Author's Note:
-This is a sequel to my fic Shadows of Konoha. It's possible to read this one without reading the first one, but no whining if you get confused.
-I began this fic before the ending of the manga, therefore I have my own retelling of events that happened during the Fourth Shinobi War. Most notably, Naruto and Sasuke did not come to terms and Sasuke fled following the war.
-If you're a newcomer to my style of writing... good luck.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
Lesson One
Power
x
Sasuke Uchiha stared at the ragged edge of kusanagi. His grip tightened in anger. The blade rattled in the loose hilt. The stench of the swamp clung to the gaunt bones of his face. The Uchiha Clan emblem was pressed against the slick moss covered tree. Years of toil has mutated the proud white section of the Uchiha fan to black.
Sasuke snapped up at the sudden sound of cloth brushing past leaves. He stared out towards the still green water. A crocodile dipped under the surface and created a ripple that traveled towards him. He could never trust his eyes anymore.
Sasuke activated his sharingan. Immediately he noticed details he couldn't see before. On the other side of the bank, the ground had been impressed underneath a soft footprint. The slight movement of leaves was more than just the wind.
Sasuke leaped, just as a barrage of shuriken rained down on the space he had just vacated. He landed on the surface of the still water. Ripples traveled underneath his feet. Sasuke flipped backwards as the maw of a water dragon lifted into the air.
Lightning crackled along the edge of kusanagi like a flock of disturbed crows. Sasuke spun, cutting through the water infused jutsu to face the sturdy metal of a kunai. Sasuke stared into the blank white mask of a Kiri Hunter-nin. Sasuke perceived the twitch of muscle, avoided the kunai's thrust, and countered a quick swipe across the hunter-nin's neck.
The brittleness of Sasuke's sword butchered the cut, stuck awkwardly on the bone, and it resisted when Sasuke attempted to pull it out. He whipped around, sucked air in his chest to fan the bellows and released a hell of black fire onto the hunter-nin coming behind him. With a twist of his wrist, Sasuke wrenched loose his sword and set off at a run down the river.
His black flames were like a beacon and he knew if he didn't leave soon, hunter-nin from every country would soon be on his tail. Sasuke was an Uchiha and he didn't run away, but he had enough reason to understand the importance of a tactical retreat.
Shadows flitted on both sides of the bank. A green mist, with the stench of the rotten swamp thickened and condensed around him. Sasuke focused his sharigan, perceived a disruption in the mist, and jumped over a fuma shuriken. Sasuke raised kusanagi to deflect the approaching katana and sent a charge of lightning through the blade.
A crack as soft as a ripple of water.
Then shards of metal shattered into the air. The hunter nin's blade cut through skin and caught on bone before Sasuke jumped away. Blood rapidly stained the sleeve.
Sasuke stared at a broken kusanagi with awful detail. The fragment he held formed a ridge of menacing mountains. The cracks were as deep as broken ice. Sasuke lifted his head to reveal the full weight of an eternal mangekyo sharingan, made all the more powerful by Sasuke's anger.
The hunter-nin died screaming in a hellfire of blackflames.
Sasuke didn't bother to wipe the blood dripping from his eye as he sped down the winding river of the swamps. He skidded to a stop at the sight of four Leaf Hunter-nin waiting at the river's mouth.
Sasuke threw down one of his last smoke bombs. Then he swiped the blood from his wounded shoulder and slapped it as a bloody handprint on the summoning scroll.
Sasuke tightened his hands around the feather of his summon as they emerged from the smoke toward the clouds. Sasuke whipped his head around at the sound of caws and found a murder of crows chasing after him, following far enough at a distance to keep out of range of Sasuke's fire jutsu.
Sasuke urged his summon faster but the large bird of prey couldn't outrun the small darting birds. Sasuke broke through the clouds and the sun screamed into his eyes. Then he released his summon and fell. The wind rushed around him, billowing his tattered clothing and whipping his long outgrown hair about his face.
The murder of crows dived after him, but not fast enough to catch Sasuke before he dived into the sea.
The tide washed Sasuke to shore. He coughed salt water from his throat as he dragged himself through the sand. He collapsed. The exhaustion racked pain through his lungs, sand clung to his forearms, and the heat of the sun melted down his neck.
Finally Sasuke deactivated his sharingan and the pain in his temples eased. As the pain eased, the world around him began to blur. What had once been the sharp veins of a palm tree was now an indistinguishable mass of green. Sasuke took a breath as he watched the sky, then tensed at the sight of a black dot in the clouds.
Sasuke reactivated his sharingan. That black dot came into clearer focus to reveal one of the crows from earlier. The fire in Sasuke's lungs had spread to his legs when he pushed himself onto his feet.
Sasuke Uchiha kept running.
It has been a long time since Sasuke approached civilization. He dragged his feet toward the hard gates of Iron Country's capital. The samurai guards at the gate didn't stop him, mistaking one of the world's most dangerous international criminals as a mere beggar.
Sasuke bristled in annoyance at the sudden noise and congestion of the crowd. His hand twitched toward the broken sword hidden in his belt. Sasuke plowed through the shoulders of those too stupid to be in his way.
Sasuke finally came to a stop. He squinted at the faded kanji written on the unhinged sign. He stared at the closed down shop and he has never felt such exhaustion as he did not. Sasuke reached out his hand and plucked someone from the crowd.
"What happened to this shop? Where did the owner go?" Sasuke demanded.
"I don't know what you're talking about. I'm just a tourist." The man shivered as he stared into the wrath of Sasuke's eyes.
"You! Public disturbances are not allowed."
Sasuke craned his neck toward the pair of samurai that were approaching him. Immediately, Sasuke activated his sharingan and grew smug to watch the samurai take a step back in hesitation. Then they gathered their fortitude and placed their hands to their swords.
Sasuke shoved the civilian out of his way. He reached for kusanagi, and then remembered. He would have reached for a kunai but he ran out of those a long time ago. Instead, his stomach growled, a loud roaring restless beast.
The samurai charged him. Sasuke could see every fold of iron that went into forging their armor, every drop of sweat drenched onto those steel plates, and every weathered year pressed into the hilt of their swords. Sasuke moved to evade the quick draw of their blade.
But his body didn't move as quickly as he wanted it to.
Sasuke winced and was very much surprised to find a sword hilt had suddenly slammed into his gut. A force of chakra knocked him off his feet and he went crashing backwards into the ruin of the closed down shop. Iron pinned him to the floor. A fallen beam crushed his wrist and prevented him from using any jutsu to escape.
Sasuke's sharingan deactivated, no longer able to maintain it in his physical condition. The blurry forms of the samurai approached.
Sasuke opened his eyes to the soft blur of pink cherry blossoms. He winced, pulled himself up from the futon, and immediately studied his surroundings. Pinned to a hook on the wall was Sasuke's shirt, still torn in rags but cleaned. It's been a long time since Sasuke saw color in the Uchiha emblem.
There were other clothes provided for him, fresh and crisp, but Sasuke put on his old rags. He slid his shirt over the bandaged wound on his shoulder, courtesy of the hunter-nin he met in the swamps. It had gotten infected over the past few weeks. Once again, unwanted, Sasuke's stomach growled. He ignored it for its disobedience.
The screen panels in the room were drawn back. THey allowed a view of the gardens and cherry blossoms that were toiled from the harsh Iron terrain.
Sasuke tensed when he heard approaching footsteps. His eyes frantically searched for a weapon, found nothing in the room that would suffice, and prepared a jutsu instead. The door to his room slid open. A samurai bowed before him.
"Where are my things?" Sasuke demanded. He didn't have much to begin with but he couldn't afford to lose his Hawk Summoning Scroll.
"Uchiha-sama, the Shogun will see you now."
The tension in Sasuke's shoulders eased. He knew if they wanted to kill him, they would have done so already. These people wanted something from him and he planned to take full advantage of their hospitality.
Sasuke followed the samurai up the narrow stairs. Servants bowed as he passed, and a small part of Sasuke, the part that contained his dignity, wallowed in the acknowledgement of respect. The door slid open.
Mifune hadn't changed much since the last time Sasuke saw him, but when you're that old, there was little else time could do to you but add a wrinkle or two. Mifune sat down a cup of tea and motioned to a tray of food across from him. "Uchiha-san, feel free to eat."
Sasuke's composure might have been compromised too much when he felt a sudden need to rush. He sat down before the tray, didn't care whether or not it was poisoned, he abandoned 'itadakimasu' with his manners, and attacked the food spread out before him.
"Who would have thought that the last Uchiha almost dies of starvation?" Mifune mused. Sasuke shot Mifune a smoldering gaze, but never stopped shoveling food into his mouth, hardly savoring the taste. Mifune sipped on his tea and allowed his guest to finish his meal.
The moment Sasuke was finished, "Where is the blacksmith, Kimura Toshio?"
Mifune was not harried by Sasuke's haste. He savored his tea.
"I'm afraid Toshio died years ago. There is no longer a blacksmith alive that can fix Kusanagi." Mifune gave a mournful nod toward the weathered hilt in Sasuke's belt.
Sasuke rose to his feet, but only after finishing his meal. As far as he was concerned, he no longer had any business in the Land of Iron.
"Sasuke Uchiha, aren't you tired of running?"
Sasuke cocked his head and looked down on the old samurai. With a sneer, he replied, "I don't need any help from you."
"I think you do," Mifune replied. "I can offer you asylum and give you a place where you can hide from the hunter-nin. I have met many who run towards my borders to escape their past. I am fully aware of how these hunter-nin operate. A hunter-nin's most effective weapon is psychological. The best won't try to capture you, but do just enough to wear you down. What they lack in strength is substituted by their vast reservoir of patience. Maybe the hunt will take days, weeks, or even years, but eventually even the strongest of ninja will break. The hunted get tired of running, they fall down on their knees, and beg for death. Will the last Uchiha die begging?"
Sasuke met the hard iron of Mifune's eyes with a glower. But deep in Sasuke's reason, he knew it was true. He was out of kunai, smoke bombs, and shuriken. Kusanagi has betrayed him. He hasn't had more than a few hours' sleep in two years. "What do you want?"
"You are going to assassinate the Third Tsuchikage."
Sasuke crossed his arms and looked indifferent, as if someone had just informed him that it was raining while standing outside in during a spring rain. "I thought the Land of Iron was a neutral country."
"The Land of Iron is a neutral country," Mifune corrected, "and we certainly can't predict the whims of international criminals. Currently, Oonoki is suffering from an illness. He will be vulnerable during the Jounin Exams."
"I see," Sasuke brooded.
"You succeed and Iron Country will offer you safe haven."
Sasuke raised his chin and declared, "you will also teach me what you know of kenjutsu."
Mifune smiled at Sasuke's attempt to bargain a Tsuchikage's life. "I haven't taken on a student in so long…" Mifune felt the decay of his bones. "Is there someone you want to kill?"
Sasuke's eyes narrowed and could taste the overwhelming flames of hatred that has kept him going for so long, and the bitter after taste of defeat.
"I accept our agreement," Sasuke replied, even though Mifune hadn't audibly consented to Sasuke's modification of the bargain.
Mifune sipped his tea in the silence of his unanswered question. He watched Sasuke walk from the room wearing hatred like armor.
They once called him Ōnoki of the Both Scales, bestowed upon him during the Second Shinobi War because of his ability to level out a battlefield. Nowadays, he could barely level out a cough.
From his bed, Ōnoki could see the mountain that protected and supported Iwagakure out of his window. Those old mountains were still as rigid as when he was a kid. They never bowed nor did their backs ever break.
Ōnoki blamed his bed. It was too soft. Beds simply were not meant for the hard backs of ninjas. He sincerely believed that if he has spent his entire life sleeping on the cold hard ground, his back would have never gone soft on him.
His chest quaked and erupted coughs of blood down his chin. Ōnoki knew everyone was waiting for him to buckle under his pride and finally send a message to Tsunade-hime for assistance. But his stubbornness – that at least will never bend. He had to hang on just a little while longer, at least to see his granddaughter make Jounin.
Ōnoki's chakra tensed when the stones whispered of an intruder. The liver spots that dotted his hand clenched the sheets as he forced his back to sit up. Wind rushed through his bed-robes as he flew and barely missed the lightning jutsu that seared into his soft feathered bed. About time someone destroyed it.
"Who sent you?" Ōnoki demanded as he floated in the air and analyzed the intruder covered in nondescript black.
The intruder pulled down his black cowl and activated the distinctive red eyes in answer to the Tsuchikage's question. There was only one person left alive with those eyes. Unless Madara came back to life, again. That bastard.
"Which country hired you?" Ōnoki asked after observing the smaller frame which betrayed the younger Uchiha. He thought it was a devious tactic for a country to hide behind the actions of an international criminal. Ōnoki somewhat felt smug at the efforts someone has gone through to kill such an old frail man such as he.
Then Ōnoki blasted from the ceiling with rocks molded over his arms. Dust shrouded the sudden wreckage of the Kage's tower. Thankfully, Ōnoki's assistants were used to it and they could build another one in seconds. Ōnoki lifted into the air and searched for the intruder among the dust.
Ōnoki erected a wall of earth between him and the sudden eruption of black flames. With instincts honed from years of battle, Ōnoki unconsciously began to turn as a chirp of lightning struck from behind.
The tense molecules of chakra grazed against Ōnoki's cheek right before the wind rushed through his robes and vaulted him away from the attack. Ōnoki released lungs full of fire, targeting the ragged visage of a fan.
The inferno of heat swept across Sasuke's body and melted fabric into his skin. Scraps of cloth drifted to the dirt, lit like fireflies by embers. Sasuke stared as the Uchiha emblem burned away into nothingness.
Sasuke's vision rimmed red with rage. He looked up at the mountain that overshadowed him, then began to dwarf him. The Tsuchikage threw the mountain forward.
The mountain broke on the back of Susanoo.
Sasuke darted out of the dirt, perceived the infamous dust technique bolting towards him, twisted out of its path, and another mountain range crumbled behind him. Out of the omniscient dust, Sasuke emerged and a kunai landed in the Tsuchikage's chest.
Ōnoki grumbled. When he was younger, he could throw five mountains without so much as a blink. Now, his back simply wasn't what it used to be. He hurt in sometimes odd and random places. He moved slower, slow enough for some upstart arrogant young ninja to finally catch him.
The wind rushed through Sasuke's hair as he fell from the roof and twisted as the ground rapidly approached his face. Sasuke outstretched his arm. A breeze swirled around his palm, flickered out of his control, and then a gust barely padded his fall. Sasuke fell against his shoulder with a grunt.
Then Sasuke pushed himself from the ground and tightened his fist around his growing control of wind chakra. It had taken him a year to fully master the Earth affinity. Sasuke sat up and testily put his hands together in a series of seals. Imprinted in his sharingan was the memory of a battle from years ago.
A translucent cone began to form between Sasuke's palms. After a few seconds of concentration, the dust release technique backfired and Sasuke was thrown backwards, through the wall of his house, and into the koi pond on the other side. Drenched, Sasuke gave a smug smile. He had expected the technique to backfire, but with his growing control of the wind affinity, he was getting closer to the power of the Tsuchikage.
"Musashi-sama, your appointment with the Shogun is in a few minutes."
Sasuke didn't flinch at the pseudonym. After a few years, you eventually get used to what people call you. Sasuke climbed out of the pond, dragged his weighed clothes toward the porch, and sat down overlooking the torn garden. In the right corner, a path of shrubbery never grew back after being burned down by an altered form of amaterasu. A sinkhole, the result of an earth jutsu that went awry, has never been fixed. This poor garden has weathered Sasuke's years.
Without comment, Sasuke's apprentice, Kusunoki, began to repair Sasuke's damaged shoulder. After the first few months in Iron Country and after injuries that had rendered Sasuke immobile, Mifune went to great lengths to find Sasuke a personal medic. It was rare for an individual to be born with a substantial amount of chakra in Iron Country, and when discovered they were typically forced to become medics for the samurai corps. Instead, Kusunoki was offered an apprenticeship under Sasuke's tutelage.
"You're overcompensating again. Apply the chakra evenly," Sasuke observed. Sasuke wasn't a medic ninja but there were some basics even he could help the kid with.
Kusunoki, whose chakra was seen as a pariah amongst his family, jolted at the criticism even though Sasuke's voice didn't contain any malice but a cool observation of facts. "I deeply apologize, Musashi-sama."
Sasuke gruffly ignored the boy's insecurities. "When I return we will commence with your genjutsu training."
It was forbidden to teach anything other than medical ninjutsu or kenjutsu, but this kid did not have sufficient chakra control to be an accomplished medic ninja. Sasuke knew the kid's creativity and attention for detail would excel in genjutsu if given the opportunity. Sasuke refused to let such talent go to waste because of some idiotic cultural restrictions.
When Kusunoki finished repairing Sasuke's shoulder, they returned inside Sasuke's abode situated thankfully on the edge of the city. Sasuke's stood patiently as Kusunoki began to apply the samurai armor to Sasuke's person. The top of Sasuke's head was shaved, only allowing enough hair for the chonmage. The helmet was applied. The katana and wakizashi marked Sasuke's status as a samurai.
If anyone from Konoha saw him now, Sasuke doubted that they would even recognize him. Fully integrating himself into Iron Country's samurai corps had allowed him to completely disappear from the hunter-nin's radar.
At first Sasuke hadn't thought he would prefer the bulk of a samurai's armor, but it had been constantly modified to combat ninjas. The armor he wore was light as a ninja's hitai-ite and as quiet as a ninja's footsteps. Sasuke had grown almost comfortable in the sturdy outerwear.
Sasuke left for Mifune's palace in the middle of the capital. The military center of Iron also served as the capital. Mifune, as shogun, was the ultimate authority. The Iron military didn't bother bending to the whims of an emperor or daimyo.
Sasuke walked the paved roads as a locomotive whistled loudly in the distance. Ninjas never saw the point of trains when they could simply outrun one, but it was the foundation of bulk trade throughout Iron Country. The citizens walked underneath the shadows of factories that produced goods in bulk, from textiles to metallurgy.
A constant black smog always hung in the air and at times would produce flurries of black snow. Sasuke hated it and felt as if it was weakening his lungs to breathe it in. But no one else seemed to notice, from the samurai whose armor were beginning to be mass produced to the citizens who left the factories smudged in dirt and exhaustion, but they had a job and were the ones to provide the vital labor that contributed to the abundance of wealth pouring into the country.
Sasuke always carried the sense that Iron Country didn't plan to stay neutral for long.
Sasuke approached the large fortress that seemed to keep a watch on everything in the city. Where most castles were made of stone and wood, this one was made of iron, almost the size of a giant metal bijuu.
Mifune was waiting for Sasuke in the dojo when he arrived.
Sasuke bowed, stepped forward in his socks, and unsheathed his sword. Even though Sasuke had learned all he could from Mifune a year ago, these sparring matches were now nothing but an excuse for Mifune to keep a constant check on Sasuke's activities.
"Still training?" Mifune asked as he unsheathed the sword. As expected, they began to circle each other, looking for openings they knew the other would never give on purpose. "Will there ever be an end to your training?"
"No," Sasuke decided. At least, not until he became strong enough to regain or surpass the power he had during the Fourth Shinobi War, before the Sage of the Six Paths took back the rinnegan.
Mifune smiled approvingly. "A samurai's blade should always be sharp." As if to test his words, Mifune stepped forward.
Even without his sharingan, Sasuke deflected the attack with ease. Sasuke frowned. This exercise simply didn't challenge him anymore and he quickly grew bored and uninterested.
Mifune capitalized on Sasuke's complacency, flipped the grip on his sword, and used the hilt to knock Sasuke in the head.
"Going easy on an old man?" Mifune asked when Sasuke turned and found the sword point at his neck.
"Must we continue to do this?" Sasuke asked annoyed. "Just ask your questions."
"You are still arrogant and impatient," Mifune said disapprovingly. "Two years and I have yet to beat those flaws out of you."
Nevertheless, now that Mifune had the swordfight he wanted, Sasuke bowed out and exited the dojo floor. Mifune could only narrow his eyes at his ambivalent student. Any number of his samurai would die to receive the training Sasuke had been given. But with Sasuke's sharingan and his natural physical abilities, he quickly exceled through Mifune lessons. But being a samurai was more than just sword-fighting, it was about building character - something that Mifune thought Sasuke lacked, especially when unmotivated.
"Come." Mifune motioned to Sasuke. They walked through the halls of the palace. "For a ninja, you are perhaps one of the best swordsmen I have ever seen. Although, your skill is built atop the mentors you have watched."
Even though Mifune was criticizing the sharingan, Sasuke only heard a few select words. "One of the best?"
"There was one ninja, a leaf ninja in fact, that was on par with my sword techniques in my prime." Mifune acknowledged his lengthy memory.
"Where is he?" Sasuke asked.
"He killed the Uzukage, his wife, and children in a private suite during a Jounin Exam. Per the neutrality agreements of the exams, Konoha had him killed. But the event practically started the Second Shinobi World War."
Sasuke frowned. It wasn't the fact that Konoha was willing to sacrifice a ninja for an act they had probably ordered him to do that unnerved him but to realize that the darkness of Konoha casted a shadow much larger than just Itachi.
"His name was Namikaze Sagen."
Mifune watched a glower form over Sasuke's face. With Sasuke, you simply had to find the right motivation. Mifune slid open the door and entered the room where a set of armor was displayed on a mannequin. "What do you think?"
"Hn," Sasuke shrugged his shoulders as he mused on the new information.
"Use a fire jutsu on it. The strongest you have that isn't Amaterasu," Mifune prodded.
To amuse the old man, Sasuke's hands quickly formed into seals. An inferno sprung from his lungs and heated the metal room as if they were inside of a furnace. Sasuke's interest was suddenly piqued when the armor emerged from the flames unscathed.
"Earth jutsu," Mifune suggested.
A rock shattered against the armor. Wind barely scuffed it. Sasuke's raikiri didn't form a dent. Instantly afterwards, Sasuke activated his sharingan and studied the armor.
Mifune said smugly, "The armor is laced with chakra through every fold of metal, which helps it absorb opposing chakra attacks. Only if you hit it with a blunt hammer, then you will make a dent."
Sasuke stood back, and mimicked the same seals he used in his fire jutsu. Flames spewed forth from his mouth, a rather weak attack, but he maintained a constant stream. After several minutes Sasuke finally let up and studied the melted and distorted break against the chest plate.
"It doesn't do well against a constant application of chakra," Sasuke noted.
And there were times when Mifune was impressed by Sasuke's genius. He hadn't even considered testing the armor in that way. "Well, this is just a prototype. It will take years before Iron Country even has the means to mass produce it."
"I want one," Sasuke decided immediately.
Mifune chuckled as if amused by a petulant demanding child. "In time," Mifune promised. Mifune turned for the door to mark an end to their session.
As they left down the stairs, one of Mifune servants raced forward in haste. "Shogun, your afternoon appointment is here early."
If Sasuke had his sharingan activated, he would have noticed the crease in Mifune's forehead and the existence of a slight frown. But Sasuke didn't.
When they walked down the stairs, Sasuke found Mifune's "appointment" leaning against the opposite wall. From this distance, Sasuke could barely make out the features of the feminine face but the style of dress suggested this new guest was an onnagata from the kabuki theatre.
Finally, Sasuke felt the tension in the room. Realizing he had stumbled upon one of Mifune's sexual romps and knowing that the man usually kept those affairs private, Sasuke immediately bowed and excused himself from Mifune's presence. Sasuke was quick out the front door without another look behind him.
Sasuke waited impatiently for his wounds to heal. Annoyed since he had left Mifune's place, but not sure why. Sasuke had pushed his training of the wind affinity but he hadn't had the same success he had that morning, which further enraged him, and further had him jumping off of more buildings. Eventually, he came away with a limp, a broken arm, and various bruises and abrasions.
"Musushi-sensei," Kusunoki's voice wavered but had his eyes set on Sasuke's injuries. "Don't you think this is madness?"
Sasuke snarled and in his anger and frustration lashed out. He gripped a hand around Kusunoki's throat and snatched him forward. "Madness is training my ass off all my life and still only being second-best. Just heal me and shut the fuck up."
Kusunoki was thrust away and the boy gasped for air as he fell against the mat. Kusunoki reached with trembling fingers to the scars on his neck where Sasuke's fingernails had clung too deeply. But he was used to Sasuke's sudden bouts of rage, especially during a bad training day. He gathered himself, picked himself up, and focused on his duty. He finished healing Sasuke without another word.
Sasuke's jaw tightened and reasoned that the kid needed to toughen up anyways. After Kusunoki finished, he began to alter the room, and lay out the futon for Sasuke. The pane was slid open slightly to allow a breeze. A sliver of moonlight filtered into the room. Sasuke laid down on the futon.
"Is there anything else you need?" Kusunoki said with bowed head but Sasuke could hear the hesitation.
With a sigh, Sasuke motioned the kid forward. Kusunoki's soft steps shuffled until he got close enough for Sasuke to grab the boy by the neck and pull him down. In samurai culture, a teacher was supposed to teach a student more than just how to fight.
Sasuke enveloped Kusunoki's mouth with heat. He molded his young apprentice under his body. The act was much more pure than what Sasuke had experienced under Orochimaru's tutelage. Kusunoki was willing out of a sense of duty, a cultural expectation, even an honor. Sasuke had been willing, but only in exchange for power. Madness – Kusunoki had called it.
Sasuke released Kusunoki's mouth leaving his young student breathless. Then he slapped a demanding hand against the boy's butt cheek. Kusunoki immediately scrambled up and shuffled toward the dresser for the lubricant. Kusunoki returned to Sasuke's ambivalent attentions but he had become used to the moods of his teacher.
Sasuke tightened a fist into Kusunoki's dark purple hair. From a distance it looked black, the color of most citizens of Iron Country, but the tinge of color betrayed a hint of chakra since Kusunoki's birth. Kusunoki wondered if the fact that Kusunoki hated it was the reason why his teacher treated it so roughly. Kusunoki's head was twisted back by the locks of his hair and gulped at the softness of his teacher's lips down his throat. He knew his teacher was a hard man, but at times, in rare moments, he was indeed capable of softness.
Sasuke thrust so hard Kusunoki fell forward until the mat was pressed against his cheek, and yet the hand that stroked his throbbing member was careful. Kusunoki felt all of his teacher's frustrations and anger suddenly pound into his ass but he was proud to be entrusted with these emotions. Always sensitive to his teacher's closeness and too many raging hormones, Kusunoki came early into Sasuke's ministrations.
For some reason, Sasuke could never come out of anger. Sasuke closed his eyes, and for a few brief moments Sasuke had to let go all of his hate and give into the throes of pleasure tight around his cock. The tension exploded in release.
Sasuke fell against the pillow and didn't bother to shove Kusunoki away as the boy fell his head against Sasuke's chest. Sasuke had hardly broken a sweat while his young charge breathed heavily. Until Kusunoki, Sasuke hadn't been intimate with anyone for years… not since Karin and she had annoyed the fuck out of him.
Against Sasuke's will, he had begun to develop a fondness for the boy. For the most part, Kusunoki was quiet when Sasuke wanted him to be and did as he was told - like the puppy Sasuke had always wanted as a kid. And maybe, really, it was because Sasuke knew that in Kusunoki's eyes he was the strongest person in the world.
But Sasuke would never admit to it.
"The show over?"
The killing intent could have crushed mountains.
The entire right side of the house was engulfed in an instant eruption of black flames. Sasuke emerged like that of a fire-breathing dragon, enraged to have allowed someone to have snuck up on him. He was fucking pissed.
"Why should I not kill you?" Sasuke demanded of the intruder, and realized belatedly, much after his anger had died down, that if the intruder had meant him harm he would have been dead all ready - all thanks to his carelessness.
The crouched figure, who managed to escape the fire unscathed wore the same robes as the kabuki actor from Mifune's palace. As the figure stood up, his face was lit in moonlight and Sasuke was standing close enough to finally see through his ailing vision.
"So this is where the great Uchiha Sasuke has been hiding?" Anko Mitarashi asked with a smirk and a hand on her hip. Sasuke placed his hands together to form a seal. "Calm down, I'm not here to kill you."
Sasuke performed the jutsu anyways. Earthen bars jutted from the ground to capture her in a cage. Anko barely evaded the attack, but nevertheless managed to slither out the bars at the last minute. She looked up and Sasuke was charging with a raikiri.
"Kill me and your boy lover dies as well."
Sasuke's crackling jutsu stopped inches before Anko's nose, lighting both their faces like the tail-end of a comet. The bloodshot eyes of the sharingan turned and narrowed at the sight of Kusunoki wrapped in the vices of a large snake summon, the fangs precariously by his throat.
Sasuke's hand twitched.
"At first I didn't recognize you but the snakes I had on me certainly did." Anko tapped her lip. "They really don't like you."
Sasuke deactivated the technique and dropped his arm. The snake loosened, but only enough to allow Kusunoki to breath.
"What do you want?" Sasuke seethed. He knew he had to kill her before she told the hunter-nins of his position.
"You tell me what you know about an organization called Kuro no Keiyakusha and I'll shut my mouth about your location to the hunter-nins. Believe it or not, there's more important things going on other than you."
That actually hurt Sasuke's pride a little, to know that Konoha didn't care about him anymore. "Like what?" Sasuke snapped.
Anko's jaw slackened in shock. "You really don't know?"
Sasuke gave her a dead stare. Sasuke hardly paid attention to the affairs outside of his training ground.
"Well," Anko stretched and sat down on a piece of the upraised earth Sasuke had just created with his jutsu. "Mountain seceded from Rock Country and has been fucking our ass ever since," Anko winked. "There has been a bombing in the capital. Naruto killed the Mizukage and now Water Country is fucking us from the front."
Sasuke felt really irked. Were they competing to see who killed the most Kages now?! Then Sasuke sincerely wondered if he killed Mifune if that would add a tick to his list. "Who's the Mizukage now?" Sasuke asked interested.
Anko scoffed. "Suigetsu."
Sasuke scoffed. He knew that's not going to last very long.
"So what's it going to be?" Anko asked, the tilt of her face revealed the white kabuki make-up. It wasn't until then that Sasuke realized Anko was a woman pretending to be a man pretending to be a woman. Clever, even Sasuke admitted.
Sasuke had no beef with Anko and his sharingan revealed she wasn't lying about keeping her promise. "It's just some organization run by civilians. What the hell can they do?"
"Bomb a palace," Anko grumbled. She leaned back and absentmindedly studied the destruction of the yard. "Is that all you know?"
"I know that Mifune offers them asylum in Iron Country. They create a few things for Mifune and he basically gives them free reign to do whatever they want. That's how it works here, asylum to do what you want in exchange for periodic favors."
Anko crossed her arms curiously. "And what favor did you perform to get on Mifune's good side?"
Sasuke didn't bother answering her inquiry. He continued, "About two years ago one of Mifune's best samurai went missing escorting some merchant. The only survivor was a woman named Nanami but she didn't remember anything about what happened. I was ordered to use my sharigan to unlock her memories and find out what happened to the samurai. It took me a few days to crack that block. It was Yamanaka built." Sasuke shrugged. "The samurai were dead but the woman Nanami went on to become a top leader in that civilian organization. They are based out of a nearby province called Kane. That's all I know."
Anko tapped her feet and stood up. "Good enough, our promise stands."
The snake that still held a quivering Kusunoki finally let him go. But Sasuke wasn't yet ready to let Anko go. He pinned Anko down with a fire burning on the coal black of his eyes. "I know that Naruto is in ANBU. I know that he is wearing my brother's fucking mask. I know that one day I'm going to kill him."
Anko listened with all the attention as a mother to her child's temper tantrum. "Are you still peeved about that time Naruto defeated you during the Fourth Shinobi War? That was four years ago. Grow the fuck up."
Anko left as quiet as she came. Sasuke decided he really focused too much on his eyes and not enough on his ears.
Then Sasuke stood, staring at the ruined garden, brooding. He had been caught unawares and Sasuke did not like that. But what Sasuke really didn't like was the weakness that had formed without even him realizing it.
Sasuke turned on his heels for the house.
Kusunoki, shaken up about the snake, was still quivering when Sasuke approached. "Who was that?" Kusunoki asked nervously.
Then the room lit up as bright as an exploding star.
Sasuke plunged a raikiri through Kusunoki's chest, who at first stared confused, but ultimately accepted his sudden death. Sasuke watched as the apprentice he had lived with for two years died by his hand. Sasuke knew that Anko should have never been able to wield such power over him, all because Sasuke had cared. Bonds made a person weak, especially an Uchiha.
Madness.
The morning sun casted warmth across her face. Anko stretched and the sheets flowed down her naked skin. The sudden beat of wings casted a growing shadow in the sun. Anko lifted up when a messenger bird perched on the windowsill with a red message tied around its leg.
"What does a red letter mean?" Mifune attempted to rise from the other side of the bed, but his back had locked up on him. Instead, he remained on the pillow and left the hardness for when he put his armor on.
Anko reached for the red letter with pursed lips. She knew it signaled an immediate recall to the village. She read the contents, "Lightning has entered the war."
"In your favor?" Mifune asked curiously, always keeping tabs on this war he had initiated to weaken his enemies while his country grew strong. As he watched the gaunt lines on Anko's face in a rare moment that showed her age, Mifune knew for the first time in history, Konoha was going to lose the war.
Anko slipped from the bed and put on her clothes with distaste. She had finally gotten her agents inside of the main headquarters of Kuro no Keiyakusha and now she was being withdrawn. She hated leaving things unfinished, especially since she now knew that the organization had another branch base somewhere in Kiri.
Anko and Mifune had been nothing more than mere formalities. Anko needed information. Mifune took advantage of the company and fed her information he was willing to give. It had been a mutual passing of time. They didn't even bother saying goodbye to each other.
Anko was out the window in seconds. But she didn't leave just yet. She remained posted by the window in thought, processing all the information she had gathered so far. There were none of the suspected bombs in Iron Country, which she suspected had been moved to the branch base. But if they weren't making bombs, then what the fuck were they doing in Iron Country?
Anko was jolted out of her reverie when a door closed. She immediately peeked her head back into the bedroom and found Mifune had gotten out of bed but the early dawn revealed untouched dust on the floorboards before the front door.
Anko turned back and twisted through the windows. She crouched down and grinned as she followed the dust of Mifune's footprints to a bookcase. That old clever bastard, but he had gotten too sloppy thinking Anko had left for good. She reached for the bookshelf and began to test the wood until she heard a click.
The bookshelf opened. She stepped through the hidden staircase. As the bookshelf closed behind her, she was enveloped in darkness. Anko crept forward until she heard Mifune in a branching room speaking to one of his generals about the new update on Lightning.
Anko continued through the hall until she reached a room with a set of armor in the middle. There was a section of melted metal in the chest plate. Atop a pedestal sat a katana which Anko studied but couldn't see any difference between it and a regular sword.
Anko's eyes wandered toward the paperwork on the desk. They were design schematics for armor that could negate ninjutsu and for a katana that could sever chakra networks. Then she found a five-year plan to mass produce these products for all of Iron Country's army. Anko sucked in a hard breath at the sight of the numbers and years of planning even before now. Anko immediately knew that Iron Country was the real threat and by the time anyone realized it, it would be too late.
Not knowing whether or not she would have enough time to copy everything, Anko curled a tongue around the paperwork and swallowed. The removal of the sheets on top revealed what was at the bottom.
Anko finally knew what Kuro no Keiyakusha was doing in this country. They were using the Iron Country's iron to build some sort of weapon that could kill ninja but did not require chakra to use. It had a long barrel and was nothing Anko had ever seen before. It was almost sort of a metal tube with a handle.
"I thought you had left."
Anko looked up into the steel of Mifune's eyes.
"I thought Iron was supposed to be a neutral country?" Anko asked snidely.
"Neutral enough to bide our time," Mifune explained as he unsheathed his sword. "The Era of Ninja will soon be over. One day, Iron Country will once again usher in the Age of the Samurai."
Sasuke stared with smoldering eyes towards his training space and the specific patch of ground that had left an imprint of his face and somewhere else in the grass his pride. His left leg hung limply off the porch, fractured.
He had to go and kill his personal medic ninja. Now he had to wait for the bone to heal naturally, which meant months before he could train again. Bonds made a person weak, but near-sightedness made Sasuke a fucking idiot.
He stewed in his own self-hatred when out of the corner of his eye, Mifune was rapidly approaching with a limp and blood splattered across his chest. It looked as if an animal had torn through the skin with fangs.
"Mitarashi Anko just left the capital. Hunt her down. Kill her."
Sasuke casted a genjutsu on himself, fooling his brain into thinking that there was no pain in his left leg. His leg was still movable at the very least. Sasuke stood to his feet, walked toward Mifune, and studied the old and weak man.
Mifune had the audacity to give Sasuke a shocked expression when Sasuke finally put a sword through Mifune's gut. Sasuke really didn't need the old samurai any longer. Besides, maybe Sasuke had grievances with Naruto but his brother had died and killed for Konoha. Sasuke would not let that sacrifice be in vain.
"No matter whatever you had plan," And Sasuke twisted the wakizashi even further. "My brother was a leaf ninja."
Even as a missing-nin, Itachi had been a leaf ninja until the day he died.
Mifune, a swordmaster and the Shogun of Iron Country, slumped to the ground with perceived betrayal on his dying breath. A samurai's way was loyalty, and Mifune had mistakenly believed that armor, a pair of swords, and submersion into the culture could make Sasuke into a samurai.
Ninjas.
Sasuke definitely considered Mifune's kill as a notch to his Kage's list. Then Sasuke crouched down and pilfered Mifune's blade, Kurosawa, from his belt. It was a sword Sasuke had been eying for a while now. But Sasuke frowned. The weight of the blade was off.
Sasuke spread his summoning scroll and took flight on the wings of a hawk. Anko had made him kill his medic ninja. She would have to pay for that.
Anko had made it as far as the border. She turned on her heels when the tundra erupted into black flames before her. She turned around and another series of black flames cut off her escape. She took a stand with two summons the size of jungle anacondas that emerged out of the smoke. A ring of black fire encircled her and in the middle stood Sasuke Uchiha.
The protégés of Orochimaru faced one another.
Sasuke activated his sharingan and even from this distance, the scale on each snake glistened like diamonds. A plume of fire burst from his mouth to engulf one of the fangs springing towards him.
Sasuke turned and met Anko's kunai with the edge of his new katana. Kurosawa immediately lit with the high-screech chirp of lightning. He evaded her punch, cut apart the snakes that erupted from her sleeves, turned and sent a boulder of rocks smashing into the face of the last summon sneaking up from behind him.
Sasuke fell on his back with a blinding pain squeezing behind his eyes. Anko had stabbed with her kunai, a decoy when a kick targeted a weakness like a predator. Her foot had smashed against Sasuke's fractured femur and furthered rendered it useless.
Blood began to drip down Sasuke's cheek as he summoned Susanoo to place between him and Anko. Sasuke attempted the same genjutsu technique as before but forgetting the pain didn't mean he could physically stand on a broken leg.
Sasuke grunted as he focused on controlling Susanoo and keeping Anko and her summons away from him in his handicapped state. Anko was quick and deft to Susanoo's lumbering movements. While controlling Susanoo, continuing to maintain his genjutsu, he directed the black flames burning in a circle around them forward.
Anko placed her hands together and he knew the seal she chose was the beginning of an earth jutsu. Sasuke performed the same earth jutsu and slammed down his hand the same time as Anko, effectively cancelling her attack. She had nowhere to run as the black flames imploded inwards.
A plume of smoke erupted into the air.
Sasuke waited for the flames to clear. Once he noticed that their heat had dissipated some time ago, confused, Sasuke reached forward in the darkness and felt the ground beneath his palm. He activated his sharingan to dispel whatever genjutsu this was but the darkness did not retreat.
He still felt the agonizing pain of his leg, tasted sweat on his tongue, heard the wind breeze through leaves, smelled the sharpness of a burnt corpse that was no doubt Anko's, but he couldn't see.
Sasuke attempted again, until he realized he no longer felt the usual pulse of chakra behind his eyes, as if they simply couldn't conduct chakra anymore… simply burned out.
Sasuke's body went cold with disbelief, then began to quiver with a rage his body could no longer contain – searing, quaking, blinding - finally burning within his own anger. Blood cried down his cheeks. All he saw was shadows.
What was an Uchiha without his eyes?
x
Are you still peeved about that time Naruto defeated you during the Fourth Shinobi War? That was four years ago. Grow the fuck up.
AN: I was actually really nervous to write Sasuke. He was never one of my favorite characters but I did my research and decided to give it a go. To my surprise, he was actually a lot of fun and chaotically unpredictable. I hope you enjoyed my interpretation of the character.
-Soundtrack: Kanye West - Power ("You got the power to let power go?")
-Updated 12/30/2015