beamed.
By the time they reached the school gate, it was unlocked, and nerves fluttered through Sakura now. Unlocked probably meant someone, like perhaps Iruka, had already come in to, perhaps , put a list on the wall.
“So, where are we looking?” Mom asked, shielding her eyes and scanning the school.
“The wall by the side entrance-“ Sakura started, but Dad perked up and tapped her.
“Could it possibly be that large sheet of paper?” he asked, his grin even wider, and Sakura gasped as her eyes widened.
She ran through the gate and directly over to it, and when she saw the list, her jaw dropped.
1 - Sakura Haruno: 100pt - PASS
She stared at it, her eyes alight. Top of her class. She’d graduated top of her class!!
“Sakura!” Dad gasped when he and Mom arrived behind her, squeezing her in a huge hug. “I’m so proud of you! Perfect 100!”
“Of course! I expected nothing less!” Mom said brightly, clapping once. “Congratulations!”
Sakura just beamed, letting herself be jostled by her dad’s enthusiastic embrace. She scanned the rest of the list, her eyes bright.
2 - Sasuke Uchiha: 96pt - PASS
3 - Shino Aburame: 92pt - PASS
4 - Ino Yamanaka: 86pt - PASS
5 - Hinata Hyuga: 80pt - PASS
6 - Choji Akimichi - 76pt - PASS
7 - Kiba Inuzuka - 64pt - PASS
8 - Shikamaru Nara - 60pt - PASS
9 - Naruto Uzumaki - 24pt - FAIL
She’d have to go congratulate Ino later- she’d passed in the top half! She’d have to congratulate all her friends, actually; they were going to be ninja together! Eight of them had all passed! Though she did feel bad for Naruto. Not that she’d expected much better from him, but being the only one to fail would have to feel awful. Maybe she could buy him a consolation card pack.
She moved her eyes back up to the top two names and grinned. First in her class. A perfect 100. She was practically brimming with pride.
“You’ve got some impressive classmates, huh?” Dad said, reading the list now.
“Let’s make sure to congratulate the Yamanakas once Ino’s had a chance to look,” Mom said. “That’s very exciting! I wonder if you’ll be on the same team as her?”
“I hope so!” Sakura said with wide eyes. That might make dealing with Sasuke actually worth it.
“Wait, Shikamaru Nara? The Nara kid only scored 60?” Dad asked, surprised, and Sakura hid a giggle.
“He probably knew 60 was the amount he needed to pass and answered exactly that many questions,” she said, and Mom gave an exasperated sigh.
“That boy sounds like an odd one,” she said as Dad joined Sakura’s stifled laughter.
“Well,” he said finally, straightening up to root around in his pockets. “I think there’s perhaps a certain other boy listed up there who could use a little bragging note written next to his rank, don’t you think?”
Dad pulled out a pen and held it in front of Sakura, who lit up.
“Honey, I’m not sure we should be promoting vandalism,” Mom said, but Dad waved her off.
“It’s not vandalism, it’s just a comment added in addition to the signature acknowledgement,” he said with mock seriousness, and Sakura took the pen with a grin.
“Just a little note,” she said, standing on her toes to circle the “2” by Sasuke’s name and an arrow pointing to the “1” by her own, adding what hopefully looked like a smug smiley face next to it and, after a brief hesitation, a few hearts thrown in for her mission. She signed her name as acknowledgement and lowered back onto her heels, handing the pen back to Dad with a determined smile.
Before, she might have been worried that bragging would push Sasuke away and mess with her plans, but the past few weeks had made one thing quite clear: the only way to get past Sasuke’s irritable shell seemed to be competition. Whether it was the 1v1v1 card game or just a big exam, the only times Sasuke would smile back at her was during a challenge.
And if all she had to do was keep challenging him, then missions could be a lot more enjoyable.
Notes:
Update on where I'm at in Shippuden: Naruto vs Pain has just officially begun!
Ty for reading, and I hope you have a lovely day!
Chapter 7: The New Genin
Chapter Text
The afternoon graduation was more of a garden party in the schoolyard than anything else.
Dozens of people were gathered, from families of the recently graduated genin to friends and neighbors, and the whole place had an excited buzz to it.
Sakura returned to the yard after lunch with her parents and turned to them with excitement once they entered.
“I’m going to find Ino,” she said, and both parents nodded happily.
“Tell her congrats from us, too!” Dad said warmly, leaning heavily onto his cane, and she nodded and darted away. She weaved through the crowd, eyes searching for Ino, or maybe Sasuke to try out that whole ‘competition-making-him-more-likable’ theory, but the first person to speak up to her was neither of the students she’d been looking for.
“Congratulations, Sakura.”
Sakura startled and turned. “Kabuto! You’re here!”
Kabuto was her primary contact on the sharingan mission, the one she most frequently reported progress to under the guise of getting additional after-school training with other ninja.
“Yes, some of the other genin wanted to see the new graduate list, so I thought I’d tag along,” he said, his face all fake smiles. He was the person she’d modeled her own acting off of, but she’d often worried that she never quite got that seemingly genuine, wholesome appearance about her that he could pull off. She’d always been impressed by it- or, at least ever since she saw him drop it for the first time and had been genuinely floored.
He adjusted his glasses with a bright, “I’m glad all our hard work at extra training helped you out!”
“Mhm!” Sakura said with a cheerful nod, waiting for the actual purpose of this conversation to come around. Kabuto wouldn’t seek her out like this without a reason, so he must have some sort of information to relay to her. Or maybe even a scroll. “You were tons of help.”
“Glad to hear it,” Kabuto said, his voice lowering a fraction. “I hope you’ll still come train with us sometimes, even with your new team.”
Kabuto’s eyes shifted slightly, and Sakura straightened up. This was the important part. Okay, so, was he saying there was a meeting soon, or did he need her to go in and change her team? Probably the second, to get Sasuke and her paired up…
“I’d love to!” she said through her own fake smile. “I’m excited to learn what my team is.”
“Yes, but you’ll have to wait, right?” Kabuto said, and she blinked at him in surprise. Did that mean they wanted her to wait before changing the team rosters? What if she didn’t end up with Sasuke? Maybe Kabuto had already gone in and made adjustments?
“Yeah, but it’s so hard to,” she said, giving an exaggerated pout as she studied his gaze intently. Talking out in the open like this was so difficult.
Kabuto adjusted his glasses again with a smug grin. “Well, you’ll just have to. They’ll put you in the team best suited for you.”
So that meant he’d be taking care of it. So Sakura could just relax and enjoy the party. She smiled brightly. “I know, Kabuto. I’m just excited to finally move forward!”
Kabuto’s easy smile returned. “Glad to hear it! I’m sure you’ll be an excellent kunoichi. I hope to hear all about your missions!”
“Sure thing!” Sakura said cheerfully as Kabuto waved and, almost in an instant, disappeared into the crowd.
Sakura took a breath and looked around, her mind drifting back to her previous goals. Just because Kabuto was handling this didn’t mean she couldn’t do a little extra leg work on the Sasuke front, and hopefully even get a chance to try out stoking his competitive side to see if it really did tone down his being-a-brat-all-the-time side
Now that she thought of it, she hadn’t seen Sasuke here yet. Though, admittedly, she hadn’t gotten far in her search for him or Ino before Kabuto had interrupted, so she turned, scanning the crowd until her attention was pulled to where that crowd was thickest.
The passing grades list was notably more decorated than when she’d left it the previous day. She seemed to have started something with her little piece of commentary, as multiple people’s handwriting, many of whom she recognized as her fellow students’, was now scribbled across the large sheet, ranging from Kiba’s ‘suck it, I beat you!!!’ pointing at Shikamaru’s score to Shino’s ‘Well done, Hinata; an excellent performance.’ to Ino’s ‘YES GO SAKURAAAAAAA’ , which made Sakura pink.
However, the most commented on score was Sasuke’s. Kiba apparently wrote, ‘YOU SUCK IT TOO’ and drawn several arrows and stars around Sasuke’s and Sakura’s numbers, someone whose writing she didn’t recognize -but the distinctive green ink led her to hypothesize was Shikamaru- simply wrote ‘:P’ , a sentiment repeated next to Naruto’s score, and the same pen Ino had used had drawn an elaborate cartoon of Sakura wearing a crown and uppercutting Sasuke with a huge smile.
But it didn’t seem to be just the other students who’d written comments. Various notes of congratulations signed by other ninja from the Village were scattered across the page to the extent that someone, Iruka probably, had pinned up an additional sheet to allow more. Most were short notes, others were recommendations for the best places to buy ninja equipment for the new genin, and someone had taken up at least a quarter of the extra sheet drawing a mediocre cartoon of each student celebrating with an assortment of large frogs. Even Naruto was drawn, pouting as his own frog pat his head, and sometime after this drawing had been made, someone with much better art skills came and crossed out the cartoon Sasuke to instead draw the boy yelling as he was carried away into the clouds by a large bird.
Apparently Sasuke’s reputation extended beyond their class.
“Sakura!!”
Sakura turned in time to see Ino crashing into her, almost knocking her over with her hug. Ino leaned back, eyes bright, as she cheered, “we passed! And you aced it!”
“I know!” Sakura smiled brightly as Ino pulled her back upright, turning her towards the posted grades.
“Did you see my drawing?” Ino asked, pointing. “Not the frog one, I dunno who did that, and I wish I’d thought of the bird one, but the other? Where you’re beating up Mr. Second Place because you deserve better than him?”
“Yes, I saw,” Sakura said with a laugh. “I didn’t realize I’d be starting something so big.”
The board was still a source of activity even now, as a genin girl with space buns was now writing ‘yay!’ next to every female who passed. She recognized the girl as one of Guy’s students when the jonin appeared out of the crowd with an additional pen to scribble ‘THAT’S THE POWER OF YOUTH!!! WELL DONE ALL!!’ , and Sakura almost rolled her eyes.
“I’m a fan of whoever wrote in full grammatically correct sentences next to someone just yelling ‘suck it’,” Ino said with a nod, her eyes on the list, and Sakura laughed.
“Looks like Shino’s handwriting.”
“Of course,” Ino said with an exasperated sigh. “I should have guessed that; he always tries to make up for not speaking by writing ten times more words than he has to. C’mon let’s go congratulate Hinata! She was so stressed about the practicals.”
“Oh, yeah!” Sakura said, turning with Ino to run back into the crowd.
Apparently, Kabuto’s stated reason for coming over had been more than just a cover; a large number of previously graduated ninja and their families had also come by now to see their new genin, and the crowd was mostly cheerful friendliness. There was a bit of a chill the closer they got to the back fence, but Sakura understood why as she and Ino passed the tree with the single, occupied swing. Being the only kid to fail must be heartbreaking.
At least someone was back there talking to Naruto, some older ninja who was describing something with animated gestures, and Sakura suspected that Iruka would be back to talk with him soon too.
Part of Sakura wanted to go over herself, but Ino pulled her away soon enough, and when she saw Hinata, thoughts of Naruto left her mind in favor of gushing congratulations to the very flustered girl.
~~~
Sasuke intended to approach this graduation by arriving late and leaving early, but he’d misgauged when Iruka would actually have the headbands out for them and found himself instead standing awkwardly at the school gate, fidgeting with his bag strap and trying to figure out something to do to pass time until he could get his headband and go home.
He sat at a backless bench and pulled his bag into his lap, rooting through it until he found the pack of cards he’d tossed into the mud back when he’d panicked about playing with Sakura and Naruto. He’d never opened it, which seemed rude, but that was usually the goal.
But he really did hate wasting something someone else had gone out of their way to get, so he opted now to sit and open the pack as his means of wasting time, wishing that he’d thought to bring a book or something.
Whispers from the crowd edged closer to him, but he ignored them. He tugged the packaging open and slid out the cards, peering through them. One of them looked like a sort of gopher monster with a beaver’s tail, with the very entertaining move of ‘smack’. Sasuke hid a smirk at it.
“That’s the Uchiha kid, isn’t it?”
Sasuke crinkled the packaging in his hand to not hear the crowd and looked at the next card. It looked like a woman made of ice, and apparently this one was a pretty skilled card. It could freeze an opponent in place for a turn upon entering, and make shards of ice out of the water in the air to attack, stronger the more water-based other cards were out even in opponents’ hands.
“It’s so horrible to see him sitting there all alone.”
“You’d rather the other Uchiha be next to him?”
The ice woman could also choose to perpetuate her initial freeze, doing damage to whoever it was played on. That could be useful.
“I’m glad he’s not trying to socialize. That kid’s more trouble than he’s worth.”
The next card was a lightning based powerup. Sasuke would have preferred water to help his new ice card, but his first pack had a lightning character.
“Don’t say that! That’s so mean!”
“It’s not wrong .”
The next card was pretty weak, almost comically so. It was pretty much just a stick with a face. It would go well with his Rock With Legs card. He didn’t find himself smiling at that. Instead, his chest felt kind of strange.
“Don’t make eye contact with that Uchiha when we leave, okay honey?”
“What, ‘cause the freaky eyes? You think he has what the brother had?”
The next card looked oddly blurry. Peculiar.
“Do you really think those old Uchiha rumors were true?”
“That poor kid. Why’s he even sticking around here anyway?”
Sasuke blinked a few times, trying to focus on the card. It was purple, with swirly patterns on something- a tail maybe?
“Should he really be cleared to graduate? I mean, there’s no way he’s up for it, right? And shinobi work’s what drove his brother insane.”
“That’s not the rumor I heard…”
Sasuke’s hands twitched hard enough that they bent the card, and he simply stared at it. He couldn’t read any of the moves through the blur wavering across his vision, but he refused to admit defeat by wiping tears out of his eyes. That was unacceptably weak.
Why should he care about some random villagers’ comments? Of course they’d speculate about his family; what had happened was a highly publicized incident that everyone knew practically nothing about, courtesy of Sasuke refusing to speak to hardly anyone about anything. All the people of the Leaf knew was that Itachi Uchiha had killed every member of his clan except for his little brother, and then disappeared with no followable trail.
They didn’t know about the Mangekyo. They didn’t know about Sasuke’s curse.
They didn’t know how much Sasuke wished he could get off this stupid bench and spend this party with Sakura, and then go home to find he didn’t need to renovate or practice or research, that his parents were making dinner tonight and Itachi would arrive before bed with a story and a poke to his forehead because this time, Itachi had time for him.
Maybe he should go back and fix up the shelves of those old stories. Maybe they’d help the ache of emptiness in his chest.
Sasuke flipped to the next card. A monster made from the shadows cast by other cards. Shikamaru was talking with Choji’s family now, whose mother was practically lifting Choji off the ground in a celebratory hug.
The next card was a blue dog, and Kiba was energetically relaying some story to his sister, who was grinning as she listened.
The next card was a fairy made of flowers, and Sasuke noticed Sakura walking towards him without bothering to look up.
His chest had twisted up when he’d read the scores this morning to sign his acknowledgement. Second in the class. He couldn’t even hold top position among his classmates, and he thought he could take on his brother? Weak.
“Sasuke!” Sakura said brightly, and Sasuke glared up, expecting an overly gushy comment about how fantastically well he’d done even though he hadn’t even scored top place.
Instead, Sakura bent at the hips and gave his shoulder a shove with a bright, “looks like I kicked your butt, huh?!”
The shove sent him nearly falling off the bench, and he scrambled to catch himself by grabbing it, thrown completely off guard. “Er- what?”
Sakura leaned closer and beamed, her nose almost touching his, and he felt his entire face reddening as his mind blanked. Sakura continued, “I totally crushed you in that test, didn’t I?”
Sasuke pulled his face into a pouty scowl and insisted, “I was only four points behind you!”
“Yeah, four whole points,” Sakura said, straightening back up and sticking her tongue between her teeth. “That’s a lot of points.”
Sasuke felt his nose scrunch, glaring. “It was just one test!”
“Yeah, the big important last one, which I guess means that it proves I’m the number one best forever,” Sakura said, dramatically tossing her hair over her shoulder, and Sasuke stood.
“So what, none of the missions we’re about to go on count for anything?” he asked, crossing his arms with a hmph. “The ‘number one best forever’ is whoever gets strongest at the end of those.”
“Is that right?” Sakura goaded, and Sasuke nodded.
“It is.”
“ Well then, I guess I’ll have to send you a postcard from my level, which’ll be miles ahead of you,” Sakura said with a shrug, and Sasuke glowered.
“Yeah, and I can return it when I blow past you.”
Sakura giggled, her eyes bright. “ Sure you will.”
“Students!” Iruka’s voice interrupted them. “We’ll be officially passing out headbands shortly; please gather your families and head over here!”
Sakura grinned and leaned forward, patting him on the head before saying, “well I guess it’s a challenge then!”
Sasuke stilled at the contact, that same type that had once been so familiar, and managed an, “mhm,” as Sakura turned back towards the crowd with a wave before pausing and turning her head back.
“Oh, and good job!” she said, her bright smile back. “By the way. Heh.”
And then she turned and bounced away, leaving Sasuke dazed where he stood. What had all that been about? Most of the time Sakura talked with him, it was blinding positivity, but now she was throwing challenges at him, egging him on with competition to make both stronger?
Unfortunately, it made him like her even more.
He blushed deeper and ducked his head, moving to join the group of graduated students to receive his headband. The challenge from Sakura felt like a window opening inside his empty chest, reigniting that spark that his curse and his ghost always tried so hard to dampen.
Her challenge was a reason to get stronger that wasn’t drowned in lonely, sorrowful regret. A reminder of his true goal; yes he wanted to hunt down his brother, yes he intended to grow strong so he could defeat him and force him to lift his jutsu, but all of that was just so one day, one perfect shining day, he could come back to Konoha and finally live again. To not be stuck in that horrible empty town anymore, where shadows of what he’d lost haunted him; to not have to shut himself away from everyone when he craved the friendship and attention and even competition they’d once been willing to give.
His goal was simple. Difficult, but simple.
All he needed was to keep that determined spark alive inside of him. And, maybe, competing with Sakura would help him fan that spark into a flame.
They could be rivals, maybe. That wasn’t the same thing as a friend. Rivals. Sasuke took a breath.
He was grateful for her. He hoped he’d be able to tell her so someday. He was determined to be able to tell her so someday.
But for now, he simply kept his goal close to his cursed heart, and when he was told to stand next to Sakura due to their respective rankings, he let himself allow the forced proximity.
~~~
Mission Be Competitive To Sasuke was so incredibly successful that Sakura was practically floating as she stood to receive her headband.
Since Kabuto was taking care of getting them onto a team, she figured she didn’t need to worry so much about fawning over him like a lovesick little kid and could instead start acting a bit more like herself. It would be better to make that transition anyway, since it would be hard to keep up a persona while actively performing missions, so she’d decided to test out what she’d be working with in the field.
It so happened that she would be working with an extremely blushy competitive rival who’d had no hesitation in assuming that one of the two of them would be the best ninja, it was just a matter of which.
She’d realized too late that she’d picked a horrible time for her little test when he’d looked up to show that he was clearly about two seconds away from bursting into tears over something, but part of her had scoffed that if he was that upset about losing to her then that was kind of pathetic, and she’d come off perhaps a bit stronger than she’d initially intended -almost shoving him off the bench he was on, for some reason. Whoops- but, to her complete elation, instead of throwing some cruel insult her way, or even just ignoring her and walking away, he’d fired back every bit of trash talk she’d thrown at him and agreed to challenge her to be the “number one best forever” ninja.
She’d found a gold mine by introducing competition; it was as if the moment Sasuke was challenged, he forgot that he was supposed to be acting like a jerk, and that was something Sakura could definitely work with.
She was beaming when Iruka began his speech to the gathered crowd around the graduates. Today was going so well that she couldn’t help it. She’d finished top of her class, her mission was going smoothly, and she was about to officially become a Leaf kunoichi.
When Iruka finished, he stepped forward first to Sakura, holding up a tray with the eight headbands neatly assembled on them.
“Sakura Haruno,” he said, his smile warm. “It is my honor to now call you a fellow ninja. May you bring honor to the Leaf and peace to its people. Please select your headband, and congratulations.”
The crowd cheered at the end of his words, and Sakura beamed as she drank it all in.
~~~
Sakura enjoyed the rest of the graduation party. Sasuke was out the gate the moment the headband part was over, which meant Sakura’s mission tasks were all complete, and she spent much of the time chatting happily with Ino and theorizing how the teams would shape out. Ino seemed convinced that she’d end up with Shikamaru and Choji, despite Sakura’s persistence that maybe the pair of them could end up on a team together.
With only eight people, one team would probably need to bring in a third genin from an existing and more experienced group to get to the required four-member minimum. Sakura wondered if Kabuto would “volunteer” himself to go join her and Sasuke’s group to make that happen.
She and Ino cheerfully discussed which jonin they wanted most -Sakura personally wanted Kurenai, an elite genjutsu user- as they ate provided snacks and soaked in the attention of others shouting congratulations as they noticed them.
The size of the crowd shifted with the day; Guy and his students remained for quite a long time, apparently working their way through every graduate to offer group training when the genin teams were finalized as well as a general welcome into official ninja-hood. They were a bit ridiculous, but the girl at least had been delighted when she introduced herself as Tenten, weapons expert, and very excited to be with more kunoichi.
Even a pair of anbu showed up to the party, still in uniform -one in a bird’s mask with yellow swirls and one in a wolf’s mask with clean red slashes- though it seemed they were mostly there to speak with a handful of chunin that they sought out of the cluster of people.
Sakura couldn’t help but stare at them as they moved through the crowd. Her dad had been an anbu, after all, and the stories he’d tell over the years had been fascinating; dramatic tales of adventure and espionage and thrilling defeats of terrifying villains.
The anbu was really where Sakura hoped to end up; she didn’t anticipate any chance of being something like hokage, and she didn’t find it terribly exciting to run the politics of the village anyway. But anbu were the coolest of the cool ninjas, the best place for a genjutsu user to shine, and automatically the best ninja career since it was the one her father had been in.
Sure he may have abandoned ship on them, but fighting a tailed beast the size of their village wasn’t something the anbu would typically handle. The fourth hokage had just gotten desperate. Apparently even civilians had gone out to fight that monster, though they at least hadn’t been under orders.
Regardless, the anbu typically fought against other ninja, particularly rogue ninja, and her father’s stories were incredible .
“Sakura? Hellooo?” Ino said, prodding her, and she startled.
“Oh! Sorry, I totally zoned out,” she said with a laugh, rubbing at the back of her head.
Ino laughed. “Yeah, zoned out staring at those anbu.”
Sakura grinned. “It’s not my fault they’re incredibly cool.”
“But it is your fault for just sitting here instead of networking with them. C’mon!” Ino said, standing and grabbing Sakura by the wrist.
“What?” Sakura gasped as Ino pulled her into the crowd. “Wait, Ino!”
“Nope, no waiting. Excuse me! Mr. Anbu Ninja?”
Sakura flushed hard as Ino shouted and shoved through people towards the two anbu soldiers, who both turned to them.
“Hi!” Ino said confidently as Sakura squeaked slightly and drifted behind her.
“Yo,” the yellow patterned one said blandly as the red patterned one simply stared.
Ino nodded over her shoulder at Sakura and said, “her dad used to be an anbu, Kizashi Haruno; any chance you two knew him?”
“Haruno…” the yellow one said, dropping his head back slightly. “It sounds familiar…yo, Contororu, where’ve we heard that name before? Coworker?”
“Not a current anbu,” the red one, Contororu, said, clicking his tongue as he did. “But there was one. Before the tailed beast attacked the village.”
“Really? How do you know these things?” Yellow asked with a laugh before turning back to the girls to explain, “we’ve both only been promoted this year.”
“Perfect, so you’d know a lot about how to get promoted, yeah? Any tips for our future anbu kunoichi here?”
Sakura pinked deeper at Ino’s boldness, but she edged a bit closer to drink in whatever they said.
“Any tips?” Yellow echoed, tapping at the chin of his mask. “Hm…well, train hard, obviously. Don’t trust anyone, ‘cause everybody’s hiding something, y’know? Don’t bother starting if you aren’t willing to die for your cause, but don’t be a downer about it, like my man over here.”
He elbowed his fellow anbu, who clicked his tongue again with an annoyed, “Toki,” but the yellow anbu, Toki apparently, ignored him and continued.
“Everybody’s gonna die eventually, but if your death delays someone else’s, then there’s honor in that. But don’t you dare let someone die alone.” Toki’s voice grew more serious, then; darker, maybe. “There’s no greater disgrace than leaving someone to spend their final moments in solitude, no matter if it’s an ally or an enemy.” He perked back up and continued, “oh, and also enjoy yourself on missions! Or else you’ll die from boredom before an enemy ninja even gets the chance.”
Toki put his hand on his hip, seemingly quite pleased with his list, but Sakura simply stared at him. It was a rather blunt reply, but somehow Sakura appreciated it more because of that. This anbu wasn’t treating them like nobody little kids, and instead giving them the straight truth about what they’d just graduated into.
Somehow, it strengthened her resolve.
“I understand,” she said with a nod, and Toki gave a dark laugh.
“No you don’t. Not yet, anyway. Not until you’re sitting there, staring as death bares its teeth on you,” he said, and Sakura pinked again.
“Toki,” Contororu said again, and Toki gave a cheerful laugh.
“Right, right, I told you we were leaving, and here I am, yapping away,” Toki said, turning and placing his hands around Contororu’s shoulders to steer him towards the gate. “Sorry for the quick exit, but my man Contororu hates just waiting around for me; we’ll see you in the field, maybe! Haruno you said, right? Haruno…that does still sound familiar…”
And then the two were gone into the crowd that thickened behind them to obscure them from view.
“They didn’t even ask for my name,” Ino huffed, annoyed, but Sakura blinked after them, her eyes wide. That was what they were all headed towards. She needed to remember that. Despite the excitement of the day, one day would come when she’d be the one staring as death bared its teeth at her. And she’d need to be strong enough to win too, like Toki must have been; strong enough that she and all her comrades could live to laugh cheerfully at a garden party and tell their victorious stories to the next generation.
She nodded firmly. She’d become an anbu, learning everything Orochimaru and her jonin sensei could teach her, and become the kind of hero that those stories would teach about.
She was determined to do so.
~~~
Sakura walked back home with her parents, detailing all about the two anbu, the party, her and Ino’s speculations on what teams they’d up on, and even a little gushing about Sasuke just for good measure.
They in turn told her about their own conversations, that they’d learned Kurenai was one of the jonin up for a new genin team, that they’d had to defend Sasuke to quite a few other parents and ninjas who’d had a less than savory opinion of the boy (Sakura quickly got this topic changed), that the Yamanakos were extremely proud of Sakura for getting top spot, and that there was a rumor that the frog cartoon had been drawn by one of the three Leaf sannin, who’d come by to check out the list while in town to drop off some shipments of books or something.
Sakura knew that Orochimaru was one of the three Leaf sannin, but she assumed he wasn’t the one who’d done so, or there’d be a lot of other rumors flying around. Though a part of her imagined Orochimaru sneaking into the Leaf village to draw cartoon frogs, and the thought almost made her burst into cackled laughter.
The Harunos had a special celebratory dinner that evening, Sakura’s favorite meal, and spent much of the night talking about the adventures Sakura would soon go on. She’d be meeting her team tomorrow, and she was buzzing with excitement to see if she’d be working under Kurenai, and eventually she decided to turn in early so she could wake up early too and get to her team faster.
She got ready for bed and hugged her parents, and it was only when she entered her bedroom that she finally saw it.
A scroll sat innocently on her desk, wrapped up in purple twine, and she inhaled sharply, her hand still hovering above her doorknob. She quickly finished closing the door and crossed the room in three steps, landing almost breathlessly in her seat.
“Release!” she said, putting up her hands, and the twine ribbon fell apart, its seal lifted. Sakura picked it up carefully, unscrolling it to investigate the contents.
It was a letter with an additional scroll enclosed within it. She placed the extra scroll temporarily to the side and turned her focus to the letter.
‘Congratulations on your recent graduation. Consider this an advance payment for your hard work. You’ll need it in your team’s future endeavors.’
She recognized the handwriting. This had come directly from her boss.
She quickly turned to the smaller scroll; it had to be a new genjutsu. Excitement almost made her fingers slip and cause the scroll to reroll itself, but she managed to pull it open without crinkling it, and her eyes poured over the page hungrily.
‘Combat Genjutsu - Moon Serpent,’ it read in the same swooping handwriting as the letter. ‘Temporary paralysis of an opponent that can last even after the genjutsu is lifted. Moon Serpent creates a genjutsu beast that must strike the opponent to initiate the illusion. If the serpent strikes, the target will imagine their own death. At a higher level, the jutsu caster can influence the cause of death seen. No actual harm is done to the target, but it typically leaves them open for any followup attack. Instructions below.’
Sakura read intently, her thoughts spinning as she read the steps. This was a much more advanced genjutsu that she’d ever seen before, and the idea of making someone imagine their death made her squirm. It did say that no actual lasting damage would happen to the person, but still.
Though, she supposed if she was going on difficult missions, she might be encountering ninja who genuinely wanted to hurt her or her teammates. Maybe knowing this Moon Serpent move as an emergency last-resort could help out if they ever encountered a ninja like that. One that seemed to her to be the very fangs of death.
She returned her focus intently to the scroll’s listed instructions, trying to memorize the information. She’d have to practice it the next time she trained with Kabuto.
This wasn’t the kind of thing she should try for the first time in her house, so she instead focused on learning the hand signs, where to concentrate her chakra, any aspect of the theory that she could drink up.
In the end, she didn’t quite make it to bed on time as she’d anticipated, but, funny enough, she didn’t terribly mind.
Notes:
Update on where I'm at in Shippuden: End of the Pain arc! Kinda feels like this could have been the end of the show if they tweaked a few things lol
Ty for reading and I hope you have a lovely day! ^.^
Chapter Text
Sasuke blinked awake hazily the next morning, his gaze groggy and unfocused, and his stomach felt funny. He’d be getting his team assigned today. He had a lot of work to do.
He sat up, rubbing at his eyes. The ideal scenario would be a team of himself, Hinata and Shino. They’d leave him alone, and he wouldn’t have to do much talking to maintain a cold reputation. If neither of them, Kiba or Ino would be next best; they couldn’t stand Sasuke, so they’d have no interest in attempting friendship with him, but a selfish part of him lamented the inevitable Sasuke-bashing that would come as a result. He should probably be appreciative of that, since it was definitely helpful on the avoiding-friendship front.
He still hoped for Shino and Hinata.
He stretched his arms over his head, squeezing his eyes shut before slumping back down, blinking slowly. Maybe Shikamaru and Choji would be good teammates. They’d be far too occupied with each other to care about what Sasuke was doing, especially if he was acting like a drag. Whatever that meant.
Really, the only person he couldn’t afford to be on a team with was Sakura.
He needed to make sure their rivalry stayed a long-distance one until his curse was lifted; he couldn’t risk anything else. Not when she was the first person he’d have a chance at friendship with once he could have one.
He stood from his bed with a yawn and walked to his kitchen with a sleepy, “good morning,” beginning to root around in his cabinets for some rice to cook. He was running a bit low; he needed to go shopping soon. Maybe he could go this morning, if he had enough time.
“I graduated yesterday,” he said aloud, his focus still on his cabinets. “Got my headband and everything.”
He grabbed the rice bag and pulled it out, moving to his stovetop. “I’m going to wear it across my forehead, so you’ll have to work harder to poke me all the time.”
He waited for a reply, but none came.
“Did you hear me?” he complained. “You’re gonna have a hard time getting to me now. I’m gonna become much stronger, and I’m not going to use your curse to go challenge you.”
He frowned down at his rice before huffing and turning around. “Aren’t you gonna say any-?”
The kitchen was empty.
Sasuke blinked, straightening up. He scanned the room, but there was no trace of his brother’s ghost.
He frowned. It was weird to not have company. His brother usually showed up for breakfast.
He tsked, annoyed, turning back to his rice. Why should he care if the stupid ghost didn’t show up today? He should be exhilarated that Itachi was gone. He hated his brother, after all, and any time spent without him should be treasured.
Any time spent alone, that meant.
He frowned.
He ate quickly in the silent kitchen, and it didn’t take him long to get dressed and ready. He hesitated slightly in front of the mirror, making sure his headband was adjusted perfectly, before taking his bag and heading out the door.
He was already out of the Uchiha town by the time he remembered that he wouldn’t need the bag anymore, but he opted to not go back and drop it off. His house had felt eerie this morning, and he didn’t want to linger until it was back to normal.
He heard the soft rustling of feathers and turned to see a white-feathered bird landing in the tree beside him. This type of bird was pretty common in Konoha, one he’d seen plenty of times over the years. The bird seemed to be a solitary species, since Sasuke only ever saw one at a time. He felt a sad sort of smile pull on his face at the common ground.
“D’you want to-?” he started, tilting his head at the bird, but it simply flapped its wings and flew away. Sasuke ducked slightly, though it had no chance of hitting him, and felt himself pinking. Had he been about to ask the bird to come with him into town? It was a bird . He was really losing it.
He shook his head and pressed on, trying to ignore the nagging thought that maybe he’d nearly asked the bird because he was missing his usual companion.
Once he got to town, he passed Choji and Shikamaru on the street beside the same shop as usual, both boys chattering happily and eating snacks. Sasuke ducked into that shop, looking around for a new rice bag to replenish his stash.
The shop was a bit crowded this morning. A group of older ninja were deep in discussion at the stools, though their expressions were relaxed. A few others were scattered about the shelves, picking up various items. Two anbu still in uniform were at one of those shelves, examining some hardware tool, and the girl who’d introduced herself yesterday as Tenten was next to the pair, investigating a box of nails with considerable attention. A gaggle of young kids were looking at action figures, their parents seated at the tables tucked away in the back and chatting happily. Sasuke avoided all of them and headed to the food.
He grabbed a bag of his usual rice and stared down at it. His stomach still felt vaguely empty. He tsked, his hands twitching on the bag. How dare his stupid cursed heart get so worked up over not seeing Itachi? Itachi was the reason his life was so lonely and horrible in the first place.
Sasuke hmphed and turned on his heel to march to the line at the counter. He hugged the rice bag, annoyed, until the two anbu got into line behind him.
He stiffened slightly at their proximity, trying to sneak a glance at them from the corners of his eyes. They were bickering quietly, the red haired one complaining about the length of the line, and Sasuke forced his gaze back forward to avoid them.
He didn’t like the anbu, any anbu, for no shortage of reasons. They’d done nothing to protect his family, during or before Itachi’s attack. Itachi had been an anbu; couldn’t they have seen that something was wrong?
Not that Sasuke had noticed either.
He was tugged out of his bitter thoughts when the bells rang at the front door to indicate someone opening them, and an incredibly familiar voice cheerfully called, “hi Toki! Hi Contororu!”
Sasuke pouted as he saw Sakura entering the shop in his peripheral vision. He’d been hoping not to run into her until there were other students around to distract her from him, though maybe whoever Toki and Contororu were could-
“Yo Haruno,” one of the anbu behind Sasuke said as the other just clicked his tongue to acknowledge Sakura’s greeting, and Sasuke nearly startled. Why did these anbu know Sakura? He supposed he had heard that Sakura’s dad was once an anbu. He frowned.
Sakura didn’t give him long to think about this before stepping directly beside Sasuke and cheerfully saying, “good morning Sasuke!”
“Mm,” was all Sasuke sent back, but that didn’t deter Sakura.
“I’m so excited to find out our teams!” she said as comfortably as if they’d been in conversation the whole morning already, bouncing on the soles of her feet as the line finally moved up one. “Who do you think you’ll be teamed up with?”
“Hinata and Shino,” Sasuke said flatly, still not looking at her.
“Oh, you’re pretty confident, huh?” Sakura said before pointing at herself. “I’m hoping for Kurenai as our jonin- she’s the best in the Leaf at genjutsu!”
One of the anbu behind them snorted a laugh that turned quickly into an odd wheezy cough, and his redheaded companion practically punched his partner’s back to help. Sakura blinked at them in confusion before turning her attention back to Sasuke and continuing, “did you want her too? I know your eyes have a little genjutsu, but Iruka never let us practice-“
“What?” Sasuke interrupted, finally looking at her. “I don’t have any-“
“How can you tell a thing like that?”
Both Sakura and Sasuke jumped slightly at the redheaded anbu’s voice and turned, and the taller anbu groaned and muttered, “no, no, no, not involved with that, we said not involved today, we said buy this one thing and go home and deal with him some other time-”
“Toki,” the redheaded anbu tsked to quiet his partner’s grumbling as he himself continued to stare down Sakura, his expression completely hidden behind his red patterned mask, and an odd feeling crept up Sasuke’s chest, and he very nearly stepped between Sakura and the anbu.
But then Sakura just gave a bright laugh and said, “I’ve always been able to see genjutsu a bit more than other people.”
“And does that help you break genjutsu easier?” the red anbu asked, his tongue clicking again as he did, and the other irritably echoed, “ not involved with him, Contororu ,” but Sasuke finally spoke up.
“Not involved with who?” he asked loudly, his hands twitching and crunching up the rice bag. “Not involved with me? With the Uchiha? You think avoiding what happened makes it any less your fault?”
The shop had gone quiet almost immediately upon Sasuke’s retort, and he pinked slightly. It wasn’t surprising; Sasuke very rarely even mentioned what had happened to the Uchihas, let alone yelled about it in a public shop, but the way the red anbu was staring down Sakura had shifted something in his chest, and he’d felt the need to do something about it.
Except now, the two anbu were facelessly staring him down, and he felt himself locking up slightly. His brother hadn’t worn the mask that night. Focus on their masks.
Contororu clicked his tongue again as Toki tilted his head. “Our fault?”
Sasuke scowled, aware of the eyes of the other shopgoers boring into him from every direction. He didn’t want to have this conversation, especially not this morning, after everything had felt so weird.
So he simply tsked and turned back to the counter, but something tugged hard on the back of his jacket collar, and he tripped backwards and snapped his head back to see that Toki had grabbed him, and every thought evaporated from his mind.
“Hey, hey, I’m asking you to explain yourself,” Toki said, his voice all fake sweetness. “It’s pretty bold of you to go blaming us in front of all these people and your dear friend Haruno here-“
“We’re not friends,” Sasuke said immediately, his heart jumping into his throat. He tried to shove Toki off, but the anbu’s grip stayed on his jacket, and he was starting to get overwhelmed, his vision tunneling, his lungs hitching, danger, danger, danger, he had to get away, away from this, away from an anbu grabbing him behind his neck, and if he just looked up and into his eyes then he’d be finished for sure-
“Toki,” Contororu tsked. “Don’t drag this up now.”
“We can talk with him, as long as we don’t play too rough,” Toki said, his voice low, and Sasuke’s heartbeat slammed against his chest. “Go ahead and buy what you came for. I’d like to finish this conversation, if Uchiha’s really this interested in starting it.”
“Not here, you wouldn’t.”
“Yeah, actually, I would,” Toki said, his gloved grip tightening just slightly, and Sasuke’s world tilted, but Sakura stepped forward.
She grabbed Toki’s wrist and firmly said, “let go of him. Now,” and Sasuke instinctively grabbed the side of her dress to tug her back, away from the anbu, because he meant danger, that uniform meant danger, and all it took was one of them getting a little too angry-
Contororu took Toki’s arm and pulled it back to the anbu’s side, and the moment his hand released Sasuke’s jacket, he could breathe again.
“This isn’t the place for this,” Contororu said with another click, turning his head back to Sakura. “If you’d like to discuss genjutsu, come to the anbu headquarters this evening. If you two,” another click of his tongue as he now turned his head to Sasuke and Toki, “would like to have a shouting match, feel free to tag along.” Back to Sasuke. “You’re next.”
Sasuke stared, blinking, his head still empty. “What?”
Toki tsked. “In line . Don’t make my man wait.”
Sasuke looked behind him. They were right. The rest of the line had filtered out.
Everyone else was still quiet.
Sasuke turned, hugging his rice bag again. He took a few steps forward, feeling slightly wooden. He couldn’t figure out what was happening to him. His ears were ringing in the quiet, and the artificial air conditioning prickled against his skin, and his headband rubbed abrasively against his forehead, and he needed to get a grip on himself in front of all of these people.
The worker at the counter was talking, but Sasuke couldn’t hear him. He could still feel anbu gloves grabbing his shoulder, and what if he’d looked into his eyes? But he’d been wearing a mask, and he wasn’t his brother, and Sasuke couldn’t force thoughts through his head.
He heard an annoyed click from Contororu behind him, and his heartrate tripled. Now he’d made the other anbu angry, and an angry anbu was dangerous, because maybe that was why, why Itachi had snapped, why he did what he did, and Sasuke couldn’t let it happen again but he just couldn’t make himself think or move or get himself somewhere safe-
Pink appeared in his vision, and he stared, wavering. Sakura. She said something to the counter worker, rummaging around a pocket in her dress. She placed some contents of the pocket onto the counter before stepping back, putting an arm around Sasuke’s shoulders, and steering him towards the exit.
He let her, his own limbs still feeling stiff and leaden, a dull weight heavy in his stomach that lightened just slightly with each step further out the door, away from the anbu, the danger, the silent crowd that did nothing but watch him fall apart.
Sakura sat them both down on a shaded bench, and it sounded like she was talking, but the words sounded odd, like they were trying to speak underwater, and Sasuke just stared at her.
“I- what?” he asked, blinking several times, and Sakura said something else, shaking her head with a smile, and turned her gaze to the street in front of her.
Sasuke did too, feeling his breathing lifting and lowering his chest. What was happening to him? He’d completely fallen apart, in front of a crowded shop full of people. That was just embarrassing .
In front of Sakura, too. He felt himself pinking.
“Sakura,” he said, and he saw her turn to him out of the corners of his eyes.
“Yes, Sasuke?”
At least he could hear again. What had happened to him? “I’m…hmph.”
He cut himself off, glaring to the side, but Sakura gave a quiet laugh.
“You don’t need to apologize, Sasuke,” she said, leaning forward, and he just turned further away. “It wasn’t that expensive!”
“Expensive?” Sasuke echoed, confusion allowing him to turn his head back. Sakura pointed to the bag of rice still in his arms.
“The guy kept telling you the price, and you were just staring at him,” she explained before tilting her head with wide eyes. “Did those anbu do something to you?”
Sasuke shook his head, embarrassment now burning across his cheeks. “No.”
He almost wished they had, so he’d have an excuse for whatever weak meltdown that had actually been. “I can pay you back.”
“Hm?” Sakura asked.
“For the rice. I can pay you back.”
“Oh, pssh. Don’t worry about it,” Sakura said, waving her hand in his direction. “Maybe you can buy me some new cards sometime instead-“
Sasuke stood before she could finish the sentence and began heading to the school building. He didn’t want to open up that kind of conversation. That stupid card game was a curse minefield.
Unfortunately, Sakura hopped up and fell into step beside him, beaming. “Soooo, you excited to
get all our ninja tools? I know they provide some, but part of me wants to check shops around town to see if there are any better ones. A couple people wrote on our grades paper -you know, the one where I beat you?”
She prodded Sasuke’s side, and he startled and jumped back with a snapped, “ow! Hey!” but she simply giggled and kept walking. Thoughtlessly, he fell back into line beside her, his attention on rubbing the slightly smarting spot between his ribs where she’d jabbed.
“But anyway, there were some notes saying which shops were better than others, but it’s probably smarter to try out the regular Academy ones first, ‘cause those are ones we trained on, so we’ll be used to them, right? That’s what my dad says at least- he had a couple other brands eventually, but he had to break them in-“
Sakura kept talking, and Sasuke let her, instead staring up at the sky. It wasn’t very cloudy out, just a blanket of pure blue stretched to the horizon, sunshine glaring down onto the street. It was getting warmer with each day, spring fading away into summer, and soon it might be hot enough that Sasuke could leave out his arm warmers. Though, then again, maybe it was smart to keep a covering of some kind for fights and things. Maybe that was something he could determine now that he would be going on actual missions.
He exhaled, trying to let the thought calm his still jittery heart. Actual missions. He finally was on his way to getting out of this village and lifting his curse. Then, he could kick his brother out of his mind entirely, and he wouldn’t have to be afraid of seeing anbu uniforms, like a scared little coward. No, he’d be a brave shinobi and have tons of friends, and the first thing he’d do upon returning to the village uncursed would be buying Sakura every card pack that little shop had in stock.
“-but I think the place I’d want to go to the most for a mission is the Land of Hot Springs!” Sakura was saying, bouncing with excitement. “That just sounds so pretty! And relaxing, too! How about you? Where would you like to go?”
“The Land of Wind,” Sasuke said, his eyes still up on the sky. He wondered where the white-feathered bird had gone. “The Leaf Village has barely any information on it, and I want to learn- um.”
Sasuke suddenly cut himself off. He shouldn’t give something away by blabbing on. Sakura was a kind person, definitely the type to feel sorry for someone who was cursed and latch on harder than she already tried to.
So Sasuke hmphed and glared away, rearranging his face into a scowl.
“Want to learn what?” Sakura asked curiously, “What’s the Land of Wind know that the Leaf doesn’t have? C’mon, tell me! I love learning new jutsus!”
“Whatever,” Sasuke muttered, crossing his arms with a sneer, and Sakura scowled.
“Fine. Be that way,” she said, and Sasuke ignored the instinct to chance a glance in her direction.
“I will be that way,” he said instead.
“Fine!”
“Fine.”
Both simply glared in opposite directions until Ino appeared from the crowd and ran over, placing herself between Sasuke and Sakura and practically hip checking Sasuke into a vendor stall to do so.
“Sakura!” Ino cheered as Sasuke squawked and toppled, just barely catching himself before completely wiping out. “Are you so super excited to find out our jonin?!”
“Hey, watch where you’re walking!” Sasuke snapped at her as she dropped her head back and stuck out her tongue.
“Watch where you’re standing, clumsy ,” she said as Sakura stifled a giggle, and Sasuke scowled as he fell into step behind the two girls now.
They chatted the rest of the way there, ignoring Sasuke entirely, which he was grateful for, so when they arrived at the school building, it was without much excitement or danger.
Apparently the incident at the shop had delayed them, since most of the other students were already present in their normal seats. Sakura and Ino headed to their own usual spots, and Sasuke turned to climb the steps to his, passing Naruto to-
He did a slight double take, turning to stare at Naruto, who grinned right back, a smug expression all over his face.
“What are you doing here?” Sasuke asked shortly, and Naruto grinned, leaning back in his chair.
“What do you think, Sasuke?” he asked, crossing his arms, clearly pleased.
“Remedial lessons?” Sasuke suggested with a sneer. “‘Cause Iruka felt bad for your public humiliation on the grades sheet?”
“You mean the sheet where you lost to Sakura and got carried away by a bird?” Naruto snickered, and Sasuke flushed, taking a step towards him.
“You’re the one who-!” he started, but before he could continue, Iruka entered.
“Good morning!” the teacher called with a wave, and Sasuke shut his mouth to instead huff and sit in the nearest seat with another glare shot at Naruto, who stuck his tongue out at him. “Please take your seats-! Oh, we’re missing someone aren’t we? Two someones.”
“Yeah, but it’s Shikamaru,” Ino complained, dropping her chin into her hand beside Sakura. “Choji’s probably dragging him through the dirt road to get here on time. Ugh, and that’s gonna be my team.”
“You just think it is; it might not be,” Sakura said brightly, and Ino leaned back with a hmph.
“Girl, I’ve already explained this. Our parents were all a team too,” she said as Sakura pouted. “There’s no way we aren’t. Hey, Iruka-sensei?”
“Yes, Ino?”
“Can you just verify that I’m with Shikamaru and Choji and who our jonin is? I can go find them and tell them myself instead of making everybody wait for Shikamaru to decide to show up.”
Iruka gave a sheepish laugh. “Yes, that’s fine. And you’re right, the three of you are teamed up.”
“Aw, I wanted to team with you!” Sakura complained, but Ino stood with a shrug, tossing her hair over her shoulder.
“Maybe our teams still can,” she said airily, practically strutting to the front and holding out her hand with a very businesslike setting of her shoulders.
“Your jonin is Asuma Sarutobi. I believe he wanted to meet up with you under the stone faces,” Iruka said, handing her a pile of bags. “Here’s everyone’s ninja tools.”
“Thanks, sensei. Good luck to everyone but Sasuke!” Ino said cheerfully as she headed out the door, and Sasuke tsked as Naruto openly laughed at him.
“Ino, don’t be rude!” Iruka called, but Ino simply flashed a beam over her shoulder as she walked out of the room.
“Well, everyone else, good morning!” Iruka said cheerfully. “Let’s get right to it. Congratulations, of course, to all our new genin. Today, you start your journeys as ninja, so I won’t waste any of your time. You’ve all already seen our new Team 10, with Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji under the jonin Asuma. Next,
Team 7, with the jonin Kakashi Hatake assigned. The members of Team 7 are Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha, and Naruto Uzumaki.”
“Oh, yes. Excellent,” Kiba muttered from his seat behind Sakura, who jumped up.
“Yay Sas-!” Sakura cheered before suddenly stopping as, presumably, the rest of Iruka’s sentence caught up to her. “Wait.”
“What?!” Sasuke fully jumped up, pointing accusatorily at Naruto. “Naruto?! He didn’t even pass!”
“Oh yeah?” Naruto jumped up now too, and Sasuke turned to glare at him. Naruto pointed at his headband before leaning forward to practically smack the thing against Sasuke’s own, smugly saying, “what’s this then, huh Sasuke? What is it? Open your fancy eyes and look for a change-“
“Get off!” Sasuke snapped, shoving Naruto back as Iruka scolded, “Naruto!”
“Sensei, he didn’t pass,” Sakura said, her hand in the air, and Iruka turned to her.
“He didn’t pass the initial practical exam, yes,” Iruka said, turning to her. “But I permitted a reassessment of his performance, and he passed that one with flying colors.”
Naruto grinned smugly at them as Sasuke dropped back into his seat, staring in blank outrage at Iruka. This was the worst possible outcome, worse than any other scenario. Sakura and Naruto? He couldn’t go a single day already without having to avoid Sakura befriending him, and now he’d have to spend practically all his time with her? And Naruto! He was the worst student in the class! Any chance Sasuke had at his team going on missions to the Land of Wind were destroyed. The only benefit of having to pretend he didn’t like Sakura would have been that at least with her as a teammate, they’d get better missions as the top two in the class. But now Naruto would drag the whole team down to his level.
“Hinata, Shino, Kiba, the three of you will join Team 8,” Iruka said, ignorant to Sasuke’s freefalling optimism, “with the jonin Kurenai Yuhi.”
“Seriously?!” Sakura huffed audibly, and Iruka looked over, annoyed.
“Sakura, quite a bit of thought was put into the team assignments,” he said. “You’ve been placed where we think you’ll thrive.”
“Yeah, right,” Sakura replied irritably, and Hinata gave some barely audible sound from her seat beside Naruto, who turned to her.
“What’s that, Hinata?” he asked loudly, and she squeaked and ducked into her hood, managing a just audible: “I could- trade. With S-Sakura. If she w-wants Kurenai.”
Hinata’s face was vibrantly red, and Sasuke grabbed the opportunity she provided immediately.
“Yes, trade Hinata and Sakura!” he said, standing up and shoving his hand to point at Sakura. “Sakura wants to learn genjutsu, so put her with the genjutsu teacher, and Hinata,” a new point at the girl, who squeaked, “clearly wants to be with Naruto, so put them together!”
A team with Hinata and Naruto was much better than Sakura and Naruto; Hinata and Naruto would occupy each other completely, and even if they didn’t, neither would bother befriending Sasuke. He could figure out the part about getting out of the village later. Hinata was a Hyuga, right? Maybe they had a private library like the Uchihas did. Teaming with Hinata could at least help his research.
“Huh? With me?” Naruto pointed to himself, looking at Hinata in surprise, and she squeaked again as she pulled her gaze down from Sasuke to Naruto, hiding back in her collar.
“Dude, what is going on? ” Kiba muttered, dropping his chin into his hand and staring across the classroom for Shino’s far corner seat, where the boy was seated in such a disinterested position that he could have been asleep in his spot.
“Everyone, quiet down!” Iruka said sharply, and the students returned their focus to him. “Your teams were all specially selected, and they’ve been signed off on by the hokage. Any team change request will need to go through him, and it will be a very low priority item on his tasklist. So, if you’d like to wait two months to start missions, feel free to request a change. If you’d like to get the experience that was determined to be best for you, you’ll suck it up and take your teams. You’re all fighting for something greater than yourselves: the peace and security of our Village. Don’t put your own self interests in front of that of your Village.”
Sasuke scowled as he dropped back to his seat.
Iruka took a breath and closed his eyes. “I understand that you all have set expectations about what your ninja careers will look like. I had the same when I was first graduating.”
He opened his eyes, a serious expression on his face. “I had to learn that those expectations were nothing compared to reality. You may find yourselves on missions or, yes, teams that you don’t want.
“But,” he said, a small smile on his face, “those are the experiences you’ll end up appreciating more than any others. Please don’t let a preconceived notion hold you back from achieving your full potential. I know each of you will become a fine ninja someday, and I truly believe this is the best first step for every one of you.”
He smiled and continued, “team 7, Kakashi has requested to meet you on the roof. Team 8, Kurenai will meet you in the hallway. You’re all dismissed. Make the Leaf proud, genin!”
“Yes, sir!” Kiba and Naruto both shouted, and Akamaru barked. Hinata made a soft sound that could have been her own ‘yes, sir’, and Shino made no comment.
Neither did Sasuke or Sakura, both still staring at Iruka in outrage.
Sasuke shoved himself to his feet and stormed to Iruka’s desk, swiping an equipment bag from the table with a sour glare at the teacher, who started, “Sasuke-“ but he picked up his pace to ignore him and slammed the classroom door shut behind him as he did. This had the added benefit of apparently slamming it shut in Naruto’s face, evidenced by the boy shouting.
“Oi!” he yelled when he slammed the door back open and ran after Sasuke. “You oughta show some respect! You’re on a team with the next hokage, after all, so you two should start being a little more appreciative.”
“Oh please,” Sakura scoffed, emerging behind him. “How’d you end up passing the exam anyway? Did you bribe Iruka?”
“Bribe him with what, ramen?” Sasuke sneered, and Naruto turned with a scowl and a point.
“Don’t act like that’s not more precious than any treasure in the village!”
“A bowl of noodles?” Sasuke replied hotly, anger licking up his insides at the unfairness of it all. “Get your head back in reality! We’re the ones saddled with you, the worst ninja in the history of the Leaf Village-“
“I’m the one saddled with the biggest jerk in the history of the Leaf Village!” Naruto interrupted, prodding him hard in the chest.
“Ugh,” Kiba’s voice groaned as Team 8 passed them, and Sasuke glared over his shoulder at the trio. Kiba dropped his head back, Akamaru swaying on it. “Dodged a kunai with that team.” He then put up a big smile and threw his arms around Hinata and Shino. “You two are my heroes! Let’s all wave to Sakura’s sanity as it disappears with these two-“
Sasuke, unable to contain his bubbling frustration, squeezed his grip on his tool bag and threw it at Kiba. Hinata and Shino noticed before Kiba did, both pulling him down to dodge, but as they ducked, something else materialized in the air.
A lion leapt forward, snarling and aimed directly for Sasuke, and he shouted, tripping backwards onto the floor and throwing his arms over his face, but nothing hit him.
“Genjutsu!” he heard Sakura gasp, and he snapped his gaze up over his arms to see.
A woman with dark hair and an anbu uniform stood in the hallway, her red patterned cat mask perched on the side of her head and her arm held lazily up.
She made a soft ‘tch’ and lowered her hand with a cold smile. “I thought you Uchihas never fell for genjutsu. Can’t you manage to play nice on day one? Iruka!”
She strode forward, past the six genin all staring at her, until Iruka appeared at his door.
“Kurenai,” he said pleasantly before looking around. “What happened-?”
“Uchiha living up to his name. I have a question,” the woman said, and Sasuke felt his face heating and his chest clenching. Kurenai continued, “have you heard anything from the hokage about reassigning my mission tomorrow? I’d rather spend the whole first week with my new team, if possible.”
“Yes, I’ve just heard this morning. Toki and Contororu will be taking it for you,” Iruka said, and Kurenai gave a tight smile and turned on her heel.
“Splendid. Now, I know I don’t have Uchiha, which makes you three my team,” Kurenai said, striding forward until she was in front of Kiba, Hinata, and Shino, facing them and tucking her hands behind her back. “Let’s introduce ourselves in the fresh air outside. Shall we?”
She pivoted again and strode down the hallway, and the three genin on her team glanced at each other.
“Oh, I like her already,” Kiba said, perking up to run after her, Shino close behind, and Hinata turned, redfaced, to stammer, “have a g-good first day, Naruto! A-and Sakura and Sasuke!” before turning and gasping upon seeing that the boys were already halfway down the hall.
“You too Hinata!” Naruto shouted, cupping his hands around his mouth to do so as Sakura winced and scowled at the volume.
“Why are you on the ground, Sasuke?” Iruka asked, stepping forward and holding his hand out. “Did something happen?”
“No,” Sasuke huffed, swatting Iruka’s hand away and standing himself, seething. What did he care if another person in this Village had something against him because of his clan? It wasn’t unusual.
I thought you Uchihas never fell for genjutsu .
She’d thought he was weak. He scowled.
“Sasuke just fell on his butt ‘cause he’s a loser,” Naruto said cheerfully, striding down the hallway. “C’mon, let’s go to the roof!”
“Naruto, don’t call your teammates losers,” Iruka called as he stepped back into his room, and Naruto turned with an indignant point.
“Teammate singular!” he insisted. “I didn’t call Sakura a loser!”
The girl in question was still staring after where Kurenai had gone, her expression longing. Sasuke stepped to her.
“You can still request a team change,” he said, and Sakura blinked as if startled, turning to him. He dodged her gaze and continued, “I mean, you can work on this team until the hokage approves a change, and then go with Kurenai. Hinata can join Naruto and I.”
To his surprise, Sakura laughed and turned, giving him a light punch to his shoulder. “Aw, but then I wouldn’t be able to see your face when I do better than you at every single mission.”
“What?” Sasuke flushed and stared at her, and she grinned at him.
“Hey, slowpokes!” Naruto shouted, and both turned to him, standing at the end of the hall. “Last one to the roof is spoiled milk!”
He turned and began to sprint full speed up the staircase that he was notably closer to.
“Hey, that’s cheating!” Sakura snapped as she ran after him, and Sasuke turned and ran too. He could make up the deficit between them and win, if he was strong enough.
Surely, he could.
Notes:
Update on where I'm at in Shippuden: Madara is competing with Kenjaku for biggest yapper in anime pfpfpf anyway the fourth ninja war has been declared and apparently the moon is a tailed beast?? How did tides work before it got sealed? Explain that one Madara
Ty for reading and I hope you have a lovely day! :D <3
Chapter Text
Sakura added to her schedule this evening to go to the gym where she and Kabuto practiced sparring and curb stomp him for how he’d arranged her team.
Naruto Uzumaki?! What had he been thinking?!
Obviously she knew she’d end up with Sasuke, and learning that Ino was on a different team had been a blow, but she would have been thrilled with Hinata, and satisfied with Shino or Kiba. But no. She got Naruto Uzumaki.
He couldn’t have even given her Kurenai as her jonin?! No, instead she got Kakashi, the idiot jonin who Guy kept taunting into stupid challenges in the middle of the street.
Did Kabuto just want another possible sharingan in case they couldn’t get to Sasuke? They trusted her that little? She scowled at the very idea.
Maybe there was some reason to put Kakashi in. He at least was a jonin, and therefore might have some skill Sakura didn’t know about that Kabuto thought would be useful to have access to.
Naruto Uzumaki, on the other hand, Sakura was very confident had no such skill.
Naruto’s race-to-the-roof had ended with all three of them gasping for air outside, half on the ground with chests heaving. Naruto should have won with his starting advantage, but he’d tripped and faceplanted on the top step, allowing all three to burst through the door to the roof at essentially the same time.
They probably could have called it a tie.
They did not.
“I won!” Naruto shouted, jabbing his finger in Sasuke’s chest, and he shoved him off irritably.
“Sakura and I passed you while you were face down on wood,” he snapped. “You’re third place at best.”
“I made up the ground!”
“No you didn’t,” Sakura scoffed. “You were behind us, just like in class.”
This argument continued for at least twenty minutes.
“Maybe if Kakashi were here already, he’d be able to tell who won,” Sakura said finally, crossing her arms and letting out a hmph. “Where is he, anyway?”
“You mean he’d be able to tell that I won,” Naruto said smugly, and Sasuke shoved him.
“In your dreams,” he tsked. “And Sakura’s right, we’ve been waiting here forever.”
“I guess patience is an important ninja skill,” Sakura said, tapping at her chin. “Maybe he’s testing us in how well we can do with it?”
Sasuke raised his eyebrow with a sour glare, but Naruto perked up, dropping his fist into his hand.
“Yeah! I bet I can be more patient than Sasuke!” he cheered, and Sasuke snapped, “what does that even mean?” as Naruto pointed to Sakura and added, “we’ll totally win being the most patient, believe it!”
Naruto sat down, his legs crossed neatly under him and a smug expression on his face.
About three hours later, however, all three of them were united in their annoyance.
“He’s taking for ever ,” Naruto complained. He’d ended up flat on his back, his legs propped up against the wall where the door back downstairs was. “It’s been, like. Twenty minutes at least.”
“It’s been hours, Naruto,” Sakura snapped, turning in place with a scowl. She’d taken to wandering around the roof, making a mental note of what was up here. Some air conditioning units, fallen leaves, a pile of concrete bricks in the corner, a white bird that landed on a nearby wire for a fascinating grand total of three seconds.
At least the bird had been interesting for the three seconds it was there. She’d never seen one like it in Konoha, and she wondered what species it was.
She also wondered if somehow this entire day so far had been some elaborate prank Kabuto was playing on her.
She crossed her arms with a hmph, putting her attention back to her earlier thoughts of Kabuto’s machinations. Why had he put her on this team? Why with Kakashi, who’d decided to waste three hours of their day waiting around for him? She’d thought Kakashi was already flagged as a lost cause on the sharingan front, but she hadn’t known why. Probably because he only had one, for some reason. Maybe…maybe Kabuto thought Kakashi would teach Sasuke and get his sharingan more powerful before Orochimaru researched it? That made sense.
Unfortunately, it meant she probably was stuck with this team, no matter how much she’d rather trade with Hinata like Sasuke had suggested.
She wasn’t sure how to feel about that. On the one hand, it wasn’t ideal that Sasuke was so eager to kick her off his team. On the other hand, he’d said the reason why was because he remembered that she wanted to learn genjutsu. That could be nice of him.
Her stomach growled loudly, interrupting her thoughts, and she glared down at it. She hadn’t brought lunch with her, not anticipating spending the whole morning sitting on a rooftop, bored out of her mind.
She got an idea and turned. “Hey, Sasuke.”
The boy made no reaction to her words. He’d ended up lying down too, glaring up at the sky, in silence, for three hours. At least Naruto had talked in some effort to be interesting. He’d talked far too much, and at least 80% of his conversation was about ramen, himself becoming hokage, or the words ‘believe it’, but still, an effort was made.
Sakura walked to stand over Sasuke, placing her hands on her knees as she leaned into his line of view, and he quickly glared away when she spoke. “I’m super hungry. You bought rice this morning, right? Could you heat it up with some fire jutsu?”
Naruto, from his position halfway across the roof, shouted, “ooh, do you have ramen too?” and Sasuke pinked as he glared back.
“I’m not an oven,” he huffed. “Make it yourself.”
“With what, genjutsu?” Sakura rolled her eyes before remembering that she was supposed to be sweet-talking Sasuke and putting up a smile, crouching down to pull on Sasuke’s bag, earning a frown from him in her direction. “But Sasuke, you’re so strong at fire jutsu.”
“I can do it, Sakura!” Naruto said, and Sakura scoffed, her hands squeezing on the strap of Sasuke’s bag.
“You can’t even substitute-“ she began before glaring over her shoulder and spotting a ninja behind the boy, crouched on the railing to the roof.
She screamed before her mind could register what she was seeing, and Naruto turned and squawked, “who the heck are you?!”
Sasuke shot up and grabbed Sakura’s arm in a way that could have been protective -that had potential- before pulling her back and throwing…something, blindly at the ninja.
The stranger’s one visible eye was already on Naruto, however, and he waved, his expression cheerful from the fraction Sakura could see of it. “My name is Kaka-“
He was interrupted when whatever Sasuke had thrown collided with his head. Sasuke’s Leaf headband, Sakura now noticed, since his bag was currently clenched in Sakura’s hands. She let go of it quickly.
The ninja blinked, his hand still up in his wave, and he continued as if he hadn’t been interrupted. “…shi Hatake. I’m your new jonin sensei. Do you want this back, or is this some rebellious declaration or something?”
Kakashi hopped down onto the roof and picked up Sasuke’s headband with two fingers, and Sasuke scowled.
“Couldn’t you have dodged that?” Sasuke asked, standing, and Kakashi gave what could have been a smile from his eye.
“I thought Iruka taught you a shinobi shouldn’t waste energy avoiding attacks that aren’t any threat,” he said, and Sasuke practically huffed as Naruto stood and laughed, pointing at him.
“Shut up!” Sasuke snapped as the boy walked over to Kakashi, who was rummaging through one of his own bags.
Okay. This wasn’t…the best start, but Sakura’s expectations hadn’t exactly been high. Maybe she could turn this around.
“Well,” Kakashi said, a cheerful smile still evident in his one visible eye as he pulled a book out of his bag and flicked it open, taking out the folded paper bookmark and replacing it with Sasuke’s headband. “Let’s see what Iruka said about you, hm?”
The paper was Iruka’s report, that meant, the one sent to each jonin to inform them about their new team’s capabilities. And Kakashi had been using it as a bookmark.
“You- didn’t read it yet?” Sakura asked as Sasuke very stiffly asked, “could I have that back?”
“Hm?” Kakashi asked, flicking the folded paper open with one hand, his attention on it rather than the genin.
“My headband.”
Kakashi didn’t look up. “Maybe later. I don’t want you to cut it up.”
Kakashi put his book back into his bag and straightened up, his expression cheerful again. “Let’s have some proper introductions, shall we? How about your names, some likes and dislikes, hobbies and goals, that sort of thing.”
“How about you go first, sensei?” Sakura said before either Sasuke or Naruto could make a horrible first impression for all of them. If they hadn’t already done so.
Kakashi tapped his chin. “I suppose that’s fair. As previously stated, my name is Kakashi Hatake.”
He lowered his hand again and stared blankly at them, and the three genin glanced at each other.
“Uh- and?” Sakura prompted, and Kakashi turned his gaze to her.
“Hm?”
“What are your likes and hobbies and things?” Naruto asked. “Oh, and we should all know how each other likes their ramen! That’s important.”
“I don’t feel like telling you my likes or hobbies,” Kakashi said with a shrug. “And I like ramen with pork and boiled eggs.”
“You’re not going to tell us anything about yourself and then have us blab all our own business?” Sasuke asked, unimpressed, and Kakashi put a hand on his chest.
“I resent that. I told you how I like my ramen.”
“He’s right,” Naruto said with a serious nod, and Sakura and Sasuke glared at him. He then perked up and stated, “me next! My name’s Naruto Uzu-!”
“Oh, like the main character from the Make-Out Paradise prequel.”
Naruto’s words tripped to a halt as all three genin now stared at Kakashi. “Huh?”
Kakashi gave no further elaboration, simply blinking vacantly at them. Naruto shook his head and pressed forward.
“No, that sounds dumb. It’s like the ramen topping!” Naruto said cheerfully, pointing. “That’s my favorite thing! I love ramen and cooking ramen and eating ramen and smelling ramen-“
“We get it,” Sasuke tsked, rolling his eyes so hard that his head moved, and Sakura giggled.
Naruto, however, hmphed and pointed now at Sasuke. “And my least favorite thing is Sasuke trying to ruin ramen all the time.”
Sasuke just tsked again, and Naruto put his hands on his hips with a bright grin. “I take my ramen like Ichiraku’s house specialty bowl, and my hobbies are also eating and cooking ramen, and my goal for the future-“
Naruto’s eyes flashed as he adjusted his headband. “Is to become the strongest ninja in the Leaf Village! The hokage!”
“Believe it,” Sakura and Sasuke both joined Naruto, their own tones annoyed. Naruto, however, was still beaming, clearly pleased with himself.
Kakashi just looked bored.
“Enjoy the paperwork,” he said blandly before turning to Sasuke. “Uchiha next.”
Sasuke scowled.
“Well,” he said, his eyes hard, “I like very little, and I dislike just about everything.”
“Is that so?” Kakashi said apathetically, glancing down at the paper still in his hands and then back up. “Anything else to share?”
Sasuke scowled. “And I intend to hunt down the man who took everything away from me, and take back what’s mine.”
“You’ve got to be kidding,” Kakashi said before turning to Sakura, ignoring Sasuke’s angry tsk. “You?”
“Wait, hold on!” Naruto interrupted, putting his hand in the air. “Sasuke didn’t say how he likes ramen!”
“I don’t like ramen,” Sasuke hissed through gritted teeth, shaking slightly as his glare remained on Kakashi, and Naruto slowly lowered his hand with a look of pure, devastated betrayal on his face.
“Uchiha just gets worse and worse, huh?” Kakashi said. “Haruno. Go.”
“U-uh, what I like…” Sakura said, thinking hard. She could use this opportunity, couldn’t she? To pull Sasuke out of whatever fit of rage he was about two seconds away from and back to thinking about her? “I mean, who I like…” Maybe that was too direct. She changed approaches. “Er- I mean, my hobbies are…” She felt suddenly flustered, and she couldn’t understand it. There was just something about this jonin’s gaze that bore into her and made her falter.
She scrambled for something to say. “That is, my goals are- um…” She couldn’t exactly tell the truth here -she had a suspicion that learning the most powerful jutsu from Orochimaru! wouldn’t go over well- but this ninja might be able to tell if she was lying-
An idea materialized in her brain, and she grabbed it immediately. “My goal is to grow strong enough to protect people like my parents and make sure they have safe and happy lives!”
She was very pleased with herself for the grand total of one second it took for her to remember that both of her teammates were orphans.
She flushed as Kakashi blandly said, “indecisive,” but Naruto leaned forward and brightly said, “that’s a much better goal than Sasuke’s!” which made the boy snap, “what’s that supposed to mean?” as Sakura let out a breath.
“Oh, and- I like my ramen with tofu and green beans,” she added with a nod, wondering a split second later why she was bothering answering Naruto’s question, but Kakashi had done so, and Sakura was determined to make a good impression.
“Acceptable,” the boy said, crossing his arms with his own nod, and Sakura rolled her eyes as Sasuke just tsked again.
“Well,” Kakashi said, crumpling the paper in his hands into a ball and placing it into his vest pocket, a smile evident in his eye. “I’ve heard everything I need to know! I hate all of you.”
Sakura stared as Naruto yelped, “huh?!”
“You two never said your names, by the way,” Kakashi said through what sounded like a yawn. “I’ll go with Sakura Uchiha and Sasuke Haruno.”
“Excuse me?!” Sakura snapped as Sasuke huffed, “obviously you knew our names already.”
Naruto, however, pointed at Sasuke and laughed openly at him, which just made the boy turn and snap, “and quit laughing! He thought you were a romance book character!”
“Yeah, the main one,” Naruto grinned, clasping his hands behind his head, and Sakura turned back to Kakashi.
“Kaka-sensei,” she said, trying to ignore her frustrated annoyance and keep a placating tone. “Can we at least know why you don’t like us?”
“Hm? Oh, I said hate,” Kakashi said with a nod. “Not ‘don’t like.’ But I’m glad you clarified. That’s an important ninja skill; always check your information.”
“Mhm, mhm, mhm,” Naruto said, nodding quickly as Sasuke scowled at Kakashi.
“If you hate us, can’t we just get another jonin to head our team?” he asked sourly.
“Like Kurenai!” Sakura suggested immediately, perking up, before suddenly remembering that if this team assignment really was Kabuto’s doing, she should at least try to go along with it. “Uh- I mean- maybe we can give each other a chance…? Heh.”
She pinked at her botched recovery, but Kakashi’s eye smiled again.
“Excellent idea! However, I have a better one,” he said, pointing to her. “I’m failing all of you. You’re going back to the academy.”
“HUH?!” all three yelped, staring, and Kakashi placed his hands behind his back with an innocent expression.
“As your jonin, it’s well within my capacity to do so. Let’s go talk to Iruka. Come along kids.”
He hummed as he headed to the door, rooting around in his bag again. The three genin all startled and ran after him, panic uniting them as they each skid in front of Kakashi.
“You can’t fail us!” Sasuke snapped as Naruto pushed him out of the way to instead practically shout, “we’ll prove we deserve to be ninjas! Believe it!”
“Prove it how?” Kakashi asked, tilting his head as his eye tracked Sasuke’s trip and fall from Naruto’s shove. Sakura stepped over Sasuke to face Kakashi, her own gaze hard.
“We already did prove it,” she said. “By passing the final exam.”
Kakashi looked unimpressed. “And what was your final exam again?”
“Substitution jutsu and clone jutsu, and tons of memorized theory!” Sakura said as Naruto put his hand up and flatly said, “I beat someone up!”
Sakura turned to him, her nose scrunched. “What? Is that how you passed? You threatened Iruka?”
“Huh? No!” Naruto snapped, turning to face her. “Why would I threaten Iruka?!”
“How did you pass at all then, huh?” Sakura snapped, anger leaking out of her now. This was just frustrating! She’d spent years studying and working and training, and she’d trusted that Kabuto would get her a team that would push her on to success. What was the point in shutting away his ally with someone like Naruto or Kakashi? Just for contingency? They didn’t think Sasuke could level up on his own, so Sakura had to be dragged around with him?!
“I just told you, I beat someone up!” Naruto retorted, turning fully to better argue with her. “And then Iruka passed me!”
“What’s that even mean?!” Sakura snapped, turning fully too. “Iruka sensei just passed you because he felt sorry for-?”
“HEY!”
Sasuke’s shout was accompanied by a sharp clang of metal, and Sakura turned with a gasp to see Sasuke now standing between the arguing pair and Kakashi. Sasuke had a kunai out, held up, and the ring at the base of its handle was slid around the blade of a second kunai, held lazily by Kakashi and kept in place from Sasuke’s hold.
Sakura shrieked and jumped back, eyes blowing wide. Had Kakashi just tried to attack them?! He actually hated them that much?!
“I guess that’s not surprising that Uchiha’s the one with his guard up,” Kakashi said, pulling his kunai away and placing his other hand on his hip. “But did you two really trust the one you’d shoved to the ground to be your main defense?”
“What the heck is going on?!” Naruto shouted as Sasuke swayed slightly, his kunai still up and his shoulders rising and falling quickly with his breathing.
Kakashi tilted his head, confused. “You said you wanted to prove you could be ninjas. So, beat me in a fight, and I won’t go fail you right now.”
“Beat you?” Sakura echoed, straightening up. “You’re a jonin! We just graduated yesterday!”
“Oh, singing a different tune now, are we?” Kakashi asked, spinning the kunai around his finger by the ring on its handle. “You sounded so confident before.”
Sakura scowled as Naruto raised his fists.
“We’ll beat you before lunch,” he said, and Kakashi blinked at him.
“Okay. Then that’s your time limit. If you beat me before lunch, I won’t fail you.”
“Naruto!” Sakura hissed, and the boy turned to give a thumbs up.
“We can totally-!”
He was interrupted by Kakashi flickering into sight between them, and both Sakura and Naruto screamed.
Sakura dove away, crashing to the ground and scraping up her arms as she threw them over her head.
“I suppose I’m still your teacher until I fail you,” Kakashi’s voice said, “so I’ll give some lessons. Ninja fighting style number one: taijutsu.”
Sakura peeked through her arms to see Kakashi slamming a kick into Naruto’s side before turning to grab Sasuke’s forearm as the boy charged forward, kunai brandished. Naruto gave a high pitched shriek as he toppled, and Kakashi ducked under Sasuke’s arm, taking his wrist with him as he moved behind his back, dropping his fist onto Sasuke’s now twisting arm to make the boy drop the kunai with a clatter onto the ground.
“Taijutsu are martial arts attacks,” Kakashi said as Naruto stood and ran towards them with a shout. “They’re essential to any well rounded fight.”
Kakashi practically pirouetted himself and Sasuke together as the boy kept trying to turn to shake Kakashi off, and the teacher continued, “the basics can get you very far in a fight, so don’t neglect them in favor of a big, flashy arsenal.”
Naruto leapt into the air towards Kakashi when his back was finally towards him, courtesy of Sasuke’s spinning to get him off, and Sakura perked up.
“Would you get off?!” Sasuke shouted as Kakashi wheeled him around again and ducked, his hand still on Sasuke’s wrist. “What are you-?!”
Naruto collided with the very distracted Sasuke instead of Kakashi, and his momentum sent both boys crashing over the now ducked Kakashi’s back and onto the concrete floor. Sasuke ended up flipping over Kakashi to land hard on his head, and he let out a wheezy groan as Naruto jumped back up and over him to throw another punch at Kakashi, who dodged and put up his hand in a point.
“Evasion is also essential,” he said calmly as Naruto swung punch after punch, each one missing by several inches as Kakashi maneuvered around him. “If you can’t land a hit yourself, you can wear your enemy down by dodging, and then go in once he’s tired or frustrated.”
Kakashi ducked another of Naruto’s punches and reached into his bag as he swung his leg around. It caught Naruto’s own leg and tripped him, and he yelped as Kakashi stood and pulled the same book from before out of his bag before slamming it hard into Naruto’s butt and sending the boy face first into the metal railing with a clanging crunch that made Sakura wince secondhandedly.
“Ninja fighting style number two,” Kakashi said, straightening up with a cheerful expression. “Genjutsu! I heard that’s Haruno’s specialty.”
That was the point that Sakura realized she was just sitting around doing nothing.
She scrambled to her feet to face Kakashi, who directed his next words to her, as both boys were still dazedly trying to get up from their head slams into concrete and metal.
“Genjutsu are mostly illusions,” Kakashi said, “but they’re very effective at mentally attacking an opponent. Mental damage can end a fight even faster than physical damage; in fact, one of the founders of the Leaf Village, Madara Uchiha, famously defeated an attacking genjutsu user who’d placed the entire village under her illusions. Many of those victims would have had irreparable damage if the genjutsu hadn’t been lifted when it was. Isn’t that right, Uchiha?”
“And what right do you have to talk about it?!”
Sakura gasped at Sasuke’s voice, turning to him as he ran past her, winding up to throw two shuriken.
Kakashi casually placed a hand sign in front of his face. “Genjutsu looks like this.”
A flurry of leaves blew up in the air, and Sakura and Sasuke both winced hard against it, but Sasuke threw the shuriken blindly anyway. They connected with something, indicated by two sharp clangs of metal, and Sakura looked back to investigate what.
Someone else was standing in front of them where Kakashi had stood, a dark haired teen in an anbu uniform with heavy lines on his face and bright red eyes. He had a sword drawn and held backhanded in front of him, both shuriken embedded into it.
Sakura’s eyes widened. Kakashi hadn’t had a sword before; had his genjutsu given it to him? Genjutsus were just illusions though- but the shuriken had clearly made contact with something , and here was…presumably Kakashi, holding out-
A flurry of motion in her peripheral vision caught her attention, and she turned her head to it.
Sasuke had fallen to the ground, his eyes locked on Kakashi’s illusion, and his face etched with nothing but raw horror.
“You shouldn’t take your eyes off your opponent.”
That was the only warning Sakura got to snap her gaze back and see the illusion anbu in the air, less than a meter in front of her, the shuriken embedded sword wound up to swing.
She screamed and flinched, fear drowning her in an instant and blocking all ability to strategize, until quite suddenly, she felt the familiar head rush of a substitution jutsu.
But- she hadn’t done it.
She landed hard on the ground and threw her gaze up to see that Sasuke had traded places with her, his eyes wild with fear as he swung a kunai up at the anbu illusion. Its blade hooked into one of the shuriken’s holes and dislodged the sword from the anbu’s grip, launching it through the air until it clattered to a stop in front of Sakura.
She scrambled forward and grabbed it, but as she did a flurry of leaves burst from it- its illusion broken, revealing Kakashi’s book to be the thing stabbed by the two shuriken in place of a sword.
She grabbed the book anyway, hurling it towards the anbu as hard as she could, and he looked up from his position pinning Sasuke to the ground and leapt up to dodge.
His leap, however, sent him into the air when Naruto finally took his next move.
“Gotcha!” he cheered as he swung a kick from the air above, but the anbu threw his head back to rotate his body and instead bicycle kicked Naruto in the gut.
This proved to be less successful than it looked, when the kicked Naruto disappeared in a puff of smoke, and the anbu’s upside down head now fell face to face with another Naruto, wound up to punch.
“K.O.!” he shouted as his fist connected, sending the anbu flying back and slamming into the concrete wall surrounding the door leading back downstairs.
The anbu fell with a sickening crunch before he, too, disappeared in a puff of leaves to be replaced with a concrete brick from the pile in the corner of the roof.
“Huh?!” Naruto asked, straightening up, but when Sakura turned her head back to him, her eyes blew
wide.
“Naruto!”
Kakashi, now looming behind Naruto, bopped the boy on the top of his head with the ring of another kunai and cheerfully said. “Ninja fighting style number three: ninjutsu!”
“Ow!” Naruto protested, rubbing at the spot on his head where Kakashi had dropped his kunai against him, but Kakashi merely sent another probably-smile.
“Ninjutsu is a little less clearly defined,” he said cheerfully. “It’s mostly physical attacks that depend on a certain element, or a combination of a few elements. For example, substitution jutsu counts as ninjutsu, and each major chakra style -and most minor ones too- has a version of it. I used the leaf style, which, ironically enough, is not the style taught in the Leaf Village Academy.”
Kakashi continued, “a substitution can be used with any thing, or person apparently, that is not utilizing chakra. You guys have already used ninjutsu against me, courtesy of Uchiha, who substituted with Haruno to swap their places, which means Haruno was using no chakra for anything and therefore was contributing nothing at all to this fight. Excellent teamwork Uchiha!”
Sakura glowered at Kakashi as he gave a sarcastic clap at Sasuke, who hadn’t moved from his previous spot beyond curling tightly around himself, his head tucked under his arms and against his chest. Sakura’s anger from a second prior melted into worry and a bit of guilt. Sasuke hated anbu, had just locked up in fear because a few were talking to him this morning, but he’d thrown himself in the way of one to make sure she hadn’t gotten attacked.
Even if it was an illusion, he’d still done it.
“You looked away again, Haruno.”
This time, though, Sakura was ready.
She didn’t turn to see what Kakashi was doing, just substituted with the same brick Kakashi had used. When she landed by the door, she pulled her own kunai and threw it hard towards Kakashi’s back as he stopped his previous attack to glance over his shoulder.
He could dodge Sakura’s kunai, but Naruto had run forward again.
“Sounds like lecture’s over! Time to kick! Punch! Kick again!” he yelled before each move, and as he and Kakashi entered another taijutsu showdown, Sakura ran to Sasuke.
“Sasuke!” she gasped when she dropped to his side, shaking him. “C’mon, we can only fight him if all three of us go at it!”
Sasuke nodded quickly, but he didn’t make much other effort to move, and Sakura huffed, shaking him again, until suddenly an idea entered her brain. She stared around until her eyes landed on Kakashi’s book, and she grabbed it, pulling it towards herself and tugging out Sasuke’s headband from it.
“Here,” she said urgently, leaning over him to tug the thing back around his forehead. “This means we’re all in this together, so-!”
“Sakura!”
Sakura threw her head up to see four shuriken curving through the air, all headed for her as Naruto dove towards them. He managed to stick his hand in front of one, which stabbed through him and stopped its trajectory, but the other three evaded him as if they were moving on their own, and all three were poised now to glide around Sakura and hit the currently immobile Sasuke.
“No!” Sakura shrieked, diving forward to cover Sasuke as she pulled a second kunai out to try and deflect any of the shuriken she could, until her brain caught up with her instincts. “Oh, wait, they’re not real-!”
The stars simply flickered through her blade in a puff of leaves, and Naruto sat upright, blinking in confusion at his hand that had a few seconds earlier been stabbed and bleeding.
The shuriken had been genjutsu. Strong enough that it had even tricked her, in the adrenaline fueled state she was in. That was a flaw she couldn’t allow to continue. Sakura set her jaw as she shifted her attention back to Kakashi.
“So,” the teacher said, walking lazily towards them. “That’s all you’ve got, is it?”
“No way!” Naruto shouted, jumping up and backing a few steps to be in line with Sakura.
Sakura nodded, holding her kunai up. “We won’t stop trying.”
“All three of you won’t?” Kakashi asked, tilting his head with a slight flash in his eyes. “Two genin doesn’t make a team.”
“Three does.”
Sakura gasped slightly at Sasuke’s wavery voice, but she knew better than to turn her gaze away from Kakashi a third time. She kept her eyes on the teacher as movement in her peripheral vision told her that Sasuke was sitting up on his knees beside her now, and he picked up the kunai he’d dropped after disarming the anbu illusion.
“Don’t tell me you’re getting tired, sensei ,” Sasuke added, his shaky voice cocky, and Naruto snickered as Sakura’s grip tightened.
Kakashi simply blinked at them for a moment before finally saying, “it doesn’t matter if I am. This fight’s over. Stand up.”
“Huh?” Naruto protested. “You said we had until lunch!”
“Yes, and the clock over there says it’s now noon. Your time’s up,” Kakashi said, pointing.
“That’s just because you were hours late getting here!” Sasuke argued as Naruto turned to stare for the clock, but Sakura instead threw her kunai.
“We’re not gonna fall for that!” she shouted as Kakashi boredly moved his head to dodge.
“There’s nothing to fall for. The fight’s over. Stand up.”
“Oh, crap. It is noon,” Naruto said, turning back around before pointing. “What if we don’t have lunch at noon?”
Kakashi looked annoyed as he rooted around in his bag again, pulling out what looked like an onigiri wrapped up in a cloth. “Look. Lunch. Stand up .”
Sakura scowled as she did, anger making her limbs tremble. It wasn’t fair. None of this was fair, and she was getting a little sick of it. Kakashi wouldn’t train them unless they could defeat a jonin in about five minutes? What kind of cruel teacher would do a thing like that?
She would definitely be hunting down Kabuto this afternoon. She had some choice words for his decisions.
When Sasuke finally made it to his feet, Kakashi put his hands back on his hips.
“So! You all just completed your first mission! Now I can give you a report. You did horribly.”
“I thought we did pretty well,” Naruto muttered sourly, crossing his own arms.
“Perfect, then we’ll start with you. You want to be the hokage,” Kakashi said, his eye on Naruto, who inhaled to speak, -probably to say believe it - but Kakashi continued before he could, “but all you could manage was a single blow on a genjutsu substitution.”
Naruto hmphed as Kakashi turned to Sasuke, who was glaring at the ground, still trembling.
“You want to go hunt down your brother,” Kakashi said, his voice cold, “but the moment your brother fought back -and make no mistake, he will fight back- you managed one counter and then curled into a ball and gave up.”
Sasuke shrank into himself, scowling, and Sakura stared at him. His brother? That’s who that anbu had been? Suddenly his reactions to Toki and Contororu made more sense…
“And you,” Kakashi said, and Sakura gasped and turned her attention back. “Your goal is to protect, yet when your two teammates were in danger, you spent half the fight frozen in place, and all you managed to do was throw a book and a few very dodgeable kunai.”
Sakura flushed, humiliated. He was right. She just sat around and did nothing. All her training, all her studying, it all had evaporated when an actual battle had emerged. Even the skill she’d prided herself on, her ability to detect genjutsu, had been ignored in the face of overwhelming inexperience.
“None of the three of you have a chance at obtaining your goals the way you are now,” Kakashi said, his words sharp, but, then, he exhaled, glancing up at the sky. “Which means I’ll have to put in extra effort to train you until you do.”
Sakura and Sasuke stilled, and Naruto perked up and cheered, “that means we passed! You aren’t failing us!”
“Not yet, anyway,” Kakashi said with a sigh, now looking around the roof. “Where did my book end up…?”
“But, Kakasensei, we did fail,” Sakura said, confused. “We didn’t beat you.”
“Sakura, quit talking!” Naruto whispered behind his hand, but Kakashi gave a short laugh as he found the book in question, picking it up.
“You three were never going to beat me. If you could, I should be demoted immediately,” he said, pulling the two shuriken out of it and dropping them onto the ground. “Besides, I said that if you beat me, I wouldn’t go fail you. I never said that I would fail you if you couldn’t.”
“That’s misleading!” Sakura huffed with a point, and Kakashi sent another probably-smile.
“Whoops,” he said brightly, and examined his book. “Do you think these shuriken cuts make this a special edition now?”
Before anyone else could answer, Sasuke finally spoke up again, his voice quiet.
“Why aren’t you failing us?” he asked, his gaze now on Kakashi. “What did we do right?”
“You fought for each other,” Kakashi said simply. “Each of you defended someone at least once, but not without a plan. Defense, without throwing your lives away.”
“What?” Sakura asked, straightening up, and Kakashi glanced at her.
“A ninja who abandons his or her ally for the sake of defeating an enemy has already lost the battle,” he said, his voice cold. “That type of ninja is worse than scum. But, of course, a ninja shouldn’t just throw his or her life away any time danger arises. The Village doesn’t need any more dead heroes. If you had done either, I would have failed you. But Uchiha went out of his way to protect both of you when you weren’t in a position to defend yourselves, and you two did the same to him, eventually. And all three of you did so with attempts to counter, or at least to only take a nonlethal injury. Which means you have some potential, however little it may be.”
Sasuke and Sakura hmphed at the backhanded compliment as Naruto beamed and put his hands behind his head with a cheerful, “yay!”
Kakashi put his hands on his hips and said, “so, we’ll start missions tomorrow. Meet me back here before the hokage opens his office for briefing at 8.”
“You got it! Believe it!” Naruto said, but Kakashi had already disappeared in a puff of leaves before Naruto had even finished speaking.
Sasuke dropped to the ground again the moment Kakashi was gone, and Sakura crouched beside him. His headband was on crooked from her hurried shove of it, and she subconsciously found herself moving to straighten it, tightening the knot behind his head. “So, that…was your brother? That anbu Kakasensei turned into?”
Sasuke didn’t answer, and he didn’t look over, just glared at the ground with embarrassment painted across his cheeks.
“Well,” Naruto said, sending a huge thumbs up to Sasuke. “I totally beat up genjutsu-him, so with a little training, the three of us’ll kick his butt easy, and then you’ll get your goal! Believe it! Should we all go get ramen together to celebrate beating Kakasensei?”
Sasuke pushed himself back to his feet, his entire body shaking. Sakura watched him warily, half worried that he might throw a punch again, but he just shoved past Naruto and mumbled, “shut up. Don’t act like you understand,” and walked stiffly to the stairwell back into the building.
“Huh?” Naruto said blankly as he and Sakura watched him go, and Sakura exhaled and stood too. Naruto turned back to her and put his hands behind his head again with a bright smile. “Guess ramen’s just you and me, huh Sakura? Like a date!”
She tsked and headed for the stairs too. “In your dreams, maybe. Go on your own, I’ve got someone to talk to.”
Or yell at. Hopefully Kabuto would be easy to find.
“You too?” Naruto complained, walking behind her. “Why aren’t we celebrating a successful first mission!”
Sakura pulled the door open and turned around to glare at Naruto. “Because not a single thing about what happened was a success?”
“We beat Kakasensei!”
“No we didn’t! We all completely fell apart, and only barely didn’t get failed by him!” Sakura huffed, embarrassment creeping onto her cheeks. She wasn’t used to almost failing. She didn’t like the feeling. “So no, we shouldn’t be celebrating anything!”
“Come on,” Naruto complained. “We got the mission done and passed! What’s there to be upset about?”
Sakura stared at him, her eye twitching. What was there to be upset about? Maybe the fact that she and Sasuke were now stuck with the worst ninja in the history of all ninja as a third teammate, or maybe that all three of them were stuck with a jonin sensei who hated them and disrespected them by making them wait around for three hours before threatening to fail them on their first day, or maybe the fact that she shouldn’t be this annoyed at her mission because it was her mission after all, but she couldn’t understand Kabuto’s reasoning for picking this team and she hated not understanding!
She didn’t voice any of these comments to Naruto, who was watching her with what could have been a smug expression, clearly thinking he’d proven his point.
Instead, she slammed the door shut between them and stormed down the stairs, fuming.
Notes:
I don't think Jiraiya intended the makeout books to be a sequel to the gutsy ninja book, but Kakashi's a little delusional. Also fun fact, in this au Jiraiya has also written a collection of short stories where the main character is a very ambitious and stressed frog. Kakashi has lost sleep trying to figure out how these stories tie into the makeout books' lore (there is no connection)
Update on where I'm at in Shippuden: Kabuto is back!! And he's kinda just Quirrel now? I like the new character design but Idk if I can say it's an upgrade since I'm making a cosplay of his old design for a con this summer lol. But it does look cool in a villainy way
Ty for reading and I hope you have a lovely day! :D <3
Chapter 10: Ghost Stories and Genjutsu Snakes
Notes:
stay tuned to the end notes for mostly irrelevant Shino lore lol
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Sasuke hadn’t been in the stairwell still, which let Sakura stomp away without worrying about making him dislike her, and she made a considerable effort to capitalize on this.
She marched into town, glowering as she headed directly for the gym she and Kabuto trained at, but when she arrived, it was empty. She’d probably have to wait until he came to her. That was usually how these kinds of things worked.
She huffed, more annoyed than ever, and scribbled a note asking Kabuto to at least be there in the morning and threw the paper with annoyance onto the counter that split the front area from the back gym before storming right out the door again.
She should probably go home and tell her parents about her team, but she was still brimming with frustration a little too much for that to be a smart idea. If it seemed like she didn’t like her team, they’d probably insist that she request changing it, even if it did take months to do so, and, unless -and hopefully until- Kabuto told her that he’d made a mistake with the team assignments and intended to change them, she was stuck with who she had.
She paused and took a breath, trying to calm herself. Her stomach growled as she did, reminding her that she still hadn’t had lunch. Maybe that would help her get under control.
She walked through the streets, scanning for something that interested her, though honestly, at this point, she was hungry enough to take most dining options. She’d tried to convince Sasuke to cook rice with his jutsu.
Admittedly, she was still curious if he’d be able to do so. But that was research for another time.
“Hey! Sakura!”
Sakura perked up and turned at Kiba’s voice, surprised at first that he’d be calling out for her until she noticed that Hinata, her face half hidden by her hood, was beside him, probably the one prompting the shout. The pair weren’t alone, either; Shino and Kurenai were walking behind them, Kurenai with a casual smile.
“Hey, I remember you!” Kurenai called with a wave. “I saw you this morning; care to join our team for lunch? We’re taking a break from training.”
Sakura lit up. “Yes, please!”
She ran over, and this time, she was determined to make a good impression on a jonin. “My name is Sakura Haruno, and it’s an honor to meet you! I look up to you quite a bit- I’m a genjutsu ninja too!”
“Aw, I’m flattered,” Kurenai said kindly, smiling. “My name is Kurenai- though you probably already knew that if you recognize me.”
She laughed, and Sakura exhaled in relief that it sounded pleasant. Five seconds with her was already better than the entire morning of dealing with Kakashi’s presence and lack thereof had been.
“So, Sakura, how’s your jonin?” Kiba asked energetically as the group now moved forward together. “Kurenai’s so cool.”
“Mhm!” Hinata squeaked as Shino silently nodded, and Kurenai grinned.
“Is Iruka teaching you kids flattery?” she laughed, and Sakura hitched up a fake smile. Trash talking another jonin would probably not go well here.
“He’s very skilled,” she said, because at least that was true. He had done a lot of techniques.
“Do you have Kakashi or Asuma?” Kurenai asked. “Or, are there other jonins assigned? I only heard of the two.”
“Kakashi,” Sakura said, watching her closely for any indication of how she really felt about the man.
“You’ll learn a lot from him,” Kurenai said with a genuine nod, and Sakura deflated slightly. She’d kind of been hoping Kurenai would start bashing the man. Instead, Kurenai continued in a display of showy acting, “he’s mastered a thousand techniques! Faced ten thousand ninja! Challenged Might Guy in a hundred thousand competitions!”
Hinata giggled slightly as Kurenai gave a dramatic pose for each title, and Sakura blinked at her in surprise. “Uh- should the Might Guy thing really be the crowning achievement?”
Kurenai laughed and dropped her arms back to her sides, placing one hand on her hip. “If you ask him, he’ll place it pretty highly on his resumé any time he’s in the lead over Guy. He’s quite proud of it.”
“Wait, Kakashi’s one of those two ninja who’re always doing, like, hopscotch battles and pushup competitions?” Kiba asked, perking up. “I love those guys!”
Want to trade? Sakura thought bitterly through her fake smile.
“Oh, I nearly forgot!” Kurenai said suddenly, straightening up. “Before we get too far- Sakura, I’ve got two of my anbu colleagues meeting up with us for lunch too, if you don’t mind. They’re picking up my mission for me tomorrow, so it seemed only fair to at least treat them to lunch.”
“I don’t mind at all!” Sakura said, perking up. “The anbu’s what I want to be someday.”
“Y-you’d be a r-really good a-anbu,” Hinata said with an embarrassed nod, and Sakura beamed at her.
“Well, that’s perfect, then,” Kurenai said. “Hey, that means you and I should get lunch together sometime, just the two of us; I can give you some tips.”
That sounded like the most fantastic idea ever. “Yes, please!”
The restaurant Kurenai had chosen looked quite fancy, and Sakura rather nervously adjusted her headband, hoping she didn’t look too disheveled from fighting Kakashi. The other three genin looked a bit worse for wear themselves, all three slightly sweating or smudged with grass or dirt from whatever they’d been doing as training.
Sakura felt immensely jealous.
“We have a table reserved,” Kurenai told the woman working at the front of the restaurant before looking around and laughing. “Looks like our guests beat us here- we’re back that way, ma’am. Thank you.”
The hostess handed them menus and smiled as Kurenai led the group to one of the tables, and Sakura peered around her to see the anbu she’d invited.
Sakura was quite surprised to find that she recognized both of them.
“No way Haruno’s on your team, Kurenai!” Toki said with a cheerful voice. He was wearing his mask on the side of his head, surprisingly, and Sakura flicked her eyes over his face quickly to learn it. His tuft of blond hair fell over one eye the same way it had done over his mask, largely unhelped by his leaf headband, and his visible blueish eye was much icier than his cheery tone would have suggested. He also had a collection of bandages spotted across him in various patches on his visible face and neck.
Toki beamed as he continued. “She’s practically a mini you!”
Sakura would have laughed at the idea that Toki, after two conversations with her, was already better aware of who her jonin should be than Iruka and Kabuto combined, but that kind of thing was to be expected from anbu, and she was also potentially supposed to be forcing herself to accept Kabuto’s terrible decision making, so she remained quiet.
“She’s Kakashi’s genin, actually,” Kurenai said with considerable surprise. “You guys know her already?”
“Sure we do!” Toki said, elbowing his apparently constant companion. Contororu hadn’t taken his mask off, and he made no effort to as he silently stared at Sakura. “C’mon, Kurenai, you’re acting like we don’t do our jobs .”
“It’s your job to know us?” Sakura asked as Kiba perked up and asked, “cool! So you know us too?!”
“Nope, not a clue,” Toki said with a shrug. “But in my defense, I hadn’t met you yet.”
“Inuzuka, Hyuga, Aburame,” Contororu interrupted with an annoyed click, and Toki just grinned.
“That’s why he gets paid more than me,” Toki said cheerily. “You gonna sit down, Kurenai, or are you fishing for us to be gentlemen and stand up first?”
“Pssh, please, I know you’re incapable of that,” Kurenai grinned as she gestured. “I’ll take the seat next to Contie; students, take any seat you’d like.”
“Don’t call me that,” Contororu clicked, annoyed, and Sakura sat herself next to Hinata, across from Contororu. She’d almost forgotten that the man had told her this morning to come see them about genjutsu, and she hoped this sharp improvement in her day continued.
“Aw, don’t be all bitter just ‘cause we had to wait five minutes, my man,” Toki said, dropping his chin into his hand.
“Excuse me, you two showed up early,” Kurenai said. “You made yourselves wait.” She turned to the others and added, “lunch is on me for everyone, by the way, but don’t run me dry, got it?”
“My man and I aren’t eating anything,” Toki said with a wave of his free hand, “so knock yourselves out, genin. Celebrate your graduation!”
“What do you mean you aren’t eating?” Kurenai complained. “The whole reason you’re here is so I can pay for your lunch.”
“We aren’t here for our winning personalities?” Toki asked, batting his eyes innocently, and Kurenai scoffed.
“I’d have invited Asuma for that. But whatever,” she said, returning her attention to the kids. “What would you all like? I recommend the pork; it’s delicious here.”
“Ooh, which version?” Kiba asked, leaning forward to put his menu in front of both of them, and Hinata turned finally to Sakura.
“H-how w-was your first day?” she asked, tapping her fingers together.
“It’s been so excellent!” Sakura lied, elbowing her. “How about you? What’s Kurenai like?”
“Really cool,” Hinata said with a small grin, and Sakura tried to hide her envy. “Sh-she says that m-maybe I can see through g-genjutsu with my byakugan! A-after a lot of training, of course! B-but-“
“Is that so?” Contororu interrupted, and both girls looked over to him. Toki made a show of rolling his eyes that earned him an elbow to the gut from Contororu and an instinctual snicker from Sakura. She liked that Toki was treating them almost like friends, even if a small tug in her gut kept reminding her what Sasuke had felt about these two earlier today.
But that hadn’t been because of them. It was because of his brother, which, while understandable, clearly wasn’t anything to do with Toki or Contororu, who’d both only been promoted to anbu last year.
So Sakura put up a grin and said, “yeah, Hinata’s crazy strong,” putting her arm around the girl, who squeaked and hid her face in her hood. “Right Shino?”
Sakura slapped the boy’s shoulder, and he gave a mute nod, eerily watching the group from his position furthest away from them.
“It seems you genin are quite focused on genjutsu this year,” Contororu said. “Any particular reason?”
“Yeah, it’s kinda funny Kurenai got picked as a sensei,” Toki said, waving his gloved hand in the air. “Pulling an active anbu’s not the most common, is it?”
Shino tapped at the table and held up two fingers before pointing to Kurenai. The two anbu just stared blankly at him.
“Er- what?” Toki asked as Hinata tried, “is…one of the other j-jonin an anbu like Kurenai?”
Shino nodded, and Sakura leaned forward.
“Really? I hadn’t heard that,” she said as Shino simply nodded again.
“Kakashi Hatake used to be anbu,” Contororu clicked. “That’s who Kurenai said your jonin is, yes?”
Sakura stared. “Kakashi was an anbu? ”
“Really? How do you know all these things?” Toki asked, dropping his cheek into his hand, and Contororu gave another annoyed click on his tongue.
“He’s quite famous,” he said. “One of the only anbu who survived partnering with the Reaper.”
“The R-Reaper?” Hinata echoed, and recognition lit in Toki’s visible eye.
“Right, yeah,” he said, something peculiar flashing across his eye as he leaned more across the table. “There was one anbu, years ago, who everybody started thinking was cursed ‘cause practically every time he got assigned a new partner, the partner would die within a few weeks. Apparently they started calling him the Reaper, like the anbu partnering him had already been marked for death, and he was just accompanying them until they got there. Watching over them at their final moments.”
“Creepy,” Sakura said quietly as Hinata shrank slightly.
“Toki,” Contororu muttered under his breath, and Toki turned in his seat to glare indignantly at him.
“Don’t ‘Toki’ me, you’re the one who brought it up!” he said with an accusatory point, and Kurenai and Kiba finally rejoined the other half of the table’s conversation.
“Brought what up?” Kurenai asked, but Toki waved her off.
“Just an old anbu ghost story,” he said idly. “You know, if you really are buying, I might take a cherry sparks drink.”
“The cherry ones taste like they’re fake,” Contororu tsked, and Toki hmphed.
“That’s what I like about them!”
And then the two were into a bickering match, watched warily by Hinata, but Sakura’s thoughts were still on their story.
The Reaper, huh? She wondered if her dad had ever heard of him. She’d have to ask him later.
She shivered slightly at the idea, of one lone anbu walking with countless fellows towards their inevitable demise. She supposed it wasn’t uncommon for anbu to die in the field, especially back several years ago, before the Leaf and Sand formed a strong enough alliance to finally calm the Third Great Ninja War into a ceasefire.
Sakura took quite a bit of pride knowing that the Leaf had been so instrumental in ending that war peacefully. The Leaf had always been a powerhouse, ever since its first hokage fought and won the Second Great Ninja War singlehandedly in one battle, and the Sand had been growing a mysterious reputation of similar power, spurred on by the heavily speculated battle just before the end of the third war in which the Hidden Stone Village tried to launch an ambush to overtake the Sand, and only a single Stone shinobi survived out of the entire army while the Sand’s forces didn’t even suffer a scratch.
The Leaf’s and the Sand’s alliance had led to shaky peace that grew slightly more solid each passing year, but Sakura still felt a bit wary about their supposed ally. The Sand Village had been heavily entrenched in the first and third wars -though, admittedly, the Stone had been instigators of both, according to the Leaf’s history lessons- but the stories she’d heard about the Sand made them sound terrifyingly deranged.
But they had joined up in the end, and it had led to only good things. Before they’d done so, it hadn’t been just rogue ninja the anbu would have had to worry about. Sakura was grateful for the alliance now. Rogue ninja were more than enough to handle.
During lunch the group discussed mostly what Kurenai had been training her genin, and Sakura drank up as much advice as she could. When they asked her what Kakashi had taught them, she told them about taijutsu, genjutsu, and ninjutsu, and conveniently left out the part where Kakashi had nearly failed them within minutes of meeting them.
Toki and Contororu didn’t stay long, and Contororu mentioned again that Sakura should come to their headquarters sometime to discuss genjutsu, and she was practically glowing with delight when she assured them she would.
When the rest of the group left the restaurant after lunch and Sakura waved to them as they turned the corner, she felt considerably happier than she had before. If Kakasensei was going to be a nightmare, at least she had anbu connections- ones that were interested in her genjutsu, no less.
She sighed happily and headed home to tell her parents about her team, and she was about halfway there when she became aware of someone following her.
She stiffened as she felt the presence lingering behind her, and she flicked her eyes to the side, disguising her glance as tossing her hair over her shoulder as she took in the street behind her and saw-
“Kabuto!” she said, turning, and he fell into line with her, adjusting his glasses.
“Took you nearly two minutes to notice,” he said with a friendly tch. “Had a long day? I saw you left me a note.”
“I had the longest day,” Sakura said with a scowl. “I think you have some explaining to do.”
Kabuto sent a cheerful smile. “Over training?”
~~~
Kabuto and Sakura were standing across from each other in the gym, prepared to spar, when the room’s jutsu-laced barrier allowed them to finally speak freely with no worries of eavesdropping.
“So, I met my team today,” Sakura said, lifting her hands. “Care to explain yourself?”
“How do you mean?” Kabuto asked, nodding for her to make a try for him, and she ran forward to do so.
“I mean,” she said, swinging her hand around, but Kabuto ducked it, “why did you put us on a team with Naruto Uzumaki and Kakashi?”
“Don’t give me any gripes about Naruto,” Kabuto said, dodging another blow and hopping back a step. “From what I could see, Iruka had insisted that Naruto and Sasuke be on a team together. Apparently, he was adamant about it, and since he’s close with the hokage, their partnership was guaranteed. It would have been far too much trouble to split them for personal preferences.”
“Really?” Sakura asked, staring at him, which he took advantage of by swinging for her. She narrowly ducked and tripped backwards trying to refocus at least a little on the sparring. “Why would they be paired up? They hate each other.”
“Apparently Iruka thinks they don’t,” Kabuto said. “I thought you’d be happier that you got yourself into that third slot.”
“Hm?”
“You were assigned due to Iruka’s recommendation as well,” Kabuto said, and Sakura paused, perking up.
“Yeah, I-!” she started brightly before Kabuto landed a blow to her ear that made her stagger with a yelp. “Hey!”
Kabuto smirked. “We agreed to train while we talked.”
Sakura hmphed and straightened up again. “Fine. So why’d you keep us stuck with Kakashi? I thought he was a lost cause, sharingan-wise.”
“Yes, but it couldn’t be helped,” Kabuto said, very nearly landing another blow. “If you were already on a team with Sasuke without my interference at all, it would be foolish to meddle and arouse suspicion by replacing the jonin. Besides, apparently he was assigned to Sasuke by Iruka’s specific suggestion as well, so changing him could have pulled Sasuke elsewhere.”
Sakura dodged and jumped back a few steps, and Kabuto ran towards her.
“You should feel accomplished,” he said, swinging again. “If Iruka placed you on the team with Sasuke, that means you succeeded in getting close to him enough for Iruka to notice.”
“Of course. I know how to do my job,” Sakura said smugly, and Kabuto chuckled as she ducked another of his blows and finally went on the offensive. “I just wish we could have had Kurenai. It’s like Iruka doesn’t even know I’ve got genjutsu ability”
“Kurenai considers Itachi Uchiha her rival,” Kabuto said, ducking around Sakura’s punches, “since they’ve met at least four times since he went rogue, and she’s lost all four. She holds grudges, so she’d hinder any team with Sasuke on it. I know you wanted her, but…”
Kabuto grabbed Sakura’s wrist and tugged her forward, sending her off balance before landing a kick on her back and sending her crashing to the ground.
He straightened up, adjusting his glasses with a smug grin. “It’s not like you don’t already have a better genjutsu teacher.”
Sakura grinned. “Fair enough.” She rolled herself to be seated, and Kabuto stepped forward, extending his hand to help her up. She accepted and stood, taking a breath in and out before lifting her fists again.
Kabuto, however, shook his head and stepped back. “Let’s try some other training. You received a new scroll, didn’t you?”
Sakura perked up. “Mhm! Moon Serpent!”
“Then, let’s see what you’ve made of it,” he said, shifting his stance. “Hit me.”
“Uh- are you sure?” Sakura asked, tilting her head. “It paralyzes people.”
“I know what it does,” Kabuto said, and Sakura set her shoulders with a grin.
“Okay,” she said, lifting her hands into the positions she’d already memorized. “Moon Serpent!”
A shaky trail of white mist swirled up from her back and slithered through the air, quite slowly, towards Kabuto, who watched it with a focused expression. It fell to the floor about halfway between them, and Sakura dodged Kabuto’s gaze in embarrassment at the probably worse-than-mediocre attempt.
But to her surprise, Kabuto made an impressed noise and said, “you’ve already got a bit of a shape to it. That’s excellent.”
“It is?” Sakura perked up, and Kabuto looked over with a grin.
“I’d say so. Eventually, the size and shape will grow into a larger, more defined serpent, and the speed can adjust too. For now, let’s focus on getting one to reach me.” He straightened up, adjusting his glasses and holding his hands in front of him. “Keep in mind that the activation point is on your back, not the hands making the signs, so you’ll have to think of the distance as coming from behind you; that’ll add a bit more than you might be expecting. Try it again, and see if you can get a bit farther.”
Sakura nodded, lifting her hands again and thoroughly enjoying the very idea of a private genjutsu lesson, let alone the reality.
“Moon serpent!” she shouted, moving her focus from her hands to her back and trying to visualize the genjutsu creature stretching over her head and towards Kabuto, determined to earn the attention he was giving.
Notes:
Tastes of geopolitics in this chapter woooooo!!!!
Anyway onto the random Shino lore, explained here because Idk if I'll ever get around to explaining it in-story since it's not that plot relevant:
I'd gotten to around this point in the draft of this story before realizing that Shino had said like one line of dialogue the entire work thus far, and I decided to just commit and have him not talk ever. But then I thought well there should be some reason for him not talking, and lore emerged! It's biology based, and I hope I remember Punnett squares correctly.Basically, with the Aburame clan's biology being acclimated to the insects that live inside them, they can communicate with these bugs with a specific gene allele that affects their vocal chords. Usually this bug-vocals gene allele is codominant with the human-vocals gene allele and the Aburame is able to communicate with both people and insects at the same time, but every so often an Aburame gets only human-vocals alleles from the parents or only bug-vocals alleles. Shino got exclusive bug-vocals alleles from his parents and as a result can only 'talk' to bugs, as his vocal chords aren't developed in a way for traditional human speech. This means he can't talk to others, but he finds ways to communicate that don't require speaking. Yay lore!
Update on where I'm at in Shippuden: Madara just killed Konan, and the story of the Rain ninjas was closed (sort of, depending on what Kabuto does) in a very emotionally compelling way. The three Rain ninja were among my favorite characters in the show, and it's bittersweet to see them go :')
Ty for reading and I hope you have a lovely day! :D <3
Chapter 11: Reorganizing the Upheaval
Notes:
I had a hard time with the chapter title lol. Mini chapter this week!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Sasuke spent the first thirty minutes after arriving back home sitting on his bed, tucked around his knees, and staring blankly at the wall.
Today had gone just about as horribly as it possibly could have, on every front.
The morning had already been bad, with his childish meltdown over the two anbu just talking to him, and then he’d gotten assigned Sakura Haruno and Naruto Uzumaki as his teammates. The one girl he needed to avoid more than anyone else, and the one boy who had a 100% chance of tanking his efforts to leave this Village.
He dropped his forehead against his knees. Maybe he could resolve this problem first, figure out a way to work around these two before he had to process the horribly spider-spun mess that Kakashi Hatake had introduced into his life.
So he locked his focus on Sakura and Naruto. Naruto was at least not a threat to his curse activating; he and Naruto would never be friends, if any of their interactions even today alone would indicate, so he was safe there. The problem with Naruto came from his complete ineptitude at being a ninja.
Sasuke grit his teeth at the thought. He needed to get to the Land of Wind, at least, for research, and maybe to even farther, more dangerous lands to actually find his brother, and none of that would happen if Naruto couldn’t level up enough to allow them at the very least a C-rank mission. All traveling missions had to be C-rank or higher.
Well, maybe he could nudge Naruto on a little. Iruka wouldn’t have passed him for nothing; sure the teacher was kind, but he wasn’t lenient in that regard. So…maybe there was some spark of potential buried under a thousand failed clone jutsus?
Though he had made a clone today, one made of smoke that had been kicked by-
Sasuke slammed the brakes on that thought and forced his brain back to its earlier train, his breathing just slightly faster.
If he was being honest with himself, Naruto wasn’t the real problem. As long as Naruto could limp along until the chunin exams, Sasuke could pass those and leave this team behind.
The real problem was Sakura.
Being Sakura’s teammate meant his curse could activate the moment he slipped up under her constant barrage of friendliness. He’d have to be constantly on guard around her, and that sounded exhausting .
Was there something else he could do? He smushed his forehead deeper into his knees, thinking hard. Maybe…maybe he could dip into that competition concept more. If they were competing to be the best, then that made them rivals, and rivals weren’t friends. They were completely different. Sasuke could have as many rivals as he wanted, and his curse wouldn’t care.
He nodded slowly, mulling over the idea. It felt dangerous, but he had to do something. And Sakura had been acting more competitive in the past few days; maybe she’d shifted her attentions to rivalry too. The two of them were well matched for it; she was skilled and strong, even if she did freeze against Kakashi. When he’d…
Sasuke hugged his knees closer, squeezing his eyes shut. He supposed he’d have to face the truth sooner or later.
He felt frustration more than anything now; he saw his brother’s ghost on a daily basis at this point, but the ghost had never interacted with other people.
Especially not while wearing the anbu uniform. Sasuke’s hands twitched on his pant legs.
Kakashi had used genjutsu to look like Itachi, far too accurately to have been a guess at his brother’s appearance. Kakashi must have seen Itachi before, in his anbu uniform.
Sasuke scrunched his face, trying to remember the name, but his brother’d had a new anbu partner every week, it had seemed, and Sasuke could never keep track of them all.
It hadn’t taken too long after seeing Kakashi to recognize him visually as the ninja Guy would sometimes shout his conversations, and usually challenges, at. It hadn’t taken much longer than that for Sasuke to decide that he couldn’t stand this jonin.
Sasuke had almost panicked when asked to describe his goals in life; he needed something that would get him able to travel outside of the Village, but he couldn’t let slip about his curse, especially not in front of Sakura. So he’d settled on something vague, but obviously important to him.
And Kakashi had scoffed at it.
It had made his blood boil. He’d blown off Sasuke’s life mission as if it were a foolish, childish whim, and the very idea of such a response made him want to kick something.
What right did Kakashi have to be ridiculing Sasuke?! He didn’t get it; he didn’t have to spend his free afternoon curled around his knees trying to figure out how to dodge any possible camaraderie with the girl he desperately wished he could befriend someday.
And then, as if Kakashi hadn’t done enough, he’d used genjutsu to disguise himself as Itachi. And attacked that same girl who was already in the most danger from Sasuke’s curse.
Sasuke’s brain had shut down, then, and instincts taken over completely. He couldn’t think of anything but protecting Sakura from Itachi, even if Itachi killed him on the spot for it.
The thought made his stomach squirm uncomfortably, and he hoped that didn’t mean they were friends. His panicky brain hadn’t been able to decipher that it was genjutsu, and he’d thought Itachi was there, and all his instincts had come up with was just make sure Sakura doesn’t die because of you .
He dropped his chin onto his knees with a frown. Itachi’s ghost had finally returned once Sasuke had arrived home, and the older Uchiha was now sitting beside him, but he hadn’t spoken up yet, and fortunately he was still dressed in casual clothes. Sasuke wondered distantly if his ghost would know what the real Itachi did.
So, stupidly, he asked.
“Do you know who Kakashi is?” Sasuke mumbled, pinking and glaring away.
“Of course, Sasuke,” Itachi’s ghost answered pleasantly, and Sasuke blinked several times.
“What do you know?” he asked cautiously, wondering if there was any way he could trust something his ghost told him.
“He’s the man you just lost to.”
Sasuke scowled and turned to glare at Itachi, who just smiled back, and Sasuke huffed, “that’s as helpful as you’re gonna be?”
“What do you want me to be, Sasuke?”
Sasuke hmphed and glared away. “Gone forever.”
Itachi was silent for a moment at that, and Sasuke squirmed uncomfortably, a guilty feeling edging into his stomach, but the thought only made him angrier. Why did he keep getting so upset at the idea of not seeing Itachi anymore? He hated Itachi! And even if he didn’t, this stupid ghost wasn’t actually his brother!
“Sasuke,” Itachi said quietly, and Sasuke stilled, flicking his gaze over to him. “Kakashi was a friend of the Uchiha family. It seems you’ve forgotten, but he’s the one Iruka told you has a sharingan.”
Sasuke stared, eyes wide. “What?”
But the memory clicked back into his head now that Itachi had said it. Weeks ago, after he’d punched Naruto for teasing his sharingan, Iruka had talked with him about meeting a ninja in town who had one too.
Sasuke blinked a few times, thinking hard. “But- only Uchihas can have sharingans. Is- is Kakashi an Uchiha?”
The idea flickered something inside of Sasuke, a tiny spark that had been doused so many years ago. He wouldn’t care how terrible Kakashi was if he was actually an Uchiha. He’d accept every stupid personality flaw the man sported if it somehow meant Sasuke wasn’t the only one still here.
“No,” Itachi said, and his words stomped that spark right out of Sasuke’s chest. “He was just friends with a few. If he were an Uchiha, he’d be dead.”
The words emptied Sasuke’s brain, like a slow drain, filling him instead with rage, so hot that it made him lightheaded. “Because of you, you mean?”
Itachi sighed. “I doubt he’d have lived long enough for me to have to.”
“To have to?” Sasuke echoed, his eyes flashing. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Itachi tched under his breath. “You don’t know that much?”
Sasuke and Itachi just stared at each other, and Sasuke sat up onto his knees, glaring. “What do you know about it? I’m just imagining you, aren’t I?!”
“Yes, that’s true,” Itachi said with another pleasant smile that stabbed into Sasuke’s insides like white hot needles.
He moved forward to shove Itachi, but his hands didn’t connect, given he was imaginary , and the whole interaction just made him more frustrated and embarrassed.
“I’m going to make lunch. You stay here and think about how to apologize to me,” Sasuke huffed, moving off his bed and towards his door.
“Apologize for what?”
The reply made Sasuke freeze, his hand hovering in the air in front of his door. He flicked his eyes back to Itachi. “What do you mean ‘for what’?”
Itachi just blinked slowly at him, his expression blank, and rage boiled under Sasuke’s skin, contorting his own expression into an ugly scowl.
“How about you start by apologizing for existing,” he hissed through gritted teeth, “then work your way through everything else you’ve ruined from there.”
He stormed to his door and shoved it open before slamming it shut behind him with enough force that he heard wood crack. He flinched at the sound, glancing over his shoulder. The frame had fractured from its impact, a break snaking along its length. He blinked at it a few times, his chest heaving. Maybe this was good. It gave him a repair project to do that would take his mind off his brother. The brother who’d ripped everything away from Sasuke, so Sasuke should not be feeling any guilt about yelling at. Itachi deserved much worse than yelling, anyway.
Sasuke glowered as he turned to search for where he’d left his tools. At least if he fixed up his door, then something will have gone right today. One thing, that wouldn’t have even been a problem if he was capable of controlling himself.
It would be grasping at straws, but honestly he didn’t care at this point. Every other minute of today had been horrible. He’d take whatever he could get.
He walked down the hall, his face scrunched as he wondered why he bothered talking to his brother’s ghost in the first place. It was something Sasuke imagined, so why would it know any more than Sasuke did? Sasuke must have known that Kakashi was a friend of the Uchihas, somewhere in his subconscious. Maybe the man had come to the town before everything had gone so horribly wrong. That had to be it.
Sasuke huffed and stormed to where he’d placed his shoes, shoving them on to head to the restaurant he’d been renovating most recently, determined to distract himself entirely from any memory of Itachi with the work.
Notes:
Sasuke's a lil pent up ball of emotional constipation :')
Update on where I'm at in Shippuden: someone (preferably Naruto) had BETTER go rescue Yamato asap he does not deserve to just be shoved into a tree and ignored. Otherwise, lots of squaring up happening across the board, Gaara potentially about to fight his dad and/or show that he's now arc'd through the power of talk no jutsu (we refer to talk no jutsu as 'book clubbing' someone bcos of Nagato's talk no jutsu). Is it possible to book club Kabuto and Madara? Of course it is, this is Naruto, he can book club anyone. Sasuke will get book clubbed eventually. Naruto's in for the long game on that one
Ty for reading and I hope you have a lovely day! :D <3
Chapter 12: Rumors and Reputations
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
When Sakura’s private genjutsu lesson (!!!) wrapped up, she gushed her gratitude to Kabuto for it, who seemed quite smug over the attention, before heading back home, her day much brighter than it had been.
She hadn’t gotten the hang of the serpent shape yet, but she’d finally gotten her trail of misty jutsu to reach Kabuto with the man’s plethora of tips, and when he sent her praises of her own, she was practically giddy with delight.
When Sakura did arrive home, she’d barely stepped through her door by the time her dad was in front of her, excitement alight on his face.
“Sakura!! How was your day? I was so excited to hear that I took off work, and I’ve just been waiting here all day!” he said, throwing his arms out for a hug. “Mom’s working here today too- Mebuki! Sakura’s back!!”
Sakura couldn’t help but smile at his eagerness, and she hugged him back as Mom’s voice called something from their back bedroom and quickly appeared at the hallway.
“Sakura!” she said brightly, stepping over to her. “You’re earlier than I thought you’d be; have you had lunch yet? We can talk while we eat if you’re hungry.”
“Oh, no I’ve already eaten,” Sakura said as the group moved to the table anyway. It wobbled slightly on an uneven leg as Dad propped his weight on it to help him sit, and Sakura tried to hold it steady as she followed suit.
“Well, c’mon! Don’t leave us hanging,” Dad said, leaning forward with a bright smile as Mom sat too. “Who’s on your team? Who’s your jonin? What did you do today?”
Sakura pulled out her very best and Kabuto-esque acting for this one.
“I had a great day!” she said brightly. “And you’ll never guess- I’ve got Sasuke Uchiha on my team!”
“Really?” Mom asked, taken aback, and Dad cheered, “oh, yay! You must be the top genin team then, huh? I’m so proud of you!”
“I dunno about that… ” Sakura laughed nervously, debating how to introduce that their third member was, quite literally, the worst, but Mom interrupted before she could.
“I’m not so sure teaming with Sasuke Uchiha is really the best for you, sweetheart,” she said, tilting her head, and Sakura’s eyes widened.
“Huh? Why not?!” she asked, and Dad pouted at Mom.
“Don’t say you’ve started buying all that nonsense the villagers have been saying about him since graduation,” he said, and Sakura turned to him now.
“What are the villagers saying?” she asked, and he glanced at her with an annoyed frown clouding across his previously excited expression.
“The people in this village are always so quick to judge,” he hmphed. “A lot of them are saying Sasuke Uchiha shouldn’t have been allowed to graduate, because they think he’ll turn out like his brother did.”
“What?” Sakura felt an uncomfortable feeling creeping into her chest. “Wh-why would they think that?”
“Well,” Dad said, shifting in his seat with a thoughtful expression. “I’ll tell you, Sakura, so that you don’t hear it first from someone tactless, but I’m not a fan of anyone spreading rumors about something we don’t understand.”
Dad exhaled and continued, “it mostly comes down to this: Itachi Uchiha’s true motives were never discovered. There were old rumors, back when I was still in the anbu, years before that horrible massacre; we were instructed to stay wary about the Uchiha clan, but my team was never given specifics. Some people, especially some in the Senju part of the Senju-Hyuga clan, used to think they were mixed up in weird experiments, like those tailed beast ones the Hidden Mist Village used to do. But nobody ever proved anything.”
Dad leaned back, his eyes on the table. “I met Itachi Uchiha once, when he was partnered with an older anbu I’d worked with who wanted my help on a mission. He was the most pleasant boy I’d ever met, and I’m not the only one who thought so. That’s what everyone thought of him back then. He was pleasant, and reliable too. How does a person like that go on to kill his entire family? And, if someone so pleasant could do something like that, how much worse could a younger brother who tends to act cold and rude and snippy at everyone do?”
Sakura just stared at him, blinking with wide eyes. She hadn’t thought of something like that before. Admittedly, she’d never met Itachi Uchiha, so she’d assumed he must have been terrible before because he was terrible during and after. Had he really just snapped out of nowhere? The thought was slightly terrifying.
Dad interrupted her thoughts with a sigh, turning back to her. “But I think spreading that kind of rumor about Sasuke is dishonorable. As if that poor kid hasn’t gone through enough, we’re going to take away the one dream he managed to keep just because we’re too embarrassed we didn’t notice Itachi Uchiha was cracking before he did? It’s pitiful. If anything, we should be grateful that Sasuke doesn’t detest every person in this village for failing him.
“Besides,” Dad continued, his eyes narrowed, “Itachi’s crimes must have blindsided Sasuke worse than anyone else. It’d be more suspicious if the kid didn’t act cold or distant to people now. I would, if I were him. The fact that he’s opened up so much to you, Sakura, shows that he trusts you a lot. You must have been very kind to him, and I’m proud of you for that.”
Dad smiled at her, and she gave a smile back, hoping her guilt wasn’t too obvious. She would have felt worse about manipulating Sasuke if he actually did trust her, in any capacity.
“I’m not worried about Sasuke turning into his brother,” Mom said with a pointed look at Dad. “If he was going to, he’d have gone rogue already. I’m more concerned about you being on a team with him, Sakura.”
“Huh? Why?” Sakura asked, and Mom leaned forward, lacing her fingers together.
“The Yamanakas seem to think you lose your head a bit around him,” she said, and Sakura flushed. They’d probably overheard Ino complaining about her. “I’m just worried you might focus on him rather than your missions.”
Sakura reddened further. “I will not!”
“I’m not saying you will , I’m just worried you might , from time to time,” Mom said, leaning back in her chair again. “In little things, that you might not realize matter. Don’t let things slide that you disagree with just to impress him.”
“Where’s all this coming from?” Sakura asked, crossing her arms with a pout. “Don’t you trust me at all?”
“I’m just saying, it’s not good to mix work and personal life,” Mom said with an airy shrug.
“I dunno, I think it gives them a chance to spend more time together,” Dad said before perking up. “And this gives you an excuse to invite him over for dinner!”
Sakura paled. “To- what?”
“Invite him over! I’d like to meet him, for sure,” Dad said. “Especially after everything you’ve told us about him!”
Everything she’d lied about. Sakura blinked rapidly a few times. “Uh- why would you want to do that?”
“Is there a reason we shouldn’t meet him?” Mom asked suspiciously, and Sakura waved her arms quickly.
“Nope! You, uh- totally can meet him sometime!”
“Perfect, then how about tomorrow evening?” Dad suggested cheerfully, and Sakura hitched her smile back on.
“Mhm! That- would be so perfect!” she said as Mom’s gaze simply grew more and more suspicious.
Dad, however, seemed somewhat oblivious to this and plowed on, “we can meet the rest of your team at the same time- speaking of, who’s your third member? Did you get Ino?”
Sakura decided in a split second to pretend she was excited about it. According to Kabuto, Sasuke and Naruto were going to be on a team regardless, so if she wanted to stay with Sasuke, she’d be stuck with Naruto.
And, honestly, Naruto would probably be a better dinner guest than Sasuke would. Or at least he could be a distraction from how differently Sasuke acted from the endless stories she’d made up about him.
She hitched her grin higher and said, “Naruto Uzumaki!”
Both parents stilled, and Sakura blinked at the response. Had she bashed Naruto too much in the past to seem excited now? Maybe-
“Naruto Uzumaki?” Mom said sharply, and Dad flicked his gaze to her and back to Sakura. “Why?”
Sakura blinked in surprise at the ice in her voice. “Uh- it’s just how Iruka picked the teams.”
“I thought Uzumaki failed his graduation test,” Dad said with an almost nervous laugh.
“Yeah, um. I did too, heh, but apparently Iruka let him retake it,” Sakura said, trying to reason out the expression on Mom’s face. “Iruka really likes him, after all.”
“Now why would that be?” Mom asked quietly, her expression still clouded, but Dad pulled Sakura’s attention by clapping.
“Well, I say let’s meet both your teammates!” he said, his eyes still on his wife, who flicked her own gaze to him.
“Are you certain inviting them both here is the best idea?” she asked.
“Er- yes,” Dad said, awkwardly rubbing at the back of his neck. “I think we should give him -them- a chance first, yeah?”
“A- chance?” Sakura echoed, and Dad turned to her with an obviously fake smile.
“To make sure you really are on the best team for you!” he said. “You can request a change if you’d rather be elsewhere, you know.”
“I don’t want to be elsewhere,” Sakura lied. She couldn’t lose her in with her target. “I want to stay with Sasuke and Naruto!”
“Well,” Dad said, his smile edging a bit more genuine, “whatever you want, we’ll support, sweetheart.”
“I’d still like to meet them,” Mom interrupted, her voice still cold, and Sakura and Dad glanced to her.
“Uh. Sure,” Sakura said with a nervous laugh. “I’ll…invite them over tomorrow! Heh.”
“Oh, and you should invite your jonin sensei over as well,” Dad said with a nod, his eyes still on Mom. “Make sure you do, okay? Who do you have? Kurenai?”
“Um, no, we’ve got Kakashi Hatake.”
“Ka- eh?” Dad turned to her now, then back to Mom. “Kakashi? Seriously? Isn’t that…?”
“Sakura,” Mom said, folding her hands on the table and leaning forward. Sakura instinctually grabbed the table to stop it from tilting at the weight. “I know you like Sasuke, but I’d seriously consider leaving this team.”
“Why do you say that after every single member I say?” Sakura asked, starting to get frustrated. She wished Kabuto had just sucked it up and worked his usual magic to get Sakura and Sasuke somewhere else. At least on Asuma’s team, maybe. With Hinata as their third member. “What’s wrong with Kakashi?”
Other than everything, of course.
“Kakashi was an anbu back when I was, I think,” Dad said, frowning. “I protested his hire. He was way too young. And, apparently, he’d just lost his closest friend in the field, who happens to have been an Uchiha. I can’t fathom why they’d place him in charge of another one.”
“Wasn’t he an anbu partner of Itachi Uchiha as well?” Mom said, crossing her arms. “The last one he had before going rogue?”
Sakura stared at them, her eyes wide. If that was true, why would Iruka have recommended Kakashi for Sasuke? Maybe Iruka didn’t know. It seemed impossible for Iruka to have assigned Sasuke to him if he did. “Wh- does Sasuke know that?”
“I doubt it, with how stingy this Village is with sharing information,” Dad tsked. “Especially with the Uchihas. I can see where your mother is coming from here; this sounds like maybe the hokage is using you, and potentially Naruto Uzumaki too, to force Kakashi and the Uchihas to work out whatever’s still hanging between them.”
“I doubt that’s what he wants with Naruto Uzumaki,” Mom muttered, and Dad rather sharply said, “Mebuki,” and she fell silent, clearly annoyed.
Sakura blinked at the pair of them, thinking hard. According to Kabuto, Iruka had placed the teams because he thought they were close, and Iruka always seemed so genuine that she doubted he had any ulterior motives beyond that. But that wouldn’t explain Kakashi, and it also didn’t mean the hokage wasn’t meddling with something.
How dare his meddling mess up her own?
“Well,” she said, dropping her eyes to the table. She would not let Kakashi Hatake and Naruto Uzumaki ruin her work at getting a sharingan for Orochimaru. Her parents could be upset all they wanted, but they’d be much more so if Orochimaru suddenly stopped protecting them from Dad’s desertion accusation. “I like my team, and I want to stay on it. Dad’s the one who says not to believe rumors all the time. Maybe Iruka just thought all of our abilities would work well together! All I know is I’m sticking with this team, because it doesn’t befit a proper kunoichi to give up right at the start!”
Dad looked over and grinned with a, “that’s my girl, Sakura! I agree!” but Mom looked just as cold as ever.
“I’d still like to meet them,” she said quietly, leaning back in her chair, and Sakura kept her smile up.
“Tomorrow night,” she said with a nod. “And you’ll see how fantastic they are!”
~~~
So Sakura had about 24 hours to convince her three teammates to act like completely different people.
She spent the whole night trying to figure out how to best accomplish this. Naruto probably would be the best of the three; he was annoying, sure, but in a confident -if not delusional- way, and that was the kind of thing that could be likeable, at least to her dad.
Kakashi was at least an adult, so he should understand the basics of courtesy while meeting someone for the first time. Technically, she didn’t know if Kakahi was as locked in with Sasuke as Naruto apparently was, but she didn’t want to take chances. She’d just have to hope that he didn’t bring up to her parents that he hated her and tried to fail her, and then everything would be fine.
Ugh, why didn’t Iruka decide to recommend Asuma? No connection to any Uchiha at all -which Sakura was still annoyed that Kurenai had been ruled out because of- and probably much easier to deal with.
But Sakura shouldn’t get too worked up worrying about Naruto and Kakashi. Both at least could be acquired tastes, with Naruto’s delusional optimism and Kakashi’s commitment to stupid competitive bits being at least endearing to someone, if not Sakura.
The biggest problem was the one person she needed to stay with the most.
There was almost no chance that Sasuke wouldn’t act the way he did every other day of his life and immediately clue in her parents to the fact that she’d been lying about him for years.
She thought hard as she laid in bed, staring at the ceiling. Maybe she could act like she didn’t notice that he was rude and standoffish? She could just perpetuate what she did in school, right? But her parents would surely then go on to try and convince her that she deserves better just like Ino always said, and maybe even try to break her out of her blind crush by separating the pair of them.
Maybe…she could instead lean into what her dad had said yesterday. She could pretend that maybe Sasuke would just be acting cold and rude around her parents because he didn’t know them, and of course he was sweet and considerate and kind when it was just him and Sakura talking. Hahaha, of course.
Sakura pouted at her ceiling.
She was still puzzling through possibilities as she left her apartment the next morning, her dad making a point of reminding her to invite all three teammates, especially your sensei home that evening, and Sakura wondered if there was any way she could have Kabuto stand in as one of her teammates.
But her parents had clearly known all three, so there was no point in that. Maybe Kabuto could use genjutsu to pretend to be Sasuke. But then Kakashi and Naruto would know something was up…
She was still lost in thought when she arrived at the school building’s roof, where Kakashi had said to meet. Sasuke was already there, apparently in conversation with…himself, but he quickly looked over to the door when she opened it, pink flushing his cheeks.
“You’re early,” he said shortly, and Sakura nodded.
“Yeah. It’s smart to be on time,” she said, wondering if she should introduce the concept of dinner tonight now. Maybe she should wait until everyone was here, to convince them all at once.
She sat directly beside Sasuke, and he scowled at her but noticeably didn’t move away. “Did you sleep well, Sasuke?”
“Fine,” he tsked, glaring away from her with a hmph, and Sakura launched into another chattering speech, her head still trying to come up with new ideas.
“Well I slept really well!” A lie. “I was super excited to finally get started on missions- aren’t you excited, Sasuke?”
“Mmph,” was all Sakura got in return for her eager attention, which was more than a little irritating, but she kept up her cheery smile.
“Everyone starts on D-rank missions, but we’re sure to get higher ranks soon!” she continued, leaning closer to him as he leaned away. “And once we’re past D-rank, we can get traveling missions! You had someplace you wanted to go, didn’t you? Where was it…?”
“The Land of Wind,” Sasuke said, still glaring away. “The opposite direction of the Land of Hot Springs.”
“Hm?” Sakura asked, tilting her head. “Hot Springs? You want to go there too? That does sound pretty!”
Sasuke scrunched his nose and glanced at her. “No. That’s what you said yesterday.”
Sakura blinked at him, surprised as the memory returned to her. She’d babbled about places she wanted to visit before they’d learned their teams. Odd. She’d thought he was ignoring her then. “Aw, you remembered! Does that mean you’re gonna help me convince Kakasensei to take us there?”
Sasuke snubbed his nose at her. “No. We’re going to go to the Land of Wind first.”
“Oh yeah?” Sakura asked, crossing her arms. “Maybe we’ll go to wherever the best ninja in the group wants to go, which will obviously be me.”
She gave a beam to Sasuke, who glared back with an annoyed tsk and, unfortunately, didn’t rise to the bait as she’d intended.
She increased her efforts, grabbing the shoulder of his jacket and gesturing dramatically as she began, “I suppose that means you’ve accepted-“
“Get off!”
Sasuke shoved her hand away from him, and she gasped slightly in surprise at the sudden motion. She leaned back, eyes wide as he huffed and turned distinctly away again, his arms crossed in front of him as he did.
That was…not encouraging.
A tiny nag in the back of her mind reminded her about the conversation she’d had with her parents the previous night, more specifically about the Village’s opinion of Sasuke, but she shook her head to get that thought out of it. Her dad thought that rumor was dishonorable, which meant of course she should take no part in it.
She didn’t strike up another conversation, though.
Their prickly silence didn’t last very long, however. Sakura had only spent a handful of minutes wondering how to salvage their dinner party when the third genin of their team arrived.
“I’m here!” Naruto’s voice preceded him as the roof door flew open and…two Narutos walked in? Sakura blinked at them as both proudly presented small cups of what looked like instant ramen, one Naruto holding two and the one who’d opened the door holding a third. “And I’ve brought ramen! Oh, is Kakasensei not here yet? Lame.”
“Of course he isn’t,” Sakura said, dropping her cheek into her hand. “Did you seriously use clone jutsu to carry your- wait, how are your clones carrying things?!”
“Because they’re cool!” Naruto said smugly, plopping down in front of Sakura and Sasuke and placing one of the cup ramens in front of Sakura.
“Tofu ramen for Sakura,” he said happily before placing his second cup to the side. “Pork for Kakasensei whenever he gets here.” He took the third cup from the clone before it disappeared in a puff of smoke, and Naruto set the cup in front of himself. “The closest thing to Ichiraku’s house specialty that I could find in the store for myself, and…” Naruto dug around his bag. “Uncooked rice for Sasuke!”
Naruto threw a handful of rice grains at Sasuke, who shouted, “what the-?! Naruto!” and Sakura nearly snorted a laugh as Naruto beamed.
“That’s what you get for being lame and not liking ramen,” he said with a nod and a point. “Cook it with your hands if you want it warm.”
“Why do you two keep asking me to use fire jutsu to cook rice?!” Sasuke snapped, grabbing a few of the grains and throwing them back at Naruto, who covered his ramen cup with his hand to guard it.
“Why do you keep having uncooked rice around us?”
“You threw it at me!”
Sakura snickered despite herself before turning her attention to the ramen cup in front of her. Tofu was what she’d said she liked in ramen yesterday, wasn’t it? That was…nice, actually. Maybe she really didn’t have to worry about Naruto at a dinner party.
On the other hand, he and Sasuke were actively throwing rice at each other, so maybe she shouldn’t shelve her concerns too soon.
“Don’t you boys have any idea how to behave in front of a lady?” Sakura asked with a huff as she pulled the tiny chopsticks off the top of her ramen cup, and Naruto turned to her with a “huh?” that Sasuke capitalized on by leaning forward to drop a pile of the rice into Naruto’s ramen cup.
Naruto grabbed the cup away before he could and aimed a kick towards Sasuke’s face with an outraged gasp. Sasuke grabbed his leg before he could, scowling at him, and Sakura’s hopes for dinner slipped further away.
“Can you two act like normal human beings for five seconds in each other’s company?” Sakura snapped, and both boys turned to her with matching wide eyes.
“He started it!” Sasuke snapped, pointing, as Naruto shouted, “he threatened my ramen!” and apparently the answer to Sakura’s question was a resounding no . She hmphed in annoyance and returned her attention to her cup with a sour expression.
“You seem kinda on edge, Sakura,” Naruto said, lifting his ramen as his foot remained in the air. Sasuke shoved it back towards him, and he nearly fell backwards but kept the ramen cup aloft as he propped himself back upright. “Is something wrong?”
“No,” Sakura said shortly.
“Good, ‘cause we don’t want to hear about it,” Sasuke hmphed, glaring away, and Sakura fought to resist rolling her eyes.
“I want to hear about it!” Naruto said, bouncing forward. “Is it about how delicious your ramen is?”
“I haven’t had any yet,” Sakura said, and Naruto pointed his chopsticks at her.
“Is it about how delicious you think your ramen is gonna be?” he suggested. “Maybe you’ll cheer up after you eat some! C’mon, dig in!”
“Naruto, if she doesn’t want to talk about it, then leave her alone,” Sasuke scowled, crossing his arms, and Naruto turned back to him with an annoyed, “y’know some people like having human interaction, Sasuke,” and Sasuke grabbed his shirt and snapped, “what’s that supposed to mean?!” and Sakura knew she’d have to jump in before Kakashi walked in on them fistfighting, as they’d done in the past.
In the split second Sakura gave herself to decide what to do, she pulled up the memory of what had resolved these two’s previous fight, and she leaned forward, propping her hands on the roof as she blurted, “hey, let’s play that card game again!”
Sasuke and Naruto both turned back to her, clearly surprised, and she added, “while we wait for Kakasensei, I mean! Wouldn’t it be fun?”
She kept her grin plastered as Sasuke hmphed, but Naruto lit up like she’d just given him a coupon for free ramen.
“Yeah! I’ve still got my pack!” Naruto said brightly, digging around his ninja toolpouch to produce the pile of cards, loosely held together by a string tied around the outside. “I’m totally gonna beat you this time, Sakura! Believe it!”
Well, he was certainly easy to distract. Sakura turned to Sasuke as Naruto began to untie his cards, and she put on her sweetest voice as she asked, “would you like to play, Sasuke?”
“No,” he said flatly, and she put her face in a pout as she mentally recalled and cherished the memory of the drawing on their graduation exam results where Sasuke was carried away by a bird.
“Aw, come on Sasuke! Please? ” she dragged out her words, blinking at him innocently. “Just a quick game?”
“Yeah c’mon Sasuke, are you just afraid you’re gonna lose again?” Naruto teased as he tried to shuffle his cards and dropped half of them onto the roof in the process.
Sasuke glared at him -or, more accurately, at a spot above Naruto’s head- and his eyes’ genjutsu traces pulsed. He tsked. “I’m not gonna lose.”
“You will if you don’t play,” Sakura said with a shrug, instinctually reaching for her bag before realizing that she hadn’t brought it. Right, because they didn’t need a schoolbag anymore if they were going on missions, just her ninja toolpouch. Which meant that she didn’t have any of her own cards.
She let out an awkward laugh, but before she could admit that she couldn’t play anyway, Sasuke scowled and huffed, “fine. I’ll play,” and began rummaging around in his own toolpouch.
To Sakura’s surprise, he pulled out his card packs immediately. Had both of them moved their cards into their ninja equipment bags? …why?
Sakura shook her head. They were both weird, so no point in reading too much into something like that. Instead she leaned forward and put up a sweet smile. “Hey Saaasuke?”
He flicked his eyes to her with a glare. “What?”
She beamed. “I left my own pack at home. Can I borrow one of yours?”
“You can take some of my cards, Sakura!” Naruto said cheerfully.
Sakura didn’t look over. “I wasn’t asking you.”
“Why’d you say we should play if you didn’t even have your cards?” Sasuke asked grumpily, lowering his eyes back to his own as he flicked through them, and Sakura felt her own expression souring.
“Because I just love watching you two argue,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Why d’you think? C’mon, we should all at least try to be friends, shouldn’t-?”
“We’re not friends,” Sasuke said immediately, his face contorting as he glared at her, and his eyes were flashing with rage so intense that it made Sakura falter and lean back.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, we know,” Naruto complained, dropping his cards down and picking up his ramen cup. “You’re too cool to have lame loser friends who buy you ramen and trading cards and have the audacity to want you around sometimes. Can we skip the angst and just play the game? I’m telling you two I’m gonna win!”
“With what, the yelling cockroach?” Sakura asked, but her heart wasn’t in the jab. She hadn’t liked how Sasuke’s eyes looked. Despite what her Dad had said, the rumor he’d relayed yesterday still clanged around in her head, and she wondered if Kakashi’s genjutsu had been accurate.
Their eyes did look similar, now that she thought about it. Sasuke’s, and Kakashi’s genjutsu’s.
She took a breath. It didn’t mean anything that Sasuke looked like Itachi. They were brothers, after all. Of course they looked like each other. That didn’t mean Sasuke was like his brother in any way that mattered. Surely Orochimaru wouldn’t assign her to this task if he thought Sasuke was an actual threat to her. He’d assign Kabuto instead, who was much more skilled than Sasuke and able to take him down should the need arise. Surely. Sakura felt herself waver.
But before she could pursue the thought any further, there was a light smack on the concrete in front of her, and she looked at it in surprise. It was half of Sasuke’s deck. She looked up, blinking at him, and he hmphed as he turned distinctly away from both of them to shuffle the rest of his cards.
Sakura exhaled and reached forward, taking the pile. “Thank you, Sasuke.”
“Whatever,” he mumbled, and Sakura let out a small smile, her worries from a moment before fading into the background of her mind. She knew Sasuke, despite how much he pulled away from her; actually, she probably knew Sasuke better than anyone, thanks to her mission. He was distant and rude and very, very bratty, but he wasn’t his brother. Her dad’s assessment of him was probably spot on; if Itachi had turned suddenly against everyone, that meant he’d turned against Sasuke too. So of course Sasuke wouldn’t trust other people to be his friends. That didn’t mean he was dangerous. It just meant he was cautious.
Sakura should stay cautious herself, probably, but she’d still need to stay close to Sasuke for her mission, and spending all her time afraid would be unbearable.
So instead she put up her sweetest and perhaps most mischievous smile and said, “I hope you didn’t give me all your worst cards to make sure I don’t beat you again, Sasuke.”
Sasuke sent a sneer over his shoulder and said, “I don’t need to cheat to beat you.”
Sakura gave a dramatic laugh as she shuffled Sasuke’s cards. “That has yet to be proven, Sasuke.”
“Yeah, you’re still a loser, Sasuke!” Naruto said cheerfully, and Sasuke snapped, “you lost too!”, but Naruto ignored him in favor of continuing.
“I’m gonna go first,” he said brightly, “and I play…!”
Naruto slammed a card down and shouted, “yelling cockroach! Redemption arc!”
“Are you serious?” Sasuke asked as Sakura giggled, and Naruto crossed his arms with a pleased grin.
“Yelling cockroach is gonna lead me on to victory, believe it!” Naruto said.
Neither of the others opted to believe it, which proved to be a good decision when Naruto lost the match spectacularly and at least four turns before Sakura managed to pull another win out with a well placed Rock With Legs attack from Sasuke’s borrowed deck.
“Aw, that’s too bad, Sasuke,” she said dramatically as Sasuke gaped in outrage and Naruto laughed at him.
“No way! We’re having a rematch!” Sasuke snapped, and Sakura beamed.
“Sure, I’ll beat you three times,” she said, and Sasuke gave a grumpy pout as Naruto shouted, “no way, I’m winning this time!” before proceeding to somehow again start the next match with the same yelling cockroach card.
Sakura was startled and incredibly pleased with how the morning had turned. Sasuke had asked to play another round. This competitive loophole she’d stumbled into was truly incredible for her mission. Though maybe she really should let Sasuke win one of these times.
The thought evaporated from her mind the further their second match went. It was obvious that all three ninja were putting far too much effort into the game, and Sakura found the entire thing quite fun until all too suddenly, Sasuke played a few well-placed cards in a row, and Sakura’s hand was emptied despite her best efforts to fight against it.
“I win!” Sasuke said, sliding her card to the discard pile before looking up with a beam, and Sakura had intended to quip some reply about it clearly being a fluke that would never happen again obviously, but when her eyes met his, the jab fizzled out.
He was actually smiling, grinning triumphantly at her, and his eyes were bright with no trace of his brother anywhere inside of them. He looked happy , and it struck Sakura suddenly how odd the expression was on him. Foreign, maybe. The thought tugged on something deep in her chest, and she faintly wondered what it was.
“How did you do that?!” Naruto asked indignantly, and Sasuke turned to him now and smugly replied, “with skill, Naruto,” which earned him an immediate, “we need another rematch!!” and a new game was quickly started.
Sakura found herself smiling as they kept passing the time, happy enough that she didn’t even mind how annoyingly late Kakashi was getting. If Sasuke acted like this at dinner, then she had nothing to worry about after all. She’d just invite the whole group over whenever Kakashi decided to show up, and maybe they could play a few rounds of this game before eating to get Sasuke back into this version of his personality.
Much more confident about the success of the evening, Sakura allowed herself to enjoy the games. Games excessively plural, with the morning stretching longer and longer with no Kakashi in sight.
Sasuke and Sakura went pretty back and forth with their wins, neither going more than two matches in a row as victor, until suddenly, at least eight games in, what had once seemed impossible suddenly happened.
“Hm…I play…” Naruto said, tapping at his chin as he studied his cards closely. Sakura gave a dramatic eyeroll towards Sasuke, expecting the same yelling cockroach approach that he’d taken far too many times after apparently growing emotionally attached to bringing the card honor through victory, and Sasuke pretended like he wasn’t snickering.
Naruto perked up and slapped one of his cards. “Oh! I play frog with bathrobe’s power! I can take one of Sasuke’s cards, and I’ll take the magic icy lady!”
Naruto took the card with a grin and smacked it down next to his long-since finished ramen cup. “Which leaves Sasuke with just his henchman. Hehehe. And magic ice lady’s already freezing Sakura’s one card, but if she enters my hand then she can freeze the other card! End of turn!”
Naruto beamed cheesily at Sakura, prompting her to play her turn, but she simply blinked down at her two cards, now both immobilized.
“Uh,” she said, glancing back up. “I don’t think I can make a move.”
Sasuke just hmphed and crossed his arms, looking pointedly away, and Naruto blinked blankly at them.
“What’s that mean then? I go again?” he asked before his eyes went wide. “Wait, you guys can’t play! That means I win!”
He jumped up immediately, his smile bright, as he cheered, “I won! Believe it! Yippee! Yahoo!”
“You won one game,” Sasuke insisted as Naruto ignored him in favor of jumping in a circle and cheering, “yay yay yay! Yahoo! Believe it! Yippee!”
Sakura hid a snicker behind her hand as Naruto landed back beside them and jabbed his finger towards his chest with a, “it’s fitting for a hokage to be a winner, isn’t it?”
“You’ve lost every other game,” Sasuke reminded him with a grumpy pout, and Naruto sent him a smug beam.
“It’s the start of a new trend, believe it!” he said. “I’ll win all the rest of them! Sakura goes first next time!”
Naruto’s win did not turn into a trend, as the next game went to Sasuke and then the next to Sakura, but his relentless optimism kept him trying until he’d finally scraped a handful of wins when Kakashi finally showed up at least two hours, if not more, later.
“Yo,” Kakashi said with a wave, and Naruto jumped up and threw his hands into the air with a cheered, “I won some, Kakasensei!”
“…won some what?” Kakashi asked blankly as the others now stood, Sakura pointing at Kakashi accusatorily.
“You’re late ,” she said, and Kakashi’s eye crinkled in a smile.
“I suppose I just got lost on the path of life,” he said, and Sasuke crossed his arms with a hmph as Naruto gave a bright laugh.
“Can’t you at least show up when you tell us you’re going to?” Sasuke sneered, and Kakashi flicked his eye over.
“Some of us have important things to do, Uchiha,” he said, and Sasuke practically snarled, and Sakura took the opportunity to step in before Sasuke would fall back into his not-actively-competing self.
“Now that you’re finally here, Kakasensei,” Sakura said, dragging out the word, “I’ve got a question! I guess it’s sort of a favor maybe? Well, not really, but-!”
“Can we skip the filler please?” Kakashi interrupted, his voice bored. “Just say what you want to, Haruno. No need to waste time.”
Sakura hmphed at him, the hypocrisy of his statement not lost on her, and said, “my parents want to meet you all. They invited you three over for dinner tonight.”
“Huh?” Naruto asked, brightening up. “Hey, that sounds fun! I’m in!”
“What? No way!” Sasuke said, looking vaguely alarmed, and Sakura turned to pout at him.
“C’mon, Sasuke, they want to meet you most!” she said, though she wasn’t entirely sure if that was even true, but it might at least stoke the boy’s ego enough to-
Sasuke’s eyes blew wide, and Sakura realized she’d misgauged that maneuver as he practically yelped, “why would they want to meet me? What have you been telling them?!”
Kakashi, however, interrupted this by blankly stating, “you really should go, Sasuke. The Harunos just suspended permission for Sakura to be on this team this morning, so if you want to go on a mission anytime soon, you should probably go flatter them.”
“What?!” Sakura gasped as Naruto turned.
“Suspended permission? What’s that mean?” he asked with an accusatory point, and Kakashi put a hand on his hip, his eye landing on Naruto.
“A parent or guardian can step in to bench their child’s activities until she or he reaches 15 years of age or chunin level. You can thank Madara Uchiha for that law,” Kakashi said with a sarcastic smile sent Sasuke’s way before his attention turned to rooting around in his bag. “And without three genin, our team isn’t cleared to go on missions together. All non anbu teams require a minimum of four people. That regulation’s from Hashirama Senju, so make sure to curse both’s memories at this minor inconvenience.”
“Question!” Naruto said, sticking his hand in the air as Sakura and Sasuke both just gaped at Kakashi, who pulled out and opened his book. “Who is Madara Uchiha?”
“Did you attend classes?” Kakashi asked, unimpressed, but Sakura couldn’t pay attention to Naruto’s ridiculous antics now.
Her parents had gone behind her back to suspend permission? Seriously?!
Sasuke rounded on Sakura and snapped, “what’d you do to get permission pulled?!”
“I didn’t do anything! It’s you guys they don’t like!” she snapped back before gasping and putting a hand over her mouth. That was not something she should be admitting
“Hey, what’s that mean?” Naruto asked, and Sakura turned to him.
“They said they wanted to meet you all tonight, so- maybe once they do, they’ll give permission back,” she said quickly, looking over all of them. “I can convince them- you all just need to show up!”
In another circumstance, she’d be pretty pleased with her acting. She didn’t outwardly look as livid as she felt.
“Yeah, we can do that!” Naruto said, punching the air. “It can be our first mission! If we can’t convince others to depend on us and to believe that we can take care of them and each other, we’d be horrible ninja!”
It was a surprisingly insightful comment. Sasuke crossed his arms with a scowl and turned to Sakura. “Where’s your address?”
Sakura told them, and when a time had been decided, the group dispersed.
Sakura practically ran home, a million thoughts bouncing around in her head. Why would her parents suspend their permission and then hide it from her? They didn’t want her to get angry and end up in a big argument? Well, they were about to get one now.
Except, when Sakura arrived back home, no one was there. Both of her parents must be back at their offices for work today, which meant they wouldn’t be home until quite close to the time they’d agreed on for dinner.
Sakura furrowed her brow, thinking hard. Throwing a fit right before everyone came over would only make it harder to endear her three teammates to her parents. Maybe she should pretend that she didn’t know about the suspended permission yet. Then they could have a calm dinner that hopefully won her parents over, and maybe they’d go give permission back without ever knowing Sakura’d found out, which would avoid the messy argument altogether.
Sakura took a breath in and out. Well, she shouldn’t waste all day waiting around. She should blow off some steam, at least.
She turned back to walk out of her apartment again and wondered distantly if Kabuto would still be around.
Notes:
More au lore hints in this chapter yay! I'm not sure I realized at first that this chapter would be the first mention of the Senjus lol, but dw more of that to come! One of my fav things to do while writing is drop tiny crumbs of lore, expect that a lot going forward lol
Update on where I'm at in Shippuden: Darui straight up becoming one of the best characters in the show, why did it take this long for him to get here. Day one of the Fourth War is over!
Ty for reading and I hope you have a lovely day! :D <3
Chapter 13: Preparations
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Itachi’s ghost spent the entire walk home laughing at Sasuke.
This was awful. This was horribly and terribly awful . After years and years and years , Sasuke’d finally gotten the chance to get missions and leave this village to find more information, the opportunity to finally move forward in lifting his curse, and now it was blocked because Sakura’s parents didn’t like him. It was infuriating!
He’d spent years cultivating this distant and harsh persona, and he knew his reputation preceded him; that had been the point of doing it in the first place, and there was no chance that such a reputation could be changed in a single night over a dinner party .
But he had to try; he didn’t know if they’d be able to find another genin to stand in for Sakura until she turned old enough to override the permission needed, and he couldn’t handle waiting any longer. He could try to win them over somehow; he could change all those habits he’d drilled into himself, just for one night, and be polite and courteous and very approvable-
And bend his actions to the whim of someone else. He could still hear his brother laughing at him through the wind brushing his ear, and he pinked.
Sasuke returned directly home after the rooftop meeting, his mind buzzing with tasks to finish before the evening. It was a dinner gathering, which meant a plethora of formal rules and etiquette that Sasuke hadn’t needed to know for years.
He needed to research.
The Uchiha library had been one of the earliest buildings he’d refurbished, and it was one of his most frequent spots. He took a direct path there, not even stopping at home first to drop off his toolpouch. He wasn’t sure how much time he needed for preparations, but he knew he only had a limited quantity of it courtesy of Kakashi’s excessive tardiness, so efficiency was key here.
When he entered the library, the smell of books entered his nose, and he exhaled. It felt familiar and grounding, and he needed it before the uncertainty of what lay before him. He was painfully out of practice trying to be likeable, and it was rather embarrassing that he was so worried about it.
He knew the library’s layout well, though his most extensive knowledge was, of course, the jutsu section. But only a little while of searching brought him to a section on proper etiquette, and he grabbed a few books, laid on the ground, and began reading.
One of the books was from several centuries prior and therefore outdated, one was about dealing with foreign guests -he’d poured over this one in the past, but its section on the Land of Wind was irritatingly small and unhelpful, though that didn’t mean he hadn’t practically memorized it- and one was faded and barely legible. Sasuke put these all carefully back on the shelf and turned to the last one, and he finally found something useful. There wasn’t much about dinners specifically, but there were at least house visiting rules.
He scanned through the pages, chewing slightly on his lip as he did so. Apparently bringing a gift was essential to show respect. He remembered something like that, distantly in his memory; his mother would make little paper cranes whenever he or Itachi had someone come over to their house -always for school or work, in both’s cases- and she’d always make a point of thanking the guest for coming over and being such close friends with her son, and Sasuke’s classmates would always eat up every ounce of attention as Itachi’s coworkers awkwardly explained that they were really just meeting for business and not very close at all.
Sasuke frowned and shoved the thought firmly away from the front of his mind. He didn’t have time for that kind of rabbit hole, didn’t have time to think of how his mother would always make sure the edges were folded perfectly and would put on a serious expression as she asked Sasuke to inspect the finished cranes because once they passed the Sasuke-test, that meant they had to be perfect.
Sasuke squeezed his eyes shut, forcing his thoughts elsewhere with several breaths. In, out. No spiraling. Not now. He opened his eyes again to glare down at the page he’d read, scanning it three more times to lock it into the forefront of his brain. He needed a gift. Something fancy, often edible. Maybe he could grab something from another district. He had a suspicion that his late night onigiri recipe wasn’t going to be quite up to snuff.
The book also said to dress up for a formal occasion; was a dinner party formal? Did he even have dressy clothes? He had no idea. He hadn’t gotten to fixing the tailor shop yet, just cleaned it up a little. There were formal clothes in there. Maybe he could check, as long as looking around in there didn’t make him feel ill.
“You know, I probably have plenty of formal wear in my room,” Itachi’s ghost said, and Sasuke ignored him completely. Going into Itachi’s room would definitely make him feel ill.
Sasuke stood and took the book with him, reading it as he walked. There were a lot of rules, and he couldn’t fathom memorizing all of them before dinner tonight. There was an entire chapter just on how to sit at tables. Sasuke felt slightly overwhelmed.
He dropped his head back, watching a white-feathered bird flutter across the sky. He could do this. He just needed to stay focused.
When he arrived at the old tailor shop, he stared at it, taking a shaky breath. It was farther away from the center of town, so there hadn’t been much fighting near it. Just a few broken windows and a shattered rack of clothes that had been in the street when Sasuke’d done his preliminary cleanup. He’d since piled all the clothes that’d been on it neatly in the corner, but he hadn’t gotten around to fixing the actual rack.
He took another breath in, then out. One problem at a time. There hadn’t been any blood inside, so he didn’t need to worry about that. He lifted his hand. In, out. He pushed the door open and stepped inside.
The shop was small and dark, only illuminated by the light coming through the cracked windows. He mentally added fixing the broken lamp to his to-do list as he stepped inside and made his way to the rack that hadn’t been damaged. These were the premade outfits, not the fancy specially tailored ones, but they’d probably do the trick just fine. Sasuke checked his book again. It had a few examples for attire, though none were for a dinner party. He had no idea where a dinner party would fall on a scale of fanciness.
“I think you should try this one, Sasuke,” Itachi said, and Sasuke mentally noted to go with any one except the one the ghost pointed at.
The clothes themselves were thick with dust, having sat untouched for years without disturbance. Sasuke debated if he had time to fully wash whatever he picked out and decided it would probably be for the best if he did.
He ran his hand over the hangers as he investigated his options, lingering every so often to trace his finger over an embroidered paper fan.
Eventually he decided on an outfit, a fancy looking kimono that was only a few shades of black and blue and gray and which looked easy enough to wash.
He took it back home to do so, pointedly ignoring Itachi’s ghost as he did. Itachi’s ghost ignored him right back, which was infuriating because how dare he not be angry that Sasuke was being rude to him, but Sasuke decided to keep his frustration to himself.
Distantly, he wondered why he was seeing the ghost so much more frequently these days. It used to be just for breakfast. Maybe his cursed heart was trying to remind him not to be stupid and slip up around Sakura, as if he needed the reminder.
“It’s just dinner,” he scolded his heart as he walked. “I’ve got to go to it to get out of this Village”
Itachi laughed at that, but it didn’t sound the way Sasuke remembered it. Itachi’s laugh had always been quiet and warm. It had at one point been safe. The ghost’s laugh was icy cold, like the chill of midnight air cutting into Sasuke’s chest.
“You’d better behave tonight,” he told the ghost airily, snubbing his nose slightly up as he did.
“I should say the same to you, Sasuke,” Itachi replied, and Sasuke’s entire face reddened as he scowled.
When he got home, he handwashed the kimono and pinned it on the line in his yard to dry before returning his attention to his next task: finding a gift that would make the Harunos like him enough to ignore his reputation and let their daughter team with him.
He’d probably have to head into town for that, right? There had to be someplace where he could buy something expensive. He had enough money to be impressive on that front. After all, everything the Uchiha clan had ever owned belonged to him now.
He felt his lip tremble slightly at the thought.
He packed up his bag, securing the etiquette book inside it, and headed out into one of the further shopping districts, the nicer one that rested closer to the Senju-Hyuga town.
It was a bit of a lengthy trip, but he didn’t mind. He liked this area mostly because the once-two-now-one Senju-Hyuga clan hadn’t particularly liked the Uchihas before, so not many of them tried to interact with Sasuke much at all, which made it much safer curse-wise. Even now, a few feet into the gate, he could feel eyes lingering with distaste on the Uchiha fans stitched into his jacket. He’d have come here more often to help his mediocre reputation sink even lower if not for the fact that the district was quite far away from his house and also filled with very expensive shops that might have drained his money if he’d gone here regularly.
But expensive was what he was looking for now. He pulled his book out and flicked to the page on gifts, scanning it carefully. He needed something edible that the event hosts would like…well, he had no idea what the event hosts would like, so should he pick something Sakura enjoyed? Sasuke didn’t know what she ate for lunch since he’d spent almost every lunch period hiding from her. Maybe he could get something pink, like her hair. That’d be a dessert, right? He knew there were dango sticks that resembled the cycles of cherry blossom trees…would that be corny?
He was so in over his head.
“S-Sasuke!”
Sasuke stilled at the familiar voice, inwardly kicking himself for not anticipating it in this district, and turned with a glare harsh enough to make the speaker flinch.
Hinata hid in her hood and managed a, “wh-what are you up t-to over h-here?”
“I need to get a gift for Sakura’s parents,” he said flatly, and Hinata perked up.
“O-oh! How sweet, Sasuke!” she said with a timid smile, and Sasuke realized her misinterpretation and flushed.
“It’s not to impress Sakura,” he snapped, and she flinched at his volume. He continued, feeling a touch guiltier, “her parents are having a stupid dinner party because- uh…”
Maybe he shouldn’t introduce the concept of being suspended from work because the Harunos didn’t like him. The rest of his sentence floundered rather pathetically, and he glared away. If Itachi’s ghost was here, he’d be laughing.
Distantly he wondered why the ghost wasn’t here.
“You d-don’t have to be embarrassed, Sasuke!” Hinata said encouragingly, which, of course, only made him feel more so. “S-Sakura will definitely like what you get!”
“It’s not for Sakura!” Sasuke insisted, turning to storm away, but to his surprise, Hinata began walking beside him. “Why’re you following me?”
“I w-want to see what you get!” she said with wide eyes. “I need ideas.”
“Naruto’s clueless,” Sasuke huffed, and Hinata squeaked and hid her face in her hood at the idea of her ‘secret’ crush being exposed. Sasuke rolled his eyes. “It doesn’t matter what you get him. He’s not gonna have any idea what you’re doing.”
“B-but you’re using gifts to tell Sakura,” Hinata said, her lilac eyes wide.
“Tell her what?” Sasuke practically snapped. “I’m not interested in Sakura!”
“Ooh, harsh rejection!”
Sasuke froze at the new voice and turned, his eye twitching.
The yellow patterned anbu from the store the previous morning, the one Sakura had called Toki, was behind them, for some reason, his mask perched on the side of his head as he walked up to them beside Kurenai. Sasuke felt his fists clenching as he glared at the pair, but Kurenai didn’t even acknowledge his existence.
“Hinata,” Kurenai said with a wave. “Thanks for waiting- looks like Kiba’s got Akamaru’s issue wrapped up, so we’ll be heading out soon. Toki, are you sure you don’t want me to walk you and Contororu to the gate?”
“Nah, I wanted to chat with Uchiha before we leave anyway, so this works out perfectly,” Toki said with a lazy grin, and Sasuke felt himself stiffening.
“Can’t fathom why,” Kurenai said with a shrug. “Thanks again for taking the mission today; tell Contororu that too.”
“Oh, no worries,” Toki said, waving his hand. “You said it enough this morning, and we don’t mind anyway. Go enjoy your team!”
“I h-hope Sakura likes the gift, Sasuke!” Hinata said as she ran after Kurenai, who waved back to Toki and continued to completely ignore Sasuke, who scowled until suddenly his day took a sharp nosedive from terrible to somehow worse as Toki slung his arm around Sasuke’s shoulders and said, “let’s chat, hm?”
All his frustration earlier about freezing up, and the moment he felt an anbu uniform make contact with him, his brain clicked off. Again .
He knew it was stupid, just as stupid now as it had been a day ago, and yet all he could do was fall back into that exact same response he’d had years prior, where all he could do was stare, uselessly watching as his brother’s eyes bore into him before placing that horrible jutsu onto him-
“I’m here to apologize,” Toki said, and Sasuke’s thoughts fizzled blank.
“You- what?”
Toki gave a dramatic sigh. “Yeah, I was advised by my man Contororu that if any of our, uh, coworkers found out I gave you a panic attack in a grocery store, I’d end up spending three days watching a raccoon eat me.”
Toki gave a dark laugh at the completely nonsensical sentence before leaning a bit closer and saying, “don’t tell Contororu I said that. Or he’ll yell at me for being ‘bad at my job’. He’s so strict sometimes.”
Toki pouted, clearly fishing for sympathy, but Sasuke couldn’t comprehend what he was saying, and his head still felt cottony from the unwanted contact, but he couldn’t force himself to move, and Sakura wasn’t here this time to save him.
Was he really relying on Sakura to save him? Weak. He could almost hear Itachi’s laughter in his ear again.
“Yo, you okay Uchiha? You’re not looking too good.”
“Let go of me.”
Toki did, his visible eye narrowed. Sasuke wished he’d put his mask on.
“Is that it?” Sasuke asked shortly, and Toki flicked his gaze over him.
“More or less.”
“Then leave.”
Toki gave a cold smile. “Aw, sure thing Uchiha. Tell your friend Haruno I said hi.”
Sasuke scowled. “She isn’t my friend.”
“Y’know the saying ‘if it walks like a duck, and talks like a duck’?” Toki asked, opening and closing a gloved hand as if miming the duck in question, and Sasuke felt his hands shaking at his sides.
“You don’t know anything about us!” Sasuke snapped. “Don’t act like you do!”
“Yeah, yeah,” Toki shrugged, rolling his eyes. “Y’know, you should get her art! For that gift you’re all the way over here to buy just for her.”
Sasuke reddened and spluttered, “I- wh- that’s not what I’m-!” but Toki interrupted him by laughing and roughly tousling Sasuke’s hair, which just made his spluttering worse.
“Aw, you’re so fun to rile up,” Toki teased, lifting his hand. “Did you forget this conversation is an apology?”
“Did you?” Sasuke snapped, eyes flashing, and Toki grinned and stuck his tongue between his teeth.
“Nope. Well, I’ll leave you to your solitude and misery. Do tell Haruno I say hi, and yell at her for forgetting to come visit us, would you? My man Contororu’s frothing at the mouth to ask her what her boss knows about genjutsu.”
Toki waved and turned before pocketing his hand and striding away, and Sasuke glared, livid . He wasn’t a messenger hawk; Toki was perfectly capable of asking Sakura himself and hearing that all their new sensei knew about genjutsu was how to torment Sasuke with it.
He hissed out an exhale, his hands still shaking at his sides, and he tried to pull his brain back to reason. Toki was a completely random nobody anbu, and Sasuke needed to quit acting like his touch was just as dangerous as his brother’s.
Sasuke took a breath in and out, closing his eyes. Hopefully that stupid anbu would never talk to him again after today, and he could have his ‘solitude and misery’ in peace. He didn’t understand why the man had tracked him down again- had he said something about being eaten by a raccoon? That didn’t make sense.
Sasuke shook his head. He hoped this anbu didn’t enjoy riling him up enough to keep searching him out for his own entertainment. His brother’s ghost covered that front perfectly fine on his own.
At least Sasuke had recovered from his freezing quicker this time. He supposed that could be a small victory here. Sure he did still completely lock up when the anbu had made contact, but he’d mostly been able to process what he was saying.
Sasuke frowned as he opened his eyes. Yeah, big accomplishments.
He exhaled, moving to squeeze his hands on his bag strap to let out a bit of the tension in them. Getting this worked up now would only distract him from his goal, getting permission returned to Sakura so they could finally leave this village. He couldn’t afford to slip up and fall back into impolite habits just because his mind couldn’t quite lose the lingering feeling of anbu gloves brushing against him.
He gave another annoyed huff, trying to pull himself together. If he was going to get back on missions, he could run into anbu a lot. He needed to learn to get over this. It would only hurt him later.
He set his shoulders and looked around for a shop, distantly wishing Sakura could be here with him.
He set off back down the streets, eyes scanning for anything that could be impressive. Most of the people walking about the district ignored him, but several with Senju clan symbols decorating their attire still lingered their cold gazes on his jacket’s Uchiha fan design.
He opted to simply glare at them, and they glared right back, and fortunately all moved on without comment.
Sasuke ended up in front of a fancy bakery, checking his book again. He supposed he should just pick someplace, and this seemed as good as any.
He walked around the bakery for at least fifteen minutes before conceding defeat and walking over to the counter to get advice from anyone who wasn’t Itachi or Toki on what to get to impress someone.
The woman who worked there was helpful, but Sasuke knew he spent the entire conversation redfaced.
He ended up on the most expensive box of chocolates he could find and went directly home, hoping to avoid seeing anyone else who recognized him, but fortunately he made it back without further incident. The other genin must all be occupied on missions or training.
He felt jealousy root bitterly in his chest.
But he only had himself to blame for having a terrible reputation. Or, more accurately, he only had his brother to blame. For everything terrible that had ever happened in his life.
He was already back in his town’s general store to keep the chocolates cold by the time he remembered that he was supposed to have bought cherry blossom dango. But, maybe it was for the best that he’d gotten something else, since the thing that had reminded him was his brother’s ghost, who was now sitting on the counter and eating a tricolored stick with a smile. Sasuke glared at him.
“Maybe they’ll like chocolate better than dango,” he said, and Itachi turned his smile to him.
“Maybe,” he said pleasantly, and Sasuke scowled.
After he put the chocolates into the store’s refrigerators, he went back home and was pleased to find that his kimono was already drying quite nicely. The walk to the Senju-Hyuga district was pretty long, but he was glad for that now. He hated just sitting around and waiting for things. Yet another irritating reality about having Kakashi as a teacher.
He glanced up at the sky, gauging the time by the sun’s position. He still had a few hours, at least, and he’d recognized the district Sakura’s apartment address was in. It wasn’t terribly far away.
Another white-feathered bird flapped down and landed atop his roof, and he watched it with a soft sigh. Maybe he could do some individual training, since getting anything like that out of Kakashi seemed to be a lost cause, and letting his mind wander could only lead to bad things.
He stretched his arms over his head and made his way to the lake he always trained his fire jutsu by.
Time passed slowly, but eventually the sun was low enough to nudge Sasuke back home to start getting ready.
His formal wear was dry by the time he returned to it, but it took him embarrassingly long to figure out how to put it on once he’d taken it back to his bedroom. There were far too many layers for his comfort, and about halfway through he very nearly gave up and asked his brother’s ghost to tell him what to do. But after sternly reminding himself that his brother’s ghost didn’t know any more than Sasuke did and, also, that he hated him, he just sucked it up and fumbled through it himself.
He picked up his bag out of habit and went to the general store to get the chocolates from the refrigerators, and then, all too suddenly, it was time to leave.
He kept his chocolate box close to his chest as he walked down the streets, glaring at anyone who dared look at him. He had a handful of kunai in his bag in case anyone saw him dressed so fancily and thought he’d have money on him, but no one tried to intercept him. Maybe the Uchiha fans embroidered on his clothes kept people away.
When he arrived at the apartment building, an elderly woman working at the lobby desk gave him directions and unlocked the proper stairwell for him, and he thanked her as politely as he could. It felt very strange to do so. He pinked at the thought and moved to the stairs.
The hallway Sakura lived on had lots of doors. They were close together, and many were cluttered, but it didn’t feel cramped. Decorations from the apartment’s residents gave personality to each door, and Sasuke looked over each one carefully, making mental notes of which he’d want to try.
The door beside Sakura’s had what looked like moving boxes stacked outside, and the other side had a garland framing its door. Sakura’s own had a simple tapestry with the Haruno’s circular crest. It looked elegant.
Sasuke closed his eyes and took a breath. He’d studied hard, so this should go well. It was crucial that it went well. Any chance he had at ever coming here as a friend someday depended on getting out of the Village, which in turn depended on getting cleared for missions.
He opened his eyes again, steeled himself, and knocked.
Notes:
Update on where I’m at in Shippuden:
Nagato: yo Itachi that’s my bestie Naruto!!
Naruto: yo Bee that’s my bestie Nagato!!
Nagato: yoooo!!
Naruto: yoooo!!!
Bee: yooo!!!!
Itachi: Sasuke… :’(it’s ridiculously funny to me that Itachi broke out of Kabuto’s mind control by accidentally mind controlling himself harder like that’s unhinged
anyway who could have predicted we’d get a naruto-killer bee-itachi teamup before a sasuke-realizing-madara’s-a-problem arc?
Naruto: hey do you wanna maybe help me out and talk to Sasuke?
Itachi, flying away at top speeds: no ^.^Ty for reading, and I hope you have a lovely day! <3
Chapter 14: The Dinner Party
Notes:
Long chapter this week! Probably short chapter next week (I'll be at comic con! :D )
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“Sasuke!” Sakura looked surprised when she opened the door and saw him, and he pinked at her slack jawed expression as she looked over his outfit. Guess he overdressed, then- whatever. It was too late to change now. “Er- come in!”
He stepped in quickly, eyes scanning the room, and it didn’t take long to find Sakura’s parents.
Sakura had clearly taken after her father, everything from the fluffy pink hair to the bright smile, though they differed in a major area; Mr. Haruno’s right leg was strapped up in a bulky brace, and he was leaning against a walking cane.
Mrs. Haruno had a harder to decipher expression, hid behind a simple blank smile, and her eyes were slightly narrowed. “Sasuke, welcome to our home.”
“Thank you,” Sasuke said, giving a courteous nod and holding out the box of chocolates he’d so meticulously selected. “It’s an honor to meet you. Your daughter is very kind.”
Sakura gaped at him, and Sasuke wished she wouldn’t act like this was so unusual. Surely she understood too that they had to win over her parents or risk their careers facing an immediate wall.
“How sweet of you to say,” Mrs. Haruno said quietly as Mr. Haruno limped forward to accept the chocolate gift.
“Sakura speaks very highly of you,” Mr. Haruno said as Sakura gave a nervous laugh.
“Yeah, well, he’s super smart,” she said, bouncing on the soles of her feet. “Oh, uh- you can put your shoes here, Sasuke, and your bag.”
“Thank you,” he said quietly, stepping aside to do so.
“Are you sick?” Sakura whispered to him, and he glared at her.
“No,” he said pointedly, turning back to her parents. “Thank you for inviting us to your home. It’s quite nice.”
It was, in a warm and cozy sort of way. The dining area they stood in led to a kitchen on one side and a lounge area on the other, with a hallway leading out of sight nearby. A large glass door filtered in the fading light from the outside and led to a balcony overlooking the district. It was nice to see people going about their lives on the streets below, like this little apartment was somehow part of the Village’s activity.
“Thank you for accepting our invitation!” Mr. Haruno said cheerfully. “Some ninja tend to consider such things beneath them.”
He gave an almost bitter laugh before turning towards the table to set down the chocolate box and continuing, “I apologize in advance for the peculiar table setup, but my leg simply won’t allow me to sit at a low table anymore.”
“Yeah, and this one wobbles a bit,” Sakura added sheepishly. When Sasuke glanced at her, he noticed her cheeks were slightly flushed. “One of the legs is too short.”
“Oh. I could fix that for you, if you’d like,” Sasuke said, turning back to the Haruno parents. “I have the tools back home.”
“How thoughtful,” Mrs. Haruno said, her voice still quiet, “but we wouldn’t want to burden you.”
“It’s no burden. I do that sort of thing all the time.”
“Fix people’s tables?” Sakura asked, clearly perplexed, and Sasuke glanced at her again.
“My own tables,” he amended. After all, Itachi’s rights to anything in their town had been nullified as soon as he was classified as a rogue ninja by the Village.
Mr. Haruno gave a cheerful laugh. “You must have a very lenient landlord if that’s the case.”
Sasuke turned to him in surprise. “Er- landlord?”
Mr. Haruno’s smile remained on his face, and he really did look just like Sakura. “Whoever runs your apartment. I’m surprised whoever it is would be okay with someone woodworking on their furniture.”
“Oh, I don’t live in an apartment,” Sasuke said. “So I don’t have a landlord.”
“Huh?” Sakura asked, tilting her head. “Don’t you live in the same building as Naruto? The one by the cliffs.”
“Naruto?” Sasuke echoed, growing more confused by the second. “I live at my house.”
“Wait, Sasuke,” Mr. Haruno said, and he looked over. Mr. Haruno gave an awkward sort of laugh. “Sorry, I think I’m misunderstanding. You don‘t still live in those Uchiha ruins, do you?”
Sasuke pinked. “I mean- I’ve been fixing them up. Do they really still look that bad?”
He supposed he had been making slow progress, and even in the places he’d worked on, he had just based his renovations on books he’d read rather than asking an actual engineer or construction worker -or any adult for that matter-, but he’d been pretty proud of his renovation work. Apparently he’d done a worse job than he thought if people still considered them ‘ruins’.
But the Harunos were both staring at him now, their eyes wide, and he glanced at Sakura in a silent question, hoping she’d tell him what he’d done to get such a reaction. He was in way over his head with this etiquette thing, and he didn’t know how to handle this much direct attention without falling back into being cold and rude, which he couldn’t afford to do here.
He was rescued, however, by the door being opened behind them, and Naruto’s voice brightly shouting, “I’m here! On time and with ramen!”
“Naruto, knock on the door instead of just opening it!” Sakura scolded as Sasuke gratefully took the out and turned to him, but he was startled to see that Naruto was not only still in his obnoxiously orange jumpsuit, but also somehow splattered in mud.
“Naruto, did you roll through the dirt before coming here?” Sasuke asked as Naruto turned to knock on the open door before turning back and holding out the excessively massive bowl of ramen that he’d probably ordered from that ramen shop he loved ten minutes before arriving.
“Nah, I was training with Iruka. But I’m here! On time and with ramen!” he said, striding forward to place the ramen bowl at the edge of the table.
Mr. Haruno simply stared at him as Mrs. Haruno rather stiffly said, “please remove your shoes.”
“Hm? Oh, okay,” Naruto said, walking back to the door. “Why?”
“It’s proper etiquette,” Sasuke huffed, crossing his arms. “Didn’t you do any research before coming over here?”
“Research on eating dinner?” Naruto complained as he hopped in place, trying to pull his muddy shoe off. “Who’d research that? Did you?”
“Of course I did!” Sasuke snapped, habit bringing an edge back to his voice. “I went through four books on it, and you didn’t even change shirts!”
“I didn’t want to be late!” Naruto fired back. “Iruka says that’s rude!”
“So’s showing up in mud!”
Sakura stepped between them and pushed them apart before turning them back to face her parents with a very forced laugh. “Well, Naruto, let me introduce you!”
Both Haruno parents simply stared at Naruto, their expressions almost dark, as he obliviously and cheerfully said, “pleased to meet you! I picked out all the best ramen flavors and toppings for you, so I hope you like them!”
“How nice!” Sakura said, though it was through gritted teeth. “Isn’t he so…thoughtful?”
Sasuke almost winced at how obvious her fake opinion was, but Mr. Haruno gave his own forced laugh and said, “oh, y-yes! So…so thoughtful.”
He sheepishly rubbed behind his neck as his wife’s cold glare remained solid, and Sasuke had a sinking feeling that this evening could only go poorly.
“Let’s sit while we wait for our final guest,” Mrs. Haruno said stiffly, turning towards the table.
“Yes, please!” Naruto said, marching forward, but Sasuke stepped behind him and grabbed him by the arm.
“You can’t just sit anywhere, you know,” he said coldly, and Naruto shifted to lean his hand against the table and reply, “why not?” but his lean cocked the uneven table onto its short leg and sent the ramen bowl sliding off and onto the floor.
Sasuke practically dove for it, but he hadn’t reacted fast enough, and it shattered, sending ramen broth and porcelain shrapnel onto the floor and Sasuke’s hands.
He winced against the peppered cuts across his skin and heard his brother’s voice nag at the back of his head, a sharingan could have let you catch that, you know , and Sasuke scowled, his previous goal of being liked forgotten as he snapped, “Naruto, you idiot!”
“I didn’t do it on purpose!” Naruto argued, crouching to try and sweep up the ramen with his hands. “Why would I waste perfectly good ramen? This bowl was expensive!”
“Um- I can clean this up!” Sakura said quickly, running to find a towel. “Why don’t you all sit? Dad, you don’t have to-“
“Sasuke,” Mr. Haruno said, and Sasuke blinked up at him. Was he getting blamed for this? He felt anger licking up at his insides again.
But that anger was doused immediately at Mr. Haruno’s words. “You’ve gotten all cut up; I’m terribly sorry. We have some bandages in the kitchen, if you’d follow me.”
“Oh,” Sasuke said, looking down at his hands, which were pricked with blood all over from the shards of porcelain. “Okay. Thank you.”
He shot a glare at Naruto, who was bickering with Sakura about helping as Mrs. Haruno stared coldly at the boy, before following Mr. Haruno into the separated kitchen. The man walked slowly, limping on his leg, and Sasuke held his hands awkwardly in front of him to not smear blood on his formal wear.
“Let’s take a look at this, hm?” Mr. Haruno said, reaching a cabinet and pulling a roll of bandages down before turning back to Sasuke and holding out his hand. “May I see?”
Sasuke moved his own hands forward, and Mr. Haruno took one and examined it.
“Looks like most of these cuts are clean,” he said after an uncomfortably silent moment. “But a few look like they still have a piece of that bowl in them- I can take those out, unless you’d prefer to call in a medical ninja?”
That would be beyond embarrassing. “No, you can do it. I don’t mind.”
Mr. Haruno nodded and rooted around some more in the cabinet before pulling out a pair of tweezers and speaking up again.
“So, Sasuke,” he said, clearly in an attempt to distract him, and Sasuke gratefully allowed it. The touch was a bit overwhelming on its own, even without the uncomfortable pricking the air ran over his new cuts. “How did you and Sakura become friends?”
“We’re not friends,” Sasuke said quickly, his heartbeat heavy in his ears. “She’s just nice to everyone.”
Mr. Haruno smiled. “Yes, she certainly is. Though I’ll admit that’s a little surprising to hear, with how much she talks about you.”
“That’s…because…we’re rivals,” he attempted, wincing at a porcelain piece’s extraction. “Because she and I are always top and second spot in class.”
“Rivals, eh? Well, that’s not a bad thing to have,” Mr. Haruno said, and Sasuke felt a constricting weight release in his chest.
“It isn’t?” he asked quickly, hope now squeezing where fear had been latched, and Mr. Haruno looked up with a kind smile.
“A good rival can take you far, right?” he said before turning his attention to Sasuke’s other hand, but the boy’s mind was spinning. Someone else agreed, that meant. That rivals and friends were different. It wasn’t just Sasuke deluding himself; he could have a rival, and it wouldn’t set his curse off.
He smiled at the thought, and Mr. Haruno noticed and glanced up.
“Yes, you understand,” he said, and Sasuke nodded before wincing at another large piece getting pulled. Mr. Haruno gave a sheepish laugh and said, “sorry! Sorry, I know, but that was the last one. Wash your hands out and I’ll bandage them up, okay? I’m terribly sorry you got hurt.”
“Don’t be sorry,” Sasuke mumbled, running his hands under the water and grimacing. “I was too slow to catch it.”
“But you made a grand effort trying,” Mr. Haruno said kindly, and Sasuke pinked, flicking his gaze away from Mr. Haruno.
Once he’d finished and Mr. Haruno was wrapping the strips of bandages around his palms, the man’s expression shifted into something more worried, his gaze on the bandages he was working on. Sasuke resisted the urge to ask, but he ended up not needing to, as Mr. Haruno eventually spoke up.
“Sasuke,” he said seriously. “Why do you still live in the old Uchiha town?”
Sasuke blinked at him in surprise. “What?”
“You shouldn’t have to stay there,” Mr. Haruno said, his brow furrowed. “They should have known better than to tell you to.”
“No one told me to stay there,” Sasuke said, watching as his second hand got wrapped up now. “I decided to.”
“You want to live there?” Mr. Haruno finally looked up, and his eyes appeared clouded. “I mean- it must be so horrible for you.”
Sasuke blinked at him in surprise. “I’m- fixing it up. So it’s not…not so bad. It’s got a general store now, and a library, and some restaurants and houses. I’m doing the best I can to rebuild it. I thought it looked better than ruins.”
“Hm?” Mr. Haruno tilted his head before shaking it and looking back down at Sasuke’s hand. “I only say this at all because- I may be overstepping here, since we don’t know each other terribly well, but- our neighbors are moving out soon, and I would be more than happy to assist with costs if you wanted someplace else to live, someplace with fewer…memories.”
Sasuke just stared at him, completely lost. Why would he offer something like that? Sasuke was practically a stranger to the Harunos- worse than a stranger, according to their opinions on his being Sakura’s fellow genin. It didn’t make sense that either Haruno would want to help him at all.
But…Mr. Haruno had offered. Offered to help Sasuke move.
…did Sasuke want to live anywhere else? He’d been going home to that Uchiha town for so long now that moving elsewhere in the Village was a foreign concept. He wondered if his brother would appear less if he didn’t spend all his free time completely alone, shadowing their previously happy lives.
He wondered if the Uchiha fan would look better hanging on a door here, neighboring cozy clutter.
He pulled his hand away from Mr. Haruno as soon as the last bandage was tied, his eyes darting to the floor. He couldn’t be rude here and risk alienating the Harunos before they could grant permission, but that didn’t mean he could slip up on his most crucial task.
“Thank you, but no,” he said quietly, and he wished he wasn’t cursed. “I’m content with my current situation.”
The lie tasted bitter in his mouth, and Mr. Haruno’s smile was a bit too knowing. “I understand. But please feel free to tell me if you change your mind.”
Like the instant you’re not cursed anymore , Sasuke thought desperately, but he simply nodded.
“Thank you for the bandages,” he said.
Mr. Haruno smiled. “Happy to help, Sasuke.”
~~~
Kakashi, as should have been expected, was not even remotely on time.
The five had sat at the table and attempted small talk, but it was painfully stunted and clearly layered with the same coldness that had permeated even their earlier interactions.
Sasuke fidgeted with his bandages and took the time to consider what Mr. Haruno had said about moving. It did sound enticing to finally not be alone anymore; the solitude in the Uchiha town ached so badly that Sasuke had apparently begun relying on Itachi’s ghost and wild birds for company.
But at the same time…that town had been his home, once. He didn’t want to just abandon it. The Leaf Village would probably tear it down if he gave it up, the last remnants of the Uchiha clan erased forever. Sasuke didn’t want that. He wanted the town to be back like what it was; full of activity and kind greetings and life .
He stared down at his lap as Sakura mentioned for the fifth time how warm the weather had been lately, and he wondered if there was any chance the Uchiha town could ever have that again.
Eventually the small talk ran dry, and Sasuke pulled his focus back to the task at hand. They needed to win over the Harunos, and boring small talk was not the way to do it.
“Er…” Sakura said, clearly nervous, and Mrs. Haruno had taken to staring Naruto down as if the boy had walked up and punched Sakura when he’d arrived, and Sasuke wondered if there was some etiquette rule they were missing that could salvage this situation.
He racked his brain for what he remembered from the book he’d looked up, and as he scrambled for something, a section from the etiquette book for foreign guests that he’d once memorized appeared in his mind.
“In the Land of Wind,” he said suddenly, and everyone turned to him. but he pressed on, “guests and hosts are expected to exchange stories to pass time before formally starting a gathering.”
“Oh, fun!” Sakura said quickly, elbowing him. “You go first!”
Sasuke, for some reason, hadn’t anticipated this hiccup and was back scrambling through his memories. “Uh…”
He didn’t have any stories about himself that would be appropriate to tell anyone, ever, and even his boring stories were just about his town renovations, which were apparently going much poorer than he thought they were.
“Story…” Naruto said, tapping at his chin before leaning back and forth on his chair legs. “Do I know any stories…?”
Allowing Naruto to go first would probably land them all somehow listening to a thirty minute dissertation about ramen or something similar, so Sasuke spoke up quickly. He still remembered those old fairy tales from the corner of the library he avoided, and he opted for the one his brother had always disliked the most.
He felt quite smug about this decision.
“There’s one the Uchihas have been telling for generations,” he said, shifting in his seat. The bandages felt itchy on his hands, and he could feel his brother’s ghost hovering just behind him. “About Madara Uchiha and a moon princess? I could try to remember it.”
“We would be honored, Sasuke,” Mr. Haruno said as Sakura dropped her chin into her hands, relief evident in her face that at least someone was talking.
“Yeah, you go first, Sasuke,” Naruto said, waving him off. “I’ll come up with mine while you do.”
“Naruto, at least pay attention,” Sakura said, and Naruto nodded.
“Good thinking, I might get some ideas from it,” he said, leaning forward and crossing his arms on the table with a cheesy grin.
Sasuke shifted in place, tugging at his bandages, and began. “Long ago, there was a village called Tsukgakure, the Village Hidden in the Moonlight. It was the home of a princess named Kaguya, who had befriended the very moon. She loved games more than anything else, but there were very few around to play with her. Most other villages feared Tsuk, unwilling to dare trespassing on a land that the moon itself favored in such high esteem.
“So Kaguya turned to the moon for her games, and the moon taught her many things; she learned how to bend moonlight, to change its shape and trick the eyes. The first genjutsu ever developed.”
“Ooh,” Sakura whispered, and Sasuke glanced at her. She appeared completely invested.
He pinked and dropped his gaze again, continuing, “as the years passed, however, Kaguya drew cold towards the few others in her village, relying only on the moon’s friendship, and using her new genjutsu to play- cruel tricks. On the other villagers who would never play with her.”
He blinked a few times, his brother’s presence heavy on the back on his neck.
“One night, though,” he said, pressing forward, “a visitor arrived in Tsukgakure: Madara Uchiha. He was a brave, daring man, and he’d heard rumors about the Hidden Moonlight Village, about the ways Princess Kaguya had been tormenting her villagers with ghosts and monsters made of moonlight. He wanted to prevent the princess from spreading her means of torture to his own village, but…um…”
Sasuke suddenly faltered, the details of the story’s middle fuzzy in his mind. He pinked slightly. “Sorry, I’m not really telling this well-“
“What? No, don’t stop!” Sakura said, eyes wide as Naruto leaned forward and said, “yeah, we’ve got it! There’s a moon princess and your grandpa’s gonna kick her butt! Keep going!”
“Madara’s not my grandpa ; this story’s from a hundred fifty years ago,” Sasuke huffed as Sakura tapped at his shoulder.
“C’mon, I wanna hear what happens! Did she use genjutsu?” she asked excitedly, and Sasuke blinked a few times before glancing at Harunos. Mr. Haruno gave an encouraging smile, and even Mrs. Haruno looked less icy than she had earlier.
“Well- I don’t remember exactly how they met -I think it was something about her seeing Madara fighting a snake? It doesn’t really matter to this story- but eventually Madara found Kaguya and challenged her to a game. She laughed at the very idea; she could manipulate the moonlight itself, and yet this simple shinobi thought he could best her. He told her not to be deceived by his humble appearance, because he could control the stars. She didn’t believe him and boasted that if he could bring her a star from the sky, she would reward him.
“So Madara returned the next night and…”
Sasuke hesitated, glancing around. He remembered this part of the story quite well, having always liked it best, but now it felt a bit embarrassing.
But it was important. So he made a few quick hand signs and blew a tiny spark of flame into the air, saying, “and gave her a star.”
His attentive audience gasped at the display, their eyes bright as the reflection of Sasuke’s jutsu sparkled in them and fizzled out.
Sasuke felt quite pleased with himself, a warm feeling settling in his chest that felt like those nights he’d sit in bed, bundled in blankets, as he listened eagerly to his parents recounting the very same tale. Those were always the nights when Itachi was away on some mission, and his parents would be focused completely on him. Just like his audience was now.
Encouraged, Sasuke continued, “Kaguya was dazzled by the display, but also furious that she’d been tricked somehow. She wanted to know the secret of how he’d done it, so she asked him to return again the next night, and then she’d give him another gift in reward-“
“Wait, what did she give him the first night?” Naruto interrupted, and Sakura glanced at him, nodding instead of yelling at him for his interruption.
“Oh, right. Um, what was the first gift…” Sasuke thought hard. “I think it was just something from her village, like maybe food or clothing or something? I dunno, the first couple aren’t that important-“
“Ooh, first couple? ” Sakura asked. “So she gave multiple gifts?”
“Yeah. Every night he came back with another star, and every night she gave him another gift. After many nights, though, Madara grew dissatisfied with the gifts; after all, he was bringing her stars, and she was giving him simple earthly treasures. So he told her that he would no longer entertain this game if he wasn’t given a grander reward. Kaguya, desperate to learn how he’d befriended the stars, agreed, and so the next night she gifted him something special.
“Her years of bending moonlight to trick the eyes had given her knowledge of the chakra used by sight. So, in exchange for another of Madara’s stars, she gave him new eyes, eyes that could see the secrets of any and all chakra jutsu- except, of course, her own.”
“Sharingan!” Sakura gasped, practically jumping up, and Naruto leaned forward.
“So your jutsu’s from a secret mystery moon village princess?” he asked, a twinge of jealousy evident in his voice, and Sasuke couldn’t help but feel a bit smug again.
“Mhm. Or- that’s what the legend says, anyway,” he amended with a glance to the Harunos.
“What a fascinating story!” Mr. Haruno said brightly, but Sakura gasped.
“Wait, that’s not it, is it? Did Kaguya ever figure out how Madara made the stars?” she asked, turning back to Sasuke, who shook his head.
“No. More and more days passed, and she still couldn’t understand it. Tsukgakure was in what was once the Land of Smoke, after all, and its seclusion gave it no knowledge of any jutsu from the Land of Fire. She grew more desperate the more stars Madara brought to her; she gave him practically everything, even including hints of her precious knowledge of genjutsu, but she never got any closer to learning his secret.
“So, one day, she decided to go to him, rather than waiting for him to come to her. She was determined to make him tell her what she wanted to know, by any means necessary. So when she arrived in Madara’s home, the newly formed Hidden Leaf Village, she turned the moon against them, using vicious and violent genjutsus on every villager except the one she considered her rival, intending to use Madara’s home as a hostage for the information.
“But Madara was not willing to let his people be used. He wasted no time in confronting her, not even bringing a weapon beyond the fan he’d been using to tend the fireplace. The two rivals fought in the center of town for seven days, using only stars and moonlight, and their intensity drew Kaguya’s focus away from the villagers, freeing them one by one from her genjutsu.
“Kaguya was furious that she, a princess of the moon, could be rivaled by a simple man using nothing but a fan and the knowledge she’d given him. But Madara wasn’t content with simply defeating his rival. He respected her power, and so knew that if he drove her off, she’d simply return again, more determined than ever.
“So he instead turned to the greatest power she’d given him: the sharingan.
“He’d known that Kaguya hadn’t given his new eyes the ability to manipulate her genjutsu. But she’d made a mistake; she’d shown him that there was a way to bend moonlight to manipulate the senses, and Madara had an opportunity.
“He bent the moonlight into his sharingan, trapping Kaguya within a genjutsu that she had unwittingly taught him to make. Madara pulled this kaleidoscope prison into his own sharingan, sealing Kaguya inside his own eyes so that she could never attack his precious home again.
“Madara Uchiha had rescued his village with only his sharingan and a paper fan, but many have wondered if Kaguya is truly as sealed as it seems. As the sharingan has been passed down to every Uchiha since Madara first received it, it may be that Kaguya’s prison was passed down as well, the princess herself lying in wait to be set free and hunt down anyone who can show her the secrets of the stars.”
There was a silence accompanying the end of his story, and he stared around at his company’s faces, all watching him intently. He dodged their gazes and pinked.
“Guess that was a bit longer than I thought it’d be,” he mumbled, but Sakura shook her head emphatically.
“No way! That was so cool!” she insisted as Naruto pointed with a, “your grandpa did kick her butt!”
“He’s not my grandpa!” Sasuke snapped as Mr. Haruno leaned forward.
“Well, I thought it was a marvelous story,” he said cheerfully. “Thank you for sharing your traditions with us, Sasuke.”
“Yes, and the length was quite fine,” Mrs. Haruno said politely. “Especially seeing as your sensei is still not here.”
“Heh,” Sakura said sheepishly, glancing at the door. “I’m sure he’ll just be a few more minutes. Naruto! You had a story, didn’t you?”
“Hm? Oh, crap, I totally forgot to come up with one!” he said, eyes wide. “Nah, that’s fine, I can just make one up- once upon a time, there was a super incredibly skilled master ninja!”
“Was his name Naruto?” Sakura teased, poking him in the shoulder.
“No, his name was Mr. Ramen!” Naruto said confidently, and Sasuke let out a hastily stifled laugh. Naruto continued, “and Mr. Ramen went on a grand quest to fight-! Um…”
“The Akatsuki!” Mr. Haruno said brightly, and Sakura gasped and snapped her gaze to Sasuke, for some reason, her eyes blown wide. He stared back, perplexed. Was he supposed to know what the Akatsuki was? He’d never heard of it before.
“Best thing my first boss ever taught,” Mr. Haruno continued obliviously with an elbow to his wife, his gaze on her rather than on Sakura’s silent panic over…something. Sasuke should do some research. “Whenever you need a villain in a story, just shove in the Akatsuki, heh. Though I’ll admit I’d only know members from a decade ago; can Mr. Ramen be historical fiction?”
“Sakura, what’s wrong?” Mrs. Haruno interrupted, and Sakura practically squeaked.
“Oh, nothing!” she said quickly, with another glance at Sasuke. “Just- a, uh, friend of mind, he doesn’t…like to- er, I mean- there’s a guy on Akatsuki that…uh…nevermind! It’s nothing! Ha! Hm.”
“Are you okay?” Sasuke asked, vaguely alarmed at her behavior.
“Yes! Obviously!” she gave a bright laugh as she stared him down. “Are you? ”
“Yes…?” Sasuke said, growing more confused by the second, but the odd interaction was interrupted by a loud growling sound, the source of which being Naruto’s stomach.
Everyone’s head turned to him, and he gave a sheepish grin, putting his hand over his stomach. “Heh, sorry- guess I’m a little hungry. I kinda spent the rest of today’s food budget on that ramen gift I brought.”
“You did?” Mrs. Haruno asked, surprised, as Mr. Haruno said, “you didn’t need to do that, Naruto.”
“Huh? Of course I did! What kind of selfish jerk doesn’t even bring ramen to somebody who’s offering their house? Believe it!” he said, crossing his arms, and Sasuke blinked at him, curious as to why he'd assign himself a limit to his ramen spending when it seemed to be all he ate.
“Here, how about we have some of Sasuke’s chocolate while we wait for dinner?” Mr. Haruno said, pulling the box closer. “He was kind enough to buy some for us, so we should enjoy it! I’m sure he put a lot of thought into it.”
Sasuke stared into his lap so Mr. Haruno wouldn’t see that he was fighting a pleased smile. It was hard to act polite and distant. He wished he could glare. It was easier to deflect kindness with glares.
“Sure!” Naruto cheered and plowed on with his story. “Okay, so Sakura doesn’t like the Akatsuki so they can kiss our butts, and the new bad guy is….Sasuke’s moon princess lady!”
“Kaguya,” Sasuke supplied as Mr. Haruno opened the chocolates and placed the container back in the middle of the table.
“So Madara and Mr. Ramen are gonna fight Kaguya together- Sakura, you pick somebody to fight as too,” Naruto said, reaching forward.
“O-oh. Um,” she said, watching Naruto grab at least 3 chocolates with one hand. “I’ll be…oh! Blossoms the fairy, from our card game!”
“Got it! Okay, so once upon a time, Madara had already kicked Kaguya’s behind, but Kaguya was super angry, ‘cause sharingans don’t have any ramen inside them. So Kaguya broke out in search of the best ramen in the land!”
Naruto’s story went downhill quickly, which was actually impressive since it hadn’t started out well, but against his better judgement, Sasuke found the entire thing pretty enjoyable. He wasn’t alone in this, as Naruto’s method of storytelling appeared to enjoy audience participation, and soon all of them were piping in with suggestions of characters or plots, even Mrs. Haruno, whose earlier coldness had thawed a bit more every time Sakura laughed at one of Naruto’s jokes.
The air felt warm and light, and Sasuke found that he liked it, somehow.
“But as Mr. Ramen showed Kaguya the Ramen Bowl of Peace and Victory,” Naruto was now explaining, his arms dramatically out, “Kaguya hit it away!”
“No!” Mr. Haruno gasped as Sakura draped her hand over her head, falling backwards towards Sasuke with an exclaimed, “not the victory ramen! We quested so hard for that!” and Sasuke snickered.
“But Blossoms acted fast, flying towards the ramen!” Naruto said, sticking his arms out to the side. “And she could catch it right out of the sky!”
“Yay Blossoms,” Mrs. Haruno said with a quiet cheer, and Sakura grinned, sitting upright again.
“But Kaguya laughed at their ramen, saying that it was dumb to think one bowl of ramen could win this battle! But Madarama Uchiha,” Naruto continued, until Sasuke interrupted him.
“Mada ra , not rama,” he reminded him for what had at least been the fourth time this story. “Ramas are the Senju founders.”
“Right! And I will definitely remember that this time, believe it,” Naruto said before returning to his story as most of the rest of the table hid small snickers. “Mada-not-rama would not permit such an insult! As the others were lamenting the failed ramen attempt, he stepped forward…and pulled another Ramen Bowl of Peace and Victory out of his cloak!”
“Our hero!” Sakura gasped, turning and shaking Sasuke by his elbow. “Sasuke, you should start carrying bowls of-!”
Laughter hijacked her sentence, and she simply giggled, still clinging to his arm, and he wondered if that was the kind of thing rivals did to each other.
“And though Kaguya was strong enough to resist one bowl of precious ramen,” Naruto said, “two was simply too many! The overwhelming flavor! The sweet tangy sauce! The sizzle of heat from the bowl! Before she even knew it, she was sitting eating it, and Mr. Ramen and Blossoms and Madara had rescued Konoha once more! The end!”
Naruto stood and gave a dramatic bow as the others clapped for him.
“How heroic!” Mrs. Haruno said quietly, smiling as she clapped, and Sasuke was beyond relieved. Somehow, this Land of Wind storytelling thing had actually been fun, and, even better, had apparently broken through the Harunos’ shells. Sasuke smiled as he watched Mr. Haruno lean forward to take one of the few remaining pieces of his chocolate box.
“Sasuke, I think you’ve spoiled us with these,” he said, popping it into his mouth, and Sasuke felt a pleased sensation bloom in his chest that he tried to stomp out. That kind of thing could be dangerous.
He couldn’t fully stop himself from grinning though.
“Yeah, Sasuke, you can bring breakfast tomorrow,” Naruto said with a nod, taking another piece himself. “We can alternate. Sakura, you want to take a day?”
“Sure,” Sakura said, putting her chin in her hands with a cheerful smile. “You sure you don’t want ramen every morning?”
“I can manage,” Naruto said with a dramatic sigh as Mrs. Haruno spoke up, surprised.
“You brought them breakfast?” she asked curiously, and Naruto grinned.
“Oh yeah!” he said, jabbing his thumb into his chest. “We had to start strong with ramen, day one! Believe it!”
“Oh, certainly.” Mr. Haruno laughed and stretched before dropping his arms down. “Well, I think screw your sensei, let’s just eat now.”
“I agree,” Mrs. Haruno said, standing to move towards the kitchen. “Though it may take some time to warm everything back up. We still have dango in the fridge you can eat in the meantime.”
Sasuke perked up despite himself, and Sakura giggled, which made him flush. Naruto, however, jumped up and practically shouted, “that sounds delicious! But also what is it?”
Mr. Haruno stifled a laugh. “Sweet rice balls. You know, the little orbs on a stick?”
“Oh, I have had those!” Naruto said, dropping his fist into his hand. “Yeah, Iruka always gets us some at the summer hokage festival! You can buy those at stores?!”
“Yeah, the store near school has them,” Sasuke said, crossing his arms and attempting to look disinterestedly at the ceiling. “They’re pretty good.”
Mrs. Haruno returned and placed a plate in front of each seat with one stick of the sticky rice treat each before heading back to the kitchen.
“Oh, cool, thanks a bunch!” Naruto cheered, dropping back into his seat and taking the stick as Sasuke gave a quiet and hopefully polite, “thank you.” It still felt odd to not act cold.
Sakura, however, simply stared down at her plate, frowning, and both Sasuke and Naruto shifted towards her, but Mr Haruno beat both of them to speaking up.
“Sakura, honey? What’s wrong?”
“Hm?” she asked, glancing up, a worried expression on her face, and Sasuke leaned forward.
“Did you want to keep waiting?” he asked, but Mr. Haruno gave a breezy laugh.
“I think we’ve already waited well beyond common courtesy; don’t worry about your sensei getting offended that we didn’t stay up until midnight for him-“
“That’s just it!” Sakura interrupted, her voice frustrated, and Sasuke blinked at her in surprise. She glared up at her dad with a scowl and said, “I don’t want you two to keep blocking us just because Kakashi Sensei’s being a jerk and showing up late!”
Mr. Haruno looked surprised, and Mrs. Haruno poked her head back into the room from the kitchen, confused as she echoed, “blocking you?”
“Yeah,” Sakura said, crossing her arms with a pout. “I thought that if everything went well tonight you’d give permission back for us to go on missions, and you wouldn’t even have to know that I heard you’d denied it in the first place, but-!”
“Sakura, what are you talking about?” Mr. Haruno asked, tilting his head. “We gave permission back when you applied for graduation.”
“What?” Sakura asked, blinking at them in surprise, and Naruto cocked his head, adding, “but Kakasensei told us you weren’t going to let Sakura join our team because you didn’t like us.”
“What?” Mr. Haruno asked, his own face flushing slightly with embarrassment, and Sasuke leaned forward.
“You shouldn’t say that out loud,” he hissed, and Naruto turned to him now.
“What, ‘cause it’s bad dinner manners?” Naruto retorted. “Sneaking around and hiding things is bad dinner manners too! Probably!”
Sasuke hmphed, but both Harunos were blinking at each other now.
“We did go to ask Iruka about why Sakura was assigned to your team, but I can’t fathom how that could have been seen as us denying permission,” Mrs. Haruno said, turning back to the three kids. “It’s been Sakura’s dream for years now to become a ninja. We’d never interfere with something like that.”
Mr. Haruno gave a sheepish laugh, rubbing awkwardly at the back of his neck. “Sorry, we didn’t mean to put stakes on this dinner! We just wanted to meet Sakura’s teammates; you two both have a bit of a reputation, you know.”
Sasuke pinked and glared at his lap as Naruto smugly said, “you’ve heard that I’m gonna become the next hokage, have you? I’m glad to hear it.”
Mrs. Haruno gave a small smile. “Iruka seems to think you will. He assured us that he wholeheartedly believes the three of you are best suited to be each other’s partners.”
Sasuke blinked in surprise at that. He supposed he’d just assumed Iruka had assigned the higher-scoring students with the lowest scoring ones -that would explain why Kiba had ended up with Shino despite both being sensory types- but had Iruka genuinely thought this team would work well together? Sasuke couldn’t fathom why. None of their skills complemented each other very well, and their personalities even less so. They had no medical ninjutsu user -though the only one in their class who had even attempted medical ninjutsu was Hinata, since Senju-Hyuga required it from their clan members, so Team 7 wasn’t the only one without it- and they didn’t even have a sensory type themselves: Sakura could maybe sort of detect genjutsu sometimes, but since Sasuke would be keeping his sharingan firmly locked down until after he found Itachi, he’d never used his ocular jutsu once in the last five years, and Naruto barely had jutsus in general, let alone sensory jutsus. They were three fighter types who clashed every five minutes under normal circumstances, and, honestly, they made a pretty terrible team.
“Iruka Sensei thinks that?” Naruto asked, sounding just as confused as Sasuke. But then Naruto beamed and said, “he must know Sakura and Sasuke are the only shinobi skilled enough to fight alongside the next hokage, believe it!”
Both Harunos smiled at Naruto’s cheerful words, and Sasuke opted to keep his confusion to himself.
Mrs. Haruno eventually returned from the kitchen with dinner, and the food she’d made was delicious. Naruto ranked each item he tried on a scale of how well it would taste with ramen, much to the Harunos’ collective amusement.
“And this,” Naruto said, holding up a vegetable with his chopsticks as he gestured to it with his other hand. “This bad boy would go spectacularly with Ichiraku’s pork bowl, if we add just a smidgen of sauce to help it blend with the other flavors. 10/10 for this one too.”
“Another ten!” Mr. Haruno said cheerfully, clapping his wife on the shoulder. “I’m so proud!”
“Naruto, I think that’s the same vegetable you already ranked,” Sasuke said, dropping his chin into his hand with a hmph. “Are you gonna rank each one individually?”
Sakura giggled slightly into her hand as Naruto jabbed the chopsticks toward Sasuke and said, “if it’s what the people want, Sasuke.”
“Oh please,” Sasuke rolled his eyes. “What do you know what the people want?”
“The people want ramen, obviously!” Naruto said cheerfully, now eating the vegetable. “Everybody except you, because you’ve got lame taste buds.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Sasuke scowled as Naruto turned to the Harunos and rather dramatically explained, “Sasuke only eats rice and no ramen . He’s depriving himself. It’s a tragedy.”
“Rice is good too,” Mr. Haruno said with a cheerful smile sent to Sasuke that he quickly turned his head to avoid seeing. Though he did sneak a glance back out of his peripheral vision when Mr. Haruno continued, “the next time we have dinner, we’ll make rice and ramen! How’s that sound?”
“I think we have enough rice and ramen for all the other meals,” Sakura said with a small laugh, and Sasuke turned to Naruto, expecting some comment about how no one can ever have enough ramen!! but to his surprise, Naruto was just staring at Mr. Haruno, his eyes wide.
“Next time?” he echoed, blinking. “Whaddya mean, next time?”
“Oh, guess I sorta jumped the shot with that one,” Mr. Haruno said with a sheepish laugh, but Sasuke had already spoken up when he did.
“They mean what they’ll make for Sakura,” he said, dropping his elbows on the table, and Naruto looked over at him, cocking his head to the side before beaming.
“Right, yeah, that makes sense!” he said, turning back to the Harunos. “You guys should totally get Steam Style brand! It’s got great tofu ramen, so Sakura would love it!”
“We’ll look into it,” Mrs. Haruno said, her voice still quiet. “But my husband did mean the next time all five of us eat together.”
Sasuke stilled, and Naruto just stared at them and asked, “all five of us?”
Mr. Haruno nodded cheerfully. “You’re our daughter’s teammates, after all! We’ll want to hear all about your missions! I remember always enjoying my teammates’ company much more when we were off duty.”
“Yeah, we should totally have more dinners together!” Sakura said, turning to grin at Sasuke. “What better way to keep track of who’s really being the number one best forever ninja than telling my parents how our missions have gone?”
Sasuke swallowed hard, staring back at her. Obviously he wouldn’t be doing that; it was much too dangerous to be around people as kind as the Harunos in such a casual setting. But- he did want it some day. When he wasn’t cursed anymore. Maybe he could politely decline now. But would that be dangerous too? Sakura had said it was for their rivalry though, to keep track of which of them was ahead. Did that remove the risk?
Sasuke dropped his eyes to his lap, his head dizzy from too many possibilities spinning inside it. He needed time to figure this out, and being in an active conversation denied him that time.
Naruto, however, spoke up to get him some more.
“Yeah, you can hear all about me becoming hokage in real time!” Naruto said, jumping up with a huge grin. “It’ll be like an autobiography!”
Sakura turned to laugh slightly at his antics, and Sasuke felt his shoulders scrunching slightly. Going to dinners regularly now would be too dangerous. But if they were rivalry dinners, then a polite decline would be safe, surely. There was no friendship in a rivalry. Mr. Haruno had confirmed that.
He rubbed at his eye. His head hurt, and everything suddenly felt just a bit overwhelming.
“I think I should head home,” he said rather suddenly, standing, and the others turned to him.
“Already?” Sakura asked, pouting slightly, and Sasuke kept his eyes on the ground.
“Sorry. Thank you for inviting me into your home. I just- I just want to- or don’t want to- um. Overstay. Or- mmph.”
Sasuke felt pink brush across his cheeks as he heard Naruto loudly ask, “huh?” but Mr. Haruno stood and rescued his attempts at retconning a reason for leaving.
“Of course you can go if you want, Sasuke,” he said. “Though don’t think you’re overstaying. You’re more than welcome here any time.”
That edged on danger.
“Thank you,” he said quickly, turning towards his shoes.
“We’ll see you tomorrow Sasuke!” Naruto said cheerfully. “For our first real mission! Believe it!”
Sasuke pulled his shoes on as quickly as possible and stood, grabbing his bag as he did. His grip was tight on the strap as he turned back and pointedly stared at the floor rather than anyone’s faces when he said, “thank you very much for dinner. And for letting us be on Sakura’s team.”
“Oh, of course Sasuke,” Mrs. Haruno said, her voice much warmer than it had started the evening, and Mr. Haruno very brightly said, “I’m certain you’ll be fine ninja! Believe it, heh. And we’ll make sure to have rice next time!”
“Yeah! Believe it indeed!” Naruto cheered, and Sasuke turned on his heel and out the door before anyone else could be nice to him.
Alone in the hallway, he found he could breathe again, and he took a minute to inhale and exhale, dragging his heartrate back down. Everything was fine. They’d gotten missions cleared, and he only had a rivalry and some polite acquaintances and no friends.
Sasuke leaned his head back with a soft exhale. They were cleared for missions. Finally, Sasuke had the chance he needed. He could get out of this Village and find Itachi and break free of this horrible cursed life.
And, once he did, he could come here for dinners whenever he wanted. Maybe he could make dinners for the Harunos, too, to repay them for their kindness. He’d have to make sure he fixed up a restaurant back home really well for that, well enough that no one would think of it as a ruin.
Then, maybe, among the stories and jokes and chinking of utensils, the Uchiha fans wouldn’t feel quite as lonely.
Notes:
the hokage festival dango are called ‘ricengans’ btw
anyway okay let me explain myself
this Christmas my Minato got me one of those Naruto mystery keychain figurines, and I got Kaguya. In the five months of watching naruto almost daily since then, I’m not sure the show has given a single piece more of information about Kaguya. Like Idek if my Kushina reading this chapter knew Kaguya wasn’t an oc until this note
But also lowkey this Kaguya is an oc bcos what do I know about her? Like a handful of facts from memes? That might not even be right?
So don’t worry Kushina! You can’t get spoiled if 90% of the lore is just made up by me and you don’t know which parts are the 10% from the show. 10% being a generous estimate lol. Might be more like 1%
But I stand by my lore, I think it’s cool even if it doesn’t line up with the show’s lore, and what fun is an au that doesn’t make up its own lore at least a little? And I have made up my own lore...a lot. But I like it! And I hope y'all will too <3
Anyway I’ve yapped enough. I will return with more yapping next week! *disappears into the sharingan void*
*reappears* btw: update on where I’m at in Shippuden: double square up! Madara vs the 5 kages and fake Madara vs Naruto and Killer Bee! Madara has one of the coolest character designs in the show, but I knew that already bcos I've drawn him multiple times lol. I may share some of those drawings eventually Idk
Ty for reading and I hope you have a lovely day! :D <3
Chapter 15: After the Party
Notes:
I spent like all week speed crafting a Madara Uchiha cosplay after deciding last minute I wanted to add him to the lineup this weekend. Thanks for the comments last chapter! <3
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Naruto left about a half hour after Sasuke, eagerly accepting the invite to weekly dinners that Sasuke hadn’t really responded to, and Naruto was all smiles and excitement when he ran out the door, promising to bring even better ramen next time, believe it!
When Mom laughed as she closed the door behind him, Sakura could feel a weightless relief filling her chest and making her beam.
Sakura was honestly ecstatic about how well the night had gone, so much so that she was beaming as she helped her parents clean up.
She would eventually be furious at Kakashi for lying to them, of course, but she was too happy about her other two teammates to be angry now.
Whatever weird dislike of Naruto that her parents had had earlier in the evening had dissipated as he’d apparently won them over with his ramen ninja roleplay story, and Sakura, quite frankly, was thrilled.
She couldn’t deny that she’d enjoyed herself, actually. Cheering on Blossoms and Mr. Ramen and Madara Uchiha, for some reason, to win over the inventress of genjutsu how had Sakura never heard that fairy tale before with magical bowls of friendship ramen had been surprisingly engaging. If nothing else, Naruto at least had a way of bringing people together with words.
But Sakura hadn’t been as concerned about Naruto. The object of her earlier concerns had somehow ended up being the primary cause of her current elation.
It was like Sasuke had somehow read her mind in his apparently four books worth of research on dinner etiquette to figure out exactly how to behave to mimic the stories she told about him, and she couldn’t fathom how he’d managed it.
He’d been polite! And courteous, and respectful, and told a story about a moon princess and his family’s history and brought chocolate and offered to fix their table for them and somehow learned the words ‘thank you’ for the first time in his life, and Sakura was baffled .
And also very excited. Her cover was safe, they were cleared to continue missions, and Sakura had gotten a glimpse of a non-bratty version of Sasuke and learned that she much preferred it to the version she was used to.
The thought sent a small twinge of guilt into her stomach as soon as she acknowledged it. Sasuke had clearly been putting on a show, trying to be as polite as possible to get her parents to clear their team for missions again. The version of him that she’d seen tonight wasn’t really him, just like how the overly lovesick persona she put up wasn’t really her. How would she feel if, upon seeing both sides of her, Sasuke declared that he preferred the fake Sakura over her true self?
Then again, he hadn’t dropped the act after learning that they had permission regardless. And he just acted so odd sometimes, being bizarrely considerate despite pretending he wasn’t, and Sakura couldn’t help but wonder which Sasuke was the fake one.
Her dad’s ruminations from the previous day drifted back into her head. Sasuke must have felt horribly betrayed by his brother’s sudden turn. He easily could have put up his cold and rude persona to prevent others from getting the chance to betray him again. Sakura furrowed her brow slightly as the thought reminded her of a conversation from earlier in the evening.
Dad had mentioned the Akatsuki, and Sasuke hadn’t known about it. Which meant he didn’t know that Itachi Uchiha was a current member of the Akatsuki.
Sakura couldn’t blame Dad for not knowing; he left the anbu long before Itachi betrayed the Village and went rogue, so he wouldn’t have access to any updated member lists. Sakura only knew herself because Orochimaru knew, and Kabuto had informed her as part of her briefing for the sharingan retrieval mission.
But a part of her felt immeasurably guilty for knowing when Sasuke didn’t. Wasn’t Sasuke’s goal to find his brother again and get justice for his clan by defeating him? That’s what he’d told Kakashi, at least.
Could Sakura tell him? She scrunched her face slightly, testing out the idea. If even her dad didn’t know the current Akatsuki members, there was no way she’d be able to come up with a reasonable excuse as to why she knew them. Maybe she could find some way to nudge them all to learning it themselves. She did know multiple current anbu now, after all…but Sasuke hated being around anbu. Maybe there was some other way…
“Sakura, is everything okay sweetheart?” Dad asked, blinking at her frown, and she nodded, hoping to keep her worries to herself.
“Yep!” she said brightly, and Mom leaned her head in from the kitchen.
“I wanted your sensei to come too, Sakura, but at least it seems like your other teammates enjoyed themselves,” she said, and Sakura exhaled, taking the excuse gladly.
“Yeah, Kakasensei’s been late every time we’ve met with him,” she said with a dramatic pout, and Dad laughed.
“Well, I would gladly invite Sasuke and Naruto over again,” he said, moving with a pile of plates to the kitchen. “Hopefully without a misunderstood threat to their careers hanging over their heads. We’ll definitely have to include more ramen and rice, if that’s what they both like- do you know what specifically they’d want?”
“Whatever Ichiraku sells, for Naruto,” Sakura said with a grin. “He’s obsessed with that restaurant. And Sasuke…well, he did bring lots of onigiri to school, so maybe that?”
“Onigiri, huh?” Dad said, tapping at his chin. “Maybe we could try-“
There was a knock on the door, and all three Harunos looked over in surprise.
“Maybe one of the boys forgot something,” Sakura said, walking over, but when she opened the door, her curiosity was replaced by anger.
“Yo,” Kakashi said cheerfully, waving and holding out a bouquet of fruit. “A gift for the hosts!”
“You are hours late,” Sakura scolded, snatching the food out of his hand and holding it behind her for her parents to take as they arrived at the door.
“I suppose I simply got lost on the path of life,” he said serenely, and Sakura tsked.
“That was your excuse this morning.”
“I do tread that path often.”
“Er- you’re Kakashi, aren’t you?” Dad interrupted. “We’ve actually met before, but it was-“
“Over a decade ago, in the anbu,” Kakashi said rather blandly. “Forgive my lateness, but an urgent matter came up.”
“Oh, I hope everything’s okay,” Mom said, and Kakashi sent her one of his mostly-disguised-but-still-somehow-obvious smiles.
“Yes, perfectly fine now. I had to fix an oven.”
Sakura stared at him. “You- what?”
“It was a very complicated oven,” Kakashi said. “Am I too late for dinner?”
“Yes, hours plural too late,” Sakura hmphed, crossing her arms. “And, by the way , my parents never withdrew permission for us to go on missions. Care to explain that little mixup?”
“They didn’t? Oh, how nice,” Kakashi said with no attempt at even feigning surprise. “I must have misunderstood. Well, all we can do is our best, right? So, Harunos, you approve of your daughter’s team?”
“Yes, they’ll be fine ninja,” Mom said as Dad nodded energetically in agreement.
“Hm,” was all Kakashi had to say about that, apparently, and he put his hands on his hips to add, “well, then, I suppose we’ll start missions tomorrow. Don’t be late! It’s not proper for a shinobi to be tardy.”
Sakura just gaped at the sheer audacity of such a statement coming from him, but he didn’t give her time to reply, instead simply turning and striding away, pulling out his book to read as he did.
“Erm…” Dad said as Mom closed the door and rather lightly said, “what a…peculiar exchange,” and Sakura couldn’t help it.
She snickered at first, slightly hid behind her hand, until that snicker grew into a full laugh, elation from relief making her feel lighter than air. Everything had worked out so much better than she’d feared it would, and now that the hurdle was passed, she could feel the tension leaking out of her in rapid streams.
Dad laughed too, and Mom smiled, and Sakura beamed as she stepped forward and threw her arms around them in a hug.
“Sorry for thinking you’d try to stop us from missions,” Sakura said with a content sigh. “I should’ve known you’d never do that.”
“Sorry for the mixup at all,” Dad said with a fond pat to Sakura’s head. “That probably made tonight a lot more stressful for everyone.”
“Which just means that we must have a group dinner again,” Mom said with a nod. “As we already knew. Come along, let’s finish cleaning up, and then we can start looking into the perfect onigiri and ramen recipes.”
“Yes, ma’am!” Dad said with a grin and a salute that Sakura giggled and copied. If Sasuke and Naruto acted the way they did tonight, she’d even be happy about more dinners, where they could tell all about their own adventures instead of just legends from the past.
She skipped over to the table to finish picking up the remaining placemats, humming to herself. Tomorrow, they’d start having missions. She was practically giddy with anticipation.
She looked up at her parents, her dad now helping her mom lift a particularly heavy pot into place, and she beamed, setting her resolve. Next time, they wouldn’t have to rely on Blossoms or Mr. Ramen or Madara Uchiha for their stories. Next time, the heroes of their tales would be the three genin of Team 7.
Notes:
Update on where I'm at in Shippuden: somehow still a Madara vs kage square up, but this time it's Tsunade specifically.
Madara: oh you're a Senju? Dye your hair brown and then we'll talk smh
Naruto continues to be the best character in this show. Do we think he actually performed the counting song to Tobi bcos that would be really funny. Bee would be in
Ty for reading and I hope you have a lovely day! <3
Chapter 16: Concrete Goals
Notes:
Con was fun! I now have a Madara war fan in my room. Funny enough I actually bought a Hashirama action figure while in Madara cosplay, very in character of me lol. Enjoy the chapter! ^.^
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
The next morning, after two and a half hours of card games, Kakashi finally arrived at one of the Leaf’s training grounds to begin their careers.
Sasuke was too attentive to remember to scowl at him for being late, and when the other two began their chides, Sasuke shushed them, and both stared indignantly at him.
“I think we should start today by setting solid goals,” Kakashi said cheerfully, his hands on his hips. “Having something concrete to work for will help as we start our missions this afternoon. That’s when we’re scheduled to see the hokage to receive our assignment.”
“Yay!” Naruto said, his earlier annoyance immediately dissipated, and Kakashi nodded.
“Yay indeed,” he said. “Now, if I remember correctly, your goals were Naruto wanting to become the hokage-“
“Believe it!” Naruto interrupted.
Kakashi ignored him. “Haruno wanting to protect others, and Uchiha on some delusional revenge scheme. Yes?”
“It’s not a delusional revenge scheme!” Sasuke snapped hotly, annoyance smudging back into his chest at how carelessly Kakashi kept treating his life goal.
“Right, right,” Kakashi said, waving a hand idly. “It’s a happy family reunion. Regardless of your personal reasoning for it, you essentially want to find and defeat your brother in combat. Yes?”
Sasuke glowered as he ignored the eyes of Naruto and Sakura. “…yes.”
Kakashi sent an eye-crinkled smile. “Yes indeed. Well, after further consideration while I was fixing someone’s oven last night, I’ve come to a conclusion.”
Kakashi positioned one hand into an intellectual point and said, “all of your goals are far too abstract and/or outlandish to be accomplished within the next decade, if ever, so we’re going to break down your goals into more concrete steps.”
Sasuke glared at the man, practically snarling at his flippant disregard of their ability. He could hear Itachi’s ghost chuckling at Kakashi’s words behind him, and it only spooled his anger hotter in his chest.
“So,” Kakashi continued, ignoring Sasuke’s frustration, “how about you all pick one jutsu you’d like to learn that will help you on your goal? Just blurt out - when I point to you, Naruto - the first one you can think of. Haruno, go.”
“Oh! I- uh- genjutsu?” she said, clearly scrambling for an idea on the spot.
“Extremely vague. I’m afraid I’ll have to fail you for that. Back to the Academy you go.”
“Huh?!” Sakura snapped, anger lighting up her face, but Kakashi just snickered.
“Oh, it’s too easy. Naruto next.”
“Um. Every jutsu!” Naruto said, putting his hands in the air with a beam as Sakura glowered at Kakashi, but the older ninja just blinked at Naruto with a slight squint.
“Somehow worse than Haruno’s. You also fail. Uchiha.”
“You’re not gonna fail the future hokage, believe it,” Naruto muttered, and Kakashi raised an eyebrow, unimpressed.
“I most certainly can. Believe that. Uchiha, answer fast or I’m sending you back too.”
Sasuke was still too simmering with anger to be able to come up with anything, so he just stupidly opened his mouth and instinctually said what was always the answer to this question in his mind. “Puppet jutsu, from the Land of Wind.”
Kakashi’s eye narrowed suspiciously, his previous teasing air gone, and Sasuke glared right back, daring him to say that he couldn’t possibly learn puppet jutsu because he was too weak and too helpless to defeat Itachi when all he could do was freeze up and shut down when an anbu glove got too close to him-
“Okay, I’ll ask the hokage about getting an escort mission to the Land of Wind,” Kakashi said finally, and Sasuke inhaled sharply, confused. The jonin turned to the other two and said, “the Hidden Sand Village should know a genjutsu called Mirage. It forces relief in a person and dulls their reaction times, which can be helpful fighting large groups of enemies at once. That’ll be your concrete goal, Haruno. Naruto, got anything else?”
“Is there a jutsu that can make me fight using ramen?” Naruto asked excitedly, and Kakashi thought hard, but Sasuke just stared at him.
He’d suffer through Kakashi’s constant jabs if it actually got him a way to the Hidden Sand Village. If it got him to puppet jutsu research.
If Itachi had used puppet jutsu on the compulsion curse, Sasuke might be able to break it without even defeating Itachi if he learned how from the Sand. Maybe there’d be a way he could win now, as weak as he still was, and finally be uncursed.
Or maybe he was getting ahead of himself. It was still more than likely he’d need to best Itachi to force him to lift his jutsu. But knowing everything he could about whatever jutsu it was could only help.
“All chakra natures have a string-like attack,” Kakashi was saying, tapping at his chin thoughtfully. “That could be seen as turning the element into a ramen noodle of sorts. That’s somewhat adjacent to puppet jutsu, so we’ll have your goal be similar to Uchiha’s. Try to learn chakra strings, and then we can work on getting an element tied in once you have the basics down. Eventually, that can become…ramen jutsu. Yes?”
“Yes, Kakasensei!” Naruto cheered, saluting.
“I guess that means we’re Sand shinobi now,” Kakashi said with a dramatic sigh, placing his hands on his hips. “Hopefully there are missions over there soon, even though it’s doubtful considering we’re allies, and therefore they can handle their own business without us with no worries of geopolitical repercussions. Oh well! Let’s start with some training. Naruto, Haruno, I’d like you to start with taijutsu. Since neither of you mentioned it in your goals, it seems you’re underestimating its value, which is dangerous.”
“Of course taijutsu is important!” Sakura said, crossing her arms, and Kakashi sent another smile.
“I know that,” he said pleasantly. “I’m asking you two to show that you know that. Go to the circle in the field and try to push each other out using only taijutsu. Uchiha will eventually cycle through with you, but I’d like to speak with him first.”
“We’ll do it! Believe it, Kakasensei!” Naruto shouted, grabbing Sakura’s hand and running towards the field as the girl yelped, “don’t just drag me along, Naruto!”
Sasuke turned to Kakashi, expecting him to speak up, but all the man did was watch Sakura and Naruto get set up and begin their match. After a bit too long of silence, Sasuke huffed. “Did you need something?”
“Why do you want to learn puppet jutsu?” Kakashi asked, his voice low, and Sasuke scowled.
“What do you care why?” he retorted, but Kakashi interrupted him, still watching Naruto and Sakura.
“Puppet jutsu won’t work on your brother. All he needs to do is look at you for his jutsu to activate, and one activation’s enough to shatter your mind beyond repair, should he feel so inclined. Trying to put him under puppet jutsu won’t amount to anything, and the Sand Village won’t be willing to lend you any of their proprietary tools anyway, no matter how much you beg them for one.”
Sasuke stilled, his eyes widening. “What?”
Kakashi turned then, his visible eye scanning Sasuke. “You’re wasting your time learning that jutsu to puppeteer Itachi. It won’t work.”
Sasuke dodged the jonin’s gaze and mumbled, “that’s- not why I want to learn about it.”
“Really.” Kakashi sounded unimpressed, and something about his disbelieving tone made Sasuke’s frustration edge back to the surface. Sasuke wasn’t lying. He hadn’t had any intention of using puppet jutsu on Itachi.
So he glared up and rather thoughtlessly snapped, “I don’t want to learn how to use it, I want to learn how to break it-!” before realizing that that was far too much to give away, feeling his cheeks color as he glared away again and tried to salvage his secret with an added, “I mean, to break it on- somebody else. If- if I- saw someone under it.”
Kakashi’s posture shifted then, as if something had dawned on him, and Sasuke couldn’t fathom how his botched recovery had potentially worked. “I see. Though I’m surprised you haven’t looked it up before.”
“I’ve been trying to,” Sasuke muttered, crossing his arms. “The research about it is only in the Land of Wind, and the Village…” Sasuke felt himself pinking deeper. “The Village doesn’t like when I ask to leave.”
Kakashi just kept watching him, and he squirmed uncomfortably. He needed to get out of this conversation.
Fortunately, Sakura gave him the perfect way.
“I win!” she cheered as Naruto fell on his butt outside the circle. “That means I get to face Sasuke next!”
“No way! I want a rematch!” Naruto shouted, scrambling up.
“Back off, it’s my turn to spar,” Sasuke said, striding forward, and Sakura turned to him with stars in her eyes as she cheered, “yeah! Let’s train together!”
Panic spiked rather suddenly in Sasuke’s gut, but before he could backpedal, he felt Naruto shoving him into the ring and cheering, “winner fights me next, believe it!”
Sakura beamed as Sasuke tripped into the ring and glared at Naruto before turning his attention back forward. This had to be safe. Rivals probably sparred all the time.
Sasuke took a breath and set his stance, watching Sakura do similarly. The only people Sasuke’d ever really practiced sparring against at the Academy were Hinata and Shino, and both had extremely different fighting styles, neither of which seemed like what Sakura’s would be. Sakura knew every jutsu Iruka taught inside and out, but this match was just taijutsu, and Sasuke’d almost always had an edge in those lessons. He had a very good chance to win here, with Kakashi watching. Maybe once he saw that Sasuke was good for something, he’d start taking him more seriously.
“Combatants ready!” Naruto cheered, lifting his hand. “3, 2, 1, go!”
Sasuke took the first move, running forward towards Sakura. One of her biggest weaknesses was hesitating, not trusting her instincts enough, and one of his own biggest weaknesses was how prone he was to freezing up, a tendency he worked against by always making the first move. Once he was in motion, in theory, he would be more likely to stay that way.
His prediction proved to be spot on when Sakura gasped at his sudden movement, and Sasuke’s sparring-with-Hinata instincts told him to aim for her inevitable duck.
However, Sakura did not duck. She swerved instead, parrying his fist with her hand and sending him a step off course. He pivoted quickly and swung his other hand around. He caught her just under the jaw and sent her stumbling now, and he sent a cocky grin her way before his eyes drifted over her shoulder.
Naruto was still yelling, clearly cheering on Sakura to win. Kakashi wasn’t paying attention, his focus back on one of his books.
And between the two of them stood Itachi, his eyes cold and a small smile on his face. He had a kunai in his hand, which he held up as if offering it to Sasuke.
“In case you need it, for this,” he called, his voice soft and calm, and Sasuke’s entire body filled with ice.
Then pink blurred in front of his vision, and Sakura’s hand collided with his chest and sent him sprawling.
“Oh! Are you okay?!” Sakura asked, running forwards as Naruto cheered, “believe it, you beat him!”
Sasuke landed hard on his shoulder out of the ring’s boundary, and he could feel his arms trembling when he shifted to prop himself back upright. He settled for just his hands and knees for a moment, staring down at the dirt as his chest heaved slightly with breaths.
He needed to get a grip on himself. Sparring wasn’t dangerous even if he had friends -which he didn’t- and taijutsu sparring was even less dangerous than ninjutsu. No one was genuinely trying to hurt each other in a taijutsu training spar. It was fine. He was safe. It was just his brother’s ghost trying to rile him up again.
He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to force his heartrate to lower.
“Sasuke, are you hurt?” Sakura asked anxiously from beside him. “I didn’t hit you too hard, did I? Do you need a medical ninja?”
“No,” he gritted out, forcing himself upright. “Naruto, you’re up against Sakura, right?”
“Yeah, believe it!” Naruto cheered, jumping forward past Sasuke until Kakashi put out a hand, stopping Sasuke, his eye still on his book.
“No, Naruto and Uchiha will go next,” Kakashi said. “We need to know who the biggest loser of the team is.”
Sasuke almost snarled at the man as Naruto pointed and brightly said, “it’s obviously Sasuke, believe it!”
“Shut up!” Sasuke snapped as Naruto snickered, and Sakura passed them both to stand beside Kakashi, her eyes still lingering with worry, which just shoved embarrassment further into Sasuke’s gut.
“Are you going to watch this time, Kakashi?” Sasuke snapped instead of addressing Sakura at all, an old, familiar hurt squeezing in his stomach and settling horribly amid the embarrassment.
“Do something worth watching,” Kakashi replied boredly, and Sasuke scrunched his shoulders as his scowl deepened.
He opted to instead completely ignore both Sakura and Kakashi in favor of putting his attention on Naruto, his eyes narrowed.
Naruto’s were bright and cheerful. “Count us off, Sensei!”
“No thanks.”
“Count us off, Sakura!”
“Y-yeah! Sure. 3, 2, 1, go!”
Sasuke made the first move again, determined not to let himself freeze up a second time, and Naruto jumped forward too, his hands together.
Suddenly a dozen Narutos surrounded Sasuke, who shouted and ducked before scolding, “this is a taijutsu match, Naruto!”
“My clones need to learn taijutsu too!” Naruto shouted, trying to land a kick that Sasuke swerved to avoid. His hands were still trembling, just slightly, and he tsked in annoyance. Calm down. It’s safe. They’re not friends.
Sasuke didn’t send a proper attack the entire rest of the fight. He opted instead to simply push the clones out of bounds and dodge their attacks until he finally found the real Naruto and shoved him out too.
Kakashi made no comment -or even indication that he was aware the fight had ended- but Sakura cheered loudly for Sasuke’s success, and the trembling in his hands wouldn’t quite leave him.
The trio continued circling through for quite a while, and Sasuke managed to win several matches without actually attacking a single time, a fact he was quite proud of since it seemed to be keeping his brother’s stupid ghost away.
“Well, I guess it’s time for a break,” Kakashi said finally, pocketing his book and looking up at the sky. “Uchiha, go into town and buy us lunch.”
“What? Why me?” he asked, his voice sour.
Kakashi’s eye smiled. “The exercise will do you good.”
Sasuke, who was drenched in sweat from the morning activity, simply glared at Kakashi, who’d stood still the entire time, but it seemed the man had no intention of changing his mind.
“Whatever,” he muttered, turning to pick up his ninja toolpouch and walk into town. Honestly, he should be happy about this; it meant more time away from his team and any possible attempts at-
“I’m gonna come with you, Sasuke!” Sakura said cheerfully, and Sasuke deflated, glaring over his shoulder at her until his eyes caught the other two behind them.
Kakashi had stepped into the ring now beside Naruto and was clearly instructing the boy as he showed off his forms for various swings and kicks.
Sasuke glared at the scene, selfish jealousy heating inside his chest. Being taught was nowhere near being friends with someone, which meant Sasuke didn’t need to avoid it like everything else. But Kakashi had ignored every time Sasuke was up, as if Sasuke’s efforts meant nothing to him. To anyone.
Sorry, Sasuke. Maybe some other time .
“Yeah, he sure picked a favorite, huh?” Sakura said, sighing dramatically. Sasuke just hmphed and turned his attention back forward as she stepped up enough to be in his peripheral vision. He turned his head further away.
Sakura didn’t seem to notice. “It’s literally day one, and he can’t even put his book down to give us advice. Honestly, what a joke! He’s got to be the worst sensei ever.”
Sasuke gave a somewhat audible ‘mmph’ in reply, and Sakura crossed her arms, irritation obvious in her posture.
“And how’d Naruto possibly become the favorite student? You and I were best at everything we tried back in the Academy,” she continued. “And then we get totally ignored for no reason- it’s not fair! Don’t you think, Sasuke?”
Sasuke gave another muffled hmph, and Sakura nodded as if he’d just given a paragraph of agreement in reply.
“I’m sure Kurenai is treating her genin better,” she said with an overly dramatic exhale. “I can only imagine how much more fun it’d be if we were on her team.”
Sasuke’s eyes narrowed at the obvious implication behind her ‘we’. “We’re not training for fun .”
“Well obviously,” Sakura said, putting up a bright smile that Sasuke quickly turned away from. She continued, “I dunno about you , but I’m training to become the number one best forever ninja.”
Sasuke exhaled a laugh, crossing his arms. “We’ll see at our next mission.”
“Which is this afternoon!” Sakura cheered. “I’m gonna crush it, much more than you and Naruto!”
“Oh yeah?” Sasuke shot back.
“Yeah!” Sakura replied, grinning smugly at him.
“We’ll see,” Sasuke hmphed airily, snubbing his nose up slightly. “What do you want for lunch?”
“What do- huh?” Sakura asked, blinking at him.
Sasuke glanced back over. “Lunch. The only restaurant I know is Ichiraku.”
“What do you mean you only know Ichiraku?” Sakura laughed before prodding his shoulder. “You said you didn’t like ramen and secretly you go to a ramen shop all the time?”
“I’ve been there once ,” Sasuke said with a small pout.
“Then how’s it the only place you know?” Sakura teased, poking him again. “Don’t you go out to eat anywhere? I mean, my parents take me to all sorts of places-!”
Sasuke eyes darkened, and Sakura gasped slightly, her hands jumping to her mouth.
“Er- I just- I meant-“ she scrambled, tripping over her words, but Sasuke just felt his expression souring.
His parents rarely had taken him out to eat anywhere, actually. He never remembered doing it, at least. But that didn’t mean he hadn’t gone. He’d been to restaurants all over the Leaf Village, and he remembered quite a few of those.
In particular, he remembered the Uchiha who’d brought him there.
Itachi would sometimes arrive at Sasuke’s bedroom door late in the evening and decide suddenly that he’d be taking the boy out someplace for dinner. The pair would leave within minutes of the decision, and Itachi would guide Sasuke to some new district or town to try a restaurant. Sasuke remembered always liking these trips because Itachi would hold his hand the whole walk over, even though his gaze and speech grew more distant and distracted as time went on.
But he mostly followed conversations, and his usual smile remained steady as they ate together, and he’d let Sasuke babble on and on about how school was going, and Sasuke always loved it. They’d usually stay out late, too, later than Sasuke was typically allowed to stay out, since Itachi never seemed to be in any big rush to go back to the Uchiha town. By the time Sasuke would start drifting to sleep at the tables, they’d finally head out, and Itachi would carry Sasuke if he felt too tired, despite his attempts at insisting otherwise.
But Itachi always saw through him and carried him anyway, and Sasuke would rest his head on the back of Itachi’s and stare up at the stars and the moon -which always seemed to be full, every time they went out- and he couldn’t help but think of the old story where Madara made stars for the Moon Princess.
One time he’d told Itachi that he wanted to learn to make the same stars Madara made to defeat Kaguya. He’d hoped Itachi would agree to teach him, since surely Itachi knew the jutsu Mom had used when she told Sasuke the story, and Sasuke longed to train with Itachi, to learn fast and show the older boy that he really was worth his time.
The next thing Sasuke remembered was waking up in bed the following morning. Apparently he’d fallen asleep on Itachi’s back, which was more than a little embarrassing and certainly wouldn’t help him prove his worth. He opted not to bring up the conversation again in case it reminded Itachi that he’d fallen asleep in the middle of it, and Itachi didn’t mention it either.
He also stopped bringing Sasuke to restaurants after that night.
Not long after, everything went horribly wrong.
Sasuke scowled now against the memory. He’d been so stupid then, not noticing anything, so blinded by childish worries that he hadn’t even questioned why Itachi’s gaze would glass over or his voice grow distant and hazy. Sasuke should have noticed something was wrong, but he hadn’t. He’d done nothing at all. Weak .
Sakura was still watching him, guilt clearly etched across her face as she rather meekly said, “I’m- sorry-“ but Sasuke turned his head away and rather coldly said, “Kakashi told just me to get lunch. If you come with me, he’ll probably fail you or something.”
Just because Sasuke hadn’t been able to stop Itachi then didn’t mean he couldn’t stop him now. He wouldn’t let his brother’s curse controll him. He’d be stronger now than he was, and that meant he’d need to keep pushing Sakura away.
He hated how guilty she looked; clearly she hadn’t meant any malice in her statement. She’d just slipped up and spoken tactlessly. It was better than most of the rest of this Village, who’d whisper rumors about him and his family as if he couldn’t hear them.
But he also felt the barbed root of jealousy squeezing his cursed heart at how casually she had forgotten. Because in her life, it was a given that parents take their children to restaurants around town. Even Naruto had that, in some way; clearly Iruka took him to Ichiraku often enough for the chef to have known them by name.
But Sasuke didn’t have that. All he had now was a ghost and a curse which both kept him shut up and alone inside his town where every restaurant sat empty or broken.
“Sasuke-“ Sakura started, but Sasuke just glared at her, and she faltered. “Erm- right. I should go back. I’m- really sorry.”
She turned and hurried back towards the training area, and Sasuke turned distinctly away from her and wished he wasn’t cursed.
Maybe once he lifted that curse, he could ask to join the Harunos when they went out for dinners and finally know what it felt like. He scrunched his shoulders at the stupid thought. At best he might be able to scrape another invitation to a group dinner party like yesterday’s. But he’d take it, greedily, if they offered. Once it was safe again. And it’d be better than any of the times Itachi took him anywhere, because he’d know none of the Harunos or Naruto were hiding anything from him to destroy him with later, when their passing whim decided to.
And now, Sasuke knew the jutsu his mother had known. He knew how to make Madara’s stars. He could make as many as the Harunos and Naruto wanted to see, and maybe they’d clap for them again like they had before. Maybe they’d make time to watch him, like Itachi never would.
Sorry, Sasuke. Maybe next time.
Sasuke frowned and rubbed at the spot on his headband where his brother would poke him.
Yeah, he thought bitterly as he walked down the streets of town to the one restaurant he knew that wasn’t tainted by Itachi’s memory. Some next time.
Notes:
Update on where I'm at in Shippuden: Itachi's plotline (minus any potential flashbacks) has concluded, Kabuto's blacked out (can't he just cast the jutsu again when he wakes up?), Sasuke needs therapy and probably to live in a different Village once he arcs.
This is probably an unpopular opinion but I'm not a big fan of how they wrapped up the Itachi storyline, I feel like it would have worked much better if he just arc'd after the massacre like how Gaara's/Nagato's/any villain's arc went. Like you can never justify Itachi killing the entire clan (and yes Tobi/Madara/Not Madara/Larry[that's what we call Tobi lol] was also involved, but he was still working with Itachi), you can argue that he felt desperate and panicked and that that's why he did it, that would not be justifying it and would make him a prime target for arc-ing later on, but they were kinda acting like he was in the right somehow which he obviously wasn't. Anyway! Someone pls rescue Yamato :')
Ty for reading and I hope you have a lovely day! :D <3
Chapter 17: An Unexpected Accompaniment
Notes:
Ty for still reading my story! I appreciate you <3
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
When Sakura returned to the rest of her team, her thoughts were clouded.
She felt more than a little guilty, obviously. Seeing Sasuke’s face darken after she’d quite stupidly teased Sasuke for not going out places with his family - what had she been thinking?! - sent an uncomfortable squirm through her gut that wouldn’t quite lessen.
She arrived back at the training area and fidgeted, too distracted to be annoyed that Kakashi was still teaching only Naruto. She hadn’t meant to be rude.
She hoped she didn’t completely screw everything up.
Kakashi eventually had Sakura step back in to keep sparring with Naruto, but he didn’t watch much, instead opting to shout generic advice while reading his book, and Sakura was too distracted to really do well, which only inflated Naruto’s ego.
Sakura tried to focus on the task at hand. Maybe she’d misread the situation. It might not be as bad as it seemed. Sasuke could return with lunch and no memory of their previous conversation or of Sakura so harshly reminding him of his own miserable loneliness.
She lost the next two rounds to Naruto as well.
“Uchiha, you took far too long. I’ll have to fail you for that,” Kakashi said finally, and Sakura gasped and turned to see Sasuke returning, his arms full of takeout cups with Ichiraku logos. The one restaurant he said he knew. Sakura’s guilt edged a bit deeper.
Sasuke, however, just blinked at Kakashi in confusion for a second before tsking and rolling his eyes, and before anyone else could comment, Naruto gasped and shouted, “did you get ramen?!”
Naruto sprinted over and made a shadow clone to help him grab the cups out of Sasuke’s hands, cheering, “who knew you were secretly a ramen lover, Sasuke?”
“I’m not,” Sasuke huffed, allowing the two Narutos to grab all four cups and examine the flavors inside.
“But you went all the way over to Ichiraku’s instead of just getting the uncooked rice you usually eat,” Naruto said as he shoved a cup into Sakura’s hands.
“I don’t eat uncooked rice,” Sasuke snapped as Sakura examined her cup and read that it was vegetarian with tofu. Her favorite kind.
“Then why d’you keep having uncooked rice? Naruto asked, shoving a cup into Kakashi’s hands now and taking the last two cups from the clone, which disappeared in a pop of smoke.
“Because you threw it at me!” Sasuke replied before Kakashi waved a hand between the boys’ faces and blankly said, “I’m ending this conversation. I’ve got a few errands to wrap up in town before we meet with the hokage this afternoon. Be outside his office at one.”
“Will you be there at one?” Sasuke asked with a huff, and Kakashi sent him a smile.
“Of course not. We’re not meeting the hokage until two.”
“Then why are we-?!”
Sasuke couldn’t finish the question before Kakashi had jumped away into the trees behind the practice fields.
Sasuke tsked as Sakura took a hesitant step forward. “Sasuke?”
He gave an unintelligible mumbled sound in reply, glaring down at the last ramen cup Naruto had shoved back into his hand. Not particularly encouraging.
She pressed on, uncertain. “Thanks for lunch.”
“Yeah!” Naruto said, jumping forward between the two, holding up his ramen cup with a beam lighting up his entire face. “Who knew you actually had taste, Sasuke?”
“Shut up,” Sasuke tsked with annoyance, turning away. “I’m going to eat at home.”
“Huh?” Naruto complained. “Why can’t we all eat together?”
Sasuke glared over his shoulder. “Why can’t we all eat separate?”
“Naruto,” Sakura said, making up her mind in a split second, “if Sasuke doesn’t want to eat with us, then we shouldn’t press him to. We’ll see each other at one, right?”
“Huh?” Naruto gaped, and Sasuke turned to her with an almost startled expression.
She sent him her brightest and please-don’t-be-mad-at-me-est smile, and he blinked wide eyes at her before turning away with a, “mmph.”
“Why are you both being lame?” Naruto complained, and Sakura turned back to him. Giving Sasuke what he wanted here could patch up some of the damage. It was hard to gauge if he was still angry or not.
She sent an overly acted and cheeky smile to Naruto, her hands on her hips. “Why don’t you go see Hinata for lunch?”
Naruto perked up. “Oh, good idea! I’ve gotta tell her about our first mission, believe it!”
And then Naruto was running away before Sakura could even congratulate herself. She snickered before readjusting her attention to the more important task, and she turned to Sasuke, but when she saw his expression, she faltered slightly.
He was just staring at the ground, his brow furrowed and shoulders scrunched up just slightly. His lip was quivering, barely noticeably. He didn’t look angry. He looked…
Sakura blinked, her face softening as she realized what her comment must have actually reminded him of. She leaned a bit forward. “Or, you know, you and I could eat together.”
“Huh?” Sasuke’s head shot up, and he looked vaguely terrified for a split second before his face returned to its familiar scowl. “No! Um. I want to eat alone, obviously .”
He turned around, and Sakura couldn’t help a small smile. He was probably hiding a frustrated little pout, one of the more endearing quirks he held.
“Of course, Sasuke,” she said, stepping forward to poke at his arm when she passed him. “Maybe next time, yeah?”
She stepped lightly forward, examining the ramen cup in her hand as she walked away from the training area. The best thing she could do for now was probably give him space. He usually did like to eat alone. Sakura had spent enough lunch periods at the Academy searching for him to minimal success to know that much. She’d offered, and hopefully that would be enough to bring him back around to at least where they were before Sakura’s thoughtlessness had almost knocked out all of her progress.
She exhaled, glancing up at the sky. Maybe she could find a nice bench to eat her ramen at, one near the park where the pretty cherry trees grew. And then she could walk around until the team met back up to get their first real mission.
Sakura stretched a bit as she walked through the Village streets, jittery nerves starting to develop inside her. She tsked a bit at herself, annoyed. What was she nervous about? Sure they were about to get their first mission as Team 7, but it wasn’t like she hadn’t been assigned missions before. Orochimaru via Kabuto had sent her countless tasks, and she’d performed them all perfectly. Other than her stupid comment earlier that had possibly severely messed up her sharingan mission. She really hoped it hadn’t undone all the progress she’d made.
But Sasuke had gotten her favorite ramen and done his usual turn-around-to-pretend-he-wasn’t-interested move, so maybe she’d recovered nicely.
She sighed, tucking the ramen cup into her toolpouch. Maybe she could go find Kabuto after she finished eating, and they could train some genjutsu to distract her from her nonsensical nerves.
She passed the hokage building and sent it a determined nod. “I’ll be there soon, hokage. Just you-!”
“Sakura!!”
Sakura stalled at the voice and turned, a smile lighting up her face. “Ino-!”
“Sakura!” Ino gasped, interrupting her as she practically crashed into the pink haired girl. She grabbed Sakura by the arms and shook her. “Say it’s not so!”
“Say what’s not so?” Sakura asked, her hair bouncing around as she was shaken.
Ino pulled her closer and almost shouted, “are your other teammates honestly Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha?!”
Oh, right. Ino hadn’t seen her since before Sakura’s team was assigned.
“Erm…” Sakura said sheepishly, dodging Ino’s gaze, which only made the girl gasp louder.
“See? You aren’t even happy about having Sasuke! You must finally understand that he’s only good for eye candy from a distance and horrible to be around for any amount of time! Your delusions have been broken, but at what cost!”
Ino dropped the back of her hand over her head and mimed fainting into Sakura, who pushed her off with an annoyed tch.
“Sasuke is not the problem of the Naruto-Kakashi-Sasuke team,” she said before putting on a dramatically dreamy sigh and saying, “actually, Sasuke -“
She was interrupted from sharing the secret very polite and courteous and sweet Sasuke who’d showed up to her apartment the previous evening when Ino straightened back up and flatly asked, “oh, who’s Kakashi?”
“He’s my-“
Ino interrupted again, her eyes blowing wide. “Wait, no way! That Kakashi?”
“Will you let me finish a sentence?” Sakura teased, but Ino grabbed her wrist and began pulling her back towards the hokage building. “Hey, where are we going-?”
“To show you important information you need to know!” Ino said, and Sakura exhaled a laugh.
“You know, we’ve barely said hello,” she said, and Ino dropped her head over her shoulder.
“Hello, Sakura,” she said, and Sakura grinned.
“Hello, Ino,” she replied. “I haven’t seen you since yesterday- how’s your team?”
“Honestly better than it could have been,” Ino said, turning her head back forward and continuing to drag Sakura, now through the hokage building’s front doors. “We knew what Shikamaru was gonna be, but Choji’s actually a lot better than he seems! And Asuma’s the coolest -! No! I’m getting distracted! This way!”
“What are you showing me?” Sakura asked as Ino turned into one of the lobby hall’s rooms, one Sakura recognized.
The room served as a sort of public roster for ninja team records. The room itself was empty save for the walls, filled with rows and rows of pictures of previous and current Konoha teams, all arranged neatly around a copy of the large and rather famous portrait that had been painted of the first ever Konoha team, the one of the four Leaf founders drawn after their famous victory that had resulted in the starting of the Leaf Village.
She couldn’t help but hide a small snicker as her eyes found Madara Uchiha’s face. The cold and intimidating stare looked a bit less intense with the mental picture she now had of the man using magical friendship ramen to befriend a moon princess.
She turned her gaze to the rest of the room with a small smile. Every new genin team would get their picture taken once they’d completed their first mission, and the picture would be hung here, the team forever remembered for their service to the Village.
Sakura would be joining them this afternoon. She felt a swell of pride in her chest at the thought.
Ino, however, didn’t dwell long looking around the room, instead pushing Sakura over to an area showing Team 7s of the past.
Sakura startled slightly when she saw the previous pictures. Admittedly, she’d never put the previous team numbers to memory, considering that minutiae a bit of a waste of mental space that could instead be filled with jutsu knowledge, but looking at her predecessors now, she regretted not investigating it before.
The current hokage’s previous team sat in the middle of the Team 7 column, and when Sakura’s gaze ran over the plaque of the team’s names, her eyes widened.
Team 7 - Sensei Hiruzen Sarutobi, Tsunade Senju, Jiraiya Yukanna, and Orochimaru Nanashi.
Sakura stared for a moment at the picture, but she didn’t have any trouble determining which shinobi was the one she was looking for.
There was something intimidating about Orochimaru, even as young as he was. While Jiraiya and Tsunade beamed at the camera beside him, he simply watched it, his expression blank except for a slightly furrowed brow, like he was calculating everything about the photographer from a single glance.
She felt her lips tug slightly up in a smile. She’d never seen her boss before, just known pieces about him from Kabuto, and she was glad to see that he looked every bit of his coolly intimidating reputation.
“Sakura!” Ino interrupted her thoughts with a point, and Sakura redirected her attention quickly. Right. She shouldn’t just be staring at the man no one was supposed to know she worked with.
But Ino wasn’t even looking at her, instead tugging on her sleeve and stating, “Kakashi!”
Sakura lowered her gaze to the most recent Team 7 picture, and her eyes went wide again. The fourth hokage had been a previous Team 7 leader too? And Kakashi had worked under him? Iruka’s assignment of the team suddenly made a lot more sense.
But maybe it helped her out too. No one would end up questioning why she wanted to stay in the team if it had this solid of a reputation, no matter who was in it now.
She beamed and bent forward to read the plaque. “The fourth hokage, yeah!”
Team 7 - Sensei Minato Namikaze, Kakashi Hatake, Rin Nohara, and Obito Uchiha.
“Yes, hokage, but that’s not the point!” Ino said as Sakura blinked at the name Obito Uchiha . She looked up at the picture. It was obvious which one was the Uchiha from his dark hair alone; he had a cocky sort of grin, a lollipop stick in his mouth and eyes gleaming through thick goggles. He looked happy. Sakura wondered if Sasuke had known him.
Ino didn’t give her much time to consider it.
“Spiky blond guy!” the girl said with another point, and Sakura glanced at her, raising an eyebrow.
“The fourth hokage?” she corrected.
Ino appeared undeterred. “Still a spiky blond guy!” Another point to Obito. “An Uchiha who everybody thought was too cocky!” A final point to the third genin. “A probably super talented kunoichi who deserved better!”
“What’s your point, Ino?” Sakura asked, crossing her arms, and Ino put her hands on her hips, glaring.
“It’s a carbon copy of your team! But even worse! All three of Kakashi’s exact-replica-of-you-guys teammates died horribly in battle!” she insisted. “What if Kakashi’s cursed or something? You gotta get off that team!”
“What?” Sakura asked. “Are you serious?”
“Yes!”
“Ino, this team was formed during the Third War,” Sakura said, pointing at the date below the names. “They died with honor in the line of duty, and you’re blaming Kakashi?”
“They died in really freaky ways though!” Ino insisted. “That’s why I remember them- two of them died to tailed beasts!”
“The Third War was fought over tailed beasts,” Sakura said, frowning. “A lot of shinobi died to them.”
“I’m telling you, these ones were different!” Ino said, crossing her arms, and Sakura crossed hers right back.
“Your family thinks tailed beasts are behind everything that ever goes wrong,” she said.
“And we’re usually right!”
“You honestly think a tailed beast cursed Kakashi?” Sakura asked. “Wouldn’t the tailed beasts be more upset at the fourth hokage?”
“Yeah, and now he’s dead,” Ino said with wide eyes. “And the girl died to a tailed beast, and the Uchiha’s an Uchiha, so you know he’s got tailed beast issues.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Sakura asked, furrowing her brow, and Ino blinked her wide icy eyes at her.
“C’mon, haven’t you ever visited Hinata’s district?” she asked.
“No, I haven’t,” Sakura said, turning back to the picture to hide a bit of a jealous flush that Ino had been invited over when Sakura hadn’t.
“Well next time you go, any Senju can tell you: the Uchihas had something weird going on with tailed beasts, all the way back to when Madara Uchiha was running the clan.”
“I will not be asking any Senjus any thing ,” Sakura said irritably. “I really don’t think Sasuke would appreciate hearing people accusing his dead family of messing with tailed beasts, but thanks for the suggestion.”
“I’m just saying, you need to stay safe!” Ino insisted, and Sakura hmphed.
“Ino,” she said, “curses aren’t real. Jutsus are real, and if Kakashi was under a jutsu, our medical ninja would have found and lifted it ages ago.”
“Are you honestly sure about that?” Ino asked, leaning forward, her eyes lighting up with the same intensity many Yamanakas had when discussing tailed beasts. “The only hokage who hasn’t defeated a tailed beast is the current one. How do you know he’s capable of lifting a tailed beast’s jutsu?”
“We don’t know if there is a tailed beast jutsu,” Sakura replied, squinting at Kakashi’s old picture.
“There certainly are tailed beast jutsus,” Ino said, leaning forward. “My dad’s told me the stories our family’s recorded.”
“Right, because the Yamanaka clan started in the Mist-“ Sakura said before Ino hurriedly shushed her.
“Can you not say that so loud?” she huffed. “People hate the Mist Village here!”
“The current Mist Village,” Sakura said, though she lowered her voice regardless. “You guys moved over during the First War-“
“It doesn’t matter to some people,” Ino replied, crossing her arms. “Because of all the freaky things they do with tailed beasts .”
“The experiments,” Sakura said, nodding with wide eyes.
“Mhm!” Ino said with an aggressive nod of her own. “And everybody’s always on edge about them, which has to mean they must know they’re succeeding in whatever they’re experimenting, at least a little! What if our anbu discovered that the Mist found a tailed beast jutsu that a shinobi can harness, and they’re so scared of it that they’re pretending it doesn’t exist to not freak people out!”
“My dad does always say our Village is too strict with not sharing information,” Sakura said warily, and Ino nodded again.
“Exactly! There could easily be a tailed beast curse, and we wouldn’t even know it!”
“What about tail beast curses?”
Sakura and Ino both jumped and shrieked at the voice behind them, but Sakura recognized it and turned.
“Toki!” she said with a relieved smile as she saw the anbu grinning behind her. His mask was perched to the side of his head, and he looked a bit more battered than the last time she’d seen him, with fresh bandages over the same spots that had been previously covered.
“I saw you through the doorway,” he said, popping what looked like a white gumball into his mouth. “How’d you like Uchiha’s gift?”
“Hm?” Sakura asked, tilting her head.
“Uchiha,” Toki echoed, chewing rather obnoxiously, making Ino scrunch her nose. Toki plowed forward seemingly ignorant of this. “He was over in the Senju-Hyuga district yesterday to buy something for you. Must have been really important to him, because the Senjus hate the Uchihas’ guts on a good day. Guess you mean a lot to him.”
Sakura felt herself pinking. “Oh, it- was probably for my parents. They had a dinner party.”
“Still went to Senju-Hyuga for it,” Toki shrugged as Ino irritably interrupted, “are you ever gonna ask my name?”
“What is your name, Ino Yamanaka?” Toki asked, sending her a cheeky grin, and she pouted at him.
“What do you think about tailed beasts?” she asked, putting her hands on her hips, and Toki’s face twitched.
“They suck,” he said shortly, turning back to Sakura. “I’m glad I ran into you actually Haruno; Contororu and I are officially back and free to discuss genjutsu at your…well I wouldn’t say leisure , since my man Contororu hates waiting around for people. But we’re back!”
Sakura perked up. “Right! Now?”
Toki gave a dramatic sigh. “No, my man’s giving our report, and technically I’m supposed to be sitting down right now since my legs feel like they’re being crushed all over again. Stupid pins got all screwy on the mission, and I couldn’t get back to my medic before coming here to report. Don’t tell Contororu I said that. But come see us later, yeah? Once we get that all sorted.”
“Uh- okay, yeah,” Sakura said, looking curiously at the anbu’s legs. There were thick bandages wrapped all the way between his sandals and where his pants ended at the knee, and they looked oddly lumpy, like multiple small somethings were pressing against the bandages. Pins, presumably.
“It looks worse under,” Toki said flatly, and Sakura flushed as she realized she’d been staring and snapped her gaze up.
“What happened?” Ino asked, also staring down at the man’s bandages with apparently no shame.
“They were previously crushed, weren’t you listening?” Toki said, popping the gum against his teeth and pointing at Sakura. “Genjutsu.”
“Yes.”
“Tell Uchiha how much you appreciate his gift.”
“Uh- sure?” Sakura said, confused, as Ino complained, “what’s Sasuke got to do with anything?”
Toki just sent a cheeky smile and replaced his mask. “I just think you two could be such close friends!”
He turned to walk out, and Sakura took a step forward. “Do you need help walking home?”
“No.” Toki waved her off without looking back. “You’d need more than a tailed beast curse to take me down!”
“Don’t make fun of me!” Ino huffed, and Sakura furrowed her brow slightly as she watched the anbu leave. Ino gave a dramatic sigh as she stepped forward and clapped her hands around Sakura’s shoulders from behind. “Where were you headed before, by the way?”
“Lunch,” Sakura said, glancing over her shoulder. “Want to join?”
“I’ve already eaten,” Ino said, tossing her hair over her shoulder, “but I suppose I could tag along before our next mission.”
“Oh, what an honor,” Sakura said, and both girls grinned.
“How was your first mission yesterday?” Ino asked as they entered the lobby again, heading for the doors. “Ours was really cool! We got to escort some visitors from the gates to the hokage, showing them around, that sort of thing.”
Sakura tried to hide the clench of jealousy in her chest, but before she could decide if she should tell Ino about Kakashi’s weird potentially intentional mixup, the girls opened the front doors and nearly collided with someone.
“Oh, I’m sorry-!” Sakura started before she recognized the person, and surprise replaced her apology. “Sasuke?”
“Sakura, I…mmph,” the boy muttered, dodging her gaze, and Ino leaned forward and cheerily said, “hey Uchiha , Sakura had something to ask you!”
“No I did not,” Sakura sent a glare Ino’s way, and the girl pouted, but Sakura had no intention of bringing up any tailed beast reputation in front of Sasuke, especially not after he actually might have come to find her on his own. “Can you leave?”
“What?” both Sasuke and Ino said, both clearly surprised, and Sakura tapped at Ino’s shoulder.
“You,” she said, widening her eyes slightly, and almost imperceptibly nodding her head towards Sasuke.
Ino frowned. “Are you for real?”
“Yes, I’m for real,” Sakura said, placing her hands on Ino’s shoulders to turn her around. “I’d like to talk with my teammate if you don’t mind.”
“Ugh, whatever,” Ino said. “Try and be tolerable, would you Sasuke? She deserves better than you!”
“Ino,” Sakura scolded, but Ino simply laughed, tossing her hair over her shoulder as she bounced away.
Sakura exhaled and turned back to Sasuke, putting a sweet smile back up. “What is it, Sasuke?”
She had to be immensely careful here; Sasuke could have spent that time deciding he really didn’t intend to ever speak with Sakura again and would be cutting her out completely from his life, which would make everything immensely difficult.
Instead, however, Sasuke was just staring at the ramen cup in his hands, fidgeting as he mumbled, “you…you said next time, but I hate next times, and- and dinner was fine, and you agreed we’re teammates!”
Sasuke looked up at that, his eyes wide and a touch desperate as he pressed on, “you just said it, that we’re teammates!”
“Er- yeah, we are,” Sakura said, squinting in confusion. “What are you, uh, talking about? Heh.”
Sasuke stared back down at the ramen cup, worrying at his lip. “Maybe- we- as teammates! Because we’re teammates! Maybe we could- um. Have lunch. This time. Not next time. Like- mmph.”
Sakura’s eyes widened as her entire face lit up. Was Sasuke asking her to have lunch with him?! Was she dreaming?!
She dug around her toolpouch and pulled out her own ramen cup. “I’d love to have a, uh, teammate lunch with you, Sasuke.”
He flicked his eyes up, wide and hopeful and…quite cute. Sakura’s smile edged a bit warmer as Sasuke said, “yeah! T-teammates.”
She nodded. “Teammates.”
Sasuke looked back down and fidgeted without saying anything more. Sakura opted to take the lead. “I was gonna eat this at a park. Would you like to go there?”
“Mmph,” Sasuke mumbled, which Sakura took as a yes, and she stepped forward, half expecting Sasuke to not follow her, but he fell into step just slightly behind her, and she beamed at him.
“Are you nervous for our first mission?” she asked. “Honestly, I kinda feel a little.”
“Mmph.”
“I’m really glad you wanted to have a teammate lunch! It’ll make it a lot less nervewracking!”
“Mmph.”
“I wonder if Naruto’s found Hinata! She’d probably pass out from the direct contact, but if she wants to ever be more than friends with him someday, she’s gotta learn how to talk to him.”
“She was looking for gifts for him.”
“Huh?” Sakura glanced at Sasuke, who quickly pretended he’d been staring at a bird. She sent a teasing sort of smile and pointed at it. “She was looking for a bird?”
Sasuke scrunched his nose, and Sakura giggled. He said, “ no , she was looking for ideas when I- mmph.”
Well, they’d gotten a little ways with actual sentences. Sakura tried to draw him back out of his ‘mmph’ shell. “For ideas when you got those chocolates for my parents? Tok- er, I mean I heard that you went over to Senju-Hyuga for it.”
Sasuke nodded. “I like Senju-Hyuga.”
Sakura blinked, surprised. “You do?”
Sasuke nodded. Sakura smiled again. “Well, that’s good news for my parents, right? They loved your chocolates, especially my dad.”
“I’ll get them more then,” Sasuke said quietly before his eyes widened just slightly. “Uh- someday, I mean. Eventually. I- mmph.”
Sakura couldn’t help but grin. “Oh, of course. Someday.”
“Mmph.”
Sasuke didn’t say much beyond his mumbled ‘mmph’ sound for the rest of Sakura’s chattering, which she kept up as they walked. She talked about the ramen they’d be eating and about how she liked the dramatic tale of Mr. Ramen but how she liked the story of Madara and Kaguya even more and about how she saw the very impressive portrait of Madara and about how he really does look a lot like Sasuke, and she grinned as Sasuke failed to fully smother a pleased expression at the comparison.
The 99-1% conversation input split between Sakura and Sasuke continued well after they’d both sat at a bench in the park and began eating their ramen cups, but Sakura didn’t mind it at all. Because, somehow, Sasuke was sitting here next to her, and she couldn’t fathom how they’d gotten here.
Not that she had any intention of asking and risking shattering the excellent opportunity she’d tripped into. Sure the boy still seemed a bit skittish, his eyes darting around every so often before locking back down onto the ramen cup he was eating, but he didn’t stand up and walk away without another word as he’d done many times before. No, he just sat there and listened to Sakura chatter about anything that popped into her head, and distantly she wondered if he could tell she was elated by it.
Sakura couldn’t quite puzzle out Sasuke’s odd behavior. Maybe the dinner invite had wedged a crack open in his shell, and now he might be more willing to spend time with her.
Which was a complete win, and she needed to find some way to thank her parents for initiating it.
But whatever reason it was, he was here now, and it was immensely exciting. She should probably check in with Kabuto soon to see what her next steps should be now that Sasuke was warming up to her; Kabuto had told her that the closer Sasuke was to her, the easier it would be to get to his sharingan, and she understood that logic perfectly. It would be much easier to convince Sasuke to allow research if he trusted her, especially with as skittish as he was with people he didn’t know.
She wondered if she’d be assigned to do the actual research, whatever it ended up being. Kabuto was probably better for it -his cover in the Leaf was solid enough that Sakura wasn’t sure he hadn’t lived in Konoha all his life- but Sasuke’s rather reserved disposition might make him pull away from Kabuto just because he didn’t know him, which could leave the job to Sakura.
She was certain Kabuto would teach her whatever she needed to know if it did fall to her. Unlike Kakashi, Kabuto was actually quite a helpful teacher. She wished Kabuto could just take over as their team sensei.
Admittedly, she really wished their team sensei could be Orochimaru. Despite how little they actually interacted, Sakura could tell from each twine-tied scroll just how much knowledge was hidden behind the swooping handwriting, and she itched to get to more of it.
But she knew that sort of thing couldn’t happen. She’d picked up enough crumbs of Orochimaru’s reputation to gather that much. Which meant she also knew he’d be smart enough to leave as much Leaf business as possible to Kabuto and Sakura, meaning they were certainly the ones who’d be researching Sasuke.
But Sakura couldn’t help but think that maybe it wouldn’t be quite as bad as she’d imagined when she first received the assignment from Kabuto. She kept her eyes on Sasuke now, her semi-conscious babbling now on to how delicious the ramen was and how grateful she was that Sasuke had remembered her favorite, and Sasuke did that same look-away-as-if-that-hides-he’s-smiling move, and she couldn’t help but smile a bit herself at the rather cute quirk.
Yeah, maybe she wouldn’t mind too much if she had to be the one to research Sasuke.
It was all for her mission, after all.
Of course.
Notes:
it's like Sakura's not even reading the future relationship tags of this fic smh
Update on where I'm at in Shippuden: Sasuke. How. How did this happen. How could we allow this to happen. How could we rescue freaking Orochimaru??? before my boy Yamato?????
And if Orochimaru actually leaves without helping his #1 best henchman boi Kabuto, we're gonna have problems, we cannot abandon both Yamato AND Kabuto in this plot
Actually lowkey why doesn't Madara care about Yamato, Yamato's got his bestie Hashirama's powers, why wouldn't he want to fight him. Madara, go rescue Yamato!
anyway another week, another lack of Kaguya information. I know she's coming! my mystery keychain would never lead me astray
Ty for reading and I hope you have a lovely day! <3
Chapter 18: The Consequences of Taking Action
Chapter Text
Part of Sasuke -more specifically the part that was constantly scanning the park around them for any sign of Itachi- knew that this was probably a very bad idea.
Sakura had given him an out of any danger, a way to go eat lunch alone in his broken empty town, and he should have taken it. It would have been smarter to take it.
But then she’d poked him, even if it was just to his arm, and sent one of those still horribly familiar sorry, Sasuke, maybe some other time s, and he had been able to go to dinner the previous evening with no incident at all, because they were rivals and not friends and even Sakura called them teammates now, and since Sasuke couldn’t see Itachi at all then it had to be safe, and somehow he’d ended up sitting on a bench eating lunch with Sakura.
He really shouldn’t be here. He should go back to his town and be alone. The rivalry between the pair of them only made missions safe, not anything else, and that safe was still only as long as Sasuke didn’t slip up and start shifting rival to something else.
He stared down at his mostly still uneaten ramen, feeling faintly ill. Why was he risking this? Just because one dinner had worked out didn’t mean he could just eat every meal with other people now.
But the longer they sat, the longer nothing bad happened, and Sasuke wondered if that meant he had gauged it right, that they really were just rivals which made this perfectly safe.
Besides, Sakura had said eating together could help them be more ready for their mission, so that meant this was actually something he should do, right?
Sasuke’s brow furrowed, and he frowned. He should probably leave. But…
He didn’t want to.
Despite his continual spinning thoughts and scanning for Itachi setting him on edge and preventing him from truly relaxing, he couldn’t deny that he was happier here than any other lunch he’d eaten in the past five years. Sakura didn’t seem to care at all that he was barely responding to her presence, instead just talking away about all sorts of things and letting him sit around staring at his cup and the trees, and maybe that solidified their rivals-not-friends status. Friends always had back and forth conversations, but rivals didn’t need to. And if Sasuke kept looking anywhere but at Sakura, she would never know that he was secretly clinging to every word she said.
So he just sat and stared and let her talk, working hard to make sure he didn’t smile at all, and as time passed without any Itachi-shaped issues, Sasuke’s confidence in his decision simply grew.
He still wished he wasn’t cursed at all, but he felt a smug satisfaction now that he’d outwitted his brother. A rival wasn’t a friend. He’d found a loophole, and exploiting it would snub Itachi even more. Which meant he should continue to do it. Obviously.
Sakura happily talked all the way up until the group had been told to meet, when she finally leaned back with a sigh.
“I guess we should get there at one,” she said, and Sasuke resisted the desire to chance a glance at her. “In case Kakashi Sensei was just pretending he was coming later and starts saying he’ll fail us for not listening or something. Ugh, he’s the worst. I was so mad when I found out he’d just totally made up my parents denying permission! Why would he do that?”
“Mmph,” Sasuke mumbled, trying to grab some of the remaining ramen in his cup with his chopsticks. Kakashi had probably orchestrated the whole thing in some attempt to snub Sasuke, which he seemed to love doing, or to test the team’s unity again or something by seeing if Naruto and Sasuke would turn on Sakura for messing with their careers. Or maybe the man was just bored and thought it’d be funny. Not that he’d even shown up to see it. Sasuke frowned.
Sakura continued, “I mean seriously, is he just trying to get rid of us? Ino says we might remind him of his old team, but we aren’t them! It’s totally unfair!”
“Mmph.”
“I mean, the less he teaches us, the more it’s gonna be on him if we don’t get hired for missions from inexperience,” Sakura huffed, standing, and Sasuke followed suit, closing the lid back over his half eaten ramen and tucking it into his toolpouch. He regretted this quickly when he found he had nothing to do with his fidgeting hands anymore, and he opted to rather aggressively cross his arms, glaring at a white-feathered bird that flew high above them.
Sakura didn’t seem to notice as she strode forward, still complaining. “We’d better not get fewer missions just because of Kakashi Sensei. I mean, you and I did too well at the Academy to be disregarded like that.”
Sakura continued her complaining as they walked to the hokage building, and Sasuke continued his own awkward hovering by her side, and no third, imaginary person joined their walk the entire way there.
Sasuke was honestly elated. Itachi hadn’t shown up once, which meant he and Sakura were rivals, and that meant spending time with her was safe, and he could do it more often.
He felt a small smile tugging up his face at the enticing thought. Sure he’d still have to be careful, but- maybe every once in a while, he could have lunch with Sakura. Just before important missions. To make sure his rival was ready to properly accomplish the upcoming task.
That was the kind of thing teammates did.
Obviously.
When they pushed open the doors to the hokage building together, Sasuke was surprised to see that Naruto had apparently arrived just a few seconds before they had, the boy now animatedly talking to the bright red Hinata in the hallway.
Naruto turned when the door opened and gasped, completely dropping whatever he’d been talking about to accusatorily point at Sasuke and Sakura.
“You two ate lunch together anyway?!” Naruto shouted, and Hinata gave a small wave to Sakura and Sasuke. Sakura waved back. Sasuke turned his head away pointedly.
“I’m sure you didn’t mind seeing Hinata instead, right?” Sakura said when they reached them, poking at Hinata’s shoulder as the girl squeaked and hid her face in her hood, and Naruto obliviously said, “yeah, obviously, Hinata’s super cool, but all four of us could’ve eaten together, believe it.”
The group began to walk down the hallway towards the stairwell together, Sakura and Naruto quickly dropping into lighthearted bickering as Sasuke and Hinata walked silently behind them. The hall was a bit crowded, which made sense with the number of ninja always coming and going for mission assignments or any administrative needs from the hokage or his team.
One team of probably chunin were walking ahead of them, all laughing and chattering loudly about some mission they’d apparently just come back from. A kunoichi was walking on the opposite side of the hall towards them, reading a scroll with focused eyes, her tongue slightly out between her teeth. Someone stepped out of a room behind Sasuke and Hinata and turned to walk the same direction as them, probably to report to the hokage.
Whoever it was was a bit uncomfortably close to them, but Sasuke opted to ignore this in favor of glaring pointedly forward and pretending he wasn’t listening to Sakura and Naruto.
Naruto jumped in place to turn around and point at Hinata, asking, “wouldn’t it have been fun to all eat together?!”
“U-uh-“ Hinata managed, and Sakura turned Naruto back around by his arm.
“I think you two enjoyed yourselves without us just fine,” Sakura said, sending a smirk over her shoulder at Hinata before continuing, “I mean, I’m sure you two have lots to talk about.”
Hinata gave a halfhearted squeak in reply as Naruto shrugged and said, “I dunno, Hinata didn’t really say anything the whole time, but I made up for it! Believe it!”
Hinata hid her face completely in her hands at that, and Sasuke exhaled a small laugh, resisting the urge to pat her reassuringly on the shoulder. Sounded like they had exactly the same kind of lunch as he and Sakura.
An anbu turned the corner ahead of them, and Sasuke tensed up slightly, but the man simply passed by with no indication of addressing them, and Sasuke would have relaxed marginally if not for the still-irritatingly-too-close ninja walking behind them.
“Yeah, that I believe,” Sakura said with a laugh. “Sasuke and I had a fantastic lunch!”
“I didn’t say anything either,” Sasuke said flatly, and Sakura sent him a beaming smile that he quickly looked away from.
“Yes, you let me let off steam, which is a very teammate-bonding thing to do,” she said, and he pretended to be very interested in the ceiling and not her or the ninja walking too close behind them.
“Mmph,” he huffed, and Naruto said, “oh, is that team bonding? I have several complaints in that case! Number one: Sasuke needs to admit he likes ramen.”
“I don’t like ramen,” Sasuke tsked. “I only got it because I knew where the restaurant was.”
“Do you know that sounds like, Hinata?” Naruto asked in an exaggerated whisper over his shoulder, and Hinata leaned closer. “An excuse .”
“Shut up!” Sasuke huffed as Naruto snickered. “Maybe I just understand how to have common courtesy.”
“Yeah, ‘cause you read four books on it! You’re really smart,” Sakura said cheerfully, and Sasuke glared away again. The hairs on the back of his neck were starting to prickle, but he couldn’t tell if it was from embarrassment or lingering anxiety or the rather noisy proximity of the ninja walking behind them, and even though none of the others seemed perturbed by it, the ninja was starting to grate a bit too much on Sasuke’s nerves to keep ignoring.
He tried to anyway. “It’s basic knowledge. It’s just Naruto who’s clueless.”
“Hey, don’t insult Iruka Sensei!” Naruto replied, and Sasuke’s hands twitched as he tried to keep ignoring his stupid, highly overreactive instincts. “He taught me all the etiquette that matters! Some of us use our free time to train , Sasuke-“
Sakura interrupted, “oh please, you’d have to be better than him at any jutsu to make that argument. And besides, knowing how to interact with people, especially foreign lands like the Land of Wind, can be really helpful as a shinobi-“
“Do you mind?” Sasuke finally snapped, turning over his shoulder to glare at the ninja behind them until he saw who it was, and his eyes widened, his heart freezing in his chest.
“Er, what?” Sakura asked as Naruto complained, “do we mind what? She’s literally complimenting you,” but Sasuke’s eyes were locked on his brother’s, now looming above him and gleaming, almost…
“S-Sasuke?” Hinata asked, and Sasuke squeezed his eyes shut and turned to her, but when he opened them again, Itachi was behind her now, smiling coldly as she stared down the hallway, byakugan up. “I-is something there?”
“Is it genjutsu? Oh! Is it what’s-her-face-sensei who hates you?” Naruto asked, jumping into a fighting stance as Hinata gave an almost startled, “Kurenai?”
“I don’t feel any more genjutsu than normal,” Sakura said, frowning at the empty hallway, and it was too much attention on something that needed to stay very very secret, and Sasuke turned suddenly on his heel and walked away, his shoulders scrunched and heart beating in his eardrums.
That had been very stupid of him. He’d gotten too confident after lunch had gone by without seeing the ghost, and he hadn’t even considered that Itachi was who he was hearing walk too close behind him, and now he’d nearly exposed his shamefully childish imagination, and the other three genin were clearly not going to let him sweep it under the rug.
“Hey, hold on!” Sakura said, striding after him as he glared away, anger at his brother heating in his ribcage. “What happened? You looked totally freaked out.”
“Are we fistfighting an illusion?” Naruto asked, jogging to catch up with them, Hinata a half step behind him.
“It wasn’t genjutsu,” Sakura tsked. “I would have felt it if someone cast any.”
“M-maybe he’s j-just nervous for your mission,” Hinata said, and Sasuke grabbed at the excuse immediately, turning back around fast enough that both Sakura and Naruto ran into him.
“Yes. That’s it. I’m nervous. I need to find a bathroom,” he said rather stiffly. He needed to calm down and maybe yell at his brother for nearly ruining even the fractured little semblance of normal Sasuke had scraped together in his life, and none of those things could be done around others.
Naruto ruined this plan by stepping to Sasuke’s side and turning to face Sakura and Hinata, a smug expression on his face. “Don’t worry ladies, I’ll go pee with Sasuke and protect him from genjutsu.”
“You will not ,” Sasuke huffed, shoving Naruto backwards a step and turning on his heel again, storming down the hall.
“It’s not genjutsu!” Sakura repeated, storming right after them as Naruto barely tripped from Sasuke’s shove and instead pivoted to march right behind him.
“Will you quit following me?” Sasuke snapped over his shoulder, and Sakura stalled with a frown beside Hinata as Naruto cheerily said, “nope!” and continued walking right at his side.
Sasuke simply shoved him again, harder this time, but then he saw Itachi again, standing right behind Naruto and holding a kunai forward with a smile, and Sasuke’s eyes blew wide as instincts made him forget his brother was imaginary, and he grabbed Naruto by the front of his jacket and yanked him back towards him before the boy could fall into the kunai that wasn’t even real.
“Sasuke, you’re giving seriously mixed messages here, believe it,” Naruto said, and Sasuke’s frustration simmered hot enough that he nearly stomped like a bratty child.
“Shut up! Can’t you just give me five seconds alone!” he snapped, and Naruto raised an eyebrow.
“I’m pretty sure you give yourself enough time alone without me needing to do it too, believe it.”
Sasuke’s face contorted, his hand still clenched around Naruto’s jacket. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Naruto scrunched his own face before turning to the two girls still standing unsure further down the hall. “Sakura, I thought you said he was smart.”
Sasuke just huffed, irritation and frustration heating his chest constrictingly, and he pushed Naruto in the direction of the girls and away from where Itachi now leaned against the wall, watching him with amusement. “Just give me five minutes! Are you seriously not capable of that?”
“I’m capable of anything, believe it,” Naruto said, crossing his arms with a nod, and Sasuke practically sneered at him.
“Yeah? Then prove it,” he snapped, pointing to the girls. “Stay with them. I’ll be out soon.”
“You got it!” Naruto said cheerfully, apparently completely forgetting the entire situation in favor of proving his capability, an opportunity Sasuke grabbed at as he turned on his heel and stormed to the nearest restroom he could find.
It looked empty, and he fell backwards against the door once it closed, squeezing his eyes shut.
“I hate you,” he said without opening them, and he heard Itachi laugh.
“Do you now?”
Sasuke opened his eyes to glare at the ghost, who’d leaned against the door next to him, his arms crossed. “None of those three are my friends. Quit acting like they are.”
“Is that right?” Itachi asked, tilting his head. “It seems quite friendly to eat lunch together and check on each other-“
“That’s what teammates do,” Sasuke interrupted, glaring. “Not friends.”
“Most teammates are friends, you know.”
“None of yours were,” Sasuke replied hotly, straightening up and turning, his hands clenching at his sides. “Every time you brought a teammate home, they’d always say they weren’t really friends with you, they just worked with you, because you’re a horrible person who nobody ever liked.”
“And is there anyone who likes you, Sasuke?” Itachi asked pleasantly, and Sasuke grit his teeth.
“This isn’t about me!”
“No, Sasuke, I think it is,” Itachi said with a calm sigh, closing his eyes. “Everything always seems to be, at least.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Itachi opened his eyes again, glancing over. “You really are an odd one, Sasuke.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?!”
Itachi gave a soft chuckle and lifted his hand. “Maybe I’ll tell you some other time.”
Sasuke stepped back to avoid getting poked and felt a scowl growing bigger across his face. “Is that supposed to be a joke? This is funny to you?!”
Itachi dropped his hand and sighed. “Oh believe me Sasuke, I certainly don’t find this funny.”
“Then what’s wrong with you?!”
Itachi’s eyes darkened slightly, and the smile that edged on his face looked nothing like the brother Sasuke had once thought he’d known. This smile was cold, like icy midnight wind cutting through Sasuke’s already tattered heart, and he just stared at it, his eyes wide.
Itachi quietly asked, “would you really like to know?”
Before Sasuke could even respond, he felt the door behind him open and smack into him, sending him nearly toppling onto the bathroom floor as an odd pain punched behind his eyes, heating them in a split second before disappearing, and for a moment, Sasuke had no idea what had happened or where he was.
And then he heard a far too familiar voice.
“It has been five minutes!” Naruto said cheerfully. “I’m now here to rescue you from toilet genjutsu-“
“Get out!” Sasuke snapped, rubbing at his eye, and Naruto’s stupid grin only got smugger.
“You can’t kick me out, Sasuke, you’re not the peeing police,” he said, crossing his arms, but Sasuke didn’t have the patience for Naruto’s stupid antics now. Not that he ever did.
He stormed out of the bathroom, and Naruto followed him, loudly complaining, “Sasuke, you’re being really difficult about being protected here-“
“I don’t need you to protect me!” he snapped. “There’s nothing to protect me from!”
“Is too,” Naruto tsked, still trailing him much to Sasuke’s irritation.
“ No , there’s not! ” Sasuke huffed. “Why won’t you just listen to Sakura and Hinata? They’d be able to tell if there was something-“
“Loneliness isn’t a detectable jutsu, idiot, believe it.”
Sasuke actively stopped at that, turning around, and Naruto ran into him before tripping back a step. Sasuke’s eye twitched as he said, “excuse me?”
Naruto frowned. “You heard me. Why’s your eye red?”
“What? Don’t change the subject!” Sasuke snapped, resisting the urge to scrub at his itching eye and probably make it worse.
Naruto crossed his arms with a hmph. “The way you’re making yourself live sucks, and, therefore, I will heroically rescue you from it. Why’s your eye red?”
“Shut up!” Sasuke snapped, his hands shaking at his sides. This conversation was far too dangerous territory to safely navigate, especially not now when his brain was still too dizzy from Itachi and the lingering heat behind his eyes. Was that what Naruto was talking about?
Fear slammed hard back into Sasuke’s ribcage as he realized what that might mean. Why was Naruto asking why his eye was red? Why had his eyes felt hot at all? It was right after everything had gone eerily icy talking to Itachi- had something happened? Had something changed? But that didn’t make sense- he was just imagining Itachi. The ghost couldn’t actually do anything; it was just Sasuke’s subconscious torturing him like usual.
Unless Sasuke’s subconscious had felt a change that Sasuke hadn’t recognized. Unless it was reacting to a shift in the jutsu locked around Sasuke’s heart.
Panic took over as Sasuke shoved past Naruto and back towards the bathroom for a mirror, hoping that somehow he’d see nothing, that the heat and red was from forced back tears rather than the ocular jutsu he’d been suppressing for years.
“Sasuke, you’ve gotta stop thinking walking away means you’ve won the argument,” Naruto complained, turning on his own heel to stroll back behind Sasuke, but Sasuke ignored him entirely, his attention locked elsewhere as he shoved the door open and practically fell into the sink to stare at his reflection.
His eyes looked dark. Not red. Not glittering with malicious jutsu the way his brother’s had been, and he let out a shaky exhale, relief sapping some of the strength from his limbs.
He saw Naruto walk into the bathroom behind him in the mirror and shortly asked, “why’d you say my eye was red?”
“It was red, believe it.”
“No it isn’t.”
“Well, not anymore, but it was -“
“Red how?”
“Huh?”
Sasuke glared over his shoulder. “Red how? ”
Naruto shrugged. “I dunno, I’m not an eyeball expert. Maybe you just rubbed it a ton.”
“I did rub it.”
“Then why are you acting like I’m the crazy one for saying it?” Naruto complained, crossing his arms. “Are we fighting toilet genjutsu or not?”
The comment was absurd enough that it pulled some of Sasuke’s attention further away from his panic. “Are we what? ”
Naruto pointed to one of the stalls, beaming. “That’s what I’m here to rescue you from.”
Sasuke turned and walked to the door again, scoffing. “I don’t need you to rescue me from anything, Naruto .”
“Yeah right you don’t,” Naruto hmphed, following behind him again. “What are you gonna do when the toilet starts using genjutsu?”
“Toilets don’t use genjutsu.”
“See? Your guard’s not even up. That’s how they’ll get you,” Naruto said with a serious nod, and Sasuke hmphed at him.
“‘They’ being the toilets?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Yes!”
“Even if they could use genjutsu, what are you going to do about it?” Sasuke sneered, and Naruto cheerfully raised his fists.
“Punch! Yah!”
Naruto kicked the air, and Sasuke sent an annoyed pout.
“First, that wasn’t a punch. Second, punching doesn’t stop genjutsu.”
“Punching the genjutsu user does! Punch, punch!”
“Those still weren’t punches!”
“Anything is a punch if you believe it is.”
“No it’s not!”
The pair’s stupid bickering lasted them all the way until they found the girls again, and somehow, despite the ridiculous topic of the argument, it actually did manage to calm Sasuke back down. Itachi’s ghost was imaginary, no matter how many times Sasuke let himself forget it, which meant the ghost couldn’t do anything except rile Sasuke up, something he didn’t want to happen right before accepting his first mission.
When they did reach the girls, and Sakura looked like she was going to ask him if he was okay in a dangerously kind voice, Sasuke evaded this by pointing at Naruto and flatly stating, “he thinks toilets can use genjutsu.”
“He- what?” Sakura asked, scrunching her nose at Naruto, who shouted, “believe it!” Hinata hid a giggle in her hood as Sakura tried to dispute the statement with logic as if such a thing had any place in this argument, and Sasuke was in the clear.
Kakashi had not been misleading them this time and was nowhere to be seen as one o’ clock came and went, but the genin had apparently all been anticipating this, including even Hinata, who was apparently perfectly content following Naruto around. Sakura found them a break room for ninja teams that they could wait in on the second floor which was mostly empty except for one noisy trio of jonin talking in a corner and a chunin practicing a presentation to her comrade, who was giving her tips.
When the genin quartet sat themselves at a table, Sakura introduced the concept of playing their usual card game, and when Naruto offered to split his deck with Hinata so she could play with them, the girl looked close to passing out but still somehow ended up wiping the floor with all of them the first round they played.
This only spurred all three Team 7 genin on to defeat her, and before Sasuke even knew it, Sakura (with three wins) was standing and pointing to the clock with a cheerful, “it’s almost two!”, and Sasuke (with four wins, he was very pleased to report) turned to see with surprise.
“Aw,” Hinata (also with three wins) said, slouching slightly. She’d broken much more out of her shell during the games, and Sasuke wondered if it was being in a group or performing well that had boosted her confidence to speak in front of Naruto (who had a grand total of zero wins, which Sasuke was quite smug about).
“I’m glad you played, Hinata, believe it!” Naruto said cheerfully. “You make everything better!”
Hinata squeaked and hid her entire face in her hood, and Sasuke and Sakura glanced at each other, both smirking just slightly. Naruto would be smooth if he had any idea what he was saying ever.
Instead he cheerfully said, “well, see you sometime. C’mon, team! Let’s see the hokage, yahoo!”
Naruto ran out of the room with a beaming smile and was quickly out of sight.
“He’ll get it someday, Hinata,” Sakura said with a sigh as Sasuke hid a snicker. Hinata just gave another squeak and hid deeper in her hood, and Sakura turned to Sasuke with a grin that he quickly looked away from. “You ready for our first mission, Sasuke?”
“Obviously,” Sasuke hmphed.
“It’s about time I prove I’m the number one best forever ninja,” Sakura said with a teasing voice, turning and striding after Naruto.
“You mean it’s time I prove that,” Sasuke said, and Sakura dropped her head back over her shoulder, sticking her tongue out slightly.
“Nope, I think I was right the first time,” she said, straightening up with a wave. “See you around, Hinata!”
“H-have a good mission!” Hinata stammered meekly, and the pair left behind Naruto.
Notes:
Okay they might actually finally get to the mission next chapter lol
Update on where I'm at in Shippuden: okay technically I'm a lot past this by now, but the Obito reveal episode were like half the episode is a mostly music-only montage showing Obito's backstory might be my favorite episode in the show thus far, like the shot at end of kid Obito's and kid Kakashi's faces split to show the matching sharingans that cuts to the same shot of adult them?? fantastic
Obito is Naruto's real rival, he's a villain who doesn't want to talk about his tragic backstory. The perfect defense against talk no jutsu!
Anyway where I'm currently at, Hashirama has sat himself down to begin a yap session of his own about his besto friendo Madara. Minato spent like 98% of his screentime that episode staring vacantly forward and another 1% thinking abt how much he loves Naruto. Dude is NOT involved in this conversation.
Still no Kaguya. Someone pls rescue Yamato :') Is that tree statue thing even still there? Is Yamato inside the tentails. Where is my boi
Ty for reading and I hope you have a lovely day! <3 :D
Chapter 19: Team 7's First Mission!
Notes:
Extra long chapter! Enjoy! :D
Also finally one of my fav OCs gets mentioned in this chapter woooo
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Sasuke and Sakura found Naruto jumping up and down in place in front of the hokage’s closed office door, a stupid grin plastered on his face that Sasuke tsked at, and Sakura glanced around.
“Is Kakashi Sensei not here yet?” she asked curiously, and Sasuke rolled his eyes.
“Of course not. He’d be on time if he was, and he can’t risk that ,” he said, and Sakura grinned, bouncing on the soles of her feet.
“I’m kinda nervous! Are you guys?” she asked.
“No!” Naruto said, still jumping up and down.
“Obviously not,” Sasuke said, crossing his arms and glancing around for Itachi, but the ghost wasn’t there and Sasuke only had rivals and this was safe.
Kakashi arrived when the clock’s second hand was two clicks away from the top of the hour, and he sent them a cheerful wave.
“Hello children,” he said pleasantly as the door to the office opened before any of the students could scold him for his last second arrival.
“-being completely ridiculous-!” Iruka’s voice was saying when the door opened, and someone, the kunoichi in formal robes who’d opened the door, was now storming out, arguing over her shoulder into the room.
“No, you all are the ones not using your heads!” the woman snapped, stalling to point back into the room. “I will take no part in this time bomb of a decision!”
She turned and snapped, “move,” shoving Naruto and Sasuke aside to stride between them, and both nearly fell with matching yelps.
Sakura caught Sasuke’s arm before he could, and he snapped, “hey!” right back at the kunoichi, who didn’t look back over her shoulder as she strode away.
Sasuke pouted and glared back over his own shoulder at Kakashi, but his expression shifted when he saw Kakashi make a few handsigns and blow a puff of air towards the kunoichi.
Sasuke snapped his gaze back to look as the minor wind jutsu practically smacked the woman upside the head, tossing her hair enough to show the Senju clan symbol on the back of her robes before the woman turned back around, her eyes flashing.
“Excuse me?!” she snapped, but Kakashi just whistled and strolled into the room, gesturing for the three kids to go ahead of him, and Naruto pointed and laughed, and Sasuke smothered a smirk of his own as he moved into the hokage’s office.
“Er- sorry about that,” Iruka said sheepishly, moving back to sit at the chair beside the third hokage, who was watching them with an eerily piercing gaze. His eyes lingered fractionally too long on Sasuke, who fidgeted, but then moved on to do the same to each of the other genin as well.
“Does that mean our first mission is defusing a time bomb?” Kakashi asked with sarcasm laced through his tone, though Naruto didn’t seem to notice it.
“Seriously? Best first mission ever!” he cheered, jumping in place.
The hokage didn’t appear amused. “Kakashi Hatake, need I remind you that a shinobi is not permitted to use his or her justu within this hallway?”
“Oh, that’s fine. It wasn’t my jutsu,” Kakashi said casually, rubbing idly at the cloth over his eye, and Iruka smothered a grin with his hand. Sasuke scrunched his nose at the odd comment, glancing up at Kakashi, but the man didn’t look at him, and he turned his gaze back forward.
“Noted,” the hokage said dryly. “I apologize for the light staff for your first mission; my other assistants, Miss Senju included, have needed to excuse themselves for other matters. But I’m certain Iruka here has prepared everything you’ll need.”
“Yes, sir,” Iruka said, beaming proudly at Naruto, and Sasuke felt a twinge of jealousy stir up in his heart. He wished someone would look proudly at him like that. Or be around to know he’d be doing a mission.
“Well we’re ready, believe it!” Naruto said with a point. “Naruto Uzumaki, future hokage, and Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno, future…uh…whatever Iruka Sensei’s job is, reporting for duty!”
“And Kakashi,” Kakashi whispered behind a cupped hand, and Naruto emphasized his pointing with an added, “and Kakashi! Future…elderly man!”
Kakashi exhaled, dropping his head, and Iruka didn’t bother hiding his smile this time.
Somehow, the hokage gave a rather amused hmph himself, folding his hands in front of him.
“Team 7,” he said, “myself and Iruka Umino would like to formally welcome you to Konoha’s roster. From now on, you will have the honor and privilege of serving the citizens of the Leaf Village, the Land of Fire, and any foreign lands who we may now or someday have the honor of calling our friends. Carry this responsibility with pride on each mission you receive, and you will have served your people well.”
The hokage shifted his gaze to each of them as he continued, “Sensei Kakashi Hatake. Sakura Haruno. Sasuke Uchiha. Naruto Uzumaki. It is our honor to present this new Team 7 with its first mission.”
Sasuke felt his chest puffing importantly as Iruka stood and walked around the desk to hand a file to Kakashi, a warm smile on the teacher’s face as he did.
“What is it? What is it?! What is it?!?” Naruto jumped around Sakura to peer at the folder, and Sakura grabbed his arm and shushed him, but the hokage gave another amused exhale.
“If you’ll give me a moment, I’ll explain,” the man said. “Your first mission is D-ranked, submitted by Chozebu Akimichi and Hutau Hyuga, accepted by your team leader, Kakashi Hatake. The task is as follows: the Akimichis and the Senju-Hyugas consistently employ genin squads to assist in a regular delivery of an important item known as the shinome fruit between their clan towns. The Akimichis grow this fruit on their compound, using their clan’s fire style jutsus to help them develop.”
“How’s fire help a plant grow?” Naruto asked, and Sakura perked up and turned.
“Certain species of plants and animals in the Land of Fire can-!” she started before the hokage cut her off.
“Haruno,” he said, “please do not interrupt.”
Sakura gasped slightly and pinked, dropping her gaze to the ground. Sasuke tsked, crossing his arms, and asked, “Naruto’s the one who interrupted, y’know.”
“What the heck, Sasuke?!” Naruto snapped, turning towards him, but the hokage spoke up again.
“If you’d like to know your mission,” he said loudly, “I suggest you pay attention.”
Kakashi audibly sighed behind them as the three kids fell quiet. The hokage continued with narrowed eyes. “The shinome fruit is used by our medical ninjas for a variety of purposes, and their medicinal qualities are enhanced when grown while nurtured with fire style jutsus. This sort of task was originally performed by Madara and Koibito Uchiha,” the hokage gave a curt nod towards Sasuke, who perked up slightly, “but was taken on by Tobirama Senju after their deaths, and he opted to employ the services of the Akimichis to provide the fire style jutsus as a means of strengthening the clans’ relationship in the early days of the Village. Clearly, his efforts were successful.”
Sasuke blinked, letting the information settle comfortably in his mind. This task had once been the responsibility of the Uchihas, this meant. Whatever it was, he’d have to do it perfectly. He owed his family no less.
“The shinome fruit is quite finicky, however,” the hokage continued. “To get the most medical benefit out of it, it needs particular cultivation after reaching a certain stage of maturity. So, when the Akimichis see that the fruit has reached this stage, they send it over to the Senju-Hyugas, who perform the necessary cultivations and extract the needed parts for medical use. The issue arises in the travel stage, when the fruit is delivered from the Akimichi gardens to the Senju-Hyuga laboratories.”
“Are we ever gonna get to what the actual mission is?” Naruto asked, and Sasuke glared at him before stomping hard on his foot.
“Ow! Hey!” Naruto snapped, turning to Sasuke, but Iruka sharply called, “Naruto! Pay attention!”
Naruto scowled but turned back forward, and the hokage continued with an unimpressed expression.
“As I was saying,” he sighed, “the trip between the two clans’ compounds is a bit long, and these fruits are always kept in very low temperatures to counteract the fire jutsu brimming inside of them. If the fruits warm up too much, the fire jutsu overtakes them, and the uncultivated fruits burn up prematurely. As a result, it is essential that the fruits are moved from the garden to the laboratory as quickly as possible to not allow them time to warm up. This is where the mission comes in.”
The hokage looked each genin in the eyes as he continued. “You must deliver the most recent harvest of shinome fruits from the Akimichi gardens to the Senju-Hyuga facility as quickly as possible, without losing a single one to fire. This mission is D-ranked due to its low risk, but I assure you that its importance to the Village cannot be overstated. Our hospital depends on this fruit for many of its medicines, which makes each one valuable. Treat them with care, and deliver them all. I have confidence in your abilities, Team 7. Make the Leaf proud! Dismissed!”
“Yes, sir!” Naruto cheered, jumping into a salute, and Sasuke nodded seriously. He had more than just the Leaf to make proud. He hoped he could live up to the reputations of the first ninjas who’d performed this task.
Sakura remained quiet, still apparently embarrassed by the hokage’s scolding, and Sasuke resisted the urge to check if she was okay. That sort of thing was not cold or aloof.
He glanced at her out of the corners of his eyes anyway. Her lip was wobbling slightly, but she appeared fine otherwise. Sasuke fidgeted slightly.
“Right, well, come on,” Kakashi said with a sigh, turning on his heel to lead them out. “We’ll do a practice run for speed testing purposes first.”
“What? No way! We can do them all right now, believe it!” Naruto insisted as they entered the hallway, and Sasuke tsked at him.
“The hokage said we can’t lose any of them,” he scowled. “It’d be stupid to risk some burning up just because we didn’t look where we were going first. Right Sakura?”
“Hm?” Sakura asked, glancing up. “Oh. Right.”
“Haruno,” Kakashi said in a bored voice. “If every slight reprimand is going to tear you to ribbons, then you aren’t fit for this line of work.”
“What are you talking about?” Naruto complained as Sasuke huffed, “she’s just a little upset. Lay off,” before blinking in surprise at his own defensiveness. Was that what rivals did? It didn’t feel like it. It felt dangerous, actually. He turned to counteract it by sending a snippy comment to Sakura about how she really did need to grow thicker skin about these sorts of things, but when his eyes found her face, his rude remark died on his tongue.
She was blinking at him now, her eyes still slightly red-rimmed as she clearly tried to hide how upset she still was at the reprimand, but something about her gaze looked almost hopeful in a startled sort of way.
Sasuke quickly averted his eyes and chose to ignore the odd feeling in his chest that was pleased to have successfully defended her.
The Akimichi clan district wasn’t particularly close to the hokage’s building, but it was nowhere near as far as the Uchiha town, which was practically on the outskirts of the Village. Surprisingly, Kakashi actually took the lead in explaining to the shinobi at the gate to the gardens that they were here for a mission, and the man was all smiles as he let them in.
“It’s kinda funny Choji’s not doing this mission, isn’t it?” Naruto asked as they walked through the gate.
“It’s generally frowned upon for a clan to hire their own members for these sorts of D-rank missions,” Kakashi said over his shoulder. “Since they’re used more for training or just basic workload management, going through the whole process of requesting a mission just to hire their own clan is a waste of the hokage team’s efforts and time. Chozebu!”
Kakashi waved casually at a large man talking with a farmer, and he turned with an even larger smile.
“Team Kakashi!” the man said in a booming voice. “Thank you for lending us your aid; I’m Chozebu Akimichi. Who do I have to thank for the generosity of help today?”
“Naruto Uzumaki! The next hokage, believe it!” Naruto cheered, and Chozebu’s smile looked only a little forced when he turned it to him.
His eyes fell next on Sasuke, who replied, “Sasuke Uchiha,” with a serious nod, which Chozebu returned before shifting to the final genin.
“Sakura Haruno,” she said, and Sasuke was pleased to see that she seemed back to her usual self. “We’ll do our best on this mission!”
Chozebu’s smile finally turned back genuine once his gaze settled back on Sakura and Kakashi. “I’m sure you will, Team Kakashi.”
“Technically it’s Team 7,” Kakashi said, his tone casual, and Chozebu blinked at him.
“Seriously?” he asked. “I figured they’d retired that number by now.”
“You would think,” Kakashi said blandly. “Shall we start?”
“Yes, of course!” Chozebu said. “Come, Team 7, I’ll show you the freezers.”
“We intend to take a practice run or two,” Kakashi said. “Do you mind if we enter the freezers at our own leisure once you show us? I don’t want to hold you up any.”
“Oh, of course. We always keep a gardener on standby whenever they look ready for transport,” Chozebu said. “He’ll get you ready whenever you ask.”
As Chozebu led the group forward, Sasuke took the opportunity to look around the Akimichi compound. The style of the architecture looked a bit similar to the Uchiha town’s, and Sasuke wondered if one clan had based their designs off the other’s.
“Here’s where we grow the shinome fruit,” Akimichi said, pushing open a door to what looked like a greenhouse despite the air inside feeling like ice against Sasuke’s skin. Inside sat rows and rows of neatly tended garden boxes, each filled with large, round fruit, many in different stages of development and all dark purple with a pulsing orange glow emitting from the inside as a result of the fire jutsu used to tend them.
An Akimichi completely bundled up head to foot turned at their entrance and sent a wave with a cheerful if not muffled, “‘afternoon! You must be Team 7!”
“Yes,” Kakashi said, nodding as Sakura shivered between the much more covered up Sasuke and Naruto, and Sasuke had the completely absurd thought to put his arm around her to warm her up.
Before he could even acknowledge it, though, Naruto unzipped his obnoxiously orange jacket and put it around Sakura, cheerfully saying, “we’re happy to help Ms. Choji’s Clanmate! We’ll deliver them all perfect, believe it!”
Chozebu chuckled by the door as Sakura blinked at the jacket in surprise, and Sasuke felt an inexplicable tug of jealousy that he quickly stomped out.
Kakashi dropped his head to the side and said, “we’ll be doing a few practice runs first.”
“Oh, take your time,” the bundled up farmer said, pointing to a pile of coolers stacked beside the door. “Those’re the ones we’re ready to send, and it’ll be fine ‘s long as they get there today.”
“Yes, sir, Ms. Choji’s Clanmate!” Naruto jumped into a salute and turned on his heel. “Out we go!”
“They haven’t told you where you’re going yet,” Kakashi said, and Naruto turned right around again.
“I’ll leave you four to it,” Chozebu said with a friendly laugh. “It’s headed to Senju-Hyuga, and they’ll sign off that you’ve finished once you deliver. Best of luck to you, Team 7!”
“We don’t need luck, believe it!” Naruto cheered, and Chozebu chuckled as he stepped out with a wave.
“The building is right in the center of the Senju-Hyuga district,” the bundled farmer said with a nod. “It’s right inside the residential gates, got shiny sides and a ton of plants all over it, you can’t miss it.”
Sasuke nodded, rubbing at his arms slightly.
“I know where to go,” Kakashi said, turning around, as the farmer cheerily said, “I know you do, Kakashi!”
Kakashi stepped to the door, and Sasuke quickly stepped beside him, hoping to return to the warm summer air. Naruto didn’t seem to be fazed at all by losing his jacket, instead standing with his hands on his hips and his grin enormous. Sakura looked determined beside him, Naruto’s slightly too-big-for-her orange jacket pooling around her, and Sasuke forcibly turned his attention back to Kakashi, frowning as he tried to clear his head.
“I’ll lead us to the building,” Kakashi said. “To give you an idea of how far we’ll have to go.”
“How long do we have to get there?” Sakura asked.
“Usually the fruits last fine for around eight or so minutes,” Kakashi said. “Then they start getting finicky. There should be no issue if you all simply get good.”
Sasuke tsked as Kakashi turned and began to run back towards the gates of the Akimichi district.
“Hey Sasuke!” Naruto said, jumping forward and pointing with a cheesy grin. “Last one there is uncooked rice!”
“Shut up,” Sasuke huffed, rolling his eyes as Sakura giggled slightly.
“You should already be running!” Kakashi shouted from ahead of them, and all three gasped and ran forward after the man.
Once they reached the streets, Kakashi darted and weaved around, even climbing up to the rooftops partway through to continue from there, and it was a bit difficult to follow him. Irritably, Sasuke wondered why Kakashi couldn’t have told them more of the route before they started.
“Kakashi sensei, can you slow down a little?” Sakura called. “This is still a practice run!”
“Or tell us where you’re going?” Sasuke added, and Naruto shouted, “Senju-Hyuga, weren’t you listening, Sasuke?” but his voice was drowned out by a much more familiar and unwelcome one.
“You know, it would be easy to follow him if you used your sharingan,” Itachi said, and Sasuke’s eyes narrowed as they snapped to his side. His brother was beside him, darting effortlessly across the rooftops with the rest of the team and…
And…
Sasuke stared at the anbu uniform, his thoughts slowly fizzling blank. He squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head. It wasn’t real. It was his imagination acting up like it always did. Even if he never did see the ghost in the anbu uniform-
Sasuke’s foot caught on a snag in the roof his closed eyes hadn’t seen coming, and he tripped and landed badly on his knee with a yelp.
Pain sliced across his knee from the collision, and he grimaced as he propped himself upright and into a seated position, chancing opening his eyes to investigate the injury.
“Sasuke!” Sakura landed back beside him quickly, her eyes dancing over his knee. It was banged up, but he seemed to have avoided any deep cuts, which was fortunate. It was embarrassing enough that he’d tripped because of his own stupid imagination.
“Here, sit still for a second,” Sakura said, pulling a small canteen of water from her pouch to pour over his knee and clean off the particles of roof shingles. She tugged a red ribbon out too and wrapped it around the spot of the injury. “Are you okay? Does it hurt any?”
“No. I’m fine. Just- tripped,” Sasuke said, dodging her gaze.
“Well, I’m glad you’re not hurt,” Sakura said, and Sasuke chanced a glance over that he regretted immediately.
She was smiling at him, warm and sweet and bright enough to loosen the ice that had gathered in his chest after seeing his brother’s ghost, and he wished he wasn’t cursed.
“Y’know I don’t need your help, or…mmph,” Sasuke glared pointedly away again, and he felt Sakura stand.
“ Sure you don’t, Sasuke,” she said, tentatively teasing, and Sasuke glanced over to see that she was holding out her hand to help him up. That felt rival-y. Rivals teased and helped each other stand back up.
Sasuke took her hand and let her pull him upright. He ended up just a bit too close to her when he got his balance back, and he felt his thoughts leaving him again. But this time, it was an almost pleasant abandonment. He wished he could allow it.
He stepped back instead, dodging her gaze again as she asked, “are you good to keep running? The other two totally ditched us- oh, there’s Naruto!”
Sasuke pouted slightly at how cheerfully Sakura waved as Naruto jumped across the rooftops back towards them, and his mind continued its betrayal against him by reminding him that Sakura hadn’t taken the boy’s coat off yet, even though they were back to the warm air.
Sasuke wished he could hit his imagination very hard over the head with a large stick, but he knew from experience that this would not work against his traitorous mind.
Naruto shouted as he arrived in front of them, “what happened to you two? Real me’s still following Kakasensei; we can totally catch up, believe it!”
Sasuke and Sakura stood and jumped after what was presumably a Naruto clone, based on his statement, and after a few minutes, they landed at the gates to the Senju-Hyuga district next to Kakashi and the real Naruto.
The Naruto clone disappeared into a puff of smoke, and Kakashi put his hand on his hip and said, “you fell behind. I’ll have to fail you.”
“Isn’t that the point of doing this run beforehand?” Sasuke huffed.
“To fail you?”
Sasuke scowled deeper as Naruto laughed aloud. “In case we fell behind.”
“Well Naruto was under the impression you’d do it perfectly immediately,” Kakashi said with a shrug. “I suppose he and I thought too highly of you.”
Sasuke tsked irritably and glared around, eyes scanning for any remaining trace of Itachi. Instead, he found his focus drawn by the building in front of them.
It was situated between the two major areas of the district, the Senju side and the Hyuga side, and as a result had a fusion of both’s architecture styles. The sleek almost crystal texture of the Hyuga clan’s buildings mixed nicely with the frosty, vegetation framed designs of the Senju clan. It was pretty to look at, as was, presumably, the rest of the residential area.
Sasuke, however, couldn’t fully enjoy it, as he was uncomfortably aware of the multitude of eyes lingering on the Uchiha fan of his shirt, glaringly standing out as if a beacon to tell the whole district that he didn’t belong here.
But Madara Uchiha must have, once, if he’d done this task before. Somewhere in history, the Uchiha fans were welcome here, and maybe once Sasuke started proving himself, he could drag his clan’s reputation away from the tatters his brother had left it in and back to what Madara had built it to be.
Sasuke turned back to Kakashi with a determined nod. “I’ll get it next time.”
“Believe it!” Naruto added for him and was promptly ignored.
“If you don’t I’m failing you,” Kakashi said with a hidden smile, and Sakura rolled her eyes with a huff.
The second run went much better than the first. Sasuke could distantly tell Itachi was still with them, but if he kept his gaze forward, on his teammates in front of him, his brother would stay in his periphery.
He landed beside Kakashi at the same building and turned to the man with a triumphantly smug grin.
“See?” he said proudly, and Kakashi sighed.
“I suppose I won’t be failing you today,” he said as Naruto and Sakura landed behind them now, Sakura breathing slightly heavily.
“Really? All day? Woo hoo!” Naruto cheered, punching upwards, and Sakura straightened up with a breathless grin sent Sasuke’s way.
“I got here first,” Sasuke said before she could say anything, and she rolled her eyes.
“Yeah, yeah, on the practice run,” she teased, straightening up. “We’ll see how the real one goes.”
“Believe it!” Naruto shouted again and was, again, ignored.
This time they went into the building itself to see the actual freezer they’d be delivering the fruits into, and after a few more practice runs, Kakashi decided the kids were ready to give the actual run a try.
“Please be careful!” the Akimichi gardener said cheerfully as she held out an insulated box full of shinome fruits first to Kakashi, then Sakura, then Naruto.
“Ay Captain!” Naruto cheered as he grabbed his box and pivoted, sprinting out of the chilled garden area immediately and making a battle cry that gradually lowered in volume as the boy sprinted away.
The rest of Team 7 stared out the door for a moment, and Sasuke glanced at Sakura, who glanced right back and snickered. Sasuke hid a smirk himself before turning back to the Akimichi gardener to accept the fourth and final box.
“Thank you for your help!” the gardener said, and the remainder of Team 7 nodded and turned to line up at the door, Kakashi first, then Sasuke, and Sakura in the rear.
Sasuke tightened his grip on the small box, narrowing his focus. He needed to do this well. He couldn’t get distracted by Itachi’s ghost- but would thinking that too much make it more likely for the ghost to appear? He wouldn’t put it past his own imagination to mess up his first mission, and he couldn’t risk that. He had to carry on the Uchihas’ legacy here, to do what Madara had been tasked with over a century ago. Maybe if he just shoved Madara to the front of his mind, he’d be able to blot out Itachi.
He filled his head with the portrait of Madara and the moon princess from the library and nodded when Kakashi called back to see if they were ready.
“Yes, sir!” Sakura answered too, and then the three were off.
It was nerve-wracking running through the streets with the precious cargo, but fortunately everyone seemed to stay out of their way until they could jump up to the rooftops and continue from there.
Sasuke kept his eyes on Kakashi’s back and his mind on Madara as they ran, fighting to keep his thoughts from drifting. He kept his attention on recalling every detail of the portrait in the library. Madara had been drawn above Kaguya, his eyes painted with a red that practically glowed. Kakashi took a turn, and Sasuke followed. Madara held a red and white paper fan, the same one he used to fend off Kaguya, which became the Uchiha clan’s crest. Kakashi jumped down to the street, and Sasuke landed behind him, Sakura a split second behind Sasuke. The artist had drawn Kaguya’s hair flowing out in the air as if the pair were fighting underwater, drifting out in at least ten directions. Kakashi took another turn, and the Senju-Hyuga district was in sight. Madara had been friends with the Senjus, ages ago. Distantly, Sasuke wondered why the two clans had fallen out of friendship, since he knew it had happened long before his brother had ruined everything.
Sasuke could feel the cooler in his hands heating up, and he picked up the pace, staring down the spiral on the back of Kakashi’s vest, not allowing his peripheral vision any time to imagine anything. Thinking about Madara was working; he needed to keep it up.
Why did Madara stop liking the Senjus? Some of the old books in the Uchiha library said Hashirama Senju had caused Madara’s death, but the Academy books said Madara died by his daughter’s hand. Sasuke shook his head slightly. He shouldn’t go down that train of thought. He rerouted his mind to the library portrait, the one Itachi had broken the frame of back when they were younger-
Sasuke squeezed his eyes shut for a second before opening them, feeling the box heat more and more in his hands, and he fell a step behind as panic seeped slowly into his mind. He couldn’t fail his very first mission, especially not this one. He couldn’t afford to be written off as a failure this early, to let down his clan at something this simple. He felt his breathing picking up slightly as he remembered the countless other pictures and portraits of Madara, of the cold intimidating stare that saw right through Sasuke and knew immediately how weak of an Uchiha he was-
Sasuke felt a light pressure on his forearm, and he gasped slightly, flicking his eyes to see Sakura, who gave a determined grin.
“Don’t tell me you’re gonna let me beat you there, Sasuke,” she said with an encouraging tease in her voice, and Sasuke let out the breath he hadn’t realized he’d begun holding.
“No way,” he said with a determined nod, and he pushed himself faster.
Kakashi entered the front gates to the Senju-Hyuga district and turned sharply towards the residential gates, the two remaining genin right behind him.
“Woo hoo!” something blurry and yellow -Naruto?- shouted from one of the rooftops.
“Naruto, what are you doing?!” Sakura called, and Naruto jumped down to join them.
“I already delivered mine, believe it!” he cheered. “You can do it, it’s right around the corner!”
Naruto continued to shout as they ran, though mostly incoherently, and Sasuke kept his attention locked on Kakashi in front of him and Sakura beside him and the painting of Madara he plastered in the front of his mind, and soon the freezer door was in front of them, and they were almost there.
“Go, go, go! Believe it!” Naruto cheered.
They skidded into the freezer together, and all three genin nearly slipped and fell on the icy floor. Naruto caught Sakura by his own jacket’s sleeve, and she reached out and snagged Sasuke by the crook of his elbow, tugging him back upright and landing him a centimeter from her face. His eyes widened at the proximity, and he quickly stepped back, staring around at anything other than her bright green eyes.
“There’s the rest of you,” a Hyuga woman said kindly, straightening up from her position securing what must have been Naruto’s cooler to a rolling cart. She was much less bundled up than the Akimichi was, wearing simply an additional winter coat to protect against the chill of the air.
“Delivered!!” Naruto cheered, jumping in place with excited shouts. The Hyuga somehow seemed amused by this display, sending them a smile as she took Kakashi’s cooler to place on top of Naruto’s, cracking the lid to check its contents.
“Thank you very much for this delivery,” she said, turning next to Sasuke’s. He held it out for her, his chest puffed up importantly.
“You are welcome, Mrs. Hinata’s Clanmate!” Naruto said with a point and a beam, and the woman laughed lightly.
“Mrs. Hinata’s Mother, actually,” she said with another kind smile, “Hutau Hyuga, but please just call me Hutau. It’s a pleasure to meet you all.”
Sakura perked up as she handed over the fourth and final cooler. “Oh, really? It’s nice to finally meet you- I’m friends with Hinata from school!”
“Yes, I recognized your team’s names. Hinata thinks quite highly of all three of you,” Hutau said, and Sasuke blinked in surprise.
“Er- all?” he echoed as Naruto cheered, “well I think highly of her, believe it!”
Hutau gave a light laugh, almost melodic, a slightly mischievous look in her eye as she added, “I’m glad to hear you recognize greatness then, hm? But let’s step back outside to warm you four back up.”
“Much appreciated,” Kakashi said blandly as Sakura grinned and Naruto beamed, but Sasuke just stared at the woman blankly. Why would Hinata think highly of him? Was there danger there? No, surely not- maybe it was just because he was on Naruto’s and Sakura’s team, and Hinata liked them. That made sense, he supposed.
He still squirmed uncomfortably.
“Well, we would be happy to continue to hire you for this task whenever your schedules line up with deliveries,” Hutau said once they arrived back on the street outside the building. She took a pen and sheet of paper from her pocket and began to write. “Since you all did such a fantastic job.”
“Yes, ma’am, Mrs. Hinata’s Mother Hutau!” Naruto cheered, snapping into another salute.
“In fact, I think you three did even better than the first time your sensei’s genin team tried this task years ago,” she said, that mischievous glint back in her eye as her gaze lingered on Kakashi, and all three genin stilled.
“Kakasensei did this mission too?” Naruto gasped, turning to stare at the man. “And he did it worse?! Ha!”
“I think the Senju in you is coming out, Hutau,” Kakashi said lightly, and Hutau’s expression shifted.
“I have no Senju blood,” she said serenely.
“Then act like it,” Kakashi replied shortly, and the three genin exchanged curious glances in front of him.
Hutau gave a soft sigh. “I think sometimes it’s forgotten that our clan takes just as much after Hashirama Senju as it does Tobirama Senju. But I don’t see any reason to get into all this now, do you Kakashi? Not when your team has just performed their mission perfectly.”
“Yeah we did, believe it!” Naruto cheered. “Also what’s happening?”
Sasuke furrowed his brow slightly, curiosity nudging against his mind. Did Kakashi and the Senju-Hyuga clan have some history with each other? Something to do with Kakashi’s old team?
Hutau didn’t give him much time to consider. She sent another smile and handed the paper she’d written on to Kakashi. “Many thanks again, Team 7. I appreciate the effort each of you put into this. I didn’t see a single shinome burned.”
Sasuke nodded, pride brimming in his chest. He’d done what Madara and Koibito Uchiha had done, the two who’d singlehandedly built the Uchiha clan into the powerful and respectable family it had once been. Sasuke wondered if, maybe…if they knew he was carrying on their legacy, would they be…?
“And we’ll do it again whenever you need to, Mrs. Hinata’s Mother Hutau!” Naruto cheered, snapping into a salute. “Believe it!”
Hutau smiled back and sent a dramatic salute of her own. “I will, Mr. Hinata’s Friend Naruto!”, and Naruto beamed.
~~~
Kakashi ended up reading his book the entire walk back to the hokage’s office, and even though Sakura tried to ask what he and Hutau had been talking about regarding Kakashi’s old team, Kakashi gave no reply until the third attempt made, when he lowered his book and asked, “were you talking to me?”
Sakura huffed and rolled her eyes, sending an exasperated expression towards Sasuke, who stared at a white-feathered bird in the sky rather than acknowledging her attempts to get him involved.
The hokage office door was open when they returned, and the hokage, Iruka, and a third man were inside, discussing something with serious expressions.
“One moment,” the hokage absently told Team 7, his focus clearly staying on the third man, who turned and saw the four of them, and his voice faded.
“Nakamura, continue,” the hokage prompted, but Nakamura stood instead, his gaze hard and locked on Naruto and Sasuke.
“Forgive me, but I need to verify something in this intel,” Nakamura said. “I’ll return once I have.”
Iruka frowned, but the hokage simply sighed and said, “make it quick,” as the man hurried out of the room, closing the door behind him.
“More assistant troubles?” Kakashi said pleasantly, and Iruka answered with a sheepish laugh.
“More or less,” he said as the hokage simply watched the team. “Do you have your report?”
“Mission accomplished, believe it!” Naruto cheered as Kakashi stepped forward to hand Hutau’s paper to Iruka.
The man smiled as he read it. “More than just accomplished, it seems; Hutau Hyuga has offered to pay a bonus for no lost fruit. Very well done, Team 7!”
Naruto and Sakura beamed at the compliment as Sasuke tried to smother the smile on his own face. The hokage nodded, leaning back.
“Yes, very well done,” he said. “And, now that you’ve officially performed work for Konoha, Iruka here can get your picture taken and hung in the roster room.”
Iruka stood, a proud smile on his face again. “We’ll have our records department make and file copies of Hutau Hyuga’s receipt; feel free to check it out anytime as your first official mission report! I’ll run this to them now; you four feel free to head outside for the picture.”
“Team 7,” the hokage said with a smile. “Excellent job.”
“Believe it!” Naruto shouted, jumping in place, and that warm swell of pride in Sasuke’s chest bloomed just a bit larger.
Iruka didn’t keep them waiting terribly long, arriving to where they’d gone outside with a camera in hand.
“This will print the picture out quickly,” he said, gesturing to the rather bulky device. “Then we can frame it right away! Kakashi, you stand behind them, genin stand in the front. These pictures stay in the roster room, so make sure you pose well.”
“Oh! Here, Naruto, you’ll need your jacket back,” Sakura said, shrugging it off and handing it back to the boy, who grabbed it cheerily.
“Thanks, Sakura!” he said, and Sasuke felt himself pouting nonsensically again.
But then Sakura said, “I’d like to stand next to Sasuke!”, and he startled and stared at her with wide eyes.
“I don’t care,” Kakashi said flatly from behind them, still reading his book, and Naruto pointed at the camera with a bright, “we’re ready, Iruka Sensei!”
Sasuke quickly turned his attention back to the camera, having not at all been ready, and as Iruka held up his hand to count down, Sakura threw her arm around the crook of Sasuke’s neck in a sort of side hug, and for a split second Sasuke’s head emptied, and he forgot to glare or scowl or anything.
The flash clicked, sending stars briefly into Sasuke’s vision as he stepped quickly away from Sakura only to see that she’d done the same move to Naruto as well. That meant she was doing it as a teammate sort of thing. It was safe. Sasuke tried to take a breath.
“What do you all think of this one?” Iruka asked, fanning the picture the camera had spit out and showing it to the group.
Kakashi had apparently given Naruto and Sasuke bunny ears behind them with his hands, looking quite pleased with himself as he did. Sakura’s arms really were around Sasuke and Naruto, and both Sakura and Naruto were beaming cheesily.
Sasuke blinked at his own face. Every year for the past five years, the only picture he’d had taken was his school picture, and in every one of them he was glaring at the camera, looking angry and faintly miserable. But in this one, courtesy of the timing of Sakura’s teammate hug, Sasuke was just looking at the camera. Slightly surprised, maybe, but not angry. Not sad. Not forcing a cold and aloof persona to be out for the world to see.
This would be the version of him that lasted in the Konoha roster. And that meant once he wasn’t cursed, he wouldn’t have to be forcibly reminded of the things he’d had to do to fight his curse.
“I love it, believe it!” Naruto cheered, and Sakura said, “yeah!” and Kakashi sighed, “please don’t have us do it again.”
Sasuke just nodded, his eyes lingering on the picture.
“Perfect!” Iruka said with a bright smile. “Now if you’ll follow me, we’ll do the celebratory framing on the ground floor.”
Iruka’s smile seemed a bit too large, and Sasuke wondered if the man was up to something as the group began to follow him back into the building’s hall. He didn’t have any worries if there was something up; Iruka was perhaps the least likely person in the Village to ever betray someone.
Not that Sasuke was the best judge of that. He frowned.
“Here we are, right in here,” Iruka said, opening the door, and Sasuke learned quite quickly the secret the man was hiding.
“Congratulations!” Mr. Haruno cheered when they entered, throwing confetti into the air. He stood beside Mrs. Haruno inside, and even Hinata and, for some reason, the very familiarly bowl-cut-haired jonin named Guy.
Sakura gasped when she saw the confetti, her whole face lighting up as she ran to her parents, throwing her arms around them.
“Why’re you two here?” she asked excitedly, and Mrs. Haruno almost teasingly replied, “now Sakura, do you really think we’d miss seeing your picture put up on the wall?”
Simultaneously to the Harunos’ excitement, Guy had bounded forward towards Kakashi, a comically oversized pile of flowers in his hands as he shouted, “Kaaaakashiii!! You actually didn’t fail a team! I’m brimming with pride!”
Guy quite literally tackled Kakashi to the ground in his attempt to hug the man, sending flowers spraying in every direction, and Kakashi gave a muffled, “I can still fail them later,” which made Guy laugh as if Kakashi had said the most hilarious joke the man had ever heard.
Naruto, meanwhile, had run up to Hinata, who was hiding her face completely from Naruto’s bright smile.
“Hinata, are you here to get your own picture put up?” he asked cheerfully, and Iruka stepped over to them with a rather knowing smile.
“Actually she’s here for your picture,” the man said, rummaging around his pocket and pulling out a sheet of paper with an important sort of nod.
“And she’ll be joining us for this too,” the man said with mock seriousness. “There are two chefs who expect to see us this evening to cash in this congratulatory coupon for you-“
“Is that a ramen coupon?!” Naruto gasped, snatching the paper out of Iruka’s hands and staring at it with dazzled eyes, and Iruka gave a warm laugh and tousled the boy’s hair as Hinata stared at him over the fluff of her hood, a smile evident in her lilac eyes.
Sasuke stood in the middle of this commotion, fidgeting slightly as he fought to keep his expression blank. He should be happy there was no one here for him. It meant he was doing his job well.
He stared around the room instead of looking at any of the other groups of people, and his eyes landed on the large portrait of the four Konoha founders on the wall. His eyes lingered on Madara’s face, and he wondered if it would be smart to pretend Madara was here to congratulate him. He didn’t want another ghost, but at least maybe Madara could keep forcing Itachi out of his head like he had today.
Though that would assume Madara Uchiha would care at all what Sasuke had done. If that really was a task he and Koibito had done all the time, was it really anything special to celebrate?
Sasuke frowned slightly, but before his mind could send him nosediving, someone stepped into his peripheral vision, and he turned, surprised.
Mr. Haruno stuck his hand forward, a huge smile plastered on his face. “Congratulations, Sasuke! I know Madara Uchiha would be very proud!”
Sasuke just stared at the man, his mouth slightly open. Mr. Haruno must have seen him looking at the portrait, but…did he really mean that?
Sasuke quickly shut his mouth and stared instead at Mr. Haruno’s hand, his eyes wide as he very carefully reached out his own hand and shook it.
“Thank you,” he said quietly, the older man’s words filling him with a warm glow in his chest. Maybe Sasuke had successfully carried on Madara’s legacy.
Maybe he had made his family proud, at least a little.
“Everyone, let’s get this framed and release you all to your celebrations!” Iruka called, pulling the attention of the group. Sakura hopped back into place beside Sasuke and beamed at him, and he quickly dodged her gaze. Naruto was simply jumping up and down again, shaking Hinata by the shoulders and beaming giddily as the girl looked somehow both elated and terrified by this situation.
Kakashi remained lying on the ground, even when Guy stood beside him.
“Team 7,” Iruka said proudly, lifting the framed picture they’d taken. “The Leaf will remember you.”
The group gathered cheered as Iruka turned and hung the picture below the previous team in the column, one that looked like the fourth hokage’s team, and Sasuke couldn’t fully fight away a smile.
“Everyone should come get ramen with us for dinner!” Naruto shouted, pointing to the group as one hand held Hinata’s jacket sleeve, and the poor girl looked close to passing out. “Ichiraku’s! Be there or be uncooked rice!”
Sasuke hmphed as Naruto sent him a cheeky grin, and Sakura beamed.
“Yeah, let’s!” she said, turning her bright smile to Sasuke, who quickly looked away again. “I know my parents will want to hear all about our mission!”
“I shall carry Kakashi there in a hero’s chariot,” Guy said, flashing a smile and a thumbs up, and Kakashi sighed from the floor.
Sakura gave her own exasperated sigh and turned to Sasuke. “Sasuke? How about you?”
“I, um- no, I’ve got lots to do. At home,” he said, staring anywhere but at the others’ eyes, and he wished he wasn’t cursed.
“Boo! What do you possibly have to do?” Naruto complained, and Sasuke tsked at him.
“I’ve got lots of renovations to finish,” he said, which he thought would end the argument successfully until Mr. Haruno threw a terrifying new wrench in this plan.
“Would you like any of us to help?” he asked kindly, and Sasuke froze.
…help. Help? Someone wanted to help? To keep the Uchiha town still standing rather than knocking it down and smothering it to make sure the Leaf’s shameful failure was forgotten by the world?
And somehow it didn’t seem to be just Mr. Haruno. Everyone he looked at seemed to be willing to join. To keep his family’s legacy intact, or just to make sure Sasuke ended up actually celebrating with them.
Hope bloomed in Sasuke’s chest then, sudden and constricting and enormous. He still had a chance, this meant. A chance that these people might still want him once he wasn’t cursed anymore.
Which meant he needed to focus now and not slip up.
“Er- no, I don’t want help,” Sasuke lied, staring down now. “Not yet, I mean. Or, um-! I- mmph.”
“You just let us know, Sasuke,” Mrs. Haruno said, and Sasuke nodded quickly before turning in place and walking over to Iruka, who’d turned to talk with Naruto and Hinata, before anyone could say any more dangerously nice things that Sasuke craved.
“Iruka?” he asked when he reached the man, who looked over with a much too kind smile which Sasuke glared away from.
“Yes, Sasuke?”
“Could I have a copy of the mission report?” Sasuke asked, and Iruka nodded.
“Of course! And I hope you know, you’re welcome to join us at Ichiraku to celebrate once you’ve finished up your work at home.”
Dangerous. He wished he wasn’t cursed. “I don’t want to.”
Iruka’s smile didn’t waver. “You know where to find us if you change your mind.”
Once Iruka had gotten him the extra copy, Sasuke began the journey home, leaving the others to their celebrations. Someday he’d be able to join them. When their celebration was for him lifting his curse and finally being free to live again. Then he’d know he’d have made his family proud, by defeating the monster who’d destroyed them so carelessly.
Sasuke hugged his arms slightly, forcing his mind to remain on the warmth still pooled in his chest rather than that icy thought. He should be celebrating a little himself. He had completed his first mission. He was finally on his way to stopping Itachi’s curse. He was doing well.
I know Madara Uchiha would be very proud!
Sasuke looked up at the sky and let himself smile just slightly, wondering if that was true.
When Sasuke arrived back in his town, he pulled out the extra mission report, nerves starting to leak into his head. It had been a rather spontaneous decision to ask for it, and he wondered if it was a bit stupid, but the idea had come into his head seeing everyone, and he couldn’t quite shake it.
“I’m home,” Sasuke said quietly to his kitchen once he stepped in, fidgeting now with the extra mission report. He took a breath and stepped into the hallway with the bedrooms, passing his own and the patch of drywall that now smothered his brother’s before arriving at the door at the far end of the hall.
He stared at the locked entrance to his parents’ old room, his lips pressed together. He sat on his knees in front of it, staring down at the mission report in his hand.
“Um,” he said quietly, scrunching his shoulders slightly. The hallway was eerily silent. The ghost wasn’t here. Sasuke closed his eyes and took a breath before opening them.
“I finished my first mission today,” he said, blinking several times. “Hutau Hyuga said we did really well. She left a note telling the hokage to pay extra than usual.”
Sasuke fidgeted slightly, his eyes locked on the paper. “I think you’d be…”
He felt his lip quivering, and frustration bloomed now in his chest. He was being stupid. It was just one mission. The others who’d come to celebrate the rest of his team were just excessively nice individuals; Sasuke knew this. They’d celebrate anything. One mission really wasn’t something to be proud of. It certainly wouldn’t make two ninja as impressive as his parents had been proud.
It was nothing compared to what Itachi’s old accomplishments would have been.
Sasuke twitched, the mission report crunching slightly in his hand as a trail of bitter poison infected his previous contentment. It wasn’t fair. Itachi had taken up all the spotlight even though he was a horrible, terrible, awful person, and then he took everything else away before Sasuke even had a chance to feel what that attention was like. He’d seen his mother send a gush of compliments that Itachi would simply blink slowly at, sending her nothing but a filmy gaze in response to the way she’d tuck his hair behind his ear and cup his cheek. He’d seen his father pat Itachi on the back and praise him in the gruff way he’d usually speak, and Itachi would just frown blankly at him instead of thanking him for the precious words that Sasuke craved so desperately.
Sasuke could feel water blurring the bottoms of his eyes, and he huffed, scrubbing at them in annoyance. What was he crying for? He’d gone through these thoughts a million times already, and he was still weak enough to cry over them.
Sasuke stood, accidentally crushing the mission report in his hand as he stared at the ground and wished he had someone to tuck his hair behind his ear, to send him praise for a job well done, to even listen to him say what he’d done today. He could have still had it, maybe, if he wasn’t cursed.
But he was cursed, and that meant he was alone, and if he was just better, maybe he could have broken that curse already instead of sitting here crying about it like a little child.
But he wasn’t better. He was just cursed.
“Sorry,” he muttered. “I know it’s nothing to be proud of. I’ll do better soon.”
He turned on his heel and walked away, glaring at the floor as he did, a miserable feeling drowning his ribcage. He walked back outside and sat on the porch with huff, rubbing at his eyes as he took a few breaths to pull himself out of the inevitable spiral in his mind that was itching for him to fully enter it.
Which he had no intention of doing. He glared up at the sky, scowling as he shifted his thoughts to anything else. He should be enjoying this time without Itachi at least, not dwelling on his memory instead of his ghost.
A white-feathered bird landed on the roof above him, and Sasuke watched it with a soft exhale.
“Would you like to hear about my mission, bird?” he asked, a halfhearted tease in his voice as he held the paper up, but to his surprise, the bird actually flapped down to grab at it with its beak.
“Hey!” Sasuke snapped, pulling the paper back, and the bird landed instead on the lawn, tugging now at a blade of grass.
“Oh, wait,” Sasuke said, blinking as he stood, an idea entering in his mind. “Are you trying to build a nest or something?”
The bird didn’t respond, obviously, instead continuing to tug at the grass, and Sasuke knelt beside it, ripping strips off his mission report. It felt almost nice to be tearing the thing, like a weight lifting from his chest. He wondered why.
“Here,” he said, holding out the strips. “These’ll be better than grass, probably.”
The bird lifted its head and cocked it to the side, and Sasuke waved the papers slightly.
“Come on,” he said. “You can take it.”
This close, Sasuke could take a better look at the species he’d seen so often. The bird’s feathers looked sharp and clean, almost as white as the paper Sasuke was holding, but before he could look further, the bird hopped forward, snatched the strips, and took off into the sky.
Sasuke smiled as he watched the bird. At least he’d made someone happy with his mission.
His thoughts drifted back to Mr. Haruno’s words. I know Madara Uchiha would be very proud!
He fidgeted as he stood, lowering his eyes back down. Maybe he’d be able to get the words out if he told the portrait of Madara what he’d done. That portrait had helped him immensely today; it seemed only fair to go tell it what they’d accomplished together.
Sasuke made his way to the library, walking through the shelves until he reached his destination, smiling up at it.
“Thanks,” he told the portrait of Madara. “For scaring Itachi out of my mind.”
He felt himself smiling slightly as he blinked up at the picture, at the carefully painted strokes. His eyes lingered on Madara’s, on the vibrant red that stood out among the rest of the scene.
Sasuke wondered how it would feel to finally be able to use his own sharingan again, once he wasn’t cursed. He hadn’t activated it in five years. He didn’t even remember what it felt like.
He lifted a hand to press against his eye, his other still searching over Madara’s face. “I finished my first mission today. I did really well.”
He heard Itachi’s laughter behind him and glared over his shoulder. His brother was leaning against a shelf, smiling lightly at him.
“Itachi didn’t help at all,” Sasuke said, turning back with a hmph. “He was totally useless and terrible.”
“And would you have wanted me to be useful?”
Sasuke stilled as Itachi’s voice sounded suddenly closer. Right behind him, close enough that if he wanted to, he could grab the shoulder of Sasuke’s jacket.
Sasuke flinched hard, squeezing his eyes shut and scrunching his shoulders, but nothing happened. No gloved hand grabbed his jacket.
No words placed a simple, horrible jutsu on his battered heart.
He peeked over his shoulder and saw no one in the library, and he huffed at himself, annoyed. He turned pointedly back to the portrait of Madara and crossed his arms the way he knew Madara would in half the other pictures the library had of him.
“I’m gonna beat Itachi’s curse,” he said with a nod. “And nobody’s gonna die. Just you watch me, Madara! I’ll make the Uchiha proud!”
He turned on his heel and marched confidently away, pointedly ignoring any indication of movement in his periphery by instead focusing on rubbing at a small itch warming his eye.
Notes:
Sasuke's getting really attached to Madara huh. Also finally my gal Koibito gets mentioned :') love her, she will likely be mentioned many more times
Anyway it really took me 19 chapters to get to like episode 6 of the original show pfpfpf
Update on where I'm at in Shippuden: bruh who knows PFFT a LOT is goin on rn, we've got Obito becoming the ten tails jinchuriki, Madara throwing a temper tantrum bcos Hashirama won't throw hands with him, Kakashi crying in the void, Naruto having about as much an idea of what's going on as the audience, lots to unpack on all sides
(but actually Kakashi vs Obito in the void was a fantastically animated fight, the cutting back and forth between current them and child them was a masterful emotional gut punch)
The Kaguya search squad is still coming up empty. The Yamato rescue squad isn't even trying anymore (Yamato was in a flashback and Naruto literally mentioned rescuing the tailed beasts from inside the ten tails but we still aren't evening considering rescuing Yamato!! my boi needs better friends for real. Kakashi gets a pass he's got a lot of other things going on rn. If Obito became the jinchuriki by sucking the ten tails into the void, does that mean it just. like. materialized next to Kakashi in there because like how do you even react to that happening)
Anyway I've yapped enough for one week. Ty for reading and I hope you have a lovely day!
Chapter 20: The New Normal
Notes:
Idk when next week's chapter will be posted bcos I've got an anime con all next weekend (yay!) but it will potentially be a little later than usual. My current cosplay lineup is Hashirama, Orochimaru, and Vanessa Doofenschmirtz lol
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Team 7’s missions remained D-rank for quite some time, which Sakura supposed was to be expected. Someone had to do all these tasks, and it was sort of helpful to have less life-or-death stakes to allow them to settle into their new lives as shinobi.
Naruto at least didn’t seem to mind their low ranks. He’d taken up yelling, “your future hokage accepts!!” after receiving new mission assignments, which earned him a small smile from Iruka and an annoyed glance from everyone else.
Iruka had actually given Team 7 a gift at Ichiraku when they’d gone to celebrate, much to Sakura’s surprise. It had been a camera, one of the ones that spit out the picture after taking it, similar to the one he’d used to take their group picture.
“The first ever Konoha team used a camera like this,” he’d explained as Naruto had immediately turned to take a picture of Hinata an inch in front of her face, and the flash had startled the poor girl enough to nearly knock her off her seat. Naruto had caught her before she could, and Hinata had nearly passed out from the contact.
“You mean the first hokage?!” Naruto turned back to Iruka, stars in his eyes, and Iruka nodded.
“First and second, and Madara and Koibito Uchiha too,” he said. “I think the first hokage was the most attached to the concept of the team taking pictures though; your clan probably still has a lot of those pictures, right Hinata?”
Hinata gave a muffled sort of squeaky hmph, half hidden in her jacket, and Sakura leaned forward.
“Maybe you can show us after this, Hinata!” she said, nudging the girl. Maybe she’d feel less completely terrified in her own turf.
“Yeah, we should!” Naruto cheered, setting Hinata back upright in her chair before turning back to Iruka. “Thanks a ton, Iruka Sensei! You’re the coolest ever!”
Honestly, it was sweet how much Iruka cared for his students. The present had probably been for Naruto more than anyone else -Iruka practically treated Naruto like his own son at this point, and everybody knew it- but he’d made a point of saying it was for the whole team to use. Iruka was good about that sort of thing, always paying attention to everyone. It was one of the reasons why he’d earned the respect of so many shinobi across the Village, including, clearly, the hokage himself.
Though maybe that respect came at least a little from the fact that Iruka seemed to be the only person who actually did his job on the hokage’s mission-management staff. Sakura thought at least four people were usually present to assign missions, if not more, but no one else on the assistants’ team ever showed up to assign anything. But maybe that wasn’t the worst thing in the world. Iruka was kind while still staying fair, which meant he’d likely appropriately assess their skillsets and move them up to C-rank missions as soon as they were ready, which Sasuke at least was clearly itching for.
Not that Sakura wasn’t too, but she at least had her own extremely important mission to fill the void in the meantime.
They seemed to have the same handful of clients hiring them every time they got a new D-ranked mission; they consistently did fruit deliveries between the Akimichi and Hyuga buildings, and soon gained similar delivery missions from the Ichiraku Ramen chefs -a fact Naruto was ecstatic about, especially once the chefs gave Team 7 small Ichiraku hats to wear while delivering. The Yamanaka flower shop joined in as well, though Sakura could tell Ino’s dad, who had always been the most enthusiastic about the family shop, was really only giving them missions because Ino and Sakura were friends, and he didn’t seem particularly pleased about needing to also hire Naruto and Sasuke.
A nice old lady hired them regularly to carry groceries and things up her stairs, and one idiot kept losing her cat enough times that Sakura grew suspicious she was orchestrating the repeated incidents for an excuse to flirt with Kakashi. Iruka ended up hiring them to help him fix a window frame at the school, and a kind and overworked medical ninja had them frequently check in to feed and walk his dog while he stayed late at work, and his requests always included excessive apologies for the inconvenience.
None of their missions took them out of the Village, and though Sakura in theory understood the merits of these sorts of slow starts, she couldn’t help but think that maybe requesting a ninja team to prepare for the hokage’s soon-to-be-8-year-old grandson’s birthday party might be a bit of an abuse of power.
Her teammates, however, seemed to be treating this just the same as every other mission -or, event in general- they’d experienced before, and Sakura did not mean that as a compliment.
“I bet I can blow up twice as many balloons as Sasuke!” Naruto said with a triumphant point, and, as usual, Sasuke fell immediately into his taunt.
“Yeah right,” the boy scoffed, grabbing one. “I can finish this whole stack before you even get four.”
“I could do all of mine and yours while you’re still figuring out how to tie one shut! Believe it!” Naruto shouted, grabbing for the balloon in Sasuke’s hand.
Sasuke held it away from him, shoving his other hand against Naruto’s cheek to push the boy away as he snapped, “don’t start with mine!”
Sakura glanced at Kakashi to see if there was any chance he’d step in for once, but the man was lying on the floor now, his book over his face, and audibly snoring.
Sakura closed her eyes and imagined herself hitting each of her teammates in the gut with a very heavy rock before opening her eyes and sitting down to start her own work of making garlands.
Irritably she wondered what Kurenai was teaching Hinata, Kiba, and Shino, or what Ino was doing.
After 20 minutes, Naruto and Sasuke were both almost blacked out from lightheadedness, and Sakura placed the final garland unceremoniously onto the pile of finished decorations.
“I’m going to pick up the cake now,” she said to no one in particular, and Naruto scrambled up with a cheerful, “I’ll go with you!” before nearly hacking up a lung coughing.
Sakura raised an unimpressed eyebrow. “I think I can handle a cake, but thanks.”
She perked up and leaned to the side, putting up a cheerful smile. “Unless, of course, Sasuke wants to come?”
“No,” Sasuke said flatly, his chest heaving from his balloon efforts, and Naruto turned and pointed.
“Get your butt off the ground and spend time with us for once, you jerk,” Naruto huffed, and Sasuke glared.
“We spend every day together,” he tsked, and Sakura gave a dramatic exhale.
“Yeah, on missions ,” she said.
Sasuke crossed his arms. “And that’s more than enough. Besides, this is for a mission.”
“Yeah, so you should come with,” Sakura said, arranging her face like Kabuto could and not like she was back to imagining hitting Sasuke with a rock. She wished his 80-20 split of acting annoying versus considerate was inverted. It would make getting close to him much easier. “C’mon, Sasuke! What if we need you for something?”
“You won’t,” Sasuke said flatly. “You’re picking up a cake.”
“What if it’s a really big cake?”
“Will you just go already?” Sasuke snapped, crossing his arms. “I can finish here while you’re gone, and then we can all go home early.”
“And get ramen!” Naruto said. “Excellent idea, Sasuke! Let’s go, Sakura!”
“I didn’t say get ramen!” Sasuke shouted after them as Naruto took Sakura’s wrist and began pulling her out the door.
“Let go of me,” Sakura complained, pulling her hand away before calling over her shoulder. “Last chance, Sasuke, before you miss out!”
Sasuke didn’t even bother replying, his attention turned back to his next balloon, and Sakura scowled as she gave up on him and fell into step beside Naruto.
“He’ll come around eventually, believe it,” Naruto said once they reached the street outside. “There’s no way he doesn’t know we’re his only friends, so he’s gotta accept it sometime!”
“What do you care if he does?” Sakura asked curiously. “I thought you two hated each other.”
“Hm?” Naruto tilted his head. “No way, we’re best friends. Once he accepts that we are, at least.”
Sakura laughed. “You are not best friends.”
“Uh, yeah we are.”
“No you are not!” Sakura crossed her arms, raising an eyebrow. “You just spent twenty minutes arguing over balloons.”
“Like friends do,” Naruto said with a smug nod, and Sakura rolled her eyes.
“No, like people who can’t stand each other do.”
“No way, Sakura,” Naruto said, shaking his head. “People who hate you ignore you. They don’t accept your challenges and argue over stupid things that only matter ‘cause you decide they do. You haven’t got a clue what you’re talking about, silly.”
He gave a bright laugh at that, and Sakura blinked at him in surprise. His words settled something uncomfortable over her gut; now that she thought about it, the only other people she did see interacting with Naruto other than coldly brushing him off were Iruka, Hinata, or, somehow, Sasuke. Even if the arguments were stupid, they were more engaged than Sasuke ever was to Sakura, or anyone else.
Had Sasuke latched onto Naruto of all people? Well, as annoying as it was that he didn’t care about her constant flattering attention, that had been acting, and the more Sasuke-observation she engaged in, the more her hypothesis solidified that he reacted to challenges more than anything else. Maybe she really could edge a bit more away from the lovesick girl character and more into the competitive kunoichi that she really wanted to be.
She sent a sly grin Naruto’s way and said, “well, how about we put up a challenge of our own, huh?”
“I’m in, believe it!” Naruto said immediately, perking up. “What is it?”
“You and I are totally gonna get this cake and be back before Sasuke even finishes his balloons,” she said.
“Of course we are! Believe it!” Naruto shouted, turning and sprinting forward down the street.
Sakura startled slightly at the sudden movement and cupped her hands around her mouth. “The bakery’s this way!”
“Right!” Naruto shouted from halfway down the street, spinning in place so fast that he tripped and fell over, and Sakura dropped her face into her hand with a sigh.
This was all for her mission, she reminded herself as Naruto scrambled up and sprinted past her, now in the correct direction. If Orochimaru wanted a sharingan bad enough to work this hard for one, the reward would have to be more than worth it once they’d succeeded.
She kept that idea in the front of her mind and broke into a jog to catch up with Naruto down the road. “Hey, Naruto! Wait up a sec- oh!”
She slid to a stop behind Naruto when the pair nearly collided with a familiar genin team turning a corner ahead of them.
“Oh, you’re- Sakura!” Kurenai said, snapping with a smile at remembering as Hinata’s entire face turned bright red at the sudden proximity to Naruto.
Sakura would have beamed at being recognized by Kurenai if her attention wasn’t pulled by the fifth person in the group’s company, standing behind Kiba and Shino.
“Who’re you?!” Sakura gasped as her eyes took in the unfamiliar kunoichi, dressed in what every Academy textbook described as a Cloud Village uniform. The woman had long white braids tied loosely at the back of her head with a blue ribbon, the same color as the war paint that ran from the edges of her eyes across her cheeks in a distinctive lightning bolt pattern, the blue almost glittering on her dark skin.
The woman looked so incredibly cool that all Sakura could do for a moment was gape.
The Cloud kunoichi gave a sheepish grin and said, “promise I’m not invading!” as Kurenai smiled and explained, “we’re taking her to see the hokage.”
“You guys are?!” Naruto gasped, and Kiba jumped forward, throwing his arms around his two teammates.
“We just did a joint mission with the Cloud Village!” he said, his explanation directed at Sakura, who just stared as he continued, “‘cause we’ve got such a search-and-rescue savvy team, we’ve been going all over the place in the Land of Fire these past few weeks, and today we got a mission right on the edge of Fire and Lightning, so we got to team up with Cloud genin!”
“Huh?! No way!” Naruto said, his eyes shining as the Cloud kunoichi laughed, rubbing behind her head.
“Yeah, one of our farmers right by the border lost half his livestock,” she said with another sheepish smile. “It’s kinda embarrassing, but you Fire shinobi helped a ton getting everything back. My genin are back sorting everything with the farmer and raikage, but I figured I should swing by the hokage to thank you all formally. It was kind of a spur of the moment teamup to cover more ground.”
“That’s so cool Hinata!” Naruto said as Hinata appeared close to blacking out. Apparently she usually needed prep time to get the courage to speak with Naruto.
“And all the rest of us,” Kiba complained before sending a flashing grin to Sakura. “Where are you headed, by the way?”
“We’re headed to pick up-!” Naruto started before Sakura realized quite suddenly that she didn’t want the group of friends and impressive kunoichi to know that their mission was something as simple as picking up a single cake.
So, she interrupted, “our next mission! We’re headed to our team to pick up our next mission. Ha!”
“What?” Naruto asked, turning to her in surprise, but Kiba cheered, “I hope it’s to the Land of Lightning!”
“Yes, you’ll have to tell us about it later,” Kurenai said. “But we really should be going now. We’ll see you around after your mission sometime, yeah?”
Kurenai sent a kind smile before continuing to lead the group forward, and Sakura beamed as Naruto turned to her.
“Why’d you lie to them?” Naruto asked flatly, and Sakura turned.
“Huh?”
Naruto frowned. “We’re already on our mission. Why’d you tell them we weren’t?”
“Oh come on, Naruto,” Sakura said, rolling her eyes slightly as she started forward again. “Would Hinata still think that highly of you if she knew all we were doing was getting cake?”
“Of course she would, believe it,” Naruto said, crossing his arms. “We’re completing our mission. That’s what shinobi do.”
“Please,” Sakura scoffed. “This mission is embarrassing. Besides, what’s the harm in telling a little white lie?”
Naruto frowned deeper. “What’s the harm in telling the truth?”
Sakura huffed, an uncomfortable feeling stirring in her gut. “Can we just get the cake and go back to Sasuke?”
“Sure!” Naruto cheered, brightening up immediately, and he ran forward again as if they hadn’t disagreed at all.
Sakura tugged slightly at the knot of her headband as she followed him, opting to ignore his words. Surely it didn’t matter if Team 8 didn’t know that Team 7 was stuck on lame missions while they all were out helping foreign shinobi. Naruto didn’t know what he was talking about because he didn’t have a reputation to uphold. He’d get it eventually, once he did have one.
Sakura squirmed slightly and picked up the pace behind Naruto, continuing her efforts at shoving the thought aside.
~~~
Sasuke tied off the last balloon and looped its string around a chair with a satisfied hmph before turning to the table. Despite how stupid this mission had seemed at first glance, Sasuke understood that this party was undoubtedly a political move, some way to bring important people together for a seemingly unimportant event, and therefore the Leaf’s reputation could be affected, no matter how slightly, by how well they did.
Which made every other team member’s approach to the mission even more annoying than it would have been if it had been a waste of time. Sasuke cast an irritated glare at the still sleeping Kakashi before taking a breath and starting to set the table. At least with Sakura and Naruto gone, he could just finish decorating in peace. Maybe if he finished quickly, he could leave before they got back, and he would have successfully made it another day dodging his curse activation.
“You should go meet with your friends, Sasuke.”
Sasuke scowled at Itachi’s voice, turning to glare over his shoulder. “They’re not my friends. What- what are you holding?”
“Hm?” Itachi tilted his head, a knife spinning through his fingers, but it wasn’t a kunai. It was a knife from the pile at the edge of the table, distinctly decorative and something Itachi would have never held before. He paused its motion and held it up with a smile. “This?”
Sasuke marched over and grabbed for it, but his hand passed through nothing, and he let out the breath he was holding. He was imagining it. The ghost couldn’t pick up anything. Calm down.
Sasuke turned to the other knives and forks, moving to put a pair of each at every placemat, and, to his annoyance, Itachi drifted directly behind him, back to spinning the knife in his hand.
“Don’t you think it’s your responsibility to go with your team?” Itachi asked innocently, and Sasuke glared over his shoulder again before continuing on, ignoring the ghost.
The ghost did not ignore him back, and instead continued, “they’re the ones accomplishing the mission. What will you do if staying behind is deemed laziness? That won’t help any.”
“Then I’ll be Shikamaru,” Sasuke hissed through gritted teeth. “What do you care, anyway?”
Itachi gave a small laugh. “I want you to get better missions too, where you can finally face other ninja. Don’t you know how much easier it is for your hand to slip in battle than in all these simple tasks?”
Sasuke’s eyes widened, and he turned. “What?”
Itachi smiled. “It’s much more likely you’ll get the Mangekyo on a higher level mission. Of course I fully support you rising in the ranks.”
Sasuke just stared, his chest starting to heave. “Your jutsu won’t activate. There’s no one for it to activate on. You’re just trying to scare me.”
And he was succeeding. The simple possibility poisoned his dreams completely; how had Sasuke not known that danger? That fighting as a team could easily lead to a misstep, a misstrike, and a curse overpowering him.
Well, that just meant he’d have to keep his focus up while on those missions, same as he did at home. He had to go to other lands, at the very least to find his brother again. He refused to spend his entire life stuck under a curse. He could fight it off until it was lifted, keep his heart away from his team until they could be safe from him.
He just glared at Itachi, who smiled right back, but the next words Sasuke heard didn’t come from the ghost.
“Who are you talking to, Uchiha?”
Sasuke gasped, eyes going wide as the no-longer-sleeping Kakashi lifted his book off his face, looking over with an unimpressed expression.
Had he said anything incriminating? There was no way he hadn’t, but maybe Kakashi had only just woken up. He’d have to do damage control anyway and just hope Kakashi didn’t hear too much.
“What, you’re eavesdropping now?” he sneered, turning his back to the teacher so his wide eyes wouldn’t give him away.
“Oh, yes, because the diary thoughts of a failing genin are too fascinating for me to resist,” Kakashi said boredly, and Sasuke scowled.
“Shut up,” he tsked, returning to his previous task, and he heard Itachi laughing at him, but he refused to acknowledge him again. Even if his curse remained secret, it would be bad if people found out he vividly imagined his rogue ninja brother on a regular basis. He didn’t need to open that can of worms, ever, but especially not after he’d barely escaped Sakura, Naruto, and Hinata almost discovering it weeks ago.
“Are you still working on that?” Kakashi asked through an obvious yawn. “Are you going slowly on purpose?”
“It’d go a lot faster if you helped, Kakashi,” Sasuke scowled, glaring over his shoulder.
“Yes, probably,” Kakashi said blandly, but Sasuke’s annoyance was overshadowed entirely when Itachi appeared over Sasuke’s shoulder and leaned forward, his voice all pleasantness.
“I could help, Sasuke,” he said sweetly, and Sasuke flicked his eyes to him. Itachi tilted his head with a smile and added, “if you’d like me to, I mean.”
Sasuke stared at Itachi, his heart beating in his ears. There was something different about the way the ghost had asked, something about his voice that slipped into Sasuke’s mind like a shard of ice.
Like somehow, if Sasuke agreed, Itachi could actually do something.
He shook his head violently, and Itachi gave a soft sigh and said, “I understand. Maybe next time, Sasuke.”
Itachi lifted his hand, and Sasuke flinched against a poke that didn’t come, and when the odd, fearful sensation passed, he felt like an idiot. He was imagining his brother. Was he really that scared of his own imagination? That was weak.
He sniffed slightly and returned to his task, frowning with a clouded expression.
He couldn’t let the ghost’s jab poison his resolve. He wasn’t in any more danger from his curse outside of the Village than in it. These D-rank missions were extremely risky in their own way, giving the genin far too much time to get to know each other. A traveling mission might even be safer . There they’d be too focused on other things to worry about becoming friends with one another.
…right? He frowned, feeling faintly dizzy.
His thoughts were interrupted by a quiet clatter, and Sasuke turned to see that Kakashi had arrived beside him, his arms loaded up to his chest with plates.
Sasuke blinked at him in surprise as the man started putting the plates down on their placemats, and Kakashi sent him a hidden smile.
“I will have to fail you for this, unfortunately,” he said with a dramatic sigh, and Sasuke hmphed.
“For what?” he complained, returning to his own task. “Not having four arms to do this all myself?”
“For thinking you have to do it all yourself,” Kakashi said, raising an eyebrow, and Sasuke blinked at him in surprise. He could still see Itachi, seated in one of the chairs. He lowered his eyes, confused. Was he supposed to ask for help? Not from Itachi, obviously. From Kakashi? Who’d been asleep? Was that how he rose in the ranks to get missions outside the Village? Could he really risk those missions outside the Village? Was there a way he could get out on his own, without a team around him?
He felt faintly lost. He wished he wasn’t cursed.
“Kakashi,” he started, frowning, and Kakashi looked up.
“Hm?” Kakashi said boredly, and Sasuke scrunched his shoulders. He knew he and Kakashi weren’t friends, to the extent that it would be surprising if they even managed to tolerate each other even once Sasuke wasn’t cursed, but that didn’t mean he could let his guard down. It was easier to stay distant if he was disliked, and it was easier to be disliked if he was a jerk. And jerks don’t thank people for helping rather than leaving them to do everything alone.
Sasuke just frowned deeper. “I…just…mmph.”
“Deep words, Uchiha,” Kakashi said, and Sasuke scowled at him, but his eye looked like it was smiling.
“Whatever,” he tsked, turning pointedly away from the man.
Naruto and Sakura didn’t return until just about everything else was finished, but Sasuke didn’t mind. He and Kakashi had worked in silence after their brief exchange, and, even though Kakashi kept looking over at him, he didn’t ask again who Sasuke had been talking to. He really needed to start thinking of his surroundings.
“How’re you done already?!” Naruto demanded, pointing at him as Sakura balanced the large sheet cake as she walked to the table.
“I guess we’re just better,” Sasuke said airily, crossing his arms, and Naruto hmphed as Sakura placed the cake box into a cooler and returned to the table.
“Is this everything we need?” she asked, smiling at Sasuke, who turned away, and Kakashi answered, “yes, should be fine. Well done! I’m going home.”
“You barely did anything all day,” Naruto said as Kakashi turned to leave, pulling out his book and ignoring the others completely.
Sakura gave a dramatic sigh before turning back to the others. “D’you think he’ll ever remember we have to actually report that we’ve finished back to the hokage?”
“No, never,” Sasuke said, and Naruto snickered as he fished around in his bag for their team camera, lifting it and taking a picture of their completed work.
“You two, get in there,” he said, waving Sasuke and Sakura into frame, and Sakura turned to beam at Sasuke, but he knew how to get around this danger.
“You should be in some of these,” Sasuke said, stepping forward and taking the camera from Naruto, who practically threw it at him with a happy, “yippee!” before throwing his arm around Sakura and sending a huge thumbs up to the camera.
Sasuke lifted it and took the picture, hiding a smirk at Sakura’s eyeroll at Naruto, now forever remembered by the printed photo, and Naruto bounced forward to snatch the camera back, staring at the picture as it faded into sight.
“Mission accomplished, believe it!” he cheered, showing the rest of them the picture. “Who wants this one? I like it!”
“Then take it,” Sakura said, waving her hand, and Naruto pocketed it with a beam.
“C’mon, let’s get our report submitted,” Sasuke said, turning to the door, and the other two followed suit.
They passed a jonin outside, one Sakura apparently recognized as she said, “Ebisu Sensei! Are you here to take over until the party in the morning?”
“Yes,” the man said importantly as he adjusted his glasses. “Thank you for your preliminary work Miss Haruno.”
“And Naruto and Sasuke,” Naruto complained as Ebisu ignored them to enter the room and close the door. Naruto crossed his arms with a hmph.
“Whatever,” Sasuke said, taking the lead to continue on to the hokage’s office, a few floors higher in the same building. Konohamaru was really getting a nice venue for his party. “Who cares what one stupid jonin thinks?”
Or the rest of the Village, sometimes. Sasuke frowned.
Naruto, however, seemed immediately cheered by the sentiment.
“Yeah!” he shouted, jumping forward to link his arms around one each of his fellow genin’s. “We know how cool we are, believe it!”
“Get off,” Sasuke complained as Sakura giggled, but Naruto didn’t let Sasuke pull his arm away and instead continued to march the trio down the hallway.
“Let’s get ramen after we report!” Naruto cheered, and Sakura gave a bright, “sure!” as Sasuke tsked, “no way!”
“Do we really have to have this argument every time, Sasuke?” Naruto asked with a dramatic exhale.
“You won’t if you quit asking,” Sasuke said irritably, but Sakura leaned forward and put up her own dramatic pout.
“But it’s much more fun when you come with us,” she said, dragging out her words, and Sasuke glared at her, which was what he did the majority of the time whenever they did successfully annoy him into coming with them for a few minutes, and which was surely not fun at all. Sasuke really didn’t understand why these two wanted his company.
A secret selfish part of him was exhilarated that they did. He still had a chance, once he wasn’t cursed.
That little spark of hope gave him the strength to turn pointedly away. “You two are perfectly capable of enjoying ramen without me. Naruto’s done it all his life.”
“I have not!” Naruto said, and Sasuke tsked at him.
“Have too!”
“Have not!” Naruto insisted. “I’ve enjoyed ramen without you all the way until you started joining us for ramen. And since then I have enjoyed it with you. Ha.”
“Naruto raises an excellent point, Sasuke,” Sakura said with a mock serious nod, and Naruto’s expression was all smugness, and Sasuke wished he wasn’t cursed.
“Then you’ll be nostalgic for enjoying it without me,” he said, snubbing his nose slightly. “I’ve got other things to do, y’know.”
Like fix up broken empty shops in his broken empty town.
“And I’m sure you would do them all much better after eating,” Sakura said as they reached the stairwell, and Sasuke noticed quite suddenly that they were all still walking with linked arms. He tsked and shoved Naruto away and into Sakura, which distracted the boy enough to let Sasuke step behind them instead to climb the stairs.
Sakura pushed Naruto off her, which set the pair into a small bickering match about the logistics of climbing staircases next to other people, and Sasuke hid a grin at his success as he followed them.
Sakura shushed Naruto by the time they arrived at the hokage’s office, and Sasuke knocked before Naruto could fire back a reply.
Instead, Naruto turned to the door and shouted through it, “Team 7 reporting our-mmph!”
Sasuke clapped his hand over Naruto’s mouth and whispered, “don’t shout through the doors! Can’t you learn any etiquette-?”
He felt something oddly wet on the palm of his hand and yanked it away with a squawk and a snapped, “what the-?! Did you just lick my hand?!”
“Are you two serious?” Sakura hissed as Naruto pointed and laughed. “We’re about to see the hokage, and this is what you-!”
The door to the office opened, and all three snapped to attention to see-
Sasuke’s eyes widened as they landed on an anbu mask, a cat with a red and green pattern that loomed above them all.
“Please come in,” the anbu said with a pleasant voice, but Sasuke’s instincts had already kicked in, the lighthearted teasing atmosphere from a moment prior dissipating instantly into an icy chill that locked up Sasuke’s ribcage.
Sakura and Naruto stepped right forward into the office, but Sasuke couldn’t move, and he inwardly kicked himself, trying to snap out of the stupid habit, but his brother’s ghost had clawed ice into his head earlier that Sasuke hadn’t been able to thaw yet, and his battered heart wasn’t ready to see an anbu right after that.
Sasuke scrunched his shoulders, trying to bully sense into his brain; this anbu was wearing his mask! His brother hadn’t worn the mask that night! Snap out of it!
Sasuke felt something brush his hand, and he nearly jumped as his eyes snapped away from the anbu and to the source of the contact. Sakura had taken his hand to gently guide him forward into the office. To lead him away from the danger of the anbu.
Thoughtlessly, Sasuke let her.
He still felt vaguely wooden, but he could feel his breathing again, and he locked his focus on Sakura’s hand to tug him back to reality. Her touch was gentle. Nothing that night had been gentle. In, out. Calm down.
He landed in front of the hokage and took in the office to force his mind to something else. The hokage was alone now, no advisors or Iruka in the chairs around him. He was studying them, his eyes clearly calculating-
The door closed behind them, and Sasuke stiffened as he heard the anbu approach them. The anbu was still inside with them, and it’d be harder to escape if the door was closed. Sasuke hadn’t been able to escape before, he’d gotten caught even with open doors, but he knew the hokage’s office had a window escape, and maybe the other two could get away through there if Sasuke could draw the anbu’s focus-
The anbu stepped into line next to Naruto and stood at attention in front of the hokage, and Sasuke just stared at him. Calm down. This anbu wouldn’t risk anything in front of the hokage. In, out. Think about something else.
Sasuke forced his gaze back forward and pretended that Madara Uchiha was standing between Naruto and the anbu.
His imagination didn’t listen to him, however, and instead of Madara, showed Itachi seated comfortably in Iruka’s usual spot, smiling pleasantly. Sasuke felt his eye twitch.
Naruto gave a dramatic point to the hokage, jumping sideways slightly as he did, enough that Sakura and Sasuke had to take a step away to not get run into. A step further from the anbu. Stupidly, Sasuke wondered if Naruto had done it on purpose.
“Team 7 reporting for a mission completion!” Naruto said cheerfully. “We kicked those party preparations’ butts, believe it!”
“And Ebisu is there now,” Sakura said. Her hand was still in Sasuke’s. “He said he’ll watch over everything until the party starts.”
“Thank you for your hard work,” the hokage said. “I’ll have our records team produce and file the report in the morning. Where is your sensei?”
“Er-“ Sakura started, but Naruto interrupted with a loud, “at home, believe it!” and the hokage gave a dramatic sigh.
“I suppose that’s to be expected,” he said. “But you’ve come at the perfect time; another mission has come up that I need a team to perform. An investigation mission, that’s C-ranked.”
All three genin perked up at that. The potential even filtered the slightest release through the constricting feeling pressing against Sasuke’s chest and blotting out nearly all his thoughts.
“C-rank?” Naruto echoed excitedly, and Sasuke managed, “traveling?” without giving away a tremble in his voice, a fact he was quite proud of.
“No,” the hokage said. “It’s still within the Leaf Village. But it is a matter of importance. Do you three know of Hashirama’s Forest, behind the hospital?”
“Mhm!” Sakura nodded eagerly. “The trees there are the last remnants of the first hokage’s wood style jutsu used during the defense of the Fire Hospital during the First Great Ninja War, the fight that led to the founding of the Leaf Village-!”
Sakura stopped suddenly, putting a hand over her mouth as she pinked, but this time the hokage didn’t reprimand her for speaking up.
“Precisely,” he said. “It’s an important site in the history of our Village, and it’s also scheduled to be a location for our upcoming joint Chunin Exams. I’ve just received notice of new fire damage in a small area in these trees. It could be simply Academy students messing around, or perhaps something more troublesome. I’d like you to perform a brief investigation of the area and report back a more detailed log of your findings. Captain…Yamato will join you as your fourth member.”
“Yes, sir!” the anbu said as Sasuke’s eyes blew wide, and Naruto pointed.
“Why him? Why not Kakashi?” the boy complained, and the hokage sighed.
“Yamato is quite knowledgeable of the forest in question. He is going with or without you. If you three think this mission is too much for you, I can request a more capable team to join Yamato.”
“No, we can do it!” Sakura said as Naruto shouted, “yeah, believe it!” and Sasuke set his shoulders and nodded. Finally moving up to C-rank missions was too important a step to let stupid instincts ruin it. He’d just have to suck it up and deal with it.
The hokage gave a rather satisfied smile. “Very well. Treat Captain Yamato as you would Kakashi. He’s your superior for this mission. While this matter isn’t an emergency, you should still move out as soon as possible. Dismissed!”
“Yes, sir!” the anbu -Yamato- said, striding to the window and pushing it open to hop out onto the roof and down the window’s fire escape. Naruto startled and ran after him with a, “wait, hold up!” and Sakura turned to Sasuke, her bright eyes in an obvious question.
Sasuke nodded and squeezed her hand, fighting to pull his thoughts back to normal. As soon as he did, however, the thought slammed back into his mind of how absurdly dangerous such an action was, and he quickly tugged his hand away and to his chest, turning quickly to run after Naruto and the anbu he was now stuck with before that fear could freeze him even further.
Notes:
if the show won't give me Yamato, I'll give myself Yamato!!!!!
Update on where I'm at in Shippuden: KAGUYA MENTIONED!!!! my keychain has been seen on screen!!!
Currently Madara is fighting the tailed beasts and I think Madara should yknow...put his shirt back on PFFT
But hey the giant groot statue? treelike thing? whatever it is is back, does this mean Yamato rescue back on the table?? The Yamato rescue squad is performing horribly. The Kaguya search squad rests triumphantly having successfully accomplished THEIR job *side eyes the Yamato rescue squad*
OH WAIT I FORGOT MY OTHER JOKE okay y'all are really telling me that the whole village system was initiated by hashirama and madara. whose entire friendship is formed around stone skipping. and they didn't name their village the Hidden Stone Village?? they literally hid messages on skipping stones to protect each other like. Ik this is probably because they obviously had to name their village Hidden Leaf since the author already wrote that but it's kinda ironic knowing that there is a different Hidden Stone Village when stone skipping is what led to the entire Leaf Village existing pfft
Ty for reading and I hope you have a lovely day! <3
Chapter 21: Hashirama's Forest
Notes:
lol the chapter's not even late
Con is fun! I accomplished my goal and bought a Madara action figure while dressed as Hashirama to go with my Hashirama action figure I previously bought dressed as Madara
also yay we've hit 100k words! and we haven't even started the Land of Waves arc yet! :') I hope y'all like long fics
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“I’d like to introduce myself more directly, if you all wouldn’t mind,” the anbu said once all three genin had climbed down the roof and landed on the dirt road. He removed his mask and placed it on the side of his head, sending them a smile. “I’m Yamato.”
Sasuke shrank a step away at the removal of the mask. The man’s face looked eerily unsettling; nothing about it was tangibly out of place, but something was just off . His eyes didn’t look quite right, like they were too heavy for their sockets. They looked haunted, in a way.
“I’m Naruto Uzumaki, the next hokage, believe it!” Naruto said. “Soon you’re gonna be taking orders from me!”
“Is that right?” Yamato said with a pleasant laugh, and Naruto crossed his arms with a stubborn nod, sticking his tongue out.
“It is right.”
“Well, we’ll have to see. And you?” Yamato turned his attention to Sasuke, who felt his hands twitch.
“Uchiha,” he gritted, and Yamato nodded at the rather curt response before turning to Sakura.
“Sakura Haruno. Thank you very much for letting us join you on this mission!” Sakura said, excitement clearly in her eyes. Sasuke took a breath, trying to at least pretend to be as calm as his two teammates. If they did this well, they could get more C-rank missions, which could lead to a traveling mission to the Land of Wind. He needed to pull himself together.
“Thank you for helping out!” Yamato said, turning to start walking forward. “Your knowledge of the Village’s history is quite impressive, Sakura Haruno.”
“I know!” Sakura said, and Sasuke couldn’t help but smirk slightly at the cocky response. It felt nice to smile. It helped release a fraction of the pressure constricting his chest. Distantly, he hoped that wasn’t dangerous.
Yamato gave a cheerful laugh. “Well, don’t be shy. Got any more information about Hashirama’s Forest that’ll help us out?”
“Oh, sure!” Sakura said, bouncing forward slightly. “What do you want to know?”
“I want to know!” Naruto shouted, sticking his hand in the air. “About…uh…”
The others watched him expectantly, and Naruto blinked blankly at them for a moment before Sasuke tsked, the familiarity of irritation loosening his chest’s pressure further.
“How hard can it possibly be to come up with something?” Sasuke asked, and Naruto hmphed.
“Why don’t you come up with something if you’re so smart?” Naruto challenged, and Sasuke rolled his eyes and turned.
Except when his gaze landed on Sakura’s bright and cheerful smile, her green eyes sparkling in the just setting sun, quite a few of the thoughts in Sasuke’s head evaporated on the spot, and he opened and closed his mouth stupidly for a few seconds. “What- er- maybe…mmph.“
“Ha! You just proved me right!” Naruto laughed, and Sasuke turned and snapped, “shut up!” as Sakura gave a dramatic sigh.
“Captain Yamato? Is there anything you would like to know?”
“Why certainly, Sakura Haruno,” Yamato said. “How about you inform us what kind of creatures we might encounter inside?”
“Sure!” Sakura said, perking up. “Hashirama’s Forest is used by all sorts of Leaf ninja as a place for their summoning creatures to visit or live full time! A lot of different summons live there, but since they’re all tamed, they know not to attack anybody without orders from the shinobi they’ve formed a bond with!”
“Precisely! Well remembered,” Yamato praised, and Sakura beamed. “Do you three have any favorite summonings you might want to see? We can keep an eye out for any.”
“Is there a ramen summon?!” Naruto asked excitedly.
“Uh, no.”
Naruto turned away. “Then nope, no interest at all.”
Sasuke rolled his eyes, but he stilled when he saw Yamato turn his attention back to him.
“How about you, Uchiha?” he asked. “We killed the crow already, so you don’t need to worry about that.”
“Crow?” Sasuke echoed, blinking up at Yamato. “What crow?”
Yamato stared blankly at Sasuke for a split second, his face completely unreadable, and the expression was so familiar that it struck a sliver of ice back through Sasuke’s heart, and he felt himself locking up again.
But then Yamato’s cheerful expression returned, and he explained, “there was a crow summon that had such a big ego, and it would always attack people with dark hair to make sure its feathers were always considered the prettiest. It made it quite ineffective as a summon, so the shinobi in charge of it had us dispel it and send it to the Cloud Village instead of here.”
“You said you killed it,” Sakura said suspiciously, and Yamato laughed cheerfully.
“Forgive me, that’s an anbu phrase for dispelling a summon. But don’t fret, Uchiha. You won’t get dive bombed by a bird jealous of your dark hair. Did you two say a summon you liked?”
“No,” Sasuke said, crossing his arms and shying a bit further away from the man.
Sakura put her hands on her hips and sent her own beaming smile. “Aw, but I wanted to see that crow .”
Yamato sent a smile back. “You’ll have to visit the Cloud Village for that.”
“Maybe we will,” Sakura said, her eyes narrowing slightly.
“Enjoy yourselves then.”
Sakura tsked at Yamato’s smile and glanced over her shoulder at Sasuke, who had no idea what she was trying to accomplish here.
“I have a question!” Naruto said, sticking his hand back into the air.
“Yes, Naruto Uzumaki?”
“If this is Hashirama’s Forest or whatever, are any of Hashirama’s summons in there?”
“Hashirama had no summons,” Yamato said, an almost cocky sort of smile taking over his face. “All of his strength came from his own power. That’s what made him so admirable.”
“But one of the founders did have a summon,” Sakura said, nudging Sasuke, who almost jumped at the sudden contact. He tsked at himself. He was way too on edge, but he couldn’t quite drag himself back to calm. “Koibito Uchiha, right?”
“Yes, she had several deer summons, but they weren’t nearly as effectual as Hashirama was on his own,” Yamato said with a sigh. “No one else compared to Hashirama’s powers, and no power has since. That’s why his jutsu remains one of the most extraordinary of history.”
“You seem awfully attached to the guy,” Sakura said, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow, and Yamato sent one of those odd smiles back over his shoulder at her.
“I suppose,” he said brightly, turning back forward. “But I’m certainly not the only one, you know.”
“Yeah, the old hokages were super cool, believe it!” Naruto cheered. “But if Hashirama doesn’t have any summons, how’s he get his trees to fistfight his enemies?”
Naruto mimed this fistfight by swinging a few punches in the air. Yamato didn’t look back when he answered this time.
“I already told you,” the man said. “His power was simply unmatched and indispensable.”
“Yeah, and so were the Uchiha founders’, right?” Sakura said, and Sasuke glanced at her, trying to stamp away the very dangerous gratitude blooming in his chest as her insistence on complimenting his family. He wished he wasn’t cursed.
“Sakura Haruno, do you know what happened in the Second Great Ninja War?” Yamato asked, and Sakura perked up.
“Of course!” she said. “The first hokage faced off an invading army and defeated them all singlehandedly, ending the war by himself in one battle. I’m not saying he isn’t impressive-“
“Yes, and Madara Uchiha died before the battle even began from his own daughter betraying the Village. I think that proves which was more indispensable, don’t you-?”
“Shut up!” Sasuke snapped before he could think better of it, anger burning hot below his eyes as the anbu turned over his shoulder. Sasuke very nearly locked up again at the renewed attention, but the heat beneath his eyes kept him glaring at the anbu, as if it were supplying him bravery somehow.
Fortunately, the man didn’t look angry. Instead, he gave a sheepish sort of smile. “Apologies! I thought that would be fair conversation since it’s taught in the Academy. You’ll have to forgive me, I only ever speak with fellow anbu, and those conversations can be quite dark most of the time. I’ll keep things light from here out!”
Yamato turned and continued forward, clapping his hands behind his back as he said, “Sakura Haruno, would you like to explain how animal summons work?”
Sakura didn’t answer right away; instead her attention was on Sasuke, who tsked angrily and turned pointedly away from her and wished he wasn’t cursed.
“Sakura Haruno?” Yamato echoed, looking back, and Sakura said, “o-oh! Um, what did you ask?”
As Yamato repeated his question, Naruto leaned closer to Sasuke, cupping his hand around his mouth and very seriously whispering, “let’s get ramen after this.”
“Shut up!” Sasuke hissed, shoving him aside, and he tripped and nearly fell with a squawk.
The rest of the trip from the hokage building to the hospital passed fairly uneventfully. Yamato kept prompting Sakura to talk about summoning jutsu requirements, and her previous efforts of remembering Sasuke seemed to disappear the longer Yamato let her share her information and showered her in compliments for being so smart.
A small selfish part of Sasuke lamented the lack of attention sent his way. A much smarter part of Sasuke reminded him that avoiding Sakura’s attention was one of his primary life goals, and he begrudgingly acknowledged this reality despite the bitter feeling that had rooted in his chest and longed to hear her keep saying that his family still mattered.
Yamato took the team through the hospital instead of around to get to the forest; apparently one of the nurses had been the first person to notice the new fire damage, which meant it must have been visible from one of the hospital courtyards.
As the team entered the foyer, Sasuke let his eyes drift to the two large pictures of the four founders that hung on the entry walls, and he let himself smile slightly. The hospital was one of the few places in the Village that always acknowledged the Uchiha founders to be just as important as the Senju ones.
“Hey Captain Anbu Dude,” Naruto said as they passed, and Sasuke dragged his gaze away from the pictures and back to the task at hand. “Could it have been one of the summons that burned the trees?”
“It’s possible,” Yamato said, “but they typically don’t attack or damage anything without consulting the shinobi who’s bonded with them first. They understand that they’re guests here.”
“But maybe a shinobi told their summon to start the fire,” Sakura suggested, her voice eager.
“Perhaps, but that would still give away who’d done it,” Yamato said as they reached the front desk in the main area. “Since each summon has a specific shinobi attached to it.”
Yamato turned his attention and smile to the woman working the front desk. “Hello! We spoke earlier, I’m here to investigate the fire damage?”
“Of course!” the woman said, smiling as she stood. “I’ll escort you to the gardens where our nurse saw it.”
“Did you see any suspicious people around earlier today?” Sakura asked.
“It’s hard to know, honestly,” the woman said, stepping in front of them. “Many shinobi practice team moves with their summons, and with all the preparations for the chunin exams, it’s hard to tell what flashes of light are suspicious and which are simply one of those two perfectly ordinary things.”
The woman arrived at a glass door that led into a garden, holding it open for Yamato to take as she continued, “typically if any shinobi-summon team causes any damage, as long as they report it to the hokage promptly, Tenzo here can-”
“Yamato,” Yamato corrected, and the woman glanced over her shoulder with a courteous smile.
“Forgive me. Yamato can come over and restore the damage quickly, and the worst the shinobi gets is a light reprimand for being careless, which usually inclines them to reporting it. But apparently our nurse was the first to report any damage, which seemed a bit suspicious to us. That’s what he saw.”
The woman pointed to one of the trees tucked into the thick forest edging up against the small but tidy garden they were standing in. A chunk of the bark looked darkly charred, standing out amid the otherwise smooth and light trunk. “It might be nothing, but we’d rather be cautious. This hospital is seen by many as a symbol of the Leaf Village’s strength, given how entrenched it is with its founding. It would be more than a shame should anything happen to it.”
“And nothing will, I can assure you,” Yamato said with a nod and a smile, which the woman returned.
“Thank you very much, each of you,” she said. “Please let me know if you need anything more.”
“We’ll kick this mission’s butt, believe it!” Naruto shouted over Sakura’s polite, “thank you very much!” to the woman and her much less polite, “are you serious Naruto? Be professional!” snapped to the boy under her breath.
“Let’s not delay!” Yamato called over his shoulder, striding towards the burned trunk, and Sasuke grit his teeth and steeled himself to walk in behind the anbu.
The air felt different inside the treeline somehow, though Sasuke supposed that wasn’t surprising. This forest was just a lingering jutsu, after all, and even more than that, it housed countless summoning animals with any sort of ability. Distantly, Sasuke wondered if any knew puppet jutsu.
“What are we looking for exactly, Captain Anbu Dude?” Naruto asked, rooting around in his bag to take out their camera, snapping a picture of the burn when they arrived at the tree.
“We’re just here to observe as much as we can for now,” Yamato said pleasantly as the hairs on the back of Sasuke’s neck prickled, and he stared around. He had the unnerving and horribly familiar sensation of someone’s eyes lingering on him, and one glance at Sakura told him that she was feeling the same.
Naruto clearly was not. “We just have to look at it? Isn’t that kinda super lame?”
Yamato laughed. “It’s assisting the hokage by intelligence gathering, which is a task only given to the most skilled and reliable shinobi. Do you consider that to be kinda super lame?”
“No sir!” Sakura said quickly, but Sasuke’s attention was distracted from them, his focus instead on scanning the trees for whatever was clearly watching them.
Yamato simply laughed brightly as Sakura tried to argue the importance of intelligence missions until suddenly movement shifted between the tall grass tangled amid the trees, and Sasuke’s worries were proven to not be his imagination this time.
A large wolf jumped in front of them, its fur speckled with streaks of gold, and the three genin shrieked and jumped into each other.
Yamato appeared completely undeterred and instead cheerfully said, “hello Bonbo.”
The wolf didn’t reply at first, instead circling the group before shoving its snout into Sasuke’s side, who shouted and jumped back, crashing into Sakura as he did.
But then the wolf stepped back, its teeth in a grin as it said, “you’re one of Koibito’s. I’ll go share that you’re here.”
The wolf turned and bounded away, and all three genin turned to stare at it as Naruto yelled, “what the heck was that?”
“That was Bonbo! A very nice summon, from the Nara family. He likes their deer,” Yamato said pleasantly, and Sakura turned to him and shrieked suddenly, which snapped Sasuke’s gaze as well to see what she’d reacted to.
A large spider the size of Yamato’s head was now dangling in the air directly beside the anbu, but when Yamato turned curiously to see what Sakura had yelled about, he didn’t look perturbed at all, an increasingly common trend.
“Kyojun!” he said as the spider scowled and spat, “where is my sister, Tenzo?”
“My name is Yamato, and I’m not the one in charge of retrieving your sister. That is Jiraiya’s job,” Yamato said airily, and the spider simply hissed in annoyance as Naruto raised his camera again, but before Sasuke could even snap at him not to set off the flash again and draw in creepier summons, those very types of summons arrived.
A cluster of three glimmering moths now appeared from the trees, fluttering around the trio of genin and chattering in happy voices over each other.
“Look who’s come!
“Aw, they’re together!”
“You’d think they’d be happier.”
“They were never happy!”
“Aw, maybe sometimes!”
“She needs eight! Then it’s like a set!”
“In order!”
The three let out a series of giggles and dispersed suddenly, each darting to flap a centimeter in front of one of the genins’ faces apiece, and all spoke at once.
Sakura’s: “could you take eight?”
Naruto’s: “could I take your stomach?”
Sasuke’s: “could I take your eyes?”
Those eyes blew wide as Sasuke snapped, “huh?!” and Sakura gasped, grabbing Sasuke’s hand and Naruto’s arm.
Naruto yelped, “NO! Captain Anbu Dude!” as he crunched in on himself, hugging his stomach and pulling Sakura slightly over as he did, and Yamato looked over from his argument with the spider summon.
“Would you three like me to tell the hokage what you’re saying to these genin?” Yamato called with annoyance, and the three moths gasped and scattered, disappearing into the trees again.
“I thought you said this place was safe!” Sasuke snapped as Naruto said, “I would like to leave, believe it!”, still hugging his stomach.
Yamato looked surprised. “Those three don’t know the jutsu for that. You’re fine.”
“The jutsu for organ transplants?!” Sakura squeaked, practically hugging Sasuke’s arm now as Naruto said, “uh, yeah, that did not make it better, believe it.”
Yamato frowned as he turned more fully to them. “Are you backing out of the mission? I suppose we can tell the hokage you weren’t capable-”
“What? No way!” Naruto shouted, pointing. “We’re capable of anything, believe it!”
“You’re repetitive, aren’t you?” the spider muttered as Sasuke squeezed his eyes shut and open again. He wasn’t sure how many more things could go against him today before he just broke down, which he had no interest in doing even if it was seeming more likely that he wouldn’t be having a say in the matter.
He tried to imagine Madara slicing his fan across the moth who’d asked to take his eyes, and it calmed him fractionally. Sakura’s presence at his side calmed him much more.
“What mission are you here for?” the spider asked Yamato, who turned.
“Fire damage!” he replied. “And we are in a bit of a hurry. We can resume this argument the next time I’m here.”
The spider tsked but began to climb back up the string it had been dangling on. “There’s more than it looks like. Just so you know.”
“What’s that mean?!” Naruto shouted, but the spider was already gone.
Yamato stepped back over to them, his haunted eyes scanning the trees before landing on Sasuke and Sakura, still pale and clinging to each other, and something about the anbu’s rather cold and calculating expression set every nerve in Sasuke’s body on edge.
“Are you two sure you can do this?” Yamato asked, his voice clearly disbelieving, and the tone was enough to drag anger out of the icy fear locking in Sasuke in place.
This anbu thought he was weak. He couldn’t let himself be.
“Put your mask back on,” Sasuke said quietly, steeling himself as he stepped away from Sakura. Yamato blinked once and moved the cat mask to cover his face. Sasuke took a breath. His brother hadn’t worn the mask.
Sakura let go of his hand when he stepped away, and he took another breath. She’d grabbed Naruto’s arm too, which meant it was an action between teammates, not friends. He had no friends.
He took another breath. He could do this.
“Where are we headed?” Sasuke asked, and Yamato turned with a point.
“It looks like another burn over there,” he said. “That must be what Kyojun meant. They’re deeper in than they look. Let’s go.”
Yamato headed forward, and Sasuke pointedly didn’t look at his teammates as he walked forward after the anbu.
Several other summoning animals appeared to stare at them as they walked by, and many sent greetings to Yamato, who seemed to know each one by name but sent them all off quickly with some polite explanation of their rush. Sakura saw the next burn on the trail, and her voice sounded shaky enough that Sasuke wished he could turn back and comfort her -as teammates clearly did- but he couldn’t risk anything dangerous now, not when he was balancing over his own icy maw of terror eagerly waiting to snap over him.
He did glance back once after the tenth or fifteenth burn mark and saw that she and Naruto were slightly clinging to each other’s arm as they stared around the eerie trees, Naruto taking pictures with his free hand and holding the camera for Sakura to take out the photograph, and Sasuke forcibly turned his gaze back forward and focused on how relieved he should be feeling that at least Itachi wasn’t here for this little adventure.
“Captain Anbu Dude!” Naruto yelled as Sakura whispered, “it’s Yamato!” and Naruto ignored her to continue. “There’s some on that tree too!”
“And this one,” Sakura said, and when Sasuke glanced back, he saw that she was pointing. He stepped over to the enormous tree she’d gestured to as she continued, “they’re a lot more frequent around here, aren’t they?”
“Seems that way,” Yamato said, heading to examine the tree Naruto had pointed out. Sasuke heard footsteps behind him and jumped, but when he spun around all he saw was Sakura, investigating the same tree she’d pointed to.
“What do you think, Sasuke?” she asked, staring up at the marks on the side of the massive tree, softly adding, “did the first hokage seriously do all this?”
“That means they’re not real trees, right?” Sasuke asked, stepping around the large trunk to check for any more marks. “It’s just…a…”
Sasuke’s eyes caught sight of burns, and he stepped back, his eyes widening. Sakura poked her head around the trunk.
“Just a what?” she asked before she saw his gaze, and when she turned to look too, she gasped.
The massive trunk had two symbols burned into it, one of the Leaf Village and one of the Sand Village. Sasuke recognized the Sand’s symbol immediately from the research he’d done looking for information on puppet jutsu, though here, both symbols had a slash burned across, directly through the centers.
But Sasuke’s eyes weren’t on them.
“Captain Yamato?” Sakura called, and a moment later the man and Naruto appeared from behind the tree.
“What is-?” Yamato started before he saw the markings too, and he stopped immediately. He stared around the clearing behind them before stepping forward and placing his hand next to the markings.
“They aren’t recent,” he said after a moment, stepping back, and Naruto took another picture. “Whoever put them here is gone by now. We should report this to the-“
“Yamato,” Sasuke managed, and he only barely flinched when the anbu’s attention turned to him.
“Yes?”
Sasuke pointed. “The other marks weren’t random.”
“Hm?” Naruto asked, but Sakura gasped.
From where they were standing, those marks that had seemed to be random patches of burnt bark now suddenly lined up to spell jagged, scarred words.
DEATH TO ALL BEASTS
“What’s that mean?” Sakura whispered as Naruto took a step back, his camera lowering as his eyes went slightly wide.
Yamato studied the clearing closely for a moment, his expression unreadable beneath the mask, and Sasuke flicked his gaze to him.
“You know what it means, right?” Sasuke asked. “What is it?”
Yamato exhaled. “A problem. We should go.”
He turned and gestured for the others to follow, and Naruto grabbed Sasuke’s arm warmer as Sakura pressed against his other side. The air felt suddenly wary, more ominous somehow. Sasuke squeezed Sakura’s hand slightly. Oh. He hadn’t realized he’d taken it again.
He didn’t let go. Somehow, it felt safer with the three of them making contact.
“Are we in danger?” Sakura asked. “What do those symbols mean? Is it a threat to the Leaf Village?”
Yamato glanced over his shoulder, his mask staring them down before he spoke up.
“We’ve been receiving backlash since admitting a certain team to take part in our joint chunin exams,” he said. “Since that team is from the Village Hidden in the Sand, I assume this vandalism is another statement of protest.”
“The Sand?” Sakura asked. “Why?”
“The Sand’s not particularly known for its discretion,” Yamato said, clearly a bit distracted as he swiveled his head around the forest. “There’s a shinobi there that many believe should not be given the title of shinobi.”
“It’s someone with a tailed beast, isn’t it?” Naruto asked quietly, and Yamato shifted his hidden gaze back over his shoulder.
“Yes,” he answered simply. “And they won’t hide it when they come here for the exams. The Sand is very proud to have it.”
“A tailed beast,” Sasuke echoed. “Like the nine-tailed fox that came here ages ago?”
“More or less,” Yamato said carefully. “Some people believe the tailed beasts can protect the Villages they live in. Others think they cause ruin and destruction. A certain group rose during the Third War who aimed to end the war by killing all the tailed beasts in the world. They proved they were capable in their means at least by, allegedly, bringing down the Sixtails of the Rain and the Fivetails of the Waterfall. Since many people blame the tailed beasts for the Third War, a lot of supporters for this group have cropped up around the countries. I assume the vandal is one of these supporters.”
“But what does that mean?” Sakura asked. “The Third War’s over.”
“Not to everyone,” Yamato said. “And as far as this group is concerned, it’s only a matter of time until another war starts up unless they kill all remaining tailed beasts.”
Yamato turned his head back over his shoulder, his voice turning bright again. “But you kids don’t need to worry! We can handle a couple of rogue ninjas. The Leaf won’t fall to a group like that.”
“Yeah! We’re strong, believe it!” Naruto said, perking up immediately, and his optimism warmed the chill in the air just fractionally.
“Yamato! Hey, Yamato!” a voice yelled, and Kyojun dropped out of the canopy, swinging slightly on his spider’s web as he did. “Leaving already? Bonbo hasn’t even brought Shinzo yet-”
“Sorry, but we need to report our findings to the hokage,” Yamato said, not even slowing. “Maybe Shinzo can see them later.”
“I guess, but she won’t be too happy.”
“Tell her to read the vandalism, and she’ll get it,” Yamato said.
“Vandalism?” Kyojun echoed with a short laugh. “Who’s stupid enough to vandalize these trees?”
“Oh, you know. There’s always someone,” Yamato said idly, glancing back and rubbing the heel of his hand across his mask.
“Oh,” the spider said flatly. “I’ll leave you to it then.”
And then the spider climbed back up its web.
“What was that about?” Sakura asked. “Do you have an idea who did this?”
“Not at all,” Yamato said, looking back forward. “But perhaps the hokage will. We shouldn’t delay in reporting back. A good shinobi is always as time efficient as possible!”
The three genin exchanged glances, the same apparently bad shinobi clearly in each’s minds.
When they left the trees, the air felt warmer and more secure, enough to let Sasuke step away from the other two without locking up completely, which he was annoyed to be pleased about.
“Why don’t I handle the report to the hokage?” Yamato said once they reached the street outside the hospital. “You three haven’t had a break all day; go enjoy yourselves with a nice dinner or something, yeah?”
“With ramen!” Naruto cheered, and Yamato nodded.
“Yes, a big bowl of ramen apiece,” he said. “I’ll bring the hokage the pictures you took, if you don’t mind. They’ll be very helpful.”
“Sure!” Naruto said, digging in his bag for them, and Sakura frowned.
“Will we get them back?” she asked, and Yamato turned his masked face towards her.
“Of course!” he said as Naruto shoved the small pile of pictures into his hand. “Your assistance is much appreciated.”
And then he was gone, jumping up to the roof of a nearby building to run back towards the hokage’s office.
As soon as the anbu had left, Sasuke could feel relief seeping into him, and he felt faintly dizzy from it. He’d done it. He’d finished the mission. He’d been strong.
He smiled.
Sakura seemed less satisfied than him. “My dad’s totally right about this Village. They don’t share anything.”
“Huh?” Naruto said as Sasuke asked, “what are you talking about?”
“Obviously there’s more to that vandalism than Captain Yamato’s telling us,” she said. “Why else couldn’t we go hear him tell the hokage about it? Why take our pictures and not bring us with him to explain what those pictures are even of? And what was up with that weird conversation with the spider summon? There must be something they don’t want us to know, something about tailed beasts maybe-“
“Let’s get ramen!” Naruto loudly interrupted, and Sasuke glanced up at the sky.
“Now? It’s gonna get dark soon,” he said, watching the streaks of gold filtering across the sky from the setting sun.
“What, are you scared of the moon?” Naruto jabbed, and Sasuke tsked.
“ No ,” he said irritably, and Naruto strode forward with a dramatic point ahead.
“Yeah, ‘cause an Uchiha can just fistfight the moon away, believe it!”
Sasuke tsked and crossed his arms, snubbing his nose up slightly. “I don’t have to fistfight the moon, Madara did it for me-“
Sakura interrupted them by stepping between the pair and grabbing both by the arm. “Can you two for once not get distracted with something stupid? You should be more concerned about this! It could be a genuine threat to the Leaf Village!”
She turned and prodded Sasuke in the chest and asked, “what do you know about the Sand tailed beast?”
Sasuke huffed. “I don’t have information from the Sand Village. If I did , I wouldn’t have to be asking Kakashi for puppet jutsu lessons.”
Sakura turned now to Naruto. “What do you know?”
“I know that I’m gonna order a big bowl of Ichiraku’s pork special-“
“You two are ridiculous!” Sakura exclaimed, throwing her hands up. “Are you honestly not worried at all about a tailed beast coming here from the Sand?”
“I can’t help you if I don’t know anything about the Sand tailed beast,” Sasuke huffed, turning to her. “I don’t even know where they put the fox that came here! Why do you think I can tell you about the Sand’s one?”
“Maybe the Sand tailed beast would know how to enjoy Ichiraku ramen with his friends instead of arguing in the street, believe it,” Naruto muttered with a pout, and Sasuke snapped, “we’re not friends!” and Sakura groaned aloud.
“I give up!” she said, turning on her heel. “I’m gonna ask Ino!”
Sasuke hmphed after her, an odd feeling of disappointment stirring in his gut at the idea of her leaving, but he was distracted easily enough by Naruto jabbing a finger into Sasuke’s chest and retorting, “if we’re not friends, then why’d you say you’d fight the moon for me, huh?”
“I did not say that!” Sasuke snapped, turning to him.
“Did too!”
“I did not!” Sasuke insisted, stomping slightly in frustration. “You’re just being delusional like always .”
“I’m not delusional! You’re trying to fight the moon!” Naruto yelled.
“Madara already beat the moon!” Sasuke shouted. “You’re the one saying the Sand tailed beast has any interest in a stupid ramen shop!”
“It is not stupid! Any tailed beast would be lucky to eat Ichiraku ramen!”
Their argument was interrupted when a tall figure landed behind them, and a glance told Sasuke that it was Kakashi, for some reason.
The masked jonin placed a hand on each genin’s back and, through an obvious smile, quietly said, “okay, let’s stop this conversation.”
Sasuke’s eyes widened, and he pointed accusatorily. “He started it!”
“I did not, believe it!” Naruto shouted, but as Sasuke opened his mouth to argue, his peripheral vision caught sight of the street around them.
The people who’d been occupying it had stilled in their motions, their attentions turned towards Sasuke and Naruto with something dark clouding their expressions. Sasuke found himself shrinking a bit closer to Kakashi at their cold stares, lingering with such a distinct air of dislike and aimed squarely at the arguing pair.
“Now that I’ve finally found you, let’s go get dinner, shall we?” Kakashi said, steering the two genin forward. “It’ll be my treat!”
“Okay!” Naruto cheered, as if the previous argument had dissipated completely from his mind.
Sasuke scowled. “Why? Because you realized you completely ditched us before?”
“I believe the phrase you’re looking for is ‘clocked out’, but no,” Kakashi said. “I thought I’d show a little gratitude- I heard you three were helping out my old friend Tenzo on his mission this evening. I wanted to snag Haruno as well, but she seems to have run off.”
“Who’s Tenzo?” Naruto asked flatly, and Sasuke tsked.
“It’s what all those summons kept calling Yamato,” he said, and Kakashi sighed, dropping his head back.
“Did he change his name agan?” he asked. “I can never keep track.”
Sasuke turned his scowl back towards the ground in front of him, squirming slightly to get his back out of Kakashi’s touch. It felt oddly constricting, even though he wasn’t even grabbing any fabric. Kakashi did have gloves on. And Sasuke was already near his limit after that much time spent with the anbu earlier.
“Where are we going for dinner, Kakasensei?” Naruto asked eagerly. “Ichiraku?”
“No.”
Naruto crossed his arms, turning forward. “My interest has declined.”
“I’m still paying for it.”
“My statement stands.”
“What if it’s better than Ichiraku?”
Naruto looked insulted.
The two continued back and forth, allowing Sasuke to glare mostly at the ground and ignore them. He much preferred the air out here to the odd, unsettling atmosphere of Hashirama’s Forest. The summons were freaky, and the trees were just fake enough to seem uncanny, and now he had to worry about the fact that the smartest kunoichi in the Leaf Village thought they should genuinely be concerned about the vandalism they saw.
Sasuke furrowed his brow, thinking hard. Why though? What had caught Sakura’s attention that hadn’t caught his or Naruto’s? If there really was a group that wanted to kill all tailed beasts, they should love the Leaf Village. The founders had practically hunted the things for sport a century ago, and the fourth hokage had killed the nine-tails himself, and since Sasuke genuinely couldn’t remember ever having been told where the massive creature had been buried, maybe the fourth had killed it so completely that there wasn’t anything left to bury.
But Yamato had said there was another tailed beast in the Sand Village; that was the one Sakura was caught on. Was it stronger than the nine-tailed fox had been? He did remember something from class, one of Iruka’s lessons years and years ago. He’d been talking about the Third War, and he mentioned something about the Sand using a tailed beast to attack the Stone army who tried to invade them, but he hadn’t said much and apologized the next day for getting too dark.
Sasuke frowned. Sakura was right. This Village really wasn’t too fond of sharing information.
Would Sasuke’s home library have any more information? Madara and Koibito Uchiha had teamed up with the Senju brothers to hunt down tailed beasts and keep them away from the fledgling Leaf Village; maybe they had records of it.
“I’m going home,” he said, turning to do just that when he heard Naruto complain, “I thought we were getting dinner,” but then Kakashi grabbed him by the fabric of his jacket shoulder with an annoyed, “I’m trying to be nice here,” but the man’s words went slightly fuzzy as Sasuke’s vision tunneled.
A gloved hand had grabbed the back of his shirt. Grabbed him and pulled him the direction it wanted, not letting Sasuke leave, and suddenly everything that had gone wrong today welled back up in his mind: the summon asking for his eyes, the anbu hovering too close with his own haunted expression, his brother’s ghost lingering over his shoulder and poisoning his dream, and heat burned under Sasuke’s eyes, and somehow instead of freezing up like he did every other time in his life, that heat let Sasuke turn and swing a punch at the cause of his terror.
Except it wasn’t Itachi, and Sasuke’s fist collided with Kakashi’s torso, sending the man a rather unimpresssed step backwards as Naruto yelped, “what the heck was that?!”
In a split second Sasuke’s mind registered what happened, and his eyes blew wide. “I- uh-“
Sasuke pulled his fist back to his chest, staring at Kakashi, who squinted at him quizzically before giving a dramatic exhale.
“For someone who apparently loves etiquette, you think you’d know not to punch the person who’s trying to pay for your dinner,” Kakashi said, and Naruto pointed and laughed, his expression cheerful again, but all Sasuke could feel was the lingering clench on his jacket and the heavy weight of the eyes of the passersby.
The street around them had gone quiet when Sasuke had thrown his thoughtless punch, and the previous noise still hadn’t picked back up. Other than Naruto’s laughter, the only sound was whispers, quiet and hushed and frantic, and even though Sasuke couldn’t make out the words through the cotton in his head, too dizzy to fully register everything again, he could still guess what they were talking about. He could tell from their eyes, when he stared around at them.
Sasuke wasn’t the Uchiha they were seeing.
“Are we going to dinner or what?” Naruto said, turning to stride forward again, apparently oblivious to the change in the air, but Sasuke scrunched his shoulders and shook his head violently.
“I’m going home,” he said, and Kakashi put a hand on his hip.
“Don’t tell me you feel guilty,” Kakashi said. “I think that one woman’s cat has hit me harder than that.”
“I- just- mmph.” Sasuke clamped his jaw shut and turned on his heel, walking quickly away. He distantly heard Naruto start after him and Kakashi say something to prevent it, and he picked up his pace. He needed to get home. He’d been trying to get home before Kakashi had grabbed him; why was he trying to get home? He should focus on that, on remembering what he’d been doing rather than keeping his thoughts locked on the gazes of the crowd.
He found an empty bench around a corner and sat, rubbing the heels of his hands against his eyes. Why had he been heading home…? It was for research, wasn’t it? Research on what Madara and Koibito Uchiha had recorded about tailed beasts. Because Sakura wanted to know more information.
Sasuke lowered his hands, frowning. Was that too dangerous? Doing something for Sakura? No, surely not- it was information that could help the Village. It had nothing to do with friendship.
Sasuke took a breath and nodded, squeezing his eyes shut. He’d take a minute here to pull himself together, and then he’d head home. He should be excited to read about Madara. Madara was one of the few things in Sasuke’s life that wasn’t dangerous.
He took another breath and let it out slowly, wishing his skin would quit rubbing against the fabric Kakashi had grabbed. He opened his eyes and stared up at the sky. Despite the lingering rays of sunset, he could see the moon, inching its way towards night.
He could get over something as simple as bad instincts. He was an Uchiha, after all, and Uchihas were strong enough to defeat moon princesses and tailed beasts and definitely strong enough to take down stupid ghosts and curses.
He nodded stubbornly. Of course they were, and that meant he was.
He had to be.
Notes:
whoever vandalized the forest watched the Incredibles apparently
and yay more au lore!! I <3 au lore
update on where I'm at in Shippuden: WE HAVE AN EXTREMELY IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!!!! AFTER FAR TOO MANY EPISODES!!!!!! WE HAVE FINALLY FOUND YAMATO!!!!!!!!! he literally only regained consciousness for like 20 seconds to ask if Naruto was okay and then immediately blacked out to Madara's genjutsu but IDC HE'S HERE NOW
His life dream is literally to just be with team 7 like this man is precious why did no one go and rescue him. You can't even call this a rescue bcos Zetsu just gave up and bailed
Anyway Madara's shirt is back on (much appreciated), Sasuke actually did something helpful (hasn't happened in perhaps over a hundred episodes [I looked it up and it literally may have been 300 episodes is that possible]), why do I like stupid Zetsu even tho he was tormenting my boi (purchased Zetsu merch at con today), can we please stop bringing characters back to themselves and then immediately killing them/knocking them back out of the story (Nagato, Obito, Yamato, this has happened too many times), Kakashi is laughably unphased that his eyeball just got ripped out (dude looks mildly irritated more than anything else)
I have a suspicion one of my squads will be partying shortly
Ty for reading and I hope you have a lovely day! <3 :D
Chapter 22: A Chat About Tailed Beasts
Chapter Text
Sakura would have been a lot more frustrated at her rather clueless teammates for not understanding the potentially enormous threat of a tailed beast jinchuriki arriving to the Village in a few months if not for the fact that she knew someone else who would certainly appreciate the situation, and, fortunately for her, that person was exactly where she expected her to be when she went looking.
“Ino, what do you know about the Sand’s tailed beast?!” Sakura slapped her hands on the counter of the Yamanakas’ empty flowershop when she arrived, and Ino turned with an annoyed expression.
“Hello Sakura, yes, I’m doing quite well, thanks for asking,” she quipped, and Sakura pouted.
“You do this to me all the time,” she said, and Ino snorted a laugh.
“Fair enough. What did you ask?”
“Sand tailed beast,” Sakura said. “What is it?”
“Uh…” Ino set down the bouquet she’d been arranging, tapping at her chin and squinting into the air. “Raccoon. One-tail. Most recently sealed into a new jinchuriki around when we were born. Next question!”
“Who’s the shinobi who sealed it?”
“Kazekage, probably. Next question!”
“Why’s the kazekage coming to the chunin exams?”
“Because- huh? The chunin exams?” Ino tilted her head, curious. “What do you mean?”
Sakura leaned forward more and cupped her hand to whisper despite the vacant store. “I heard the Sand shinobi who controls the tailed beast is coming to the chunin exams here.”
Ino cupped her own hand. “Why does a tailed beast need to become a chunin?”
Sakura rolled her eyes. “Not the beast , the shinobi!”
“Why’s the kazekage need to become a chunin?”
“Maybe it’s not the kazekage,” Sakura said, dropping her hand back down. “Maybe the kazekage sealed it into somebody else.”
Ino dropped her chin into her hand. “Well, yeah, duh, into a jinchuriki, but those jinchurikis are usually kept on super tight leashes within their Villages, since the kages want to, like, collect all the beasts or something.”
Sakura scrunched her nose. “Collect them?”
“Yeah,” Ino shrugged. “I know the Mist Village wants them for their experiments, Sand and Cloud have had at least one beast each for decades, and Stone’s been itching to invade and take the Sand’s beast for ages. Leaf’s the only one who used to go around killing the things back when the first two hokages were in charge. I mean, isn’t that basically what the whole Third War was over? The Villages all fighting each other to collect as many beasts as possible?”
“No, the Third War was a powderkeg caused by all the countries screwing each other over slowly for over a century,” Sakura said with an academic point, and Ino flopped on the countertop with a groan.
“Yeah, ‘cause of beasts.”
Sakura crossed her arms. “ No , it was because of all sorts of things. Sand and Stone still hated each other from the first war, and Mist was kidnapping Cloud villagers, and-“
“For their tailed beast experiments,” Ino interrupted with a pointed look. “Hence, caused by beasts.”
“Oh come on,” Sakura rolled her eyes slightly, and Ino straightened up enough to drop her cheek into her hand. “It was a whole war, Ino, I really don’t think it’s as simple as you’re making it.”
“I dunno, I think it could be,” Ino shrugged. “The tail beasts just make people lose their heads a little. I mean, one killed the fourth hokage, and Dad says a lot of people thought it was being controlled by somebody. Can you imagine how crazy it would be if a Village actually had control of a tailed beast instead of just sealing it in the Uchihas’ basement and forgetting about it like the Leaf does?”
Sakura stilled. “What? Uchihas?”
Ino raised an eyebrow. “Girl, are you for real?”
Sakura huffed. “Don’t tell me to get real if you think the fourth hokage shoved the nine-tailed fox into Sasuke’s basement.”
“He had to put it somewhere,” Ino said defensively. “Besides, Hinata’s family says they’ve been hiding things in that town for years.”
“Hiding what things?” Sakura asked, and Ino leaned forward slightly.
“Well I’ve heard people around town saying the Uchihas used to do the same kind of experiments the Hidden Mist did.”
Sakura rolled her eyes. “Come on. Is this another lame attempt to get me to give up on Sasuke? Because it’s not gonna happen.”
“Excuse me, all of my attempts on that are extremely thoughtful and would be effective if you weren’t delusional,” Ino said, straightening up and crossing her arms. “And no, that’s just what I’ve heard. And I’m not the only one! You know the second hokage thought so too.”
“The second hokage declared war on the moon,” Sakura said, unimpressed. “Twice. He had a few screws loose.”
Just like her teammates, apparently. Sakura barely suppressed an eyeroll. What was it with this Village and the moon?
“Yeah, and he also is the only hokage in Leaf Village history to not have a five-country global war rage during his reign,” Ino said with a prod at Sakura’s shoulder. “He had to have been doing something right.”
“Yeah, because declaring war on the moon twice probably made people a little wary of getting on his bad side,” Sakura teased, and Ino rolled her eyes.
“Maybe the moon was a tailed beast,” she said, smirking as Sakura pouted.
“You’re hopeless about this,” she said, and Ino tossed her hair over her shoulder.
“Now you know how I feel when I watch you fawn over Mr. Jerkface-Second-Place,” she said, and Sakura crossed her arms with a hmph.
“You just don’t know him like I do,” she said, and Ino leaned forward again.
“Oh yeah?” she taunted. “And what do you know that I don’t?”
Sakura subconsciously recalled the way Sasuke had taken her hand in Hashirama’s Forest, squeezing it to make sure she was okay.
She pinked slightly. “A lot, actually.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Ino laughed, rolling her eyes. “If he’s really as fantastic as you say, why can’t you ask him if the nine-tails was shoved into his old basement a decade ago?”
“How would I possibly bring that up?” Sakura complained, and Ino laughed.
“Then I’m not wrong until proven wrong,” she said cheerfully. “Besides, it’s not even unreasonable. Why else would they keep that horrible empty town still standing if not because there’s a tailed beast in the basement?”
“Because Sasuke still lives there?” Sakura said with an incredulous laugh.
“He does not,” Ino scoffed, and Sakura frowned, putting her hands on her hips.
“Does too. He’s said it himself.”
“Uh, there is no chance that the hokage is letting Sasuke live completely alone in a crime scene. A crime scene that he was a victim in, no less! That’d be absurd.”
“Well maybe the hokage doesn’t know,” Sakura said, frowning deeper.
“Yeah right,” Ino said. “Every shinobi’s registered. Even if the hokage somehow managed to forget that he’s the one now in charge of Sasuke’s rent, he’d have figured it out when he approved the teams and saw the roster information.”
Sakura frowned. Was Sasuke lying about where he lived? Telling her parents about it had made them act nicer to him- but Sasuke always seemed to hate whenever someone acted nice to him. She couldn’t understand that kid.
“I’m not asking Sasuke if he has a tailed beast in his basement,” Sakura said, shelving that question for another time. “I’m asking you what you know about the Sand tailed beast.”
“Nope, this is becoming a business transaction,” Ino said, shaking her head. “I will give raccoon beast information only in exchange for fox beast information. Aka, is that fox in Sasuke’s basement information.”
“Ino, are you serious?” Sakura snapped, genuine annoyance smudging into her. “Do you honestly think I should go up to Sasuke and start asking if he’s hiding a tailed beast in the same place where he watched his entire family die?!”
Ino crossed her arms with no hint of embarrassment on her face. “I would think you’d want to know if the hokage’s using your precious Sasuke for something sketchy. If he really is staying in that horrible town, don’t you think maybe it’s because the hokage wants to keep him there for something? Every other orphan in this Village lives in that apartment by the cliffs that the second hokage set up, the one Iruka Sensei always tells us about every single year during the hokage festival week, which means you have to remember it. If there’s nothing hidden in that Uchiha town, what possible reason would there be to keep Sasuke in it?”
Sakura blinked at Ino in surprise, considering the suggestion. Why would Sasuke be told to stay in that town? Or at the very least not be given a new home somewhere else in the Village? He couldn’t really have spent all this time living alone over there, could he?
Sakura felt her expression clouding as something heavy clenched around her gut. Had he really slipped through the cracks that easily? She’d thought everyone considered Sasuke important and therefore would give him whatever he wanted, but maybe she only thought that way because Kabuto considered him important, for their mission. But now that she thought of it, she couldn’t think of anyone who acted even nice to Sasuke, except Team 7 and maybe Iruka.
Every mission they’d been assigned, the hokage’s staff was mysteriously occupied elsewhere, except for Iruka and the hokage himself. Their team’s plethora of unimportant missions were always requested from the same handful of people, and even some of them didn’t seem terribly fond of Sasuke either.
“Ino, why do you dislike Sasuke so much?”
“Because he’s a jerk and you deserve better,” Ino said flatly, and Sakura frowned.
“But that can’t be everyone’s reason. Why does everyone else dislike Sasuke so much?”
“Because he’s a jerk and maybe has the nine-tails in his basement.”
“He does not have the nine-tails in his basement,” Sakura groaned. “I’m being serious here!”
“Me too!” Ino retorted, putting her hands on her hips. “The Senju-Hyugas have been saying not to trust the Uchihas since Madara was the only Uchiha here, and their reason why, for literally more than a century, is because Tobirama Senju thought Madara Uchiha had a tailed beast and was hiding it from them. Literally ask anyone in that district, and they will gladly share their thoughts on the matter.”
“But why would they think that?” Sakura asked. “What did the Uchihas do to turn the whole Village against Sasuke when we should have all been helping him?”
“Ask the Senjus that, not me,” Ino said with a defensive crossing of her arms. “They’re the ones who think the Uchiha were to blame for everything that ever went wrong in the Leaf Village even though, let’s be real, there would be no Leaf Village without Madara Uchiha being a total monster of a fighter back in the First War, and you know what? If he used a tailed beast for that war, then go him. He could have used every tailed beast for all I care as long as he didn’t sink to the level of the Mist Village and experiment on innocent people with them. Which brings me back to your other question: I don’t give a crap what the Uchihas did in past, and it’s stupid if people do, but I definitely give a crap about what Sasuke Uchiha is doing in the present, which is being a complete jerk, and since you deserve better than a complete jerk, I don’t like him, and I doubt that I’m the only person who thinks that way.”
Ino gave a short hmph, and Sakura stared at her, blinking with wide eyes.
“Ino, I-“
“Whatever you’re about to try and convince me of, forget it.”
Sakura frowned. “You don’t even know what I-“
“You were gonna say that I don’t know Sasuke like you do, but maybe you don’t know Sasuke like I do,” Ino said, frowning. “He’s cute. I get it. He also ignores you, and insults people for nothing, and gets into fistfights with Naruto Uzumaki who is on your team too.”
“Don’t you think that maybe he ignores and insults and fights people because that’s what everyone in this Village does to him?”
“I don’t care if it is. If he wants to be an angry jerk, he’s more than welcome to, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t avoid him because of it.”
“Ino-!”
“Look, my family’s faced its fair share of people snubbing us because we came from the Mist Village,” Ino interrupted. “But my dad goes out of his way to be nice to everyone possible -including hiring your team, most of whom he doesn’t like- regardless. Because he’s a good person, and Sasuke is not.”
“Ino, he watched his family die,” Sakura said, but Ino’s eyes were hard.
“Yeah, and my dad watched his sister and five soldiers he was responsible for die in the Third War,” she replied flatly. “Don’t act like we don’t know what it’s like. Sasuke can do whatever he needs to do, I’m not gonna stop him. But that doesn’t mean I have to like him. You’ve been nothing but nice to him, and he still treats you like garbage. You don’t have to put up with that. You’re not his therapist, Sakura. You deserve a guy who’s gonna appreciate you.”
Sakura crossed her arms with a huff, frustrated. “And why don’t you say any of these things about Naruto and Hinata? She trips over herself fawning over him, and he barely notices she’s around.”
“Are you kidding?” Ino laughed. “Go ask Naruto who the best ninja in the Village is, and he’ll say himself, the hokages, and Hinata Hyuga. Just because he’s an idiot doesn’t mean he’s a jerk, and if idiots are Hinata’s type, then she should swing for the fences.”
“And what makes you think Sasuke wouldn’t do the same for me?”
“Because I’ve never once heard, or known about anyone who’s heard, Sasuke say a compliment about anyone ever.”
“And you know everything, do you?”
Ino shrugged. “I know a lot.”
Sakura scowled. “You don’t know this.”
“Then why are you asking me about this? I thought we were talking about tailed beasts!”
“You wouldn’t tell me anything else about the Sand tailed beast,” Sakura tsked. “You’re the one who brought up Sasuke.”
Ino groaned, rolling her eyes. “Yeah, and you wasted no time switching tracks.”
Sakura’s face scrunched. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Ino raised an eyebrow. “You’re obsessed, girl.”
“You’re obsessed with tailed beasts, what’s the difference?”
“Between Sasuke and a tailed beast? For one, Sasuke doesn’t have a tail,” Ino said, smirking as Sakura huffed, stomping her foot.
“That’s not what I meant!” she snapped. “The one time I actually want to hear about tailed beasts, and you turn it into a fight. This is ridiculous! I’ll figure it out myself!”
Sakura turned and stormed out of the flowershop, and she heard Ino call, “love you too, Sakura!” after her, which just made her frustration simmer hotter. That was how it was sometimes with Ino, and Sakura knew it; the girl was very blunt and had no shame, which could sometimes be very welcome -more than once, these traits had scared away any early academy bullies- but sometimes could just be immensely frustrating.
At the end of the day, it didn’t matter what Ino thought of Sasuke, because Sakura refused to give up her mission for something as silly as personal taste in friends. Knowing that it was all for her mission had helped Sakura laugh off Ino’s jabs at Sasuke before, but now they dug oddly deeper than they once had. She was more defensive of him, she realized. Why? It’s not like they were actually friends, or even that she actually did like him. She didn’t like him. She was just spending time with him for her mission. She didn’t care that he’d started joining their pre-mission card games without them asking him to. She didn’t care that he always remembered her favorite flavors whenever it was his turn to bring the team breakfast.
She didn’t care that he held her hand in Hashirama’s Forest, squeezing it to make sure she was okay.
She stared up at the sky as she continued down the street, her eyes lingering on the just-visible moon. No, of course she didn’t care. That would be unprofessional, if she cared about him.
She frowned.
She tried to turn her thoughts elsewhere, to push her tailed beast concerns back to the front of her mind, but she only made it a few streets before this was proven to be a fruitless endeavor when she ran flat into a very familiar someone.
“Sasuke!” Sakura said in surprise, stepping back, and it only took a glance to see that Sasuke was doing less than well. His eyes looked faintly rimmed with water, and he had the general appearance of a startled deer at running into her.
Sakura put up her kindest smile, forcing her mission to the front of her mind, but the action only seemed to frighten Sasuke further.
Sakura pressed on before he could say anything. “I should apologize for storming off like that. I wasn’t being a very good teammate .”
“Teammate,” Sasuke echoed, looking faintly lost. Sakura nodded, pleased with herself. She was figuring him out, no matter how slowly, and she knew that for whatever reason, he was very attached to the idea of having a team.
Not that this reason was hard to guess, if he’d really spent the last five years living completely alone.
Sakura blinked quickly to get that thought out of her mind and continued, “yeah, it wasn’t cool. Forgive me?”
“I punched Kakashi,” Sasuke said instead of answering, and Sakura tilted her head.
“Um. Okay.” She made her voice more teasing. “He probably deserved it.”
“I didn’t mean to,” Sasuke said, blinking at her with wide eyes, and Sakura gave an awkward sort of laugh.
“Er…sounds good?”
Sasuke just stared at her, his eyes searching her face for something, but she had no idea what and instead pressed onward.
“If you haven’t had dinner yet, there’s a place I wanted to show you guys!” Sakura said, improvising on the spot and hoping the cover didn’t make it seem like she was just trying to introduce Sasuke specifically to more restaurants. A part of her mind wouldn’t forget that conversation they’d had before their first mission, that Sasuke didn’t have anyone to take him to new places.
Sasuke just kept blinking at her, and she continued, undeterred. “It’s a place I’ve been to before, and it has rice bowls! I know you like rice, right?”
“Um, no,” Sasuke said, staring now at the ground.
“You don’t like rice?”
“No, not- yes, I like rice, but no, I can’t- I don’t want to go.”
Sakura pouted. “Aw. Some other time?”
Sasuke almost winced and shook his head rather violently. “Just no.”
“Oh,” Sakura said, fidgeting. “Well, um…maybe I could walk you home?”
She wasn’t certain she wanted to do that, to learn for certain just how alone Sasuke really was. Sasuke, however, made her decision for her with another shake of his head.
“Okay. Um. Then I’ll see you tomorrow?” she tried, aware of how poorly this entire interaction had gone and hoping it didn’t set her back in gaining his friendship.
But Sasuke continued to surprise when he nodded and mumbled, “sorry, it’s just- been a bad day.”
“Oh. Oh!” Sakura almost gasped as she finally realized why Sasuke was this on edge. They’d just spent the evening wandering alone in the woods with those creepy summons and an anbu . Sasuke was terrified of anbu, any anbu, and he’d seemed the same towards Yamato when he first saw him. Sakura’d thought the fear had passed him after the initial interaction since he didn’t bring it up again, but he’d acted different in Hashirama’s Forest, practically clinging to them when something startling happened, despite the fact that before and after he’d been snubbing his nose at them like usual.
He’d probably spent the whole evening scared out of his wits and stubbornly refusing to show it in favor of getting their mission done. He probably did want some time alone to calm down without an audience.
So Sakura sent him a smile and said, “don’t worry about it, Sasuke! I hope your night gets better!”
Sasuke just stared at her for a moment before glaring away and sending another ‘mmph,’ but Sakura just waved and began to walk away. She only made it a few steps before she heard him speak up again.
“I’ll look up tailed beasts.”
Sakura paused and turned back. “Huh?”
Sasuke was glaring at the ground, fidgeting. “Madara Uchiha. He used to hunt tailed beasts, with his wife, and the Senju brothers. There might be records of it, in my town. I was going to look for them. To answer you.”
“Oh,” Sakura said. That was…nice of him. She blinked and sent another smile. “Thanks, Sasuke!”
Sasuke crossed his arms and glared away. “Whatever.”
Sakura felt her smile falling slightly, her thoughts still clouded. “Sasuke?”
“What?”
“I’m sorry you had to deal with an anbu for that long.”
“Mmph.” Sasuke simply frowned deeper, clearly hiding embarrassment behind his glare.
So Sakura put up her biggest smile yet. “I always knew you were the bravest around! Just like Madara Uchiha, yeah?”
She stepped back and lightly punched his shoulder, and he nearly startled, but she could tell he’d perked up slightly.
“Obviously,” he said, snubbing his nose up slightly and not quite managing to hide a pleased grin.
Sakura didn’t bother hiding one back. “You’d better tell me everything you learn about tailed beasts from Madara’s records.”
“Yeah, duh.”
Sakura rolled her eyes with a teasing scoff at his tone, turning to stride away again. “Good night , Sasuke.”
“‘Night, Sakura.”
And then the two parted ways.
Sakura beamed as she headed back home, more than pleased with herself. Maybe she’d had it wrong earlier; maybe it wasn’t unprofessional at all to be a little invested in Sasuke. That just meant she was invested in her mission, right?
Because she couldn’t deny that seeing Sasuke cheer up in her company made her happier too. It was odd, actually; before it had seemed like such a chore to try and drag Sasuke out of his irritable glares, but now something just felt different. Maybe she was just doing her job well and knew what those glares meant now, unlike Ino, who clearly didn’t know any such thing.
Sakura tucked a loose strand of hair back under her headband with a satisfied sigh. It wouldn’t be the only thing she knew that others didn’t. And it definitely would help her mission, which meant there was no reason to fight it.
She was happier when she made Sasuke happier. It was for her mission, of course, but she couldn’t deny that it was true. And compared to what this mission looked like a few months ago, it was a definite improvement.
She stretched her arms and grinned up at the moon. Yeah. Definitely an improvement.
Notes:
Update on where I'm at in Shippuden:
.... okay I have quite a few thoughts.
I'm definitely not the only one who thinks this ending is terrible (and I'm not done with it yet) but like yooo this ending is terrible PPFPF
The point of your main antagonist (and by this point Madara is the main antagonist, the main and final antagonist can be different characters) is to help illustrate the main themes of your story, which in Naruto's case is essentially that love is more powerful than hatred (or at least that WAS a theme, hoping it'll stick the landing on that one) as well as commentary on the strength of bonds and that even people who seem like despicable villains still have humanity and can still find the light again (which is a theme given to Gaara, Nagato, Obito, etc, a LOT of antagonists got this arc which solidifies it pretty significantly as a major theme, and it's also one of my personal favorite types of story arcs).
Now I don't actually think Kaguya is necessarily the worst part here. Did she need a personality? Yes. Did she need to be foreshadowed more than she was? 10000% yes. Did Zetsu basically just tell her everything to do and therefore she's barely even the main antagonist over Zetsu? This far, yeah, kinda. But all of these things could have stayed, and yeah, it wouldn't have been the BEST but I think it would have been much more palatable if not for the completely horrible botched resolution to Madara's arc.
Having Zetsu come kill off Madara by just blowing him up completely disregards the entire point of Naruto as a story, and I think one change that could have still happened with the exact same setup could have significantly improved things, which is what's really frustrating. Like we have Madara getting stabbed, finding out he was used the whole time, and that Zetsu intends to throw him away like he's nothing. He's just learned he spent years manipulated by a lie and that all the peace he's worked to achieve has never been real.
This is the moment where you go and talk no jutsu Madara.
Like he was established to have been a kind person when he was younger, and even though he's clearly misguided, everything he's doing is for the purpose of bringing peace to the world. Literally Hashirama has been complimenting how kind of a person he is while being stabbed by him, like the story is setting it up for Madara to arc, him arc'ing is foreshadowed.
And he should arc!! Ik he's cool as a villain, but the premise of the show is the importance of love and bonds and how villains can still have their humanity, which means that Madara as the main villain needs to help illustrate this! I guess you could say that since Madara loses, that proves that his method of hatred was wrong, but he doesn't get defeated by the protagonists, he gets betrayed by someone worse than him like that doesn't help your theme?? And also it's extremely depressing for Madara's character?? And completely unnecessary if you're going to introduce a literal nonhuman final antagonist that can just be beaten up by the power of friendship without needing to be arc'd because, since she isn't human, the writer can get away with the themes not applying to her
And I said I think one change could have fixed it, well here's the change: instead of Madara blowing up because he has too much chakra juice, why not just have Zetsu drain all of his powers out of him and then Zetsu becomes the conduit for Kaguya to appear. Then we get Madara with only taijutsu and probably severe depression able to wrap up his arc however we want. It could be Naruto talking to him, but I think it would work better if Hashirama came over and then the two of them can realize that both of their methods didn't lead to peace but maybe there will be people in the next generation who can do it and that it's worth hoping for that (which is another major theme of the show, the next generation surpassing the last). Then the two old friends can decide to fight off Kaguya together to buy Naruto and Sasuke time for their whatever jutsu, then Madara and Hashirama inevitably lose this fight because obviously Naruto has to be the one to win it, and then they get one last scene together as old friends to wrap up their joint arc. This seems like a much better sendoff for both Madara and Hashirama as well as cementing the entire premise of the show by arc'ing both your main antagonists in Madara and Obito and having them visually prove the theme of the importance of bonds helping overcome hatred
Maybe I'll write all that out as a oneshot someday to heal my sad audience heart :')
Anyway can we stop traumatizing Kakashi pls. Also I really enjoyed Obito's and Sakura's friendship for the like 15 minutes it was there. 15 mins and Obito has given Sakura more attention than Kakashi gave her in 900 episodes PFPFP
Ty for reading my yapping, and I hope you have a lovely day! <3
Chapter 23: Team 7 Mission: Reunite Mr. Ramen and Blossoms with Madara!
Chapter Text
“My parents invited you two over for another Team 7 dinner,” Sakura said as the three were walking home after another D-rank mission. Technically, Sakura had told her parents to invite both boys over for dinner again, but they’d been more than enthusiastic enough that she considered it fair to classify it as their invitation. Besides, they’d never retracted their standing invitation to weekly dinners after the first one, an invitation Naruto had taken up more weeks than not and which he seemed to thoroughly enjoy.
And which he 100% agreed would be improved by Sasuke finally showing up to a second one of.
Naruto’s behavior actually seemed to he incredibly helpful for Sakura’s mission, since he seemed to want Sasuke and Sakura to join him for almost every activity he participated in, and his persistence would often annoy Sasuke into going along with spending more time together just to get Naruto to shut up and quit following him around, and Sakura gratefully took advantage of the fruits of Naruto’s efforts without any detriment of seeming as annoying herself.
In fact, Sasuke seemed to be warming up to her more and more with each conversation they had; he’d arrived the morning after the trip to Hashirama’s Forest to seriously inform her that he’d spent half the previous evening looking for tailed beast information just because she’d wanted it, but that he hadn’t found much in his own town and suspected the Senjus would have more information than the Uchihas given the first hokage’s sentimentality leading him to recording a lot more information, which Sakura supposed did line up with what Iruka had said about Hashirama’s fondness for photographing his life.
Sakura was admittedly a little disappointed that Sasuke hadn’t found much -the two Uchiha founders weren’t discussed much in school by any teacher other than Iruka, so she’d been excited at the possibility of learning from Madara or Koibito Uchiha’s private records- but learning that Sasuke had spent the remainder of his evening hunting down old research just for her was almost more exciting on its own.
The three genin felt more like a team with each passing day, and Sakura couldn’t be happier that what had once seemed like an out-of-character fumble by Kabuto in setting up their groups was now becoming a genuinely enjoyable lifestyle.
Sakura really shouldn’t be doubting Kabuto.
In an effort to make their team feel even more teamlike, Sakura and Naruto had taken up walking a bit out of their way to stay on Sasuke’s route home as they went to theirs, which were quite far away from Sasuke’s. Sasuke usually made it about three streets further from where they usually split off before snapping at them to go back to their own homes, but they were edging further and further down that street each time, and Sakura was confident that they’d wear him down eventually.
And maybe a small piece of her was still hoping that somehow there’d been a misunderstanding about where exactly Sasuke had lived the last five years.
The two had been trailing Sasuke as usual when Sakura mentioned the dinner invite. Naruto lit up at the idea of another full team dinner, and he cheerfully said, “sure thing! Can your parents make ramen this time?”
“They’ll make whatever they want to, Naruto,” Sasuke tsked, crossing his arms, and Sakura turned to him, beaming.
“Does that mean you’re coming too?” she asked, and Sasuke turned his face away.
“No,” he said. “I’ve got lots to do.”
“Like what?” Naruto complained, dropping his head to the side, and Sasuke glared at him.
“None of your business,” he said, and Sakura pouted.
“C’mon, Sasuke, please?” she asked. “My parents loved your story last time! We want to hear more about Madara and Kaguya!”
“And Mr. Ramen and Blossoms,” Naruto added with a nod.
“I don’t know anything else about Kaguya,” Sasuke said, his face turned away again. “And Mr. Ramen and Blossoms are your characters. You can come up with whatever you want for them.”
“But Sasuke, how will we possibly figure out what Madara would do if you’re not there?” Sakura asked dramatically, and Sasuke turned to her with a tsk.
“He’s a historical figure, and you’re the smartest kunoichi in the Leaf Village. I think you have enough information to cover it for me,” he said, and Sakura felt her eyes going wide at his words.
The smartest kunoichi in the Leaf Village. And he’d said it so casually, too. Like it was concrete enough in his mind that he didn’t even have to think about it.
Sasuke apparently also realized what he said and quickly turned his head away again, and Sakura could feel her cheeks flushing as she stared away too, hiding a pleased smile.
Naruto, however, remained clueless of this exchange. “Sasuke, you have to come to some of these, believe it.”
“I went to the first one,” Sasuke said.
“Yeah and not any of the after ones.”
“I’m not interested in any of the after ones.”
“But we’re interested in you coming to the after ones,” Sakura said, tapping gently on his arm warmer. “ Pleeeease? ”
“No,” Sasuke said, pulling his arm away with a frown. “Quit being annoying all the time.”
Sakura crossed her arms with a pout. “It’s annoying to want to have dinner with our teammate every once in a while?”
“When your teammate has other things to do, then yes. Can you two quit following me? You should have turned ages ago,” Sasuke huffed, stopping, and Sakura looked around. They’d gotten to the fourth street this time. Progress.
Naruto beamed. “I have nothing else to do today!”
“Well I have a lot of things to do. Excuse me.”
Sasuke snubbed his nose up slightly as he turned in place and walked away, and Sakura sent a smug grin to Naruto.
“We’re getting closer to getting him to another dinner,” she said, and Naruto jumped in place with a cheerful, “yeah we are! Believe it! When’s the next dinner?”
“This weekend,” Sakura said, smiling. “We’ll get Sasuke there- believe it.”
Naruto’s cheesy smile somehow got even brighter.
~~~
Even though the three genin of Team 7 grew closer with each day, there was still one big problem that kept the team from really being completely enjoyable.
“We’re going to start today with training,” Kakashi said one morning -morning used in only the most technical sense of the word, seeing as the man arrived to the 8 o’ clock meeting about three minutes before noon- and both Sakura and Sasuke glared at the man as Naruto cheered, “yay, training!”
“Can you for once show up on time?” Sasuke snapped, scowling, and Kakashi sent him a hidden smile.
“I had important matters to attend to, Uchiha.” He gave a clearly fake gasp, putting a hand on his chest. “Do you want me to skip my important matters?”
“You’ve used cleaning an oven as an excuse before,” Sakura huffed, crossing her arms, and Kakashi crossed his own back, shaking his head in mock dismay.
“No, I’ve used fixing an oven as a perfectly understandable reason for my regrettable tardiness. You know, a shinobi should remember details like that, and I’m afraid I’ll have to fail you for forgetting.”
Sakura barely held back an audible sound of frustration as Sasuke shot back, “can’t you just tell us when your important matters will be finished so we don’t have to just sit around waiting for you?!”
“Well, I can’t help if things come up, can I? But here you two are, delaying our training with an argument. Shame.”
Naruto snickered into his hand at Sakura’s and Sasuke’s affronted expressions, and Kakashi took the excuse to move forward.
“Today we’ll be starting our adventures into becoming Sand shinobi,” the man quipped, putting his hands on his hips. “More specifically, you’ll be learning how to make chakra strings. This is essential for ramen jutsu, which will be the focus for all three of you.”
“Yippee!” Naruto cheered as Sasuke scowled and Sakura hmphed.
“First, let’s focus on how to properly use the physical ninja string tool,” Kakashi said, rooting around in his bag and pulling out three coils of wires. “These are pretty standard among chunin, so I hope I haven’t overestimated your abilities thinking you can pick it up.”
“Of course we can do it,” Sakura said with a frown as Naruto shouted, “believe it!”
“Attach these to a shuriken,” Kakashi said, tossing a coil to each of them. “Then use only the string to get the shuriken embedded into one of those wooden posts. I’ve taken the liberty of painting hecklers to motivate you to perform better.”
Kakashi pointed to three posts, all about five meters apart and each painted with a target and a poorly drawn stick figure beneath it, one with a speech bubble shouting, “NO-KAGE,” one shouting “UCHIHA SUCKS,” and a third yelling, “I HATE GENJUTSU!”
The three genin turned back to Kakashi with matching glares, and the man gave a cheeky smile.
“I worked hard on them,” he said, his voice pleased, and Sasuke tsked as Sakura hmphed. Kakashi pulled out a fourth coil from his bag and tied it around a shuriken.
“Watch closely!” he said, closing his eye in his smile, and his hand moved before Sakura could even see it.
The shuriken blurred through the air as Kakashi’s hand twitched, and two loud scratches sounded in the air preceding a dull thunk, and Sakura’s eyes snapped to the third post, the one designed for Sasuke, its top now swinging back and forth from the force of the shuriken now embedded dead center in the target. The other two targets had slices across the center too, hit by the shuriken on its way to its final target.
The three genin just stared as Kakashi tugged on the string, pulling the shuriken out of the post and catching it, his expression disinterested.
“I wanna do that, believe it!” Naruto shouted, rummaging through his pouch to pull out a shuriken.
“Try first to get the shuriken into your target using only the wire,” Kakashi said, pocketing his own wire and pulling out his book. “If you throw using the shuriken itself, I’m failing you.”
Sasuke huffed, rolling his eyes as he pulled out his own shuriken, and Sakura frowned. “Are you gonna actually teach us how to do it or are we just supposed to guess?”
“Oh, of course,” Kakashi said as Naruto gave a battle cry and launched his wire two-handed over his head, landing the shuriken directly into the dirt less than a meter in front of him.
The others ignored him as Kakashi put up another smile. “You have to throw it!”
And then he looked back down at his book.
“Yes, sir, Kakasensei!” Naruto said, pulling the shuriken out of the ground with too much force and falling back onto his butt.
Sasuke made a face and glanced at Sakura, who rolled her eyes back before turning her attention to the target in front of her. How would Kabuto teach a lesson like this? He was a better teacher than Kakashi; could she try to treat the wire like the genjutsu snake of Moon Serpent? She had been able to get the snake to reach Kabuto after their lesson all those weeks ago, and he hadn’t been standing much farther away than the post was now; though Moon Serpent had the activation point on her back rather than in her hand. But maybe she could lean into that, and wind up to throw as if from behind her-
There was a glint of light to her side, and she turned to see Sasuke’s shuriken fly through the air and just barely catch the top corner of the post. Sasuke hmphed and pulled the tool back by the wire as Naruto gave another battle cry and threw the shuriken overhead again, landing it fractionally farther forward than the previous attempt.
“That was really close, Sasuke!” Sakura said cheerfully, and Sasuke, predictably, turned his face away to pretend he wasn’t smiling.
“Haruno, you should be making attempts too,” Kakashi said flatly from behind her, and she gasped and pinked, turning back to her own post.
“Lay off her,” Sasuke huffed, and Sakura blinked, feeling herself start to smile just slightly at him defending her.
Training continued through the week, though it was more than a little self-led since Kakashi provided minimal actual teaching , instead just reading the same book for the 400th time and saying generic terrible advice such as, “yelling what you’re doing helps!” which only Naruto fell for.
Sakura made the mental note to instead ask Kabuto for advice to then relay back to her other teammates the next time she saw him. He hadn’t touched base in quite a while, but Sakura knew better than to think he was blowing her off. He surely had his own important missions, and she knew him giving her independence on this mission meant he trusted her quite a bit and had confidence in her abilities.
She beamed at the thought.
When the end of the week came around, Sakura found herself preparing another only-four person dinner.
Naruto arrived “on time and with ramen!!” as usual, dressed up in the one very oversized nice kimono Iruka would always lend him for these dinners, which everyone seemed to agree needed to be a fancy event.
“My gift for the hosts!” Naruto said with a dramatic flourish as he held out his ramen bowl, and Dad gave an equally dramatic flourish with his own, “my gift for the guest!” as he held out the money to pay Naruto back for the ramen. They’d done this showy display every dinner party since Dad had refused to allow Naruto to spend his apparently small budget on a visiting gift and Naruto had just as stubbornly refused to stop bringing ramen, which led to this compromise.
Dad handed the ramen bowl to Sakura, who took it with a grin, placing it in the center of the uneven table, hoping it wouldn’t get jostled too much when the Harunos and Naruto inevitably cocked the table on its short leg during their dinner conversation.
“And I have the obligatory Sasuke,” Naruto said, pulling a slightly scrunched up picture and placing it at the seat they’d all decided would be Sasuke’s standing place, always set and ready in case Sasuke ever decided to show up again.
Sakura liked the picture they’d decided on for it; Naruto had been taking pictures of a fish waiting for Kakashi to show up, and he’d turned the camera to Sasuke and Sakura. Only Sakura had noticed at first, and she’d looped her arm around Sasuke’s to turn him towards Naruto, posing herself, and Naruto took the picture before Sasuke even knew what was happening, which had led to him staring with wide and startled eyes at the camera as Sakura beamed beside him.
She was actually quite fond of the picture. Sneaking one on him seemed to be the only way to get one where he wasn’t glaring -or even in, for that matter; he was an expert at weaseling his way out of things, these dinners included- and it was nice to have something that captured the version of him she wished she could see more of, the version that grabbed her hand whenever danger arose or spent a whole night studying historical records to soothe her worries.
Not that he or anyone else had succeeded in soothing those worries -a tailed beast coming to the Leaf Village inside a foreign jinchuriki seemed extremely dangerous to her- but the fact that the effort was made cheered her up considerably.
“Okay team,” Naruto said once the food was out and everyone seated. “We have a very important mission.”
“Mr. Ramen’s cliffhanger from last week?” Mom said, twirling her chopsticks in her bowl. They’d taken to making extra ramen as a side dish for each of their meals regardless of what the main dish was, and they always had a plate of onigiri ready too, just in case.
“Yeah, he was literally hanging off a cliff,” Dad said. “Will his ramen rope hold up?!”
“Well yes, that is crucial, and we’ll get there soon, but I meant a different mission,” Naruto said, pointing his chopsticks at the picture of Sasuke. “Mission Get-Our-Fifth-Dinner-Member-Here.”
“He always finds a way out of it every time I ask,” Sakura said with a sigh. “You know I’m trying, Naruto!”
“Which means we’ll have to level up our approach…” Naruto said, narrowing his eyes in the schemey sort of way she used to see at school.
“I think he’ll come back when he’s comfortable,” Mom said. “There’s no need to rush him over here if he won’t enjoy himself.”
“Sure, but some people need a little motivation to get them out the door, yeah?” Dad said, leaning forward. “You two got any ideas? It seems having rice isn’t enough.”
“Hm, what does Sasuke like…?” Sakura asked, tapping at her chin, but honestly, other than rice and reminding people that Madara Uchiha beat up the moon, she couldn’t come up with much outside of work that he even talked about.
“He likes our card game!” Naruto said, but Sakura gave a thoughtful hum.
“Yeah, but we already play that waiting for Kakashi,” she said. “I don’t think he’d care about playing it here since we already play it every day.”
“I guess,” Naruto shrugged, popping a tuft of noodle into his mouth and speaking up through it, “I still get excited about ramen here even if I’ve already had ramen though, believe it.”
“Well, we’re glad to hear that!” Dad said cheerily as Mom sent a slight pout at Naruto’s horrible table manners.
The group decided that Sakura and Naruto would have to do some Sasuke research -which Sakura was delighted by, as it was perfect cover for her mission- and then quickly moved on again to pick up the dramatic tale of Mr. Ramen and Blossoms.
“Maybe we can tell him that Madara and Kaguya need to come back into the ramen stories,” Naruto whispered to Sakura the next morning as the trio waited for Kakashi atop the school building’s roof.
“I tried that before,” Sakura whispered back, watching Sasuke standing across the roof, his arms propped on the railing as he watched a bird fly into the sky. “He said we’d know enough about Madara from history classes that we wouldn’t need him.”
“I don’t know crap about Madara,” Naruto replied, his hand cupped over his mouth. “I slept through a lot of history classes.”
Sakura rolled her eyes, but honestly, she didn’t remember terribly many lessons about Madara either. Only Iruka seemed to bring him up, and he only taught history in the fall of a few years.
She was startled out of her thoughts, however, by another comically loud whisper.
“You know, I think that explains a lot, actually,” Kakashi said, having appeared suddenly behind the pair, who both jumped with matching yelps.
Kakashi straightened up with a smile evident behind his mask. “You didn’t notice me? Hm. I suppose I’ll have to fail you for that. Uchiha, you will also fail for not warning them.”
Sakura heard Sasuke’s irritated groan, and she frowned at Kakashi. Well, at least she certainly knew one person Sasuke did not like.
Kakashi ended up walking them back to the same training ground they’d been on the entire last week -why they couldn’t have just met there was beyond Sakura- setting them back onto strings training and then promptly falling asleep, which at least gave Sakura some time to think about their dead-ended investigations. Sasuke really didn’t seem to like anything except challenging Naruto to get their unfortunately back to always D-rank missions done as quickly as possible to then go home by himself, but what did he do there-?
The thought entered Sakura’s head suddenly, and she gasped aloud at it.
Sasuke turned at the sound with a raised eyebrow, and Naruto ignored it entirely, given that he was mid-shout throwing his string-tied shuriken forward and slamming it again into the ground.
“Something wrong?” Sasuke asked, sounding unimpressed, and Sakura shook her head.
“Nope! Nothing!” she said, putting up a beaming smile that he narrowed his eyes suspiciously at, but he returned to his work, leaving her to grin at her idea, making a mental note to tell her parents tonight before flicking the string out and landing it a few centimeters above the painted ‘GENJUTSU’ on her post, just below the target.
~~~
Sakura and Naruto were up to something. Sasuke could tell it immediately, and it was mildly irritating, but he opted to ignore them for the most part.
Their string training was going fine; he and Sakura were getting the hang of it at about the same pace, and Naruto hadn’t gotten close once, which was pretty standard for learning new methods.
Kakashi was beyond unhelpful, and so Sasuke had resorted to sneaking glances over at Sakura for tips if she ever got closer to the target, but his little espionages didn’t help him much.
“You know,” Itachi said over his shoulder, and Sasuke made a point of not responding in front of Sakura or Naruto. Itachi continued, “you could always watch with a sharingan and learn the technique that way.”
Sasuke’s only response was another throw, embedding his shuriken deep into the bottom of the post.
Eventually Kakashi woke up and asked them what they were still doing here rather than going home, which had annoyed Sasuke and Sakura and made Naruto laugh aloud, but then the other two pulled Kakashi over and began whispering to him too.
Sasuke frowned down at his bag, which he was slowly packing up to hopefully hide that he was trying to listen in on them. What would they be talking to Kakashi about? Were they cutting Sasuke out? He supposed he should be glad if they were going to start ignoring him now, though he knew that wasn’t what the odd, twisty feeling in his gut meant. He frowned.
He stood and left to go home without any of the rest of his team trying to stop him, or even speak to him. That was odd. His frown deepened, and he tsked at himself for being upset. This was what he wanted! He shouldn’t be pouting because they wouldn’t chase him down asking for post-training ramen or pester him about spending time with them. He had to avoid those things anyway. Even if they seemed to be safe if they were just for celebrating a finished mission or day of training. Because that meant they were for teammates rather than friends.
Sasuke’s brow furrowed, and his frown only deepened.
The next day, Team 7 found themselves on another D-ranked mission, a delivery of materials for a construction project in the Akimichi compound, which could have been done in the much cooler morning if Kakashi had shown up on time.
But no, instead they had to suffer through the mid afternoon heat, enough to make Sasuke take his arm warmers off and get too distracted yelling at Naruto to take his coat off before he got heatstroke -because that would mean it would take the team longer to finish, which was obviously the only reason Sasuke cared, of course- that he nearly took same wrong turn at least three times and needed Sakura to grab him by the arm and steer him to the correct location.
By the end of the day, the three genin were exhausted, but Sakura and Naruto had a look . A look that only proved they were up to something, and Sasuke pouted at what it could possibly be.
Kakashi spoke up before Sasuke could figure it out.
“Haruno, Naruto, you two will go tell the hokage we’ve finished,” he said with a nod. “Uchiha has a mission instead.”
Sasuke blinked at him in surprise.
“A mission?” he echoed. “Just me?”
An idea suddenly entered his mind, and he perked up, his eyes shining. “Is it a traveling mission? To the Land of Wind?”
“No, still D-rank,” Kakashi said blandly, and Sasuke pouted, crossing his arms. “But you were specifically requested, so you’ll obviously be accepting, yes?”
“Yeah, sure,” he said, nodding. Anything to get away from whatever Sakura and Naruto were scheming.
“Of course, I’ll be accompanying you to the mission location,” Kakashi said. “And I will be present to provide support should the need arise.”
“It won’t,” Sasuke said cockily, and Naruto and Sakura snickered, Sakura stifling hers quickly. Sasuke narrowed his eyes at them, immediately suspicious again. Did they know what his mission was? Was it something stupid? He hmphed at them. “When is it?”
“Right now,” Kakashi said, turning to the other two. “Which means I suppose we’ll be seeing the two of you later.”
“Mhm! See you!” Sakura said, marching away as Naruto waved and shouted, “see you Kakasensei! Have fun on your mission , Sasuke!”
Well that was definitely suspicious, but Sasuke had no intention of looking childish by seeming reluctant. He turned to Kakashi.
“Where do we need to go?” he asked, and Kakashi gave an exhale.
“We need some supplies first,” he said. “It’s a repair job, so you might want to grab your tools. I heard you have some.”
“Oh,” Sasuke said. That didn’t seem too embarrassing of a task. “Yeah, sure.”
“Go on then,” Kakashi said, gesturing with one hand as his other pulled out his book, and Sasuke rolled his eyes but turned to head back home.
To Sasuke’s surprise, Kakashi stayed a step behind him, even all the way to the trail to the Uchiha town. Admittedly, Sasuke had no intention of letting Kakashi in past the front gates, and the man’s attention remained fully on his book and not even a little bit on his surroundings anyways, but Sasuke didn’t mind that. Actually, it was a best-case scenario. He wasn’t alone, but his companion had zero interest in him. Sasuke let himself smile. He hadn’t realized how good it would feel to walk this path beside someone else.
The last time he’d done so was with his brother, five years prior.
Sasuke shook his head, refusing to let the memory spoil the happy moment. He was walking home, and he wasn’t alone, and his curse could do nothing about it. Everything was perfect.
And then Kakashi spoke up.
“Uchiha,” he said, and Sasuke quickly hid his expression and turned a blank stare towards his sensei.
“What?”
Kakashi was now squinting suspiciously at the road in front of them, his book slightly lowered. “Where are we going?”
Sasuke scrunched his nose in confusion. “I keep my non-ninja tools at home. You think I just carry around woodworking equipment when I’m-?”
Kakashi stopped, a hand grabbing the shoulder of Sasuke’s shirt to stop him too, but the moment the feeling of a gloved hand clenched around fabric, a shot of fear and adrenaline stabbed up from his memory, and Sasuke jumped forward, turning to smack the hand away with a snapped, “get off me!”
Sasuke and Kakashi just stared at each other for a moment, Sasuke’s chest heaving slightly, and he felt a bit stupid at his overreaction. His cheeks pinked, and he glared away.
“Sorry,” Kakashi said blankly. Sasuke’s heartbeat was too loud to let him decipher if the apology was genuine or not.
“Whatever,” he mumbled instead, smoothing out the fabric of his shoulder, every nerve on high alert. He needed to calm down. “You can just wait here. I won’t be long.”
And then he ran up the path before Kakashi could say anything else.
He tried to shake away the lingering feeling of clenched fabric behind his neck as he went to his most recent renovation project, one of the restaurants a few turns from the entrance. He pointedly ignored Itachi, eating dango at one of the tables, and instead grabbed his equipment bag and marched pointedly back out the door.
A white-feathered bird watched him from the roof as he walked out, and he glanced up at it, then at the sky. It was later in the afternoon, maybe even evening by now; he’d have to start thinking about getting dinner when he wrapped up whatever this mission was. Hopefully it wouldn’t take too long. It was a bit odd that someone requested him specifically, given he was…himself, but maybe it was Iruka or Mr. Yamanaka trying to get a surprise for Naruto or Sakura set up without the two knowing.
When Sasuke returned to Kakashi, the man was talking to a small dog with an unreadable expression.
“There you are,” Kakashi said, turning to him as the dog disappeared in a puff of smoke. A summon, then. Sasuke wondered what it had been doing. “If you took any longer, I’d have had to fail you.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Sasuke grumbled. “Do you know where we’re going?”
“Always, Uchiha,” Kakashi said. “We are going confidently down the path of life.”
Sasuke rolled his eyes.
Kakashi took the lead this time, his hands in his pockets as he stared upwards, apparently completely unbothered by anything, but something felt oddly off about him. If he was really at ease, he’d be reading his book again.
Sasuke’s own eyes narrowed. Something was up.
“What is it?” Sasuke asked shortly, and Kakashi glanced at him.
“The sky? Oh, I thought you’d know of it,” Kakashi said with mock seriousness. “Well, the sky is that big blue thing above us-“
“You’re the worst,” Sasuke interrupted flatly, and Kakashi sent him a hidden smile.
“Aw, I’m sorry to hear that.”
Sasuke grit his teeth and glared to the side, still hugging his toolbag to his chest and opting to ignore Kakashi the rest of the evening.
Soon enough, however, Kakashi led him up a small pathway to a tall building, and Sasuke’s suspicions were proven to have been correct instincts, for once.
He knew this building. He recognized it by the cherry tree outside.
He turned to glare at Kakashi. “What are we doing here?”
“We have a mission here, Uchiha,” Kakashi said cheekily, stepping forward.
“And what is that mission, exactly?” Sasuke asked through gritted teeth.
Kakashi sent him a smile. “A repair project.”
“For who?”
“Apartment number…” Kakashi said, rummaging around in his pocket. “Hm…I have it somewhere…”
“Is it your bookmark?” Sasuke sneered, and Kakashi brightened up.
“That is an excellent idea,” he said, pulling out his book onehandedly and flicking it open. “Hm, no, this is my paycheck. Well, it seems you answered wrong, so I’ll have to fail you.”
Sasuke glared. “Wouldn’t that mean I don’t have to do this mission?”
“An excellent point. I’ll fail you after completing the mission.”
Sasuke rolled his eyes. “Can we just get this over with?”
“No, I’ve been specifically instructed that this mission needs to take a long time,” Kakashi said, opening the door with a dramatic exhale. “I suspect we’ll be here for much of the evening.”
Sasuke was practically simmering with annoyance as they walked the same familiar steps Sasuke himself had walked a few weeks prior, all the way until they landed in front of a tapestry woven with a single white circle.
Sasuke just glared at Kakashi, who smiled right back.
“Why are we here? ” Sasuke asked through gritted teeth.
“This is where our mission is, Uchiha,” Kakashi said serenely. “Besides, don’t you remember? Hashirama Senju mandated all non-anbu missions have a team of at least four. If you forgot that, I may need to fail you tomorrow.”
Sasuke’s scowl only deepened. “Isn’t it also mandated that families can’t hire their own members? The Harunos can’t hire Sakura’s team.”
“No, it’s not an official regulation. Just something that’s frowned upon,” Kakashi said, turning to knock at the door. “But Iruka certainly didn’t mind clearing this mission.”
The door opened before Sasuke could snap anything else, and Mrs. Haruno appeared, smiling.
“Team 7, welcome!” she said as if this really were a mission rather than an elaborately orchestrated scheme to circumvent Sasuke’s efforts to get out of these very dangerous dinner parties that he longed to attend.
So instead, he pretended the opposite.
“You tricked me!” Sasuke huffed, pointing accusatorily at the rest of his team waiting in the kitchen, and not a single person in the apartment had the courtesy to look embarrassed.
“Yep!” Mr. Haruno said cheerfully from the table as Naruto cheered, “yay mission!” and Sakura beamed cheekily at him.
Sasuke glared at Kakashi as if the man would ever be on his side in any argument, but he just said, “well, get in there or I’m failing you,” and Sasuke glowered.
“Well, Sasuke, we have a very important task we need your expertise on,” Mr. Haruno said with a nod of mock seriousness. “Our table leg is still uneven, and there’s simply no one else in this Village we’d trust to fix it besides Team 7.”
Naruto snickered, clearly pleased with what they must have all come together to plan, those jerks, and Sasuke hmphed.
“Whatever,” he said. “That won’t take very long, you guys know.”
“Uchiha, please,” Kakashi said, his voice also laced with mock seriousness. “What kind of shinobi would we be if we didn’t test the table to make sure it was perfectly flat?”
“Yeah, we gotta eat dinner off it, Sasuke,” Sakura said, blinking wide and fakely-innocent eyes at him. She gave a dramatic shrug and sigh. “That’s just the job, it seems.”
Naruto just kept giggling, clearly finding the success of their plan beyond amusing, and Sasuke exhaled, rubbing at his eye. If he treated this as a mission, then it was the same as any other. No friendship. Just work.
“Fine,” he muttered, and Sakura and Naruto cheered.
“We’re employed! Believe it!” Naruto said as he pointed to the table. “Get to work, Sasuke!”
“Shouldn’t we all be helping?” Sakura asked, raising an eyebrow, and Naruto put his hands on his hips.
“I’m 100% certain Sasuke would rather do it himself and pretend he’s not invested in whatever we’re talking about in the lounge part of this room,” he said, and Sasuke scowled at how accurate the statement was.
He tried to ignore the group’s small talk as he sat on the floor beside the shorter leg, pulling out a ruler to measure how high it was off the floor. It honestly wasn’t too off, just enough to be annoying. It would probably be easiest to just sand down the other three legs to match it, since the chairs seemed to have plenty of clearance anyway…
Even as Sasuke tried to lose himself in the familiar thoughts of renovation work, he couldn’t quite pull his focus away from the group behind him whose company he badly wanted to join.
But he couldn’t. He had to stay focused here and not slip up any.
He glanced over his shoulder anyway.
The Harunos were all dressed up very nicely, even Sakura, though she’d clearly just thrown on something when she got home likely right before Sasuke and Kakashi had shown up. Naruto had a fancy kimono on over his orange jumpsuit, its large size and embroidered circles giving away that it had probably come from Mr. Haruno’s closet if Naruto and Sakura had arrived here together after reporting to the hokage.
Maybe that was something they’d been doing in all those dinners Sasuke knew the Harunos and Naruto had, dressing up fancy like how Sasuke had done. He glanced down at his own outfit, matted with sweat and wood dust from the earlier afternoon’s mission, and he felt a bit embarrassed.
Kakashi at least was dressed -and acting- the same as always, proven when the man pointed at the Harunos’ lounge couch and blandly asking, “mind if I sleep during this dinner party? I’m terribly tired.”
Sasuke rolled his eyes as the Harunos stared at him.
“Um. Sure?” Mr. Haruno said as Naruto flatly said, “you didn’t even do anything today, believe it.”
“Now, Naruto, the path of life can be quite exhausting to tread some days,” he said before stepping forward to lay on the couch, place his book over his face, and, within ten seconds, begin snoring.
The entire group in the lounge just stared at him, all three Harunos’ mouths slightly agape, and Sasuke couldn’t keep in a snicker.
Both Haruno parents looked up at the sound, and Mr. Haruno grinned, making Sasuke stare away, hoping to avoid any extra kind smiles.
“Do you need any help flipping the table over, Sasuke?” Mr. Haruno asked, and Sasuke blinked.
“Erm.” Yes, definitely, unless he wanted to break it or look like an idiot. Unfortunately, accepting help was a rather dangerous thing to do in such a situation. “No.”
“Sasuke, be for real,” Naruto said as Sakura bounced over and set her hands under the tabletop, beaming.
“Yeah, this is a team job, remember?” she said, and Sasuke blinked at her, seizing the words immediately. Right. This was a job. Jobs were safer than dinner parties.
“Yeah,” he said, glancing at Mr. Haruno. “We can do it fine. Don’t push your leg too much.”
“How very considerate, Sasuke,” Mrs. Haruno said, and Sasuke, against his own better judgement, almost smiled at the attentive compliment. He shouldn’t be enjoying dangerous things, but he couldn’t help but appreciate the little glimmer of attention that he’d always craved so desperately.
Once the table had been turned over and placed on the floor, Sasuke settled himself back down as Sakura returned to the lounge, and he found himself listening in to their conversation again.
“Well, we were going to play a new song, but with Kakashi sleeping…” Mr. Haruno said, awkwardly rubbing the back of his head.
“Oh, please,” Sakura laughed. “Kakashi invited himself and then blacked out on our couch. He can deal with a little music.”
“Yeah, I wanna learn the new dance!” Naruto said, jumping into a pose. “What’s the new dance called?”
“Dansu no-“
“Oh, wait!! Can we make a ramen dance?!”
“100%” Mr. Haruno said with a point and a delighted grin, and Mrs. Haruno tilted her head.
“You know,” she said with a sneaky sort of thoughtful voice, “I believe the main Hyuga family knows quite a bit about music. Perhaps a certain Hyuga could help you come up with a ramen song to dance to.”
Sakura giggled as Naruto blankly asked, “who?” before gasping and going, “are you saying Hinata knows ramen songs?!”
“Well, her mother used to sing quite a bit, I know,” Mr. Haruno said. “Hutau Hyuga, right? She was quite popular in the Village, back in the day. I’m sure Hinata’s learned a thing or two from her.”
“I gotta ask her about ramen songs!!” Naruto said. “I can trade dansu-no-whatever knowledge for ramen dance knowledge.”
Sakura gave a snicker, and Sasuke rolled his eyes until suddenly attention was turned back to him.
“Sasuke, would you like to learn as well?” Mrs. Haruno asked, and Sasuke startled as he realized he was just sitting and watching them.
He turned quickly around, shaking his head and starting on his task.
The group put on music from a small pile of discs sitting beside a crackly sort of radio as the Haruno parents attempted to teach Naruto and Sakura some dance from a previous decade, and Sasuke tried not to sneak glances over his shoulder at them or pay attention to how brightly Sakura laughed as Naruto tried to spin her despite being much shorter than her, and Sasuke had to mentally scold himself for pouting over the fact that since he was taller than Sakura, he’d be able to spin her much better.
Sasuke’s task didn’t end up taking him very long. Sanding a few centimeters from a table leg was nothing compared to what he’d had to fix up in the past, and soon he was up and examining his work quizzically.
“Hey, are you finished already?” Sakura asked cheerily, arriving beside him with a slightly breathless smile.
“Dunno. We’ll have to test it-“
“Yeah, over dinner!” Naruto said, practically crashing into Sasuke as he landed on his other side. “Let’s flip and then sip!”
“Sip what?” Sasuke asked, scrunching his nose as Sakura giggled and stepped forward.
“We found some new drinks at the store this week,” Mrs. Haruno said, stepping around the group to head towards the kitchen. “We were hoping to try them together!”
“C’mon, Naruto, you’ve gotta do at least one thing to be better than Kakashi,” Sakura said, stepping to one side of the table, and Naruto perked up with a, “okay, believe it!” as he ran to the other side.
“Be careful!” Sasuke said, warily watching Naruto before stepping forward himself. “And don’t just flip it, you’ll put wood dust everywhere; let me at least sort of pick up first.”
“Much appreciated, Sasuke,” Mr. Haruno said with a laugh as he limped around them to help his wife in the kitchen.
Once Sasuke had cleaned a little and the table was rightside up again, Sakura dropped her hands on top of it and tried shaking it back and forth aggressively, but only a tiny bit of movement followed her action.
“Yay! You did it, Sasuke!” she cheered, bouncing over with the obvious intent to hug him, which spiked up his panic immediately and made him step behind Naruto.
This was proven to not be a smart strategy, apparently, when Naruto turned around and hugged him instead.
“Get off!” Sasuke huffed as Naruto cheered, “yay team! Get in here, Sakura!”, and Sakura cheerily obliged.
“I said get off,” Sasuke huffed, ducking under their arms to get out of their hug, but his traitorous mind did not choose to celebrate his very difficult self restraint and instead decided to point out that now Sakura and Naruto were hugging each other and didn’t they look happy doing it?
Sasuke grumpily wished he could hit his imagination with a heavy stick. Maybe he could go throw something at Itachi later to get the satisfaction of it, even though the ghost was nowhere to be seen here which meant Sasuke only had himself to blame for his traitorous thoughts.
“Oh, it looks excellent!” Mr. Haruno cheered, returning from the kitchen with a pile of plates in hand. “Very well done, Sasuke!”
Sasuke tried to hide a smile by turning back to the table, but before he could try to use finishing as an excuse to leave, Naruto cheered, “now onto the important part of the mission: testing it by eating copious amounts of ramen off of it!”
Unfortunately, everyone else seemed convinced that this was crucial, and somehow Sasuke found himself sitting at the Harunos’ table again for dinner.
He fidgeted as the two Haruno parents moved to bring plates in and Naruto and Sakura chattered away over something. They wouldn’t be able to report a finished mission until they did this, so he had to. He didn’t have a choice. It wasn’t being friendly, it was just- what the client wanted.
Sasuke gave a determined nod towards the table, but he couldn’t stop from fidgeting.
“Here you are, Sasuke,” Mr. Haruno said, placing a plate of onigiri near him. “We just guessed on what flavors you’d like; you’ll have to tell us!”
Sasuke blinked at the tray, all neatly arranged and half smothered by the seaweed wrapping. They almost looked like wonky little green Uchiha fans.
“Um. Thank you,” he said, taking one of the onigiri with the hope that having something in his hand might stop his fidgets, and he could tell Mr. Haruno was still smiling at him.
“Oh, Sasuke!” Naruto said, bouncing up and down a few times. “We gotta catch you up on Mr. Ramen’s adventures!”
“Yes, quite a bit has happened,” Mrs. Haruno said, returning with a large platter of katsudon chicken as Mr. Haruno returned to the kitchen to limp back in with a large bowl of ramen noodles which was placed near Naruto.
Sasuke fidgeted again. The Harunos really were dangerously nice. He hoped they’d still give him a chance once he wasn’t cursed.
“Yeah, we need you to fill in what Madara and Kaguya have been doing while Mr. Ramen and Blossoms have been on their adventures,” Sakura said with an important nod, and he blinked at her in surprise.
“Er- what?”
“Don’t you remember?” Naruto asked, sounding vaguely insulted. “Mr. Ramen and Blossoms helped Madara win over Kaguya with the ramen bowl of peace and victory! And now that Madara and Kaguya are ramen friends, we’ve just been saying they’re lost on a mountain somewhere, and that’s why they aren’t in any of the other stories.”
“Mountain?” Mr. Haruno said, finally sitting with a slightly pained exhale. “I thought they were on a beach.”
“I thought they were in space,” Mrs. Haruno said thoughtfully, tapping at her chin once she’d taken a seat too.
Sakura laughed. “Why’d they be in space?”
“Well, Kaguya’s friends with the moon, isn’t she Sasuke?” Mr. Haruno asked, turning his attention to Sasuke again, who startled slightly.
“Oh. Um. Yeah. That’s what the story says, anyway,” he said, staring down at his onigiri. They’d remembered it? That was…nice. Did that make it dangerous? No, they were just nice people. They’d do that sort of thing to anyone, surely.
So Sasuke glanced back up and added, “I don’t think Madara and Kaguya are friends, though.”
“Of course they are, they had friendship ramen,” Naruto said before gasping. “Are you saying they stopped being friends while stuck on the mountain beach moon?!”
Sakura snickered slightly at the word mashup, and Sasuke took a bite of his onigiri. The fish filling tasted delicious. He pressed on. “Well, they’re rivals , not friends. There’s a difference.”
An extremely important, life-altering difference.
Fortunately, the Harunos all seemed to agree.
“Yeah, Kaguya wouldn’t be convinced forever by just one ramen bowl,” Mr. Haruno said with a serious nod. “Maybe Blossoms and Mr. Ramen need to bring Madara a new ramen bowl!”
“Yeah!” Sakura said. “Madara’s lost on- er- the moon mountain, and he needs ramen! Where did Blossoms and Mr. Ramen end up?”
“I think they were building a floating ramen shop ferry in the Waterfall Village,” Mrs. Haruno said, taking a bite of the katsudon.
“Okay, and- is Madara on the moon?” Naruto asked, scrunching his face as if running through calculations. “I dunno how we get to the moon.”
“No, Moon Mountain should be in…oh, the Land of Wind, of course!” Sakura said cheerily, elbowing Sasuke. “Right?”
Sasuke simply nodded, aware that he did not have enough context to participate here, but that would work out for the best for him. Participating could be dangerous, but just watching others had to be safe. He took another bite of onigiri, letting himself relax fractionally more.
By the time the group had finished dinner, Blossoms and Mr. Ramen had found Madara and Kaguya locked in an epic battle of an infinite rock-paper-scissors war and had brought them ramen bowls of success and happiness which had apparently been cooked in a volcano on the way over.
The story was as stupid as Sasuke remembered the previous one to be, but he still somehow found himself enjoying it anyway.
Itachi hadn’t shown up once, and Sasuke opted to leave while he was ahead before this ‘testing the table’ excuse ran out. As he stood to leave, the Haruno parents insisted on giving him some of the food in a bento for lunch the next day, and they wouldn’t change their minds no matter what he said.
“Thank you very much for making food,” Sasuke said, staring at the floor rather than at anyone else as he stood in front of the door. “It was delicious. Sorry I didn’t bring anything or dress up at all.”
“Sasuke, please, you had no idea this was happening. Obviously you didn’t need to prepare for it,” Mr. Haruno said with a light laugh before sending another smile his way. “Besides, you fixed up our table perfectly! That’s been bugging us for ages, and thanks to you, we finally won’t have to worry about it anymore.”
“Mhm!” Sakura nodded brightly as Mrs. Haruno returned from the kitchen and held out the bento with her own quiet, “yes, thank you very much.”
Sasuke took it, quickly looking back down. “Um. Okay. Thank you for hosting again. I hope it wasn’t too much trouble.”
“No trouble ever, Sasuke,” Mr. Haruno said, and Sasuke fidgeted and nearly turned to leave until Naruto spoke up from the table.
“Next time we can go to your house, Sasuke, believe it!”
Sasuke froze and snapped his eyes up. “Wh-what?”
Naruto sent a cheery beam through a cheekful of dinner. “Yeah, we should start rotating now that we’re all doing these together again! My place is pretty small, but I can use some boxes as extra chairs, believe it!”
“Erm- we wouldn’t ask you to make dinner,” Mr. Haruno said rather sheepishly, rubbing at the back of his head. “We don’t mind making it, really!”
“Yeah, okay,” Naruto shrugged, returning immediately to his food, but Sasuke just stared at him, his breathing slightly quickened from the narrow miss. He didn’t want anyone to come into his town, not yet, not when it still festered with the remnants of Itachi lingering in every floorboard or pane of glass he hadn’t fixed yet. And even the places he had fixed were ruins still, apparently. He didn’t want anyone to be there. Not yet.
Maybe someday, when he wasn’t cursed, he’d be able to ask someone how to actually fix up his town. Then he could invite them over. Maybe he could make them Uchiha foods, like the feast he distantly remembered having every year to commemorate Madara’s defeat of the Moon Princess. Surely the Harunos and Naruto would be interested in that, if they’d cared all this time about the story he’d told.
Sasuke only barely remembered these annual parties, just that Itachi would always end up busy doing something else and never participated in them, which always seemed to distract his parents. He’d had one of the parties at Shisui’s house, and he remembered that one better than the others. Shisui’s family had made delicious food, all themed to Madara or the moon.
He’d make sure to add ramen, and something with flowers too.
He looked back up when he realized he’d been staring forward for several seconds and rather awkwardly cleared his throat. “I…um…”
“You don’t have to host if you don’t want to, Sasuke,” Mr. Haruno said, but Sasuke shook his head.
“I- I want to someday,” he said. “During the Uchiha moon festival. It’s not for- a long time, maybe, but someday, I’ll make our Madara feast for you!”
A part of him regretted bringing it up as soon as the words left his mouth, but another part of him felt exhilarated. What better way to keep his determined spark alive than a concrete goal like this one? He knew it might not be the next festival -they came around in winter, Sasuke distantly remembered, but even half a year was a very short time to both find and defeat his brother- but it would surely be someday.
He gave a determined nod as the others all looked delighted by the idea.
“That sounds great, Sasuke!” Sakura beamed as Naruto cheered, “believe it!” and suddenly Sasuke, for the first time in five years, had a pleasant, concrete plan to look forward to.
Notes:
Update on where I'm at in Shippuden: um. well. they got her, I guess. What's going on PFFPF
also like at most two episodes after I posted the last chapter Madara and Hashirama had a scene like what I said they needed PFFPF guess that means I know what I'm talking about hehehee
Yknow a lot of this ending is just like. Things with no foreshadowing or power explanations just happening one after another. Politely requesting somebody explain to me what a truthseeker orb is
Unrelated to Shippuden but I was thinking about a different au involving the Akatsuki and had the idea for Zetsu of like white Zetsu acting like Hashirama and black Zetsu acting like Madara (which lowkey was set up more than what the Zetsus actually ended up being lol) but like the chaos that could have come from Zetsu's personality being a Hashirama-Madara fusion I feel like could have entertaining to watch
Anyway, back to asking where Yamato is. Go rescue him this time you COWARDS (jk Naruto ur not a coward dw)
Ty for reading, and I hope you have a lovely day!
Chapter 24: The Legacy of the Uchihas
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Sasuke spent the entire rest of the evening researching the Uchiha moon festival.
He’d gone straight to his library upon arriving back in his town with an, “I’m home!” directed to the white-feathered bird seated atop the outer wall. It felt almost nice to have someone he wasn’t imagining to say it to, even if that someone was…well. A bird .
But it felt nice anyway, and Sasuke would take what he could get.
Upon entering the library, he scoured the shelves until he’d gathered a small armful of books before marching over to the same portrait of Madara and plopping down in front of it, neatly arranging his books in front of him.
“Hello Madara. Hello Kaguya,” he said, lifting the first book in the stack and flicking it open to the index. “I hope you both enjoyed your ramen of peace or whatever. I’m sure it’s better than anything Itachi would have given you.”
Sasuke gave a pointed glare over his shoulder at the ghost he’d heard lean against the shelf behind him, but all Itachi did was blink at him, almost curiously.
Sasuke frowned. “What’s that face for?”
Itachi sent a smile. “You know those paintings aren’t real, right? It’s a bad habit, talking to yourself.”
Sasuke took off his headband and threw it at Itachi, and it soared through his imaginary chest and clattered against the shelf behind him.
Sasuke opted to ignore Itachi the rest of the evening and, just to annoy the ghost further, to continue explaining what he was reading aloud to the portrait.
He found himself a bit overwhelmed by the sheer multitude of ideas -apparently, every Uchiha other than Madara and Koibito liked to write extensive records- but he didn’t mind at all. That just meant he had options to choose from to make the most impressive feast possible, the kind that could someday convince someone to give a freshly-uncursed-and-not-a-jerk-anymore Uchiha a chance at friendship.
Sasuke dropped back to lay on the ground, hugging one of the books as he stared at the library ceiling, ornately painted with stars and the moon, and he gave a determined nod.
“I’m gonna win,” he said aloud before pointing blindly over his head in the direction of the ghost. “I’m gonna beat you,” he pointed to Madara, “and make you proud.”
Sasuke dropped his arm back down, hid a smirk, and added, “ believe it.”
~~~
“Sasukeee!!”
Sasuke pretended to be annoyed by the excited cheers of Sakura and Naruto when he arrived the next morning to their same wire training meeting place.
“Important update!” Naruto shouted, running forward and nearly crashing into Sasuke as he did.
“Get off,” Sasuke tsked, which Naruto made no effort to do.
“After you left, Madara and Kaguya fell into the ramen cooking volcano, which means you gotta tell us how they get out for the next story!” Naruto practically shouted, shaking Sasuke by the arm warmer.
Sasuke scrunched his nose. “How did they possibly fall into a volcano?”
Sakura gave a dramatic sigh. “Because you weren’t there to guide them, Sasuke.”
Sasuke rolled his eyes. “Yeah, right. Are they in the volcano or just falling towards it?”
“I think that’s for you to tell us, Sasuke,” Naruto said with a serious nod, and before Sasuke even knew it, they’d been discussing Madara-Kaguya volcanic escape plans long enough for Kakashi to arrive.
“Oh, are you three planning your moon festival?” the sensei asked with a pleasant voice, and Sasuke glared over his shoulder at him.
“How do you know about that?” he asked, crossing his arms. “You were asleep the whole dinner party.”
“Hm? What makes you think that?” Kakashi asked innocently, and Sakura gave an almost scoff as she said, “uh, because you were snoring on our couch the entire time?”
“Oh no,” Kakashi said with a dramatic shake of his head. “Making such assumptions without checking your information is not befitting a shinobi. I fear I’ll have to fail you for that.”
Sasuke did scoff at that, rolling his eyes as Naruto gave a dramatic point and said, “pretending to sleep instead of eating ramen to finish your team’s mission isn’t very beef-hitting of a shinobi either, Kakasensei!”
“It’s befitting ,” Sakura whispered as Sasuke smothered a laugh at the horribly botched pronunciation, and Kakashi gave a thoughtful hum.
“Fair enough, I suppose they equal out. Well!” Kakashi gave a cheerful clap. “Before we get started this morning-“
Sakura corrected, “afternoon.”
“Hm, is that right? Interesting,” he said as Sasuke rolled his eyes and Naruto snickered. “Regardless, I have some news to share!”
He sent them another hidden smile before continuing on.
“I’m not sure why Uchiha hasn’t been made aware of this already,” Kakashi said, and Sasuke tilted his head, suddenly curious, as the man continued, “but admittedly that might have been my job. Whoops. I’m sure the three of you are aware that the Leaf Village is hosting the joint chunin exams this year.”
“Mhm!” Sakura said as Naruto complained, “why’s only Sasuke supposed to be aware of that?”
“I’m getting there,” Kakashi said lightly. “Whenever one of the big five Villages hosts, there’s usually a culture festival that precedes the exams.”
“Yeah, where all the Villages who’ve entered genin to take the exams come together in the hosting Village!” Sakura said brightly, her eyes sparkling. “Doesn’t each Village get a ton of booths with things from their lands? I’ve always wanted to go!”
“How come I’ve never heard of this before?” Naruto asked. “And still why’s only Sasuke supposed to be aware of it?”
“I’m still getting there,” Kakashi said, a trace of annoyance in his voice, “and the Leaf hasn’t hosted the chunin exams since this joint-Village exam system was reinstated within the decade. Actually, the last time any of the five major Villages hosted was the Mist three years ago, which the Leaf did not participate in, and the Stone two years before that, which many were advised against attending unless they were participating genin, given the delicate relationship the Stone and Leaf currently have courtesy of how the Third War ended. Naruto, if you ask about Uchiha one more time I’m failing you.”
Naruto, who had opened his mouth, now gasped in indignation and said, “I wasn’t gonna ask about Sasuke, believe it! I was gonna ask if any of these booths have ramen!”
Sasuke rolled his eyes, getting more annoyed by the second at Kakashi’s delayed answer to the question of why Sasuke specifically needed to know this information. It was probably some scheme by the Harunos to get them all to run a booth or something. Would that be safe if it was just for his team? Another thing he’d need to figure out, that meant.
“Well,” Kakashi said to answer Naruto, tapping his chin, “every Village participating in the exams has at least one booth, since that’s a requirement to get their genin approved for the exam. It’s a display that we’re all such excellent friends now even if we’re going to be beating each other up in a public spectacle as the finale.”
Sasuke scrunched his nose as Kakashi’s obviously sarcastic tone, but Naruto at least appeared undeterred.
“We can get ramen from every Village?!” he asked, his jaw dropped, and Kakashi squinted at him.
“No, unless every Village brings a ramen stand,” he said.
“They could, you don’t know,” Naruto said, crossing his arms, and Sakura spoke up next.
“How many Villages are coming, sensei?” she said. “Is every Village really going to be here? Wouldn’t it be kinda bad to have Sand and Stone here together? They hate each other. And the Mist hates us worse than them.”
“Aw, you’ve studied your geopolitics,” Kakashi said, his voice still pleasantly sarcastic, and Sakura frowned as Sasuke scowled at him, the odd need to defend her clicking on in his head.
“Everybody knows Mist hates Leaf, it’s reasonable for her to ask,” he huffed.
“Huh? Mist hates Leaf?” Naruto asked, and Sasuke tsked, “are you serious?” but Kakashi answered before the two could start arguing.
“There are a handful of Villages not sending a team this year,” he said through an obvious yawn. “Mist is among them, as are the Hot Water and Frost Villages. Cloud is sending one team purely for political courtesy, I assume, and it seems a new Village called the Hidden Sound Village is participating for the first time this year. They might have ramen.”
“Yay Sound Village!” Naruto cheered as Kakashi crossed his arms with a dramatic sigh.
“And yes, Stone and Sand are both participating, which means our anbu will be working overtime to keep them from fistfighting in the streets,” he said, glancing up at the sky. “Those two hate each other so much it’ll be incredible if we get through this thing without them fighting.”
He lowered his eyes back down and added, “and of course we have the usual handful of Waterfall and Grass ninja, and the very suspiciously unusual Rain Village, who opted to enter a single team for the first time ever and which I want every one of you to avoid.”
“The Rain Village?” Sasuke asked, tilting his head.
“There’s gonna be Rain Village ninja?!” Sakura gasped, clearly delighted. “They never share anything with anybody! We have to ask them about their jutsus while we have the chance!”
“Why do I bother saying things?” Kakashi muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose as Sasuke spoke up.
“Why are you suspicious of the Rain Village?” he asked, and Kakashi put a hand on his hip and dropped his head to the side.
“They’re an extremely private Village who rarely permits anyone to enter, even if they’re just passing through,” Kakashi said. “They don’t share any information with anyone and haven’t submitted a single team for the joint chunin exams in history, opting to only promote their shinobi internally, and now for some reason, they’ve decided to participate in a multicultural festival and submitted their amekage and his vice amekage as the Village’s representatives for the opening ceremony. If that doesn’t strike the rest of you as peculiar, I’m afraid I’ll have to fail you.”
“The amekage?” Sasuke echoed. “Do the leaders of the Villages really come to the opening ceremony of some random exam festival?”
“It seems we’re getting four kages of small and large Villages, because they refuse to be upstaged by the Rain Village, who they don’t care about in the slightest,” Kakashi said, rubbing at his eye. “Which means now we need to amp up security to maintain the safety of the kages of the Rain, Waterfall, Sand and Stone, all on top of the usual increased security needed by simply having this many foreign shinobi in our Village from the exams.”
Kakashi exhaled heavily, but Sakura spoke up, her hand slightly up. “But sensei, maybe this is a good thing! That many kages here means no one will risk trying anything, and we’ll get a chance to learn a ton about other nations! Like the Land of Wind!”
Sakura nudged Sasuke, who blinked out of his glare at Kakashi and glanced at her.
“Yes, until the entire event inevitably gets canceled when the Stone Village tries to blow up the Sand genin team, as they have unsuccessfully attempted before,” Kakashi said.
“Is that the team with the jinchuriki?” Naruto asked, his voice subdued, and Kakashi squinted at him before realization flickered across his eye, and he gave a dramatic exhale.
“Tenzo told you that, didn’t he? Or, Yamato. Whatever his name is now,” Kakashi said, lifting his head with another sigh and continuing. “But if you’re worried about anyone in that fight, worry about the Stone. That jinchuriki’s not getting taken down that easily. He proved it the last time the two fought.
“But!” Kakashi said with a bright clap as Sakura frowned at him, still looking faintly worried. Sasuke resisted the stupid urge to take and squeeze her hand. “Enough of that gloomy talk! I want all of you to sit back and enjoy the festival. I’ll be running a booth that I expect you all to visit.”
“Or you’ll fail us?” Sasuke asked, raising an eyebrow as he slid his gaze back, and Kakashi smiled brightly.
“That is an excellent idea, Uchiha,” he said. “I’ll fail you if you don’t visit.”
“Of course we’ll visit your ramen booth Kakasensei!” Naruto said, his voice cheerful again.
“It’s not ramen,” Kakashi said.
Naruto frowned.
“What is it then?” Sakura asked, crossing her arms, and Kakashi’s eye crinkled in a smile.
“You’ll have to see when you get there. Oh, but I still haven’t said the reason I brought any of this up in the first place. Uchiha.”
Kakashi turned to Sasuke, who muttered, “finally,” and the sensei put his hands on his hips.
“The Leaf Village usually has at least one booth for each of its major clans,” Kakashi said, now pointing upwards with a finger. “Since you’re a genin now, I assume you’re old enough to run an Uchiha clan booth, should you be inclined.”
Sasuke’s eyes widened, and he gasped slightly. An Uchiha booth? Really?! He could practically feel stars shining in his eyes.
“You can make ramen!” Naruto cheered, and Sasuke glared at him.
“I’m not making ramen,” he said. “It has to be special.”
Honestly, it was exhilarating that he’d still be allowed a booth. The hokage very easily could have just not told them about it, and Sasuke never would have known. But he had one, even with how much everyone disliked him. He had a way to honor his family at this festival. He had to pick something perfect.
Throughout the next week, his teammates tried to help him brainstorm ideas, though the level of actual helpfulness was debatable.
Sakura suggested anything from paper fans to interpretive dance, and Naruto suggested ramen at least six times before Sasuke finally had to snap at him that ramen had nothing to do with the Uchihas.
“Um, you eat ramen Sasuke,” Naruto said smugly as they warmed up one morning, waiting for Kakashi to show up and begin their training. He perked up. “What if you make a ramen-rice fusion!”
“Would that taste good at all?” Sakura asked, scrunching her nose with a slight giggle, and Sasuke crossed his arms with a pointed, “ no .”
“Hey, you don’t know until you try it,” Naruto said with an airy shrug. “The ramen-rice combo could be exactly what the world needs, Sasuke!”
“Somehow, I doubt that.”
Once Kakashi finally arrived, the others were finally distracted by their wire training. Sasuke’s own training was going fine, though not fantastic , and Sakura was right around his level too.
Naruto, on the other hand, was awful at this.
The boy seemed to be having no success at using the ninja wire, and nearly an hour in, one of his attempts was notably worse than the rest. He’d begun in a similar way -throwing overhand with a shout of “ramen noodle jutsu!!”- but instead of simply missing, the shuriken unlooped from the string’s apparently poorly tied knot and flew straight up, wobbling erratically in the air until it began to drop back down again. Sasuke jumped away from it, putting himself between its potential trajectory and Sakura, but the ninja tool simply dropped back down and embedded itself into Naruto’s still outstretched arm.
There was one split second of silence before all three genin began shouting.
“Naruto!” Sasuke yelled as Sakura shrieked, “are you okay?!” but Naruto simply flailed his arm up and down, squawking, “ACK! GET IT OUT, GET IT OUT, GET IT OUT! KAKASENSEI!!”
“No, leave it in or you’ll start bleeding all over the place,” Kakashi said, stepping forward, but Naruto had already yanked the star out and dropped it on the ground, now trying to wipe the cut clean with his other arm and only succeeding in smudging blood across that one too. Kakashi exhaled heavily. “Or ignore me and bleed more. Come on, we’ll take you to the hospital.”
Kakashi lifted Naruto and dropped him over his shoulder and headed towards the Fire Hospital in the center of town, the boy still shrieking as he did and Sasuke and Sakura only a step behind.
Kakashi simply strode forward to the reception desk once they entered the main lobby of the hospital, trying to ignore Naruto’s shouting as he spoke up to the woman working behind the desk.
“We had a little training accident,” he said in a rather pleasant voice considering the situation.
“Uh, yeah, I’ll send for someone right away,” the receptionist said, summoning a large dragonfly and sending it flying into the hospital. “What happened to him?”
“I got stabbed!” Naruto shouted as Kakashi shifted to finally set him back down on the floor. The receptionist’s eyes strayed to Sasuke when she asked, “stabbed by what?”
Sasuke’s own eyes widened. Was he getting blamed for this? This lady didn’t even know who they were!
Before Sasuke could open his mouth to give an affronted defense of himself, Kakashi spoke up. “One of his own shurikens misfired, and it came back to hit him. Show her, Naruto.”
“Yeah, it’s right-! It’s…uh…” Naruto trailed off, looking over his arms. “Um…which one got stabbed again?”
The rest of his team just stared at him.
“What do you mean? ” Sasuke asked, too genuinely taken aback to remember to sound annoyed about it.
“Well, look! I can’t tell!” Naruto insisted, shoving his arms forward, but somehow, the boy had a point. Both arms were still matted with half dried blood, but Sasuke couldn’t see an actual wound anywhere.
“We’d like to see a medic anyway,” Kakashi said to the very confused receptionist, who nodded with a distant, “um. Right. Follow me,” before turning and heading down a hallway after where her summon had gone.
“You two, stay here,” Kakashi told Sasuke and Sakura, pointing to a bench in the entrance foyer. “No point in crowding the room. We’ll come back out when he’s done.”
“Okay, sensei,” Sakura said, still watching Naruto curiously as the boy cheerily waved with his potentially still injured arm before bounding away after the nurse and Kakashi.
“He seems totally fine,” Sakura said with a shrug, sitting and smiling up at Sasuke, who turned his face pointedly away despite sitting directly beside her. He was still glowering slightly at the receptionist assuming he was to blame. He knew his reputation was bad intentionally, but he hadn’t thought the other villagers would think he’d stab his own teammate-
Sasuke stilled. Oh. He knew where that idea came from.
He stared down at his lap, distantly noting that Sakura had continued talking beside him, talking about how skilled the medics here were and how used to patching up shuriken wounds they had to be. Sasuke just nodded along. He knew she was right. Naruto would be fine. Besides, apparently he’d barely even been stabbed, since they couldn’t see the cut anymore. Maybe it had just looked bad because they were surprised by it.
Sakura had moved on to talking about the hospital, more specifically about how oddly it was built since it predated the rest of the Village and wondering aloud if they’d ever want to renovate it to match the rest of the Village more. Sasuke leaned back in the wooden bench as he listened, his eyes straying up to the two pictures of the Konoha founders that hung in the foyer on the wall across from where they’d sat.
The larger one was the portrait, the one the founders had posed for after the famous defense of this very hospital that had gone on to become the Hidden Leaf Village. The four founders were positioned in lines of two, with Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju standing behind the two wood-style crafted chairs that held Koibito Nara -the woman who’d eventually become Koibito Uchiha- and Tobirama Senju. Koibito had a paper fan held in front of her face, as she did in most pictures taken of her; she apparently hated attention, unlike Tobirama Senju beside her, who, despite being a child in the portrait, sat in his chair as if it were a throne, his expression disdainful as he stared down the photographer.
But the real impressive figures were the two who stood behind the chairs. Hashirama, a light grin on his face, was the only one smiling in the group, a cocky sort of grin befitting a teen who’d just chased off an entire army. Beside him, Madara’s dark eyes bore into the camera, menacing even before he’d developed his sharingan, his arms crossed and his expression cold and vaguely ominous and very incredibly cool.
The entire portrait oozed power, all four ninja pictured clearly aware of the reputation they’d just fueled, a reputation that would quite soon after give rise to an entire Village. The picture had earned its fame across the ninja nations. Sasuke didn’t doubt that.
But it wasn’t his favorite picture from the infamous defense of the hospital.
“You should talk about the picture,” Sasuke said suddenly, pointing, and Sakura paused in her conversation about the building.
“Huh?”
Sasuke sent her a half glance before turning his head forward again. “I couldn’t come up with a question about Hashirama’s Forest before, so I’ll ask one about Hashirama’s picture instead.”
And, maybe, since both pictures in front of them also had Madara, this could lead to Sakura saying his family mattered again. He’d liked hearing her say it.
“Oh! Okay!” Sakura said, clearly perking up at the increased interest in her favorite hobby of sharing information. “Which one? The portrait or the record photo?”
“Record photo,” Sasuke said with a nod.
“You got it! What do you want to know about it?” she asked, leaning forward with her hands propped against her knees.
Sasuke turned further away. “I dunno, just- whatever you know, I guess,” he mumbled, and she beamed, clearly excited about the idea.
“Okay!” she said before launching into her speech.
“This picture was taken immediately after the defense of the Fire Hospital,” Sakura said with an academic point. “The victory that led to the founding of the Leaf Village! Hashirama Senju, Tobirama Senju, and Koibito Uchiha -though she was Koibito Nara at the time- all worked at this hospital- oh, should I talk about the hospital first?”
Sasuke nodded, his eyes now on the picture rather than on her or on the way she lit up even further at being prompted to share more information.
“The hospital was formed in the First Great Ninja War!” she said. “It was put in the Land of Fire since there was no Village there yet, which made it a sort of no-man’s-land. That made it perfect as a neutral ground for the two closest fighting Villages, which were the Stone and the Sand!”
Sakura crossed her arms as she continued, “the hospital was supposed to be a place where wounded soldiers could go to get patched up without being afraid of getting attacked by the other side. But the Stone and the Sand, Stone especially, didn’t really go for this idea -I mean, both sides were just kinda picking people up from local areas and sending them off to fight for them, they weren’t the best- and they’d send people to attack the hospital sometimes.
“But!” Sakura continued with another point. “This hospital happened to have a couple of very impressive nurses! Specifically, Hashirama Senju and Koibito Nara! The two of them could fight as well as heal, which made the hospital pretty hard to attack, which just made people flock to it more. Though, they probably also went because Hashirama Senju was the best medical ninja in history and gave the hospital an almost 100% survival rate no matter what the injury was.
“But that started making the hospital too popular, especially with the smaller areas that were getting pulled into the war by the Sand and Stone against their will, and that made the Sand and the Stone really worried, and that made them want to take the hospital down. Which, heh, is where Madara and Izuna Uchiha came in.”
Sasuke pointedly did not look at Sakura’s probably rather sheepish expression. He knew this part of the story, but it didn’t mean it wasn’t a bit embarrassing to hear Sakura say it.
She continued on. “Erm- well, they got hired to take the hospital down, and they, er, kind of succeeded- or, at least, they got in all the way and could have destroyed the place, but they ended up not doing it, and nobody really knew why at the time. They also didn’t land a single fatal blow on any nurse or patient or anybody, ‘cause it turned out later that they were just trying to scare the hospital staff before they got too full of themselves rather than actually trying to destroy anything, and they wanted to keep people from those smaller lands away from the place too.
“This scare tactic only worked for a little bit at a time, so the Stone kept sending Madara and Izuna off to the hospital or to neighboring areas to keep it up, which had Hashirama and Koibito always running off to go stop them, and the whole group started having this massive rivalry going.
“And then…um…” Sakura paused, tapping at her chin. “I don’t really know a ton about what happened during those times…I know Tobirama Senju showed up to the hospital eventually, and…Izuna died from something, but apparently Madara hardly ever talked about it…oh, I’m forgetting…”
Sakura squinted at the pictures, worrying at her lip, before giving a sheepish laugh as Sasuke glanced at her. “Sorry, I guess I don’t really remember all the details-“
“Don’t stop,” Sasuke said before thinking, and when Sakura blinked at him, surprised, he turned away with an, “mmph.”
Sakura exhaled, clearly smiling. “Okay. Um…okay, I’ll skip ahead a little. While everybody was all focused on the Stone and the Sand in the west, the Mist Village was trying to sneak its way into the Land of Fire from the east. Ino says they sent an army out to kidnap lost soldiers for their tailed beast experiments, and apparently they had their sights set on the Fire Hospital. They were really good at going undetected, but Madara found out about them -maybe they tried to get Madara to help them, since he knew about the hospital’s defenses already? But instead of helping, he actually went on the warn the Fire Hospital- though honestly, I’m not really sure what changed his mind-“
“It was Hashirama and Koibito,” Sasuke said quietly, and he could tell Sakura turned to him in his peripheral vision. “That’s what he said, apparently. If anyone asked why he changed sides, he’d always just say that Hashirama and Kobito were too honorable to suffer such a cowardly attack.”
Sasuke could see Sakura smiling. “Yeah, that makes sense. But when Koibito sent out summons to check for herself, they found out that the Mist wasn’t just sending a little platoon, but rather an army of two thousand. I think maybe the Mist just wanted to be sure they didn’t have any trouble with the Sand or the Stone, or maybe they were just spooked by the place’s reputation of surviving that many attacks not knowing those attacks were meant to be survived. But after hearing that they’d be facing such a massive army, all the other guards stationed at the hospital deserted on the spot and ran away.”
Sasuke gave a short hmph that Sakura gave a perturbed hum at. “I mean, they were probably scared out of their minds,” she said, fidgeting slightly. “They hadn’t even been able to stop Madara and Izuna, and those two hadn’t even wanted to actually damage anything.”
“I guess,” Sasuke said, and Sakura shifted a bit before pressing on.
“But, anyway, that left Hashirama and Koibito as the only fighters left in the hospital, and Tobirama too, but he was just a little kid, and they didn’t want him to be fighting Mist shinobi. But, then, Madara said that he’d fight alongside them- well, kinda more than that, he apparently completely took the lead, since he was the only one who seemed to actually know how to face off an enemy like that in battle.
“Hashirama and Koibito totally let him take charge, which is actually pretty impressive of them, too, and he set up a whole system that…um…I kinda don’t remember, heh.”
“I sort of know it,” Sasuke said, scrunching his nose slightly. “I know he used his fire style jutsu with Hashirama’s wood style and Koibito’s deer summons to put up a perimeter around the hospital and to help barricade up any windows. And he had all the nurses stand posted in the halls outside where the patients were, and Tobirama was set up in the main lobby, and then the three main fighters would stay outside, using the fire and summons to funnel all the Mist shinobi through them first.”
“Oh, that is smart!” Sakura said, dropping her fist into her hand, and Sasuke tried not to grin at the compliment of his family.
“And I remember,” he said, a bit of eagerness now edging into his voice too. This part was one of his favorites. “After hearing the plan, one of the nurses told him something like how it would be an honor to die beside such brave shinobi, and Madara just replied, um- let me remember…” He scrunched his nose slightly and closed his eyes, pulling the memory forward. “He said, ‘you will have no such honor here. All of us will live.’”
He opened his eyes again with a small grin that he saw Sakura mirroring.
“He was really cool,” she said, and Sasuke couldn’t keep his smile from growing. She continued on for him. “And he ended up being totally right. I don’t remember the specifics of the battle, but I do remember the results- despite there being only three frontline shinobi, they fended off nearly the entire army by themselves. I think Koibito and Hashirama combined healed over ten thousand fatal injuries across the three of them over the course of the battle, and Madara took down half the invading army completely by himself. Hashirama’s defensive jutsu was strong enough that the trees from it are still here by the hospital, and I think…was it only fifty Mist shinobi out of the two thousand that attacked that could get through the three’s front line? And then, of course, Tobirama took out every one of those fifty who did make it through. He only really knew substitution jutsu for combat at the time, but apparently that was all he needed, which is why he later mandated it be trained to all Academy students.
“Though he got hurt worst of the three, since the only medical ninja he had on standby were a few nurses who were nowhere near Hashirama’s level, or Koibito’s. I know he lost one of his legs fighting, and at least one hand too- or maybe his whole arm? Well, at least one hand, since I know he invented the one-handed substitution sign during that battle, and a ton of other shortcut signs later on.”
Sasuke nodded, his eyes lingering now on the portrait of the four. Tobirama Senju never shied away from showing off his wooden prosthetics -courtesy of his brother’s justu post-battle- in pictures, as if daring anyone to consider him weaker because of it.
“But eventually the Mist army was chased off, and not only had no one from the hospital died, but none of the patients or nurses inside even saw combat,” Sakura continued, her voice eager. “The four fighters had defended them completely and got a really impressive reputation pretty soon after. But before they knew about any of that, they did damage control on the hospital, trying to get everything back to normal and all, and that’s where that picture happened.”
Sakura pointed to the second picture framed below the portrait, and Sasuke couldn’t help but give a small smile. She continued, “Hashirama went to help his brother, but he’d overused his jutsu enough that he was totally overgrown with it, and there wasn’t much more he could have done for Tobirama anyway. I remember Iruka saying Hashirama recorded the next part really well after -I think everybody was trying to record what had happened, which is why someone was taking pictures in the first place, just for records- but Hashirama had been really worried that Madara would go back to being their enemy after this, and he really didn’t want him to, because he knew how much Madara helped this battle succeed, and he went over to him trying to prepare for the worst, maybe even to have to fight Madara right then and there, but instead of fighting, Madara just put out his hand and said, like, ‘if you’re hiring new guards, I’d be happy to supply a resumé’, as if they hadn’t just defeated two thousand shinobi in essentially a four man squad, and Hashirama apparently thought this was the funniest thing ever, and as they shook hands on it, one of the nurses taking records pictures caught it.”
Sasuke kept his eyes on the picture as Sakura talked. It was full of motion, of nurses in ill-fitting armor rushing around with boxes of supplies alongside deer summons from Koibito, all trying to get the hospital back in order after the barricading and terror. And right in the middle, as if somehow framed by the blurring nurses around them, stood Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju. Madara’s grin was nearly deranged, the then-teenager splattered from head to toe in blood, probably his own and his enemies’, and Hashirama was laughing his head off beside him, his wood style jutsu completely overgrown around him, splitting in and out of his skin and armor and hair, both teens shaking hands with the delight of victory evident across every bit of their positions.
“Of course as soon as everyone heard what they’d done, they became famous,” Sakura said, rocking back and forth slightly, beaming. “A lot of the smaller areas nearby began treating the hospital with a lot more respect, even handing over land in exchange for protection against the Stone and the Sand, and soon the hospital was acknowledged as the start of its own Hidden Village. A little while later, the Sand acknowledged it too and offered an alliance with the new Village, and with the combined power of the two, the Stone backed off, and the First War came to a close, all ‘cause of the bravery of three teenagers and one’s kid brother. So cool.”
Sakura beamed, kicking her feet slightly, and Sasuke watched her out of the corners of his eyes. He felt lighter, a cool breeze blowing in his chest where a heavy weight usually rested.
“I’m gonna be the next Madara Uchiha,” he blurted before he could stop himself, and Sakura turned to him with her bright green eyes.
“Yeah?” she said, grinning, and he nodded.
“Yeah!” he said, his cheeks slightly puffed. “I’ll be strong enough to beat anybody, no matter who they are, and I’ll keep everybody safe!”
Safe from danger and curses and monsters who wanted to rip lives apart with just a few simple words.
Sakura’s grin only widened as she tapped him on the chest. “You better be doing this alongside the number one best forever ninja, y’know.”
Sasuke gave a teasing hmph as he crossed his arms. “I’m gonna be the number one best forever ninja. You can be the number one best forever kunoichi.”
Sakura giggled, but then Sasuke’s own words caught up to him, and his eyes widened. What was he doing?! He’d gotten too caught up in the story about his family that he’d stopped thinking about what he was saying. His shoulders scrunched, and he turned away, frowning.
“Sasuke? What happened?” Sakura asked, leaning forward worriedly, but Sasuke stood, his mind clouded and dizzy.
“I should go home,” he said, staring at the ground now, his hands fidgeting at his sides.
“But Kakashi Sensei said to wait,” Sakura said, standing too, but before Sasuke could come up with a reply, he heard someone else’s voice.
“Yes, and not listening to him could make him fail you, you know.”
Sasuke turned to frown at Kakashi, who had returned with Naruto and was smiling cheekily through his mask as if his stupid constant joke was hilarious.
“I’m no longer stabbed!” Naruto cheered, sending them a thumbs up with his bandaged arm’s hand.
“Well that’s a relief,” Sakura said with a smile, though her eyes drifted back to Sasuke, who turned his face pointedly away.
“Well,” Kakashi said, moving a hand to his hip. “Officially, if any member needs to go to a hospital, training for the day is supposed to cease, and since we don’t have a mission lined up, I guess that means we’re done until tomorrow.”
“What? Boo!” Naruto shouted, and Kakashi glanced at him.
“You cannot be booing that if you’re the cause,” he said before turning back to the group. “And since I like to avoid consecutive hospital visits, we’ll be starting a new taijutsu method tomorrow. Meet at the training grounds at 8!”
“Will you be there at 8?” Sasuke hmphed, and Kakashi sent him a hidden smile.
“Hm, that does seem unlikely, doesn’t it? You’re very right, Sasuke. Meet at the training grounds at 7!”
And then he was out the door.
Sakura and Naruto fell easily back into teasing complaints about Kakashi’s behavior, and Sasuke took their conversation as an excuse to leave. He could probably get some training of his own in at home, where he could be alone and away from the dangers of making stupid mistakes around his teammates. Maybe he could practice some ninjutsu, since Kakashi didn’t seem to have any intention of teaching them any-
Sasuke gave a suspicious glance over his shoulder when Sakura’s and Naruto’s conversation remained the same volume behind him. “Where are you two headed?”
“Your house,” Naruto said with no shame. “You said you’d have dinner next time!”
“I did not!” Sasuke retorted, turning pointedly away. “I said the opposite, actually.”
“No, you said someday, which isn’t today, but it’s also not the opposite of today,” Sakura said cheekily, and Sasuke sent an annoyed pout over his shoulder at her before pressing forward into the sunny street.
“Yeah, I said not today ,” he tsked, though instead of making any indication of leaving him alone, Sakura and Naruto instead fell into step beside him.
“I mean, we can stop at a store on the way there if you don’t have the food for it,” Naruto said with a shrug, and Sasuke glared at him.
“That is not the problem here!”
“Perfect, then you have enough food already!” Naruto beamed, and Sasuke practically spluttered.
“That’s not what I-!”
“I dunno, Naruto,” Sakura said, and for a moment Sasuke thought Sakura might actually help him get out of this. But then she sent him a cheeky smile and said, “I doubt he has enough ramen. We’ll have to pick some up on the way.”
“Oh, smart idea, Sakura!” Naruto said brightly as Sasuke snapped, “we’re not going to-!” but before he could finish, someone stepped up from behind them and grabbed Sakura by the shoulders.
All three jumped as the person who’d grabbed her brightly said, “you’re a hard woman to find, Haruno!”
“Toki!” Sakura said, dropping her head back to grin upside down at the masked anbu as Naruto cheered, “blond dude!”, but Sasuke’s eyes were locked in the gloved hands grabbing the fabric around Sakura’s shoulders, and instincts took over.
“Get off her!” he snapped, grabbing Sakura’s arm and yanking her away from the anbu’s grip with enough force to make her stumble and nearly fall.
“Sasuke!” Sakura scolded, glaring at him, and seeing that expression on her face made him falter. She stepped away from him and turned back to Toki, and Sasuke felt his face heating as his shoulders scrunched. Sakura asked the anbu, “you were looking for me?”
“Yeah,” Toki said, placing a hand on his hip as the other pointed to Sasuke. “I had to track down your friend Uchiha just to find you.”
“We’re not friends,” Sasuke snapped, and Toki dropped his arm back around Sakura’s shoulders and lifted his other hand, opening it and closing it with a, “walks like a duck, Uchiha,” which just made his anger root deeper.
“Who walks like a duck?” Naruto asked, his eyes wide as he pointed. “Sasuke walks like a duck?”
Naruto was ignored.
“What did you want, Toki?” Sakura asked, and Sasuke tried to force his heartrate to lower as his eyes remained locked on the way Toki’s arm draped lazily over Sakura. He was too close. His glove was brushing her arm.
Toki jabbed his thumb over his shoulder. “My man’s having a fit because you haven’t come talked to us about genjutsu yet. He hates waiting for people, you know.”
Sakura gasped, her hands jumping to her mouth. “I totally forgot! I went by a few times, but they kept saying you weren’t there- do you have time now?”
“Sure, we finished our mission for today,” Toki said, straightening up. “If you hurry, you can meet some more anbu! There’s a few of us in the public office today.”
“Okay!” Sakura beamed as if that was anything at all to beam about, and before Sasuke’s rationality could process what he was doing, he reached out and tugged on Sakura’s wrist to pull her back towards him and Naruto, away from the anbu that’d only lead her to more anbu and more danger and-
Sasuke’s sense of reason clicked back on then as Sakura glanced back at him with a confused, “Sasuke?” and he realized that what he was doing meant danger, and all his worries mingled in his brain into a sludgy soup of confusion, and he felt very very lost.
He dropped his hand and stared away, wishing he had any idea how he could actually protect her.
Sakura tilted her head. “Sasuke, what is it?”
“Mmph,” was all Sasuke said as Naruto blinked between the two before throwing an arm around Sasuke and cheerily stating, “don’t worry, Sakura, I’ll go eat Sasuke’s dinner and tell you all about it!”
“We’re not having dinner,” Sasuke huffed, stepping away from Naruto and locking his eyes back on Toki. The man’s mask made his expression unreadable, but a mask was better than nothing. Much, much better.
Sasuke forced air in and out of his lungs. Toki wasn’t Itachi. He needed to calm down.
Sakura, unfortunately, made his job very difficult when she stepped towards him and took his hand -which he quickly pulled away from- and seriously said, “it’s okay, Sasuke. Toki is a friend of mine, and we’ll be in a public office.”
“Eek, it’s like you think I’m some monster or something, Uchiha,” Toki said, rubbing his wrist along his hairline. “I’m not trying to freak you out, you know. My man just wants to ask Haruno about genjutsu.”
Sasuke frowned, but he nodded. He knew he was being stupid, and it was obvious the anbu knew too.
“I don’t care what you do,” he mumbled, glaring away, and Sakura gave a bit too knowing of a smile.
“Sure, Sasuke. Take good care of him, Naruto!”
“Yes, ma’am, believe it!” Naruto shouted, staring down the street in the opposite direction at something that had apparently caught his eye, and Sasuke tsked as Sakura waved and skipped to fall into line beside Toki as the man strolled rather gingerly away.
“I don’t need you taking care of anything,” Sasuke told Naruto, fighting to quiet his instincts that were still humming worries about Sakura.
“Yeah right you don’t,” Naruto said, turning back around. “If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t be eating nearly enough ramen.”
Sasuke rolled his eyes and turned, forcing his attention away from Sakura and Toki. He had a mask, and Yamato had been fine. In, out. It was fine.
“I’m going to get in some more training,” Sasuke said, walking away, and Naruto nodded.
“Good idea!” he said and immediately continued following Sasuke.
Sasuke glared at him. “What are you doing?”
“Uh, getting in some more training?” Naruto said as if explaining something obvious to a toddler, and Sasuke scowled.
“Then quit following me and go do it.”
“How are we supposed to train together if we don’t stick together?”
“That isn’t-!” Sasuke started, turning to glare at Naruto, but one look at his stupid, wide-eyed grin told Sasuke that there was only one way to keep this kid from trailing behind him like a lost puppy all day.
So Sasuke turned on his heel and sprinted away before Naruto could register what he’d done.
“Wh- hey! Get back here!” Naruto shouted, running after him, but Sasuke had a plan. Sasuke put up the handsign for a substitution jutsu -the one-handed one Tobirama had invented- and felt the familiar head rush as he swapped with a nearby branch and hid in the tree it came from.
He peered around the leaves to watch Naruto skid to a stop with a, “what the-?!” before swiveling his head and taking off in a random direction. Sasuke grinned at his success, waiting a few minutes to make sure Naruto was adequately far away before dropping out of the tree to begin heading back to his town. He kept his head swiveling around to keep an eye out for Naruto, but he didn’t see the boy again until he reached the trail to his house, and he exhaled in relief once he reached the front gates, pushing them open and entering the main street.
He headed back towards the lake he always practiced fire jutsu by, brushing a few leaves off his shoulders. He heard a fluttering of wings and glanced up to see a white-feathered bird landing on a nearby roof.
“I didn’t do a mission today,” he told it. “I don’t have a report for your nest.”
He’d taken to handing his mission report copies off to the white birds whenever he got them. He enjoyed knowing that someone at least was waiting to hear that he’d successfully finished, even if it was just a bird.
“Aw, what have you been doing all day, then?”
Sasuke glared over his shoulder at Itachi’s voice, and the ghost sent him a cheeky smile.
“It’s not my fault Naruto threw a shuriken into his own arm,” he hmphed, continuing forward, and, unfortunately, he heard Itachi following behind him.
“I suppose not. You seemed awfully worried about him.”
“Teammates worry about each other,” Sasuke said sourly, turning down the winding path to the lake.
“Is that right?”
“ Yes , it is.”
“Well,” Itachi sighed. “I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see, won’t we?”
He lifted his hand, and Sasuke glared defiantly at him, determined not to flinch against a poke that wasn’t real, and Itachi sent him a cold smile.
“You really are funny, Sasuke,” he said, lowering his arm back down, and Sasuke crossed his arms.
“Oh yeah?” he asked, sticking his tongue out, and Itachi gave a quiet chuckle and said nothing more.
Sasuke arrived to the lake and took a few breaths to focus himself. He hadn’t practiced fireball jutsus in quite a while, so maybe he should start there. He stretched a bit to warm up as he ignored Itachi’s ghost sitting on the edge of the dock beside him, leaning against a post and grinning lazily up at him. Maybe that was for the best. It would help him remember the ghost was imaginary. The real Itachi never made time to watch him practice.
Sasuke formed a few handsigns and tried for a warmup fireball. It was a bit smaller than his usual, but that was the goal. He didn’t want to scald his throat by blasting out his top output after days of nothing.
He prepared himself to ignore a tease from Itachi about the lackluster jutsu, a defensive reply ready to explain that it was just to warm up, but the ghost didn’t comment. He just kept watching, his smile cold.
Slightly unnerved, Sasuke stepped a bit closer to the dock end to edge Itachi closer to out of view and performed the handsigns for a second fireball, a third, a fourth. The fifth was quite large, and he grinned at it as he watched it fizzle out. That had been one of his better attempts lately.
“Nice one, Sasuke!!”
Naruto’s voice, loud and behind him, made Sasuke jump so badly he fell into the lake.
He grabbed the dock and heaved himself back onto it with a snapped, “Naruto?! How did you-?!” but his answer to how the boy tracked him became quickly apparent.
“A-are you okay S-Sasuke?” Hinata squeaked, her eyes wide as Naruto pointed and laughed at him.
“What are you doing here?!” Sasuke snapped, shoving himself upright and glowering.
“Training, duh,” Naruto said, marching out to the dock. “Time to practice fire jutsu, right? Tell me what to do!”
Naruto put up his hands with an expectant beam, but all Sasuke could manage was anger.
“Get out!” he shouted, but Naruto just sent an unimpressed expression his way.
“You can’t kick us out, this is a park,” he said, prodding Sasuke in the chest. “You don’t own the place.”
“Wh-yes, I own it!” Sasuke snapped. “I own this whole town! Get out!”
“You do not own the town ,” Naruto replied scathingly, clearly disbelieving, but before Sasuke could snap that did you not see the million Uchiha paper fans plastered on every surface around here? , Hinata spoke up.
“S-Sasuke,” she stammered, though she flinched when Sasuke glared at her now. “N-Naruto said you g-guys were training t-together-“
“We’re not!” Sasuke insisted, rounding on Naruto. “Why’d you tell her that?”
“Uh, ‘cause we were,” Naruto said, cocking his head at him. He hopped to straighten up and sent a thumbs up. “You did evasion training while I did pursuit training! And Hinata also did pursuit training! Now let’s do fire jutsu! How do we do fire jutsu?”
Sasuke just stared, the sheer audacity of Naruto’s delusional misinterpretation of what had happened making him temporarily speechless.
“It d-depends on what chakra nature we all h-have, Naruto!” Hinata managed, stepping forward towards him. “D-do you know which you h-have?”
“I do not know what chakra natures are!” Naruto said brightly, turning back to face the water as Hinata stood beside him, and Sasuke just gaped at the two, both now completely ignoring him as they prepared to practice fire jutsu while pretending they weren’t trespassing on his property.
He felt his hands twitch at his sides, his heartrate ticking up. There shouldn’t be people here. Here was dangerous, here was where everything had gone horribly wrong, where Itachi’s ghost still sat at the dock edge now watching Naruto and Hinata with considerable interest, and there shouldn’t be people here-
Sasuke squeezed his eyes shut, taking a few breaths. Itachi’s ghost wasn’t real. Naruto and Hinata weren’t his friends. His curse wouldn’t activate against them. Even now, the two were clearly more interested in each other than Sasuke, who they seemed to be completely ignoring. Sasuke’s curse was on himself, not on the town. It wouldn’t activate just because people were here. As long as Sasuke kept his guard up, it would be fine.
He opened his eyes, his hands still trembling slightly. It would be fine .
“Hey Sasuke!” Naruto said, turning and shattering Sasuke’s precarious attempts at calming himself down. That just meant he’d have to put extra effort into keeping them at arm’s length.
“What?” he snapped, glaring, and Naruto was completely unperturbed even as Hinata hid her face in her hood.
“Hinata says there’s little paper thingies that show our chakra natures,” he said, drawing a spiral for some reason in the air as he did. “Do you have any of those here?”
“No,” Sasuke said immediately, barely registering the question as he grabbed the excuse. “You’ll have to get those in a different town.”
“Bummer,” Naruto said. “I’ll just guess my chakra nature! I think I’m…ramen style!”
He posed dramatically, earning a soft giggle from Hinata and a glare from Sasuke.
“Ramen’s not a chakra nature, and you should go into a town to get those papers,” he huffed, and Naruto straightened up.
“I guess that makes sense,” he said, turning to Hinata. “Hey, wanna come with?”
Hinata squeaked, her whole face reddening as she buried it deeper in her hood, but Sasuke took the opportunity immediately.
“Yes, you two go together,” he said, practically running to get behind them and start pushing them towards the gate. “The Senju-Hyuga district has the best ones, go there, and then hey, Hinata, your house has really good training grounds, doesn’t it? That would be much better than a lake, so training should be there.”
“M-my h-house?” Hinata stared over her shoulder at Sasuke with slightly panicked eyes as Naruto cheered, “then let’s run over there, believe it! C’mon Hinata!”
Naruto grabbed Hinata’s wrist and started running towards the gate, and Hinata seemed close to passing out from the contact, and Sasuke exhaled as they finally left.
He hugged his arms, staring down at the puddle his wet clothes were dropping on the dock, and tried to get his head back together.
“Why didn’t you go with them, Sasuke?”
Sasuke turned glare at his brother’s ghost, now standing beside him.
Itachi sent him a smile. “Your friends went out of their way to spend time with you.”
“They aren’t my friends,” Sasuke said, glaring at him before turning to march pointedly away. He took a longer route home, hoping to avoid the street Naruto and Hinata were running down, and unfortunately, Itachi followed him.
“What would you call them?” Itachi asked curiously.
“Naruto is a teammate, and Hinata’s just another genin,” Sasuke tsked, trying to wring out his hair as he walked. “Naruto’s only here to train more. Friendship’s nothing to do with it.”
Itachi simply gave a soft laugh, and Sasuke glared at him. “What’s funny about that?”
Itachi kept up that stupid smile Sasuke’d once found comforting. “He went out of his way to bring Hyuga back here just to make sure you trained with him.”
“And?” Sasuke huffed. “He’s just delusional thinking we were training already.”
“Or, he wanted to spend time with his friend,” Itachi said with a shrug, and Sasuke felt his hands clench.
“We are not friends!”
Itachi gave another quiet laugh. “Of course, Sasuke. Whatever you say.”
Sasuke aimed a kick at Itachi, which did nothing, since he was imaginary , and continued to stomp home in frustration. Itachi was wrong anyway, so Sasuke shouldn’t be getting this riled up over him. Naruto wasn’t his friend, and neither was Hinata. They weren’t the ones in danger from his curse. Not like…
Sasuke shook his head. No, he wasn’t friends with Sakura either. He’d worked hard to make sure he wasn’t. They were just teammates.
He hugged his arms, scowling at the dirt path in front of him. She was off with that anbu now, but- Toki only disliked Sasuke. He seemed to like Sakura, so obviously she wasn’t in danger from him.
He squirmed slightly, squeezing his arms tighter.
When he arrived back home, a white-feathered bird, maybe the same one he’d seen earlier, watched him enter his house, moving carefully after taking off his shoes to not track water or mud anywhere. He hated making the floors all dirty. He’d done it so carelessly before, and his mother had scolded him, and he’d been obnoxious about it.
He’d never gotten a chance to apologize. He felt his lip quiver.
He showered to get the lake water off of him and felt fractionally better when he had dry clothes on. He set up rice to cook and stepped outside to his porch, leaving the door open to make sure the oven didn’t start a fire. He tucked his knees into his chest and dropped his chin onto his arms with a sigh, his eyes finding the same bird from before.
“Any chance you want rice instead of paper?” he asked it in a half-teasing voice. The bird simply tilted his head at him, and Sasuke sighed, dropping his gaze back down, smushing his cheek against his arms and watching the wind ripple the grass in the lawn.
Once the rice was done, Sasuke opted to eat it outside too. The air was warm, but the breeze was just cool enough to make it perfect, and he exhaled when he sat, stabbing his chopsticks into his rice. He let his thoughts drift pleasantly back to what he should make for his moon festival feast, once he wasn’t cursed and everyone could come over. Not to this house, obviously; he had no intention of anyone ever seeing this house, even after he wasn’t cursed. Far too many things had gone horribly wrong here, and Sasuke doubted that even he would come back to live in it once he didn’t need to to keep others away.
But he had one of the restaurant renovations far enough along that he could push to finish it as soon as he needed it, and they could eat there. He’d figure out a perfect moon festival feast- or, hopefully, he’d be uncursed even sooner than that, and could make something else first. He knew he’d need ramen regardless if he wanted Naruto to even show up at all, but he’d need to pay closer attention at the next Haruno dinner to see what Sakura liked most and make sure he knew how to make it-
“Sasukeeeee!!”
Sasuke stilled, his chopsticks halfway up to his mouth, his eyes widening. No. No, no, no, no, no .
Naruto’s voice grew louder the next time he shouted. “We got paper!! Hinata paid for them- why do you shop a million miles away from your house?!”
Sasuke stood up, panic spiking back inside of him. Hinata was still with him. Her byakugan could find him, easily. And see his house.
And the boarded up rooms.
Sasuke dropped his rice bowl and ran out to the street, not even grabbing his shoes before he did. It didn’t take much searching to find Naruto and Hinata at the end of the road, and Naruto perked up when he saw him, waving a packet of white papers in the air.
“There’s five in this set!” he yelled cheerfully. “We should give one to Sakura tomorrow-!”
“Why did you come back here?!” Sasuke snapped, and Hinata hid behind Naruto, who presented the packet of papers with a pleased grin.
“Uh, ‘cause you didn’t come over with us,” Naruto said with a shrug. “We didn’t make it to Senju-Hyuga, Hinata says these papers cost double over there. I think you should shop closer to here. Do we need anything else to start the training?”
“Yes, to leave,” Sasuke hissed, and Hinata finally tugged on Naruto’s jacket sleeve and stammered, “N-Naruto, I really th-think he’s not interested-“
“Ha! That’s funny, Hinata,” Naruto said as Sasuke stared, panicky frustration boiling up into his chest.
“What is wrong with you?!” he shouted. “I don’t want you here! Go away!”
Sasuke could feel the difference the moment the words left his mouth, and he regretted them instantly. A dark cloud shifted over Naruto’s face, settling his expression into a horribly familiar blank, flat stare that caught Sasuke like a trap, spinning helplessly inside of it, and the only thing keeping him from drowning in it was that the eyes in front of him were blue rather than red.
“N-Naruto,” Hinata stammered, “m-maybe he’s just-“
But Naruto didn’t let her finish. He snubbed up his nose, glaring down it at Sasuke and turned on his heel without another word, striding back down the street towards the front gate. Hinata gasped and ran after him, and Sasuke wavered dangerously, grabbing and squeezing his arms. He hadn’t had a choice. He had to do it, had to be cruel, or his curse could activate.
His hands twitched, and all he could do for a moment was stare. Naruto’d had the same look in his eyes. The same sort of raw and barely contained power locked behind a cold, indifferent stare. A predator staring down helpless prey.
‘I don’t intend to kill you. Do you know why, Sasuke?’
Sasuke pressed his lips together, trembling. He couldn’t leave things like this. But what could he do? He couldn’t go apologize, that was too close to friendship.
He grit his teeth, wishing that Naruto had never come here at all, that Iruka had never assigned him to this team in the first place. Everything was easier when he was just left alone. Horrible and aching and painful, yes, but much easier.
Sasuke just swayed in place, staring after Naruto and Hinata until he felt a sudden churn in his gut, red hot and icy at the same time, and he hated Itachi. He hated him, more than he could express with words even if there was anyone still around to ask for them.
Jealousy for what he knew he couldn’t have crushed against his chest, constricting and snakelike and heavy, and he felt suddenly that he couldn’t bear it any longer. But he had to. He was still cursed. He couldn’t give up now, not when he was as close as he’d ever been.
He scrunched his shoulders and dropped his gaze, tears wobbling in his eyes. He wanted to teach Hinata and Naruto fire jutsu. He wanted them to sit and watch him and gasp in delight at the evidence of all his hard work, and then stand up to learn, confident that he could be their sensei even just for the afternoon.
He wanted to bring the group to show off to Sakura, to brag that clearly the better ninja was the one who could teach others, which would inevitably result in Sakura turning around and teaching them something back, and then they could all celebrate their success by having dinner with the Harunos, laughing and telling stories without a care in the world.
Sasuke didn’t remember sitting, but he was seated now, his knees tucked against his chest and his expression miserable. His goal was the most mundane dream anyone could have, and it was out of Sasuke’s reach.
Sasuke hugged his knees and dropped his forehead against them, frowning. Just because it was impossible now didn’t mean it’d be impossible forever. He had to hold onto that hope if he wanted a chance of surviving this. All of it would be worth it, eventually. He’d lift his curse and have rescued whoever would be his first real friend from a horrible death, and that would make everything worth it. He just…had to wait.
His chest felt vaguely empty, and he folded further into himself. He just had to endure it. A little longer. Only a little longer.
…right?
He sniffed slightly and nodded.
Right.
Notes:
Update on where I'm at in Shippuden: WE DONE WOOOOOOOOO
I have lots and lots of thoughts about the show as a whole that will probably replace these progress updates in future chapters but for now I'll just say that I enjoyed the ride and will probably be thinking abt this show for a long time <3
Ty for reading and I hope you have a lovely day! :D <3
Chapter 25: Apology Ramen
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
The anbu’s public office was a rather small and neat building. Sakura had been in it a few times, brought here by her dad when she’d told him her career goal of becoming an anbu someday. He’d showed her around a bit and introduced her to a few of his previous colleagues. It had been hard to decipher whether or not they liked Dad, though Dad seemed to think highly enough of them, saying it was standard for anbu to act like that around each other.
Five seconds into the back offices, Sakura could see again what he’d meant.
“Yo where’s my man at?” Toki shouted as he kicked the door open, pushing his mask up as he looked around the room.
“You break that door, I’m arresting you,” an anbu with a hawk mask perched on the side of her head replied, her face scrunched in concentration as she poured over piles of reports at her desk.
“Arrest him for what, abusing his own broken bones?” a tiger-masked anbu scoffed from her position perched on a windowsill in the back corner, part of a cluster of three who’d been talking together. The other two, a sheep-masked anbu and a dog-masked anbu, were standing in front of her and now looked over their shoulders at Toki.
“Haven’t you gone to a doctor for that yet?” sheep-mask asked with a worried voice, and dog-mask snorted.
“No, he’s elitist,” he laughed, pointing. “Don’t tell me you’re scared of kurayami.”
“Wow, not only will none of you answer me, but you won’t even ask who my fine friend here is?” Toki said, dropping his hands on Sakura’s shoulders and pushing her forward.
Her eyes widened at the potential attention, but only the trio by the window shifted their attentions to her. Hawk-mask simply waved, not looking up, and the only others in the room were a pair sitting at a lunch table by a back kitchenette, a woman with a caterpillar mask drooping over one eye as she slowly ate a doughnut, her gaze completely dead-eyed, and a man beside her, his head in his arms and sound asleep.
“Haruno’s kid, I assume,” dog-mask said as tiger-mask crossed her arms and complained, “it’s probably the genjutsu girl Contie’s been losing his mind over,” and sheep-mask pointed somewhere behind Sakura.
“You know me?” Sakura asked, surprised, as Toki tilted his head and looked over his shoulder where sheep-mask had pointed before jumping with a yelp.
“Contororu, my man, don’t be creepy,” Toki laughed, and Sakura turned in surprise to see that Contororu was beside the door they’d entered through, leaning against a file cabinet and his expression presumably unimpressed beneath his own wolf mask.
“What took you so long?” he asked shortly, and Toki shrugged.
“They’re hard to find, what can I say?” he said, turning. “C’mon, I won’t make you wait even longer.”
He gestured Sakura over, and she clasped her hands behind her back, oddly nervous. She supposed she shouldn’t be surprised she was recognized; she looked almost exactly like her dad, and if any of these anbu knew him, they’d recognize her immediately.
She fidgeted slightly. That made this an unknown. What if one of these anbu knew about the accusation against her dad? She’d have to be careful and try to only talk to Toki and Contororu. She knew Orochimaru was handling it, but there was no sense playing with fire.
Toki apparently opted to sit at his own desk, evidenced by the way he took the main chair, leaving Contororu to drag over a stool and perch himself atop it. Sakura debated pulling a desk chair over herself but opted against calling that much attention to herself.
Toki collapsed into his chair with an audible exhale, dropping his head back as he pulled up his leg to adjust a bandage on it, and Sakura blinked curiously at him.
“Your bones aren’t really broken, are they?” she asked worriedly, and Toki stuck out his tongue in a grin.
“Oh yeah, but they have been for like, a decade,” he said with a shrug, his eyes flicking over Sakura’s shoulder. She glanced over too and nearly startled to see that sheep-mask had arrived behind her with a stool in hand.
“Oi, scram, we’re talking here,” Toki complained as sheep-mask quickly set the stool down and rather meekly said, “I just thought she might want a seat.”
“Oh. Thank you,” Sakura said as sheep-mask turned and walked back to his group by the window. She scooted the chair closer, settling herself a bit further away that she ordinarily would in an attempt to not disturb the piles of papers and pens and what looked like little clay collectable toys Toki had decorated his desk with.
He noticed her attention and gestured to them with a cheerful smile. “You want one? I’m selling.”
“Oh! No thank you,” she said. “Contorou didn’t want to wait to talk, right?”
“He never does,” Toki said with a dramatic sigh before leaning forward and itching at one of the bandages that seemed to perpetually patch up his face. “So! To business, then.”
Sakura straightened up, nodding. “Yes. Genjutsu.”
Contororu spoke up next. “Performing genjutsus is a difficult task. It requires quite a bit of control. It’s impressive if you can pull it off.”
Sakura felt herself blushing at the compliment. “Thanks. I train really hard.”
“Train what, exactly?” Toki asked, picking up one of the clay toys and tossing it up and down. “What sorts of genjutsu, I mean?”
“Oh, just basics, really,” Sakura said with an eager nod. “I can make pretty decent visual illusions of things I’ve seen before, and I’ve been working a ton on disguise genjutsus. I’ve been able to consistently disguise things as other things, and I’ve even been able to make an object seem invisible, though only to one target at a time.”
Admittedly, this was progress she’d made a long time ago with Kabuto’s training. They were still working on it, even though she’d since moved on to other genjutsus.
But Toki and Contororu didn’t need to learn about Moon Serpent, so she opted to leave that one out.
“Invisibiltiy, huh? That’s impressive,” Toki said, tossing the clay up and down again, and Sakura beamed.
“I know!” she said cheerfully, and Toki snorted a laugh.
“What about genjutsu dispelling?” Contororu asked, tilting his head with a click of his tongue. “Have you trained in that?”
“Of course!” Sakura said. “That’s one of the first things you have to learn!”
“You can dispel it yourself?”
“Well, that’s a bit tricky,” she admitted. “It’s something I’m still working on.”
“Hm,” Toki said, nodding, and Contororu flatly asked, “working on with who?”
Sakura stilled, the air leaving her lungs. She barely managed to keep from stammering when she spoke. “What?”
Contororu’s masked expression was unreadable. “Who’s teaching you genjutsu?”
Sakura blinked a few times, improvising, “I’m self-taught.”
How could she have not seen this danger coming? She knew Kabuto’s cover in the Leaf was solid, but the anbu were experts at digging up information. She shouldn’t give anything away, just in case. She needed to change the subject.
“Really? That’s impressive,” Toki said, and Sakura turned to him, mind spinning until it finally landed on a way out.
“Oh, I’ve been meaning to ask you two,” she lied, putting up a fake smile. “While I’ve got you here- do you two know a Captain Yamato? He took some of my teammate’s pictures when we did a mission with him, and I was hoping to get them back.”
“Yamato?” Toki echoed flatly, looking at Contororu, who shrugged. “Uh, even my man doesn’t know that one.”
“Oh, right! He used to call himself Tenzo,” Sakura said with a too bright laugh that she would have winced at if she wasn’t holding her breath to see if her strategy had worked.
Toki squinted and tried, “did you mean…Danzo?”
Contororu clicked with annoyance. “Why would she mean Danzo?”
“Hanzo!”
“Different Village. Also, dead.”
“…Gonzo? You’d like that, eh Contie?”
“I will cut your hair while you sleep tonight.”
Toki gasped, jumping back enough that he nearly fell out of his chair, and Sakura let out the breath she’d been holding. Success.
Before she could press the conversation detour further, a different anbu arrived at the door, this one wearing a pig’s mask and waving a handful of dowel rods in the air.
“We’re drawing straws!” the man announced flatly. “One of you sorry losers’ team has to go report on the most recent sannin mess.”
There was a collective groan from the gathered anbu, and Sakura blinked and looked around.
“Sannin mess?” she echoed as the hawk-masked anbu reached blindly behind her to pull a stick, her attention remaining on her reports.
“Can we at least know which sannin?” Toki complained as he watched hawk-mask pull a long straw. “Is this like the Waterfall-Senju rivalry thing or a Jiraiya trying to fistfight a tailed beast that doesn’t exist anymore thing?”
“The sixtails is not really dead, you’re in denial,” pig-mask said as tiger-mask snorted a laugh. “But it’s not him. Tsunade.”
“I think that might be worse,” dog-mask called as pig-mask moved over to Toki and Contororu.
“You complainers should all be exhilarated it’s Tsunade,” pig-mask said. “That fight’ll be wrapped up long before any of you slow idiots get there.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” tiger-mask sighed as Contororu drew his long straw and stared blankly at it.
“Is it already wrapped up?” hawk-mask asked as pig-mask turned to Sakura with a, “okay, you draw.”
Sakura paled. “What?”
“You’re here too, you draw,” pig-mask said, and Sakura’s eyes blew wide as she tried to stammer that she was just here to talk to Toki and Contororu until she heard tiger-mask snickering in the corner.
“Don’t bully the kid,” sheep-mask called, and pig-mask snorted a laugh of his own before holding his hand instead to Toki.
“I can bully any Haruno-adjacent individual I want. Her old man gave me that right two decades ago,” he said, and Sakura let out her breath again. This was another anbu who’d known her dad, then.
“Please, Tsunade’s not the sannin Haruno would be- ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!” Toki shouted as pig-mask perked up.
“Short straw! It’s Toki and Contororu’s job!” he shouted to the room behind him, waving the bundle of sticks triumphantly as Contororu clicked in annoyance at having been dragged in along with Toki.
“I protest!” Toki shouted, waving the stick to the laughter of the anbu.
“Fair’s fair Toki,” tiger-mask called, her voice teasing.
“I declare medical exemption!”
“That’s ironic,” pig-mask said, his face turned towards Sakura, who gasped. If this was an anbu who knew her did, did that make him one who might know he deserted? But the anbu had seemed teasing earlier; was this just another jokes-among-anbu thing? She bit her lip and hoped it was.
Toki simply plowed on. “I haven’t seen my doctor since my legs got all screwy-!”
“And whose fault is that?” tiger-mask scoffed, unimpressed. “You’ve been complaining about it for weeks. Just go on the way to this.”
“Oh, yeah, I’ll just make a stop like I’m on a grocery run or something,” Toki snapped.
“Yeah, I mean, Kirino says the fight’s over already,” sheep-mask said with a rather meek shrug.
“Yeah, and how many million kilometers away are my man and I going to have to walk to go ‘oh, yeah, they blew up a forest again, time to call what’s-his-face before the Village Hidden in the Whatever yells at us’?”
“I think what’s-his-face is Tenzo now,” sheep-mask said as hawk-mask replied, “I thought it was Hogosa.”
“I-it’s Yamato,” Sakura said, still eyeing pig-mask warily, but he didn’t pay her much, if any, mind, instead giving a dramatic sigh and saying, “Toki, everybody thinks sannin duty sucks, just go do it and come back. Your man Contororu isn’t even complaining about it.”
“Because this is just wasting time,” Contororu said irritably, and Toki groaned, dropping his head back.
“ Fine , we’ll head out after I very meticulously rebandage my screwed up legs that you jerks won’t let me get healed up-“
“Could have done it any time, Toki,” pig-mask said, shaking his head as he walked towards the two by the back table who hadn’t even responded to the anbu’s entrance, and Toki hmphed at him when he passed. Sakura’s attention, however, was pulled when a familiar orange jumpsuit entered the room, and she sat up.
“Naruto?” she asked, pulling his own attention which had been scanning the room, and when he saw her, he pointed.
“I’ve changed my mind!” he shouted, marching over to Toki’s desk. “Sasuke is just a massive jerk! Hello anbu! I’m in this conversation now!”
Naruto landed beside Sakura with a hmph, his arms crossed, and Toki and Contororu looked at each other as Sakura noticed someone who’d almost followed Naruto in but now stood hovering by the doorframe.
“Hinata!” she said, gratefully taking the excuse to walk further away from pig-mask as she heard Toki ask, “aw, you’re not friends with Uchiha anymore?” and Naruto answer, “he’s a big dumb jerk!”
Sakura arrived beside Hinata and asked, “what happened with you all?”
“Um…” Hinata whispered, her eyes on Naruto. “We maybe broke into Sasuke’s house?”
“Huh?!” Sakura yelped, and Hinata’s eyes widened.
“His t-town, I mean! I th-thought he didn’t m-mind, but th-then he got angry, and Naruto got angry too, and…now they’re both…angry.”
She pinked, dropping her eyes to the floor, and Sakura put a hand on her shoulder.
“They didn’t hurt you, did they?” Sakura asked seriously, worry flickering across her mind. She found it hard to imagine either would, but Naruto could be clueless, and sometimes Sasuke’s eyes just darkened in that eerie way that looked almost like the genjutsu Kakashi had used on their very first day as a team.
Hinata gasped. “N-no, of course not! Naruto would never hurt anybody like that! A-and-“
Hinata scrunched her nose slightly, frowning. “S-Sasuke was mean, b-but- he just looked so s-sad when we left. B-but I’m glad Naruto looks happier already.”
She glanced over with a small smile, and Sakura looked too to see Naruto animatedly talking with the two anbu. Toki was matching his energy level while Contororu simply stared blankly forward.
“B-but…” Sakura looked back at Hinata’s voice and saw the girl frowning again, playing with the string of her hoodie. “M-maybe we sh-shouldn’t have left Sasuke all alone like that. He l-looked like he was about to cry.”
“Really?” Sakura asked, curiosity leaking into her. “What happened between them?”
“I don’t know,” Hinata said, bouncing on the soles of her feet. “S-Sasuke just yelled, and N-Naruto looked r-really mad, but S-Sasuke looked even worse- I j-just felt bad leaving him alone.”
“I dunno,” Sakura said. “Sasuke likes being alone. He prefers it, usually- and reacting like that proves that he doesn’t want anybody else to come visit his town.”
“But…” Hinata said quietly, but Sakura took her shoulders with a nod.
“Trust me, Hinata,” she said with a smile. “They’ll be back to their usual bickering selves by morning.”
Hinata nodded and added, “I just wish I c-could cheer them up a little.”
“Well, you can never go wrong with ramen for cheering up Naruto,” Sakura said with a grin, and Hinata smiled just slightly.
“Ichiraku’s h-house specialty,” she said. “B-but what about Sasuke? You must know what he likes, r-right?”
“Hm? Sasuke?” Sakura echoed, and Hinata nodded seriously.
“I want to g-get them both something,” she said, “p-plus I should get an apology gift for S-Sasuke for accidentally breaking in.”
“I’m sure you don’t have to do that, Hinata,” Sakura said, but the determined spark in Hinata’s lilac eyes told that the girl would not be convinced out of the idea. So Sakura shifted her weight, tapping at her chin and thinking hard. What did Sasuke like outside of ninja training? The renovation trick probably wouldn’t work with Hinata. He did have that obsession with traveling to the Land of Wind, but that was an academic pursuit to learn a specific jutsu, and from what Sakura knew of the Senju-Hyuga clan, they were from every Land except Wind, it seemed.
Oh, but she was missing the obvious! Sakura brightened up. “He likes stories! Especially stories about Madara Uchiha; he just asked me to talk about him and the founders today, and he told us this whole fairy tale about him over dinner!”
“The founders…” Hinata said, thinking hard. “We sh-should have a ton about them at our house.”
Sakura grinned. “Yeah, ‘cause you’ve got Senjus in your clan.”
Hinata pinked slightly. “Not my side of it, but…yeah.”
“Yo, Haruno and Hyuga, scoot.”
Hinata gasped and jumped aside as Sakura turned to see Toki and Contororu now behind her, Naruto trailing them.
“You’re leaving now?” she asked, surprised, and Toki shrugged as he put his mask back on.
“Might as well get it over with to get Tenzo-Gonzo-Yonzo his job quicker,” Toki said through an obvious yawn.
“What about your broken bones?” Sakura asked, glancing down at his legs.
Toki laughed, tapping Sakura on the top of her head. “Kid, I’ve been dealing with those for a decade already. I can handle it. Contie?”
“Don’t call me that.”
“Let’s go. Until next time, blond dude!”
“Yes, sir, blond dude, believe it!” Naruto cheered, snapping to a salute, and the two anbu were out the door.
“I sh-should get home,” Hinata said. “I was s-supposed to train with my sister today. I’ll s-see y-you later N-Naruto!”
“Yeah you will, believe it!” Naruto cheered as Hinata hid her face in her hood and turned around, practically running out of the building.
“Guess it’s just us, huh Sakura?” Naruto said cheerfully, landing beside her, but she just glanced over at him.
“No, I’ve gotta get home too,” she said, moving forward. More accurately, she had to go ask Kabuto what she was supposed to tell those anbu if they ever asked her any more questions. She hoped he’d be easy to find this time. She hadn’t seen him around in a while.
“What? You too?” Naruto complained, striding after her.
“Yes, I have important things to do,” she said, pushing the front door open. “Besides, you were in the hospital today. You should be resting.”
“Resting my arm?” Naruto asked, raising an eyebrow, and Sakura raised her own right back.
“ Yes . You want to get it hurt again tomorrow and cancel another day of training?”
“I wouldn’t do that, believe it!”
“Then prove it by going home and resting,” Sakura said, expecting Naruto to send another salute, but all he did was frown and hmph, “fine, whatever,” before turning around and marching away, snubbing his nose up as he did.
Sakura frowned at the odd display. “Hey Naruto!”
He turned out with a bright smile.
She sent one back. “I’m glad your arm’s recovering well!”
“Oh yeah, believe it!” Naruto beamed, and that felt more normal.
Sakura grinned, waved, and headed home.
~~~
When Sasuke woke up the next morning, his head felt stuffy, but his gut felt empty. Sleep hadn’t eased any of his horrible feelings from the previous day.
He rolled over to stare up at his ceiling, pouting. What was he supposed to have done? He had to be a jerk! Why did it feel worse this time than every other time he’d done it?
He sat up and rubbed at his eye, blinking a few times to try and shake the sleep away. Maybe he was overreacting to this. Naruto forgot about arguments in seconds. He might not even remember what had happened the previous night, especially not if he then spent the rest of the evening with Hinata.
Sasuke still felt guilt squeezing in his chest, but there wasn’t much he could do about it. He couldn’t risk an apology. Friends apologized to each other. Did teammates? Maybe he could find a loophole there, if he thought about it.
He did just so as he got himself ready to meet up with likely everyone except Kakashi at 7. He ate his rice quietly across from Itachi, who was watching him with narrowed eyes.
“Good morning, Sasuke,” the ghost said pointedly, and Sasuke gave a rather halfhearted, “mmph,” in reply.
Itachi’s eyes narrowed further. “Something on your mind?”
“Yeah, how much I hate you,” he said distractedly, his unfocused gaze still on his rice bowl.
“Is that right?” Itachi said quietly, leaning back with a soft sigh, and Sasuke opted to ignore him and convinced himself that the extra twinge of guilt in his stomach was also because of Naruto. Itachi didn’t deserve any feelings of Sasuke’s guilt.
Sasuke tightened his headband and headed out the door, exhaling heavily as he did. He just needed to let this go. There was no chance Naruto would care -he probably wouldn’t even remember it- and acting all bummed out would only make Sakura worry about him, which would be even worse. He set his shoulders and headed out of town with a determined nod, trying to clear his head back to normal.
Sasuke was less than two steps out the outer gate when his foot caught on something, and he tripped with a yelp, landing flat on his face on the dirt path.
He scowled as he sat up, staring over his shoulder for what had tripped him, and he blinked in surprise upon seeing a small book, wrapped up in neat paper and tied with a bow and a note.
Sasuke turned and scooted towards it, lifting the note first, curious.
‘Sasuke-
I’m very sorry for trespassing and making you cry. Please accept this gift as my apology and extra please don’t come accuse my clan about it. A lot of them don’t like you. It will end poorly. :(
Sakura says you like learning about Madara Uchiha, so I made copies of some pictures the Senju-Hyuga library has of the founders.
I’m extra sorry again, and please please please don’t come to my house. They will probably make you feel worse.
-Hinata Hyuga
(also please apologize to Naruto)’
Sasuke blinked at the note, taken completely aback. Hinata had gotten him a gift to apologize? She hadn’t even done anything wrong- she’d thought Sasuke had invited Naruto over, courtesy of the boy’s delusional misreading of the situation.
Though, admittedly, Naruto clearly hadn’t meant anything unkind. Sasuke knew this. Sasuke had been the only unkind one, but he’d had to be. As soon as he wasn’t cursed, Hinata and Naruto could practice as much as they wanted by that lake, and Sasuke wouldn’t care at all, let alone accuse them of trespassing.
I’m very sorry for trespassing and making you cry.
Sasuke felt heat flush his cheeks slightly at the second half of her sentence. She’d noticed that? Embarrassing.
He turned his attention elsewhere and lifted the picture book now, pulling loose the bow and unwrapping the papers surrounding it. It was pretty simple, just a smooth white cover bound neatly on the side. The first page inside showed smaller versions of the two famous pictures the hospital had: the portrait and the handshake. Sasuke smiled as he traced his finger over his favorite of the two, glad to have a copy he wouldn’t have to worry about damaging an Uchiha library book to get.
Sasuke turned the page, expecting them to be similar to the first, all copies of historical pictures that he could enjoy without needing to rip pages out of any of his books, but when he saw the second page, his eyes widened slightly.
In this picture, there was a sign hanging half out of frame that indicated someone’s birthday, though it was hard to tell whose, given the focus was on the three standing in front of the camera -focus being meant loosely, since both Senju brothers and Madara between them were all blurry for different reasons. Madara had clearly just ducked, successfully avoiding what looked like a plate full of cake that Tobirama -standing on a chair- had clearly been attempting to smash into Madara’s face, which now was slamming into the clearly unprepared Hashirama, who was nearly knocked off his feet from it.
Sasuke stared at the absurd picture, his smile growing up his face without his consciously allowing it.
Hinata hadn’t made copies of historical records. She’d made copies of Hashirama Senju’s personal records, the ones he’d taken of the founders in their daily, ordinary lives and that the Uchihas had kept precious few of.
Sasuke felt an eagerness stir up inside him as he sat back on the ground, turning to the next picture.
This one showed Madara and Kobito, both dressed up in formal attire. Madara’s arm was draped around Koibito’s shoulders, his expression coolly intimidating as he stared down the camera. Koibito held a paper fan up in front of her face, the same way she did in almost every formal picture she was in -which probably explained the Uchiha clan’s lack of these pictures- and beside the two, however, Hashirama stood with no hint of the regality that both Madara and Koibito’s positions held, instead opting to beam giddily at the camera with two thumbs up as he likely prepared to third-wheel the other two to whatever formal event they were headed to.
Sasuke held back a snicker at the picture and turned the page, still grinning.
The next picture showed Madara holding up an early version of the combat fan he’d later famously use, the picture clearly intended as a progress shot of his work. Hashirama was to his side, bent at an angle with his arms extended, presumably to show the size of the fan relative to his own wingspan, and beaming cheesily at the camera.
The next showed Madara, Hashirama, and Tobirama dressed up in festival kimonos, Madara holding up two dango sticks as the photographer, who was probably Koibito, held her third stick into frame from behind the camera. Tobirama was captured rolling his eyes as Madara was sending an unimpressed expression to Hashirama, who had his mouth open and was clearly about to eat one of the dango off the sticks in Madara’s hand.
Sasuke’s grin grew with each passing picture, a warm feeling easing the cold clench that had settled in his chest from the previous day.
The next picture showed a rather muddied up Madara next to presumably one of Koibito’s deer summons, both probably just back from some field mission, Madara pointing to the camera to indicate where the deer should be looking. The next, taken clearly soon after the first, had Hashirama in frame hugging the deer with a delighted expression and getting that mud all over himself as Madara watched with a small smirk.
The next showed Hashirama at a formal event -a diplomacy meeting between the Leaf and the Grass Village, according to the sign that was the centerpiece of the shot. Hashirama was pointing to the Leaf symbol and Grass symbol, his smile open-mouthed and clearly elated, but Sasuke’s attention was drawn to the room behind the man. A flurry of people were dancing -maybe this was a gala or something- and it didn’t take long to see the reason Hinata had decided to include this one.
Madara and Koibito were just barely in frame and clearly not aware of this fact, both in the middle of dancing. Their foreheads were pressed just slightly against each other, Madara grinning down as Koibito smiled serenely up, affection obvious across both’s faces. It was peculiar to see; both usually came off as cold or aloof or menacing or all three at once, and seeing another side of them settled something pleasant in his chest, a light and warm feeling that he held onto closely.
After a bit longer inspection, he noticed that the lights in the room made Koibito’s sandy hair look almost pink.
He blinked and quickly turned the page, stamping that thought down before it could actually blossom in his mind.
The next picture showed all four founders, most of them young adults by now and clearly just returning victorious from some sort of fight. A battered and bloodied Madara stood between Koibito and Hashirama, his new larger fan held in front of Koibito’s face to protect her from the camera as his red eyes were fixed unimpressed on Hashirama, who was overgrown with brambles and holding up what looked like a massive tail with a huge grin on his face as if he were an excited child showing off a fish he just caught in the river. On Hashirama’s other side stood Tobirama, pictured in the middle of rolling his eyes in exasperation at his brother’s pose.
Sasuke felt a small smile drift back up his face and turned the page.
The next was a sequence of five smaller pictures and featured all four founders again, showing the camera a different pose in each shot. This seemed to be another sequence taken for educational or cataloging purposes like the earlier one with the fan had been, with even Hashirama looking more serious -though still smiling- and Kobito simply turning her head to not show her face. It looked like the four were making handsigns with each other, each onehanded except Hashirama’s two hands, like they were combining them or something. That didn’t really make much sense -Sasuke had never heard of people combing hands to make signs before- but maybe they were learning that impossibility themselves.
He turned the page again.
The next picture was taken at another sort of formal event. Madara was giving the camera his typical intimidating red-eyed stare, and Hashirama stood beside him, an arm slung around the Uchiha and a grin plastered on his face. Sasuke traced over the picture absently, his mind wandering as he imagined if he’d like the pose or if the proximity Hashirama had to Madara would be stifling.
He turned the page again.
The next picture showed a couch, probably the Senju brothers’ given the casual clothes Hashirama was wearing. The man was seated and waving happily at the cameraperson with Madara seated beside him, a book over his mouth to cover an obvious laugh as behind the couch, an almost blurry Tobirama was wound up to hit the clueless Hashirama over the head with his wooden prosthetic leg.
Sasuke hid a snicker at the picture. The Academy always treated the founders, specifically the Senju brothers, as practically mythical beings, but seeing these little memories showed so obviously how human they really were.
Or, more accurately, just how ridiculous they could be. Sasuke hid another grin before blinking at the action, his eyes drifting back to the picture, where Madara was hiding his own smile just like Sasuke often did.
A warm feeling of camaraderie unspooled in his heart, and he felt a bit closer to his family.
He wanted to keep looking through the pictures, but he wouldn’t put it past Kakashi to show up on time the one day Sasuke didn’t, so he reluctantly stood instead, deciding to spend any free time he got later this evening going through the rest.
Sasuke tucked the book against his torso as he stepped back into his town to carefully store it until the afternoon. He couldn’t see Itachi’s ghost anywhere, which meant this must be safe. Maybe an apology gift wasn’t a friendship. Maybe it was just something everyone did to each other. Hinata certainly wasn’t his friend, and she’d done it; and besides, what did Sasuke know about how normal people interacted with each other? Maybe apologies were done between everyone. He’d heard people in stores and districts apologizing to strangers if they bumped into each other or something like that, and he knew strangers weren’t friends.
Then maybe…maybe that would solve his problem. If he just gave Naruto an apology gift, his eyes wouldn’t look that cold anymore, but Sasuke wouldn’t be risking anything. It’d be just like that time they went to Ichiraku with Iruka and Sakura; it had been to apologize, and hadn’t led to his curse activating against anyone there.
He set off towards the team’s meeting spot, feeling notably happier, and wondered how he could secretly thank Hinata for what she’d done.
~~~
Sasuke could tell something was different the moment he saw Naruto at the training grounds. He barely spared a glance at Sasuke beyond one cold glare before turning to cheerily accept the breakfast ramen Sakura had brought him. She glanced between them, and Sasuke turned pointedly away, but inside his thoughts were racing. Naruto hadn’t dropped his anger yet? That never happened! Sasuke hadn’t thought he’d been any worse than usual- but was that it? He’d been a jerk too many times, and Naruto was giving up on him now?
Sasuke felt a tremor of fear slip under his skull. He couldn’t let that happen. He needed Naruto to still give him a chance once he wasn’t cursed. He only had a few people now who still might; he couldn’t afford to lose one!
He tried to take a breath and steel himself. This just meant he really needed to get an apology gift, and soon. Maybe as soon as they were done with the day’s training.
He chanced a glance back over at Naruto, who was talking animatedly with Sakura about the ramen breakfast, and he didn’t look back at Sasuke once.
Sasuke fidgeted. He didn’t like this.
So he marched back over to them and flatly said, “let’s play our card game while we wait for Kakashi.”
“Sure!” Sakura said, beaming, but Naruto turned to him, his gaze just as cold and flat as before, and Sasuke felt ice entering his bones.
“Why would you want to do that, Sasuke?” he asked, and Sasuke just stared at him, his eyes wide.
“I- I just-“ he stammered, but before he could trip over more words and look even stupider, a different voice spoke up.
“Huh. Seems we’ve encountered some private business, Haruno.”
All three genin startled at Kakashi’s voice, turning to see him standing behind them, a hand on his hip.
“You’re- on time?” Sakura asked, clearly taken aback. Kakashi sent her a smile.
“Yes, I haven’t gone home yet for the day. Day being yesterday, I suppose,” he said cheerily. “I figure we can get some training in before I head home.”
Kakashi turned his attention back to the full group, and Sasuke tried to arrange his face as blank as possible. He couldn’t risk looking as worried as he felt in case Sakura asked, but he couldn’t risk glaring too much to make everyone else give up on him, but he couldn’t risk not glaring in case his curse flared up, and he wished things were different.
“Well,” Kakashi said, his visible eye glancing over Sasuke and Naruto, who was standing in a tangibly icy manner towards Sasuke, who was wilting more and more beside it, “clearly something happened between you two, and I do not care remotely about what it was. Kindly do not tell me. Our next round of training will be different than usual and will hopefully not result in consecutive hospital visits. Uchiha, please reposition your headband to be over your eyes like a blindfold.”
Sasuke frowned at him but followed the instructions, retying the knot to make sure the cloth blocked all light. Honestly, he didn’t mind it if it meant he wouldn’t have to look at Naruto’s far-too-familiar cold, blank stare. He tried to focus his mind away from that thought and on whatever training this would be. It was probably some lesson on sensing chakra better without external input to-
“Okay, Haruno and Naruto, go attack Uchiha! Uchiha, if you look, I’m failing you. Go!”
“Huh?!” Sasuke yelped, but before he could even finish the startled shout, he heard running footsteps and felt a fist colliding with his cheek.
He sprawled back onto the ground and coughed up spit as he landed, and a gasped, “Naruto!” gave away who the culprit had been.
“I did it Kakasensei!” Naruto announced flatly.
“Yes, I see. Uchiha and Haruno, you did terribly.”
“What are you expecting me to do?!” Sasuke snapped as he stood up, glaring in the direction of Kakashi’s voice. “How am I supposed to block anything when I can’t see?”
“You shouldn’t put too much dependence on your eyes,” Kakashi said lightly, and Sakura gasped.
“Oh, I get it!” she said. “There’ve gotta be lots of jutsus that can obscure vision, like with lights and smoke and things, but if we can use our other senses, we can keep fighting through them!”
“Hey, that’s smart! Me next!” Naruto said, and Sasuke hmphed with a, “you could have given some warning first-“ as he moved to push his headband back up, but Kakashi stopped him with a hand over his wrist.
“Naruto can go next, but Uchiha will have to attack blindfolded,” Kakashi said, and Sasuke glared at him.
“Why only me?” he snapped, yanking his hand away from Kakashi.
“I can’t fathom why I’d have to explain that. Haruno, Uchiha, attack Naruto! Go!”
Sasuke tried to shove his frustration down as he stared around into the dark nothingness of his obscured vision. Naruto had spoken from somewhere near his 11-o-clock, but he easily could have-
“Got him!” Sakura cheered as Naruto yelped, and the immistakable sound of him crunching to the ground carried through the air.
“Passable work, Haruno, keeping your movements as quiet as possible. Mediocre work by Naruto, who attempted a dodge into an unusual position that might make the attacker miss. Terrible work by Uchiha, who stood still and did nothing. Haruno, you’ll be attacked next.”
Sasuke practically hissed steam at the unfairness of it, but he forced his attention back to the task at hand. If he just sat here and complained about it, he’d just be seen as even more of a brat than Kakashi already thought he was.
After a full morning of training, however, Sasuke was frustrated and exhausted and matted with dirt from the million times he’d been shoved into the ground, not having been able to block a single attempt.
“Hm, that didn’t go terribly well,” Kakashi said as Sasuke glowered blindly at him. “Guess we’ll have to try again tomorrow. See you then!”
“That’s it?” Sasuke huffed, shoving up his headband, but Kakashi was already gone.
“Hey, Sakura, do you want to get lunch together?” Naruto asked loudly, turning away from Sasuke as he did. Sakura blinked.
“Erm- no, I’m supposed to get lunch with Ino today,” she said, her eyes straying to Sasuke, but he already knew what he had to do, and he turned and strode out of the training grounds without any comment to either of them.
Naruto’s coldness was extremely unnerving. He needed this apology gift now .
Fortunately, he knew exactly what Naruto would want the most, and only a short trip later, he had a takeout cup of Ichiraku’s house specialty clutched tightly in his arms as if it were a priceless treasure.
He encountered his next problem very quickly; he had no idea where to now find Naruto. He supposed he could check the training grounds they’d just been in, but when he got there, both Naruto and Sakura were gone.
Maybe the boy had gone home for lunch? Not that Sasuke had any idea where his home was. He opted first to circle back and check Ichiraku again, but Naruto wasn’t there either. He fidgeted with the cup in his hand, staring around the streets. Maybe Iruka would know where he lived. At the very least, it was probably in their ninja files.
Sasuke was all the way to Iruka’s classroom door in the Academy building and had knocked before realizing that it was probably very stupid to be telling Iruka that he was looking for Naruto to give him ramen. That was something the man could latch onto and start thinking of Sasuke and Naruto as friends, and Sasuke couldn’t risk that.
Unfortunately, Iruka opened his door before Sasuke could figure out a better plan.
“Sasuke! How can I help?” Iruka asked with a bright smile as Sasuke’s shoulders scrunched.
“Erm…” Sasuke mumbled, glaring at the floor as he practically hugged the takeout ramen.
“What is it, Sasuke?” Iruka asked kindly. “Remember, there’s no such thing as a stupid question.”
“Yes there is,” Sasuke huffed, glaring at the teacher, who just kept smiling back. Sasuke scowled and glared away again before muttering, “I just- want to see our Team 7 file.”
“Oh, certainly!” Iruka said, stepping into the hallway to walk towards the neighboring door. “Though I’m sure Naruto would just tell you where he lives if you asked.”
“Huh?” Sasuke asked immediately as if the incriminating ramen bowl wasn’t glaringly obvious in his hands.
Iruka sent Sasuke a knowing smile before releasing the genjutsu locks on his office door and stepping inside to begin rooting through the files in a cabinet. “He lives in the Second’s Canopy Apartments too. Top floor, room 750, all the way at the end. You can’t miss it.”
Iruka took out Team 7’s file and handed it to Sasuke with another smile, and Sasuke pouted at it. He took it anyway, despite Iruka having told him exactly what he needed, and tucked the ramen cup into the crook of his elbow before flicking it open to Naruto’s information folder. It was surprisingly scarce; other than information that Iruka could have gotten about him from class like strengths, weaknesses, appearance, and personality traits, almost everything else was listed as unknown, from family to date of birth to emergency contacts, other than of course Iruka’s information as well as now Kakashi’s. It did have his address though, exactly as Iruka had described it.
Sasuke read it, trying to stamp down the faint curiosity tugging at his mind before fidgeting slightly and giving in to turn to his own page.
He blinked a few times as he read the page. He had a long list of strengths, though they were fairly generic. Apparently his biggest weakness was teamwork. That seemed a bit too generous. Sasuke was well aware that he had much bigger, much worse weaknesses. He frowned as he glanced over to Iruka’s assessment of his personality, though that one was a lot more polite than it surely would have been if anyone other than Iruka had written it.
He felt a small stir of anger heat up his chest when he read his family information: Fugaku Uchiha, father (deceased). Mikoto Uchiha, mother (deceased). Itachi Uchiha, brother.
That was all it said. Sasuke’s hands twitched, and he wished he hadn’t looked. Reading the file hadn’t done anything but make him feel worse, and he nearly scowled and shoved the folder back into Iruka’s hands until his eyes caught sight of his listed address, just below the information Kakashi had given as the emergency contact for his genin team.
“I don’t live at Canopy,” Sasuke said flatly, holding the folder back out for Iruka, determined to keep his face as blank as possible.
Iruka tilted his head, confused. “Hm?”
Sasuke glared at the folder, not risking meeting Iruka’s usually kind gaze. “That says I live at Canopy Apartments. I don’t. I live at my house.”
“Your- house?” Iruka echoed. “Oh! I didn’t realize the hokage moved you from the apartments- apologies! Where’s the house?”
“The same house I’ve always lived in,” Sasuke said. “It’s listed in there as a previous address.”
Iruka stared at the file for a moment. “You…what?”
Sasuke huffed, shaking the file slightly to prompt Iruka to take it back so he could leave, and Iruka startled slightly and took it. Sasuke turned on his heel and began to march out of the room, but he heard Iruka right behind him.
“Sasuke, do you still live in the Uchiha town?” he asked, and Sasuke hmphed, glaring over his shoulder.
“Why does everyone always ask it like that?” he huffed, scowling. “I’ve got other things to do. I just wanted you to have the right information.”
He turned and stormed away, debating if that had been stupid. He didn’t want people coming to his house, but he didn’t want Iruka to know he was looking for the file to go over to Naruto’s place and have the teacher start telling people the two were friends.
He huffed, glaring down at the ramen bowl. Why was everything this complicated? He didn’t want complicated. He just wanted…
Sasuke exhaled heavily. He wanted a lot of things, he supposed.
It wasn’t terribly hard to find Canopy Apartments. It was one of the taller buildings in the Leaf, set up by the second hokage to help villagers or newcomers from foreign lands who’d lost homes or families in war to have a safe place to live while they navigated their new lives. Since the third war, it had become almost exclusively a home for war orphans who’d lost everything and needed help moving forward. Sasuke supposed he shouldn’t be surprised that Iruka assumed he lived there, but no one had ever even come to tell Sasuke he could.
Sasuke entered the main lobby and headed for the stairs. About halfway up, he wondered if Naruto had so much endurance because he needed to run up or down seven flights every time he wanted to go to or from his house.
Soon enough though Sasuke made it to the top, keeping the ramen secure against his chest as he checked the floor number. Naruto apparently lived in the furthest room away from the steps. The hallway up here was open air, just a fence up on its other side to give a fully unrestricted view of the Village. It was nice, and a bit windy.
Sasuke pressed on.
Naruto’s door looked like it had been painted over in dozens of colors, the most recent being a bright yellow that contrasted rather poorly with the cream and green of the others. Sasuke blinked a bit at the obnoxious hue and thought distantly that somehow it fit Naruto perfectly.
Sasuke crouched to set the ramen bowl down on a small welcome mat that sat in front of the door. This one looked ratty and worn, splattered by paint that had presumably fallen from the door through its many colors- though one patch looked almost like Naruto had attempted to paint the mat itself to change its color before discovering that this was a terrible idea.
Sasuke positioned the ramen away from this paint mess and stood, thinking. He didn’t want the ramen to get cold just sitting out here until Naruto found it, but he even less wanted Naruto to see him here dropping it off. Maybe if he just knocked and left immediately, he’d be gone by the time Naruto arrived to the door to answer. Then he’d have left his apology without any danger.
Sasuke nodded and knocked, turning to stride away, confident in his plan.
Until Naruto threw the door open less than a second after he’d done so.
“See?! I made no noise, believe it-!” he shouted, pointing blindly until his eyes found Sasuke’s, and he cut himself off, clearly surprised. “Uh- Sasuke? Why’re you at my house?”
Sasuke stared, his eyes wide and mind spinning, trying to come up with an excuse around the very incriminating scene he’d put himself into.
“Why’d you open the door that fast?” he tsked, crossing his arms, because that was what he was frantically asking himself internally.
Naruto straightened up and pointed to the door down the hall as he explained, “my new neighbor’s trying to get me evicted for noise complaints even though the loudest thing in my apartment ever is my microwave, believe it, so I was gonna prove her wrong by standing silently in front of the door until she tried to come back and complain again, ‘cause then I know she-”
Naruto stopped when his eyes landed on the ground, and Sasuke turned to glare pointedly away, wondering if just walking away in the middle of the conversation was any way to get out of it.
“Hey Sasuke,” Naruto said simply. “Why is there ramen on my welcome mat?”
“How am I supposed to know?” Sasuke huffed stupidly, and he felt his cheeks flush slightly with embarrassment. He doubled down. “You probably left it there yourself.”
“There was not ramen here fifteen minutes ago when my neighbor was yelling at me,” Naruto said, his expression smug as Sasuke glared at him. Naruto continued, “and now, suddenly, there is ramen. A curious development, don’t you think Sasuke?”
Sasuke just scowled as Naruto crouched and lifted the ramen bowl, placing it up to his ear as his embarrassing and dramatic display continued, “what’s that Mr. Ramen? You know how you got to my welcome mat?”
“What are you, five years old?” Sasuke snapped and was promptly ignored.
Naruto put on a high pitched voice, waving the ramen bowl slightly in the air as he acted as it, “that’s right, Naruto! Sasuke brought you apology ramen , believe it!”
“I’m not apologizing!” Sasuke snapped because face-to-face apologies were far too terrifying which meant he had to fall back into damage control mode, but Naruto put a hand up.
“Sasuke, please,” he said, back to his normal voice and the same stupid smug expression. He gestured to the bowl. “I’m talking to Mr. Ramen.”
“Well quit talking to him and listen to me!” Sasuke huffed, almost stomping in frustration at Naruto’s continued smirking until they were interrupted by the neighboring apartment’s door slamming open.
“Noisy! Too much noise! I’m going to report you again!” an elderly woman shouted triumphantly as she hobbled out into the open-air hall. “I’ll have you out this time, I know it- oh!”
She startled upon seeing Sasuke, her face paling as she managed, “U-Uchiha.”
He tsked at the response and turned, crossing his arms, and loudly said, “I’m the one making the noise, lady. If it bothers you that much, maybe you should move.”
The woman looked practically terrified, for some reason, and she stammered, “uh n-no! Maybe- maybe it isn’t that…”
She shook her head and turned back to her room, hobbling quickly with a halfhearted, “just forget it!”
The door closed behind her, and Sasuke tsked, annoyed, until he turned back and caught sight of Naruto’s face.
The boy’s eyes were wide, and he was grinning giddily at Sasuke, who quickly dodged his gaze in favor of glaring to the side.
“Well, I already made lunch,” Naruto said, glancing back into his apartment. “The microwave started the whole door-standoff thing. Guess that means there’s two lunches and two people here, huh Sasuke?”
“Not interested-“ Sasuke said immediately, but Naruto apparently hadn’t meant it as a question.
He grabbed Sasuke’s arm warmer with one hand and dragged him with a yelp into the apartment, his other hand safely around the Ichiraku takeout bowl.
“Quit being difficult!” Naruto argued over Sasuke’s protests. “If you don’t eat it here, I’m gonna throw it at you as you leave.”
“You would not,” Sasuke retorted. “You’re not gonna throw any ramen at anyone.”
“Fair. I will instead throw my garbage at you as you leave. Tomorrow’s garbage night, so it’s pretty full, believe it.”
Sasuke glared at him, and he grinned cheekily back, but actually his garbage threat sent a small cushion of calm into Sasuke’s chest. Friends didn’t throw garbage at each other.
He turned to sit at Naruto’s kitchen table with crossed arms and a hmph and coughed slightly as his motion dislodged the dust on the wood.
“Now do we split half and half or each take one bowl…?” Naruto asked himself more than Sasuke, examining the Ichiraku bowl and the microwaved cup intently, and Sasuke took the chance to look around Naruto’s kitchen.
It was rather cramped, but it had a nice window with a view of the Village. It was peculiar to see rooftops rather than the foliage Sasuke carefully tended outside his own kitchen’s window. Those plants did their job perfectly, but that did make the room a bit darker in the back. Naruto’s kitchen was bright and sunny and warm.
Sasuke’s eyes lingered on the wall beside the window, and he blinked, sitting up slightly. It had dozens of those printed out pictures from their camera attached to it, pictures of Naruto with team 7, or with Hinata, or with Iruka. Naruto was beaming almost identically in all of them except for the few he was posing. In one of these, he was shaking hands with Kakashi with a mock serious expression as Kakashi just stared blankly at the camera. In another, Naruto was posed in front of the stone hokage faces, staring dramatically into the distance as the cameraman -Iruka probably- lined up the angle to put Naruto’s face as the next in the hokage line.
There was a single picture of Sasuke, one Sasuke had no recollection of taking, which made sense given that it was a picture clearly taken by Sakura, who’d gotten herself in frame giving a dramatic sigh as Sasuke and Naruto argued about something in the background.
Sasuke just barely managed not to smile at the display when he turned back to Naruto.
“Maybe I should take the whole apology ramen,” Naruto said, sitting across from Sasuke and handing the instant noodle cup across the table for him. “And you can have the other one!”
“I’m not apologizing,” Sasuke tsked, taking the ramen anyway, and Naruto gave a dramatic sigh.
“Yeah, yeah, you’re too cool to apologize to anyone and must resort instead to ramen vigilanteism.”
Sasuke scowled as Naruto beamed and turned his attention to his bowl.
“Why’s your neighbor terrible anyway?” Sasuke asked, turning to the cup Naruto placed in front of him, and the boy looked up in surprise.
“Are you kidding? Old lady what’s-her-face is the best neighbor I’ve ever had!” Naruto said cheerfully, and Sasuke looked up, incredulous.
“She’s trying to get you evicted,” Sasuke said.
“Well yeah, that’s pretty common, but she’s treating it like a whole competition! Whoever outsmarts the other wins, and Naruto Uzumaki always wins, believe it!”
Sasuke frowned. “Aren’t you worried you might get kicked out?”
“Nah, no chance,” Naruto said, spinning his chopsticks in his cup with a happy smile. “The hokage’s the one who signed my rent agreement, and he says nobody else’ll take me anyway, which means old lady whoever’s fighting a losing battle, believe it!”
Naruto grinned at Sasuke, who just blinked at him with wide eyes as his mind supplied just how many empty houses sat in his town, renovated and waiting for someone to finally move back into them.
He fidgeted with his chopsticks and wondered if maybe, when Sasuke wasn’t cursed anymore, Naruto would want to move into one of those houses. Naruto seemed to have returned to his usual forgetting-an-argument-immediately instinct, and Sasuke wouldn’t try to evict him if he moved. Sasuke could move too, out of his old house and into one near the front, far away from all the horrible things that Itachi had poisoned their home with. Sasuke and Naruto could be neighbors, and he could even put Naruto right next to a restaurant that served ramen.
Maybe the Uchiha fan on the shop would look better if the house next to it had lights on, every once in a while.
“What’s wrong with your face, Sasuke?” Naruto asked, his mouth full, and Sasuke scowled as he looked up.
Naruto cocked his head and said, “if you’re sad because you aren’t eating ramen, I have excellent news about what’s currently directly in front of you.”
“It’s not about ramen,” Sasuke huffed even though it sort of was, and he grabbed a tuft of noodles and shoved it into his mouth, glowering slightly. That had been a stupid thought. Why would anyone want to move to the Uchiha town? Apparently his renovation efforts were going so poorly that it was still considered ruins , and even Iruka had assumed no one would want to live there. And Sasuke thought someone else might move there someday? Please.
Sasuke frowned as he poked disinterestedly at his ramen, distantly hearing Naruto chattering about something. Naruto would probably laugh at the very idea if Sasuke’d brought it up. Point and laugh, because it really was a stupid thought.
“I should leave,” Sasuke said suddenly, interrupting Naruto and standing, and the boy scrunched his nose in surprise.
“Huh? Now? Why? You just got here, believe it-“
“I just came to give you that,” Sasuke said, pointing to Naruto’s cup as he grabbed his own. “And I have, so- I should leave.”
“I don’t mind if you stay, believe it.”
Sasuke froze at the words and stared at Naruto, who was blinking innocently up at him, and he wished he wasn’t cursed.
“No, I should go. Thank you for lunch.”
He turned and headed immediately for the door, pulling it open before Naruto could do much more than stand up.
“Oh, okay. Come back anytime, Sasuke!” he shouted as Sasuke almost ran out into the hallway.
He tsked in annoyance at his fear-spiked heartrate and scowled, glaring out at the view of the Village. A white-feathered bird landed on a wire a short distance away, and he let the familiarity of the sight calm him back down.
Someday, he’d be back here. To have dinner and laugh and ask Naruto to explain every picture pinned to his wall.
Sasuke let out a slow breath, closing his eyes. This had gone well. Naruto was back to smiling at him. Back to willing, maybe, to give him his chance once he wasn’t cursed anymore, but still held far enough away to not trigger that curse. Sasuke had done well.
He opened his eyes, allowed a small smile, and headed home.
Notes:
Update we've opted to at some point watch whatever Boruto episode shows Naruto becoming hokage and maybe the one where Sasuke fights a dinosaur, my thoughts on those may be incoming shortly haha
But now what do I go on to yap about in my end notes? I considered writing a long poem about the lore of this au and releasing it like one stanza at a time in these end notes, would that be unhinged? Oh also I drew the portrait and picture of the founders from the story last chapter and might post them one of these days with a fic update, I'm actually quite happy with them
anyway my computer's battery is draining and this is as much as this note's gonna get lol
Ty for reading and I hope you have a lovely day! <3
Chapter 26: What the Anbu Know
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Sasuke’s sleep was fitful that night. He’d gone to sleep late, having stayed up to look through the photo album Hinata had given him at least four times, and he’d had an odd dream.
It started at the gates of the Leaf Village, a feeling of triumph inked across every inch of him.
“I did it!” Dream Sasuke cheered when he arrived in Konoha, beaming. “I lifted my curse!”
“Huh?” The first people who turned to react to him were Shikamaru and Choji, and the darker haired boy continued, “uh- who’re you?”
Sasuke blinked. “I’m- Sasuke.”
“Do we know a Sasuke?” Shikamaru asked Choji, who shrugged, and Sasuke pouted, stomping his foot.
“I sat in front of you for years at the Academy!” he insisted, his small tantrum now attracting a crowd of people- Leaf ninja and old classmates and dozens of clicking puppets dressed in anbu masks.
“Nah, I got nothing,” Shikamaru said with a shrug as Kiba appeared beside him and asked, “are you sure you’re a Leaf citizen?”
“Yes!” Sasuke shouted. “I’m a Leaf shinobi! And I lifted my curse and protected everybody here!”
“Protected?” Ino appeared out of the crowd now, her arms slung around Hinata and Sakura. “Protected us from what? From yourself?”
“Sakura!” Sasuke said, ignoring Ino to turn to the pink haired girl, beaming. “I’m not cursed anymore! We can be friends now!”
“Oh, hey, you remind me of this kid I used to know!” Sakura said. “He was always such a jerk no matter how nice I was- I used to want to be friends with him, but there’s no way I’d fall for that now!”
Sakura and Ino laughed together, and Sasuke scrunched his shoulders.
“I had to be a jerk!” he insisted. “Because of my curse, but- it’s gone now! We can be friends-!”
“Are we supposed to know who you are?” Naruto’s voice interrupted now, and Sasuke turned to see him beside Hinata now. Naruto turned to his other side to where Kakashi was standing too and asked, “hey sensei, do we know this guy?”
Kakashi didn’t even look up from his book as he answered, “doesn’t look familiar to me.”
“I’m your teammate!” Sasuke shouted, stomping slightly in frustration. “I know you know me-!”
“Wait! Look at his jacket!” Ino shouted suddenly, pointing, and Hinata gasped, looking terrified.
“He’s an U-Uchiha!” she stammered, her lilac eyes wide, and Naruto gave a noise of outrage, stepping protectively between her and Sasuke.
“He must be that monster Itachi then!” Naruto yelled, and Sasuke’s eyes widened as several others in the growing crowd gasped.
“N-no, I’m not Itachi!” Sasuke insisted. “I’m Sasuke-!”
“Hokage!” Sakura shouted, staring around. “Help us! Itachi’s come back!”
“Sakura, it’s me!” Sasuke tried, as many of the people and puppets in the crowd began to scream and run frantically around. Sasuke tried stepping forward, but Sakura just shrieked and ducked behind Kakashi, who still didn’t look up.
“Hokage! Help!” she shouted again, and suddenly Hashirama and Tobirama Senju appeared from the crowd.
“There’s still Uchihas in this Village?” Tobirama asked with a scoff as his brother dropped his elbow on the shorter Second’s shoulder.
“We can take care of Itachi Uchiha!” Hashirama said cheerfully, a smile plastered on his face. “Anything for my precious Leaf citizens!”
“I’m not Itachi Uchiha, I’m-!” Sasuke shouted, but he was interrupted by massive tree branches suddenly bursting from the ground to trap Sasuke inside a wooden cage, emerging with enough force to knock him flat on his butt inside.
“Hey!” he shouted as he heard the crowd laughing at him. “Let me out! I’m not Itachi! I’m Sasuke!”
“Get him out of sight, Hashirama!” Tobirama barked, his arms crossed and stance cold, and Hashirama gave a dramatic bow to the crowd.
“But of course!” he said, and suddenly they were moving, Sasuke tumbling around inside the wooden box as it moved the familiar path to the Uchiha town, but- the town was gone. Flattened entirely and replaced with what looked like a massive lilac-crystal fortress.
“Those old Uchiha ruins are no more!” Hashirama declared like a showman to the crowd, who clapped and cheered. “We’ll have to store him in the new Senju-Hyuga castle!”
“Wow!” Naruto yelled, staring up at the massive structure. “Hinata, your family’s really cool! You should have done this ages ago!”
“Mhm!” Hinata said happily as Sasuke just stared around, frozen.
“What did you do to my town!” he shouted, but no one would answer him. They just kept cheering, and the puppets kept clicking, and all the people Sasuke had hoped for the chance to be friends with someday danced along behind Hashirama as he dragged Sasuke through the castle and tossed the cage haphazardly into a field behind it.
Sasuke yelped and landed flat on his face at the sudden stop, and as he sat up, tears pricking in his eyes, he could hear the crowd leaving him behind, returning back to the main streets as he sat here, trapped and alone again even though he wasn’t cursed anymore.
Trapped. Trapped no matter what he did because he’d already been too weak and taken too long to lift his curse and now no one even remembered him anymore, let alone gave him a chance to undo all the damage he’d caused over the years.
He scrubbed at his nose and looked up, hoping to find some way out of the cage, at least, until his eyes landed on the field Hashirama had dropped him in, a grassy plain showered with moonlight and completely empty except for two figures that looked almost like paintings rather than people, and Sasuke recognized them both immediately.
“Shall we play a game, Kaguya?” Madara Uchiha said, his voice cool and intimidating.
Kaguya smiled serenely, the moonlight glistening off her silvery hair. “Of course, Uchiha.”
“Help me!” Sasuke shouted, panic spreading across his limbs and torso and weighing him down heavier and heavier. “Madara, please help-!”
The wooden cage suddenly erupted into flame, and Sasuke screamed, jumping away from the sparks that seemed to be burning almost black somehow, and he ducked his head into his arms and screamed and screamed and-
Sasuke startled awake with a shout, his eyes wide as he kicked slightly trying to escape the fire that- that…wait. No. It was- the weight was his blanket. He was in his bed.
Sasuke sat up, rubbing at his pulsing eyes, and tried to take several breaths. He was in his room. It was dark, but enough light filtered through his window to show that there were no burning wooden bars around him.
He blinked sluggishly and dropped his hand back down, but when he did, he noticed a smudge of red on it and startled, alarmed. He slid out of his bed quickly and ran to the bathroom, clicking on the light to stare at his reflection.
A tiny trickle of blood was sliding down his cheek, and he wiped it away, staring at the smudge on his hand once he did. Had he scratched himself somehow while he’d slept? He supposed it wasn’t impossible; he’d been having a very bad dream.
He turned on the sink to wash away the blood, sucking in breaths to try and calm his panicky heartrate. It had been a dream. That was it. In, out. He was okay.
He shook his head, trying to remember what the dream had been about, but it was already fading from his mind. Something about being in a cage, and watching the portrait from the library of Madara and the Moon Princess, and…the first two hokages buying Hinata a castle? That didn’t make much sense.
The bleeding had stopped before Sasuke’d even begun searching for the scratch that had caused it -which he couldn’t seem to find- and he decided that he probably didn’t need a bandage and hoped this wouldn’t come back to bite him later. He didn’t need to start just spontaneously bleeding during training. Kakashi would probably fail him for that. He snorted a laugh at the thought, the familiar absurdity of it calming him fractionally.
Sasuke splashed his face a few times with water and hoped they’d get a traveling mission today. He folded his arms on the sink edge and dropped his forehead into him, focusing on taking breaths. It was childish to get this worked up over a dream. In, out.
Sasuke exhaled and lifted his head again, studying his face in the bathroom mirror. He still looked a bit pale, and his hair was sticking in every direction from the frantic motions he’d surely been doing in his sleep. He rubbed at his eyes again, and they felt hot under his hand, but no blood was on them when he inspected them. It must have been a small cut.
The kitchen was empty when Sasuke entered it, which he was grateful for. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to handle talking with Itachi after how jittery he’d begun the morning.
When he arrived to their meeting spot, he was surprised to see that, for the second day in a row, Kakashi was on time. Actually, he was early, seeing as he and Sakura were both waiting, Sakura perched atop the back of a bench that Kakashi was leaning against, reading.
“Why’re you here this early?” Sasuke asked, scrunching his nose, and Kakashi didn’t look up.
“A good shinobi is always on time, Uchiha,” he said vaguely as if he wasn’t sometimes four hours late to meet up with them.
“Huh?! I’m the last one here?!” Naruto’s voice shouted, and Sasuke turned over his shoulder to see Naruto sprinting towards them from down the street. He put up a handsign to make a shadow clone, who grabbed him by the arm and spun him around like a discus, launching him through the air to land facefirst in the dirt just a few meters away from Sasuke.
“Was that really worth it?” Sasuke asked, frowning down at him as he pushed himself upright, brushing the dirt off his jacket and sending a thumbs up and a beam.
“100%” he said as his clone cheered before disappearing into a puff of smoke in the street behind him.
Kakashi didn’t give them much time to banter before straightening upright and striding away. “We’re headed to the hokage’s office.”
“We have a mission?” Sakura asked, perking up.
“Finally,” Naruto said, stretching. “I mean, beating up Sasuke’s fun and all, but getting paid is funner.”
Sasuke tsked at him before turning back to Kakashi. “Is it a traveling mission?”
“How would I know if we haven’t been assigned it yet?” Kakashi asked, and Sasuke pouted, catching Sakura’s eye as she gave a dramatic eyeroll, and he hid a grin.
“Looks like Naruto’s a lot happier today,” Sakura whispered as Naruto now fell into line with Kakashi, making his own guesses of what their mission entailed, each of which was given a reply from the sensei along the lines of, “how am I supposed to know?”
“Yeah, I guess,” Sasuke said, turning his face away and trying to hide a pleased smile, but Sakura’s hum in response felt a bit too knowing.
Apparently, however, they learned quite quickly that their mission was not one everyone in the hokage office had been expecting to assign. Kakashi slid open the door and strolled inside, and, for the first time ever, all four of his non-combat assistants were seated inside, and each seemed surprised to see Team 7.
The hokage, however, seemed more annoyed than surprised, his eyes narrowed, and Sasuke distantly wondered what Kakashi had done that would inevitably drag the rest of them into some reprimand.
“Why are you here?” the brunette Senju advisor who Kakashi had once sent a wind style jutsu at asked shortly, her expression cold. The man next to her, whose desk plaque read Nakamura, just stared between the group and the hokage, one eye slightly scrunched shut. The young kunoichi beside Iruka -Osote, according to her plaque- looked terrified.
“I suspect I know why,” the hokage said with an exhale. “Though a bit of warning would have been nice, Kakashi.”
“Oh, forgive me, I’d heard special jonin were permitted to come speak to the hokage occasionally,” Kakashi said with a shrug that made the Senju tsk and Nakamura’s eye twitch harder.
The hokage looked unimpressed when he spoke up. “Senju, Nakamura, Osote. Please leave us.”
Osote did immediately, staring at Team 7 as she skirted a wide radius around them and ducked out the door. Nakamura strode quickly behind her, staring blankly forward. Senju shot a scathing glance at each member of Team 7 except Sakura before striding out the door and closing it behind her.
Sasuke glanced at Sakura, who looked perplexed, before turning back forward to the hokage and Iruka, who had a bit of a sheepish expression as he set aside the papers in front of him.
“What the heck was that?” Naruto asked as Sasuke crossed his arms and hmphed, “did we interrupt something? Didn’t you call for us?”
“Um- no, we did not,” Iruka said, glancing between the hokage and Kakashi. “Is this a private meeting? I can go join the other assistants until you’re finished-”
“No, there’s no need,” the hokage said, leaning back. “Kakashi here simply seems incapable of waiting for us to assign our missions to his team.
“Actually, I’m returning them,” Kakashi said casually, patting Sasuke on the head, and he scowled up at him. “They’ve failed. They’re going back to the academy.”
“Is that so?” the hokage said, raising an eyebrow. “I got a different impression from your report this morning requesting your team be assigned to a traveling mission.”
All three genin perked up at this, and Kakashi blinked dully at him.
“Might as well see the world,” he said with a shrug, lowering his hand back down. “They’re more than capable of handling a C-rank escort mission, and we need to see the world’s Land-of-Wind-books-slash-genjutsu-scrolls-slash-ramen-slash-Make-Out-Paradise-special-editions. This is a need. Write that down, for future consideration.”
He pointed, and Iruka hid a smirk and added the note to one of his papers.
The hokage, however, sighed and responded, “I’m sorry, Kakashi, but we’ll be keeping you on D-rank missions within the Village for now.”
“Aw, come on old man!” Naruto complained loudly, crossing his arms, and Sasuke scowled at the boy. Being a brat about it wasn’t going to help. “All these D-rank missions are so boring all the-!”
“Sakura hasn’t indicated any genjutsu of concerning levels anywhere around town,” Kakashi interrupted, and Sasuke turned to him in surprise. Kakashi’s gaze was locked on the hokage as he continued, “you’re doing them a disservice by keeping them here and not even explaining to them why.”
“Er- what?” Iruka asked, looking between Kakashi and the hokage in confusion. “All genin teams start on D-rank missions-“
“And yet mine was sent out to find a spy without even being made aware of it,” Kakashi said, and Sakura gasped aloud, her entire face paling.
“A spy?” Naruto echoed, confused, and the hokage leveled Kakashi with a glare.
“The nature of the mission required them to remain unaware,” he said. “Three genin are hardly capable of discreetly gathering information if our theories of the spy’s skill level are accurate.”
“You say they’re incapable, but you have no qualms in trotting them off without warning them first?”
“Warning us of what?” Naruto complained. “Who are we spying on?”
“ We’re not spying, Naruto, we’re-“ Sasuke began irritably, but he was interrupted by Kakashi putting a hand over his mouth. He spluttered and pushed the man off, glaring, but Kakashi didn’t even look at him.
“I think it’s only fair they get briefed on the situation,” Kakashi said, his tone airy. “Why don’t you tell them?”
“Tell us what?” Naruto asked. “Who’s the spy we’re looking for?”
“Yes, hokage ,” Kakashi said, tilting his head. “Tell us what you let slip this morning, about which Akatsuki member you’re theorizing is in the Leaf right now?”
Sakura gasped, and when Sasuke glanced at her, she looked oddly relieved. “A-Akatsuki? Th-there’s a spy from the Akatsuki here?”
“The Akatsuki,” Sasuke echoed. “That sounds kind of familiar- who are they?”
Kakashi turned to stare at him for several seconds before saying, “you have got to be kidding me,” and turning back to the hokage. “Did you forget Uchiha still lives here? Is that why no one bothered to tell me or Iruka that he never even received his Canopy assignment, let alone turned it down like you insisted -?”
“Kakashi,” the hokage interrupted, his voice cold and his gaze hard. Kakashi’s eye narrowed, but he fell silent, and the hokage turned his attention to the three kids. Sasuke pulled his attention to the man, ignoring for the moment his confusion at Kakashi’s statement. He had no idea what a canopy assignment was; did canopy mean…the apartments? Why did everyone think he lived there?
…why had Kakashi’s tone sounded like he actually cared about something for once, whatever it was?
“The Akatsuki is an organization of rogue ninja,” the hokage said seriously, and Sasuke shook his head slightly to focus. “And we believe a spy from their group has infiltrated the Hidden Leaf Village.”
“Rogue ninja?” Naruto echoed, crossing his arms. “What do they want with the Leaf Village?”
“That’s what we hope to find out,” the hokage said. “That is, admittedly, the reason your team has been only assigned missions within the Village. According to her parents and Iruka’s assessments, Miss Haruno has one of the best abilities to detect genjutsu we’ve seen in recent years. We’d hoped that if this Akatsuki spy was using genjutsu to disguise himself, she would be able to detect it. But it seems that the spy is simply using traditional methods of infiltration.”
“Oh,” Sakura said, her eyes wide. “I mean- I can look harder, now that I know-“
“There’s no need,” the hokage said. “We’ve enough information to indicate that no genjutsu is at play.”
“You mean you don’t trust them with it anymore now that they know what’s going on,” Kakashi said, unimpressed, and the hokage simply watched him.
“If they aren’t aware of the name Akatsuki already,” the older man said coolly, “then it seems you don’t tell them what’s going on either. I think you and I should have a little discussion, Kakashi, in my private office. Iruka, could you deliver the next team’s mission when they arrive? It should be already compiled.”
“What about our mission?” Naruto complained as the hokage stood, and he sent a rather insincere smile.
“We don’t have one for you yet. We’ll be sure to send news once we do. Kakashi?”
The hokage gestured ahead, and Kakashi’s eye narrowed further, but he turned to walk out the door with an airy, “make sure you three eat breakfast,” to his team as he did.
“But- hang on,” Sakura said, trotting after Kakashi with both boys on her heels. “What about the Akatsuki? Who do you think is here?”
“I’m afraid that’s above your clearance as genin,” the hokage said, ushering the three genin outside and gesturing for the three assistants currently whispering amongst themselves in the hallway with serious expressions. “You three, go in and touch base with Iruka. I have a matter to attend to with Kakashi here.”
“Do you now?” Senju said, turning and flicking her eyes over Sasuke, who glared at her, then Naruto, who was staring vacantly at the hokage and Kakashi instead of noticing. “What about, if I may ask?”
“Nothing that concerns you three. Go inside,” the hokage said, enough of an edge to his tone that the three assistants gave no further commentary and instead walked back inside the office with Iruka, closing the door behind them. The hokage turned and walked down the hallway, Kakashi behind him, and the three genin of Team 7 simply stared after them.
“What the heck was all that about?” Naruto asked, tilting his head. “Why were the assistants just still out here? I thought they had some other job to get to.”
Sasuke just crossed his arms with a scowl, unable to shake the very well evidenced theory that the three assistants were avoiding them -and perhaps him- specifically.
He didn’t voice this theory and instead asked, “what’s up with the Akatsuki? Kakashi sounded like I’m supposed to know who they are.”
“ Do you know who they are?” Sakura asked carefully, her eyes wide, and Sasuke scrunched his nose at her, suspicious.
“I’ve never heard anything about a group called the Akatsuki,” he said, “and I’ve read every book in this village.”
“Every public book,” Sakura said, blinking at him now with her still wide eyes. “Don’t most ninjas have confidential records?”
“Okay, but how are we supposed to get to those records?” Sasuke asked, and Naruto perked up.
“Sakura’s two anbu friends!”
Sasuke paled immediately. “Huh?”
Naruto nodded with excitement. “Yeah, they like her, and they’ve gotta have tons of records! We should go ask them!”
He crossed his arms, raising an eyebrow at Sasuke’s expression and adding, “what, are you too scared , Sasuke?”
“Naruto,” Sakura scolded as heat boiled in Sasuke’s chest. “Sasuke’s-“
“Let’s go see them right now,” Sasuke interrupted, ignoring the heartbeat pounding in his ear as he glared at Naruto.
“Er- really?” Sakura asked, and Sasuke nodded, pressing forward and trying to block out the fear creeping up his bones.
“Yes, let’s go,” he said, and the decision was made.
~~~
The anbu’s public office lobby was tidy in the dusty sort of way that indicated not many people actually came in to use it.
“They only really use the office space in the back,” Sakura said as if reading Sasuke’s mind, and she kept moving her hand back like she wanted to take Sasuke’s, but he made a point of crossing his arms instead. He didn’t want to stir up all that danger right before planting himself in front of a pair of anbu.
His instincts were still valiantly trying to remind him how stupid this idea was, but he had a nagging feeling that he needed to learn more about this Akatsuki group, given Kakashi’s odd response to him not knowing it.
So Sasuke fought hard to keep himself in check when they walked into the anbu public office and saw a scattered collection of anbu inside. There were only four of them, one of whom appeared passed out asleep at his desk with his head in his arms, but Sasuke’s movements still felt oddly wooden when he stepped into the large office. Four could still be very dangerous. At least there were lots of windows and a door they could use to escape through. Not that a door had helped before.
Sasuke squeezed his eyes shut, trying to force the thought out of his head. They were here for a reason. Maybe the sleeping one was actually Yamato. He’d been fine before. In, out. Don’t be weak. They’re not Itachi.
Sasuke opened his eyes again and scanned the rest of the anbu, and he recognized one immediately. He was vaguely furious that he was glad to see the blond who always made him feel worse after every interaction they had, but it was a relief that they hadn’t come in here for nothing.
Toki was seated in the chair at what was presumably his own very cluttered desk, his feet kicked up on it and his mask dropped beside them. He was chewing gum, blowing bubbles every so often as he talked with his partner, who had dragged a stool over to perch atop it on the adjacent side of the desk. The redhead, at least, still had his mask on.
“Toki! Contororu!” Sakura called as Naruto much more loudly yelled, “yo! Blond dude!” with an excited wave, and the two anbu turned. Sasuke felt his hands twitch at the attention, but he steeled himself nonetheless.
Toki perked up and waved back with a, “yo blond dude!!” of his own as Contororu sent him a click of annoyance.
Toki pulled his feet down to the floor and leaned forward when they arrived in front of his desk, dropping his chin into his hands before apparently reconsidering this and instead lacing his fingers together to rest his chin. “And Haruno and her little Uchiha friend!”
“We’re not friends,” Sasuke said stiffly, and Toki lifted a hand with a, “quack, quack,” miming a duck.
Sasuke flushed, but before he could snap anything, Toki perked up and gestured to the front of his desk.
“Do you boys want to buy any of my little masterpieces while you’re here? Famous across all lands!” he said brightly, and Sasuke scrunched his nose at what he’d originally thought was clutter but now saw were little sculpted animals and monsters.
“This garbage?” he sneered, and Toki flicked his eyes to him, and his cheery demeanor from a second prior dissipated instantly into a look of blank, almost lethal coldness, an expression Sasuke was far too familiar with coming from an anbu uniform, and he felt his chest lock.
“I’m sorry,” he said immediately, his eyes twitching, and both Sakura and Naruto turned to him with shock written across both’s face.
“You’re apologizing? Without ramen??” Naruto gaped, and Sasuke felt Sakura’s hand brush his elbow, and it tugged him back to reality.
“The true apology would be buying one,” Contororu clicked, what could have been a tease edging into his tone, and Toki was back to beaming, now chattering about the price, and Sasuke squeezed his eyes shut. They were here looking for answers, for the reason why they’d been stuck in the Village all this time, and maybe whatever they figured out could help them finally move to missions outside the Village. Sasuke couldn’t risk losing that chance just because he fell apart at the sight of an anbu.
“15k ryo for each one?” Naruto was saying when Sasuke tuned back in. “Hm…I do want one, but…can I make a counter offer!”
“What is it?” Toki asked, leaning back and crossing his arms, kicking one leg over the other.
“May I suggest…300 ryo!”
“No you may not,” Toki said, and the two blonds were off in a negotiation war as Sasuke tried to get the world to untilt.
“Sasuke,” Sakura whispered, her hand still light on his elbow, and he flicked his eyes over to her, frustrated that those eyes were still so wide.
Hers were wide too when he met them, and she murmured, “if you tell me what you want to ask, I’ll do it, and you can wait outside.”
It was a very kind offer. Sasuke’s face scrunched in anger at it.
“I’m fine,” he snapped, pulling his arm out of hers and crossing it with his other, scowling, and Sakura gave a soft hmph and turned back to the anbu.
“I hope your bones are okay,” she said, interrupting the clearly fruitless negotiations Naruto was attempting, and Sasuke blinked at the odd statement. What did that mean?
Toki didn’t seem to have the same confusion as Sasuke. “Oh, yeah, loads better actually! The whole sannin incident ended up being right near my doctor, funny enough, so we got to swing there on the way back.”
“Toki,” Contororu clicked his tongue again.
“You, shush,” he said before hoisting his bandaged leg up into the air. “See? Only as mutilated as they always have been rather than worse.”
He dropped his leg back down and sent a cheeky smile as Naruto cheered, “congratulations!” as if he had any idea what Toki was even saying.
“Thank you, blond dude,” Toki said with a serious nod as he blew a bubble and popped it. “Well, what do we owe the pleasure? We only just got back, like, twenty minutes ago. Yokutsei hasn’t even checked in yet.”
“We had a question that we hoped you might be able to answer,” Sakura said.
“What a funny coincidence!” Toki said cheerfully, rocking back and forth in his chair with a slight squeak. “Because we had a few questions to ask you! ”
“Really?” Naruto perked up as Contororu clicked, “Toki,” again, but Toki waved him off with a gloved hand as he blew another bubble with his gum.
“We can exchange information!” Toki said once he’d popped it. “You ask us one question, then we ask you one question. Sound good? I’ll make something up for the one I didn’t actually have a question for.”
“Can’t you just…answer?” Sakura suggested, but Toki tsked and shook his finger.
“Now, now, now, little miss future anbu, to get information in the field, sometimes you have to be willing to lend some information yourself,” he said with a nod, and Sasuke blinked at Sakura. She wanted to be an anbu? Nonsensically, he felt betrayed.
Toki continued, “this’ll be practice for picking the right question to ask while also not giving away too much in return! We’ll go right to left. My right. Uchiha first.”
Sasuke glared at him. “I’m not interested in practicing to become an anbu.”
Toki blew a bubble and rolled his eyes. “Yes, that mirror’s beyond cracked, I get it. Just ask a question for your team’s benefit?”
Sasuke grit his teeth and sucked it up. “What is the Akatsuki? Why would our sensei think I should know about it already?”
“That’s two questions,” Contororu clicked, and Toki laughed through his gum.
Sasuke pinked, and his scowl deepened. “Fine. What should I know the Akatsuki?”
“Presumably that Itachi Uchiha’s a current member of the Akatsuki,” Toki said casually, and the world stopped turning.
“Wh-what?” Sasuke whispered, his chest icing over, and Toki shook his finger.
“‘What’ is another question.” He pointed to Sakura. “You.”
“Um!” she gasped, clearly not expecting the sudden shift in attention. “Uh- is Itachi Uchiha the spy in the Village?”
Sasuke’s eyes widened at the horrible possibility. Was that a possibility? Surely the Leaf Village would be able to prevent that, right? Was that why everyone seemed to be worried about where Sasuke lived? They thought Itachi might be able to find him again?
Sasuke felt himself tilting again, completely lost to his own horrible fear. Surely Itachi couldn’t really be here. Surely not. He…he couldn’t…
“Oh, they actually admitted that to you. Interesting,” Toki said, blinking once. “No, we don’t think it’s Itachi, since he’d be using genjutsu to not get recognized, and allegedly the spy is not using genjutsu.” He pointed to Naruto as air returned to Sasuke’s lungs, even if just a little. They didn’t think it was Itachi. That was something, at least. “You.”
Naruto wasted no time. “How do we kick the Akatsuki’s butts to take them down?”
Toki laughed, dropping his head towards Contororu as Sasuke fought to force in oxygen. “Hm, let me think…you want an answer for every Akatsuki member, or just Itachi Uchiha?”
“How many members are there?” Sakura asked, and Toki flicked his gaze back to her.
“Ten, sometimes. That’s another question from you, which means I get to ask you two.” Back to Naruto. “Answer.”
“Every one of them,” Naruto said, lifting his fist with determination, and Sasuke tried to focus, but all he could feel was his own chest, stubbornly rising and falling despite the dread the very idea of his brother was trying to constrict around it. His whole life depended on finding and defeating Itachi. He needed to pay attention to this.
Toki gave another obnoxious pop of the gum in his mouth, and this time Contororu clicked at him in annoyance, and Sasuke’s fists clenched at how casually the man was taking this, but that anger only rooted deeper when Toki answered, “the easiest way to stop them is to let them win, and then once they have what they want, they’ll move on.”
Sakura gasped as Sasuke’s eyes blew wide. “What kind of thing is that to say?” Sakura huffed. “You’re anbu! You’re supposed to protect the Village no matter what!”
“Hey, I said easiest, not only,” Toki said with a shrug. “The actual jutsu capabilities of rogue ninja are classified information that we’re not at liberty to disclose to anyone below the rank of jonin unless they have a need to know basis. If you really want to know, get yourself on a mission fighting them. You’ll die, obviously, but you’ll die knowing .”
Toki grinned at them through his gum, before sitting up with a clap and saying, “my turn for questions! I’ve got two for Haruno-“
“Three, actually,” Contororu said. “She asked another, technically. Uchiha’s glazed again, by the way. I told you to quit doing that.”
“Hey, don’t blame me for that, he did this one to himself,” Toki tsked, and Sasuke wanted to retort back that of course he hadn’t glazed over, he wasn’t weak, he didn’t shut down at the knowledge that the upper Leaf ninja had a massive lead on his brother’s whereabouts and hadn’t bothered to tell Sasuke about it.
But Sasuke couldn’t quite manage words. Sakura blinked at him worriedly, but Toki snapped to pull her attention back.
“Hey, hey, this was an exchange, remember?” he asked, annoyed. “We’re not a library. I’ve got two questions for you.”
Sasuke tried to take in even breaths as Sakura turned back to them in annoyance. He needed to calm down, to wrap his head around this information. Itachi was in an organization of rogue ninja known as the Akatsuki. One of their members was currently in the Hidden Leaf Village as a spy.
If they could figure out who, maybe they’d figure out where Itachi was.
“Haruno,” Toki said, leaning forward and lacing his hands together to drop his chin into them. “Do you have any plans for the chunin exams?”
“Wh-what?” Sakura asked, clearly surprised. “The chunin exams?”
“Yes, they’re soon. Got any plans?”
“Um,” Sakura glanced around at the others, and Naruto spoke up.
“We’re all gonna win, obviously,” he complained. “Why do you care about it?”
“I wasn’t asking you,” Toki said, his gaze still on Sakura. “I was asking Haruno. Specifically.”
“I mean…I guess we’re going to take them? If Kakashi allows us?” Sakura said.
Toki nodded thoughtfully. “You haven’t started any preparations or anything?”
“Should we have?” Sakura asked, glancing at Naruto, who pointed and yelled, “is this something Kakasensei’s doing late again?!”
“Not necessarily,” Contororu clicked. “It depends on the sensei. Is that another question?”
“Is that? ” Sakura replied, crossing her arms, and Contororu gave an annoyed click, but before Sasuke could panic about that on top of everything else, Toki flicked his gaze to Sasuke, who felt vaguely numb. He wished the anbu would at least put his mask back on. “Sasuke Uchiha. I’ll ask you next: what do you know about Itachi Uchiha’s sharingan?”
Sasuke’s eyes widened as his chest hitched. Did they know? About the Mangekyo, about the curse on Sasuke’s heart, about the fact that Sasuke could end up killing someone in the Village someday? Fear grabbed hard at Sasuke’s gut. What would they do if they knew? Would they lock him up as a murderer so he’d never get the chance to become one? What if they kept him here, forever, never able to go find Itachi and lift his curse?
He tried to force his face blank and gritted out, “it’s stronger than mine.”
Toki looked unimpressed. “Is that so? And, related question: how close would you say you are to your teammates here?”
Sasuke’s eyes widened, and his heart stopped. They knew. These two knew, somehow, even though it was impossible for them to know, even though Sasuke had spent years keeping the secret locked away tight enough that no one could ever find it before it wasn’t crushing his heart anymore.
“How’s that a related question?” Naruto asked, his voice grumpy, and Sakura hmphed, “Sasuke should get to ask you another question then, with how obsessed you two are with semantics,” but Contororu, surprisingly, rescued the conversation.
He did so by kicking Toki in the side with an annoyed click and scolding, “don’t bring up old rumors. How’s this kid gonna know things that happened five years ago?”
Toki tsked at his partner in annoyance, but Sasuke just stared, managing a breathy, “wh-what?” and Contororu turned to him, his expression unreadable beneath his mask.
“We’ve been looking into your brother’s case in our spare time,” he clicked. “Now that we all know each other, at least. Turns out, back in the early days of investigating, there were rumors that Itachi Uchiha had unlocked an advanced sharingan, one not seen since Madara Uchiha. Some anbu thought that was how Itachi Uchiha was capable of killing your clan.
“I suppose my partner is trying to ask if you know about this sharingan. Supposedly it has something to do with the sharingan user’s closest friend. But,” Contororu said, leaning back with another kick to Toki, who snapped, “hey!” at him, but Contororu ignored him and continued, “I don’t think the how of what Itachi did really matters at the moment. Do you?”
So…they didn’t know? They just knew that something like a Mangekyo existed, not that Sasuke was cursed to get one. He could play this off, that meant. If he could force his heartbeat to slam on the brakes and quit letting the anbu’s callous words dredge up memory after memory after memory…
“I think you guys are kinda being jerks,” Naruto hmphed, crossing his arms with a frown as Sakura piped up, “yeah! Why would you talk about this in front of Sasuke?”
“Hey, hey, don’t give us that,” Toki said irritably, tugging a bit of his gum out before snapping it back to his teeth. “You came to us asking about the Akatsuki. Don’t get all mad that we answered.”
“You could answer with a bit more tact,” Sakura huffed, crossing her arms, and Toki gave a dramatic sigh.
“Oh, how very right you are,” he said, flashing a disingenuous smile. “I’ll think more carefully about my words the next time we discuss delusional serial killers.”
“Toki,” Contororu clicked, and Toki scowled.
“What could you possibly be ‘Toki’ -ing me for now?” he asked, clearly getting more annoyed by the second, but Sasuke realized quite suddenly that if he let this conversation end without learning anything else about Itachi, that he’d be furious with himself.
“Do you know where Itachi Uchiha is right now?” Sasuke asked, and Toki flicked his gaze over as Contororu turned with a click.
“No,” both said flatly and in unison, and Sasuke’s nose scrunched.
“Do you have any leads to where Itachi Uchiha is right now?” he asked, his limbs shaking slightly, and Toki kicked his legs to stand and walk around the desk. Sasuke turned to be facing him when Toki arrived in front of him, and the anbu dropped his head to the side with a fake smile.
“Tell you what, kiddo,” he said, finally taking his gum out of his mouth. “When we do, you’ll be the first to know.”
He pressed the gum into Sasuke’s headband, right where Leaf’s spiral sat atop his forehead, and Sasuke practically snarled at him as he snatched it off. Toki just flashed a beam and walked away, waving at the other two with a, “this was fun! Let’s do it again sometime,” as he did.
“Why was he acting like such a jerk all of a sudden?” Sakura demanded as Sasuke’s hand squeezed around the balled up gum. It felt odd, too stiff to crush, and the fact that he couldn’t destroy something Toki had been blowing bubbles with made him feel at least ten times worse. He turned and slammed the ball down on the desk, frustration churning in his gut, and his slam made one of the other figurines teeter and drop, cracking as it did.
“Toki doesn’t like Uchiha,” Contororu said, his face turned towards the cracked figurine.
Sasuke turned and his hand twitched harder around the emptiness in his hand, rage still making his shoulders heave. “What’s he got against my family?”
“Not your family. You, specifically,” Contororu said, looking up and tilting his head with a click of his tongue. “You did just insult his ‘little masterpieces’.”
“That’s all it took?” Sakura asked with an unimpressed hmph, and Contororu turned to her now.
“They’re very important to him,” he said blandly, holding out his hand. “15k ryo, by the way.”
Sasuke scrunched his nose in annoyed confusion. “What?”
“You break it, you buy it,” Contororu clicked, pointing to the fractured spider figure.
Sasuke scowled. “Can I at least have it then?”
“Be my guest.”
Sasuke lifted his toolpouch, digging around for his money. He knew Contororu wasn’t telling them the whole truth. Toki had been antagonizing him long before Sasuke’s comment today, but the anbu’s cover of the truth was so casual and convincing that it was almost terrifying.
Sakura asked, “why’s he care that much about some little clay figurines?”
“Beats me,” Contororu said with a shrug. “He insists they’re ‘art’, but they don’t look like it to me.”
“What? They look super cool!” Naruto said as Sasuke shoved his money forward, itching to get out, to get away, to find someplace safe from the dangers lingering here, and Contororu slid the broken spider towards him. Sasuke picked it up, relieved that the anbu hadn’t tried to hand it to him. He was wearing his gloves.
“Well, I think we should go,” Sakura said, glancing at Sasuke and hovering a hand near his elbow, which he pulled away from, far too wound up to allow that sort of danger. “Thanks for answering our questions!”
Contororu simply gave a hum in reply as Sakura took the lead away, and Sasuke gratefully followed, Naruto close on his other side.
“Okay! Did we…actually learn what we were there for?” Naruto asked brightly once they stepped back onto the street and Sasuke could breathe again. “What were we there for?”
“Sasuke?” Sakura asked, her eyes lingering on his face, but he simply twitched his fist harder around the small spider statue and instead of answering, tossed the clay spider to Naruto, who yelped and bobbled it before catching it with a snapped, “what was that for?!”
“What do you mean? You wanted one!” Sasuke snapped.
“Huh? Oh, right!” Naruto lit up, holding it up to his face with a beam. “I’m gonna name it Sasuke Jr!”
“Don’t do that,” Sasuke scowled, though his thoughts were elsewhere, very likely where Sakura’s also were.
Itachi was in the Akatsuki.
Sasuke let the idea fester in his brain for a moment, his face twitching. Was he ready to face his brother yet? He knew he was stronger now than he had been then, but Itachi’d had five years to get stronger too. Sasuke still hadn’t even figured out what jutsu Itachi had used on him.
He frowned, feeling his hands twitching at his sides. What would have happened if they’d found the spy without even realizing it? Sasuke was still too horribly behind to have done anything. He needed to get stronger to take down Itachi, and all these stupid D-rank missions they were using to cover up the search they didn’t even know they were on weren’t helping any.
“Sasuke?” Sakura’s voice pulled Sasuke out of his thoughts, and he nearly jumped, snapping his eyes up.
“What?” he asked, blinking at her, and she tilted her head, an expression of kind worry on her face that Sasuke stared away from.
“Are you okay?” she asked simply, and Naruto bounced forward, the broken spider now precariously balanced on his head.
“Hey, you don’t have to worry, Sasuke!” he said. “If those two said your dumb idiot brother’s weakness is confidential, then that means he has a weakness they know to be confidential!”
Sasuke blinked at the words, his eyes widening. “Right. But how are we supposed to figure that out if they won’t tell us?”
“Oh, like this,” Naruto said before turning and cupping his hands. “Captain Anbu Dude!!”
Sasuke and Sakura both turned in surprise to see the familiar cat mask of Yamato walking down the street beside a pig-masked anbu, and both turned at Naruto’s shout.
“Oh, Captain Yamato!” Sakura said, waving. “I was looking for you earlier!”
“You were?” Yamato asked, excitement evident in his voice as the pig-masked anbu turned to him.
“Don’t forget to log the extra hours,” he told Yamato, reaching up to pluck a leaf out of Yamato’s hair.
“It’s not that import- OW!” he squawked, patting at his hair. “Don’t do that!”
“Don’t have leaves on you then,” the pig-masked anbu retorted, pocketing the leaf. “Or everyone’s gonna start freaking out about kurayami again. Log your hours.”
“I will if it’ll make you leave me alone, and the only people still worried about kurayami are cowards and idiots,” Yamato said before arriving in front of Team 7, placing his hands on his hips, his posture clearly in a smile as the pig-masked anbu waved and walked into the public office. “Hello Sakura Haruno, Naruto Uzumaki, and Uchiha!”
“Why doesn’t Sasuke get his full name?” Naruto asked curiously, and Yamato turned his head to him.
“He specifically introduced himself as Uchiha,” Yamato said with a nod before turning his attention back to the full group. “Were you really looking for me? Why?”
He sounded almost giddy with excitement at the very idea, and Sakura stepped forward to take the lead, glancing back at Sasuke, who was really only able to stare blankly forward by now. There had been far too many anbu today. Yamato had been fine before. Better than Toki and Contororu, at least. He still felt a faint tremor in his bones.
“Well, Captain Yamato,” she started, but Yamato interrupted.
“Oh, it’s Yokutsei now, by the way,” he said. “But continue.”
Sakura glanced back at the others with a confused blink before shaking her head and pressing on. “Well, we were trying to figure out the weaknesses of Itachi Uchiha, and we were hoping you’d know them.”
“Uh. Really?” Yamato -Yokutsei?- asked, turning his face to each of them. Sasuke was grateful he had his mask on. “Um…”
“Please?” Sakura asked, bouncing forward and tugging on his sleeve. “You’re the only person who could help us, and we really need you.”
That felt like a bit of a stretch, but it seemed to stoke Yokutsei’s ego enough for the man to give a rather sheepish laugh, rubbing the back of his head with his free arm.
“Well, I guess since you’ve got an Uchiha on your team, it’s within your right to know,” he said, clearly pleased with the attention Sakura was giving. “What do I remember about Itachi Uchiha…um…”
“Do you have records or anything?” Naruto asked, and Yokutsei sighed.
“Me personally, no. And the only time I ever worked with him, he was loopy out of his mind from some jutsu, and my only job was to talk about how cool the moon was until he blacked out or left. Let’s see…”
Sasuke just stared at him, blinking owlishly. He wasn’t fully sure how to comprehend that statement.
Yokutsei continued rather cluelessly, “his genjutsu was regarded pretty much as unbeatable, but obviously every genjutsu can be released with enough chakra, though I don’t recommend getting caught in it. And he used mostly blades and fire style ninjutsu otherwise, which would make his weakness be any sort of shielding jutsu or especially water style jutsus.”
“Water style,” Sasuke echoed faintly. He could still feel a small tendril of fear snaked around his ribcage, but somehow Yokutsei really didn’t feel as dangerous as the other anbu. He was keeping his mask on, and he hadn’t attacked them at all in Hashirama’s Forest, and the way he was talking about Itachi’s weaknesses so nonchalantly gave Sasuke a small stir of confidence. Told him that someone thought Itachi was defeatable.
“What else, what else…” Yokutsei said, tapping at his mask’s chin. “Oh! He hates medical ninjutsu.”
“Huh?” Sakura asked as Sasuke blinked, surprised. Sakura glanced around at the others. “What does that mean?”
Yokutsei shrugged. “He never went to a medic after any mission. He’d always just go home, even if he was a bloodied pulp. I mean, you must have seen it, right Uchiha?”
“No,” Sasuke said, blinking quickly. “I never saw him injured at all.”
“Huh. Odd,” Yokutsei said as if that wasn’t a massive understatement. The worst Sasuke had ever seen from Itachi was tiredness, or a bit of gingerness when he walked. Did that mean Itachi had his own medical ninjutsu that could erase even all evidence of injuries? That was a terrifying thought.
“I’m not really sure what else,” Yokutsei said with a shrug. “Honestly, we were always under the impression his biggest weakness was you.”
Sasuke stilled, eyes widening. “M-me?”
Yokutsei shrugged. “Yeah. I don’t really know what that meant, but the upper level anbu would say it. I guess he didn’t talk much unless it was about you.”
Sasuke felt a small crack in his ribcage. What did that mean? Had Itachi known that early what he intended to do? That Sasuke was the one he’d torment with his horrible curse and force to challenge him?
He pressed his lips together, feeling vaguely nauseous.
Yokutsei continued as if this were the most casual conversation he could be having. “Hm, but I’m really not sure what I specifically would know beyond that- oh, Iruka!”
Yokutsei turned and snapped to a salute, and the other genin turned too, Sasuke’s head still spinning.
Iruka was walking towards them, but he held his finger to his lips to shush Yokutsei when he arrived.
“A little quieter, please!” Iruka whispered, and Yokutsei placed a hand over his mask’s mouth, earning him a fond smile from Iruka before the sensei turned to Team 7.
“What’s up, Iruka Sensei?” Naruto asked curiously, tilting his head, and Iruka held out a sheet of paper importantly.
“I would like to preface this by saying that technically, it’s well within my authority to assign C-Rank and lower missions without consulting anyone else,” he said. “And on that note, please don’t tell any of the other assistants that I’m giving you this.”
“A mission?!” Naruto cheered, grabbing the paper and flicking it open, and Sasuke squeezed his eyes shut once before opening them to read. Maybe this would be some way to help him grow stronger, or get him closer to puppet or water style jutsu-
His eyes went wide as he read it.
Client: Tazuna Sukuzi. Mission type: Traveling escort and security detail. Rank: C. Destination: Itamachi town of the Land of Waves, 20 km from the border of the Lands of Fire and Rivers, on the Fire side.
“I’m sorry it took this long to get you something like this,” Iruka said, genuine worry on his face. “With all the preparations for the chunin exams on top of everything, I didn’t even realize that the only missions you’d gotten were within the Village. Please, forgive my oversight. I’m truly sorry.”
“You don’t have to apologize, Iruka Sensei,” Naruto said brightly, and Iruka looked up, still clearly a bit worried. “Besides, you picked the best traveling mission for us right now! Right, Sasuke?”
“Yeah, the Land of Rivers border is just a few kilometers away from the Land of Wind!” Sakura said brightly, nudging Sasuke with her shoulder, and he flinched slightly at the contact, which made her step away with a sheepish smile.
Naruto, however, crammed himself closer to Sasuke and pointed at the sheet. “Well, yeah, that too, but check it out! Waves are made of water!!”
Sasuke blinked once before what Naruto was saying registered in his mind. “They might know water style jutsus! But if they’re all the way out by the Land of Wind-”
“That doesn’t mean they don’t know water style,” Sakura said eagerly. “I mean, Ino and her family are mostly water style users, and they live here. Besides, you wanted to go to the Land of Wind anyway, right?”
He did, to learn about puppet jutsu. And hopefully how to detect if he had been cursed with puppet jutsu that can be lifted.
“Oh, you’re looking for water style jutsus too?” Iruka asked, tilting his head. “That might be a bit harder to pull off, but I’ll keep an eye out! I picked this one specifically since it’s close to the Land of Wind; I’m looking for a Hidden Grass Village one too, since I hear they have pretty good ramen there. Though they have nothing on Ichiraku, of course.”
He sent a smile to Naruto, who actually jumped up and down in excitement, jostling Sasuke as he did.
“Grass ramen!!” the boy cheered. “We gotta go together then, Iruka Sensei, believe it! But Kakasensei says the Land of Wind has ramen jutsu in it, and genjutsu, and puppet jutsu, so it’s perfect for now!”
“Where is Kakashi sensei, by the way?” Sakura asked, looking around. “Does he know about this mission?”
“No, he was still talking to the hokage when I left,” Iruka said, glancing behind him at the building. “I’ll tell him about the mission once he’s done, and send him and the client to the front gates. It might take a while, so you three can finish your conversation with Yamato in the meantime.”
“It’s Yokutsei,” the anbu finally spoke back up again, his hand still over his mask, and Iruka sent a sheepish smile.
“Sorry! Yokutsei,” he corrected before waving to the three genin. “I look forward to hearing your mission report! After you get back. Please don’t talk about it until you leave.”
“Yes, sir, Iruka Sensei!” Naruto cheered, saluting, and with another sheepish grin, Iruka headed back down the street.
Sakura and Naruto both turned to Sasuke with bright smiles, but Sasuke’s eyes remained on the paper, rereading it carefully. This was exactly what he needed, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.
“Yokutsei, thank you for speaking with us,” Sakura said, turning to the anbu, who lowered his hand and cheerfully replied, “thank you !” before dramatically lowering his voice and whispering, “I’ll leave you to your mission! I’m winking, by the way!” and Naruto snickered as the anbu saluted and turned to walk into the public office.
Both Naruto and Sakura then leaned closer to Sasuke’s sides, both’s chins just over Sasuke’s shoulders, but he allowed the proximity now. It was to read their mission. That was a team activity.
He nodded as Sakura said, “okay, let’s see what we need to do to get ready,” and Naruto cheered, “believe it!”
~~~
Sasuke sat on his floor for several minutes when he arrived back home. He was supposed to pack up any items he might need for their traveling mission, which apparently could take up to a month. According to the paper Iruka had handed them, Team 7 had been hired to escort a bridge builder and serve as his security detail until he finished the construction of an important bridge in his town, which apparently had a few bandits and vandals that the presence of Leaf shinobi would hopefully scare off. The three genin had decided to go home and pack individually before meeting back up by the front gates to wait for Kakashi and this bridge engineer, and then the group would head out today.
Sasuke stared vacantly at the large backpack he’d dragged out to start packing, but it had been slow progress with his dizzy brain. He just couldn’t quite pull his focus to the task at hand.
He’d learned enough information today to make his head spin, and he barely knew where to start processing it.
Being in his room wasn’t helping, so he went outside to his porch and sat, trying to take deep breaths and sort out his thoughts. He’d learned his brother was part of the Akatsuki, an organization of rogue ninja. He’d learned that brother was weaker against water style jutsus.
He’d learned that his brother had been planning to torture him publicly enough that even Yokutsei’d heard about it.
Sasuke squeezed his eyes shut, gritting his teeth. It wasn’t news that the anbu had failed when it came to Itachi. He’d known for five years that they should have seen it coming and been able to stop him before everything had gone horribly wrong. But he still felt oddly hollow now, being reminded that violently of it. He squirmed.
He needed to lock his focus back. He was getting exactly what he wanted, a mission where he could investigate puppet jutsu while also now investigating water style jutsu. Yokutsei’s lead was an enormous advantage, and he hoped that maybe his instincts would someday calm down enough to let Sasuke thank the man for it.
Though he was more than aware that day was nowhere near today. Instead, he stood and focused his remaining bravery on packing in his room.
His eyes lingered on the photo book Hinata had given him, debating if he should pack it or not, but he decided against it. He didn’t want to risk losing or damaging it on the road.
Though he did step forward and sneak a peek at a few of his favorites of the pictures, and he took a few breaths. He should be glad to have leads on how to stop his brother. Once he got over the shock, maybe he would be.
There were a few odd things Yokutsei had mentioned too, things he couldn’t quite connect the pieces on. He’d never known Itachi had his own medical ninjutsu. Though that wasn’t exactly what Yokutsei had said; he’d just said that Itachi didn’t use the anbu’s medical ninjutsu. Was there something different about the anbu’s medical ninjutsu that Itachi didn’t like?
Not that Sasuke had any chance of learning what. He could barely hold himself together in front of an anbu speaking to him, let alone one using a jutsu. Though Yokutsei clearly felt safer to be around than Toki or Contororu did; maybe someday Sasuke’s stupid instincts would quiet enough to let Sasuke learn from him.
But that wasn’t the only peculiar thing; Yokutsei had said he’d met Itachi once, but that had apparently been a job . So…someone told Yokutsei to watch Itachi? And…talk about the moon. Was that related to Madara’s defeat of Kaguya? But Itachi never liked that story.
Sasuke frowned and glanced around him, but the ghost was nowhere to be seen. He’d been oddly absent lately. Maybe he knew Sasuke was closer now to defeating him, and was too scared to face him.
Sasuke gave a determined nod at that thought and stood. He couldn’t let his trembly panic interfere with this mission. This one was important, if he ever wanted to break his curse and leave his horrible fears behind.
He lifted his backpack and headed to his porch, taking a breath. He heard a light rustle and looked up to see a white-feathered bird landing atop his roof, peering down at him.
“I’ll be gone for a while,” he told it. “I’ll have a really nice mission report for your nest once I get back.”
The bird simply fluttered its wings, staring down at Sasuke with its oddly whited-out eyes, and Sasuke smiled up at it. It settled something warm and comforting in his chest to know that someone in the Village would be waiting for him to return even if it was just a bird.
Sasuke stepped down from his porch to his yard and set off to meet up with the others. This was an important step forward. He had to do it perfectly.
He stalled slightly when he passed the library, blinking at the door a few times. Then he turned, cupped his hands, and called in, “Madara! I’m gonna defeat Itachi! You watch me, okay?!”
“Oh, is that right?”
Sasuke stilled as Itachi’s voice finally returned, and he grit his teeth, turning over his shoulder. The ghost was leaning against the building across the street, his arms crossed. His smile was cold, and it sent a tremor down Sasuke’s spine.
That just made him angrier. What right did the ghost have to come back now and try to poison his resolve? He felt heat spooling tightly in his chest, and he pivoted, planting his feet and pointing at the ghost.
“It is right!” he snapped. “Because you’re a coward who’s afraid of anbu medical ninjutsu and water!”
Itachi looked unimpressed. “And you’re trusting an anbu’s information on that?”
Sasuke dropped his hands to his sides, shaking with anger. “Are you saying he was wrong?”
“ Is he wrong?” Itachi asked, putting on an expression of mock concern, and Sasuke’s teeth grit further.
“No. He’s not wrong,” Sasuke said. “You’re pathetic, and you’ll lose to water style medical moon ninjutsu!”
“Medical moon ninjutsu,” Itachi echoed, his mocking tone obvious, and Sasuke doubled down, his anger licking sense away from his brain.
“Yes!” he snapped. “Medical moon ninjutsu because it wouldn’t even take Madara to stop you! Hashirama and Kaguya could do it on their way to Madara to have a ramen dinner party, and they wouldn’t even have to think about it-“
“Do you think, about the words you’re about to say before speaking?” Itachi interrupted, and Sasuke stomped in anger.
“Shut up!” he snapped. “The point is that I’m gonna defeat you!”
“With Kaguya and Hashirama?” Itachi asked, raising an eyebrow in amusement.
“No, with water style and puppet jutsu!” Sasuke huffed, turning pointedly away and striding towards the front gates.
“You’re a fire style user, not a water style user,” Itachi called, and Sasuke didn’t look back. It sounded like Itachi might not be following him, and the idea burned confidence into his chest.
“Then maybe my fire style will just burn hotter than yours!”
“Well I’ll certainly look forward to that.”
Sasuke turned around again, his face scrunched in frustration, but once his eyes landed back on the street behind him, Itachi was gone.
Sasuke practically hissed steam out of his ears, scrunching his shoulders and closing his eyes to try and calm down. It would be stupid to start their mission off this worked up.
He took a few breaths, turning and marching back towards the front entrance again. He was going to beat Itachi. He knew more now than he did yesterday. He had leads on Itachi’s weaknesses, leads on what group he’d disappeared into- he could do this.
He took another breath before pressing forward, heading out to finally meet with his team at the Leaf Village outer gates.
Notes:
Land of Waves finally incoming!! yay!! how will Team 7’s first traveling mission go??
Now, a surprise additional update-on-where-I’m-at note!
I was genuinely considering watching Boruto bcos the name Momoshiki sounds cool and I wanted to learn who he was but after watching One Single Episode of boruto I…no longer have that consideration at least for the near future :’) sorry to anyone who likes boruto it just didn’t pull me in and now I shall yap about why
why the heckie did Naruto not go to his own hokage celebration. that is THE POINT of the show, they literally explained it via Itachi that when Naruto becomes hokage that means that he has successfully gained the village’s respect which is like. the entire premise of his character arc. that’s why people were saying the show should have ended at the pain arc, because that’s when he gained the village’s respect, and it was already weird that the original show didn’t include him becoming hokage but now he doesn’t even get to be there???
like I did like the scene with him and hinata where he says that his new dream is protecting his family aka everyone in the village, but that scene could have still happened after he got to achieve his first dream. y’all know that one scene in tangled that’s like exactly that? yeah. I know that one scene too :’)
anyway maybe I’ll watch sasuke fight a dinosaur. anyone reading this is welcome to explain to me who momoshiki is tho bcos I don’t anticipate meeting him anytime soon lol
anywayyyy I hope you all are still enjoying my fic!! :D <3 Ty for reading and I hope you have a lovely day!
Chapter 27: To the Land of Waves!
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Sakura’s apartment was empty when she returned to it. Both of her parents must be at work, that meant; Sakura’d hoped to see them before heading out on the lengthy mission, but she supposed simply writing a note would have to do. It wasn’t a terribly difficult sounding mission, but it would be nice anyway to just get out somewhere. Plus, she’d have an actual story about their real team to tell her parents when they returned rather than relying on Blossoms and her friends.
Sakura couldn’t quite keep a tremble out of her hand as she wrote that note, though.
She squeezed her fist around the pen, closing her eyes and taking a breath. The spy the hokage was after was part of the Akatsuki. She was fine .
She opened her eyes and finished her note carefully, reading it over before placing it in the center of the table and heading to her room to pack. Iruka’s paper had said this mission could take up to a month, which meant she’d need more than a regular mission’s worth of supplies. She might need even more if they ended up going actually into the nearby Land of Wind. Maybe if the three genin really piled it on, Kakashi would fold and take them there. He didn’t seem particularly hard to fold given how nonchalantly he’d gone off with the hokage. She wondered what they were talking about, if it had anything to do with…
She shook her head, changing thoughts. The Akatsuki was their concern there. No other spy.
Sakura wasn’t sure if it had been smart to go to Toki and Contororu, but she didn’t know how else to get her teammates Akatsuki information without exposing that she’d gotten hers from Kabuto. Regardless, she was sure that running into Yamato -or…whatever he decided to call himself now- had worked out brilliantly. Finding and taking down the worst traitor in the history of the Leaf Village to protect everyone who lived here was practically like an anbu mission, exactly the sort of thing Sakura wanted to do. Plus, it certainly wouldn’t hurt in helping Sasuke trust her more, especially since she knew her boss didn’t care for Itachi Uchiha’s sharingan for whatever reason.
And extra plus, no one would ever dare doubt a hero who took down such a monster, and therefore that hero’s secrets could stay her own.
Sakura exhaled, rubbing at her eye as the thought kept nagging in her mind. Her cover was fine! If anyone suspected she was secretly working for Orochimaru, they wouldn’t have entrusted her to find whoever was secretly working for the Akatsuki.
Though they hadn’t really entrusted her. They hadn’t told Team 7 what they were doing in the Leaf.
Sakura fidgeted, staring at her half-packed bag without really seeing it. She didn’t remember feeling any genjutsu around town, but it wasn’t like she’d been looking for it. But surely someone as powerful as Itachi Uchiha’s genjutsu would have been easy to spot. Unless he was powerful enough that he could hide it from sensory type ninjas.
Well, that meant her mission also needed this traveling mission; only good things could come from getting Sasuke out of the Village right now.
She gave a determined nod and returned to her job of packing. See? Her mission now meant protecting Sasuke from Itachi. It wasn’t like she was really doing anything bad at all. Orochimaru just wanted to learn. He’d only been chased out of the Village because the third hokage refused to acknowledge him, and seeing just how poorly that same hokage -or at the very least, his assistants- seemed to be treating Sasuke and Naruto, Sakura didn’t doubt that he’d be capable of doing similarly to Orochimaru in the past.
It was fine. Everything was fine.
She took a breath as she shifted her thoughts back to what Yamato -what had he changed his name to this time? Sakura couldn’t remember- had told them. They needed shielding jutsus, water style jutsus, and medical jutsus.
Shielding jutsus, they could probably figure out. They, much like most genjutsus, were jutsus that didn’t require big and flashy and therefore easy-to-detect elemental power behind them, which meant all three of them could learn the same type like how they were learning string tool attacks. Emphasis on learning rather than being taught . Sakura rolled her eyes but moved to pack her ninja string into her toolpouch anyway.
Water style jutsus might be more difficult if only because she didn’t know what her own or even Naruto’s or Kakashi’s elemental natures were. Her dad always said that was something to be done at the chunin level, since the test needed to determine one’s style required quite a bit of chakra control to not give a false response. Sakura knew she probably had more than enough control from her genjutsu, and anyone from a big enough clan like Hinata or even Ino would probably have the test papers on standby if she wanted them, but to her surprise, when she brought the idea to Kabuto, he’d been against it, not only because of the elemental-styles-make-genjutsu-easier-to-detect dilemma, but also because he thought it might be suspicious if she suddenly had chunin-level knowledge without any clan relations to have taught her.
She’d been annoyed by this, but Kabuto always taught her more than enough to make that annoyance not centered on him. He did have a point. A lot of clans were very irritatingly secretive about everything .
Sakura finished packing and closed her bag, thinking hard as she stood. The last type of jutsu was the oddest; why would Itachi Uchiha dislike medical ninjutsu? Did that mean medical ninjutsu could work against him? But that was an extremely difficult power to master. Even the strongest shinobi in the world could struggle with medical ninjutsu, even on a simple injury. The fact that the first hokage was so skilled at it was extremely impressive.
Once, she’d asked Kabuto if he knew what the secret was. She knew he had a skill for it, and it seemed like an incredibly useful jutsu.
“It requires more than academics,” he’d said, adjusting his glasses. “There’s an additional aspect to it.”
“Like what? Can you teach me?” Sakura’d asked, perking up, and Kabuto smirked at her.
“Apparently, it’s not something that can be taught,” he said, and Sakura pouted.
“How is that possible?” she demanded, crossing her arms. “You can do it; why can’t you teach it?”
“Because it’s not something to be taught,” he said, tapping the top of her head, and she exaggerated her pout further.
“But why not? What’s the secret?”
“Apparently, it’s tied to the strength of a person’s heart,” Kabuto said.
“Huh?”
Kabuto gave a dramatic sigh, pushing up his glasses again. “Yes, it’s a bit of a murky explanation, I know. I’m not too pleased with it either, but apparently that’s how the early Leaf Village defined it. Apparently they thought Hashirama Senju was as skilled as he was because he had the biggest heart around.”
Kabuto exhaled a laugh, crossing his arms. “It sounds absurd, I know, but I suppose there’s merit to the statement. After all, medical ninjutsu is using your own chakra for the sole purpose of helping someone else, draining your own energy to bolster another’s. It’s an inherently selfless jutsu, and the more a person is willing to give up themselves, the stronger healing they can provide to someone else. It’s a working theory, at least. And it explains Hashirama Senju. He was one of a kind; even the other star medic, Koibito Uchiha, had to rely on her deer summons for the actual medical ninjutsu. Creatures who always put themselves on the line to protect the hospital. It supports the theory.”
“Wow,” Sakura said, her eyes wide. “Then medical ninja are in a league of their own! You’re really impressive, Kabuto!”
“Yes, I know,” Kabuto said with a teasing smirk. “But don’t think that’s the only way to be impressive. Certainly medical ninjutsu is helpful in fixing injuries, but battle strength can prevent them altogether. Come on, show me where your taijutsu is.”
And then the two began to spar.
Sakura was still deep in thought when she exited her apartment and stepped onto the street. The sun was bright in the sky, and she squinted against it, shielding her eyes with one hand while her other fidgeted on her backpack. She’d have to puzzle more about what not-Yamato-anymore had told them to figure out a solid course of action. In the meantime, she had another pressing concern: the Akatsuki spy.
Kabuto hadn’t told her anything about an Akatsuki infiltration in the Leaf Village. Did he not know? Should Sakura investigate? How could she without raising suspicion? Maybe she could lean into her usual inclination towards academics and act like she was just researching a topic she’d heard about in school. But that wouldn’t help her investigate what was currently happening with them.
Ugh, she was no good at this sort of thing. Her skill was in studying solid research, like textbooks, but this needed someone who knew how to pick out leads from rumors, someone who looked into these types of volatile current topics enough that investigating this wouldn’t be suspicious at all. She needed…
Her eyes brightened when they landed on blonde hair exiting a bubble tea shop in front of her, and her search was resolved.
“Ino!” Sakura called, jogging over to the girl, who turned with a raised eyebrow, a straw from her drink still in her mouth.
“What’s up-?” the girl started, but Sakura didn’t give Ino a chance to even greet her. This was perfect! Ino was always looking into what were basically conspiracy theories at this point; she could definitely help figure out what the Akatsuki might be doing here!
“I’ve got big news!” Sakura said, her eyes wide.
“Oh yeah?” Ino said, interest lighting up her face. “You’re ditching Sasuke forever?”
Sakura shoved her arm. “ No . We-“
“Oh!!” Ino interrupted, her eyes flicking to Sakura’s shoulders. “Backpack! Are you going on a traveling mission?! Finally, it’s been for ever, my dad says all you guys do is hang around the Village.”
“Wow, thanks,” Sakura said, rolling her eyes. “We are doing missions, you know. Actually…”
Sakura leaned closer, cupping her hand, and Ino moved her ear closer. Sakura whispered, “we were on an in-Village intelligence mission.”
“For real?” Ino asked, her eyes wide, and she lowered her voice further. “Intelligence for what?”
“Do you know who the Akatsuki is?”
“Yeah, my dad’s mentioned them,” Ino whispered. “He says they’re fanatics obsessed with some crackpot idea of ending all wars by killing tailed beasts or something.”
They were involved in tailed beasts? This couldn’t be a more perfect topic to set Ino loose on. Sakura couldn’t help but hold back a grin. Knowing her friend’s intense determination, she’d have a detailed report on the Akatsuki ready by the time Sakura came back to the Village.
“Well,” Sakura whispered, “let me tell you what the hokage just told us.”
~~~
Naruto was already at the gate when Sasuke arrived, staring up at the sky and beaming, and when he caught sight of Sasuke approaching, he waved with his full arm. “Yo!! Sasuke!!”
He sounded delighted to see him, like they hadn’t just talked less than an hour ago, and Sasuke simply hmphed rather than sending a greeting back.
When Sakura arrived, she was slightly out of breath and grinning, looking around. “Did I beat Kakashi Sensei?”
“Every single day, yeah,” Naruto snickered, and she gave a breathless laugh.
“Fair. I was hoping to see my parents before we left, but they were both working,” she said with a small pout. “But I left them a note, so it’s okay!”
“Are you sure?” Sasuke asked, surprised. “We might be gone for a while.”
“Honestly, they’ll probably be happy we’re finally going out on a traveling mission,” she said with a bright laugh. “Especially to someplace we’ve been hoping to go. We’re gonna learn all about the Land of Wind’s water jutsus!”
“Ugh, that doesn’t give any confidence.”
Sasuke blinked in surprise at the unfamiliar voice, turning to see a rather bulky man standing behind them, clearly unimpressed.
“Who’re you?” Sasuke asked shortly as Naruto demanded, “what’s that supposed to mean?!”
“The Land of Wind has wind style jutsus,” the man said flatly, glancing down at the sheet of paper in his hand. “Is there any chance you’re any team other than 7?”
Sasuke scowled. “Is there any chance you’re not the bridge builder assigned to Team 7?”
“Oh, hi!” Naruto said cheerfully, perking up. “We work for you that means! I’m Naruto Uzumaki, the future hokage, believe it! It’s an honor to employ me!”
“Naruto,” Sakura whispered, clearly a little embarrassed by the bad first impression, but Sasuke was determined not to let this important mission be ruined by the client who’d requested it.
After about two minutes of conversation however, Sasuke learned that this might be a bit more difficult task than he’d thought. The client in question, a fairly grumpy man named Tazuna, made it quite clear that he wasn’t particularly impressed by the three genin in front of him.
“You’ve never been outside the Village before?” Tazuna had asked, raising an eyebrow, and Sasuke frowned. He didn’t exactly want this man to know that Sasuke had requested and been denied permission to leave multiple times until now, but he also didn’t want the guy looking down on them the whole trip.
“Of course we’ve left the Village before,” Sakura said with a laugh that may have been a bit oblivious, though admittedly Sasuke had no idea if Naruto had ever left. “Just not as a group- we’ve only just recently formed.”
“Then you’re inexperienced,” Tazuna said irritably. “Yeah, that’s much better.”
Sakura frowned too as Naruto sent a thumbs up and cluelessly said, “it sure is, believe it!” which surely did nothing for their reputation.
Kakashi actually arrived quite soon by his standards, his bag packed and over his shoulder.
“Yo,” he said with a wave. “Iruka said he’d told you-“
“What did the hokage want to tell you?” Sasuke interrupted immediately. It was more than probable that it had been something to do with the Akatsuki.
Kakashi leaned back with a hum, tapping at his chin. “Oh, let me remember…the hokage said that…oh! Of course!”
Kakashi snapped with a point and sent a hidden smile. “Not your business.”
Sasuke scowled as Naruto snickered.
Kakashi seemed more than pleased with himself as he glanced around at the group before settling his eye on Tazuna. “Looks like the directions I gave on how to get here were better than you catastrophized, Tazuna. How nice. Did we all introduce ourselves?”
“You don’t know your own teammates?” Tazuna asked, and Sasuke saw a flicker in Kakashi’s eye of the same expression both Sasuke and Sakura were making.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” he said. “Well, guess we should get moving.”
And with that unceremonious statement, the group’s first traveling mission began.
Sasuke tried to put his annoyance out of his mind as he looked down at the Village threshold when he stepped over it. Finally. He’d finally gotten here. He had the ability to leave the Village in a way that’d let him come back, a way to go defeat his curse and come home to live, and he couldn’t help but feel a little excited. He knew he still had a ton of steps ahead of him, but overcoming this first massive obstacle that had been daunting over him for five years was certainly something to celebrate.
He settled for his celebration to be looking around at the scenery he hadn’t seen in years. The trees rustled in the wind, a pleasant sound, and the blue sky was dotted with a few clouds. A white-feathered bird landed on a branch nearby, and Sasuke blinked at it, smothering a smile. He’d definitely bring his extra special mission report to give one of those birds after this. And he’d probably tell the Madara portrait about it too.
Kakashi laid out the ground rules for the mission as they walked, the gist of which being, ‘we, specifically I, are the experts here which means if I say to do something, then do it,’ and everyone agreed more or less to this idea. Naruto got distracted staring at the white bird, and Sakura kept beaming back at Sasuke who kept dodging her gaze, and Tazuna kept asking if they were sure they were really qualified for this kind of mission.
“I assure you we are,” Kakashi said for at least the third time. “It’s only C-ranked. We can handle C-ranks.”
“Your hokage didn’t seem to think you could,” Tazuna hmphed, crossing his arms, and Naruto piped up.
“That’s because old man Third knows we should really be going on A-ranks, but since all there are is low ranked missions, then we’ve gotta take those,” he said with a dramatic sigh, and Tazuna made a face at him.
“That is certainly not what he’s doing,” Tazuna said, and Naruto turned around with a point.
“Oh yeah? And how do you know that, Mr. Oh-I’m-a-Genius-Just-Cause-I-Know-How-to-Build-a-Bridge?!”
“It’s an important bridge!” Tazuna snapped, and he and Naruto quickly erupted into a small bickering spat that Sakura attempted to interrupt.
Sasuke opted to ignore them and turned instead to Kakashi.
“Could we go into the Land of Wind on this trip?” Sasuke asked, unable to keep the eagerness out of his voice. “We’ll be close to the border, I know.”
“You’re going to ditch your mission that you’re so overqualified for?” Tazuna asked accusatorily, interrupting his previous argument to do so, and Sasuke scowled at him.
“After the bridge is done,” he said pointedly, turning back to Kakashi.
“Hm,” the sensei said, tapping at his masked chin. “Well, running off to some foreign land after completing our mission could probably be seen as desertion and label us as rogue ninja. On the other hand, maps are hard to read. West, east. Who can keep track?”
Kakashi gave a bland shrug as the genin just stared at him in varying degrees of confused frustration.
“You know where you’re going, don’t you?” Tazuna asked scathingly, and Kakashi sent him a hidden smile.
“Of course. Eyes like a hawk, Tazuna,” he said, and Sasuke hmphed.
“You’re literally covering one eye,” he pointed out, and Kakashi nodded.
“Some hawks do cover their eyes,” he said.
“Yeah, both or none, and not while in motion,” Sakura said as Naruto gasped, “eyepatch hawk!”
“Oh, that reminds me,” Kakashi said, and Sasuke scrunched his nose.
“ That reminds you?” he asked, wondering what ‘eyepatch hawk’ could have possibly stirred up in the man’s memory and how it would inevitably turn into something to hinder Sasuke.
That question at least was immediately answered.
“Uchiha,” Kakashi said, pointing vaguely upwards as he nodded. “This is a perfect opportunity to train while we walk. Tie your headband around your eyes.”
“Seriously? Now?” Sasuke asked as Naruto perked up and asked, “are we punching Sasuke again?”
“No, not punching,” Kakashi said as Sasuke glared at Naruto, who sighed, and Tazuna’s disdainful expression only got worse.
And this would likely continue if Sasuke had to trip around blindfolded as some stupid excuse for a training method.
“Why do I have to? I’m gonna run into a tree or something!” he whispered to Kakashi, who sent a hidden smile.
“Not if you focus. Be speedy, or I’ll have to fail you.”
Sasuke scowled, but then he heard Tazuna give an exasperated sigh laced obviously with regret at his assignment of team, and he quit his arguing there. They needed to be making a much better impression on Tazuna than they were to prove that they could handle these better missions rather than relying on Iruka to sneak them more.
Sasuke lowered his headband and retied the knot, resigning himself to hitting at least one tree unless Sakura took pity on him and guided him along. How was he supposed to know where he was going out here? He’d never been allowed to leave the Leaf Village before. He didn’t know what the path looked like.
Part of him frowned deeper at that. He still wouldn’t know, that meant. He wondered distantly if this was some overcomplicated way to hide his sharingan while out in public. Not that he ever showed his sharingan in the first place, and the large Uchiha fan stitched into the back of his jacket would give him away long before his eyes did.
“Here, Sasuke, I’ll help!” Sakura said brightly, taking his hand, and he jumped away from it like it was an electric shock.
Surprisingly, though, Sakura sounded exasperated when she spoke up. “Sasuke, I’m just trying to help you not run into a tree like you said.”
Oh. Right. It wasn’t anything friendly. It was just her trying to help her teammate out, probably to make them look better in front of Tazuna. Which meant he could hold her hand, and it would be safe.
He could feel his heartbeat uncomfortably loudly.
Sakura was plowing on, “it’s a teammate’s responsibility to make sure that- oh!”
Sasuke had grabbed her hand immediately upon hearing the word ‘teammate’, and he stared down at nothing, hoping his embarrassment wasn’t obvious. Was this dangerous? No, she’d said teammate. Surely it was safe. He squeezed her hand without even realizing.
Naruto, of course, did not read the room in the slightest and instead audibly marched over to Sasuke’s side to grab his other hand and loudly state, “yeah, and your other teammate will hold your hand too-!”
“Get off!” Sasuke snapped, shoving him, and he heard Naruto yelp as he obviously tripped and fell down.
“Why’s only Sakura get to do a teammate handhold?!” he demanded. “Kakashi, I’m gonna hold your hand!”
“Hard pass.”
“Tazuna!”
“No! Why?”
“You all are jerks!” Naruto said. “I’ll just hold my own hand!”
There was the immistakable sound of a shadow clone puffing into existence.
“Come on, me!” Naruto yelled. “I’ll tell you all the cool things about the Leaf Village!”
“Yes, future hokage Naruto!” the shadow clone shouted right back, and Sakura whispered to Sasuke, “wanna bet what he’ll talk about?”
“I dunno, it could be about ramen or him being hokage,” Sasuke muttered back, and he heard Sakura snicker.
Surprisingly, somehow, Naruto’s conversation was neither about himself becoming hokage nor ramen, but rather about a new jutsu Hinata had learned. It was kind of sweet to hear Naruto gushing about her. Sasuke could tell Naruto really paid attention to her, despite what his cluelessness seemed. Sasuke turned his smothered gaze towards Sakura and absently wondered how much she watched him.
The morning air felt dewy as they walked, damp air clinging to Sasuke’s skin. He wondered if there was a pond or something nearby that was causing it. He pouted slightly in frustration at Kakashi’s continued irritating behavior currently causing his blindfolded-ness, but maybe he couldn’t be too annoyed by it. The weight in his hand felt overwhelmingly nice.
Maybe he should be more worried about that, but she’d said teammate. She’d said it. Which meant it was fine , especially since he couldn’t even hear Itachi anywhere trying to taunt him into anything, which extra meant that it was fine to be holding hands with Sakura as they walked.
He felt vaguely panicked. But he didn’t take his hand away.
Naruto talked to his clone the entire time they walked, chattering excessively about any topic that popped into his head as the day passed. Sasuke sighed as he distantly wished there was some way he could actually look around at the scenery he’d spent years hoping to get out to while still having an excuse to hold Sakura’s hand without friendship on the table.
He knew there was a way, but he needed to break his curse first.
He closed his eyes -not that it mattered, with his headband clunkily obscuring his vision- and wondered how it would feel to finally lift the jutsu on his heart. Maybe once he wasn’t cursed, he wouldn’t be so scared of people touching him. That would be nice, probably.
Who was he kidding? It would be extraordinary . He still clung to every memory of a team activity mandating Sakura hold onto him.
Though the past few minutes she’d started twitching around a little, clearly antsy.
“What is it?” Sasuke asked, turning his face towards her.
Naruto loudly shouted, “I said Ichiraku’s pork slice width-to-area ratio is perfectly cut!”
“Not you!” Sasuke snapped before softening his voice. “Sakura, I meant you.”
“Huh? Oh, it’s nothing!” she said, her voice bright, but she still squirmed slightly. Was she trying to subtly get her hand away? He let go quickly, embarrassed, and stared in the other direction. That had been stupid, hadn’t it? She’d just been trying to get him started down the road, not have him clinging onto her. He felt his shoulders scrunching.
“Haruno, if you need to stop you can say it,” Kakashi said, and Sakura gave a sheepish sort of noise as Sasuke turned back to her. Oh. Maybe it hadn’t been him, then.
“Heh, I’ll be right back,” she said, and Sasuke could hear her running towards the trees.
“Oh, are you peeing Sakura?” Naruto practically shouted, and he heard Sakura yell back, “can you be quieter about it? And turn around!”
Sasuke did too, despite the fact that he was blindfolded, and Naruto said, “I call next pee!”
“What does that even mean?” Sasuke snapped as Tazuna muttered, “this was a mistake.”
“No it was not, believe it!” Naruto insisted. “Peeing in shifts means more people escorting you at a time! It’s tactical peeing.”
“Begging you to stop talking,” Kakashi said, and Naruto cheerfully said, “request denied!”
Sasuke turned when he heard Sakura returning, holding out his hand again immediately without even thinking, but before he could acknowledge this potentially dangerous new instinct, something in the air shifted.
“Cover Tazuna!” Kakashi yelled suddenly, and before Sasuke could even react, he felt Kakashi tackling him to the ground.
He gasped, shoving his headband up in time to watch a kunai thrown from Kakashi’s hand ripping through the air and spearing-
A white feathered bird.
Sasuke stared at it, his mind completely blank, as Naruto shrieked, “WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!”
Sasuke turned to the others, Tazuna ducked on the ground with Sakura and Naruto and the Naruto clone standing protectively above him with kunai and shurikens respectively drawn, and all of them looked just as confused as Sasuke.
He turned back to Kakashi, who’d leapt up and grabbed the bird out of the tree, examining it with his back to the other four.
“Sensei, what is it?” Sakura called. “Are we being attacked?”
“It’s paper,” Kakashi said blankly, sounding confused.
“A paper bomb? Disguised as a bird?!” Naruto shouted, and Sasuke propped himself back up to his knees.
“But I’ve seen those birds everywhere,” Sasuke said. “They’re all over the Leaf Village- are they all bombs?!”
“No,” Kakashi said, turning back around, his one visible eye narrowed as it scanned the treeline. “It’s just paper. Not a bomb. Stay alert. Someone’s tracking us.
“And whoever it is must know that we’re used to seeing that bird,” Sakura said from behind Sasuke. “And that we wouldn’t be suspicious of it! They must be crazy skilled-!”
Sakura was interrupted by a shadowy figure appearing behind Kakashi, a kunai practically materializing in front of the man’s neck.
“KAKASENSEI!” Naruto yelled as Sakura shrieked and Sasuke and Tazuna shouted, and not a single one of them reacted quick enough.
The shadow was a ninja, a Mist symbol obvious on his headband, and his kunai slammed backwards into Kakashi’s neck before Sasuke could even shut his eyes.
Instead all Sasuke could do was stare in shellshocked horror as the blade connected and the air turned red, and he felt his chest locking up as a distorted voice that sounded somehow both horribly like Itachi’s yet also high and cold and monstrously foreign, clanging in his ears, “that’s right, make sure you watch, Sasuke!”
“I’m gonna kill those brats for giving us away,” the Mist ninja said, his voice low and gravely as he stepped over Kakashi’s falling body.
“As if you could,” a second voice said from behind them all, and Sasuke snapped his gaze over his shoulder in terror to see a second Mist ninja, this one a taller female standing behind the other three. “Let’s just take care of business.”
The female ninja swung what looked like a large barbed chain, her trajectory aimed towards the frozen and terrified group of Sakura, the Narutos, and Tazuna, and every thought emptied from Sasuke’s head except one.
Do not let it happen again.
Sasuke scrambled up, grabbing a rock from the road and throwing it several feet above the heads of the others, and the female ninja laughed at his apparent miss until Sasuke put up a handsign and substituted with the rock.
The kunoichi gasped and threw her head up, but it was too late. Sasuke slammed a kick on the top of her head, rotating himself enough to grab the chain and yank it away from its trajectory, hissing in pain as the barbs sliced into his hands but succeeding in getting it to miss the others; instead, all it hit on its way down was a graze on the arm of the Naruto clone, apparently enough damage to make the clone puff away into smoke as the chain dug into the dirt a foot in front of it.
Sasuke landed between the trio and the falling female Mist ninja, and he snapped his gaze up to see the first Mist shinobi running towards them now-
Sasuke gasped, his eyes widening as they found Kakashi, completely unharmed and wound up to slam a kick into the side of the unsuspecting Mist ninja.
“He used genjutsu!” Sakura whispered to explain, grabbing at Sasuke’s sleeve with relief still evident in her voice, and Sasuke let himself breathe again.
Kakashi wasn’t dead. None of them were dead. Sasuke felt faintly woozy in relief.
“He jumped into it!” the second Mist ninja shouted, her voice strained, but Kakashi didn’t give any of them a chance to even figure out what she’d meant.
His kick slammed the first ninja into the ground, and after a few handsigns, a wall of mud rippled the dirt and formed an earthen tidal wave, crashing over the two Mist ninjas and pinning them to the ground as it solidified.
“Get behind me!” Kakashi said sharply, and all four scrambled up and sprinted to do so. His eye bore into the two Mist ninja as he stared down at them. “Which of us is your target?”
The male ninja spat up at Kakashi from his pinned position, and the female gave a bitter laugh and didn’t even bother looking at Kakashi, instead glaring sourly at the trees as she said, “it’s not the brat walking around blindfolded, I can tell you that much.”
Sasuke felt his teeth baring as he snapped, “that brat happened to stop your attack!”
“Which of us is your target?” Kakashi asked more forcefully, and this time the male ninja leered up at him.
“You tell us,” he said, his malicious smile crazed, and Sasuke could tell Sakura had taken another step behind Kakashi. The mist shinobi continued, his expression lethal, “you Leaf ninja are superior to the rest of us, isn’t that right? Shouldn’t you know everything ?”
“That’s what this is about?” Kakashi asked, unimpressed. “Our village rivalry? I hope you don’t expect me to buy that crap.”
He strode forward and stomped hard onto the male ninja’s ear, shoving his cheek into the muddy gravel road, and the man hissed in pain. Kakashi leaned his weight onto his foot, ignoring the kunoichi now shouting insults at him, and said, “I’ll ask one more time. Which of us was your target?”
“Don’t think so little of us!” the kunoichi yelled, her face screwed up in fury. “We’ll tell you nothing!”
“Is that right?” Kakashi asked, taking out a kunai. “Tazuna, don’t look.”
The man gasped as Sasuke moved to cover him, a sick feeling rising in his gut as his eyes strayed towards the kunai in Kakashi’s hand. He didn’t want to watch whatever Kakashi was about to do, but he couldn’t tear his traitorous eyes away from the blade. The kunoichi was still screaming, her anger shredding through the air, and Sasuke felt ice climbing his spine, until very suddenly he felt something brush against his elbow, something on the same side Sakura had taken up, and he felt his brain click back on.
Sakura shouldn’t have to see something like that. Neither should Naruto, and certainly not Tazuna.
His resolve strengthened just slightly, but it was enough to turn him around, moving to almost completely cover Tazuna, who’d apparently sank to his knees in terror, and pulling Sakura closer too, reaching towards where Naruto stood-
Until his eyes landed on a third ninja standing behind the group that had been stupidly watching Kakashi instead of their surroundings.
This shinobi was different. Sasuke could tell immediately. He was masked, just like Kakashi, but his almost animalistic eyes were enough to show exactly the kind of man he was. Cold, ruthless, empty in a dangerous way Sasuke had seen before, a way that was burned into Sasuke’s memory and never faded even as the years dragged by.
The shinobi gave a softly annoyed tch, his eyes lingering on the cluster of Sasuke, Sakura, and Tazuna, before lifting his hand and snapping once. The dampness that had been clinging to the air as they walked suddenly sharpened into several needles of water and stabbed down towards the four.
All Sasuke could do was flinch against it, shoving Tazuna under him and yanking Sakura forward by a hand around her back to guard them. He’d already been moving towards them, so he might have enough time to at least let the ninjutsu hit only Sasuke- but Naruto was too far away and completely exposed, and all he had covering Sakura was one arm, and Sasuke couldn’t see it happen again, he couldn’t, but he couldn’t do anything-!
The needles connected, and each one sent boiling hot agony through their targets, who each screamed from it. Sasuke could feel pain radiating where he’d been hit, mostly along his arms and shoulders where he’d practically dropped over Tazuna to guard him. Somehow none of the needles pierced his head or neck; he was sure it’d have been over right then if they had.
Sakura had thrown her arms up to cover the rest of Tazuna that Sasuke hadn’t been able to, and she’d received needles in her side, leg and shoulder as a result, and she cried out from them, dropping to her knees. Sasuke felt himself getting yanked forward too, and he nearly knocked Tazuna all the way flat as he did, and confusion bloomed in his mind for the split second until he saw the horrible sight of the same needle that skewered Sakura’s side also stabbing through Sasuke’s hand, pinning the two together.
Sasuke stared at it, his vision tunneling, but he needed to look away. Needed to stay rational and assess the situation to give them a chance at making it out alive, even if all his mind wanted to do was stare in horror at the pain Sakura must be in.
Naruto had received several needles to the legs and arms but nothing on his torso or head, and with Sasuke and Sakura’s cover, Tazuna had remained clear of any needles beyond one to the shoulder and one to the leg. Sasuke forced bile down as he tried to lock his focus, trying to understand what had happened so he could figure out how to win.
He squeezed his eyes shut, hoping to force out the sight of the needle skewering Sakura into him, but that only succeeded in reminding him how stupid it was to close his eyes around a ninja who was skillful enough to know how to perfectly avoid hitting any lethal blows on his targets.
But when Sasuke opened his eyes, the shinobi was still there, exhaling.
“There’s always something tricky with these sorts of jobs,” he said heavily, straightening up and dropping his head to the side, his eyes now over the kids’ heads. “You look like the copy ninja of the Leaf. Do I have that right?”
Sasuke didn’t chance a glance over his shoulder, but Kakashi’s expression was easy to imagine from his tone alone.
“You look like a swordsman of the Mist,” he replied, his voice lethal, and the man’s eyes narrowed just fractionally.
“I have a name, Kakashi.”
“I know it, Zabuza.”
Sasuke gulped down breaths, trying to understand. Zabuza was this shinobi’s name. He was from the Mist Village. The Mist Village hated the Leaf Village, and if Zabuza had wanted, he could have slammed those needles into the genins’ necks and killed them all in one shot.
But he hadn’t. Did they have a chance there? Did Zabuza not want to kill them for some reason-?
“Your comrades weren’t talking,” Kakashi said coldly. “Why did you kill them?”
Sasuke inhaled sharply and stared over his shoulder, the rest of him still dropped over Tazuna in frozen horror.
The two Mist shinobi were lying behind Kakashi, still pinned by the mud wall and both skewered by one water needle apiece, right between their eyes.
Sasuke felt his chest empty as he stared at their glassy eyes and slacked jaws, unable to string words together. A pile of mud beside Kakashi was littered with the needles too, presumably having been used by Kakashi as his defense against the attack, though a few had still hit their target, one needle spearing through Kakashi’s knee and another through his elbow.
Sasuke heard movement behind him and snapped his gaze back around with a gasp, hearing Sakura shriek and Naruto blindly throw what looked like a spray of dirt from the ground in his panicked response, and Sasuke looked just in time to see Zabuza stepping towards them. He flinched, instincts freezing him up again but at least this time they locked him up still covering Tazuna and almost guarding Sakura, but his efforts hadn’t done anything before, she’d still been stabbed even through his hand, and they could have died if Zabuza wanted, and they could die again right here because clearly Zabuza didn’t mind killing, he’d killed his own comrades, he was moving towards them and he could kill at a moment’s notice and Sasuke didn’t want to die-!
Zabuza made a show of stepping over the ducked huddle of Sasuke, Sakura, and Tazuna, ignoring Naruto too and striding a few paces to land in front of Kakashi, his stance bored.
“Don’t tell me you’re underestimating your own interrogation abilities, Kakashi,” Zabuza said. “They were weak links. They’d probably have broken under you. Consider my actions a compliment.”
“You consider them to be weak when your own bird gave you away,” Kakashi said icily, and Zabuza gave a low hum.
“Hm? Oh. I suppose I’m the one who underestimated you. Don’t tell me you don’t know whose bird that is, Kakashi,” Zabuza said, and Sasuke just stared. It was too much, too much to take in all at once, and Sasuke squeezed his eyes shut, turning back around to the others, who were all just staring in blank horror like Sasuke had been.
Kakashi began speaking again, “I have my suspicions,” and Zabuza laughed, “yes, I’m sure you do,” but Sasuke leaned forward towards the others.
“We need to move,” Sasuke whispered, his eyes wide as he adjusted his position and moved his unpinned hand forward to begin crawling discreetly away, nudging Tazuna’s side with his foot to get him to move with them. “Now, while he’s distracted-“
He heard another snap, and he gasped as he heard a pop above him, snapping his eyes up. High in the air and completely unnoticed, a twisty rope of water that had apparently been holding a massive sword suddenly burst into droplets and sent the glimmer of metal plummeting to the ground, and Sasuke’s terrified eyes barely tracked the blurred blade as it slammed into the ground, an inward curve in its edge landing directly above Sasuke’s wrist, arching over his hand as it embedded into the dirt.
Sakura, Naruto, and Tazuna screamed, but all Sasuke could do was stare over his shoulder, which he regretted when his eyes locked onto Zabuza’s.
“There are many ways to not kill a person,” Zabuza called lightly, and Sasuke felt all the color draining from his face. “I can be less considerate than I have been.”
Kakashi made his move the moment Zabuza’s animalistic eyes left him.
He slammed a kunai towards Zabuza, who ducked back out of the way, making Kakashi miss by a fraction of a centimeter. Zabuza slammed his hand into Kakashi’s fist, knocking him off course, but the sensei planted one foot and slammed his other around to roundhouse kick Zabuza in the side.
Zabuza jumped backwards, and Kakashi ducked around him to land between Zabuza and the other four, his hands jumping to make signs. The mud rippled up to smother Zabuza, but before it could, the mud withered as the moisture was pulled from it, transforming into needles of water that speared through the air towards Kakashi, who weaved a few more signs to form what looked like a pair of goggles out of rock that the spray of needles all speared into.
“Aw, was I that obvious?” Zabuza asked, straightening up, and Kakashi pushed the goggles up to rest on his head as the needles lost their shape, splattering water over the rock.
“You’re not the first Mist shinobi to try for it,” he said, brushing the muddy rock off his head, and all Sasuke could do was stare at them.
He knew it was stupid to be sitting here frozen and staring over his shoulder, but he couldn’t help it. At some point during the two’s fight, Naruto had landed on Sasuke’s other side where he now sat, his hand clutching Sasuke’s arm warmer, but he was only staring too. Tazuna was still cowering, tucked in front of Sasuke, and Sakura was trembling under Sasuke’s arm, which was still pinned to her, and Sasuke knew he had to be the one to get them out of here.
The other three were frozen in terror, and they hadn’t made a single move to escape since Zabuza’s sword had nearly cut Sasuke’s hand off, and if they didn’t move, it meant Sasuke had to, and he knew that, but all he could do was fall back into his stupid useless instincts that would do nothing for him now like they’d done nothing for him then.
“Psst. Sasuke.”
Sasuke grit his teeth, ignoring Itachi’s voice. He needed to move. He needed to move now, but if he moved, he’d make Sakura move, because they’d been stabbed together, and his hand twitched enough to make Sakura hiss slightly in pain, and Sasuke stared now at her, panic lacing itself higher along his spine, and they needed to leave before Zabuza’s whim passed and he decided he wanted to kill them like he’d killed his comrades, he’d killed his comrades, and he’d kill Sasuke too, and all Sasuke could do was stare up at him-
“Sasuke,” Itachi said, now standing behind Sasuke, bending at the waist to put his head level with Sasuke’s in his peripheral vision. “You know, your fire style could evaporate the water in the needles and cauterize your wounds in one go. If that’s the thing you’re worried about.”
Sasuke turned his head to stare at him with wide eyes, his mind empty.
Itachi titled his head. “Don’t look at me like that. I don’t want you to die here either.”
Sasuke chanced another glance over his shoulder at Kakashi and Zabuza, who were now locked in a taijutsu match, Kakashi apparently still trying to interrogate Zabuza, and Sasuke knew they had an opening.
He shouldn’t trust Itachi. Sasuke knew this. But his brother’s ghost was his imagination, which meant it was his own idea, really. And he knew he’d be stuck here forever if he didn’t snap his brain out of the horrified fixation on his and Sakura’s joint wound.
Sasuke flicked his gaze back forward and whispered, “get ready to run. Sakura, this’ll hurt for a second. Sorry.”
“Do it,” Sakura said immediately, shaking her head as if snapping herself out of a daze. Sasuke moved his free hand to the one pinned to Sakura, made a few handsigns, and activated the tiny flames of Madara’s star jutsu, the one he’d used to tell his story what felt like ages ago.
The star in his hand did evaporate the water needle, and Sasuke yanked his hand away from Sakura’s side as she fought against a pained hiss.
Sasuke didn’t waste a second before grabbing Tazuna and shoving him forward towards the trees before grabbing Naruto and Sakura and charging for the forest himself, jumping over the sword still embedded in the dirt as he did. Distantly, he wondered if they should have tried to bring the sword with them. But that would have slowed them down, and what they needed to do was-
“Sasuke!” Sakura shrieked, and Sasuke stared over his shoulder in time to see a massive flood of water gushing from where Zabuza had stood and headed directly for them.
Sasuke’s eyes widened. His fire style wouldn’t be strong enough to make a dent in that much water. It had barely been enough to evaporate one needle, the rest of the water sticks still stabbing into each of them, and they’d be swept away the moment this water touched them. Was Zabuza trying to split them up? To pick them off one by one, like some sort of sick game?
Sasuke didn’t know, and he didn’t have time to come up with a solution, and stupidly, desperately, he wished Itachi would show up to tell him what to do again. It was pitifully ironic. Just this morning, he’d been daydreaming about defeating Itachi with water style ninjutsu.
Someone landed in front of them, slamming his hands into the ground and shouting, “earth wall!” and a massive sphere of dirt grew from the ground to encase the group.
Sasuke stared at Kakashi, barely visible in the dim light that filtered through tiny cracks in the sphere where water dribbled through as it crashed over them, and he felt his chest heaving.
“See?” Kakashi said. “I told you- shouting your moves helps.”
His lighthearted tone was negated by how heavily he was breathing, and Sasuke just stared.
“Ka…Kakashi-“ he stammered, his terror radiating off of him, and he saw Kakashi turn his head.
“Uchiha,” he said calmly, and Sasuke felt a fraction of the pressure releasing from his chest. He couldn’t understand the feeling, but it was there.
“You don’t need to worry,” Kakashi said. “I will not allow you to see another comrade’s death.”
Sasuke pressed his lips together and nodded mutely.
Kakahi snapped his gaze back forward and weaved more signs, and suddenly the ground they’d landed on began to move, careening backwards, out from under the rocky jutsu and into the forest as a split second later, Zabuza’s sword pierced the domed wall Kakashi had put around them.
The mobile earth tossed the team into a clearing slightly off the road beside a small pond Zabuza’s earlier flood of water had made, and Kakashi was the only one to land on his feet. He rushed back towards Zabuza, a kunai out, and the two were locked in a swordfight that Kakashi should have lost immediately judging by the sizes of the two blades.
All four others nearly slipped right back into their frozen watching, but Naruto snapped them out of it with a yell.
“What are we doing?!” he shouted, clapping his hands over his face. “We’re just sitting around while Kakasensei fights for us! We’ve gotta do something!”
“Do what?” Tazuna whispered. “We tried to escape, and he almost drowned us!”
“Then we have to fight!” Naruto said, standing, but Sakura yanked him back down.
“Are you crazy?” she whispered. “We should not be fighting! We should be getting Tazuna to safety! Once we do that, Kakashi can leave this fight and come after us!”
“Then we need to run-!” Sasuke said, standing, but Sakura gasped and pointed, all the color drained from her face, and when Sasuke turned, he knew why.
Zabuza and Kakashi’s fight had landed them in the makeshift pond, Zabuza up to his knees in the water and one arm holding what looked like an orb of that water encasing Kakashi inside.
“You really won’t use it, copy ninja ?” Zabuza asked with a dark chuckle, lifting his free hand in a sign, and before their eyes, he split into two Zabuzas, a trail of water leaking from between them. “I think I should be insulted. No one can defeat a swordsman of the Mist who isn’t himself a swordsman.”
Kakashi slammed a kick into the orb of water, but it didn’t give. The Zabuza not keeping his hand on the orb dropped his head back with a bored exhale.
“Well, if you insist on mistreating me, I suppose I’ll reciprocate and leave the clone to hold you,” he said, turning his attention back to the other four, and ice filled Sasuke’s veins. Kakashi was trapped. They needed to stop Zabuza themselves.
Could they even do that? Sasuke didn’t know.
“Don’t worry,” Zabuza said, stretching his neck, his eyes on the trees above their heads. “I won’t be too rough.”
“Who’re you talking to?!” Naruto snapped, but Sasuke shouted, “don’t look around! He’s trying to distract us! We have to rescue Kakashi!”
“No! You have to get out of here!” Kakashi shouted, but his voice was garbled, and Sasuke barely heard over Naruto’s loud, “right!”
Zabuza simply chuckled. “Distract you? But that would be underhanded of me, don’t you think?”
Zabuza moved fast enough that he blurred in Sasuke’s vision, his sword hoisted to swing, and all Sasuke could do was shout, “DODGE!” as he tackled the first person he saw out of the way, who happened to be Naruto. Sakura grabbed Tazuna and did likewise, and Zabuza’s sword slammed down into the dirt.
“I think…” Zabuza said as Sasuke scrambled back upright, dragging Naruto up with him. “That the biggest problem here is you.”
A split second later, the shine of metal was a centimeter in front of Sasuke’s face.
He barely dodged, shoving Naruto facefirst into the dirt as he did, but Zabuza was swinging again in an instant, and his target was obvious.
All Sasuke could do was try to avoid the man’s swings. There wasn’t time to make handsigns, wasn’t time to come up with a strategy, wasn’t even time to process the shouts of his teammates. He just ran and ducked and dove away as Zabuza ducked a kunai thrown by Sakura and an attempted tackle by Naruto, not once straying from Sasuke until finally he swung close enough that it cut off a few strands of Sasuke’s hair.
“Apologies,” he said, pausing to spin the massive sword about its handle to get a better grip and leaning back to allow another thrown kunai by Sakura to sail in front of his chest. “Though, I think that’s reasonable, given the situation.”
“What’s reasonable?!” Sasuke shouted, lifting his hands and making the first jutsu he could think of.
Madara’s stars popped into the air around Zabuza, and he tossed his sword up enough to make a few handsigns and skewer the stars with more water needles before catching the blade again.
The stars didn’t go out, though. Zabuza and Sasuke both paused for a fraction of a second, staring as the stars burned the water into steam.
Sasuke felt the corners of his lips tug up. Madara’s jutsus were always stronger than the Mist Village.
“And why do you think you deserve a cocky smile, huh?” Zabuza said, charging forward again, and Sasuke’s confidence evaporated faster than the needles had.
His hand flew to one of his kunai as he dodged, and even though the weapon was pathetically smaller, Kakashi had used one to parry Zabuza before.
He managed only two blocks before Zabuza sliced another cut on his already cauterized and cut-peppered hand, and in the split second that pain stalled Sasuke, Zabuza landed a kick flat on his chest that threw him backwards towards a tree.
Sasuke’s head slammed into the trunk so hard that spots popped in his vision, and he felt himself wheeze up bile. He barely had time to open his eyes again when he saw Zabuza less than a meter in front of him, sword swinging, and Sasuke’s heart stopped. He couldn’t force a plan of escape into his spinning brain. The hit to his head had been too hard, and his vision still wavered, and distantly he wondered if he’d have survived this if he’d been able to use his sharingan.
He supposed that meant, in a way, his brother ended up killing him here after all.
The sword blurred in his vision and slammed into the tree trunk, embedding several centimeters into the bark, but- Sasuke didn’t feel anything. He gasped and stared as he saw that the inwardly curved edge had landed exactly where his neck was, perfectly missing the lethal blow it easily should have given.
Zabuza had intentionally avoided killing him again.
Sasuke’s brain couldn’t shove a theory why through its cottony fear.
“There. Not even a scratch,” Zabuza exhaled, his voice barely audible. He was too close, his forehead barely a centimeter from Sasuke’s and his eyes heavily-lidded as he stared at his own blade.
Then the man continued. “I owe nothing further to the other who wears that fan.”
Sasuke’s eyes widened as he inhaled sharply, but Zabuza turned over his shoulder with a kunai drawn to counter Naruto, who’d charged forward now with a shout.
“Sasuke!” Sakura shouted as Zabuza leapt back to dodge Naruto, who chased him back into the clearing. Sakura grabbed Tazuna by the wrist and sprinted away from the two fighters and towards Sasuke.
“Are you hurt?!” she gasped when she landed in front of him, grabbing the handle of the giant sword with both hands. “Tazuna, help me get this away from him!”
“R-right!” Tazuna said, grabbing the handle too, and both pulled with grunts of exertion but their efforts did nothing to dislodge the sword from the tree trunk. Sasuke shifted to brace his foot against its handle and shove hard, and his addition gave the last push needed to release the blade just fractionally enough to allow Sasuke to duck below the curved edge.
He didn’t get up from his crouch immediately. His mind was still spinning, and his eyes were wide.
“Sasuke?” Sakura asked as she and Tazuna knelt beside him.
“He knows him,” Sasuke whispered, his chest heaving. “He knows him!”
“Who knows who?” Tazuna asked, but they were interrupted by a scream of pain from Naruto, and all three gasped and stared over.
Zabuza’s kunai was stabbed into the chest of Naruto, but before the sight could even register, the Naruto disappeared into a puff of smoke, and a new one appeared from a tree above, diving down to tackle Zabuza with another shout.
“Naruto, run away!” Kakashi shouted from his prison, his voice finally comprehensible in Sasuke’s ringing ears despite being a barely audible gurgle. “Don’t throw your life away just to rescue me!”
“Shut up, Kakasensei!” Naruto snapped as he jumped back from Zabuza and skidded to a stop, spraying dirt as he did. He straightened up and pointed through a clamped kunai. “Aren’t you the one who said abandoning your comrades makes you worse than scum? Well the next hokage’s not gonna be scum, believe it!”
“No! Run away!” Kakashi shouted, but both Naruto and Zabuza ignored him.
“Hokage, hm?” Zabuza said, spinning his own kunai’s ring around his finger as he arched his arm above him, landing it carefully at his side. “You don’t strike me as the political type.”
“What do we do?” Sakura whispered, her breathing heavy. “Naruto can only distract him with shadow clones for a little while- but he’d probably notice if we tried to sneak off now. He’s only leaving us here because he knows we aren’t moving, just like last time.”
Sasuke could barely drag his focus to what she was saying. Zabuza’s words still clanged around his head like noisy percussion, and they whited out the edges of his thoughts.
I owe nothing further to the other who wears that fan.
There was only one other who wore the same paper fan crest as Sasuke.
Zabuza knew Itachi.
Thoughtlessly Sasuke stood before even forming an idea. He just knew he needed to get to Zabuza again. To stop him, somehow, and ask, but Sakura grabbed his arm warmer and yanked him back down with a high pitched and whispered, “what are you doing?!” which pulled him just out of the way of Zabuza’s kunai, which the man had thrown at Sasuke’s movement.
“Stay put,” the man called coldly, his eyes now turned towards the three crouched beneath the man’s embedded sword, and all three shrank in unison.
“Gotcha!” Naruto yelled, leaping forward, but Zabuza didn’t even look back at him. He leaned back, forming handsigns as he did, and as Naruto soared past him, a spike of water stabbed forward from his chest and speared into Naruto the split second he was midair in front of him.
“NO!” Sasuke screamed, but this Naruto disappeared too, and Zabuza turned to face the newest one that appeared from behind a bush and sprinted over.
“He’s buying us time! We need to do something with it!” Sakura hissed, but Sasuke could feel old panic kicking up inside of him as each Naruto got kicked or stabbed or sliced by the new kunai blade wielded by the man who knew Itachi somehow.
“Don’t look behind you!” Naruto’s whispered voice came from behind the tree the sword was stabbed into, and Sakura and Sasuke both stilled, their eyes glued on the fight with Zabuza and the newest shadow clone.
Naruto continued, “I’ve got maybe ten more clones set to fight; should I keep going around making more? Do we have a better plan?”
“We need Kakashi,” Sakura murmured, her lips barely moving. “Maybe we just need to draw the focus of the Zabuza clone guarding the water prison, distract him enough to give Kakashi a chance to break out.”
“Should we attack a bunch at once?” Naruto asked.
“No. He can take us all at once,” Sasuke whispered, feeling faintly lightheaded.
“Okay, then what do we do?” Naruto whispered. “Old man, you got any ideas?”
“Wh- of course not!” Tazuna whispered, his voice panicked. “That’s why I need you!”
Sasuke glanced at the man, something about his words flicking a switch back on in Sasuke’s brain. He was here to protect this man. That was his duty. If he focused on Itachi now, he’d be too distracted to win this fight, and this man as well as his teammates could die.
He set his jaw and stared at the scene, trying to pull in information.
“Zabuza’s fighting in close combat,” Sasuke said, flinching as a shadow clone got stabbed in the head and disappeared. “We should try a ranged attack to see how he does against it.”
“He threw the kunai at us earlier,” Sakura said as Naruto’s next shadow clone jumped forward and swung a punch, which Zabuza dodged. “And he hasn’t even come back here for his sword yet; he doesn’t see us as threats. Maybe once he does, he’ll need to bring his clone in to fight?”
“He might just make another clone- wait!” Sasuke gasped, staring above his head. “His sword!”
“What about it?” Naruto asked, and Sasuke hurried to explain.
“Sakura’s right,” he said, scanning the blade. “Zabuza’s not afraid of any attack we can pull off. He was just trying to get me out of the way because-“ Sasuke grimaced and pressed on. Focus now. Sort that out later. “Because some personal reason. But he said it himself: the only one who can take down a swordsman is another swordsman! Which means the only opponent he’s really scared of is himself!”
“So we use his own sword against him!” Sakura gasped. “But isn’t that risky? He could block us easily, and then Kakashi’d still be trapped.”
“We need to use the sword against the water clone,” Sasuke said, turning to stare at it. “Maybe we…could…um…”
Another puff of smoke from a destroyed shadow clone. Sasuke shook his head to clear it, but it didn’t help much.
“We don’t have to hit him with it!” Sakura gasped suddenly. “If the clone is still standing there, then this must be one of the prison jutsus that need the caster to keep contact with it- all we need to do is get him to dodge!”
“Oh that’s easier!” Naruto said brightly as Tazuna swiveled his head between them all, his mouth clamped shut.
“Can we disguise the sword as a shuriken or something?” Sasuke asked. “And then throw a huge spray of them at once to throw him off?”
“We have no idea what kind of chakra properties it has,” Sakura said, chewing on her lip. “It might not be able to transform on its own. Plus Zabuza might be able to tell that one shuriken’s a transformation.”
“What if they’re all transformations?” Sasuke asked. “I could throw transformed shadow clones, and the real Naruto can be transformed while holding the sword!”
“Can Naruto do that?” Sakura asked worriedly as Naruto whispered, “let’s do it! Believe it!”
“I’m sorry, but- how are you going to get the sword without him noticing?” Tazuna whispered, and Sasuke heard Naruto stand.
“Just leave that to me! Be ready!” Naruto whispered, and before Sasuke could ask what his plan was, the forest around them filled with nearly a dozen shadow clones. They all shouted and charged Zabuza at the same time, obscuring him from sight- and by extension, obscuring them from his sight.
“Pull!” Sakura gasped, jumping up to grab the handle of the sword, and Tazuna and Sasuke jumped up to join her as the number of shadow clones suddenly doubled, a few running forward to join the fight as others dropped into transformed shuriken on the ground. Sasuke scrambled to grab them once Naruto took the sword and disappeared too as Sakura put up a hasty genjutsu to make it seem like the sword was still in the tree. Sasuke threw his eyes over his shoulder to see Zabuza still ripping through the shadow clones, and hope sparked alive again in Sasuke’s heart.
They actually had a chance.
He let trained instincts take over as he took the shuriken into his hands, his mind tracking which one held Naruto, and he ran out into the clearing. He knew Sakura would protect Tazuna. He just had to be fast enough for Zabuza not to notice the genjutsu on the tree.
He caught sight of Kakashi’s raw terror as the Zabuza clone’s attention turned to Sasuke, and he set his resolve. No one was going to die here. This time, Sasuke was going to prevent it.
Sasuke wound up and threw the shuriken as Zabuza destroyed the last shadow clone and turned. Half the shuriken flew towards the real Zabuza and half towards the fake; both aimed to dodge with expert precision, and the rest was up to Naruto.
Sasuke dropped to his knees with wide eyes as the Zabuza clone dodged the Naruto shuriken, his hand still solidly on the water orb, and every one of the transformed shuriken popped back into themselves at once.
Sasuke heard a sharp inhale from the real Zabuza behind him and felt a gust of air as the man rushed past him and towards Kakashi, and Sasuke felt himself grinning as he saw Naruto materialize directly behind the Zabuza clone and swing.
The blade connected, water sprayed in every direction, and Kakashi’s prison was gone.
Kakashi was in front of Zabuza in an instant, a crackling brightness that almost looked like lightning flickering up his hand, and Sasuke just stared, entranced, as the two men began to battle again.
It was almost like a dance, equal parts mesmerizing and terrifying, and Sasuke couldn’t pull his eyes away from every block, every swing, every spray of water and lightning that pirouetted through the atmosphere in tiny crackling drops.
Naruto had landed in the shallow pond of water and remained there, soaked as he stared too, his mouth slightly open and the massive sword held loosely in his hand. Sasuke heard no movement from Sakura or Tazuna, and he assumed they were in the same state as the rest of the team. Staring at the two elite ninja sparring, completely unable to turn away just like before.
But, then, something changed. Zabuza landed a hit, and the droplets in the air smudged with red, and before Sasuke could figure out if he should do something to help, Kakashi lifted his hand and shoved up his headband.
Kakashi’s back was to Sasuke, at first, but somehow Sasuke could tell the difference. He felt an odd sensation trickling into his head and pooling behind his eyes, somehow both icy cold and fiery hot. Like anger that didn’t even belong to him had suddenly stabbed into his eyes, and it somehow wanted him to do something about it.
Sasuke just stared, blinking several times, not understanding the feeling. All Kakashi had done was adjust his headband. Did he have an ocular jutsu himself? Sasuke knew each chakra nature had one type of ocular jutsu, but he couldn’t remember what the lightning style’s was. Maybe it caused some reaction when exposed that-
Zabuza’s dodge made Kakashi turn, allowing Sasuke to finally see his face, and suddenly his other thoughts evaporated.
Kakashi had a sharingan.
Sasuke just stared, his mouth slightly open. That wasn’t possible. It wasn’t possible because only Uchihas had sharingans. Only Uchihas had the fire style’s ocular jutsu, courtesy of Madara Uchiha’s bravery against Princess Kaguya a hundred and fifty years prior. It was the Uchihas’ legacy. No one else could ever be born with them.
Which meant Kakashi Hatake got his from someone else.
Sasuke’s own rage began to seep into his chest to match the unfamiliar one pulsing behind his eyes. How did Kakashi have a sharingan? Had he stolen one? From who? Had the anbu mistreated the Uchihas’ bodies that horribly that someone could have stolen their eyes without Sasuke even being made aware of it?
Or maybe Kakashi had gotten it from the other surviving Uchiha. The only other sharingan still in existence besides Sasuke’s.
Sasuke’s entire body was practically locked up in rage, his limbs shaking as he watched Kakashi and Zabuza brawl. Every move sent blood from each spraying onto the battlefield, but the tide was clearly turning in Kakashi’s favor. Because of his sharingan.
Sasuke felt his hands clench in the dirt.
The clearing was silent except for the fight, an eerie quiet that felt as unnatural as the fighters did. None of the genin nor Tazuna made a single sound beyond heavy breathing. They all simply watched, staring as electric jutsu flashed and crackled and water jutsu sprayed and splattered.
Zabuza’s blood was mixing with the water splatters more and more as time went on, and it was obvious the man was growing more desperate, his moves less calm and calculated and more wild instead. He swiped his hands over the water in the air and formed it into a needle, but Kakashi did the same in an instant and skewered Zabuza through with his. The Mist ninja hissed in pain as his own needle fell apart, and he made several handsigns that Kakashi copied instantly, which only resulted in a massive spray of water droplets that quickly turned to fog, obscuring the clearing from view.
This was changed almost immediately by a gust of some wind style jutsu that Sasuke would have flinched away from if he wasn’t locked in place, staring hollowly at the fight. The air stung at his eyes, but they were still too hot and too icy to care, and all he could do was keep staring.
Zabuza didn’t seem to mind that Kakashi dispelled his jutsu immediately; in fact, he seemed to have been ready for it. He’d used the two seconds before Kakashi had used his jutsu to jump towards the man and form a new massive blade made of boiling water that looked nearly like flames, blue curling and pulsing and scalding dark burns into Zabuza’s arms as the man flew through the air, wound up to slice Kakashi’s neck.
“Kakashi!!” Sakura screamed from behind Sasuke, and he distantly noted a kunai thrown above his head from her direction, maybe aimed to collide with the hand holding the watery sword, but Kakashi acted before her knife had even neared its target.
“Kamui!” Kakashi barked, his face contorting in pain as blood leaked from the sharingan he had no right to have, and the air rippled in front of him, swirling unnaturally.
Zabuza’s eyes blew wide as the first licks of flame from his sword touched the rippled air and began to bend to it as if being pulled inside somehow, and very quickly, Zabuza’s hand began to be pulled in along with it.
The Mist shinobi reacted fast. He grabbed Sakura’s thrown kunai out of the air, a second at most before it would have slammed into his elbow, and swiped it hard over his own hand, cutting it clean off at the wrist, and Sasuke heard Sakura, Naruto, and Tazuna all shout in surprise.
Zabuza’s cut off hand disappeared along with his sword, and the man landed on his feet as Kakashi turned, his gaze lethally flashing as he formed handsigns again, but before he could finish them, a new set of needles, solid this time, sliced through the air from the trees behind Kakashi’s head, and for a split second Sasuke thought Zabuza had won, but then the needles missed his sensei’s skull and instead collided with Zabuza.
Sasuke stared as Zabuza tripped backwards and crashed to the ground, motionless, and he heard Naruto hesitantly shout, “did we get him?” but Kakashi spun in place, staring at the trees.
“Show yourself!” he shouted, and a small figure dropped from the canopy, in a horribly familiar looking mask. An anbu uniform, from a different village, but similar enough to send that ice even deeper into Sasuke’s spine, and distantly he wondered if he’d ever be able to move again or if he’d be spending the rest of his life frozen here, seated on his knees and staring forward.
“I apologize for my tardiness,” the anbu said in a gentle voice that didn’t suit any anbu. “But I appreciate your assistance. It’s uncommon for this shinobi to be in flashy fights for that long. Your efforts made him much easier to find.”
“Who the heck are you?!” Naruto shouted, and the anbu turned.
“The names of the servants of the Mist are irrelevant,” the anbu said serenely. “Please allow me to dispose of this man’s body appropriately.”
“Dispose?” Naruto shouted indignantly.
“He is a rogue ninja,” the anbu said. “A traitor to the Mist Village, and his body is our proprietary material. I will return it promptly.”
Kakashi took a step forward, clearly prepared to argue, but his leg gave out from under him when he did, and he crashed to the ground, his hand jumping to his stolen eye.
The anbu turned his faceless gaze to Kakashi. “Do not overexert yourself. I know ocular jutsus take quite a bit out of people.”
The anbu strode forward towards Zabuza’s body and threw it over his shoulder, as if effortlessly, and Sasuke just stared. Zabuza had been monstrous, an impossible wall they had almost no chance at overcoming, and this Mist anbu had killed him with a handful of needles that he’d been skilled enough to slip around Kakashi’s head to aim. The anbu were horrifying.
“You’re taking him- nowhere,” Kakashi said, his breathing heavy. “We still need- answers.”
The anbu turned back to him. “From a dead man?”
Kakashi’s ordinary eye narrowed, and the anbu adjusted his grip on Zabuza, holding out his hand towards Naruto.
“The sword as well,” he said. “It’s intellectual property.”
“Uh, this sword-? HEY!” Naruto yelped as the anbu appeared in front of him, almost moving too fast to be seen.
He took the sword from Naruto and turned back to the others as Kakashi hissed, “you hold on -“
“I really do appreciate your help, Leaf shinobi, but this is now business of the Hidden Mist,” the anbu interrupted. “If you try to prevent my work, I’m afraid I’ll have to consider it an act of war.”
“Huh?!” Naruto shouted as Sakura gasped, but no one else made any sound, and the anbu nodded.
“Very much appreciated,” he said, and then he was gone, jumping away through the trees.
All Sasuke could do was stare. It was too much to take in, too many things to process all at once. Kakashi had a sharingan. Zabuza had known Itachi. Itachi’s ghost had helped him defeat the needles. Sasuke’s head spun, and he couldn’t figure out where to land it.
Kakashi rather suddenly collapsed forward, his face smashing against the muddy ground, and Sasuke heard Sakura and Naruto shout their sensei’s name.
Sakura ran forward, dragging Tazuna by the wrist and pausing only to pull Sasuke upright too. Sasuke allowed her to without arguing, mostly because he was still too shellshocked to comprehend what was going on around him.
“Sensei!” she gasped, dragging the two in tow before reaching Kakashi and dropping to her knees beside him, checking for a pulse. “He’s still alive!”
“What do we do? Take him back to the Leaf Village?” Naruto asked, finally making his way back over. He barely even looked wet anymore; the water jutsu pond had evaporated when Zabuza had gone down, as had any water needles still remaining embedded in their targets.
“That’s almost a day away by now,” Sakura said. “He might need- Kakashi Sensei!”
Sakura gasped as the man shoved himself back upright, dropping heavily onto his knees and taking several breaths before managing, “did that fight- seem all that flashy to you?”
“What’s that matter?” Sasuke hissed, anger boiling into steam in his skull. “If you’re conscious, we can keep moving-“
“Sasuke, hold on!” Sakura insisted, standing. “We still don’t know what those Mist ninja were after! They could have more allies waiting to attack whichever of us is their target!”
“Well that guy was only fighting Kakashi and Sasuke, so it’s gotta be one of them!” Naruto said. “But that first Mist lady said it wasn’t Sasuke…but if Zabuza…y’know, then maybe they weren’t really working together.”
Naruto’s face was clouded as he stared down at the ground, and Sasuke rather stiffly said, “a monster can kill its ally. If they were after me, I’d be dead a dozen times over by now. Which means they’re after you.”
Sasuke shoved Kakashi’s side with his foot, and the man winced at it, earning a reproachful, “Sasuke!” from Sakura, but Sasuke didn’t care.
“You two knew each other already,” Sasuke said. “Why’s he after you?”
“He isn’t.”
Everyone’s gaze moved to Tazuna, who’d spoken up in a rather shaky voice. He dodged those gazes, staring at the ground, and said, “he’s after me.”
“After you?” Sakura echoed. “Why?”
“They were probably hired to kill me to keep the bridge from being built,” Tazuna said, and Naruto practically startled.
“Huh?! Who’d do something like that?!”
“It’s those anti-tailed beast fanatics,” Tazuna said, his face scrunched. “Their supporters think this bridge is going to connect the Sand and the Leaf, and they’re certain the two Villages will use the bridge to accelerate tailed beast research or breeding or whatever idiotic idea they’ve got in their heads of what the western Villages are doing, and they’ll do anything to stop this bridge from being built. But our town can’t survive if we aren’t able to get trade jumpstarted; our home will wither and die without this bridge, but we can’t defend it on our own! And that’s…that’s why I came to you.”
Tazuna’s expression grew sheepish then, staring away with flushed cheeks. “Everyone knows the Sand has a few screws loose, but we thought…I dunno, maybe if it really will help the Leaf’s economy too, then someone from your Village would be willing to help us.”
“That’s- a perfectly nice story- ‘til a swordsman of the Mist is the one trying to kill you,” Kakashi said, his voice slurred and hazy, and Sasuke dragged his eyes from Tazuna to the man. His stolen eye was still leaking blood. The edges of Sasuke’s vision whitened just slightly.
Kakashi continued, clearly struggling to do so, “this mission- should have been- a much higher rank than C. You deceived us.”
A pathetically hypocritical statement from the man who’d hidden his own crime from Sasuke for weeks.
Tazuna crossed his arms, his flush darkening. “If we could afford higher ranks, we wouldn’t be as desperate for this bridge to be built. I did what I had to do to keep my home safe!”
“That does-n’t matter!” Kakashi interrupted, shaking his head, his words blurring more and more. “They’ve already…they’re just…they’re kids. The swordsmen- of the Mist- were Mist Village experiments. They’re strong. ‘M not letting my team die for you.”
“And what makes you think we’re going to lose?” Sasuke snapped suddenly. His rage was hot enough in his chest that it was almost calming him. Everyone’s eyes turned to him, but he didn’t care. He wouldn’t let a corpse robber treat him as too childish to handle a mission.
Sasuke turned back to Tazuna, his dark eyes hard, and he stood. “150 years ago, Madara and Koibito Uchiha embarrassed the shinobi of the Mist Village in every battle they ever had. As the last true memory of them still standing, I’ll carry on their legacy, and I’ll protect you and your bridge with everything I have!”
Naruto jumped up immediately, practically crashing into Sasuke as he added, “and the first two Leaf hokages joined Madara and Koibito in kicking Mist Village butt, which means as the next hokage, I’ll be joining the next Madara too!”
Sakura stood next, taking her place beside Sasuke. “Tazuna, you don’t need to worry. We can and will protect you! It’s not fitting of proper shinobi to give up, and we don’t intend to! Isn’t that right, Kakashi Sensei?”
The three genin looked over their shoulders, and only Naruto was smiling. Sakura’s brow was furrowed, clearly working something out in her mind.
Sasuke’s gaze was livid and locked on the eye that had no right being here.
“We should-“ Kakashi started, trying to stand, but his leg gave out, and he crashed back to the ground. Sasuke tsked, and Sakura moved to Kakashi.
“We’re closer to the Land of Waves than to the Leaf Village anyway,” she said as Naruto hopped down to join Sakura in throwing one of Kakashi’s arms around his shoulders. “You need medical treatment, sensei, and it makes more sense to go forward than back. Right Sasuke?”
Sasuke gave a curt nod, and he could see Tazuna swaying slightly behind him in his peripheral vision.
“Thank you,” the man whispered, his previous tough act now evaporated and replaced with relief. “I- thank you.”
“Of course, bridge guy!” Naruto said as he and Sakura heaved Kakashi upright. The man looked worse than ever, the adrenaline clearly draining out of him faster by the second, and Sasuke didn’t feel a shred of sympathy for him. Instead he just watched as Kakashi’s head lolled against his chest, and the man gave a clearly dazed and mumbled, “you’re s’posed to listen to your sensei, y’know. He’s gonna fail you f’r this. You’re gonna go back to the academy.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Sakura huffed, adjusting his weight over her shoulders, and Naruto pointed towards Tazuna.
“Lead the way, old man!” he said brightly, and Kakashi mumbled, “‘s not nice to say, Obito,” and was promptly ignored by everyone when Sasuke turned pointedly away and rather coldly said, “let’s get moving. That anbu said he found us because our fight was flashy. We shouldn’t stick around here.”
“Future Madara is correct!” Naruto said with a mock salute that nearly punched Kakashi in the face, and Sasuke smothered a pleased feeling at the nickname. He shouldn’t be feeling pleased. He should be feeling angry.
“Of course,” Tazuna said quickly. “Follow me.”
Notes:
It took me until writing this end note to remember that Zabuza wears cow print armwarmers
I'm sitting here staring vacantly around my house trying to figure out what I should yap about now in these end notes, somebody give me ideas. I keep going back to momoshiki for some reason. I think it's just a fun name to say. Anyway what's everybody's favorite Naruto opening?? I'm a fan of the pain arc one
Ty for reading and I hope you have a lovely day! <3
Chapter 28: The Hidden Mist Experiments
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Kakashi lasted only about five minutes down the road before losing consciousness, and his increased dead weight sent both Naruto and Sakura faceplanting into the dirt, unable to carry him themselves without completely dragging him along the dirt road.
Sasuke pulled Sakura up as Naruto squawked and tried to scrabble himself upright. Sakura blinked in surprise at Sasuke when the boy didn’t let go of her arm, just kept it clenched in his hand. Though she supposed she shouldn’t be surprised; a Mist anbu was still an anbu. Sasuke was probably still freaked out from it.
But she knew they couldn’t afford to be off their top games. There could be any number of Mist shinobi working with Zabuza and the others.
The others who Zabuza had killed, despite being comrades. Killed with the same needles he could have stabbed through Team 7’s foreheads too, if he didn’t consider them beneath him.
Sakura felt her hands trembling. They could have died, if Zabuza had wanted.
But they hadn’t died, and Sakura needed to focus on their next steps. Her two teammates clearly would be pressing onwards, and if she wanted to live up to her stated goal of protecting them, she needed to start acting like it.
“Here, I’ll carry your captain,” Tazuna said, shifting to heave and drape Kakashi over his shoulders.
“Isn’t that dangerous?” Sakura asked, scanning the trees around them. “I mean, if there are other Mist ninja after us, it’d be obvious that one of us is injured, and it might lure them in to attack us sooner.”
“Then we should hide him,” Sasuke said, his voice still cold, but then he turned to Sakura, and she could see something thaw fractionally in his gaze. “Sakura, use genjutsu to make it look like Tazuna’s just carrying bags or something.”
He’d said it with so much certainty, like there wasn’t a doubt in his mind that Sakura could do it.
She nodded, determination sketched across her face as she turned to Tazuna and Kakashi and lifted her hands to send a simple visual genjutsu.
“This won’t make it feel any lighter,” she said. “Sorry, Tazuna.”
“I don’t mind,” Tazuna said, his face only slightly scrunched from the exertion.
“That just means we have to get there faster!” Naruto said cheerfully.
“Wait,” Sasuke said, holding out a hand. “If these Mist ninja know Tazuna hired a team, they might still attack if they see us without our sensei.”
“How would they know Tazuna’s not our sensei?” Naruto asked, and Sakura turned to him.
“They’ll know Tazuna if he’s their target,” she said. “And every Leaf Village team has four members. The first hokage mandated it.”
“Oh! I have a genius solution!” Naruto said, putting up a handsign, and a second Naruto appeared beside him in a puff of smoke.
Naruto turned to the clone, his hands on his hips. “Okay me, show me your- or show me my best Kakashi impression!”
“You got it, me!” the clone said with a salute before making a handsign and transforming into a doppelgänger of Kakashi, striking a dramatic pose and stating, “I’m Kakashi, and I like reading rom coms and stabbing birds!” before blowing a kiss through his mask towards nothing in particular.
Sasuke and Sakura spoke in unison.
“Would you take this seriously?” Sasuke snapped as Sakura said, “have you met our sensei?”
“I think I look pretty good!” Naruto insisted as Sakura turned to Sasuke.
“It’s better than nothing,” she said as Sasuke simply glowered at the fake Kakashi, and Sakura was surprised to find that she missed when his response to Kakashi was just a grumpy little pout. His face now was far too cold. It sent an uncomfortable squirm through her gut.
But then Sasuke said, “I’d rather it just be your genjutsu again,” and Sakura couldn’t help a small smile at his repeated belief in her abilities.
“Aw, we gotta let Naruto do something ,” she said, her voice teasing despite its slight tremble, and she wished Sasuke’s face would lighten.
But it never did, even as they kept walking and the sun dropped lower in the sky. Naruto spent almost the entire trip talking to his transformed clone about how they would all be kicking the butts of whatever anti-tailed beast ‘big dumb stupid idiots’ -his words- would be attacking Tazuna’s bridge, and the distraction was honestly helpful. None of the others seemed very inclined to talking, and something about Naruto’s blind optimism made their task seem fractionally less daunting.
“We should stop for the night,” Sakura said when they reached the next town, her eyes tracing the lingering rays of sunlight. “It’s still a little ways to go, and I don’t think we should risk anyone ambushing us in the dark.”
“Fine,” Naruto sighed dramatically, and Sasuke gave a mute nod without arguing. Sakura watched him carefully, worrying at her lip slightly as she did. He had an odd mingled expression of radiating cold fury while also appearing distant and lost.
“Let’s find an inn or something. There’s gotta be something here we can afford,” Sakura said, glancing around at the dingy and battered shops. This place looked much worse for wear than the Leaf Village, or any town they’d passed before getting ambushed on the road earlier. Every place they passed had looked worse than the previous, actually. Maybe proximity to the Leaf really would help these smaller towns.
Which just made this bridge more important. Sakura gave a determined nod.
“Erm…maybe I could cover…” Tazuna tried awkwardly, but Sasuke interrupted.
“I’ll be paying. We’ll pick the first one we find,” he said, his expression still hard, and the transformed Naruto clone pointed.
“That sign has a bed on it!” he said brightly, still so peculiar to hear in Kakashi’s voice, and the group headed forward.
Sakura could feel people’s eyes lingering on them, but she wasn’t surprised. All of them, except the transformed Naruto, were littered with minor puncture injuries from Zabuza’s needle attack and dirt from getting shoved into the ground, and their headbands gave them away as shinobi immediately.
But Sakura didn’t feel any traces of genjutsu on them. Just wariness. She tried to keep her face in a blank smile, hoping to look friendly, but not scarily so. How did Kabuto always do it so well?
The inn with the bed on its sign was dingy and poorly lit, but the woman at the front desk had a kind expression, and the place was tidy. Sakura decided to take the lead here too rather than leaving it up to the still cold Sasuke, the clearly terrified Tazuna, or the generally incompetent pair of Narutos.
“Could we have a room for the night?” she asked, scanning the sign behind the woman. “Or, two, probably, that are connected?”
With Kakashi still unconscious recovering, a little extra space would probably be for the best, especially since the sign behind the woman listed only small rooms remaining vacant.
“Sure,” the woman said, her eyes lingering warily on Sakura’s headband, and she sent her Kabuto-est smile in an attempt to put the woman at ease.
Once Sasuke had paid, the woman handed Sakura two keys and directed the group to the second floor, but they’d only taken a handful of steps towards the staircase when Sasuke spoke up.
“I’ll be outside,” he said, turning towards an exit door, and Sakura frowned.
“I think we should stay together,” she said, but Sasuke didn’t look back over his shoulder.
“I want to check the perimeter,” he said, and Sakura exhaled. She supposed that was reasonable. It would stupid to fall into a trap just because they didn’t look around first.
“Don’t go too far, okay?” she said, but all she got in reply was a mumbled, “mmph.”
Her thoughts were clouded when she led the others down the hallway. Her whole body still ached from the needle attack, her side throbbing worst of all where the largest one she’d been hit by had stabbed through both her and Sasuke.
She shivered against the thought and tried to blot it out of her mind. They had an important job here, to keep Tazuna safe until at least Kakashi woke up.
She worried at her lip, glancing at her own genjutsu as Naruto’s conversation with himself remained faded in the background. Why had Kakashi passed out from a single jutsu? Were sharingan really that strong? It wasn’t surprising Orochimaru wanted to study one.
But she knew the one he wanted to study was Sasuke’s, not Kakashi’s. Her eyes lingered a fraction longer on the hidden Kakashi before turning back forward, setting her focus back on her task.
The two rooms they’d gotten were almost identical, both with one ratty bed apiece and a door to allow access between them.
“I call that bed!” Naruto cheered, releasing his shadow clone and running towards one, and Sakura tsked at him as she closed the first room’s door before anyone could see the clone’s smoke.
“Kakashi and Tazuna will get the beds,” she said, lifting her hands to release the genjutsu disguising Kakashi.
“And where are we supposed to sleep?” Naruto demanded, turning on his heel and shoving his hands on his hips.
“We’ve got blankets. We’ll sleep on the floor,” she said. “Once we’re ready, one of us should keep watch over both rooms, and the other two should split one per room.”
Tazuna set Kakashi down on one bed and rather sheepishly said, “I don’t mind sleeping on the floor instead-“
Sakura cut him off. “We’re here to help you get your bridge built, and that includes making sure you’re rested enough to work once we get there. We’ll ask Sasuke who wants to take the first watch-“
“I want to! Believe it!” Naruto cheered, sticking his hand in the air.
“Fine. I’ll stay here with Kakashi, and Sasuke can stay with Tazuna-“
“Question!” Naruto interrupted, his hand still in the air. “When is dinner?”
“Soon, probably,” Sakura said, glancing around at the room. “We should get something and bring it back here- I’ll go fetch Sasuke, and we’ll get it together.”
“Yes, ma’am!” Naruto saluted, and Sakura couldn’t help but smile at how quickly he’d begun treating her as a leader.
She puffed her chest up importantly and said, “don’t open the door for anybody. I’ll be right back.”
“Yes, ma’am, again!” Naruto said, but Tazuna asked, “how will we know it’s you when you come back and not some genjutsu?”
“Oh, right,” Sakura said, thinking hard. “Um…oh! Here.”
Sakura tugged a red ribbon from her bag and handed it to Naruto. “When I come back, ask me what color ribbon I gave you. If I’m right, you’ll know it’s me.”
“Gotcha, believe it!” Naruto said, and Sakura nodded, glancing over at Kakashi. The man looked pretty worse for wear, mud splattered up and down his uniform and blood still dried on his cheek from his eye. Sakura worried at her lip, but she didn’t know what could be done for him now. It had been his own power that had knocked him unconscious; maybe he just needed rest.
Or maybe Sasuke knew what to do, if it really was caused by his sharingan. This was the sort of problem that could be avoided if she just hurried up and got the sharingan to Kabuto for research.
“Okay. See you all soon,” she said, and then headed out the door.
~~~
Sasuke’s thoughts were too buzzy to actually properly check the inn’s perimeter, and he ended up frustrated by the back porch, resting his elbows against the railing and glaring outward.
Sasuke could feel Itachi beside him, but he didn’t look over. He just stared out at the field, the tall grass rippling from the wind as if it were the waves the land was named after.
He frowned as his mind tried to comprehend what had happened today. Kakashi had a sharingan and had been hiding it from Sasuke since the first day they met. He felt betrayed, like a toothed knife had cut across his chest, ripping apart the tiny semblance of trust Sasuke’d begun to have of the man as he protected them against Zabuza.
“Something on your mind, Sasuke?” Itachi asked casually, and Sasuke scowled.
“What makes you say that?” he grit out, glaring at Itachi out of the corners of his eyes, and he saw Itachi turn his head to him with a smile.
“Because you look faintly constipated,” he said, and Sasuke huffed and glared back forwards. Itachi exhaled and continued, “are you still upset that Kakashi has a sharingan? I already told you he did, you know. Iruka did too.”
“No, you said he wasn’t an Uchiha,” Sasuke replied, his teeth gritting.
“He isn’t an Uchiha.”
“You didn’t tell me he stole one of our eyes!” Sasuke snapped, glaring over, and Itachi raised an unimpressed eyebrow.
“How else would he have gotten one if not from an Uchiha?” he asked, and Sasuke looked back out, his lip wobbling slightly.
“I dunno,” he mumbled, staring down at the railing now. “Guess I just- thought you were wrong, or something.”
“Then quit thinking that,” Itachi said airily, his voice teasing, and Sasuke scrunched his shoulders. A stupid, childish part of him wanted to ask why Itachi had helped him dispel Zabuza’s water needles, but he knew it’d be no use. He’d probably just say it was because he wanted Sasuke to get the Mangekyo, and the whole conversation would just rile Sasuke up again, and besides, the suggestion had really come from his subconscious anyway, which didn’t seem to know any way to express itself to Sasuke other than through his brother’s ghost.
Sasuke just kept glaring out, his hand drifting towards his collar, tugging the fabric to prevent it from brushing too hard against his skin. He could still feel the lingering ghost of a curved blade just barely not cutting him.
I owe nothing further to the other who wears that fan.
Sasuke’s chest felt empty, a hollow cavern that somehow still clenched hard enough to hurt, and he wondered if he should ask about this one. Maybe his subconscious knew more than he remembered.
“Do you know that man?” Sasuke mumbled, his nose scrunched as he glared out.
“What’s that, Sasuke?” Itachi asked pleasantly, and Sasuke scowled.
“Do you know Zabuza?” he asked, his lips barely moving as he did.
“Can you please speak up, Sasuke?”
“I mean Zabuza!” Sasuke snapped, turning to glare at Itachi with a snarl, but the voice that answered wasn’t his brother’s.
“What about Zabuza?” Sakura asked from behind him, and Sasuke gasped and snapped his gaze back forward.
“Sorry. I- just- talking to myself,” he mumbled, panic kicking up in his system as he quickly tried to force the topic elsewhere. “Did you get everything settled?”
Sakura arrived beside him, and he could see her nodding. “Kakashi’s still unconscious, but Naruto and Tazuna are watching him. You sure you’re okay-?”
“You should probably be there too,” Sasuke interrupted. “I don’t know if we should really trust Naruto with something like that alone.”
“Yeah, none of us should be alone right now.”
Sasuke blinked and turned to her, and her expression was serious in a soft and gentle sort of way.
Sasuke reluctantly turned away from her. “I just need a minute.”
“Okay. I’ll wait for you,” Sakura said with a nod, but instead of leaving, the girl simply turned around, leaning back against the railing as she propped her elbows on it, and Sasuke frowned. But maybe it was for the best. He really shouldn’t be talking to Itachi, especially not when other people were around.
Instead, Sasuke took a breath and rather recklessly said, “I think Zabuza knew my brother.”
Sakura practically startled. “What?!”
Sasuke winced at her reaction, and she quickly backpedaled. “I mean- why do you think that?”
“Just- something he said,” Sasuke mumbled, glaring now to the side. “It sounded like he owed him, for something.”
“Oh,” Sakura said, turning around to now face out the same direction as Sasuke, her elbows leaning heavily against the railing. “Maybe…maybe the Akatsuki did something for those Mist shinobi. Ino says the Akatsuki are against tailed beasts; maybe they’re the ones who hired Zabuza to stop the bridge.”
“Yeah. I guess,” Sasuke mumbled, aware of Sakura’s eyes lingering on him, and he squirmed slightly. He probably shouldn’t have brought that up at all. If Zabuza was keeping Sasuke alive as a favor, it was just to make sure he got a Mangekyo. That was the only reason Itachi had left him alive the last time.
“Whatever. It doesn’t matter now,” he said, straightening up and forcing the thought to the back of his mind as he headed back to the front of the inn. “Zabuza’s dead. I can’t ask him anything. Let’s go back to the room.”
“Actually I told the others we’ll get dinner,” Sakura said, falling into step beside him. “We should find someplace in town.”
“I can do that. You should help Naruto-“
“I’m not letting you walk around alone with Mist shinobi hunting us down,” Sakura interrupted with a pointed stare that Sasuke quickly looked away from. “We’ll get food together and then hide out for the night.”
“Okay,” Sasuke said quietly, his hands still twitching. Itachi still lingered in his peripheral vision. “It’s something we have to do for the mission, right?”
“Er- yeah, obviously,” Sakura said with an awkward and strained sort of laugh, and Sasuke fidgeted. She was walking oddly, favoring one side over the other. The side that had been skewered through and cauterized.
“I- didn’t hurt you too bad, did I?” he mumbled, his shoulders scrunched up to his ears.
“Huh?” Sakura asked, tilting her head.
“I just- I wanted to get the needles out, and I- I didn’t know how else to do it,” he said, blinking rapidly. It had been such a stupid decision in hindsight, but he’d panicked in the moment and burned them both in the process. At least Sakura was alive. His curse hadn’t turned against him. That was the one rope he was desperately clinging to to keep his focus on the mission they were trying to perform.
“Oh!” Sakura said, patting at her side. “No, that- was smart of you. The part that got stabbed hurts worse than the burn anyway, heh.”
“That’s still bad!” Sasuke said, turning to her with wide eyes, and she sent him a smile that he turned away from.
“Sasuke, I’m fine. Really. Even though I don’t get why, that Zabuza guy was clearly trying not to seriously hurt us,” she said. “Any of us, except Kakashi and Tazuna. I mean- does your burn hurt?”
“Huh?” Sasuke asked, glancing over, and Sakura pointed.
“You burned your hand, too,” she said, and Sasuke lifted it, blinking. It looked unpleasant, but it somehow didn’t feel very painful. Maybe he was more resistant to burn damage since he was a fire style user. He wondered if Sakura was too.
He lowered his hand. “I’m fine. We should get back to the others.”
Sakura simply nodded again, and the pair pressed onward into the town, walking perhaps a bit closer to each other than Sasuke usually allowed. It felt safer, somehow. Because they needed to watch each other’s backs as teammates.
Obviously.
~~~
Sakura kept an eye on Sasuke as they went back into the town, but all he did was glare at the ground, looking faintly hurt and lost and embarrassed.
She fidgeted slightly, wondering what to do. Was he upset that she’d asked about his injury or still embarrassed that she’d heard him talking to himself? It wasn’t particularly uncommon to walk in on Sasuke doing just that; it seemed to be how he passed the time whenever he was alone waiting for someone, and Sakura hadn’t initially thought much of it. He never talked to anyone else, which meant if he needed to work through something out loud, he’d have to turn to himself to do it.
She’d just never put two and two together on how painfully sad such a habit was until it now suddenly clicked for some reason, standing on that porch and staring out at the field of moonlit grass.
Sasuke had spent so long completely alone that he’d had to resort to himself for company. That must have been such a horribly lonely existence, and it made Sakura’s chest ache that even now, he still held onto the habit despite having a team around him. He must still be feeling lonely, that meant. Some part of Sakura knew she had to do something to change this, even if she had no idea what.
For now, she stuck with staying close to his side, her hand holding his arm warmer.
I’m here, Sasuke , she thought, keeping her hold solid. If you need to talk, you can talk to me.
But he didn’t say anything else at all, just stared forward with his cold, lost eyes.
Sakura opted to just go to the first place they saw that sold food, which served mostly onigiri, and Naruto wasted no time in complaining about this when they returned back to the two inn rooms.
“We have ramen every day,” Sakura argued, keeping her eye on Sasuke as the boy handed one onigiri to Tazuna, who gave a barely audible thanks as Sasuke rather forcefully smushed the extra onigiri Sakura’d insisted they buy for Kakashi on the man’s bedside table, his expression icy. “We just picked the first spot we-“
There was a knock on the door, and everyone froze, Sakura shutting her mouth immediately.
“It might be the innkeeper,” she whispered, suddenly wary as she turned to the door, but Sasuke was the one to step forward.
“I’ll try to send her away,” he said, and Naruto half whisper-shouted, “don’t be suspicious!”
“Be quieter!” Sasuke hissed, striding to the door, and Sakura grabbed Naruto’s wrist and pulled him forwards, whispering, “stand here to keep Tazuna and Kakashi out of view.”
Naruto saluted as Tazuna tugged the ratty blanket higher over Kakashi to cover his head and ducked to stand behind the door, his eyes wide.
Sasuke opened the door, and Sakura craned her neck to see who was in the hallway.
It was a young man, barely older than the three genin, wearing a cheap yukata, its red faded enough to almost look pink. The man was fidgeting with a small box, shifting to tuck his long hair repeatedly behind his ear.
“I’m sorry to bother you,” he said, his voice quiet. “But I saw you come in, and you looked quite battered. I thought I would offer some medical treatment.”
He held the small box forward and sent them a shy smile. “I know quite a bit of first aid, and I know there aren’t many ninja in this area, and even fewer who’d know medical ninjutsu.”
“We’re not interested,” Sasuke said as Sakura’s side throbbed from Zabuza’s needles, and she was painfully aware of how many bloodied cuts the three visible genin must be sporting.
“Oh,” the man said, staring down at the box, his brows furrowed together, his eyes slightly wide. “Maybe instead I could…”
“No,” Sasuke interrupted. “We’d like to be left alone.”
“Believe it!” Naruto piped in with an almost quiet voice, but the man’s face just grew more worried, and an idea entered Sakura’s mind.
She stepped forward, her own eyes wide, and whispered, “is somebody threatening you? Do you need us to fight someone for you?”
“Huh?” Naruto asked as the man gasped and said, “no!” before staring down at the first aid box, fidgeting again.
“I just mean…” he said quietly, “I was hoping maybe…”
“Hoping what?” Naruto said loudly. “Spit it out lady!”
Sakura and Sasuke both tsked at him, but before Sakura could tell him that not only was this guy obviously not a lady, but that he was clearly scared about something that he didn’t seem willing to outwardly say, the boy spoke up.
“All I have to offer is medical treatment,” he said, puffing his cheeks slightly as he drew his chest up and presented the box towards them again. “Please accept it in exchange for not destroying this town!”
The three genin shifted, and Sasuke glanced back at Sakura, who stepped forward to take more of the lead. “What are you talking about? We won’t destroy your town.”
The boy blinked at her with his large eyes. “But you’re shinobi. Shinobi always fight, and it always causes collateral damage. I know it’s impossible to avoid fighting, but- I hope you’ll try to guide it outside the town, at least. Please. In exchange for this.”
The boy shook the first aid kit slightly, his eyes slightly desperate, and Sakura worried at her lip. She knew it was for the best to not draw attention to themselves from anyone, but if they turned this boy away and he went into town spreading rumors that they would destroy this place, that would be much worse.
“Of course we accept,” Sakura said warmly, and she saw Sasuke turn to gape at her, but she pressed on. “We’re only here to rest, and we won’t let any fights destroy this place.”
“Thank you!” the boy said, beaming in his oddly quiet way as he stepped in, hugging the medical kit.
“Of course!” Naruto said, sending a massive thumbs up, apparently taking the new situation in stride. “We protect everybody, believe it lady!”
“I’m a boy, but I appreciate the reassurance,” the boy said kindly, and Naruto gasped as if completely floored by the information, staring between the boy and Sakura for long enough to make Sakura smack his arm with a, “cut it out!”
She quickly shoved Naruto out of the way, and he tripped with a squawk before crashing onto the floor. Sakura ignored him and instead quickly gestured towards Tazuna, improvising on the spot. “This is our sensei. Kakashi.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” the boy said with a courteous nod.
“I’m Naruto!” Naruto shouted, pushing himself to his feet in the most undignified manner possible, shoving his butt in the direction of the rest of them as he did.
“And what’s your name?” Sasuke asked coldly, and the boy sent his quiet smile to him now.
“My name is Haku,” he said, but as he turned, Sakura caught sight of a faded pattern on the back of his yukata and gasped.
“Bird!” she said out loud, rather stupidly, and Haku turned, surprised.
“Hm?” he asked, and before Sakura could improvise a solution, Naruto thwarted her.
“You’ve got a bird on your kimono!” he said with a point. “We’ve got a bird nemesis! Do you know of it?”
“Naruto!” Sasuke hissed, but Haku tilted his head.
“A bird nemesis? What kind?” he asked, sitting on the floor and opening his medical kit. Naruto plopped down across from him.
“Yeah, there’s a bird made out of paper that’s following Sasuke around,” he explained, and Haku tilted his head.
“Sasuke?” he echoed, and Sasuke tsked, still standing behind the boy.
“What about it?” he snapped, and Haku gave another gentle smile.
“You never introduced yourself is all. You either,” Haku said, looking up at Sakura.
“Oh! Right! I’m Sakura Ha- uh. Sakura Huh.” It probably wouldn’t be smart to give out actual identifying names. They still didn’t know Haku.
“It’s nice to meet you all. Who would like medical treatment first?”
Sakura’s side throbbed as Naruto gave a bright thumbs up and said, “I’m good actually, believe it!”
“I’m not interested,” Sasuke said shortly, and Tazuna gave a halfhearted squeaky noise that made perfectly clear his intended lack of participation in any future conversation or medical treatment. Sakura sat beside Naruto and quickly added, “I can go first.”
Haku sent a soft smile as Sakura pulled the hem of her shirt to her stomach to display the point where she’d been skewered.
She shivered at the memory and tried to force it out of her mind.
“I’m not sure I’ve heard of a bird made of paper,” Haku said, his voice light as he began working to bandage Sakura’s entry and exit wounds, burned from the scalding water and Sasuke’s cauterization. She grimaced slightly. “Do you know where it’s coming from?”
“Yeah, I know who it’s gotta be!” Naruto said with a dramatic point. “The stupid Akatsuki, probably!”
“I didn’t know that was their full name,” Haku said with a smile, his focus still on Sakura’s side. She could see Sasuke twitching across from her, clearly on edge.
“Well, they’re the worst,” Naruto shrugged. “Seems appropriate.”
“Not everyone thinks that way,” Haku said, and Naruto said, “huh?” as Sakura asked, “what do you mean?”
“A very dear friend of mine told me about the Akatsuki and the Village Hidden in the Mist,” Haku said thoughtfully, his eyes distant. “He said the Mist Village would collect shinobi, mostly children who no one else wanted, and take them to facilities hidden away from the world. The Village would experiment on them, do horrible things to them, and excuse them all by telling them that at least as experiments, they were wanted.”
Sakura swallowed hard, an uncomfortable feeling clenching in her gut. Of course she knew the rumors about the Mist Village experiments, most of Konoha did, but that didn’t make hearing about them any less unpleasant.
Haku continued, his face calm despite the words he was saying. “During the Third War, the Mist tried to gather as many tailed beasts as they could to use their powers for those experiments. They weren’t the only ones. Every Village tried to tame the beasts in their own way. People just found out what the Mist did.
“But then the Third War ended,” Haku said. “And suddenly all those people they’d taken were incriminating. If anyone found out what they’d done to them, the Mist could suffer real retaliation. And so they pretended like none of it was happening. And even though every other Village seemed to know that the Mist was doing these experiments, not a single one of those Villages did anything about the people still shut away, forced to stay locked up and isolated for the rest of their lives just because the Mist wasn’t willing to face the consequences of its actions.
“Until,” Haku continued, “suddenly, someone did care. After years and years, decades for some, as Mist prisoners slowly lost hope one at a time, one group who called themselves the Akatsuki finally found a Mist experimentation facility. Apparently the group had been looking for it for quite some time, which of course made everyone inside paranoid or resigned at best. Another shinobi warden would be no better than what they had. It could be worse, depending on who it was.
“But these ninja were different. They said they wanted to free the prisoners. To give them a chance at living as humans rather than a life treated as beasts. Of course they seemed delusional until suddenly they’d incapacitated the guards and began opening cell doors. I’ve even heard that one of them held the prisoners’ hands as he led them out. Can you imagine that? What it would feel like, after spending years and years in isolation, treated like some wild animal, to have someone hold your hand?”
Sasuke twitched at that, shoving his own hands behind his back, and Sakura couldn’t help but think of when she’d grabbed onto Sasuke back in Hashirama’s Forest and how much braver and calmer she’d felt from it, and she was someone who got hugged from her parents constantly. She couldn’t imagine what it must have felt like for these Mist shinobi.
But- the story didn’t make sense. The Akatsuki were rogue ninja. Why would they be bothering with helping people at all?
Haku let out a quiet breath and closed his eyes. “You should be wary going forward. The Akatsuki are well loved in many places. Their raids on the Mist prisons are not the only thing they’ve done that people are fond of. Many smaller towns and cities consider them the heroes of our world, the only force pushing back against the Villages whose perpetual warring over foolish things like tailed beasts is crushing them slowly with each passing day.”
Haku lifted his eyes, his lids heavy. “I know what you’re after, servants of the Leaf. The only other major town between here and the Land of Wind has been wanting shinobi assistance for quite some time. It is an honorable goal, to help a small town limp on a bit longer. But you will not have only friends where you’re going. Or, perhaps it’s better to say that the Akatsuki may have more friends than you. And many of them truly believe the ends justify the means. They will kill you to keep the Sand and the Leaf separate. In their mind, it’s preventing a war that would kill countless others.”
“But it wouldn’t start a war,” Sakura whispered, her eyes wide as she glanced up at Sasuke and back down again. “I mean- these people have to see that the Akatsuki’s not good just because they’ve done one good thing.”
“Perhaps you’re the ones who aren’t seeing that they may not be bad just because they’ve done one bad thing,” Haku said with a shrug. “It doesn’t matter much to me. But to my precious someone, it matters a great deal, and I’m sure there are many like me in that regard. You should understand this, Sakura. It seems that your opinion on the Akatsuki is not your own, but formed from the boy behind me.”
Sakura gasped, glancing up at Sasuke again, whose face contorted as he sharply asked, “and what makes you think that?”
“You’re the only one who seemed afraid once I mentioned them,” Haku said, his eyes still hazy. “You stopped breathing the same. Not that I blame you. I’ve heard their leader is too forgiving and lets questionable shinobi join without much convincing needed. Though those are merely rumors.”
“A-aren’t they all rumors?” Sakura asked. “I mean- is there any way all those horrible things about the Mist Village are really true?”
“They are true,” Haku said. “My dear friend was one of the experiments, tortured to gain a fraction of the power held by the two-tailed beast.”
Sakura’s mouth fell slightly open. “Wh…what?”
“Forgive me, I believe I’ve overstayed my welcome,” Haku said with a calm smile as he tied off the last strip of bandage around Sakura’s middle. “I’ve said what I need to say.”
“Hang on!” Naruto shouted, scrambling up as Haku stood. “You can’t just say all that and leave! Who’s your friend? Who has tailed beast powers?!”
“The Mist had many experiments. I don’t know them all,” Haku said. “But I know they never truly succeeded. They never accomplished what the Sand did, or what, allegedly, the Hidden Leaf has. Power drawn from a tailed beast is strong, but it’s nothing like having the beast itself.”
Haku moved towards the door, but Sasuke stepped in front of it now, his arms out and eyes wide.
“This friend of yours knows the Akatsuki then, right?” Sasuke asked, almost breathlessly. “Do you know where to find them?”
“No,” Haku said. “They aren’t the ones I’m warning you of.”
Haku glanced back at the others and said, “they have supporters everywhere. Please return home now, or your team may not go back intact.”
Haku stepped around Sasuke and opened the door, looking back in with a smile.
“You seem like kind enough people, carrying your sensei all the way here. I hope you listen to me when he wakes up. It’s much safer to leave this mission behind and keep your lives instead. Thank you for allowing my treatment of your injury.”
Haku gave another kind smile, and then he was out the door.
The four stared at his exit, and when Sakura looked back at the other three, she could tell at least Sasuke and Tazuna were thinking the same thing as her.
Haku knew they’d carried Kakashi here. He’d seen through Sakura’s genjutsu and Naruto’s transformation.
Naruto didn’t seem phased by this, or perhaps he just didn’t know, and instead flatly said, “what a weird dude.”
“My genjutsu must have been weaker after fighting earlier,” Sakura said, staring down at her hands, embarrassment flushing her cheeks. How pathetic was that? She’d barely even used chakra fighting, just thrown kunai that all missed miserably.
Her flush deepened.
“Maybe he just saw the bed and assumed you had two senseis?” Tazuna suggested meekly, staring back at the hastily hidden and limp form of Kakashi.
“Or that was a sensory Mist shinobi,” Sasuke said through gritted teeth. “Trying to stop us in a different way.”
“Huh? What are you guys talking about?” Naruto asked, swiveling his head around, but he was largely ignored.
“Then- maybe we should leave here,” Sakura said, fidgeting, but Tazuna spoke up.
“There isn’t another major town until mine,” he said. “And it’s hours away still.”
“That doesn’t matter,” Sasuke said. “If there’s any risk, we shouldn’t stay. Do you all think you can push through and get there in one trip?”
“Of course we can, believe it!” Naruto cheered, and Sakura nodded.
“Yeah, I’m not too tired,” she said with a frown. “I barely did anything against Zabuza to get tired from.”
Sasuke turned to her in surprise at that, and Naruto opened his mouth to say something, and before Sakura could decide if it would more likely be an agreement or a denial, Tazuna surprised her by speaking up.
“That isn’t true,” he said, staring at the floor, and Sakura blinked at him. He looked up and lifted one of his arms, showing a slice along his elbow Sakura hadn’t noticed before. “This is from when Zabuza came after us, after trapping your sensei. You got me out of the way. If you hadn’t, I’d be dead right now.”
Sakura’s eyes widened just slightly. She remembered that. It had been instinctual; she saw Sasuke start to get Naruto out of the way, but Tazuna had been staring forward, clearly frozen in fear, and she’d just moved.
She’d protected him.
Tazuna scrunched his shoulders, staring back down at the ground. “I’m sorry you kids are in this much danger because of me. I should never have asked you to do this-“
“Shut up,” Sasuke interrupted, and Sakura gasped, “Sasuke!”, taken aback, but Sasuke just levelled the startled Tazuna with a cold expression and said, “the only thing you should be regretting is not telling us what we’re up against so we could prepare better for it. Saying you wish you never asked us is an insult. You came to the Leaf for shinobi assistance. We stepped up to provide it. Don’t belittle us by thinking we can’t fulfill your mission.”
“Yeah!” Naruto cheered, jumping to Sasuke and practically throwing his arms around the boy, who tsked and tried to shove him off. Naruto seemed to have no intention of allowing this, or even noticing it happening, and instead proudly stated, “you’ve got the privilege of working with the future hokage team, and no way are we gonna let anything happen to you, bridge dude, believe it!”
Sakura felt a small smile of her own and stood too, standing on Sasuke’s other side and turning to Tazuna with a smile, and the man took a shaky breath before setting his shoulders and nodding.
“Okay,” he said, drawing himself up slightly. “I will believe that.”
Notes:
Get hyped for Mist Village lore bcos there is a lot of it potentially in this fic and I'm pretty hyped about a few parts of it specifically hehe
Ty for reading and I hope you have a lovely day! :D <3
Chapter 29: The Forest and the Docks
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
After nearly fifteen minutes of arguing with the innkeeper, the three genin managed to get most of their money back for the rooms they’d barely used, and then they were off again. Kakashi was disguised by a blanket draped over him rather than draining Sakura’s stamina with another genjutsu, and Naruto didn’t even seem to remember to ask if he should put up a shadow clone.
They were nearly out the gates of the town when a familiar voice spoke up from behind them.
“You’re leaving?”
All of them jumped with a shout, squawk, or shriek, and Sasuke pivoted on his heel to see Haku behind them.
Sakura took the lead in replying, and Sasuke almost heard her through his heartbeat pounding in his ears.
“Yes, we’re headed out now,” Sakura said. “No fighting! Promise!”
Haku didn’t seem relieved. Instead, his expression was subdued, his brow furrowed.
“Shouldn’t you be happy about that?” Sasuke asked, and Haku pulled his gaze up.
“You will only fight there. That’s not better,” Haku said. “You shouldn’t go.”
“Well we are going, believe it,” Naruto said, and Haku simply frowned deeper.
“The Akatsuki won’t be there,” he said. “Only distant supporters. They may not know what the Akatsuki knows.”
“What’s that mean?” Sasuke asked sharply, and Haku simply blinked his large eyes at them.
“They might kill you,” he said simply.
“And the Akatsuki wouldn’t?” Sakura asked.
Haku shook his head. “No. They wouldn’t. Not the three of you, at least. You shouldn’t go.”
“You’re saying the group that hires murderers as members wouldn’t kill us just because we’re kids?” Sasuke asked, his hands twitching at his sides. “I think you need to take the Akatsuki more seriously.
“Perhaps you need to take their supporters more seriously,” Haku said.
“We’re taking them very seriously,” Sakura said, placing a hand on Sasuke’s arm warmer, grounding him fractionally, and Naruto piped in with a, “believe it!”
Haku lowered his eyes, his face tugged into a frown, and Sakura leaned forward.
“We’re not going there to fight anybody,” she said. “We’re just there to keep Tazuna safe. We won’t destroy any towns!”
“Perhaps not,” Haku said quietly. “I suppose there can be a first time for anything.”
Sasuke’s nerves bristled at the boy’s eerie manner of speaking, and he turned with a tsk. “We should get moving. We’ve got a long way to go.”
“We’ll see you on our way back, Haku,” Sakura said carefully, turning with a hesitant wave. “And tell you all about how little we fought!”
“Yes. I’ll see you later, then,” he said, back to blinking his wide eyes at them, and Sasuke shivered as he pressed on, ushering the group forward.
“I don’t like that guy,” he muttered once they’d left the town and landed back on the path in the trees, and he saw Tazuna’s eyes lingering over his shoulder towards the town too, concern clearly etched across his face.
“You don’t have to worry, Tazuna,” Sasuke added with a nod. “We can handle this.”
“Believe it!” Naruto added as if this contributed.
Tazuna crossed his arms, clearly perturbed. “That boy wasn’t wrong. I mean, that there are people who support the Akatsuki in our town.”
“Who would possibly support the Akatsuki?” Sasuke practically snarled.
“Haku said they rescued people,” Sakura said, worrying at her lip. “Maybe they used to be something different than they are now."
“Well, whatever they were in the Third War is what they’re known for,” Tazuna said. “A lot of people believe that a fourth war will come unless the Akatsuki succeed in destroying the tailed beasts.”
“That’s stupid,” Naruto huffed, crossing his arms. “The tailed beasts and jinchurikis aren’t the problems, it’s all the Villages being stupid that causes all the fighting!”
“I’m not saying I believe that,” Tazuna tsked. “But I know there are people in my town who do.”
“Would any of them try to kill you?” Sasuke asked quietly, and Sakura gasped at his abrupt question as Tazuna paled.
Sasuke frowned and met Tazuna’s gaze. “Haku said these Akatsuki supporters might try to kill you. Is that a possibility, or would they just have hired Mist shinobi to do it for them?”
Tazuna blinked rapidly a few times before lowering his gaze. “We’re not a ninja town. We aren’t fighters, but…”
Tazuna exhaled, scrunching his nose. “Our mayor’s the real fanatic, the one obsessed with the Akatsuki’s goals, and while he’s not trained in combat, he does know how to hunt, just small animals and things, and- well, our town did use to do business with the Mist Village, before the Third War even broke out. We’d send some sort of medicine, or something. Some way to help injured Mist shinobi keep fighting past their limits. But I’d thought he cut off trade with the Mist Village after the Akatsuki marked them as enemies. I remember it was a massive blow to lose their business. It forced a lot of people out. Maybe this whole thing has got nothing to do with the Akatsuki, if Mist ninja were hired for it.”
“Or maybe this mayor guy hired rogue ninja,” Sakura suggested in a rather quiet voice. “But if it was the mayor, or anybody else in the town, then we’d probably be safer there. They’d be less willing to start a fight and damage their home, just like what Haku was saying.”
“Then we should get there as soon as possible,” Sasuke said. He couldn’t decide if he’d prefer to be up against Akatsuki supporters or not. At least with Akatsuki supporters, he might get some more information. “Come on; let’s not hang around.”
Once they’d traveled enough away from the previous town to no longer be able to use its light, Sasuke made a handful of Madara’s stars to go ahead of the group as they walked, both to illuminate the path and also to hopefully throw off any ambush into attacking the stars rather than the team walking several paces behind them.
Itachi didn’t show up again, which was almost unnerving. Maybe Sasuke’s subconscious was too tired to have the energy for tormenting him. It was probably for the best, anyway; he didn’t need to rely on the ghost for company when he had his teammate, singular, to excessively chatter away the long trek.
Sakura seemed a bit more tired than her attitude statement had implied, watching the stars sleepily as her head bobbed slightly, and Sasuke made a decision in a split second.
“Sakura, you need to sleep,” Sasuke said, shrugging off his backpack and shoving it into Naruto’s chest, who almost fell over with a squawk. “I’ll carry you for a little while.”
“Huh?!” Sakura turned and gaped at him, and he realized quite suddenly what that had sounded like.
“I just mean-! You were doing genjutsu all day to hide Kakashi, and that’s gotta be exhausting,” Sasuke mumbled, glaring to the side to avoid her gaze. “And we’ll definitely need you at top capacity when we get there, so…mmph.”
Sakura just stared at Sasuke, and he just stared away, wondering what had possibly made him phrase it like that, when Naruto intervened.
“Well, c’mon Sakura, get up there,” Naruto said, stepping around and pushing her towards Sasuke, and she snapped, “Naruto!”, pushing him away before turning back to Sasuke and awkwardly continuing, “erm, I mean- I wouldn’t want to, um…wouldn’t you need to rest too? I mean, you fought Zabuza a ton-“
“Then I’ll carry you!” Naruto said cheerfully, throwing both boys’ backpacks back into Sasuke’s chest with enough velocity to knock Sasuke onto the ground with a shout, and when Naruto jumped in front of Sakura, crouched with arms out to let Sakura climb onto his back to be carried, Tazuna finally turned around and whispered, “aren’t we supposed to be a little stealthier?!”
“R-right,” Sakura said, blushing furiously as Sasuke stood up with a scowl, shoving his and Naruto’s oddly light backpack over his shoulders.
“C’mon, Sakura, up you go!” Naruto whisper-shouted. “I don’t feel tired at all, I’ve got tons of energy left!”
“Uh- sure, okay,” Sakura said, glancing at Sasuke, who glared at the ground, stamping down a tiny bloom of jealousy that she didn’t argue against Naruto carrying her at all.
Sasuke frowned, pouting slightly, frustrated with his own traitorous emotions. He should be glad Naruto stepped up. This way Sakura could rest without Sasuke risking anything dangerously slipping away from teammate-favor territory. He had much bigger problems to worry about, even if his tired mind seemed averse to focusing on them. Though maybe that was an indication that he should put his focus just on getting to Tazuna’s town, and then figure everything else out once he’d been able to rest a little.
Naruto popped upright, Sakura in a piggy-back position on his back, and said, “we can tell more stories to lull you to sleep! Once upon a time, there was a second ramen shop, not quite as cool as Mr. Ramen’s, but almost, and it was called…um…”
Naruto gasped excitedly as an idea clearly struck him. “Hashiramen!”
Naruto’s story devolved quickly, as they often did, but Sasuke rather stubbornly allowed himself to listen rather than mentally deal with the mess their mission had already become. It really was smarter to wait to work through things when he could actually think, and so he opted to tune into Naruto’s story instead -pretending that he wasn’t interested, of course. This one eventually turned into the first hokage’s quest to befriend the “eleven-tailed grasshopper”, a character that he would not accept any changes to no matter how many times Sasuke or the quickly fading Sakura tried to tell him that he’d skipped coming up with a ten-tailed beast and also that grasshoppers didn’t have any tails to begin with.
Sakura finally drifted off as Naruto was explaining Hashirama’s valiant efforts at learning ramen cooking from Mr. Ramen -the story had become a crossover eventually- and distantly Sasuke wondered if the actual Hashirama would be offended by how terribly he was being portrayed by Naruto. Though maybe he’d be fine with it. Nearly every picture of him in the book Hinata had given Sasuke showed the man with a stupid, giddy smile.
Yeah, maybe he’d be really into these stupid ramen stories.
But those thoughts did remain distant in Sasuke’s mind as his attention instead lingered on Sakura, whose sleepy breathing was just barely blowing a strand of hair up and down over her face.
Sasuke thoughtlessly tucked the strand behind her ear, frowning at how quickly she had fallen asleep. She really must have been working hard to keep Kakashi hidden with genjutsu, but she had belittled her own contribution so matter-of-factly, and it sent a bitter taste in Sasuke’s mouth. He wished he wasn’t cursed. Then he could compliment her skills more, and she wouldn’t have any doubts about her own abilities.
But such a thing was too dangerous to do anytime soon, so he just kept his mouth shut and continued on.
Naruto, just as the boy had predicted, remained full of energy long into the walk, barely even pausing once he’d wrapped up his story -Hashirama and the eleven-tails became the best of friends and opened a new joint ramen shop under the watchful mentoring of the clearly more skilled Mr. Ramen- and quickly launched into his next topic: him becoming hokage.
“And of course you and Sakura will be two of my advisor assistants,” Naruto was saying, strolling leisurely forward, beaming stupidly at the Madara star jutsus in front of them. “And Iruka Sensei will be the third, and Hinata the fourth! I think Kakasensei wouldn’t mind not getting a spot, since it’d give him more time to read his dumb romance novels.”
“Mmph,” Sasuke said, pretending he wasn’t very intrigued by the idea of he as an Uchiha representative being assigned such an important role in the Village. Advisor to the hokage was the official title both Madara and Koibito held back when Hashirama invented the positions, along with Tobirama and the Hyuga woman Tobirama married to initiate the joint Senju-Hyuga clan.
“Have you ever read any of Kakasensei’s dumb romance novels?” Naruto asked, glancing at where Sakura’s cheek rested on his shoulder to check on her. “I couldn’t get through one page. But I did check out some of the author’s other works! It’s some guy named…I dunno, but Iruka found out he has two other series -he yelled at me for reading the romance one, but I dunno why- and we can’t find his first series anywhere, but there’s this other one about this frog named Nagato who goes on all these cool adventures- we should all read it and have a book club!”
“You want to have a book club?” Sasuke asked, raising an eyebrow with an unimpressed expression, and Naruto leaned his head forward and stuck his tongue out.
“If the books aren’t boring and lame, then yeah,” he said. “I won’t be reading four books on etiquette if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Maybe you should have read one of those,” Sasuke said dryly, and Naruto shrugged airily.
“I think Mr. Ramen was very etiquette-y,” he said, and Sasuke crossed his arms.
“He just insulted the first hokage by calling his ramen ‘worse than uncooked rice’,” he said, and Naruto snickered. Sasuke tsked. “What?”
Naruto sent him a cheeky beam. “I knew you were listening to my story, Sasuke.”
Sasuke startled and scowled, turning pointedly away, but he could tell Naruto was grinning stupidly at him for at least several more minutes.
Tazuna didn’t participate in any of their conversations, apparently too paranoid about being quiet. Sasuke knew there was merit in that approach, but he also knew there was no chance Naruto would stay quiet for an entire walk, and being noisy might actually throw sensory ninja off their trail. No self respecting shinobi trying to stay hidden would be striding through the trees loudly yelling about ramen.
Kakashi still didn’t wake up as the moon rose higher and higher in the sky, and Sasuke was furious at himself for being worried about the man.
Why should Sasuke care if Kakashi’s stolen sharingan gave him backlash? He shouldn’t care at all what happened to him. Even if he did only push himself this hard to protect Sasuke and the others. Even if he did go out of his way to reassure them that he would keep them safe.
Sasuke frowned, his thoughts clouded.
The group kept up a quick pace, even as Sasuke began to feel exhaustion tugging at his limbs from the extensive taijutsu and several near misses he’d had earlier in the day. It must have been well past midnight by now, the moon high above them, and it looked nearly full. Against Sasuke’s will, memories of Itachi taking him to those Leaf restaurants on moonlit nights drifted across his mind, and he grit his teeth in a scowl against them.
“Hey, old man!” Naruto asked. “How much farther are we?”
“Following this path, maybe a couple hours,” he whispered over his shoulder. “Can you please stop yelling?”
“A couple hours, huh?” Naruto said, and Sasuke thought he was going to start complaining, but instead, he shifted the weight of Sakura on his back and put up handsigns.
Two Narutos popped into the air beside Naruto, who moved to secure Sakura again. “Okay mes, you two carry Tazuna and Kakashi and let them take a nap until we get there!”
“Huh?” Tazuna asked as one of the Naruto clones looked down at himself and complained, “how are we supposed to carry them ourselves?”
“Hm, excellent point,” Naruto said, putting up the handsign again, and a small crowd of Narutos appeared now. “That better?”
“Yeah!!!” all cheered, running towards Tazuna and Kakashi, and Tazuna looked faintly terrified as they swarmed him to pick him up.
Sasuke made a face. “Is there any way he’s going to be able to sleep with that?”
“Don’t underestimate bridge guy, believe it!” Naruto said, sending another beaming smile.
“He’s not the one I’m underestimating,” Sasuke jabbed, but Naruto’s grin just grew bigger.
“If you know you’re underestimating me, that means you really think higher of me than you say you do,” he said, and Sasuke’s eyes widened, his nose scrunching.
“I- you- that’s not what I meant!” he snapped, but Naruto ignored him and turned back to the shadow clone crowd.
“Hey mes!” he said. “Use a joint transformation!”
“Yes, me!” several shadow clones cheered as a few others saluted, and Sasuke made a face.
“You know how to do joint transformation?” he asked, and Naruto beamed, leaning forward around Sakura’s head to better see him.
“Yeah!” he said. “Kakasensei thought it’d be smart to use with shadow clones!”
Sasuke blinked, an uncomfortable clench squeezing in his gut. “Kakashi’s teaching you that? By yourself?”
“Well, it’s really more Iruka Sensei who’s teaching it, but Kakasensei gave the idea,” he said, and Sasuke found himself frowning. Kakashi never gave him any ideas. He hadn’t even said any advice on using a sharingan. Kakashi didn’t know why Sasuke didn’t use it. For all he knew, Sasuke just didn’t know how, and instead of doing anything to help, he hid his sharingan and taught Naruto alone.
A bitter jealousy rooted deep in his chest, and he scowled, but his attention was pulled by the Naruto swarms turning into an enormous grasshopper with eleven ramen noodle tails.
Sasuke turned to Naruto, who snickered. “Are you serious?”
“100%, believe it,” Naruto said. “I can make more clones if you need to nap too!”
“And leave you walking alone in the dark?” Sasuke tsked before he could think better of it, and the illumination of Madara’s stars showed that Naruto appeared genuinely taken aback by the statement.
Sasuke hmphed and turned away, quickly adding, “I mean- somebody’s gotta make sure you don’t screw something up or- um- mmph.”
He heard Naruto laugh. “Yeah, sure Sasuke.”
“Mmph,” Sasuke mumbled again, his hands twitching on the straps of the boys’ backpacks.
Naruto quickly picked up his talking, and Tazuna just as quickly managed to fall asleep on the small shadow-clone-fictional-tail-beast that was presumably just the herd of Narutos jogging forward with Tazuna and Kakashi in their arms.
Sasuke did feel himself drifting, but he fought to keep himself awake anyway. They had to be close to the town by now, and Naruto had sent too many shadow clones out already. No matter what the kid said, he shouldn’t be pushing his energy now. They didn’t know what awaited them in Tazuna’s town.
Naruto’s blabbing had shifted to comparing his jutsus to the old hokages’ jutsus, and Sasuke found his tired gaze lingering on Sakura more and more.
“-and we know Hashirama had strong tree branch whatever jutsu, but I think that ramen jutsu could be even better, ‘cause ramen noodles are all noodle-y, like can a tree loop around chopsticks like a noodle can? No, it cannot, believe it, and if we picture bad guys like mean chopsticks, then-!”
“I think we’re here,” Sasuke interrupted, putting out one hand to stop the boy, his other pointing to a docked entrance gate just visible past the edge of the trees, which petered out a few dozen meters ahead.
“Oh, cool!” Naruto said, turning to nudge Sakura as Sasuke called Madara’s stars back to himself. “Psst, Sakura! Wake up! We’re almost here! Hey mes! Wake them up-!”
“Will you shush?” Sasuke hissed, scrubbing his heavy eyelids as the grasshopper turned back into the Naruto crowd, who all puffed into smoke except for two which took on the task of shaking Tazuna and Kakashi. “We should try to get in without much attention!”
“Oh, okay!” Naruto loudly whispered as Sakura stirred on his back, propping herself upright and rubbing at her eyes.
“Where ‘re we?” she mumbled with a yawn. “How far ‘re we?”
“A couple meters from the entrance,” Sasuke said, suppressing his own yawn. “Tazuna can tell us where to go once we get past the gates.”
“Hey me!” one shadow clone whisper shouted as Tazuna sat up with a wince and the second shadow clone popped away too. “Kakasensei’s still not waking up!”
“Oh, really?” Sakura asked, hopping lightly off Naruto, swaying slightly to regain her balance. Her face was scrunched with sleep and worry. “He still hasn’t?”
“Oh, we’re here already?” Tazuna said, standing. “I can keep carrying Kakashi in.”
“Yes sir, bridge gramps!” the Naruto clone said and disappeared too.
“Did you two really let us sleep the whole time?” Sakura asked, blinking sluggishly. “Did you sleep at all?”
“How could we sleep when we needed to gauge the strength of ramen jutsu versus the previous four hokages?” Sasuke said, rolling his eyes, and Naruto beamed with a thumbs up and a, “believe it!”
Fortunately, Naruto did quiet down as they reached the gate, instead occupied by staring around and squinting in the moonlight to see what they were getting themselves into.
The entire town appeared to be built on docks that acted as the streets. The place was quiet, only a smattering of lights on across the otherwise dark shops and houses. There was no guard at the gate, and the team walked in easily, though Sasuke still found himself a bit wary from the unknown.
“What a cool town!” Sakura whispered after a few minutes of walking through the docks, staring at a few fish splashing in the water beside them, and Tazuna sent a sheepish smile over his shoulder.
“That means a lot, honestly,” he said, shifting the blanket-bundled Kakashi’s weight on his back. “I’m glad you- uh!”
The three genin stilled as Tazuna’s face paled, and they turned to see where the man’s eyes had strayed.
A rather short man with a leering smile and a slash of face paint across his forehead stood behind them, the grease in his hair reflecting the moonlight.
“Well, this is a surprise, Tazuna!” the man said, his voice greasier than his hair. “The hokage sent Gato word to expect a team, but he was under the impression you’d be arriving tomorrow. Arriving this late, you almost slipped past without a proper welcome. How inhospitable of us that would be.”
“We made fast time,” Sasuke said flatly, every instinct flaring up inside him as Naruto added an unhelpful, “believe it!”
“How fortunate for you,” the man said. “And it’s just the three of you, then?”
“No!” Sakura said quickly with a hasty laugh. “Of course not! Every Konoha team has four members.”
“Of course. How silly of me to forget,” the man said, his eyes lingering on the poorly hidden Kakashi draped over Tazuna’s shoulders. “And where is your fourth member?”
Sasuke fidgeted. This guy clearly already knew. Lying would only blow up in their faces. Based on Sakura’s comment, she’d come to the same conclusion. “He’s sleeping. We’ve been walking all night.”
“What a peculiar way to sleep,” the man said, his smile all fake. “Well, I know you must be tired, but all hired shinobi teams must check in with our mayor first. It’s just a precaution, to make sure no shinobi are trying to sneak in uninvited under false pretenses.”
“Er- right,” Sakura said, glancing at Sasuke. “But, uh- my two teammates here haven’t gotten a chance to rest all day-“
“Well, if they valiantly pressed on this far, I’m sure a few extra minutes would be no trouble,” the man interrupted lowly, his eyes glittering in the moonlight, and Sasuke grit his teeth slightly.
“Then I suppose we’ll go meet the mayor,” he said, glancing over his shoulder at the others, Tazuna’s warnings from earlier in the evening clanging in his head. Maybe this mayor would let something slip about the Akatsuki. Sasuke wished he felt even fractionally more awake.
The man smiled. “Excellent. This way, please.”
He led them through a different collection of docks to a large and very ornate building, practically gleaming under the moon. It looked almost like a small palace in the center of town, looming over the much smaller and shabbier looking houses around it.
“The three shinobi only, please,” the short man said to Tazuna, who stalled and nodded, looking faintly ill.
“Erm,” Sakura said reluctantly, but Naruto interrupted her with a handsign and a cheerful, “this guy’ll watch over you, believe it!” and made another shadow clone which gave a salute and a, “believe it!!” right back.
“Shall we go on?” the man asked with an irked sort of tone, turning to lead them into the building. Sakura cast another worried glance back, but she stepped forward with the others, leaving Naruto’s clone saluting on the dock.
The inside was brightly lit and excessively luxurious, especially compared to the towns and houses they’d been passing on the way here. Paintings hung on the wall depicting various brutal scenes of what looked like hunting portraits, and Sasuke turned away from them feeling faintly ill.
Naruto did not. “Hey, is that the old hokage?”
Sasuke startled and turned, but Naruto seemed to be correct. One of the paintings showed the familiar red armor of Hashirama Senju standing atop the head of what looked like a massive turtle, clearly victorious as he grinned down from the creature and at the equally familiar blue armor of Tobirama Senju, who was seated atop what seemed to be a massive tail.
The man leading them gave an excited clap. “Yes! Though the painting is a replica, I’m afraid. The First Death of the Three-Tails.”
“Er- first death?” Sakura echoed as Naruto took a step closer to them, suddenly looking wary.
The man in front gave a dramatic sigh. “Beasts don’t seem to stay dead.”
Sasuke cautiously kept his eyes on the line of paintings beside the two hokages’ as they passed down the hallway. One of the paintings showed a boy with red hair, bandages over his eyes as six tails from a different beast were frozen swaying in the air behind him. Another showed a group of cloaked shinobi bringing what could have been a large white horse of sorts to the ground. Sasuke felt ice festering below his eyes when he stared at the painted agony on the horse’s face as it fell, and he forced his gaze forward again.
“Here we are,” the short man said, opening a door to the right, and Sasuke reset his focus. “Mayor Gato, the shinobi of the Leaf.”
“Thank you, Umizu,” a somehow pleasant voice said from inside the room as the three genin quickly stepped inside, apparently each eager to get away from the creepy paintings.
Mayor Gato’s looks didn’t match his voice. There was something sinister about his expression, the way it twisted up his face through his smile, and Sasuke forced away a shiver. His hair looked patchy in places, his eyes hidden behind the way the room’s light reflected off of his glasses, and he had a splash of color across his forehead too, a purple line drawn on as if by war paint.
The room he was seated in appeared to be an office, full of closed cabinets made from ornately decorated wood. The room didn’t have any of the grotesque hunting portraits from the hallway, but there was a display hanging on the wall behind the desk with an archer bow mounted atop it, a sleek weapon that was just tattered enough to clearly have been used.
Mayor Gato stood from behind his desk and stepped around it, extending his hand, and Sasuke dragged his eyes from the bow, fidgeting. He knew he should pay attention to whatever this mayor said, if Tazuna was right that he supported the Akatsuki’s goals- but…what were the Akatsuki’s goals exactly? Sasuke wasn’t entirely sure. He really needed to sleep.
“A pleasure to meet you all,” Gato said as Naruto stepped forward and enthusiastically shook the man’s hand with a shouted, “I’m Naruto Uzumaki, the next Leaf hokage, believe it!”
The man gave a short laugh. “Quite a big ambition.”
“Yeah, well I’m gonna make it happen, believe it!” Naruto insisted, taking his hand back and crossing his arms.
“You’re repeating yourself, you know. You should break the habit,” Gato said, and Sasuke tsked, an odd protectiveness nudging him to change the subject before this guy insulted Naruto. He pointed to the wall behind Gato’s desk, to the bow that still made Sasuke squirm slightly to look at, and asked, “what’s that?”
Gato turned to the bow in surprise. “Oh, just a historical weapon from our past. It’s nice to keep around; it can handle any monsters, at least. Should the need arise.”
The man gave another short laugh and turned back, a lazy smile back on his face. “Funny that you picked it out. It seems Uchiha eyes really are as good as they say.”
Those eyes widened. “What?”
Gato lifted a sheet of paper from his desk and waved it casually in the air. “The hokage sent what team would be arriving. And that would make you Sakura Haruno, wouldn’t it?”
“Er- yes, sir,” Sakura said with a nod. “Thank you for, um. Welcoming us. Sorry if we woke you up.”
“Oh, no need for apologies, no need at all,” Gato said, waving them off. “It’s nice to have such eager young shinobi ready to take on any job, yes?”
“Yeah. Believe it,” Sasuke said irritably, distantly wondering why he still felt so defensive of Naruto’s stupid habit. He’d made fun of it too. Why did it matter if this idiot did?
But something about the man just felt unsettling, even before considering what Tazuna had said about him, a feeling that was further justified by the man’s next comment.
“You three better be careful, you know,” Gato said. “These tides can be a dangerous place, especially for inexperienced shinobi. Once you get lost out there, there’s no telling how you’ll get back.”
“We’ll be careful,” Sasuke said, every nerve on end. “Is there something we need to do to check in?”
“No, no, this is plenty. May I offer you a drink, though? You have traveled a long way.”
“Buddy, do we look twenty to you?” Naruto complained, and Gato gave a short laugh, gesturing over Umizu, who’d been waiting by the door.
“No sake, promise,” the mayor said as Umizu opened one of the cabinets and took out a bottle of some purple liquid.
“Then what is it?” Sasuke asked suspiciously, and Gato sent him a pleasant smile.
“Just a local brew,” he said, and something about his mostly hidden eyes made Sasuke’s shoulders scrunch.
Gato sent another hollow smile. “Might be refreshing after your long walk. Clear your head.”
“No. We need to get our sensei to an actual bed,” Sasuke said, turning quickly and grabbing Naruto and Sakura by the sleeves to steer them out.
“Aw. Some other time, maybe,” Gato said, and Sasuke’s grip clenched on his teammates’ sleeves at the too familiar phrase, but the other two only took it as a sign to move faster, and the three practically ran out of the building, Sasuke keeping his eyes firmly away from the lines of gruesome paintings.
“Was that creepy to everybody or just me?” Sakura whispered once they reached the air outside, and Sasuke glanced over his shoulder.
“It wasn’t just you,” he said. “What do we do about that?”
“Punch him?” Naruto suggested cheerfully, lifting his fists up.
“Let’s just stay on guard,” Sakura said, looking around. “He isn’t using any genjutsu; Tazuna said he didn’t think he was a fighter, but he definitely seems suspicious. I wouldn’t be surprised if he really is the one who paid for those Mist shinobi.”
“Then we should get back to Tazuna right away,” Sasuke said, looking around too. “Did he go home without us? Naruto, where’s your shadow clone?”
“I dunno,” Naruto said, shrugging, his fists still up, and Sasuke made a face at him.
“What do you mean, you don’t know?” he asked.
“I only know what they’ve seen once they puff away,” Naruto said, and Sakura sent him an unimpressed expression.
“Okay, then puff him away and figure out where Tazuna lives,” she said, and Naruto beamed.
“You got it, believe- OH CRAP!”
Sasuke and Sakura both jumped at the shout. “What?”
“We gotta go!” Naruto yelped, sprinting down the last few steps and onto the dock, and Sasuke and Sakura fell immediately into step behind him, Sasuke’s thoughts immediately spinning to the worst case scenario, and suddenly he could hear his brother’s voice, taunting, “your very first real mission, and you got your client killed?”
“Shut up!” Sasuke hissed, earning him a perturbed glance by Sakura, but before he could panic about that on top of everything else, they turned the corner and finally saw-
Sasuke slammed to a stop, his eyes wide.
Kakashi was conscious again and back upright, unlike Tazuna, who was on the ground, propped on his elbows and staring in detached horror at another Mist ninja who was now completely encased from the neck down in one of Kakashi’s muddy earth jutsus, which had apparently been pulled out of the bottom of the water below them.
“What happened to my shadow clone?!” Naruto shouted, pointing accusatorily. “Why was he underwater?!”
“This guy sealed him with a water jutsu. If you released your jutsu already, you should have seen how,” Kakashi said, keeping his face towards the Mist shinobi. “You guys should really get better at detecting traps. You should have requested Tazuna come with you. This fine gentleman attacked the second the door was closed.”
The Mist shinobi spat at Kakashi, who barely blinked at it, wiping the spit off his cheek with a pleasant, “oh, thank you. I’m glad someone’s helping me clean the blood off. It’s very inconsiderate of my team to leave it there. I may need to fail them for that.”
“Tazuna, are you okay?” Sakura asked, stepping towards the man, who nodded shakily, and Naruto pointed at the Mist shinobi with an angry, “what kind of crummy move is that, luring us away somewhere?! Who do you think you are?!”
“Forget it, he’s not talking either,” Kakashi said flatly, forming a few handsigns, and after a moment, the Mist shinobi’s eyes grew foggy. Kakashi made another set of signs, and a few small dogs popped onto the dock beside him, earning startled gasps from Tazuna and Naruto.
“That genjutsu should last until he gets back to the Leaf Village,” Kakashi told one of the dogs, ignoring Naruto’s “puppy!!”
Kakashi continued, “would you be so kind as to escort him there? Tell Ibiki what happened and see if he can get more out of him than I could.”
The lead dog nodded and, after a few more handsigns from Kakashi, the mud encasement around the shinobi hardened into a rocklike cocoon, and the dogs could brace the Mist shinobi against themselves and dart back the way they came.
Sasuke watched all of this happen with a rigid, white-hot rage prodding into the insides of his skull. He barely registered what his teammates were doing, his attention fully on Kakashi when the man finally turned back around to face them.
Sasuke’s eye twitched when he met Kakashi’s gaze. The jonin had lowered his headband back down, hiding his stolen eye, and Sasuke’s scowl deepened. Every thought that had been lulled out of his sleepy mind from the walk over was now sharply back in focus, like shards of glass slicing inside his bones.
“Something you want to say, Uchiha?” Kakashi asked lightly, his own expression unreadable, and Sasuke felt his teeth baring, but he knew it’d be stupid to speak up now. He hadn’t slept in nearly a full day, and he needed to pull his thoughts together before confronting the man who was second best at riling him up and embarrassing him.
“No,” he said shortly, turning back to Tazuna. “Can you show us where we’ll be staying?”
“You’re- still gonna help?” Tazuna asked warily, pushing himself upright with Sakura’s help as Naruto attempted assisting him by shoving him up from behind.
“Quit questioning us, believe it!” he shouted as Sakura shushed him with a, “people are probably sleeping!”
Their destination wasn’t terribly far away. Tazuna’s home was tidy and small, and all the lights were out when he unlocked the door.
“I’ll show you to the rooms you can use,” he said nervously, clicking on the light. “There’s only a couple; my daughter has one, and my grandson. They’re both out of town at the moment. I can sleep on the couch if-”
“I’ll take the couch,” Kakashi interrupted. “Stay in your own room. Haruno can take your daughter’s, and Uchiha and Naruto can share your granson’s.”
“Yeah, believe it!” Naruto cheered, but Sasuke just glared at Kakashi, who was surveying the house with a narrowed eye. Sasuke watched him with cold eyes, his stuck dark, and he wondered what Kakashi’s stolen sharingan was showing him.
Kakashi’s visible eye slid to Sasuke, who turned pointedly away, glowering.
“Why’s your family out of town?” Sakura asked curiously, apparently oblivious to the other two’s current state, and Tazuna fidgeted.
“I- had them travel into the Land of Fire to lay low for a while,” he said, staring at the ground. “That’s what I was doing there to come to you. I know I’m the biggest target for finishing this bridge, that if I die, the bridge dies with me, and my grandson has this delusional idea that he can be the big hero and protect me from the people after me, just like how his father protected this town before, but- I won’t let that kid end up like my son-in-law.”
Tazuna’s face clouded, and Sasuke blinked at the aching familiarity of the expression, and it pulled him out of his other thoughts for a moment. He knew that expression. Knew the emotion behind it.
“I’m sorry that happened to you,” he said quietly, staring down at the floor, and he heard Tazuna shift to look at him.
“You’re an Uchiha, right?” he said. “I’m sorry too.”
Sasuke scrunched his shoulders, feeling his lip wobble. It felt odd to hear. He didn’t hear that sort of thing in Konoha.
Ever, actually.
“Here, I’ll- show you the rooms, and then I’ll make you all breakfast in the morning,” Tazuna said, shaking his head slightly. “You must be exhausted, especially you two.”
He gestured to Sasuke and Naruto, who saluted and loudly stated, “I may black out shortly, believe it!”
A small smile grew on Tazuna’s face. “Then I’ll start with yours. That far one’s my grandson’s-”
“YIPPEE” Naruto said brightly, running into the room immediately, the door bouncing shut behind him. Tazuna’s smile grew fractionally more as he gestured to the next room.
“My daughter’s; that’ll be yours.”
“Thank you very much,” Sakura said, sending a glance at Sasuke before opening the door and peering inside.
“And the living room’s right next to the kitchen,” Tazuna said, pointing back behind him. “Are you sure you don’t-”
“I’m taking it. Go rest yourself,” Kakashi said, and Tazuna nodded.
“Well- bathroom’s at the end of the hall. Wake me up if you need anything.”
“Thank you very much,” Sakura repeated, glancing at Sasuke again before stepping into her room and closing the door behind her, and Tazuna gave an awkward nod and a fidget before turning and quickly disappearing into his own room, leaving Kakashi and Sasuke alone in the hallway, quiet except for the waves lapping at the dock outside and the vague crashing of whatever Naruto was doing to unpack.
Though it didn’t stay that quiet for long.
“Uchiha.”
Sasuke frowned at Kakashi’s voice, not looking over. “What?”
“You know what.”
Sasuke felt his shoulders scrunching as he began moving towards the room he’d be sharing with Naruto. “I think I should be getting some sleep. sensei. You know, the rest of us worked pretty hard getting here-“
“Uchiha.”
Sasuke felt a hand brush his arm warmer, and he spun around, throwing his hand up as if to punch the man behind him. This time, however, he managed to stop himself before swinging, and instead he just glared up at Kakashi, who looked unimpressed.
“Ask,” Kakashi said flatly. “If you waste your focus on this, you’ll be too distracted for the mission.”
“Waste-?” Sasuke echoed hotly before clamping his jaw shut. He couldn’t get riled up. Couldn’t get pulled into some argument that would just make him look stupid.
He took a breath, shoving down the simmering anger in his chest. If he needed to ask one thing to get Kakashi to leave him alone until Sasuke could at least get some sleep, then he knew what he wanted to know.
“Is it Itachi’s eye?” he asked stiffly, and Kakashi blinked once at him.
“No.”
Sasuke let out his breath, his face blank. “I’m going to bed.”
And he turned on his heel and walked away to the room Tazuna had shown him.
Notes:
Me yapping returns! I feel like Gato as a villain works fine in the first Naruto arc but makes less sense as the series goes on to show like not a single other villain like him, like this guy feels like he'd fit more in a batman story than a naruto arc (ironically enough, I gave him a scarecrow reference before even writing this note lol). The idea of exploring corruption in the economics of the shinobi world is interesting but then we kinda never really get into that again? At least not as far as I can remember, which kinda makes Gato stick out to me as a weird and jarring different genre of villain, especially when put alongside other later villains. Which could just be a side effect of the story changing as its being written which makes perfect sense, but now we have hindsight yippee!
If you can't tell I'm entrenching the Akatsuki very heavily in like every piece of current day worldbuilding lol. Maybe it was just me while watching, but the sudden extreme relevance of the Akatsuki and even tailed beasts in general seemed kind of jarring starting shippuden right after the sasuke retrieval arc. Idrk I just distinctly remember myself watching going like 'did this get set up enough for this plot relevance' which is crazy to think by the time you get to the end of the show, but to past me it kind of felt like Orochimaru was the bad guy in part 1 and then the Akatsuki were the bad guys in shippuden and neither really overlapped terribly much. I'm still annoyed that Sasuke vs Orochimaru was like a four minute fight when this anime drags out EVERY OTHER SCENE IN THE STORY PFFFT but that's a yap for another time perhaps
Anyway since I love foreshadowing perhaps too much (is it even foreshadowing? worldbuilding maybe? Idk) I want to make sure the akatsuki are as rooted in the plot as seems appropriate for their importance in the story. I guess this could make the world feel smaller but my hope is that it makes the akatsuki seem bigger. This yap is digressing again, I just like talking
Anyway what should Naruto name the eleven tailed grasshopper
Ty for reading and I hope you have a lovely day! <3