Chapter 10: Scavenger Hunt (part 1).
Parings: Naru/Sasu...duh.
Rating: K-T (first) M-NC-17 (later)
Disclaimer: I do not own the sheer genius "Naruto"; Shippuden of other. The honours go to Masashi Kishimoto and his genius brain that created this masterpiece.
Summary: Remember the summer camp you went to; that quaint place out in the woods, by a lake, sitting around a campfire telling ghost stories and eating s'mores? Well this summer school, sure as hell, isn't that. Three months, Sasuke, teenage delinquents, illegal alcohol, prescription drugs, annoying shrinks, escape plans, a Shitzu from hell, and new relationships; welcome to camp. NaruSasuNaru.
A/N: Double header coming your way; two part chapter; had to split it in two. AND MAY I SAY; THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO READS THIS. #cookies to ya'll.
A/N2: You may have noticed that I use a lot of scientific, psychiatric, physical and medicinal terms in here; the reason is because personally I like to be educated when I read something so I'm affording everyone else the same opportunity.
The banging on the door was furious. He had just returned from morning Cali to change his mud splattered shirt.
"What the hell is going on?" Sasuke snarled flinging the door open and stopped. The grave looks on the three faces made him do a double take.
"What's going on?" he asked quietly again.
"Uchiha Sasuke?"
He spun around to face Hayate. "Yes?"
"Please come with me..." Hayate said sternly, "You're needed in Gai's office."
"About what?"
"Rumino Sai," the teacher said, "... he was found this morning after Cali with deep legions to his neck... he claims you tried to kill him."
"This is insane!" Sasuke snarled pacing the room agitatedly, "I didn't do anything to that motherfu-"
The glare he received made him instantly change his words, "- anything to that freak...not a damn thing."
Kakashi's stare was piercingly hard, "He claims you did."
The raven snorted, "He claims...okay... I assume he is in medical right... then make them run every possible test to prove I'm innocent... I'll even offer up my DNA for analysis. If I did strangle him..," not like I don't want to now, "... my skin cells would be there."
The shrink sighed, "Sasuke, it doesn't work like that."
Sasuke immediately pivoted and slammed his hands on Gai's desk, his eyes cutting into Kakashi's "Tell me Hatake...how does it work then?"
Kakashi sighed, "We don't have the facility to run those test. To do so the forensics lab in Iwagakure would have to be notified of the incident and –"
"Then notify them." Sasuke growled, "I didn't do a damn thing. Sai is an attention deficient, petty, emotional retard and we both know it."
Kakashi couldn't agree more; "All the same Sa-"
"What's he in here for?" Sasuke cut in.
"You know I can't officially tell you that." Kakashi replied, smiling slightly, "...It would be against my Hippocratic Oath to tell you that he was convicted of sadism after painting his art partner with acrylic paint laced with lead shavings and cyanide."
"My point exactly." Sasuke huffed.
"Are you sure you didn't do anything to him he can use against you?" Kakashi asked again.
"Just because I threatened the fucker doesn't me-" Sasuke slammed a hand over his mouth. Stupid. Stupid. STUPID!
Grey eyes narrowed as Kakashi rounded the table to face the Uchiha. "...You... threatened... him?"
"Once." He murmured running a hand through his hair, "He was freaking me out."
"Listen to me Sasuke." Kakashi said seriously, "That is an offense that can be counted as a physical encounter...a fight."
A wry smile crossed Sasuke's face, "So I'm going to be shipped off to prison, right?"
"Not necessarily." Kakashi said his mind creating and discarding plan after plan; he needed to have Sasuke here and not rotting in a prison. "What exactly did you say to him?"
Pale lips twitched before he burst into ironic laughter, "I said...if I saw him draw me again I would kill him."
Shit.
"I just made your job harder," Sasuke said, "Didn't I?"
"Immensely." Kakashi replied instantly his hand rubbing at his forehead.
Sasuke shot him a look; "Did he say what I strangled him with?"
"A rope." He returned.
"Well," Sasuke said mind racing like lightning, "There is no way in hell he could've planted it in my dorm so it should be somewhere else." He paused, "... have you checked the garbage bins around the c-"
Sasuke then mentally smacked himself. Sai wouldn't be that much of an idiot to dump the evidence nowhere obvious.
...then again; Sai was a moron.
"Think. Where would a sadist dispose of an assault weapon?" he murmured.
Kakashi's head snapped up and disturbing light glimmering in his eyes as he turned to Sasuke, "There is time before your hearing. You do have the right to prove yourself innocent." He offered, "...Are you up for a scavenger hunt?"
He smirked, "Bring it on."
**** Ten hours ago, 11 pm; Tanuki Bar; Inuito Town Centre; Iwagakure. ****
The pervading darkness was creeping over Orochimaru's skin, which combined with the empty freezing cold made him shiver. The Triad bosses always met in this desolate part of town and with a discreet call in the wee hours of the morning summoned their underlings to report to them.
"Orochimaru," a voice hissed out of the hollow space at the top of the table. A man only known to him as His Eminence asked, "What of the Pein situation?"
Orochimaru tensed. "I am working on it my lord."
"How?" The voice had the quality of cobra's venom.
He swallowed, "I have recruited an insider to find him and deliver him to us."
"Hmmm." The voice sounded, "Name?"
"Uchiha Sasuke, my lord." He replied heart pounding in his chest.
The silence that stretched on in that moment made adrenaline shoot through his veins until a pale hand lifted up on the burnt gold armchair and fanned him away, "Proceed."
Orochimaru bowed and left.
Pale hands came up to form an inverted diamond under an even paler chin; alabaster lids closed over obsidian ones, "Sasuke... Sasuke," Madara Uchiha murmured, "How have you been...nephew?"
"Damn it!'" Sasuke cursed, sweat dripping into his hair from the frantic search he and Kakashi were doing. "Where the hell could he hide that rope?"
Kakashi leaned on a tree bark, one half of his mind on the present problem, the other on a prospective challenge.
"Sasuke," Kakashi said, "To catch a criminal what do you do?"
Black eyes tripping to red bore into Kakashi's, "Are you seriously asking me that question?"
"Yes."
"I've been thinking like a sadist for the past hour," he snarled, "I really don't want to anymore."
Sasuke stepped up into Kakashi's personal space and demanded; "Hippocratic Oath or not; aside from sadism, tell me what else is in his psyche profile."
The psychologist took a minute to think it over, "Narcissism; delusional projections; denial, and paradoxically extreme projection."
An obsidian eyebrow shot up: "You are telling me that Sai has an Adonis complex, has no friends, doesn't trust anybody and believes himself to be something he's not?"
"Yes." Kakashi said smiling internally at Sasuke's knowledge. "Why?"
Pale lips twitched, "Because, I've been diagnosed with those."
Kakashi pushed off the tree, "That may be, but the difference is you don't have any delusions about yourself. Let's keep searching."
Delusions. How he wished.
Stepping off a thought slammed into his head like lightning; "You don't believe he would...no...that's insane..."
"Sasuke," Kakashi said calmly, "You're at a camp for the criminally insane."
Black eyes rolled, "Does he have a history of autoerotic asphyxiation (1)?"
Light sprung into Kakashi's eyes, "Possibly. Why?"
Seriously?
"Are you telling me that nobody even thought of checking his dorm?"
Silver head met the trunk of a tree, "Shit. How did we overlook that?"
Kakashi flipped out a cell phone and made a quick call ordering a strip search of Sai's room.
"That was Morino," Sasuke said, "wasn't it?"
"Yes." Kakashi replied, "What of it."
A grunt, "He doesn't like a bone in my body." Sasuke said spinning around to head back to camp.
"Funny," Kakashi said, "I thought you don't care what people think of you...or was I mistaken?"
The Uchiha didn't even deign to answer.
(*)(*)(*)
The rope fell at Sasuke's feet the second he stepped into the hearing room. Sai looked like a wet cat with all his bristling.
The hearing was done military court martial style; three people behind the desk, sombre looks on their faces; Gai, Ibiki Morino and another man with a mane of spiky silver hair, his name tag read Senjuu Jiraiya.
Wait a damn minute...was that Tsunade's husband?
"Let's begin." Gai said, his dark gaze pinning them both to the floor. "Uchiha Sasuke, it's been the decision of this court to issue you an Order Mark."
"That's unfair," Sasuke said his tone dark like pitch, "why do I have an order mark when Sai is the problem?"
"Because," Gai said evenly; "You admitted to threating him; that is an offense we don't take lightly."
"But-"
"But nothing, Uchiha." Ibiki said, "You were out of line; case closed."
"In addition," Gai said, "You will be doing K.P. for the next five days; extra-curricular activities and library privileges are suspended for that period."
At least he wasn't going to be shipped to prison. He crossed his arms; "Fine."
"Sai has two Order Marks, and is under complete house arrest for the next month. He has been charged with three counts of perjury and self-mutilation..."
'Whoa... that was a crime in here?'
"...furthermore he is ordered to complete thirty hours of psychiatric counselling and remission exercises."
'Like that would do him any good.' Sasuke snorted.
Gai sobered, "I hope this doesn't happen again." He paused, looking them each in the eye, "You're dismissed."
"Orochimaru Sannin." Sasuke said curtly upon entering the room. "What do you want?"
Amber eyes narrowed, "Is something wrong, Sasuke."
Sasuke slapped himself; why in hell was he showing emotion to this viper?
"I've just had a disciplinary hearing." He said offhandedly.
Orochimaru nodded once, "I understand. Have you made any headway with finding Pein?"
Sasuke tensed imperceptibly, "No. Do you know how huge this place; there are basements everywhere; I need more information and more time."
An emotion flickered across Orochimaru's pale face; apprehension.
'He's on a deadline' Sasuke realized, 'He has orders.'
The man sighed, "Information?"
A golden opportunity sprang into Sasuke's mind; "It would help if I had a copy of the blueprints." He said offhandedly.
Amber eyes shifted slightly, "I will try to procure one for you. In the meantime, I really do not know but my suspicion is that he's been hid either under the Auditorium or the Administration complex. In the meantime search there."
Sasuke nodded once, "Is that all you need?"
"No child," The man answered, then with a sly look, "Have you thought about the suggestions I gave you...for the future?"
He needed to set Orochimaru off-balance, and there was one main way to do that; have your body language in complete contradiction of your words.
He shrugged nonchalantly just as he said, "Yes. I have."
Confusion crossed the Sannin's face for a second until he smoothed it out. "Have you made a decision?"
"No. Like I said," Sasuke reiterated, "I need more time."
"You will have it," the man said, "But I'd appreciate it both your decision is made and he was out by the end of the summer."
Sasuke's eyes narrowed, "May I ask why?"
"You may," Orochimaru answered slyly.
Shutdown.
"Fine." He replied, "I'll try again." He turned to leave but was glued to the floor after this question:
"How's your brother?"
By degree Sasuke turned around to face him, "He's fine...why?"
Spider fingers flitted over a wooden shelf, "Nothing...just wondering what Itachi is up to these days." A small smile flitted across Orochimaru's face, "I hope he's doing well."
Something crawled up Sasuke's spine. "I'm going to go now."
He was waved away, "By all means."
His stride walking away from the room was severely clipped. "Bastard."
"That cannot be anybody but Gai's son." Sasuke snorted.
"...or his pre-emptive reincarnation." Gaara supplied green gaze tracing over the slender, bowl cut, spandex'd and orange boot clad boy.
The kiss in the chess room didn't change much between them just that an invisible agreement had formed between them; one of solid companionship. No declarations of everlasting love; no romantic gestures; no roses at moonlight or candle lit sonatas.
They still were merciless with each other at any given challenge; chess, Go and tai-justu. Tousling with someone on his own level, Sasuke thought, was just...comfortable.
"Isn't that your girlfriend?" Gaara asked nodding toward the green-clad miniature.
Sasuke glanced up and indeed Sakura was beside the guy who was pulling off all kinds of crazy poses. His eyes narrowed, was she...blushing? It seemed like she was; her face was rosy pink. Unconsciously Sasuke's fist clenched. No it was jealously...it was...protection?
His eyes flew open.
What. The. Hell.
Thud...thud...thud...
Sasuke was banging his head on the wall. Boredom didn't even compass his present state of mind. Excruciating mind-boggling monotone torture was more fitting a description.
"Dude." Naruto spat, "what is your problem."
"Boredom." He answered. "duhh."
"Read?"
Sasuke flung the thrice read legends book at him not even surprised when he, without looking, deftly dodged it.
"Take a walk," Naruto suggested, "...work out...sleep... do something."
Wait...the second one was a suggestion. Sasuke sat up and scanned the room mentally shifting up the place, "Baka...what if we turned this room into a private dojo...would you teach me more capoeira?"
Naruto glanced up briefly from the comic he was reading, "Sure."
He got off the bed and grunted, "Let's get to it then."
(*)(*)(*)
"Motherfuck," Sasuke swore, shifting under the blonde's bulk, "Are you going to get off me anytime soon?"
Naruto sighed and pushed up, holding out a hand to help Sasuke up, "I'm telling you again... open ...your... legs."
"No thanks Baka." He shot back, "I really think I can do better."
A kick was aimed at his stomach; Sasuke reacted and rolled away, "You really think you're funny don't you?"
"No...not particularly." He sighed, bracing against the wall.
"You have a good grasp of the concepts, you have excellent balance but you need to work on your foot work." Naruto grunted, "You're just like Hakim."
Sasuke's brows furrowed, "Who?"
"Hakim," the blond answered wiping his face, "A past egyptian boyfriend of mine."
Wait...WHAT?
A/N: (1) "autoerotic asphyxiation" is when a sadist or a masochist chokes themselves for pleasure.
-Dies laughing-
Black Prodigy.
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