It would happen then and there in front of them all and Sasuke could do nothing but let what happened, happen. For once in his life he was actually really against what was in store for him, for example, if he was ever fighting against a formidable opponent the thought of death crossed his mind during the whole ordeal. If he did die then he would accept it, it was a calming thought to be plucked from this world where you had to constantly look over your shoulder for people that wished you harm. Though the very idea was slim, he often thought of being captured by the enemy, or his eyes being taken from him, and those outcomes were fine too, he didn't care. But he couldn't suppress the shudder going through him as two hands were put on both sides of his shoulders and he was forcefully lowered down to his knees. Nothing made him more uncomfortable than the thought of not being free.

He didn't know whether he should be more shocked that Naruto played him right into the palm of his hand or that the blonde so effectively and brutally took away his option of leaving the village once and for all. It was at that moment that Sasuke decided that he hated Naruto, but he was surprised that he would resort to something so underhanded. It was a method Sasuke himself would use should the need arise.

The two Anbu soldiers that suddenly appeared looked to Naruto for guidance, asking silently where the brand should go on the Uchiha's body. Blue eyes glanced at both of them before turning their sights on Sasuke. Usually he would take it upon himself to make the final decision on where the brand should go according to that person's personality and a lot of thought went behind it.

"Where would you like your mark Sasuke?" He flat out asked him.

The Uchiha narrowed his eyes at him, words of venom on the tip of his tongue ready to be fired at a moment's notice, but he reigned it in, opting to remain silent and cold instead. Naruto nodded as if Sasuke responded to his question and stood from his seat, walking over to a third Anbu soldier Sasuke hadn't seen until he turned his head and looked. He stood as still as a statue next to the exit of the Hokage office with a long iron branding pole in his hands, the Anbu insignia glowing white hot with hellish heat.

He thought of making a last attempt effort to escape. This whole thing was no longer worth what it seemed to be, and more often than not these days, Sasuke's curiosity and blood lust was getting him into trouble. Now more so than ever. Would he just lay back and let this be imposed on him? Would he seriously let Naruto back him into a corner?

Sasuke let his head hang slightly as the air hit his now bare chest and back. His trademark open white shirt was torn away from him and his flesh was bared to Naruto as the blonde scanned the open canvas for where the mark should go. There would be no rebellion this time. Although it would make him surge with pride over the idea of him somehow fighting his way out of Konoha, but such a thing was nonsense. He could hardly summon a fire ball or even chidori with more than half of his chakra stripped from him, and even if he was at full strength he would not walk out of there unscathed. The possibility of him even surviving any kind of attacks from everyone in the room at the same time were very low and he couldn't take a chance like that. At the very least, any kind of attempt at escape would probably get him thrown in jail, but the world outside of Konoha would not be so kind and his death would come swift and keen—maybe not even that.

Sasuke hissed sharply as the smoldering piece of iron was planted firmly on the base of his neck where Orochimaru's cursed mark use to be. He would say it was ironic if it wasn't for the small tears gathering at the corner of his tightly clenched eyes. A small prick of invasive chakra wedged itself into his network and the pain almost increased tenfold. He planned to make sure no one in the room heard a peep out of him, but this was something unexpected. This would be the final nail in the coffin to his freedom—Naruto's chakra embedding itself into his system through the brand. If he was ever approached by an enemy, especially a sensory type, they will not only sense his chakra, but Naruto's as well. There was no one perhaps in the ninja world that didn't know Naruto's name, title, and affiliation. The connection would be immediate and damning.

After pumping a noticeable amount of himself into Sasuke (definitely no pun intended here), Naruto retrieved the pole away from the Uchiha's flesh and handed it the Anbu male that had it in his possession beforehand. The blonde didn't fail to grimace slightly at the flesh still slightly glued to the instrument and thought that the tradition of someone getting branded into the organization was nothing short of barbaric. The process was older than him and he wouldn't offend the older soldiers of Anbu who went through the painful experience by eliminating the chance of the new soldiers of the same thing. His eyes flickered over to Ino and she quickly made her way towards him to look at Sasuke's new mark to make sure all was well.

It took her all of five seconds to assess the damage, not entirely surprised that the Uchiha's skin was taking the abrasive damage to it well and she crossed her arms seemingly unimpressed.

"He'll live if that's what you're worried about," she said with heavy sarcasm.

Naruto took in the sight of her. The rigidness in her posture, the way her crystal blue eyes narrowed ever so slightly at both him and Sasuke, and the way her right foot tapped on the wooden floors. She would never voice it herself, but her body language explained to the blonde male just how much she abhorred this decision. After all she was one of the people to vote for his death, or at the very least exile. He sighed momentarily, causing her to look his way in case she upset him in any way, and just for a moment she seemed wary of him.

"Please just tell me if it will mar up his skin in an unpleasant way or not, if so, this needs to be cleared away and he needs to be branded again" Naruto drawled heavily, exhaustion quite clear in his tone, "I'm honestly growing tired of everyone and their strong opinions. Why does no one realize that this is as much as a punishment as it is a reward?"

What was once a full room brimming with animosity and grunts of frustration turned into silence and heavily satisfied acceptance of what was to come. Naruto inwardly distressed that if it was this hard to force feed the idea of having Sasuke permanently stationed in Konoha then he could only imagine how bad it would be for the rest of the shinobi to take it. He would have a lot of talking to do and he would start with the ones who would react irrationally of this before anyone else.

He was making a mental list of all who he should summon to his office before Ino interrupted his train of thought, "It won't scar him improperly no. However this one in particular will be sore for at least a month because you forcefully injected your chakra into it", she looked at Sasuke for a moment, not caring that he wasn't back at her, "if you try to touch or remove this mark in any way then it will burn you. This chakra is foreign to your body, so trying to get rid of it with any kind of jutsu using your personal chakra will confuse your network and lock it up"

When the Uchiha didn't respond to her immediately she looked at her Hokage then and the blonde shook his head, she had fulfilled her purpose of explaining to him what would happen should he try to remove the brand that was given to him and that was about as much Naruto could ask of her—of anyone at the moment.

Sasuke felt woozy, tired as if the energy that was sustaining him was being drained from him before he could naturally produce more and before he even knew what was happening he was out cold, falling limp in the hands of the two Anbu soldiers that were surprised to find the Uchiha suddenly falling face forward onto the floor.

Naruto shot Ino an accusatory glare and she held her hands up in defense, "The side effects to what you've just done is different for everyone since not everyone's network is the same. His must be to faint to balance out what was put into his body. The curse Orochimaru forced onto him years back may have had the same outcome"

The blonde sighed once more, feeling older than he really was when really he was only twenty-two. He knew this was only the scrape of things and that it would only get harder as years went by. He turned to address the Anbu soldiers trying to shake the Uchiha awake to no avail and his sudden attention made them go erect in posture, patiently awaiting whatever order he had to give them.

"Take him to the Uchiha grounds," Naruto said with the wave of his hand, "he'll at least thank me for that..."


A young girl, Kimeko Higara, stood wide-eyed in front of something someone her age should never be exposed to. The doll she was caring was clutched in a death-like grip in her small palms, and she stood there in front of the scene bared to her in warning. The snow still falling plentiful around her did not help with the entourage of color splattered across it, and the chiming lullabies of other village children came back to the forefront of her mind as it only heightened her immediate fear of what exactly was hanging in multiple pieces along thick tree branches.

:::

Higara-chan was a beautiful child, blessed with sun-kissed blonde hair and green eyes, as well as a pretty personality to match. Her generosity, kind spirit, and slight naive attitude earned her a circle of friends, those the same age and older than herself. Her parents were also famed for their work as mercenaries. Even at the young brewing age of twelve she knew it wasn't the honest of occupations, but kept food on the table for their family. Most parents of this village were mercenaries and didn't specifically belong to any army like shinobi and work for the sole purpose of survival, which in Higara's opinion, made the dangerous job worth it.

It was no secret that among all the children in the village, she was the one more susceptible to tall tales that were invented for the sole purpose of scaring children such as her, so pranks and the like were all angled in her direction. She wasn't sure if what she was seeing was part of some elaborate one that one of her friends concocted, but surely what her eyes were taking in as a whole was real. There was no mistaking the awful stench even though the weather didn't permit the carcass to truly fester and deteriorate, rather the harsh winds of winter froze certain pieces of the animal while the other parts were turned a nasty black and blue.

There was no other explanation, no other lie she could blindly tell herself in attempt to overshadow what was right in front of her eyes. Her village had been marked.


Onyx eyes abruptly opened as they first met the vision of a pale, ivory ceiling above him. Heart pounding, Sasuke felt his surroundings and could tell that he was lying on a plush, low sitting futon that could also go for the modern bed. The sheets he was lying on were a dark, navy blue, a common color for his clan, and seeing it immediately made a stretch of pain cross his chest. Before his emotions really took a hold of him, he focused more on what state his body was coming to since Naruto figured it was best to infuse a bit of chakra with his own. It could mean bad news if his system rejected the foreign chakra circulating within it, it could even prevent him from easily summoning his bloodline limit. Only time would be able to tell whether or not he would be able to adapt, but for now he wouldn't be able to go on any kind of missions whatsoever until he figured it out. Which also probably meant regular and frequent visits with Ino who was now the head nurse of the village, a place and position more suited for Sakura.

Sasuke closed his eyes and sighed, he should've never came back to Konoha. Clearly everything surrounding his old home was broken, and he was commending the place for being real only to discover it was too real for his liking. Instead of an honest place it was crawling with manipulators, evil, and annoyance with a Hokage ruling over it with a liar's gleam in his eyes. In more ways than one, Konoha had reverted back to its state when it was once ruled by Hiruzen just under new management. Naruto could do what he wanted and people would let him because they feared the tyrant that was sure to be lurking somewhere within him (he didn't know whether he should feel miffed because that the blonde supposedly took his role in the village or that the people he use to know wouldn't view him in such a harsh light compared to Naruto).

A cold sweat broke out over Sasuke's forehead as a sense of familiarity invaded his entire being. It was an emotion he wasn't use to, and change didn't bode well with the Uchiha unless it benefited him in some way, so this emotion in particular alarmed him. His upper body shot up, his head of dark hair swiveling this way and that to pinpoint the source of his anxiety, until he found it. It was all around him. Everywhere. Nostalgia hit him with a force stronger than anything physical, and his eyes threatened to water. His heart sped up unnaturally and painfully beat against his rips so much that his hand automatically grabbed at the flesh right above his heart. Hyperventilating breaths came about at a fast rate, and he struggled mentally to calm himself down, now was not one of those times to have an episode, especially when he was running low on his meds. He had to get away, he had to leave the room he was in. It was near impossible to even look at the walls around him.

Everything was the same, as if no one had ever left it. As if the whole thing wasn't completely destroyed by order of Hiruzen. It was as if any moment his whole clan would return and start tidying up the place after a long and expensive trip somewhere else. He could almost feel his mind splitting in halves at the post traumatic trauma of it all.

:::

Making his way out of the newly rebuilt Uchiha Compound was easy to do with his eyes closed. Even after so many years of knowing that that place was forever destroyed and the land in which it was built upon was forever condemned, he still knew the grounds as if it had been around ever since. He needed an explanation for this, and he knew the only person that would do something so...troubling would be none other than Naruto, who thought that he could throw the weight of his title around like it was a sheet of paper. The Uchiha was positive that he was responsible, everything about him now screamed that he was trapped in his past, and Sasuke wouldn't be surprised if he was somehow apart of that. Naruto's reasons for it, no matter how twisted or honorable he may make it seem, would never amount to the value he wanted it to and it didn't really matter anyway considering that at Sasuke's expense, Naruto really couldn't care one way or the other.

His eyes opened for the first time once he knew he was officially out of the compound and immediately he was met with a two way street, as another compound was directly in front of his own and always has been: the Hyuuga Clan. Being one of the two major clans of Konoha, the two blood limits never got on well, especially when it came to the importance of the eyes. One always thought another was more efficient than the other. Sasuke was never one for politics and rivalries much like his clan was, and if he could remember correctly Itachi wasn't either. He could see the advantages on both sides honestly, he just couldn't tolerate the arrogance that came with power...however he never noticed just how well the air of arrogance and snobbishness well suited himself in an unattractive manner.

Speaking of the Hyuuga clan, Sasuke noticed someone standing in his path for the first time since he paused at the split ways. If he squinted, he could hardly make out the feminine curves and long, dark hair that went with the girl. She seemed to be idly standing there, and he shortly pondered why as her back continued to face him. Eerily, the situation he was presented with now reminded him of a scary play he once saw.

Her aura was familiar and her chakra reserves were exceptional for a female, that's when he deduced she must be the Hyuuga heiress, Hinata, and all accounts of creepiness bled away and memories of the annoyingly shy and fainting girl came to his mind. He considered her for a moment longer with a grimace before reprimanding himself for getting sidetracked and turned on his heel to leave, but by this moment she was already spinning around as if startled by his sudden presence.

Her soft gasp made him freeze and turn back around to look at her, where they met each other's gazes for the first time in a long time. Sasuke couldn't help but think that time had been kind to the young woman and that if anything heightened the beauty that seemed to exude from her. She was modest, wearing a plain pastel pink dress that brushed above her knees with short sleeves and a high neckline. Her dark hair was put up in a ponytail as well and the end of it swished along her lower back, surely he thought, it touched her waist by now. The air about her now as she faced him surprised Sasuke and slightly put him off. She had matured exceptionally, a look of recognition passing through her eyes as she gazed upon him freely and bowed lightly out of respect. He returned the bow gentlemanly and watched her every move, from the way her shoulders squared and her jaw set to a rigid yet calm position. She stood gracefully with her back straight and her chin slightly tilted up to show her position yet modestly kept it in a way that wasn't arrogant. The more he observed her, the more she intrigued him.

Despite the awkwardness he felt being in front of her, a bit put off by her stunning grace in the simple movements she made, there was a calm atmosphere surrounding them as neither disgust or wariness met her pale, opal eyes. If he was correct, he assumed she wondered why he was there or what he was doing, it was apparent in the way her eyes seemed to question his very existence.

Her rose colored lips parted and his eyebrows rose.

"There's suppose to be a full moon tonight," she spoke softly and evenly to him, casting a small gaze up at the pink and orange setting sky, "and here I cross paths with the most infamous..."vigilante" of the lands"

Sasuke was even more surprised as she started to make her way towards him with no ounce of self-preservation what so ever. As far as anyone has ever known him, no one approached him as openly and warmly as she did just then. He just didn't give off the right aura for one that could easily be approached. More or less he was intimidating.

He gave her a look and shoved his hands deep into his pockets, casting his famous brooding expression on his face, "That's an interesting name someone has thought to attach to me as of late. For a while it's been traitor"

His breath began to halt a little the closer she got, and the more she did the more he noticed small things about her that added to her overall appearance. Like the light, almost non-existent freckles lying over the bridge of her nose, or the bang going across her forehead and extending down either side of her face that framed it well, and the not too small fact that her breast have surely grown and were just barely able to escape his attention. Sasuke rolled his eyes at himself inwardly, he needed to focus, maybe he could get some information out of her since she seemed to be so open towards him.

"You know about him making something like this?" He gestured to the Uchiha compound just behind him, refusing to look at it himself.

Her eyes flicked from him to the elaborate, reformed, and beautiful Uchiha compound. She nodded and shot him a little rueful smile with the slight tilt of her head.

"He had it built last year," an emotion akin to pain and disappointment seemed to cross her eyes then, "he refused to tell anyone why and the only thing he said on the subject of the matter was that it was something he was doing more for himself than for the village"

The Uchiha's eyebrows scrunched together in confusion. What the hell did that mean? Screw what it meant, Sasuke wanted it gone. If he was going to keep him there against his will then he didn't want to be tormented by deceased faces of his past. Surely he didn't do it purely out of malice or hatred, but then again Sasuke could never be positive.

Her eyes fell solely on the Uchiha compound then and it seemed like she was burning hole after hole into every wall she met her gaze with, "Truthfully speaking, I believe every decision he makes now somehow ties to Sakura, how she may have wanted it to be or what she would've thought when faced with the outcome of his choices"

Sasuke blinked twice and the crazy, sociopathic side of him stifled the laughter that was threatening to break pass his lips, "Are you resentful?"

The look she gave him next was as if he had asked her to do something lewd for him, "Sakura and I are two different people, she had strengths that I didn't have, and vice-versa. I admire her"

Sasuke put up a hand in defense. He wasn't looking to pick a fight with the heiress, but riling her up a bit proved to be somewhat entertaining. His onyx eyes ventured to the pink and orange sky above him and a dissapointed sigh escaped his lips, looks like his fun was going to be cut shorter than he would've liked.

"I have to meet with Naruto," he paused, looking at her porcelain face one more time before he began to turn on his heel, "if we meet again, you should fill me in on the years I've missed"

Her silence was enough for him, as she didn't deny nor confirm his request, nor did he give her the chance to really answer as he took to the rooftops faster than she could open her mouth. It left her a bit miffed as she watched him go, wondering how Sasuke would fit back into their lives after all that had occurred.


Naruto was swamped.

Stress had turned his face into a permanent scowl, and annoyance had made his words sharp to a fine point. Rookie twelve could handle the new Naruto that was presented to them, most took his change in stride and understood where it stemmed from, people that didn't know him however couldn't handle the oppressive heat that came with his mouth.

Paperwork was practically overflowing from his desk and he had no interest in looking at them whatsoever, he had half the mind to send the daunting stack to Shikamaru's department but at first look half of it actually seemed important enough for his eyes alone. He pinched the bridge of his nose to try and ease the pressure building there and could only roll his eyes when Sasuke's chakra mixed with his own flared openly to announce his impending arrival. Knowing the brooding man, he was no doubt on his way to complain about something else Naruto didn't care about. He had bigger issues to deal with. Sketchy people sneaking through customs, this beast running rampant through the lands, Sakura's killer, alliances with other nations, the happiness of the whole village, making sure if any type of wars started then the evacuation routes were firmly in place, attending all Kage summits if possible, Sakura's killer, and last but not least, his Elite Anbu Corp that he was silently and subtly building under the nose of his board.

The bang on his Kage door made his head snap up from his paperwork and a crinkle appear above his nose in rage. It was easier these days to get him upset and for him to say things he never truly meant, but anger was something he didn't quite know how to reign in...at least not since Sakura's death changed him in many more ways than one.

The silent, masked, and immobile Anbu men standing on either side of his office door waited patiently and contently for his orders, immediately carrying them out as soon as the words left Naruto's lips to open the door. In a synchronized fashion, they both reached to their respective door handles and tugged them open, revealing a none too pleased Uchiha standing there, still wearing his open dark vest and dark baggy pants from earlier that day. From the look on his face, Naruto could tell that Sasuke was deeply troubled, besides the fact that his chakra was unnaturally wavering based on his emotions. He was usually more controlled than that with his feelings and showing them, but something he must've done set him off—really bad too. The old him—the old Naruto—would feel incredibly guilty, but the person he was molded into now felt nothing...

The frightening look on the Uchiha's face, the snarl threatening to break past the angry barrier he was putting on, the tightness of his gritted teeth, and his blanched face. If anything Naruto could feel the impending signs of a headache coming on.

"Explain yourself" Sasuke demanded.