Chapter 2: The Land of Waves
Author's Note: The next few chapters will be a bit faster. Due to midterm exams, I had no time to get this one out.
URL for Sekkoku: 1c7c/i/2017/111/3/3/sekkoku_hakku_by_
Honestly, I was very lazy on the drawing…
Thank you.
Enjoy.
At 7 o'clock on the dot, Sasuke opened his eyes. It was an internal clock he had since he was young. He laid there for a good five minutes enjoying the quietness of the room. He was somewhat glad to know that all of Tanzaku Quarters would be asleep right about now. 'Oh well', he thought getting up. 'Time to leave'. Sasuke left the room as he slid his sandals and wrapped his cloak around himself.
He left the hotel noticing the streets were quiet, even though people were still active. Sasuke walked the half hour out of town enjoying the slight silence. Soon enough, he decided he must make haste and run. He jumped up on a tree hopping branch to branch in the direction of the Waves.
The Uchiha went a whole day uninterrupted, trapped inside of his thoughts as he made his way, but soon enough, Sasuke arrived at the edge of the Great Naruto Bridge. Reminiscent of his previous trip to receive Zabuza's Kubikiribōchō, he glanced up at the huge sign staring down at him and gave a soft smile in response to his fond memories of Team 7's first real battle. Sasuke began walking down the long bridge passing by numerous merchants. Soon enough, it began to rain on down hard.
He began to sprint over to the small town in anticipation of dry housing until…
"Oh shit" he grunted out, stopping abruptly with the rain still pouring heavily. While he was looking down to the ground, he began to silently curse to himself, 'I used all of my money on that hotel…'. It's not like he could just earn money as he was in prison for the better part of the year.
While walking around in the heavy rain, it began to grow darker in the land. In this small town, nothing terrible happens all too often. The only setback being they are easy targets for mercenary groups. So, it was quite suspicious to see a man wearing a dark cloak, with a face showing no emotion, walking alone in the middle of town. In heavy rain. In complete darkness. It didn't take long for people to begin peaking around their windows and doors scared that someone will try and take advantage of their town.
Suddenly, a door swung open, with a heavy-set man throwing a large pitchfork straight for Sasuke's back. Sasuke did a slight sidestep and caught the pitchfork right in the middle of its long handle, swinging himself to face the large man with the pitchfork held up in a defensive position expecting a fight. But, the large man began running in the opposite direction of Sasuke in panic. He decided not to pursue him, thinking that in hindsight, he did look a bit suspicious. His defensive reaction probably didn't help much.
Everyone looking onto their mysterious man began to silently freak out. Deciding to defuse the situation, not wanting to fight in every town he visits, he began to speak up, "I am not going to hurt you, I am just a traveler visiting this land– "
An old gruff voice interrupted him, "We have already given you what you wanted, so why don't you leave!"
'They sure have a habit of getting your attention from behind', he thought to himself while turning around to see a familiar face.
An old man, around 60, appeared behind him wearing a large dark green raincoat with a straw-hat on his head. He has large beard and small glasses on his face as well. "Tazuna", Sasuke recognized him almost immediately, 'he hasn't changed at all.' A young teenager right behind him with long brown hair and the same raincoat was holding up a torch. Sasuke recognized him as the young boy Naruto had inspired, Inari. 'He has gotten a bit older'.
Tazuna seemed surprised. Did he recognize Sasu-
"Well!? Did you not hear me!?"
'Apparently not.'
Inari seemed surprised himself, "Grandpa!" But, Tazuna continued, "Don't just stand there, ya super deadweight! Answer me!"
Inari tried once again, "Grandpa!" and before Sasuke could even reply, he ignored them both, "You super dense dipshit!" "Grandpa!" Tazuna turned his head towards Inari, "What, Inari!? I am super busy right now!" Inari began again to get louder, "Grandpa, don't you recognize who that is!?"
Tazuna looked back towards the mysterious man with a puzzled look on his face, "Eh? What do you mean?" He leaned forward and adjusted his classes, "No? Who is this?"
Inari gave an aspirated sigh in response. Sasuke decided to speak up before he started yelling again, "I am Sasuke Uchiha, I was here a few years ago, to guard you while you were finishing your bridge."
Tazuna began to smile and walked up to Sasuke, "Well, why didn't you just say so! It's been a while, and you're not too recognizable in the dark with long hair and that super dark cloak!"
He put his hands on his hip when he got in front of Sasuke, "I'll be damned! It is you!" Tazuna began to explain to everyone that he knew the mysterious figure and he was no threat to them giving them a sense of relief and let them go back in and relax in their homes.
Inari ran over to Sasuke, "You should come to our house and get out of this rain!"
"That's right!" Tazuna cut in, "You'll catch a cold! You can stay with us until this rain calms down!"
"Thank you", Sasuke responded.
They began to walk back towards Tazuna's house, with Inari deciding to catch up with Sasuke, "So, Sasuke, we heard about you and Naruto being a hero of the war! How was that!? You guys must be super strong!"
'It seems Inari is picking up Tazuna's verbal tic…'
Tazuna cut back in before Sasuke decided an answer, "Inari! You shouldn't ask a man about his experience of war!", Inari recoiled, apologizing profusely to Sasuke.
'It's fine" he replied.
They arrived at the house with Tazuna entering the house taking his sandals off and yelling for his daughter with Inari and Sasuke in tow, "Tsunami! Come and prepare us some food! We have company tonight!"
You could hear Tsunami responding from the other room, "Guests? Who is it?"
"Sasuke!" Inari yelled back.
Surprised, Tsunami walks in the room with a pleasant smile on her face wearing a long-sleeved green shirt and dark blue pants., "That's great! It has been so long, is Naruto and Sakura with you as well?" Tazuna and Inari were both also curious about that.
"No," Sasuke answered, "I'm traveling alone".
Although they were a bit disappointed, they were fine with seeing at least one of them.
"That makes sense, you were traveling alone when we went to help with Konoha's reconstruction!" Tazuna reasoned.
This caught Sasuke by surprise, no one told them he had gone rogue? He was also an international criminal around that time as well. Do they really not get caught up in current events here?
"Yes, that is right" Sasuke answered.
As Tazuna and Inari took off their raincoats, Tsunami ran over to Sasuke with a towel and began yanking his coat off, "Please, Sasuke, let me get this to dry, you are soaked! I don't want you to get sick!" Sasuke obliged and allowed her to take his cloak and even started to dry his head with the towel. This allowed the family to notice that Sasuke was missing his arm. No one said a word as to not be rude, but they couldn't help but think of how he lost his arm, hoping it wasn't too painful.
Soon enough, they were all sitting down at a small table eating fresh soup made by Tsunami.
They were all relatively silent, aside from small talk about their day. The small family remembered Sasuke as being a silent boy, so it was reasonable to believe he would grow into a silent man, as well. Though, they have noticed that he is even more silent than even before. They didn't really know how to talk to him, but to their surprise, Sasuke spoke up first.
"Tazuna."
Tazuna looked over at Sasuke in curiosity. "When you yelled at me, you told me I had already gotten what I wanted, what did you mean by that?"
"Oh, that? Don't worry about that, Sasuke, it is all said and done now".
Inari would only look down as Tazuna spoke, Sasuke noticed this. Instead of prying Tazuna, he decided he would get the information out of Inari later tonight when everyone fell asleep.
Sasuke looked back over his bowl of soup and didn't press the subject, to Tazuna's relief. Tsunami decided to change the subject, "Sasuke, I hope you don't mind me asking but what is wrong with your eye? It's all purple with multiple pupils!"
Sasuke silently looked over to Tsunami to explain: "this is the Rinnegan, a special dōjutsu. It is the most powerful eye in the world right now."
Inari leaned up in the table to get a closer look, "that is sooo cool!"
"What are you traveling alone for, Sasuke? Are you on a mission of any sort" Tazuna asked, honestly curious.
Sasuke picked the bowl up to drink the rest of the soup before he would answer, after putting it down, Sasuke looked over to Tazuna, "it's not a mission. I set a journey for myself to discover my own truth of the shinobi world. I wish to see the world and come to my own conclusions about it." Tazuna looked a bit shocked, but then he recomposed himself and laughed out loud, patting Sasuke on the back. "What a deep young man! I definitely didn't expect such a super answer!"
Tazuna stood up and set the laughter aside, "well, I think it is time for bed, guys! Sasuke, please welcome yourself to shack up with Inari! I am sure he won't mind!"
"Thank you, I'll leave in the morning", he said, 'that makes this easier for me.'
"Do you have to leave so early, Sasuke?" Inari questioned, sad that he never gets to spend so much time with the people he admired. "Yes."
"I will be heading to bed as well," she began to get up smiling down at Sasuke. "Sasuke, please be careful on your journey, I hope you find what you're looking for. Inari, please help Sasuke find your room."
"Okaay!" Inari said as he began to walk upstairs for sleep as well. Sasuke got up and followed suit. Inari entered the small room and pulled an extra cot out and put in the middle of the room for Sasuke, "here ya go!" Sasuke sat on the cot, thanking Inari while doing so, setting his sword right beside him.
Although Inari wished to talk to Sasuke some more, he didn't quite know how to get his attention and go through with it, after a few minutes, he just decided to sleep, content with knowing that his heroes are still alive and well.
It took a few hours before Sasuke was convinced everyone in the house was asleep, but when he was fully convinced, he swiftly moved over to Inari thinking to himself how creepy this all is. 'How unlike me, but this is a step towards atoning for my sins.'
Slowly, Sasuke reached towards Inari's eyelids, opening them slightly to get a good look inside of his memories:
A group of angry townsmen were rounded up at the entrance of the Great Naruto Bridge in the darkness of the night, with a determined Inari and Tazuna on the frontlines.
Standing in front of them was a middle-aged man with light bbrown hair in an open dark red jacket exposing his tucked in shit, along with brown pants ending at his knees, where his black boots begin. Around him were a group of mercenaries, obviously, all rogue shinobi.
The middle-aged man gave away a stoic expression towards the townsmen: "have you decided to take me up on my demands, Tazuna?"
Gritting his teeth, Tazuna knew he was forced to give in to his demands in order to protect this town and its beautiful people. Fighting back against these men would cost them their livelihoods, "Fine, Sekkoku, you will get your damn funds. Just leave us alone!"
Inari broke from behind his grandfather in a fit of fiery rage, 'Naruto did not teach us to sit back and take this crap!', Inari pulled a knife out of his pocket and charged for the man, but before he knew it, on of Sekkoku's goonies had ran before him, raising his kick to the child's jaw, setting Inari back a few feet with a pool of blood to follow.
"Inari!", Tazuna yelled, running up to his grandson, scared of what was to happen next.
Sekkoku just chuckled with a large smirk forming on his face, "don't worry, old man. Since you're giving me what I want, I have no reason to demolish your reckless child for his actions. I'm much too nice, I know."
One of the fellow townsmen walked up to Tazuna. Sasuke recognized him as the man who threw the pitchfork at him earlier in the night, the rough man handed Tazuna the large sack. The old man walked over to Sekkoku, who met him half way, and gave him the sack, "now, please" Tazuna grudged out, "leave us in…piece."
And with that, the gang went on their way, with a mercenary turning around to yell back at them, "we'll be back if we must!"
Inari struck back up, composing himself in anger and tears, "Just what the hell do you want with this, anyway!? Our money won't be of any use to you! We are just one town! What do you think you can do!"
Sudden laughter emerged from the leader of the band, "Guahahaha! Do you think we're stupid!? We didn't just pool money from your poor asses, we took from other lands as well!" He began to count on his fingers, "the Land of Tea, the Land of Waves, and even in the Land of Water! We need to make sure we can fund our mission, so threatening poor nations such as this not only gives us the necessary funds, but also guarantees you can't afford the Five Great Nation's help!"
Everyone just looked on in shock, with Tazuna even believing he couldn't even afford a mission they the built the bridge with. "Wh…Why would you do this?" one of the townsmen asked, albeit reluctantly.
Sekkoku just looked forward, with a stale face, "we will disrupt this world. We will get war brewing again, but first things first," he looked back at the townsmen with a sadistic smile stretched upon his face, "we must assassinate the Hokage!".
Sasuke pulled his face back from Inari's, satisfied with what he had learned, 'I see, I must alert Kakashi and throw this down before he gets any real support from considerable shinobi.' He left Inari's room, quietly heading down stairs to leave only to see Tazuna waiting for him.
Tazuna looked up at Sasuke, with a worried expression across his face,"Inari told you, didn't he?"
He received silence, "I understand," Tazuna started, "I know you are a powerful man, but this is more than with Gatoh. He has an ambition far greater a threat than his."
"No."
Sasuke walked up to Tazuna, staring at him straight in the eye, "not only can I shut this down before it reaches an actual threat, but Kakashi wouldn't die by simple men. I will retrieve your stolen ryo." He walked past Tazuna sliding his sandals on, "Thank you", Tazuna said silently, "again, we are in your debt…"
"Please lend me my cloak." He went for Sasuke's cloak, grabbing it off the table, "It's still soaked, Sasuke…", "It is fine, it'll dry later." Sasuke wrapped the cloak back around him, relieved the inside was still dry, before Sasuke left house, he noticed it was still raining, he stood still in the middle of the door frame, and left Tazuna with his departure.
"You have no debt. You could not help the situation in its current form. Naruto had once preached for Inari and the other villagers to stand up for themselves, but sometimes you must swallow your own pride and sacrifice your traditional heroism to keep your loved ones protected. Those men would have destroyed your town if you fought back, and you understood that. They were not like the mercenaries from those years ago, it is fine to rely on others, Tazuna. You did what any sensible man would have done."
Before Tazuna could look up to Sasuke, he had left.