Chapter 4:
Chapter 4:
IV. The King of Sound
Well, you can't be a pimp and a prostitute too.
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.
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He finds Isamu in front of New Sound's Common House, dusting off his white pants, emptying sand from his sandals. Prison bars are at his side, bent sideways, or ripped straight from the holes. His dark skin has been dusted with a heavy white.
"Construction work?" He says, whistling low.
Isamu makes a low guttural noise.
'And what have you been doing?'
"Being unconscious."
'Lucky.' He wipes off his forehead. Shiro spots the Sound insignias wrapped around both hands.
'So are you going to help out, or stand outside?' Isamu rolls his eyes, directing his thumb behind him, where grunts could be heard.
He shrugs, before following his teammate. The hospital tent is too quiet, and the nurses will never find him inside.
Half an hour goes by, before a small tapping sound comes from the window. He watches as the bird flutters a bit, before he lifts the pane, and undoes the string around its leg. It nips him sharply on the hard, before soaring off.
He unravels the small scrap of paper, before crinkling it and turning it to ashes.
'What was that?' asks Isamu.
"I've been summoned." Then he teleports.
Uchiha-sama is on the bridge, construction plans in front of him, looking too serious. Shiro wishes he could just go, leave while he can still limp. Leaning against the table, Suigetsu gives a little wave, before going back to sucking down his water bottle.
"Well, if it isn't hero-boy. Still alive I see."
Shiro taps one of the crutches against the ground. Waiting is not his favorite thing, and he fights his insticts to shift, or hide.
"So this is it." He says.
Suigetsu laughs.
"Yea, I forget you kids have never been here. All white sandstone and marble. It's pretty in the sunset, if you ignore the blood on the walls."
He leans back, smiling.
"Yea, it's been a while since I've been here. Last time… must have been when we were still searching for Itachi." He rolls his eyes.
Uchiha-sama straightens his back, interrupting him.
"Must you always scare the kids?" He says, before turning to face Shiro.
"Sir, if this is about the attack on the village, I am prepared to accept whatever punishment I am to receive." He bows, and hopes that his neck isn't too exposed.
"Punishment?" The amusement in his voice doesn't extend past his eyes. "I've decided, Team 4 is going to the Chuunin trials."
He wishes self-immolation can be done on command. Uchiha-sama returns to the plans, untucking the pencil from behind his ear.
"Yep, hero-boy. Seems you did the right thing, bringing your teammate back, leading enemy nin into our camp, causing us to move yet again…" Suigetsu lists it off on his fingers.
"We're efficient." Shiro says, before bowing again and thanking them for such an opportunity, and walking off.
"Kids these days. Too soft."
"Would you rather they grew up like you?" Sasuke says, without looking up.
"Living experiments? Killing before walking? God, I miss the old days," Suigetsu sighs. Then sips.
He stops in front of both tents, as a record plays on and on. She saved your life. She saved your life.
Both have red crosses stitched onto the side, both are white and billow under the scorching sun. His lips are dry, and he thinks, maybe Chinatsu will finally shut up about the rain. From the plans on the table, Shiro gathered that there's only two lakes, one that empties out into the river before joining the ocean – his ocean, the one that he grew up in. Ironic, how the North base was closer to his old house.
Covering his eyes, he opens the flap before he hears the voice.
"Oy. Fishhead, We're over here." Her vocal chords haven't been damaged, and he can't help but pity himself a little bit more. But the tent is open, and Shiro turns around quickly, but not before a dozen girly coquettish screams force him to shut it with force.
"Thanks." He says, and then smiling. "You look like a mummy."
"Least I can walk, and be in the right wing of the hospital tents." She says, giving him both fingers.
Isamu puts her arms down, shaking his head.
'What did Uchiha-sama say?'
"We're going to the Chuunin trials…I.." He wants to ask her that stupid question, the one circling around him endlessly, that drove him out of the tents this morning. But she is jumping up and down, hugging Isamu, while ignoring the body cast. Shiro taps his fingers against his forehead, deciding curiosity be damned. It probably didn't mean anything anyways.
Chinatsu suggests hunting down each jounin teacher and learning as many jutsus as possible. Shiro shakes his head. At this point, it was about perfecting what they have learned, not cramming.
"Besides, after last week. I doubt if any teachers will even practice with us now."
He has a point. Isamu continues to shave the stubble from his head, before nodding.
Technically on sick leave, he ignores medical advice, and hobbles around, helping reconstruction. Mindless labor gave him an excuse to appear busy. At night, he is so numb, he can only climb into bed and sleep.
Conversations keep swirling around.
He helped Karin organize documents and passports, asking questions whenever he could.
She'd stamp one, and lick her fingers, picking up another page, before answering "It happened when he was eight, and I hear he was never the same."
Or.
"Sound was always his true home."
Uchiha-sama standing above the burning wreckage, his village safe for a little while longer.
Suigetsu laughing about the good old missions.
The man is impossible to unnerve. He is pragmatic, smart, and sly. He can easily seduce women and men – not that he liked diplomatic work much. But with his leadership, Sound began to gain respect, and became a real village, known for something quick, efficient, and quiet. If Sound kept records of its missions, no one knew about it.
Direct spying at this point is useless. All actions without connective tissue. The man is so logical, that it doesn't make sense.
Fact: Uchiha-sama never killed unless he needed to, a distinctly leaf-nin trait. Every morning, Uchiha-sama practiced on the hill, personally training the Sound ANBU. After the death of his brother, Uchiha-sama returned for years. Then defected, again. A cold-blooded vicious killer, with a conscience.
Fact: Eight is an impressionable age. Adding in psychological damage, and an Oedipus complex. It'd make sense.
Fact: A second-hand prince is never worth the crown. Sound meant something new, a challenge.
Fact: His teammates –
He lets the thought go. All of it swirling inside, and he is at the center. He needs a motive, a direct clause.
Everything makes sense up until Konoha.. It's hidden in the puzzle, and he only has to reach. He needs to know why he left again.
He doesn't take morning walks. Shiro sits down on the top of the stones, careful to hide in the darkness. He wipes off his hands and feet, hiding the smell of sweat.
Uchiha-sama doesn't amble. He strides with precision. Every step is planned out in advance. He stops to stoop down and gently feels the sand beneath his palms. Lets the sand sift through his fingers, before flinging it back down.
Shiro gets it, and voluntarily walks forward, announcing his presence.
"I didn't know genin practiced this early." Uchiha-sama says, without looking. He is unsheathing his katana, and the sound ricochets off the sandstone walls.
"Sir. I am to represent Sound." Shiro says, and waits for a reaction. Uchiha-sama doesn't even flinch, and instead moves his left foot, and takes the first stance. Shiro has read about it, seen it done a million times, but this may as well be the first.
"You didn't think of that, while attacking your teammate." He begins his routine.
"There wasn't much time for thinking. Sir."
He looks at him, and for once he feels three years old, caught in a lie, his sister clutching his side. Why lie when he has lies that can see straight through.
"There are no excuses for attacking a teammate. They are lower than trash."
Right foot. Cut straight down.
Sound was honest and realistic about loyalty, really. Other nins spouted off about eternal bonds. Sound understood the pragmatism, the whatever-has-to-be-done.
The realization is painful. The nin. The sentry. His sudden appearance. The sudden stroke of fortune.
He almost says, before his mind kicks in, and tells him to shut up. No, it's a mistake…
Uchiha Sasuke. Otokage. The one who ordered the attack.
Uchiha-sama doesn't stop or pause, only his lips stretch out a little less thinly then before.
The first wave of Sound ANBU start appearing, their masks glaring in the sun. Shiro walks backwards, refusing to turn his back on this sight. Men in blue all in tune, doing some choreographed deadly dance.
When Chinatsu sees him, she has to say.
"And why are you so fucking pale today?"
A/N: Suigetsu would be an awesome pimp. Lyrics by White Stripes.
Also, I know. I've been gone. Here are my excuses, my laptop broke, and I was busy doing school. There.
