The word was finally his. Everything he was, encompassed in one word.
He was an Avenger. (Note: Capital 'A', implying importance, and ownership of said noun). Of the root Venge. (ad. OF. vengier, venger (mod.F. venger, It. vengiare, Sp. vengar, Pg. vingar):L. vindicre VINDICATE v. Cf. AVENGE v). It was his, him. And he was it.
Itachi had been returned to the Earth (he wasn't sure exactly how happy She was about this whole thing, either. Honestly, he'd rather spit the bastard right back out again.) Although…
"Thank you… otouto."
There was that. His nii-san had thanked him when he'd finished him off with his former sensei's signature move. He'd barely heard the infamous murderer of the Uchiha clan over all those birds squawking away. But, in the end, he had heard it. And there had been a taste of salt on his lips, and he had rubbed his face to discover among the blood and dirt, there were tears on his face. He had killed his last kin, and along with the satisfaction of a job well done, was regret for his failure to recognize there was something beyond Itachi's madness. His clan had created the monster, and Sasuke had blindly finished him off. It hurt.
Now, here he was. In a dingy inn, hundreds of miles away from where he had killed his brother. He needed something to occupy his time, to get his mind to stop thinking all these thoughts that were slowly driving him mad. (… Because contrary to popular belief, he wasn't mad, at least not yet).
Rumble.
He looked down at his lean stomach, the muscles were quivering… was he… hungry?
Grumble.
There it was again. He supposed he could eat something, the way his stomach was going on, you'd think it hadn't been fed in four days (it'd really only been about two hours).
Oh well, at least if he considered what food to buy, he wouldn't have to think about how he'd spent ten years trying (and succeeding) to destroy the only blood relative he had left.
He plodded down the stairs and out the inn door to find an appropriate restaurant to deal with his stomach's rumblin' and a grumblin'.
Six boxes of pocky, fourteen bowls of miso ramen, thirty-six rolls of sushi, and three shrimp dumplings later… he was finally full and perfectly content with his life. He could eat like this every day with the amount of money he'd stolen from Orochimaru's stores before taking off to … off his brother.
Now that he had achieved his goal at the ripe old age of eighteen, he had to consider what to do next.
Two pairs of eyes, and an odd one out, assailed his mind. The lone gray eye looked at him in acknowledgement, the blue eyes in fraternity, and the green… in adoration.
He would follow those eyes, and head home.
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
Six months later.
"Thank you… otouto."
"Damn it!" He shook his head fiercely and reached into his pack for a stray spring roll he just knew he'd left there. Finally finding it, he wandered through the forest he was in. Munching away, he considered what his teammates would say once he returned.
"Oi Teme!! You're finally back!!"
"Oh Sasuke-kun, I still love you, let's go back to my house… my parents aren't home." Of course, Sakura would say this suggestively, and he would smirk knowingly, and then they'd go back to her house and –
… There it was.
Konoha.
The gate beckoned him. Welcome home. Pulling his cloak tighter around him, and the hood up and over his face, he smirked an obnoxious smirk, suppressed his chakra and walked through.
Once inside, he figured the first thing he should do was see the Hokage… however, on the walk to the Hokage's office, he passed by a familiar ramen stand and before he knew it, he was sitting at the counter and on his thirty-second bowl. It was just too delicious.
"Um sir, we're out of miso…"
"Oh? Ok… I should get going any way." … It was rather surprising that no one had raised the alarm yet. Well, maybe they just finally gave up on the whole "get Sasuke back" thing and realized he'd eventually come back on his own if he lived… he abruptly cut his thinking off there. No, no more thinking about that. Maybe he would have one more bowl… only this time have beef since they were out of miso…
No, he had to go to the Hokage. Immediately!
Finally making it to the Hokage tower (which took a lot longer than he'd remembered… had he gotten slower? Nah…) he made his way up to Tsunade's office and bypassing the secretary outside, burst through the doors.
There was the fifth sitting at her desk with a look of surprise on her face. Of course she'd be surprised. Oh, and lucky him, there was Naruto standing beside the desk also staring at him in shock.
"I've achieved my goal. I'm back." He smirked at their obvious incredulousness.
Tsunade was the first to recover.
"… Okay…" And then Naruto broke in,
"Who the hell are you??? Obaachan, who the hell is this guy????"
What? Had his memory been wiped?!?! Sasuke waited patiently for Tsunade to explain that it was he, Uchiha Sasuke, returned from the bowels of hell.
"… I'm not sure, Naruto – And don't call me that in front of the new comer!!" To emphasize her point, she smacked the back of his head.
"I'm sooooooorry!!!"
"Well don't do it again, or I'll punch you so hard you'll fly through the ceiling and all the way to the monument."
"Yes ma'am."
Had they forgotten him? He'd just triumphantly returned, what the hell.
"Ahem." They both stopped their bickering and looked at him again.
"… Yes, right, so … who are you?" Sasuke blanched. How did they not know it was him?!
"… Dobe."
A dangerous aura had surrounded Naruto.
"You fat bastard, there's only one person who's allowed to call me that – and you're not him!!!" Sasuke watched Tsunade lay a hand on Naruto's arm. He calmed down enough to turn away from his former teammate. …Did Naruto just call him fat?
He glanced down at himself… he had gotten a little… wide around the middle he supposed. Looking at his hands, he realized that they did look somewhat pudgy.
… Oh dear. The realization had hit him. All that comfort eating he had been doing… he was… what kind of ninja got fat. Damn it.
…Although, this could work in his favor. He could start his life all over again. There would be no reason for people to fear him as a traitor and missing nin. He could live and do as he pleased with no preconceptions messing with his life. It was perfect. There would be no menacing Uchiha shadows looming over him anymore. Perk numero uno. He could finally get away from his brother's post-mortem gaze.
"I'm sorry, Hokage-sama, I don't know what came over me. I would like to live in your village."
"Al…right." Tsunade looked at him weirdly, "You … may."
"Thank you, Hokage-sama." He bowed, and turned to leave.
"Hey wait!" Naruto's voice stopped him, "What's your name?"
"My name is Shumai Kyo."
"… Let's start over then, Kyo. As future Hokage, I should be able to get along with the villagers!! Dattebayo!!" Sasuke had to stop himself from hurtling another 'Dobe' back at the energetic ninja. He merely stuck his pudgy, flaxen hand out to meet Naruto's in a handshake. "Woah, that's quite the grip you've got there, too bad you're so old, otherwise you could train to be a ninja, lose all that uh …" He trailed off here, awkwardly.
"All that what?" Inwardly, Sasuke grinned at Naruto's discomfort.
"…Shyness. Yes. All that shyness… well, I have to go. Ja ne!"
"Kyo…" The Hokage stopped Sasuke from leaving through the doors (unlike Naruto who had soared through the open window, conveniently located next to him). "Do you have a place to live?"
"Not yet, Hokage-sama. I was going to inquire around to see if there was a place for rent."
"I actually know of a place, if you're interested." She looked at him in what he assumed was meant to be a shrewd manner. "Do you want to dance with the devil, Kyo?"
"Excuse me?"
Tsunade shook herself out of her shrewd manner, and tried again.
"I mean, here's the address, just knock on the door and the people will let you see the apartment upstairs."
"Thank you," He bowed again, "I will remember the kindness of this leader's village." He turned to exit again, intent on finding the address that Tsunade had so graciously supplied him with. As soon as he was gone, Tsunade turned to the nin who had just hopped onto the window ledge,
"Make sure he's followed. I don't trust him, yet."
"Yes, Hokage-sama."
Sasuke, meanwhile, was making his merry way across town when he ran into an old acquaintance. (By 'acquaintance' he meant 'stalker'). Yamanaka Ino was currently on her way to her boyfriend's house to wake his 'lazy ass' (her thoughts) up, when she bumped right into someone whom she should have had a very hard time to not see.
"OW, watch where you're going!" Ino gazed up at the behemoth in front of her, and if Sasuke was expecting her to, ahem, fangirl… he was to be sorely mistaken. "Hey jack ass, what are you looking at? Shouldn't you help me up?!" Not to be pushed, he merely gave her a glare… and a hand. It wouldn't do to be too Sasuke-like and alert the whole town. Rather than fawn over the glare as she would have done, once upon a time, she merely leveled one right back at him,
"Don't glare at me; you're lucky that someone like you had the pleasure of helping someone like me." The way she said 'you', one would've thought that she was on the verge of vomiting. When she finally walked away, Sasuke couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief.
"You'll have to ignore her, she's kind of … mean when she's looking for Shikamaru." He turned at the sudden voice that had spoken up.
"Naruto."
"That's my name, don't wear it out!" The boisterous ninja stood up and proudly pointed a thumb at his chest. "Wanna go get some ramen?" Sasuke cringed, how was it, when he was remaking his entire identity, he was still stuck with the dobe as his only friend. The fates must hate him, truly.
"Well, I have to go to this address…"
"Oh that one, I live in that building too! We can go back together later! C'mon, Kyo! It's raaaaamen." This last word was sung at a very high octave that Sasuke was surprised Naruto could actually still hit at his age. Wait – same building?!
"Aa." He responded, weakly. The prospect of living next to Naruto for the rest of his life didn't exactly sound… hygienic. But, who was he to turn down ramen. Delicious.
Twenty minutes later they were seated at the same stand Sasuke had exited not even two hours earlier. Luckily, there'd been a shift change since then.
"So Kyo – " Naruto's unspoken question was cut off as another voice filled the air,
"Naruto!! You're back from your mission!! Idiot, why didn't you come find me?!" Sasuke put down his chopsticks, that could only be one person… who was currently tackling Naruto off his seat and to the ground.
"I'm soooorry, Sakura-chan! First I had to go see, Baa-chan, and then I got distracted by Hinata-chan, and then I ran into this new guy!" Naruto tried to point at him but instead just ended up pointing at something on the ceiling from his position on the ground.
Sasuke took this time to … well, take her in. She was, in a word, beautiful. Her hair was still that obnoxious shade of pink, her eyes were still the green he saw when his were closed, and she'd definitely grown up. A lot. In quite the pleasing fashion.
He had to fight to keep the smirk off his face.
"New guy?"
"Yeah! His name's Kyo, and he's from… well, I don't know where he's from. And he likes… well… I don't really know what he likes either… except ramen! Which makes him okay in my book."
Sakura turned her eyes on him, and his breath stalled. She knew. He knew she knew. Immediately. The hand she had at her side jerked, as if she wanted to bring it up and cover up the mouth that should be open in shock. But instead she recovered, instantaneously.
"Kyo-san, it's an honor to meet you. I'm Haruno Sakura, the second member of Naruto's team." She refrained from giving him her hand, he noticed.
"The pleasure is all mine, Haruno-san."
"Please, call me Sakura."
"As you wish, Sakura-san." She abruptly turned away from him and back to Naruto.
"Oi, Naruto, why don't you go meet up with Hinata again, I saw Kiba chatting her up about fifteen minutes ago."
"WHAT???" And without the slightest goodbye… or money… he was out the door and halfway to Tijuana. Or whatever.
That was when Sakura reached into her pocket, withdrew a wad of cash, slammed it down, grabbed Sasuke's arm, and in a deathgrip, hauled him to the nearest (abandoned) alleyway. This all happened in less than twenty seconds, allowing Sasuke to appreciate Sakura's speed, and apparent growth in strength and agility and hopefully flexibility, not to mention-
"Ok, Kyo, you have exactly one minute to explain what the fuck you are doing here." She hadn't let go of his arm, and it was probably bruising, but he wouldn't let her know that. He decided she knew who he was anyway, so he dropped any pretense that was left.
"Sakura." Hearing his true voice for the first time in over three years had more of an affect on Sakura than she could have expected. This time she did bring her hand to her mouth, and stumbled back.
"Sasuke." Her questionable eyes disappeared and she wrapped her fingers around his throat before he could blink. He wasn't afraid. She would never kill him.
Hopefully.
A/N: This is dedicated to propertyoftheuchiha because it's the one-shot she requested for my one-shot contest that I had liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiike forever ago. So, I turned it into a two-shot, because I'm the author, and I can, and I didn't think you all wanted to deal with a crazy long story (which is what it turned out to be, strangely enough). I hope this didn't offend anyone, seeing as how it wasn't meant to, it's all in good fun. And I'm sorry – the whole freakin time I was writing this story, I had this image of Sasuke's head, on what can only be described as a circle with legs, and it's the funniest thing everrrr.
Anyhow – read and review, bebés, then the next chapter comes up XD
