The ship ride was long and bitterly cold. Sasuke woke up eventually, turned over in bed and refused to talk to anyone or respond to questions. Sakura would knock on his cabin door, enter with some food, leave it on the table and leave, then come back and take the empty plate away. That was the extent of their interactions.
All in all, she mused, she had expected Sasuke to put up a good fight, maybe even beat her. The pathetic, half-hearted fight that had ensued was nothing like the emotional battle she had envisioned.
Then again, Sasuke himself had never been what she'd expected at all. When she was a child, he'd seemed like a prince, so perfect, talented and handsome, and she'd fallen for him right from the start. The thin young man lying in his bed with his face to the wall was not the prince she had loved.
Now, as the ship docked and the contents within started being unloaded, it was time to bring him home.
"Sasuke-kun, I'm coming in." She knocked on the door and waited a few seconds for a reply. When none came, she entered the room.
He was sitting on the edge of his bed. He'd taken off his white hooded cloak a while ago, and wore simple black clothes. He was staring at the wall with an oddly focused gaze.
"It's time," Sakura said, closing the door behind her, "We're within walking distance of Konoha. Are you going to cooperate?"
Sasuke looked at her without interest, "I already told you."
Sakura sighed and came to stand in front of him, arms crossed, "This is serious, Sasuke-kun."
Sasuke just looked at her, eyes hollow and shadowed.
Sakura threw her arms around his neck, unable to control herself. Sasuke froze under her grip, his muscles stiffening up. Sakura's fingers brushed against his neck, feeling the soft hair at the nape. She just stood there for a moment, bent over, her arms around his neck, her cheek against his ear, struggling to pull herself together.
His skin was cold and scarred.
"It doesn't matter how many years have passed," Sakura whispered urgently, "Naruto and I will always be on your side. If you need us, we'll do anything to help you, OK? Please don't do anything stupid."
Sasuke didn't hug her back, but he didn't push her away either.
"Thank you." Sakura said feelingly, pausing for a moment to breathe in the familiar scent of Sasuke.
Her fingers brushed against his neck. She pinched the cluster of nerves there and felt him go slack in her arms.
His head lolled on her shoulder drunkenly and she bit her lip against the tears that immediately threatened to shed.
"I've missed you." She whispered.
She laid him down on the bed and got out some chakra strings from her pack. She wound them tightly around his legs and wrists until he was completely bound.
She sat down next to him on the bed and put her head in her hands.
Sasuke was coming home. She'd brought him back, as promised. Naruto was going to be unbelievably happy.
But he didn't want to come home.
He'd holed up in some snowy wastelands alone and waited for Naruto to come and finish him off. He had wanted to die.
She'd spoiled his plans, or rather, Itachi had.
It was all such a mess… Itachi, the murdering psychopath, had returned to Konoha of his own accord, but Sasuke, her teammate and friend, had to be bribed into returning.
She should be deliriously happy that Sasuke was returning at all, but since she'd grown up and matured she had found herself thinking less and less of Sasuke-the-missing-friend and more of Sasuke-the-missing-nin.
He had murdered people. Criminals, yes, but also whilst under Orochimaru's control he had murdered innocents. Anyone who got in his way.
She glanced at his face.
In unconsciousness, he looked just as blank and expressionless as he did while awake. There was no openness, no unguarded quality that she could savour.
This was just a mission. She was a chuunin tying up a criminal and hauling him back to the village he had abandoned.
Naruto would consider this a rescue mission, she mused. She didn't. Not anymore. He chose to leave.
She hauled him off the bed and over her shoulder, keeping a tight grip on his legs.
'Sasuke-kun' was just as worthy of the disdainfully respectful title of 'Uchiha-san' as his murdering brother. She couldn't be like Naruto. She couldn't forgive so easily. Not when his chidori had nearly pierced through her back.
She needed to keep her emotions out of this. She wouldn't be the sixteen year old girl who had begged Sasuke to return. She respected herself far too much for that indignity.
That little embrace, the whispered plea, that would be her last display of weakness in front of either of the Uchiha brothers.
xxxxxxxx
His neck ached viciously. He breathed in sharply, his eyes opening slowly, blinking to adjust to the sudden darkness he found himself in.
He lay on a juddering, shaking construction of wood, a nail from one of the planks digging into his back. He rolled over and faced the sunlight.
He was in the back of a wagon, bound by chakra strings.
Voices were audible through the wood, the sound of the wheels crunching over the rocky ground almost swallowing them up.
"…Sasuke-kun should be allowed to see Itachi if he wants to." Sakura's voice, low and furious, to his left. He stared through the wood to the girl behind it, wondering if she looked as indignant as she sounded.
A sigh, heavy and Kakashi-flavoured, "I don't think that's a good idea. Bloodstains are a bitch to get out of the carpet and it would just be a disaster all round, Sakura."
"I promised." Sakura replied.
No you didn't, Sasuke thought to himself, don't try to burden yourself with this when it is none of your concern.
"Promises are very important, Kakashi-san!" The loud, emphatic voice of Rock Lee came from the front of the wagon, "Sakura would never break a promise, especially not a comrade as beloved as Sasuke-kun."
"Beloved?" Sasuke heard Kakashi repeat very quietly. Sakura gave an embarrassed laugh.
"Shut up, Kakashi," She huffed, "I am not having this conversation with you again."
"Did I say something wrong?" Kakashi asked dryly.
"Only all the time." Sakura gave a heh sound, an oddly sarcastic laugh for a girl like her.
Sasuke rolled over very slowly, using his perfect muscle control to move over the planks of wood without making a noise. His ear brushed against the flaking, sand-coloured wood and he listened hard.
From what he could see from outside of the wagon, it was a beautifully sunny day. He watched the soft dirt road shrink in the distance in silence as none of the others spoke. Cicadas were singing. They reached a hill and whatever was pulling the wagon did so very gently, so he wasn't bumped or jerked around at all. He wondered if this had been done on purpose.
They reached the peak of the incline and Sasuke felt his stomach swoop a little as the wagon slipped down again to ground level. He waited, still listening, wanting that touch of familiarity he felt whenever these ghosts of his childhood spoke.
"I think we are very close now," Rock Lee said. He had challenged Sasuke once and he had been pleased to have a warm up before the real matches began. Like Naruto, he'd assumed that this freak with the eyebrows and the bowl cut would make for an easy win, but he had been proven very, very wrong.
So wrong in fact, that he had been spooked, falling with no inclination of saving himself or even softening the fall, Itachi's voice going through his mind, live and grow stronger, and yet this freak with no jutsu was beating him and then –
Sakura had caught him. Had landed on her knees with a little, delicate oof sound, him in her arms.
"We are." Kakashi drawled, his lazy tones unchanged by the years. Sasuke had been thoroughly unimpressed with the teacher after he had fallen for Naruto's childish prank, but he had turned out to be far more dangerous than he had seemed…
"Naruto's going to be so pleased." Sakura said cheerfully, her footsteps light and quick next to Sasuke's ear.
What had been his first impression of Sakura? Annoying. Too loud. She had not gone on to change his mind.
She had always been on the periphery of his mind, his priorities, his memories. Always cheering him on from the sidelines, watching him leave, watching him and Naruto fight…
Until that night, he had thought of her as an annoyance and a weak one at that.
He had needed a new sword after encountering the new Sakura, the one with super strength and a backbone.
"Any other Hokage would see this as the political headache that it really is," Kakashi said wryly, "But Naruto will probably throw a party."
Hokage?
Naruto was Hokage?
Sasuke let out a quiet, amused breath. The dobe had managed to achieve his dream.
Sasuke had turned his back on his own dream.
Throughout their childhood, Sasuke had been better. He had been superior in every single area. He was popular, talented, focused on his goal and destined to succeed. Naruto had been despised by the entire village. He was unable to produce a single viable bunshin. His dream was impossible.
Now look at them.
He wondered at what point Naruto's dream had stopped being impossible.
How much had changed since he had left?
xxxxxxxx
"A messenger hawk arrived for you, Hokage-sama," Hinata bowed deeply, a small scroll in her hands with Konoha's code for urgent stamped on the front, "It looks as though the hawk came from a long distance."
Naruto didn't immediately jump up and snatch the scroll from her hands like he wanted, because that wouldn't be very Hokage-like at all. He did, however, yelp and spill his water down himself.
Hinata looked shocked momentarily, then rushed to his side where he was cursing, brushing himself down.
"No, um, allow me, Hokage-sama." She said timidly, pressing her fingers together in a hand seal, the scroll safely deposited onto the desk.
Naruto was about to wave it off when he noticed the determined set of her mouth, the narrowed eyes, and he sat back easily enough, willing to give her a chance.
She muttered something under her breath and released a careful flare of chakra. Naruto felt his clothes warm up to a comfortable temperature, lightly steaming.
"Oh, thanks Hinata-chan!" He grinned, snatching up the scroll happily and breaking the seal.
"It's a new jutsu I learned…" Hinata said quietly, flushing.
"Yes! It's from Kakashi-sensei! Huh?" Naruto fell silent, bright blue eyes scanning the coded words hastily.
"I practised a lot…" Hinata bit her lip.
"Huh! Ah!" Naruto shouted, holding the scroll aloft, "Hinata-chan! They – they… They found Sasuke!"
Hinata blinked in surprise.
Naruto threw the scroll down and started to dance happily in his Hokage robes, "They did it they did it they DID IT!"
Hinata glanced at the scroll. She caught words like 'hiding out,' 'came without incident,' 'on route back.'
"But… but… Hokage-sama…"
He turned around at her voice and grinned right in her face, oblivious to her blush. He seized her hands and started to dance around his office with her, his joy infectious. Hinata smiled and laughed out loud, her hands tingling where he held them.
Naruto had tears in his eyes.
"Oh?" He paused, considering something. His expression changed so abruptly that Hinata let go of his hands in shock, "Ah! This is… This is the worst possible time for this to happen!"
"Oh…" Hinata said, looking at Naruto's desk where he'd left several reports and papers scattered. Uchiha Itachi's photo peeked out from beneath a case file, "Because of that… I see… Sasuke-san might…"
Naruto let out a groan, holding his head as if in pain, "What should I do? What should I do, Hinata-chan?"
Hinata pulled out the photo and gazed at it. Itachi was a handsome man, but Hinata had never thought much of the cold attractiveness others claimed to love about the Uchiha clan. Besides, she tilted her head to read the notes that came with the picture, he was a murderer.
"You are going to have to have a long chat with Sasuke-san," She said, "And explain everything."
"Argh, this sucks…"
"I don't know," Hinata gave a fond chuckle, gazing at Naruto's downcast expression, "I think it might be good for both of you. You haven't had a chance to speak with him properly for so long, after all."
Naruto blinked. His grin returned, "Hinata-chan! I used to think you were gloomy and so negative, but now I see you're a very cheerful person!"
Hinata was startled, "Ah, I don't know…"
"It's nice!" Naruto declared, smiling brightly.
Hinata felt her chest tighten painfully, and managed to smile in return, "T-thank you, Hokage-sama…"
"OK! If I'm going to see Sasuke again soon, I'm gonna need lots of ramen for energy! I'm taking the rest of the day off, Hinata-chan!"
"E-eh?!"
xxxxxxxx
The wagon stopped, wheels crunching to a halt. The smell of meat cooking drifted on the air, he could hear fat bubbling and spitting next to him, could sense a crowd of civilians all around him. The sky was dark blue, the moon hanging heavy over the village.
There was a tree nearby, with low hanging branches. The leaves rustled, a sound as familiar as his own breath.
This was where he had been born, where he had been raised and where he had run away.
Konoha.
" – can we risk it?" Sakura's voice pierced the silence, louder than the rustling leaves, the spitting fat, "To move him now, with so many people around?"
"It shouldn't be a problem. This close to the Hokage Tower, Anbu will be posted around. We should be covered from every angle." Kakashi said quietly, his voice barely audible.
"Even so, I'd like to make sure he's not in –"
"Sakura, he will be fine. Just help Lee get him out without making a sound," Kakashi murmured, a light slap of a hand against a shoulder, or back, Sasuke couldn't tell, "Alright! Time to unload the baggage!" He said loudly, sounding as though he was amused.
"Baggage away sir!" Lee said promptly.
Sasuke was confused by what he meant until a pair of strong hands gripped him and pulled him smoothly from the back of the wagon.
Lee passed him into Sakura's arms without her having to say a word. Sasuke shifted uncomfortably, embarrassed and worried he would be too heavy for her, but her muscles didn't even shift under his weight and – oh, she was stronger than she looked. He somehow kept forgetting that.
Sakura didn't look at him.
"Well," Kakashi's eye crinkled, "Welcome back, Sasuke."
"It was an honour to assist on this mission!" Lee declared.
"I really think we can untie him now." Sakura said, Sasuke feeling every word vibrate through him, his ear pressed against her chest. He squirmed slightly, hating being so close to someone with no way of moving away.
Kakashi just shrugged, moving out of Sasuke's line of sight. Rock Lee's bandaged hand flashed across Sasuke's face and he felt Sakura's grip tighten.
"No, I can do it Lee. It's fine."
Sakura carefully carried him a few steps, still looking straight ahead, anywhere but at him. Sasuke watched her face, noted the bags under eyes, her skin's pallor.
Then she bent down and he shifted in her grip, rolling slightly onto cold stone – a bench, maybe, and some thick strands of hair fell into his eyes. He shook his head as much as he could, irritated.
Sakura's cool fingers brushed the hair aside. She looked away from his searching gaze, looked up at the moon and gave a heartfelt sigh.
A breeze made her close her eyes, a hand smoothing her hair back, clothes rippling. It sounded as though the leaves were whispering all around them as the wind picked up.
The moonlight bathed Konoha in a milky glow, the stalls cast in an eerie light, the roasted meat glistening on the spit. Sasuke looked away, finding Sakura's intent gaze on his face.
"I'm going to untie you." Sakura said, brandishing a kunai, "So don't make any sudden moves, or you might lose a finger and I've not reattached one in a while, it might not take."
Sasuke resisted the urge to roll his eyes as she came at him, sharpened metal glinting in her fist.
She sliced neatly through the chakra strings and then placed one finger on his chest, winding the rest of the glowing strings onto the other hand. Lee came up and held some of the severed strings up for her.
"Thanks," She muttered, chakra flaring strongly. The strings began to reform where they had been cut.
Out of curiosity, Sasuke tried to rise. Nothing. The finger on his chest was as unyielding as a rock. He peered through the gloom and saw a faint haze of blue chakra around her hand.
Sakura tightened the strings, winding them up again and again until they were coiled in her hand. She slipped the coil over Sasuke's wrists, Lee tightening them with a pull. A final flicker of chakra and they were sealed. Sasuke wouldn't be able to free his hands without his chakra, and Kakashi had sealed it all away after that idiot Lee knocked him out, and the strings would leech any chakra he managed to regenerate.
"Can you stand?" Sakura asked, so close to his face that all he could see was her concerned features, the tightened brow, the hard line of a frown.
He drew back his head and sat up, testing his legs.
He stood without a word, feeling blood immediately rush to his feet. He stayed standing with a considerable amount of effort.
"Good," Kakashi said cheerily, "Because there's someone who has been dying to see you for a long time."
Sasuke took a step and stumbled. Sakura immediately caught his elbow, already turning away and saying, "Lee, could you get rid of the wagon please? Thanks."
Sakura linked her arm in his and met his eyes intentionally for the first time since their fight. She smiled, her gaze softening. He wondered what she saw in him that made her look at him with such tender eyes.
"Come on," She said softly, "Naruto's waiting."
Kakashi came to stand on his left, hands in pockets, consistently casual as always, but his own hand slid out and around Sasuke's other elbow without saying a word.
Sasuke closed his eyes, suddenly exhausted, and allowed the two of them to lead him on.
xxxxxxxx
Naruto sat at his desk, foot jiggling with nervous energy. Ever since he'd been restricted to the desk he had lost all opportunities for exercise, even a casual walk, and thus found himself practically jumping up and down in his seat at the end of a particularly dull day.
Hinata had gone off somewhere, presumably to do something.
Naruto sighed, drumming his fingers on the arm of his chair. Tsunade had never bothered to warn him that being Hokage was the most boring job in the world. Farmers saw more action then he did. Scribes.
He had gone home, ate copious bowls of ramen, danced around for a while, and then started to itch when he thought about all the paperwork he had to do. It didn't take long before he was hauling the robes back on and tripping back to his office
He pulled out the picture of Itachi and gazed at it. His face was so familiar to Naruto, and yet subtly different from the one Naruto knew. While he and Sasuke shared facial features, Itachi looked older, sharper, crueller…
He should have gone home by now. He could be sleeping in his bed right at this second, not a care in the world, happily oblivious to the Anbu guards watching him sleep… It had been a happy discovery indeed that he slept like the dead and had no idea elite ninja were prowling on his rooftop.
Kiba, his temporary bodyguard, had already gone home, shouting something about drinks with Shino.
Naruto gazed at his desk, his nail peeling the paint away slightly, and thought sadly, I could destroy this desk with my little finger.
"I'm so wasted here." He groaned aloud, leg jiggling up and down in boredom.
A quiet rap at the door nearly made him fall out of his seat.
"Oh, Hinata-chan?" He called out.
Silence.
Naruto frowned, standing up without a sound. He moved away from the door, kunai flicking out from his long sleeves after he lightly touched his palms.
He strained his ears, and caught a hissed conversation outside the door. Kakashi's voice. Kakashi.
Naruto dropped his kunai.
"It's me, Sakura," She called through the wood, "I'm coming in. Just to warn you –"
The door slid open just as Naruto dove across the desk and turned his lamp on, bathing half the room in light, the other still cast in shadow.
" – You have a visitor." She finished, coming into the room, her hand curled around –
Naruto blinked, tears blurring his vision.
"Aw crap," He muttered, whirling around to scrub at his eyes with his sleeves, "Crap, crap, crap!"
"Naruto?" Sakura asked, sounding concerned.
Naruto hunched over, tears still falling.
He turned around, wiping his face, hardly daring to look.
Sasuke stood between Kakashi and Sakura. He looked thin and dead on his feet, but he wasn't dead he was alive, alive!
Naruto threw his robes off, his hat flying over the lampshade, and he rocketed forward.
Sasuke tensed, his bound hands coming up to his chest in a defensive position.
Naruto punched him in the face, growling, "Teme… you got taller!"
Sasuke looked shocked, the side of his face immediately flushing red and swelling up.
Naruto yanked him into a hug.
"Cry baby." Sakura sniffed, wiping her eyes and smiling fondly at the two of them.
Kakashi gently separated the Hokage and his ex-teammate.
"C'mon now, Naruto, he's pretty exhausted…"
Sasuke wrenched himself away, hitting the wall in his hasty retreat. Sakura reached out and steadied him automatically.
Naruto gazed at Sasuke expectantly, grinning wildly. He was older, Sasuke thought, his face longer and thinner. He didn't look as stupid in the robes as he should have done.
"Sasuke," Naruto didn't bother to wipe away his tears this time, just carried on grinning aimlessly at him, "I'm glad you're back."
Sasuke stared at him, muscles tense, half his face on fire from the hit he'd taken earlier.
"…Dobe," He said finally, Kakashi giving his shoulder a little warning squeeze, "They couldn't find anyone else to be Hokage?"
"No one as good as me in the whole village," Naruto boasted, his eyes dancing with mirth, "The only guy who could match me ran off to the Land of Spring to play with the flowers."
"Then Konoha's sorely lacking in talented ninja." Sasuke replied automatically, finding the disdainful response came surprisingly naturally to him.
Naruto let out a bark of laughter, "I've missed you, bastard! Kakashi-sensei – er, Kakashi will show you to your room, I've set up a temporary apartment just in case and it's in your name –"
"No."
Naruto's smile wavered, "What?"
"I will stay in my house."
"The… the manor?" Sakura ventured, giving him a frustratingly worried look. What was she worried about?
Sasuke didn't bother to reply if only to state the obvious.
Naruto gave Sasuke an oddly shrewd look, blue eyes flashing across his face, "OK," He said slowly, "OK. Hinata will disable your chakra system until I say otherwise. You will live under constant Anbu watch. You don't leave the village. You don't do anything without okaying it with your guards. You don't talk to anyone who hasn't been cleared by your guards. You will not be permitted to train or fight. You will not be permitted to watch anyone train or fight. Certain people such as Sakura, myself and Kakashi, may visit you at any given time. And you will not be taken to see your brother if you break a single one of these rules."
For a long, tense moment, Sasuke just stared at Naruto incredulously, his entire expression just screaming, this is Naruto?
"Kakashi," Naruto pointed out the door, "Take Sasuke to Hinata, explain to her what she needs to do and then take him to the Uchiha Compound. I'm guessing you know what to do from there."
Kakashi gave a nod and grabbed Sasuke's shoulder, lightly nudging him forward out of the room.
Sakura remained in the office, smiling at Naruto, "Can you believe it, he's back! We just need to –"
"Bad news," He cut in, "Well, er, good news. I guess. You might want to sit down."
Sakura's heart sank. She sat down in the chair opposite Naruto's and waited. She knew something would come along to destroy the high she felt from Sasuke's return, she just hadn't anticipated it would come this quickly.
Naruto sat down opposite her, his gaze solemn.
"OK, I'll get right to it. Uchiha Itachi has been cleared of all charges of any crime he has been proven to have committed or been accused of since he joined the shinobi forces."
Sakura felt the ground drop from beneath her, her stomach lurching drunkenly. She gripped the table for purchase, her mind swimming in confusion.
"What?" She gasped, "I don't…"
"He was a double agent. For us. The Uchiha massacre was ordered by the Sandaime. He joined Akatsuki as our spy. The moment the Council found out we had sent you to retrieve Sasuke, they knew the truth would come out, so they told me in private. I obviously absolved all of his crimes straightaway."
Sakura shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts.
"Does… does Sasuke know?"
"No. He will. Itachi is innocent, Sakura. This is the best news Sasuke could have ever had, and it's come years too late."
The plot thickens.
Sorry about the long wait.
Next chapter should have lots of Sakura actually acting like a shinobi. I don't write that very often :)
I was giggling writing Naruto's hilariously overblown reaction to Sasuke's return, could you tell?
Quick poll for fun: What's your favourite chapter/episode of Naruto and why?
No suggestions.
