When you can't take a step forward, going back is all you got.
Enjoy!
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"Promise me," Misa said, the battlefield and the screams at her back. He could only watch in uselessness their enemy began to break down the barriers and as she began to close the seal.
Fire and darkness rumbled toward them, the valley succumbing to it like a servant before it's master.
"Promise me you'll change it! You'll change it all!" Her hands glowed, the wind from nowhere picking up and growing into a howling beast; it signified the end of the jutsu, the end of what was probably the best weapon humankind had ever created.
The clearing rumbled with power, grass going black, then green, then black once more and the trees shrank bark by bark, the mountain that toward over them pulled back by and unforeseeable hand; their burning world was being warped.
It was undeniable now, even as the last of his loyal men held back the enemy down the cliff, he could feel the power seeping in, the seals all over his body filling up with the chakra of all who lent it. Even Misa, his companion who had been his right-hand for the past five years after the massive Fall of the four armies, quickly grew pale as her own chakra began to be sucked up.
That was all they needed for proof. It had worked. Even if Kaguya herself came storming in, she couldn't stop them now - they had won. Even if it was only half the battle, that alone was more than enough.
Yet somehow, even as his body glowed and the beginnings of time unraveled before him, he couldn't help but feel the deep pull of defeat, of regret.
"I -" He began, wanting to say he was sorry, that he never meant to make it happen this way, unfortunately, it only came out as a half-stunted grunt. Inwardly he managed a scoff. Like always, his pride came in at the worst time clogging his throat and eating his gut. "I-I will."
Misa smirked, and suddenly he was glad she knew him well enough to see the meaning behind it. He didn't love her, no that was for the one person who was now gone, but she had been loyal. She had broken down his walls and shown him her worthiness to follow.
I guess, he thought lamely, that makes her a friend.
Nodding, she screamed over the wind, "Win this for us Uchiha! Find us and kick that bastard ass!"
Sasuke couldn't ignore the pull any longer, the hum growing and filling his ears. Nothing could be said now, he couldn't, even if he wanted to, to say his last words.
In the years that had past, the ones where one ally after another was slaughtered, haunting his mind and dreams, pulling him deeper into regret than he'd ever thought he'd venture, he had expected that consistency no longer existed in the world.
Friend after friend had left him, commander after loyal commander had left the ranks and had abandoned the world in their deaths, leaving him to deal with the broken world alone. Numbers dwindled with the days, their enemy grew, and every second meant one more loss. The sheer effort put into this last chance of victory was the perfect example of the undying Will Of Fire. He supposed he was lucky in that regard. Humanity had been pushed to the limit, had witness a bloodbath like none before, and yet even now as he watched his only friend disappear, the Will Of Fire devoured with a frenzy he had known in one person too long ago.
Now, watching her lips move, her last gasp of life used for her last words, he guessed that there was one thing that had stayed with him through his long journey.
'I believe in you.'
Naruto had believed in him to come back home, Kakashi had believed he would learn in order to live, Sakura had believed he would live in order to save, Itachi had believed in him to kill in order to be redeemed, and now, all of humanity put their faith in him in order to succeed, in order to finally win their losing battle.
'I won't fail you,' he thought fiercely, 'I won't.'
And then all went black and, with the last of mankind chakra absorbed, he was sent careening through time.
It was a difficult thing to do, creating a jutsu that would send someone back in time.
At the end, there were many complications that the last of the best minds had vigorously pounded in his head.
The first hoop was that he personally did not have enough chakra to even think about going back in time, and if he even tried, he'd only reverse a mere second and then die. It was solved when the last of the bijuu and seven hundred soldiers agreed to give all their chakra to him in the use of seals. Even the children had volunteered.
The second hoop he would jump was that he couldn't take his body. It would disintegrate at times hand, and the only thing that would make it in the past would be his spirit and mind. He wouldn't feel pain, so that was easy and nothing to worry about. The third step was that he would have to kill the soul that resided in his body. (Sasuke didn't mind that, sacrifices had to be made, even if it was himself)
And lastly, they would have no clue how far back he would go.
There was an estimation, a guess really, that after he absorbed everyone's chakra he'd probably go back at least twenty years at the most. That meant he'd wake up at five years old, more than enough time to kick some ass. However, this was the best case scenario and since nothing ever seemed to go humanity's way anymore, everyone settled on the worst scenario being the most probable. Five years, they said, is a very real possibility.
If that was true, then he could do nothing other than relive half a decade of war and pain and defeat. If that happened, he'd apologize to Kakashi, who would still be alive at that time, and then he would kill himself. No point in fighting a battle he couldn't win, especially if he already had done it before.
This, however, he could take. Twelve years was something he could definitely (absolutely) take; it was almost gracious.
Looking down at his sleeping form, the very tired and very recently defected Sasuke was the most pleasing and distasteful thing he'd ever expected to see. Was this what Naruto always saw? The fact he'd put up with him as long as he had, was admirable (and very much Naruto). The fool, the brat, was sleeping here like the misguided avenger he was.
Since when does one talk about themselves in third person? He bitterly asked himself, another part of his mind chiding, since you were sent on a time traveling mission to kill yourself.
He almost laughed because it sounded like Itachi. (Or was it Naruto?)
Who cares, he thought or said (it was hard to distinguish when one was a ghost), just kill him and get it over with.
His ghost hands drifted over the young body. (deep breaths, this is all necessary.) His hands found their way to the neck and then it touched and he was pulled in.
He was met with a fuzzy warmth. A dream, something whispered to him; he was in the mind of his past self.
"Who are you?" He opened his eyes, gaze pricing down at the young and dignified Uchiha. It was laughable. Would the kid be proud when he learned just how wrong he was? Probably. He was young and stubborn. It was kind of hard to believe his teacher ever thought he wasn't the reckless one.
"I'm you." He answered honestly. He wasn't not going to kill the kid, but couldn't he at least tell him why? "I come from a very bad future where a good chunk of is your fault." He paused, then amended, "our fault."
"Future? Don't think you can fool me, I'm not stupid."
"On the contrary," he whispered, "you are very much that. Stupid and so much more."
The screams of the burning children flashed up for a second and his younger self stood oblivious to the pain his heart was in.
His younger self scowled. "If your from the future, why are you talking to me? Shouldn't you be waking up in my body?" A pause. "Our body."
Sasuke, for the first time in a while, smiled, though he supposed it was cruel rather than comforting.
"I would be, however, there seems already be another soul inhabiting it. I'm going to have to ask it to leave." Grabbing his shoulder, he bent down and watched as the kid's face pale, "I'm sorry, really, but I have to do this. There are too many people counting on me, our brother included."
And like that, he sunk his hand into his heart and ripped it out. For the record, at least he was quick.
Waking up in a smaller body was not as difficult as he thought. He was young, significantly so, his body was unscarred save for the pesky curse mark, and he was much, much weaker than he had been in a long time, but he didn't feel awkward or off. He just felt like him.
It doesn't matter though, he cheerfully thought, because I'm alive. Not hanging on, not defeated, not injured at all. Alive.
He sat up, clenching his hands watching in marvel as they worked perfectly. No tremble, not a single account of the lost battle in his body. He could breath without trouble, he could move his face in every which way, and, standing up, he realized that he could also walk without pain.
He was breathing and realized that somewhere in Konoha, so was his team - his friends.
Friends, his heart warmed in a way he thought it would never again, friends that were still very much alive, and if he had his way, they would be for a long time.
The word alive suddenly banged in his head. Jugo, Suigetsu, Karin, and the original Ragnarok's were alive as well. Well, they weren't Rags yet, but he realized with a hint of excitement that if he played his cards right, they would be much sooner than they had been originally.
He opened his sharingan, noting that it was still in it's beginning stages (only two commas), far less powerful and effective, but that was fine. He could work with it.
That brought him to another thought. Orochimaru. The snake who was still very much alive and regretfully, much stronger than him in this state. Sasuke wasn't ashamed, he knew that he'd be handicapped no matter what, however it still annoyed him that he wouldn't have the power he needed to strike him down, not for a bit and certainly not without the snakes help.
He would have to stay with him, train again under him, and while it would be painful and long he knew he could do it and he could do it faster than he had originally. He still had his knowledge, and if he had any say in it, that would come to fruition very soon.
Laying down in his bed, he let out a small and smothered snicker.
Sasuke was back and there was no one there to stop him; for once he was a step ahead. In fact, he was several hundred steps ahead and he'd be damned if wasn't going to make the most of it.
He spent the whole night planning and for the last hour, he gave into sleep. Unfortunately, while his scars and body did not make it back with him, his dreams did.
Naga's, from the beginning to the end, were terrifying beasts that Kaguya had awoken during the third year of her war. They were monsters that toward as mountains, and while they were few in number, maybe only five in total, they did as much damage as the god herself.
Dark creatures that could only be truly seen a second before your death, other than that, all you could see was a shroud of pitch black, and if they pleased, nothing at all. The one give away that they were close at all was that everything, even the earth itself, grew silent. The wind would still and you had minutes to get away.
When a hygga screamed that she was blind and minutes later turned into a cut up corpse, he and many others figured out quickly why the earth respond like that.
The Naga's, by nature were creatures that could suck up any chakra you had, even from the earth itself. That's how Kiri turned into a desert overnight, how it's village turned into nothing but piled corpse's. Unfortunately, they never turned not the rabbit god herself, who was practically living chakra and a beacon of food by principal. Maybe it was because it was humans who sealed them away or maybe it was because humans were easier than Zetsu, either way, life went from running and fighting to hiding and praying very quickly.
Another fun quirk they had that Kaguya no doubt enjoyed, was that when they killed, it was always in groups. Many thought it was so that the screams of their prey would surround you, confuse you, and then, if you escaped, torture you. This mass killing technique discouraged unifying people to anything that even resembled a group.
The only reason he had an army even to the end was because they were all already insane. Minds-unhinged, insomnia flourishing like weeds, crippling irrational fears, and hallucination due to grief - it was all pretty normal at the end and he was no exception.
Blood was always present in his dreams. Blood and fire. Sasuke stood out, staring off the cliff as houses and people burned, their screams meshing together and dumbing down to nothing more than a buzz.
He wanted to move, to run away as Kaguya forces were no doubt closing in on him, but he couldn't. He grunted. Move, he thought, just move!
Then, beautiful pale hands wrapped over his shoulders, hugged him, and a soft whisper sounded over the screams.
'They're coming.'
I know, he wanted to say, but I can't move!
'Of course you can silly, just do what you always do best.'
The arms unraveled and her face moved into his vision, blocking out what was a valley turning into a river of blood. Sakura's hands grasped his and she drew them to her chest. Her face was unmarred, beautiful as the first day of what was to be humanity's last war, except unlike that day, her eyes were soft, not carrying the usual unforgiving hard stare, and she smiled replacing the usual hateful scowl.
'Move like this.'
And she plunged his hand into her heart, his body finally listening to him and moving to yank it out. He grasped her shoulders, held her tight as they sunk to the floor and his hands moved to lamely cover the hole he had made. It was too late though, because her white blouse stained red and thick blood flowed from her beautiful mouth and her eyes hardened again, but this time with betrayal, and it was his faulthisfaulthisfaultHISFAILT—
'Traitor,' she hissed hotly, 'I loved you, I can't believe I loved you. Even after you killed him I still loved you. Why? Why are you torturing me with this love?'
'I don't know,' he sobbed. He was crying? When did he cry?
'Your killing me!'
The face morphed from Sakura's to Naruto's and the scowl disappeared and his trusting smirk replaced it.
'I trusted you and you're killing me!' He cried, the whispers turning to a shriek. The hand of his dead best friend gripped his neck and the face morphed once more. The skin stretched and the eyes widened, the body turned pale, and burn marks crawled all up his face.
Then his body was ripped and it flew in the air, a noose appearing and his body stretch at a disgusting length, the body sinking as it was stretched downward more and more. Sasuke fell back on his hands, mouth closed in a hard line.
'You failed us! You betrayed us! You ran away!'
He turned and turned and all he could see was stretched out, noose hanging versions of everyone he had ever given a damn about. They circled him and suddenly he was a child again, his chubby hands wiping away the overflowing tears.
'I'm sorry!'' he cried out pitifully, 'I didn't mean too! I didn't know!
'Not enough! Not enough!'
The screams howled and he crouched on his small knees, bending over and cover his ears.
'I'm sorry!' He chanted over and over and over and over and over and over and over -
'Little brother.'
With that one phrase, all of a sudden the chanting and horror was gone and he was surrounded in a white void. The voice was stable, kind (always, always, kind), and the hand grasped his shoulder comfortably. Sasuke smiled, tears flowing down his face.
'Itatchi!' He should have known, his brother would save him, he always saved him. He hugged him, waiting for his brother to embrace him as well, but instead he was pulled back and made to look at the soft face.
Then he blinked and the impossibly kind face turned bloody and eyeless and then the white plane turned black and the floor became a deep, blood-filled, lake. Hands shot up, grabbing his adult body, the words 'help us captain' bubbling up and pulling him down.
'Itachi!' he cried, grasping the collar of his eyeless and toothless brother. 'Itachi save me!'
'No,' the whisper commanded, the black hair turning pink and the face turning into a flawless and flushed Saku-. Her hands grasped his face as he sunk to fast into the blood. 'Save us.'
He didn't wake up in tears, he never did, but he did wake with the copper feeling in his mouth, a painful stinging in his lip, and the words 'I'm sorry' falling out.
"You're awake." Kabuto said, the sickly voice burning away the fogginess of his dream as quick as the Amaterasu. He sat up slowly so that he could appear as calm and unerved as possible. He had to remind himself he was not in camp where people didn't give a damn if you had a momentary mental break down or not, just if you could get the job done.
"How insightful," Sasuke snapped, absolutely hating that this man was even breathing. How could he not when he knew that later in the future, this man would trick him into killing Sakura. "Does Orochimaru keep you to point out the obvious for him?"
There was a pause, then -
"A little snappy today aren't you Sasuke?" Kabuto eyes narrowed. "I see you're still recovering from cutting your beloved bonds. Looks like our little Uchiha isn't as emotionless as he wants everyone to believe."
"The only bond I want to cut is between you and life," he said, barely concealed rage bubbling up, "and Konoha means nothing to me. The one thing I care about is where the hell Orochimaru at. He promised me power and all he gave me was this dirt room."
The first lie in this body and it couldn't be more fitting. Konoha did mean nothing to him, but it meant something to Sakura and Naruto and basically most of everyone he knew and loved and that made it worth it. Once he was powerful enough, once he had his brotherhood back under him, he'd kick all the asses he needed to, save (no, save us) the world, then finally, finally, go home.
He just needed power.
At least that hasn't changed, he grumbled, now I won't have to try as hard to fake it to the snake bastard, even if I do need it for something else that was definitely not killing his only sane relative. (Itachi save me!)
"So eager," the slithering bastard hissed, coming up from behind Kabuto, "I hope your mind is as ready as your body."
I'll show whose mind is stronger, you body stealing bastard, he hissed inwardly, but kept his face straight and said in his best prideful voice, "of course I am."
It was a good thing no one knew him (the humble, quiet, and slightly crazy captain of humanities last surviving force) or he'd never live it down.
Orochimaru smiled sharply, "then follow me."
He slid of his bed, unshaken and determined. He'd save (save us) everyone, he'd kill Madara before he launched his stupid ass plan, and then maybe, just maybe, he'll grab himself a bowl of ramen along the way as well.
He just had to get power first.
Heart stopping Jutsu, mind numbing torture, back breaking reflexes - just cause he knew how to to them, didn't mean he could do them. That was the real pain in the ass. He had to relearn everything and it got very annoying to be taught as if he didn't already know what he was doing wrong.
"Again." Orochimaru mercilessly announced.
The opponent was about as strong as a chunnin, a bit sloppy and too overconfident. He should be an easy take down but yet somehow he just. kept. losing. If he were at his true power, the kid would be dead in an instant. But Sasuke wasn't, so that just meant he had to suck it up and do it.
He wouldn't die, Orochimaru would never allow it, but he could get hurt and while pain wasn't anything to him, it was to his body. Every cut felt more painful than it should and every puch sank deeper than he'd ever remembered it could.
He swore when he couldn't jump in time and the kid hit his shins without holding back. He tumbled to the floor, chin slamming into the mat, and pain flaring in his face. He swore again. If he ever got to this kid, he'd slit his neck and-
(Your killing me.)
-and he would do nothing. He wouldn't do anything remotely close to killing because this Sasuke wasn't used to it yet and if he just began going around and murdering as if he'd been doing it for years (he has) things would get very messy very quickly.
Swinging around the large body that reminded him of an adult Choji he finally delivered a knockout blow to the head and the unnamed kid went down. Somehow he was panting at the end and ached with several bruises and cuts.
He had a long way to go and by the looks of it, Orochimaru thought so too.
Moving his Sharingan to the next stage was somewhere between frustrating to mildly difficult. It wasn't the hardest goal he'd ever chased for his eyes, after all in the Old World (which is what he'd taken to calling his old future) he had bled through sweat and tears to get the Rinnegan even though in the end that hadn't been enough to win.
The difficulty with it was that he knew what he had to do to get it to the third stage, he just had to focus, wait for a certain stressful moment, then purposely relive a traumatic moment in his mind's eye and hope to god that's enough to move to the third stage and not to the Mangekyou.
He couldn't afford going blind just yet.
The frustration (which in his opinion was far more delipating) came when he kept falling back on techniques his eyes couldn't do anymore. It was hard to break old habits, especially if they once kept you breathing twenty-four-seven, and because of this, he lost more battles than he did in his Old World which he couldn't decide was humiliating or suspicious.
Thankfully, Orochimaru took it as him being too over confident.
"Come Sasuke," he ordered, his teenage body reluctantly following him, "I have something to show you."
Sasuke without a doubt knew that it was probably something Orochimaru thought would knock down his non-existent pride.
Two months. It took two months to finally activate the third stage.
In two months, five thousands Zetsu could be made, in two months he could lose three hundred men, in two months Naga's could devour a country, in two months they created the time jutsu; so much could be done with time, people often took it for granted. Even war veterans did, like Kakashi, forgot the value of time, of the never-ending moments.
He wouldn't though, no he alone knew what it felt to lose hours, to truely watch as the end of time drew near and to watch as the months ran out for humanity. Sasuke knew it so well, he could name the hours in a frame of time, name the minutes, and name the seconds; he'd had to do so already many times when fighting Kaguya.
He had to learn when to strike, how much time was left to strike, how long it took to run away, how long took to move how many to how far; he wouldn't forget that, even if he had to carve it into his skin.
That's what he was thinking, the thoughts clouded his mind in ways he should probably fix. People in this time frame weren't so forgiving to crazies if Orochimaru was anything to look at. He chuckled softly.
He had eight months (five-thousand-eight-hundred and forty-hours, thirty-five-hundred-thousand and four-hundred minutes, and twenty-one-million thirty-seven-thousand and nine-hundred 'n sixty-eight seconds) left to seal Orochimaru, seal away Kabuto, and take over Sound.
He got up from his cot, the wounds from yesterday's successful battles gone and his mind rattling away.
In the Old world the Sound nin hated Orochimaru just as much as he did, and to his pleasure, he found that it was the same this time around.
Sulking around, their eyes boring into the ground, the hint- tied around their head and awaiting orders that would probably kill them. They trained, lived, and waited. There were times he wanted to scoff, tell them that their life were hardly bad, not even horrible. He knew people who would kill themselves if it meant they could have their lives. (they did, remember? they died so you could be here.)
"Fucking snake," someone hissed, traveling the tunnels with another companion, "can't keep his freaking experiments down a notch."
"Shut up. What if he hears you?"
"It's not like he has ears down here," the man snapped, "I'm allowed to grumble. I couldn't get an hour in and now he expects me to patrol all day? Bastard."
"Look, cry all you want, cause I frankly don't care if your hide gets hung. Just don't do around me. I don't want anyone to think we're both shittitng on him."
"Well I-"
The two snapped to attention, one of the men going very pale (probably the one 'shitting' on Orichimaru') and their eyes very pointedly stared at him. They had just turned the corner, he hadn't bothered hiding himself, and now he found himself sitting in what was probably the worst moments of their life.
'Shitting' on Orochimaru? Well, people had been killed for less.
He made no expression and to their credit, they didn't explode in excuses, already expecting death at the first catch of disrespect.
"Hn," he grunted, then passed by them without a second glance. He was shorter than them (for now) but still, it was nice to see the subordinate form again, even if it wasn't out of loyalty.
Yet.
Yes. He would, in his time with Orochimaru , gain the loyalty of this hideout and when the year was up, he would slide easily into the position of commander.
It first started with glances. They were wary about him, after all, he was the prized student (body-replacement) of Orochimaru, however after the first incident in the hallway (and many more after that) the rumor mill began to make some of his fellow ninja braver.
He supposed that a 'high ranking' villain that showed very little care for the snake, such as himself, wasn't a common sight and with people like Kabuto running around, he wasn't too surprised.
(Does he care?)
(I don't know. Don't ask me)
They would glance at him in training, search out for him subtly, and for the very few, just flat out stare. He didn't mind, he'd had many people watch him before with far more harsh emotions. This was curiosity at its best and honestly, he considered a step to his first step.
The next was the slight brushes of touch. Once upon a time, he would have killed anyone who dared to even come close (he had before) but after being carried on backs, carrying others on his own back, and just plain fighting itself, he didn't care anymore. The nin would brush by his shoulders when walking by, maybe even get close enough to hand him some object, and as time passes, curious peers grew in number.
(He's so pale.)
(At least he doesn't carry a blanket of winter around like Kabuto.)
(Did you see him yesterday with Kutso? Kid managed to skirt around him just in time.)
(Don't get comfortable; remember Jugo? Thought the bastard couldn't hurt a fly.)
Finally, after a month of this, someone managed to bump right into his chest. He could have easily ignored that, just like he had been with everything else, however with this he decided to react to.
If he wasn't careful, the curious gazes would turn into judgement and they would start to see him as a pushover - the exact opposite of what he needed.
So, grabbing the collar of the girl who had (truly, he saw, on accident) bumped into him, he said, "Follow me."
Between his screaming in his dreams and his grunting in his training, that was probably the first words he'd ever spoken to someone who wasn't Orochimaru. Even Kabuto wasn't graced with that as he'd been content on ignoring the students existence completely.
As he walked to a secluded and barely used arena, he noticed the not so subtle wasn't hidden nins who had followed him and the girl.
"Face me," he commanded, her eyes no longer holding emotion and her body screaming for him to get it over with. Young or not, she knew that her mistake would cost her life. He motioned for another nin to play as referee and then waited for the match to begin.
As the commander of the last army of humanity, he had many interactions with his men. Often times it was on the battlefield where he proved (over and over) his prowess and that he, as always, was the best to lead.
Unnerved, sharp, mind seemingly stable, and, as Misa once said, he always tried to get as many people out alive even if it was just three. She told him, despite his denial, that he showed his care like that, by trying his best to make sure that the people who died, died with purpose. Whether a decoy or on patrol. Each effort was an effort, she recited, and never a whatever.
She said it was something his men said behind his back. He never sought to see if it was true.
When the fight began, his training poked through, and he whipped the women, at least twice his size, down against the ground, his foot landing on her neck and her arm snapped in half. He could see in her eye that she was expecting him to stomp on her windpipe.
He didn't. Instead he said,
"A women should watch where their going. Any ninja worth their salt wouldn't need a broken arm to know they've run into something."
No berating, just words hidden in a poor jab.
[watch where you're going]
It wasn't special or anything invigorating, but if he wanted to get them started, he had to start off small. Sasuke walked out leaving her with a bent arm and a bruise to the face. He didn't tell the medic in the room to help her, he just looked at the nin and told him he was useless.
(That was interesting.)
(Kita got lucky.)
(Damn, I was hoping to take her ink bottles too.)
After that, there was a certain glint to the eyes that watched him. Not respect and not fear. Just something new and he let it develop.
It was the fifth month in which he was sent on his first 'mission.'
Kill the guards, get the girl, and deliver her to Orochimaru. A team followed him and for the first time since he'd arrived, he was outside. Away from the base and in the countries forest, he looked at the sky and for the first time in a while, felt relief wash over him.
When Kaguya had taken over, the sky stopped changing from night to day and just rested on a gray dense look, where the moon became as bright as the sun and the air became thick with blood and heat.
Now, he looked at the night sky, the stars shining, the wind blowing, and the moon dimmer than he remembered. It felt great.
"Captain," his lieutenant said, "the family is resting in the inn."
He had hung back with his team, choosing to send scouts to scope out the area. They didn't wear masks, but the solemn look of the anbu echoed on their faces. To be honest, no matter how skilled they thought they were, they wouldn't be on par to something he could trust, so when the scouts returned, he called them to his side.
"How many guards?"
"Twenty. Nineteen are civilians and one seems to be a merc."
There was a confidence in his voice that he didn't like. Underestimating people was a sure way to die, and while he had confidence in himself in not to die, he didn't want to take chances. Night time was perfect to strike, but he refused to go.
NIght time was perfect, but it was also expected. They would be most attentive and it wouldn't work. Instead, he waited till later, an hour to sunrise, then gave his orders.
"Search out the town, make sure that no one noteworthy is by the inn. Lead them away, henge if you have too, just make sure your aren't remembered. I want the innkeepers workers out to." The old feeling of command seeped into his voice and he restrained himself. Out of their team of five, one had witnessed his fight with the girl, two were nothing of notice, one was Orochimaru spy, and he was still thirteen with no notable experience. Kick to the pride or not, his experience needed to be taken down a notch.
"I want you and the other to scoop out the area while we go in."
No resistance, of course, but a hint of disappointment at being put on patrol. Now he had the one who saw the fight (Kumo?) and the spy (Ritsu). Walking into the inn was easy; a simple henge and simple acting. They asked for a room then sat at a table.
Their scouts were right. (of course they were Sasuke, you aren't sniffing out Danzo) Ten were upstairs, five outside, five on the lower level, and the merc sitting idly by, eyes glazing over with boredom. In the Old World, nothing could be taken at face value, and while he knew there was some lenience here, he didn't take the risk.
"Ritsu," he said, once the eyes were off him, "go upstairs and slip sound seals on all the doors. Don't attack."
Pretending to hand them their luggage, the man picked it up and walked upstairs, the air of settling in wrapped around him expertly. Now it was just him and the girl. They waited. Quickly, he picked up the rhythm of the guards, not shy in quickening his observations with assumptions. The five outside would past the window, obviously sharing looks with those inside to let them know it was safe.
"Kumo," he ordered, "take care of the five outside. Quietly and five minutes apart starting with the one farthest from the inn."
She nodded, a fake smile on her lips. As she stood, his instinct flared; they were being watched. Commanding his feet to stay where they were (notZetsunotZetsunotZetsu) he let out a fake, but loud, yawn.
Throw him off, he thought, something to make him look away.
Grabbing the girls arm, he quickly tugged her to his side. He was still thirteen and she was near nineteen, and while in his mind he was twenty-five, he couldn't pose this as a couple and kiss her, calming their targets nerves. That would do the opposite.
So, pulling her close and childly grabbing her shirt, he said loud enough, "I'm tired sis, can I go back to the cart?"
Kumo wasn't slow to catch on.
She bent down, ruffled his hair, and said, "sorry kid, big bro's getting the room ready, kay? When he comes back, you can go to bed."
Then she kissed him on the cheek.
When she left, Ritsu slid in, and he acted out the scene of a perfect little brother - sleepy, tired, yet also excitable- simple, easy, and very, what he hoped, Naruto like. They were upstairs in no time and no one was the wiser. It was easy to kill ten men, especially with sound blocked out and at the fast pace they worked. He didn't indulge too much, choosing to show the typical signs of shyness and allowed for a quick and clean death.
Fifteen out of the twenty of the nobles guards were down, and when Kumo came in, he sent her down stairs in a henge to finish of the rest. She would lead the innkeeper away, and with the workers gone and the nearby area empty, Ritsu could kill freely (cleanly, he commanded, no blood and no screams.).
He approached the room of the noble and signaled the scouts to come in. They were by his side when he opened the door.
The parents were killed quickly and in their sleep, and the girl fell to the poison. Packing her in a bag, he carried the kid half his age (you were once a kid too) out through the window.
Clones were made, then they were dressed as the guards, and with no one the wiser, nothing had happened and no blood was spilled. An hour later, when morning came, the 'party' left and was never seen again.
Quick, clean, and easy.
A month after that, he saw her wandering about with another nin, bound and dirty as a prisoner of Orochimaru. The sight of her reminded how the story of his mission spread like wildfire even though it was a standard and boring mission by even Konoha standards.
(He killed them in their sleep.)
(Heard from Kumo he made it look like a bandit attack)
(What did Orichimaru-sama say?)
(Not a drop of blood; no one suspected a thing.)
(He called them by their first name)
So his reputation among the ranks had improved, though he still didn't know if it was in the way he wanted. It wasn't in disgust (awe?) and it wasn't respect. Too be honest, he didn't really know what he wanted either; in the Old World people had obeyed him, but only because there was no one else.
Deep down, he knew that wasn't true. He remembered Akemi's face, his words, his oath and his reasons. (cause I like you cap'', he gurgled with blood, cause you try, try even in this shit of a wo'ld)
Why did they even like him anyways?
In his dreams, he asked Sakura why. Instead, Misa answered, her eyes gone and the pale sickly look of chakra depletion clear.
Stupid, Misa whispered into his ear, it's because you brought them back home alive.
People died when they followed me. I'm not a god.
You gave them a reason to live, she chuckled, you encouraged them and they managed to send you back. You taught them how to live even under that god's thumb. Why would they follow anyone else?
Because I was all that was left.
She smiled, as if she knew he was lying, and then she turned into a puddle of blood that screamed it was all his fault.
He tried not to think of it too often.
In an attempt to test out his status in the hideout, he had sparingly acted in other fights, watching the reactions and carefully deciding what to do.
In their battles, people ended up injured, but they never walked away in too much pain. Others thought it was a display of power, while those who had fought him and those who watched knew better. He always ended it in within a minute and it was always in the least painful ways; he neither divulged in his skills or made it long enough to make an impression on their audience.
If Orochimaru or Kabuto ever caught onto it, they didn't show it. Not too surprisingly, the victims of his fights did. They sat quietly in the shadows, waiting to see what this built up to, and today, he decided, he would show them.
He'd been training hard, harder than he did originally, and now in what should have taken at least a year, he'd done in half. That still didn't save him from Orochimaru's experiments, which he considered to be at least somewhat helpful, and it didn't stop the bastard from pushing his snake contract on him.
It was the same experience as before; a painful fang to the neck and a painful night to follow. He hated snakes, especially after his damning fight with Kabuto, but he wouldn't dare tell that to Hakuja's face.
Sasuke taijutsu had improved rapidly as soon as he recovered, more so since he had better models than Lee to copy during the war, and quickly became the very fast and hard hitter he was at sixteen. Sometimes, flashes of Zetsu would come up in his Orochimaru's orchestrated spars, and he'd hit harder than he meant, but thankfully it never ended in a lasting injury, cause even after all his work, his body still hadn't caught up to his original.
In the Old World, living was a workout in itself, the always constant moving and the always constant watch; despite the never ending hell it was then, it was beginning to give him an edge here.
He knew the land like the back of his hand, and now that the sun came up, he could read the lands even better. You could drop him in the middle of nowhere and he'd still be able to tell where he was at. There was not a place in the world he couldn't navigate.
Working out came easy too, especially running. All he had to imagine was Zetsu catching up him (white claws, so many hands covered in blood, his subordinate on his back; dead? alive?) and the hackles would rise, his body would pump adrenaline, and he'd find himself going faster and faster. It didn't look very smart in the beginning, burning himself out instead of pacing, but as the weeks past he could elongate it and before he knew it, his top speed became like a jog.
Everything else, his fuinjutsu, his aiming, his endurance to pain and poison - those he (re)mastered with Orochimaru, and even then he sped up with his knowledge and experiences. It felt good to have Kusanagi back in his hands.
He still had other plans for his trainings of course, but first he needed to deal with his standing in the Kusagakure hideout.
Facing the kid he helped murder her parents, he narrowed his eyes in anticipation as she drew closer to him. She looked very different from when he last met her. Back then, between the darkness of the inn and the morning sun, he saw a curled up scared girl with a doe-eyed look and a blanket of innocence that reminded him of Sakura. (why do I love you?)
She was very different now.
Still scared, but harder, cautious, and aching with pain all over. She was smaller and thinner, looking like a caged animal with her matted hair and bruises. No doubt the kid was fresh out of the snakes laboratory. He shivered slightly. Sasuke never screamed when the snake bastard laid his hands on him, cut him up and poured venom into his veins. He'd been through harder than to let pet experiments get to him.
She passed him and he moved so that she bumped into him. The pair froze and a couple bystanders who were directing their own prisoners, tensed. It'd been a while since someone touched him.
"I'm sorry Uchiha-sama," the nin immediately said, bowing low, "I wasn't watching where it was going."
He ignored her, instead looking down at the girl who stared up with eyes that screamed she was at her breaking point. He grabbed her collar by the chain and drew her to his side and stared hard into her seven year old face. The fat had sunken into her cheeks and she looked older than she should, but the fear was still very much there.
Fear and anger, he amended. Her body and her eyes carried just a slimmer of what he was once engulfed neck deep in; vengeance. She recognized him.
"You're the kid from the inn," he forgot had forgotten the name of it. Then he turned to the nin who was guiding her. "What's it's number?"
"552," the nin answered quickly.
"What did Orochimaru put in it?"
"Orochimaru-sama installed heightened chakra pathways, straightened her organs, and implanted a seal to feed her the chakra of a Hoshigakure nin."
He nodded, staring at her. Sasuke had two paths to take from this. He could either kick the ass of the nin before him, right in front of her, give his usual advice/jab, and then move onto the kid and keep her by him under the disguise of a punching bag.
Or
He could also ask for her cage number, make trips down there to see her under the excuse of perhaps wanting her' 'improvements', familiarize himself with the fellow prisoners, and then begin to solidify the outlines of his take over plan.
Sasuke decided he could do both with a little improv.
She began looking at him with a deep and intense emotion that he knew very well; hate mixed in with admiration. He had once told Misa of this duality of feelings once, when he tried to explain his thoughts of Kaguya, and she had nicknamed it Hateration.
He'd beaten the nin very easily and perhaps harder than normal, then, after she watched with a calculating gaze, he took her in the arena and fought her too.
"Slow, sloppy, and scared," he had spat at her, his foot digging into her back. He hadn't landed any permanent damage as no medic would treat an Orochimaru experiment, but the bruises were raw on her face. "That's why you're here. Because you couldn't move fast enough, because you were too weak, and because your parents trusted too much. Your a fool to make their mistake."
He hissed this in her ear, and because no one would hear, the tone of his voice was not one of malice or disgust as it would have seemed to an outsider. He imagined that right there, he might have sounded like Kakashi. He hoped he did, that's what he was going for.
The next time he saw her, she was still thin but in a different way. There was a tightness in her step, as if she was trying to make herself lighter, softer. It might have worked if she was using chakra, but he guessed at her age she probably was never taught it.
That day he invited five escorting nins that had their own set of prisoners in the same hallway, including the girl, and he fought then all at once.
"Your feet are slow like your head," he snapped kicking one in the gut. "You're body has better use for soil than a nin, leaving openings like a fucking civilian. I thought you were all enhanced - where's the force? Do you even know what chakra is?"
He stomped on one of their legs, snapping it cleanly and in a way they'd be able to heal it in a day. "You're not worth my fucking time if you can't even use the basics of ninja."
Sasuke turned to the guinea-pigs and motioned them over, "maybe your charges will be better than you."
They all failed, even 552 who ducked his first punch, didn't get up after his relatively light kick.
"None of you are worth the chakra running through your body." Sasuke hissed, though the real force wasn't there.
He left them like that, assigning five others in their hidden audience to guide the bruised experiments away. For the actual nin he'd first beaten, he lined them up and commanded a re-match. They accepted (they didn't have a choice).
Finally, after pointing out all of their weak spots in jabs and painful hits, he left the arena altogether.
It was unreasonable to continue fighting prisoners; so instead he decided to just beat up random nins in front of an audience, and most of the time in front of prisoners.
After a few weeks and somewhere after, that people started to catch on.
(Did you see that? She ran up the walls.)
(I heard she dodged him last week.)
(She's faster than before.)
(You know Ritsa? She's been fixing up her taijutsu after she saw the last fight with Uchiha-sama)
Surprisingly, later that month, he found himself listening to a conversation that led down a road he had had never known if it had truly worked.
(I was leading a prisoner, and I caught him trying to use chakra! I think Uchiha-sama pounded him in the ground yesterday. You think he taught him that?)
(You better not tell anyone that, you know if you spread a rumor, he'll never touch you again.)
(Isn't that a good thing?)
(Do you want to die in the next mission? Last week, if I hadn't brushed up on my hand-to-hand after he handed Anzu's his ass, you'd see me six feet under.)
It was nice to hear his hard work come to fruition.
During his first week back he'd quickly spotted all the loyal nin's to Orochimaru or Kabuto and gradually, through five months of subtle hints, people began to spot them too. He'd show serious distaste in ways he knew a few of his early watchers would catch.
Slight jabs, ignoring interactions, and delivering small glares had been enough to show his distaste for the Orochimaru loyal. Of course, he couldn't get caught, so he threw some innocent ones in the mix, but that was it.
As the days went by, more and more people began purposely bumping into him and in response, he took it to an arena and pointed out through bone breaking defeats, their problems. He often snarled at them when doing so, but people still caught the underneath meaning.
Then one day, someone spilled jutsu scrolls at his feet.
It was truly an accident for them, but not for him. He took advantage of his careful prank and whooped the boys ass spectacularly with some low-level jutsu and in the process, made sure everyone could see what he was doing.
Most Jutsu were better explained and shown, but since he was dealing with being watched twenty-four-seven, he settled for just demonstrating.
Fights differed with people and numbers. He was always fighting below his level with them, especially when he fought in front prisoners (always pointing out the obvious in more aggravated tones so they could catch it), and then one day he didn't.
The then nin surrounded him, ready to pounce in a coordinated fashion they hadn't had a month ago, when two familiar faces popped around the corner. He recognized them as very loyal servants of Orochimaru.
Sasuke was expecting this one way or another, and he rolled perfectly with his scripted plan. He beat them all, quicker than normal, harsher than regular, than he spouted words as always, just leaving them a little emptier than usual.
"You're all fucking cowards," he growled, "not worthy of my time, of an Uchiha's time."
He left, leaving the pile of bodies who never stood a chance.
(Somethings wrong.)
(Great, those bastards ruined it)
Once upon a time, he had a subordinate say to him that the best way he'd ever learned from Sasuke was through his fists. He didn't really believe him at the time, as he was teaching Misa in a very traditional sense, but with these past months, he began to believe he should have just mentored her by fighting her.
Sasuke had two months left (one-thousand four-hundred and sixty hours, eighty-seven-thousand- six-hundred and fifty-eight seconds, and five-million, two-hundred-fifty-nine-thousand and four-hundred 'n ninety-two seconds) to get the loyalty of the hide out and so far, he was doing a damn good job.
In the day, he was either training with Orochimaru, being experimented on, training on his own, reading and studying for questions he shouldn't be asking now, and sparing vigorously with the hideout population, who felt confident enough to hold greeting stares for longer than a second.
That was the day though and night time was something he sought to fill with anything but sleep. He ran down the tunnels to clear his mind, sat under stars he'd thought had been struck down by Kaguya herself, pretending that he was thinking of how to kill his brother, and sometimes he just sat in his bed planning away till he gave into sleep.
….some nights though, he just relived old memories to remind him why he was here.
Tonight was one of those nights.
"Sir," Akira walked up to him, arm in a sling and weariness in his face, "Ine is dead. We lost her in the recon - a Naga got her."
Another one dead. It shouldn't hurt at this point, but the she was different. She was the best fuinjutsu master- they had, and she hadn't finished with her seal yet. One more night. If she had just lasted one more night, they would have had it.
His face tightened, and he nodded stiffly. Judging from the look on his men's face, he knew the price of this death too.
"I'm sorry...it should have been me, but it we were running and we didn't notice in time-"
"Leave," he held up his hand, "get some rest Akira. We leave at dawn, have Isas fix your arm."
Akira flinched at the name and Sasuke could feel defeat that hung of the mans shoulders.
So not only was their seal master dead but their only medic as well. At this rate, he'd lose half of what was left. Again. He waved the man off, told him to sleep while he could even though he knew the nin wouldn't be able to even close his eyes tonight. Or daynight.
It was hard to tell with the sky.
Sasuke sat on the rock, the dying fire licking away in it's hole.
It was a far fetched dream anyways, even if she had made it, there was no guarantee it would work.
Well, we were never going to be sure, Sasuke thought, the last person who sealed a god away was practically a god himself and we lost our god a long time ago.
He could stop the sigh but he didn't, just like he could stop his hopeful hands as they took out the scroll that Ine had made, the scroll with the god seal. He spent the night reading it, and when he finally met up with Misa with only three of their fifteen men, he went back to studying it.
He did it till he memorized the notes and the curves and every detail and he still couldn't figure out how to move on. She was right, there was only one more part to make and it would probably be the best damn cage of seals humankind would ever lay their eyes on. If he could just figure out the last step.
"You need to sleep," Misa said, walking into the tent where he'd been holed up, desperately trying to fit the puzzle pieces together like a child. "It's been at least a week. You can't keep holding on."
"There's only one peice," he croaked, his voice sounding thin to his own ears, "just one, complicated piece."
"I know, but nobody, not even you, can put it together. You have to give up on it."
"Naruto wouldn't give up," he snapped, the papers flying from his hands and clutching at his pounding head. "If he was here, he'd still keep trying."
Misa's face pinched, just like every time he brought the dead weather she knew them or not.
"Cap'n," she said, pulling his hands away, "I'm sure noodle-brain would, but you aren't him. It doesn't matter what he would do, your you. You can't solve things thinking your him. That's not how this works."
"Then what do you want me to do?!" He barked, snapping his hands out of her grasp and shattering the rock that had been his seat, "we can't keep running and running; I'm not going to let us die like that! If it's anything, I want it to be us doing something - something other than running!"
And like a broken damn, the deceased came calling.
(They need you more than me)(get out while you still can)(I believe in you)(I love you)(you were always a disappointment)
He slid to the ground, head in his hands, shutting out the world and muttering the dead.
(I should never have left)(he was right, I can't do this)(they're dead, they're all dead)(I'm sorryI'msorryI'msorry)
He remembered that going on longer, than Misa telling him about the plan, and then heading to the Yushigakure where they would steal the first scrolls that would build the Time Justu that would inevitably save the world.
Sasuke closed his eyes and fell asleep only to see more faces.
"I heard you've been sparring recently," Orochimaru commented, his bottles husking around as Sasuke laid tired on the metal table. "I didn't know you liked teaching."
He was probably referring to the recent visits he'd been making around the compound. He had in the past week, been running down the halls of the underground hideout at top speed. Sasuke easily covered it up by wanting to perfect his response time and expanding his experience in tight places. The tunnels were dark and musky, lanterns flickering with heat that made most swelter and cough. It wasn't a lie that he wanted to get his body used to different terrains.
"Wether your servants copy me or not, I personally don't care." This was the first time Orochimaru had mentioned his interactions with the hideout population.
Which apparently, he muttered in his head, acts like its some gennin academy.
No doubt the snake picked up on the mutterings around the cave, it was impossible to keep it all under wraps and while he was impressed it lasted this long, especially if all they relied on was his personality, that didn't mean he wasn't annoyed.
"If your that annoyed," he continued to sneer, "then replace them with someone else; I'll still bury them in the ground."
"You have my spars," Orochimaru slithered, "flaunting your power isn't your style, especially to those who are weaker than you. What's your real reason?"
He narrowed his eyes at the snake, deciding how his old self would respond. What was he like back then? Proud, arrogant, power hungry, but what else?
You weren't broken, some part of him hissed, you were confident and you were vengeful, angry and narrow minded, cold and silent.
What had he been doing these past months? Demonstrating fights, jutsu, sneering at them when he should be ignoring them. Orochimaru was right, he was out of character. How could he not be when less than a year ago he was battling the end of the world?
What would Naruto do? He thought wildly.
(It doesn't matter what he would do, you're you)
"And how the fuck would you know?" Sasuke asked, "I'll get the power I need, I don't care if I don't care if I have to lower myself to your cretens."
"That still doesn't explain why you go so easy on them," he hissed back, "I'm not blind, you don't go any farther than breaking their bones and bruises. That doesn't sound like a hunt for power Sasuke-kun."
At the honorific, he didn't flinch (I love you), but when the snake turned to him he was met with spinning red eyes.
"I didn't think you were so stupid you'd need an explanation," he snorted. "I don't kill because of your lack of numbers. I could plow through four hundred in a day."
He couldn't really, false bravado talking, but he could in the Old World and at the rate he was advancing, it would only be a year before he could really start owning up to his talk.
"And you care about my men why?"
"I don't care about your men, I care about pacing," he growled, "and when I see that traitors face, I'm going to kill him. Slowly."
"As you've said so many time before," Orochimaru moved towards him, venom in hand. "If you want to learn how to hold back, ask me."
"So you can throw me some cannon fodder? I want someone who won't just throw themselves at me because you said so. " he said, "Itachi wouldn't be scared so I need to fight someone who won't piss their pants five seconds in."
Orichimaru didn't say anything else other than peer at him suspiciously.
That was fine, he didn't need the man to be satisfied, it was just two months anyways.
The god seal wasn't finished in his time, and as it was, it could never dream of containing Kaguya power, however, it did hold the strength to seal away ninja, specifically Orochimaru and Kabuto. It would actually be overkill with the amount of power it had, but in his experience, overkill was what was needed with these two. In the past, killing them was like trying to squash every ant an ant hill with nothing but a boot and the tolerance of god.
He sneered at that thought. Sasuke didn't need god and he wasn't going to kill them. He was going to seal them away and never think about it again. Let time rot away their minds.
Looking at his handiwork, he smiled to himself.
It was a room in the deepest part of the hide out. All over it's walls were the seals Ine had made through blood, sweat, and death. It may not have been used as it had been intended, but it was going to help them win the war. He was sure that alone would have made her happy.
Behind him, he felt the very suppressed and very subtle aura of chakra.
He smirked and his eyes spun red and powerful.
Kabuto.
"You ungrateful brat." Orochimaru hissed between the seals, eyes bulging in anger. Kabuto was beside him, in his own separate circle. The seals rose like prison bars, glowing with unbreakable hisses, and they constantly moved, eternally changing. It truly was beautiful.
When he would leave the room, they would be stuck here. The darkness would wrap around the circle like a curtain so they wouldn't be able to read the kanji, wouldn't even dream of taking a step forward. Like a void, they would be stuck in a timeless, unchangeable prison.
Truly fit for the god it was meant for.
"When did you have time to make this," Kabuto droned, eyes absent of his initial anger. He sat, crossed legs and calm. He'd already been here for a day, but Sasuke guessed to him it felt like eternity. "It's certainly interesting. Seals always changing, never the same combination; a cell hardly worthy for us. Who did you really build this for?"
Sasuke was alone in this room, the two snakes hissing at him in their own ways. In there, they were nothing but a child, their lives cut off from the chakra. To their summons and everyone in the world, they were dead. It made him wonder what Ine's finished seal would have looked like.
"Sharp as ever," he chuckled, his distaste for them shining through, "how 'bout you tell me why you think you're here?"
Orichimaru glared before snarling, "I'll kill you when I get out of here."
At that, he truly laughed. It was thin and wiry, but it resonated deep in his chest.
"Get out? I thought you'd like it old friend," he said, "in here you'll live forever - no death and no pain. The perfect gift, no?"
Kabuto, who was silent, turned his face and narrowed the blank stare.
"Who are you?"
Sasuke raised his eyebrow, then he shrugged and walked out the doorway. Who was he? He was the commander of the last standing army, the captain of the Ragnarok, the murderer of his brother, and was the last hope for humanity.
But that was before and this was now; at this moment, right now before his old mentor, he was just a tired fool who had too much to make up for.
Turning he looked at the two and said, "I think that story is for another time."
He waved and watched as the room sunk into the floor and farther down. Down, down, down, and down.
Sasuke collapsed the tunnel and all the tunnels that crossed near it.
"Enjoy your stay."
Sasuke sat face to face with the 552.
She didn't particularly like the man, but she couldn't say she hated him. Her parents were dead, just like most of the other prisoners, but from their stories, she realized how easy he had gone on her.
883 was tortured before he was brought in, made to watch his family die right before him; 778 couldn't look at anyones eyes cause her little brother's seemed to be everywhere; 954 had to sew her parents bodies into a tapestry cause one of the guards wanted to see if she could do it; in retrospect, the way Uchiha had taken her was kind and gracious. Her parents died in their sleep, the guards were dealt without bloodshed, and the only true pain she had felt was with the snake.
And while the teen hadn't saved her from that, he definitely didn't completely abandon her. He beat her up because she ran into him, but he made it seem like a lesson. Then she saw him fight others; fast, sleek, quick, and hard.
But merciful.
She wasn't the most observant, but some of the other inmates were and when they began picking it up, she did too.
(a fool like you should learn to keep his head down)
[ duck quicker]
(you have a fat face and fat feet, fucking woman)
[step lighter]
(touch me again, and you'll lose that hand)
[distance may save your life]
His fights seemed to follow her then, his barking sticking in her head like an alarm. She thought of it when she was left in the cold cell, thought of it when she felt the knives dig into her, and thought of it when she imagined killing the snake.
So in a way he taught them. At first he was arrogant, proud, cold, and determined but, the longer she looked at him, the more she saw. Always behind that carefully built mask, there seemed to be a lick of something else too. Now that the snake was dead, that flame seemed to have grown and it over took the man before her like a raging fire.
"Give us a reason," she barked, "tell us why we would ever agree to the Loyalty Seal. Why do you need us, what do you want for us?"
She watched him and no emotion entered his face other than that same fire from before. She wondered what he thought, that her out of the hundred prisoners, had been chosen as the representative, as their 'elect.'
A seven year old girl had willingly shouldered the lives of a hundred people and those lives gave it to her with a smile. Did he think it was because she was the smallest? Maybe they chose her because she was the one who'd protected 5671 or that she had mastered Sasuke teaching the quickest or that she was just younger and might sway his heart?
She looked at the man, waiting for her answer. Five months ago she'd give anything to kill him, the one who'd taken her life away, but now…
He was different from before, from the man who'd whisked her away as he killed her parents; his eyes were black as coal but carried the most emotion she'd seen in a while, shoulders that slumped but was rigid and strong as a mountain, and whose every movement seemed to be tainted in a tightness she'd never seen before. Like he was afraid every step made the loudest noise and that the cloud of self-doubt and pain and regret would reach out and touch others, if he ever changed.
If he ever let anything affect him.
Still somehow, even through that cloud of silent bewailment, she could see a fire, an emotion she couldn't quite name, that outline his whole body and burned in his eyes.
"I want you to help me." There was honesty in his words, a sort of vulnerability that she wasn't sure a bad guy like him should show. "I have a promise to keep, I have people I need to save, and I…"
He trailed off as if he couldn't find the words. The man before her was not the one who she'd come to know in the spars he never lost.
"I want to go home." Sasuke finished, "I'm very tired, I still have a long way to go, but I know I can make it. I just want it done so I can go home. I want your help."
Honesty, something she now knew someone like him shouldn't be even able to comprehend, was said in those words. She wondered if he knew what it meant to tell her this - perhaps to him it didn't matter. If she refused this, she would leave without her memory.
Leave.
Leave where? Home was gone, her face and body was scarred and if she even went back, they wouldn't let her in. Even if they did recognize her. Her uncle, the only other family after her parents, didn't like her. She would be thrown out to the streets and then she'd die. Die after she willed herself through all the pain, after she had lived the life of a prisoner and an experiment arm in arm with people she knew would understand her agony better than anyone back at the mansion.
She looked at the man and guessed he could too.
"That must me one hell of a home," she finally said, "is it really worth it?"
The fire in his eyes shown again and she wondered if he knew how bright it was becoming. The mention of home put strength into his shoulders, it breathed life into his eyes, and his hands gripped in an energy she forgot people could have.
Even the guards moved in a stillness that seemed worse than death. (defeat truly looked horrible on a person)
Studying him again, she realized how pathetic she must look. This teen was older than her by only a few years, but the tension showed he was far past that in mind, and that he'd probably been through worse.
She knew that his clan was dead, killed right in front of him by a sibling, and while that was almost as bad as 778, she could tell it was more than that.
If he can look like that too, she thought distantly, why can't I? Why can't I have that strength?
The fire in him roared and suddenly, the idea that he was just another snake was dashed.
"It is."
It left like a whisper, but to her she felt it like a roar, a calling and as soon as it left him, she knew that was it. She wanted what he had, that fire, that glowing ember of- of living hope. He'd been through more pain than her and yet his head was still held high. Not by pride or arrogance; no those made it easy to look up, this caused him pain and he bore it with a humility that shouldn't exist. It was like he was holding on with...
Purpose, this is purpose, she said in her head, he's burning with a purpose, with a will forged out of iron.
If the others could see it, would they want it as well? It felt addicting to be by, as if she could just be like him by standing in front of him.
Beside him.
Follow him, someone commanded, follow him and let that fire burn through you too.
So now he had five hundred people in total under his seal. He looked over his paper, the quietness in the tunnels calming when it should have been unnerving, and began to piece together his old rank system that had been used and perfected towards the end of the war.
He slurped up the hot raman, wincing at the salty taste. It was very unhealthy, but he didn't have to worry too much, not with Orochimaru's metabolism in place. His body was small, but thanks to hard work, it was at the prowess his sixteen year old version had and it would only grow more.
And so would his men.
Under him, they would learn and they would grow, and when the two years was up, he'd have good soldiers at his command. Things were starting to feel normal again.
He'd lose people, of course, and he'd put them through every hardship he could find in their lands. Desperation drove people together and drove outsiders out; that was the best way to make them stronger as a force and when Naruto needed them, they would be strong enough to respond. Enough to win the war.
Looking down at the map, he studied the circled areas and smiled to himself.
If it all went to plan, he'd be meeting some very old friends.
He drank up the soup in his bowl and leaned back in the chair with a sigh.
This time, Sasuke would protect his Naruto with his life, with the life of his men, and everything that blonde fool held dear as well. Even than blasted village of his.
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So that was it, hope you enjoyed!