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Chapter 10

"We should forgive our enemies, but not before they are hanged"
―Heinrich Heine

Sasuke analyzed Raine's face, searching for her reaction. The girl's eyes narrowed. Folding her arms, she took a moment to stare at dubiously at Sasuke. For several seconds, the woods remained silent.

Finally, Raine opened her mouth, popping one hip out to the side she said, "You're not kidding, are you?" Sasuke stared his reply. Raine narrowed her eyes further. "I'll take that as a no."

Sasuke shifted his glance from the girl's eyes to the trees behind her. Trying to sound disinterested he groaned, "So what do you say, are you coming or not?"

Raine took a deep breath in through her nose. She hardly knew this boy. Not only that, but they had been forced to be intimate just the night before. To say that Raine had a few hold-ups would be an understatement. In fact, she was almost afraid to follow along with the strange Uchiha boy. He was quiet and distant and emotionally challenged (except for anger and frustration that was). But she was a ninja. She had to continue reminding herself of that fact. She had to be strong and she had to be brave and she had to follow her ambitions- if her sensei had taught her anything before, it had been that.

"Can I trust you?" She questioned, glaring seriously at his face. He wouldn't meet her gaze.

"That depends on what exactly you're trusting me with." He replied, briefly glancing up at her with a smirk.

"Shut up," she sneered, getting annoyed with his vagueness. "If I help you with this, can I trust you to have my back?" When Sasuke didn't respond right away, Raine continued talking. "This means that you and I will be on a team together. If we can't trust each other, there's no way we'll be able to work together to kill that bastard Itachi."

Sasuke was momentarily reminded of the speeches that Kakashi once gave him about working as a team, but the memory faded as quickly as it had come. Sasuke liked to believe that he didn't need a team to help him, however he couldn't deny how much more smoothly things would run with a teammate to cover him. He planned on facing his brother on his own, however getting to that point could be difficult.

"We can work as a team." Sasuke concluded.

After a quiet moment, Raine smiled slightly with a glint in her eyes. "Do you trust me?" She asked.

Sasuke raised his eyebrows, questioning what she meant.

"What's stopping me from just running off and leaving you? I could easily just head back to my village and betray you and you're disgusting sensei."

Sasuke hadn't considered that thought, nor did he care to entertain it. "Then that's your decision." He concluded. "You are my prisoner. Don't think I wont come rip you back from that pathetic village of yours."

Raine glared at him sourly. "That's not the answer I wanted."

Sasuke chuckled under his breath, "I trust you."

Raine couldn't tell whether or not his was being sarcastic, the boy was too difficult to figure out. She turned her back to him and began to walk back in the direction of the hideout's entrance. "Then let's get going."

Sasuke smiled to himself. Raine's tenacity would certainly come in handy.

The two ninja did not delay in packing their bags and preparing to leave. Raine put together a mid-sized satchel containing a change of clothes and other small necessities. After Sasuke had done the same, the two of them crept through the halls of the hideout towards the door. Sasuke tried to push the thought of Orochimaru away from his mind. He knew that the sannin would not be pleased with Sasuke running off with his prize. He shook the thought away from him and stretched his arm into the small coat closet that was placed beside the exit. From it, Sasuke pulled two long robes, one black, one white, and (after a short moment of deliberation) a long red scarf. He threw the black robe over his own shoulder and handed the white robe and scarf to Raine who was standing beside him.

"It'll be cold." Sasuke noted, extending his arms through the holes of his robe. "It's bad for the muscles to be this cold when we're trying to run." Sasuke decided to not to mention how much he hated to cold. He had always been sensitive to cold temperatures and Sasuke assumed that, being an Uchiha herself, Raine might be the same way.

Raine opened the door and stepped outside, her robe and scarf draped over her arm. Sasuke followed, quickly matching her pace. As the two of them walked to the edge of the training grounds, Raine silently slipped her arms through her robe and delicately wrapped the red scarf around her neck. Without further hesitation, Raine took flight, kicking off with her legs and leaping over the gate. Sasuke mirrored her perfectly, bounding over the gate and disappearing into the branches of the trees beyond them.

The two ninja had been traveling for several hours before the sun began to set under the horizon, signaling the end of their trip for the day. Sasuke had made some comment about wanting to be well rested, but Raine hadn't been completely listening to him. She couldn't deny that she was tempted to leave him and run back to her own village, but Sasuke's vengeful nature had kindled some spark in her. She may never get another opportunity to take revenge upon the death of her mother and she figured that as long as this chance was staring her in the face, she might as well act upon it.

They walked together through the woods for several minutes before stepping out of the tree cover in into a cozy, little town. Raine observed her surroundings, the lights of the town were dimly lit, and an assortment of shops lined the main dirt road. She couldn't help but be reminded of her home village. It had never been large and industrialized, it was smaller and quieter- much like the village they were in now.

Raine, not knowing where exactly she and Sasuke were heading in the first place, asked, "Why are we here?"

"To find a place to rest." Sasuke responded blankly. He would never say it out loud, but he had always disliked the camping that he and Team 7 used to do when they were on missions. While Sasuke was capable of sleeping on the ground or in a tent, he had always preferred to be warm and in a bed. In his eyes, he ought to be comfortable if he could afford it.

Sasuke and Raine walked down the dirt path until they happened upon a small and homey looking inn. They entered the door and Sasuke immediately head towards the reception counter, poking his hands into the pockets of his robe.

"One room please." He said, not making eye contact with the short, old man who stood behind the counter.

The man smiled graciously at Sasuke, the folds on either side of his eyes crinkling. "One bed?" he asked, still smiling and glancing over at Raine. Sasuke looked at the man sourly and a small blush rose up across Raine's cheeks.

"Two beds." Raine interjected.

"Oh, I apologize!" Laughed the old man as he calculated the cost of the room.

Sasuke set down a neat stack of paper dollars down on the counter, not saying another word to the man.

Feeling Sasuke's coldness, the smile fell from the old man's face as he reached under the counter, fumbling around for a small key. Upon finding it, he set it down on the countertop and forced one last smile. "Here is your key, you two will be staying in room twenty-eight."

Raine glanced to the side, Sasuke had already began walking away with the key. Raine smiled apologetically at the man, "Thank you." she said, then jogged slightly to catch up with Sasuke. She decided not to comment on his rudeness, the Uchiha boy clearly hadn't been around people other than Kabuto and Orochimaru for some time- either that, or he simply didn't care. Perhaps the latter was more logical, Raine didn't know.

Their room was definitely small, only consisting of two twin sized beds draped in dull blue sheets and a nightstand with a lamp in between them. A little bathroom door could be spotted in the far left corner. Sasuke walked swiftly to the bed on the far side of the room closest to the window and set down his tan backpack. He then opened the top of the backpack and briefly rummage around inside of it until his fingers clasped around a thin grey wallet. With his wallet in hand, Sasuke left the room with no further explanation.

Raine supposed that she expected traveling with Sasuke would be this way. She shook her head slightly and set down her own tan satchel on the bed closest to the door. She then kicked off her sandals and walked over to the miniature bathroom. Closing the bathroom door behind her, she undressed, leaving her clothes bunched up in piles on the floor and stepped into the small metal shower. Raine drew the curtain of the shower and turned the knob of the shower until she was dowsed in a stream of hot water.

After thoroughly enjoying her first shower outside of Orochimaru's dank hideout, she dried her body, redressed herself and stepped out of the bathroom, fully expecting Sasuke to be in the room with her. When she did not see him, she decided she ought to find him. She wasn't tired yet and was honestly rather curious about what Sasuke would have chosen to do with his spare time. She slid her feet back into her sandals, stretched her arms into her white robe, and threw her satchel back over her shoulder, walking out the door and exiting the inn.

She didn't know where to begin to look for Sasuke, lucky for her, however, she didn't have to search for long. She spotted Sasuke's black robe hanging off of a chair on the opposite side of the road, several shops down. She approached him and ducked into the shop, immediately shocked by what she saw. Her nose crinkled at the heavy smell of alcohol- this was a bar.

She pulled on Sasuke's shoulder so he would be facing her. "What are you doing here?" She exclaimed, "We don't have the money to mess around with this stuff."

Sasuke's body sluggishly turned to face her, his spine was slumped and his eyelids were drooped slightly. The was a small, clear glass in his hand that was filled with an amber liquid. He was drunk.

"What the hell, Sasuke?" Raine didn't know what to say. This was so unlike Sasuke that it stunned her. She wasn't sure what to do. She turned to the bartender and stared at him in disbelief. "How could you let him drink alcohol? He's underage!" She shouted.

The bartender, a tall thin man, looked sadly back at Raine and hesitated before responded. "Well... he's a ninja..." He shrugged his shoulders, "The kid needed a drink."

Sasuke sighed, "Leave the guy alone, Raine." His words came slowly from his mouth, Raine could smell his breath from were she stood.

She pressed her eyebrows together in confusion and tugged on his arm again. "Sasuke, we're going back to the inn, this is stupid."

Sasuke shrugged off her hand. "Leave me alone," he groaned. "I'll be back eventually."

"Why the hell would you drink?" She shouted, still shocked to find Sasuke Uchiha of all people drunk at some random bar on the outskirts of Otogakure.

Sasuke rolled his head away from Raine, sighing again.

The bartender, slightly intimidated by Raine, chimed, "He was mumbling something about his brother earlier... if that helps."

"How much has he had?"

The man nodded his head to the mess of empty glasses sitting on the counter. Raine's anger as well as her confusion grew.

"Sasuke, we're leaving." She said again, stronger this time.

He groaned, running both of his hands through his hair, slurring out, "Ok, ok, I'm coming."

"Has he already paid you?" Raine asked the bartender, not looking up from Sasuke.

"Yeah," The man said weakly. "Ah, um, good luck with your brother..." he squeaked to Sasuke.

As Raine walked Sasuke back to the inn, her mind raced. Out of everyone, she least expected Sasuke to do something like this. He was always so quiet and stiff and controlled. Why he would do something that would make him loose that control was beyond her. She was baffled to say the least.

Upon reaching their room in the inn, Sasuke immediately dropped onto his bed and fell asleep on top of the covers of the bed with his robe still on, breathing heavily through his mouth. Raine almost wanted to laugh as she got into her own bed, pulling aside the sheets and curling under them, quickly falling asleep as well.

Raine was awoken very early in the morning to the awful sound of retching coming from the bathroom. Groggily, she stumbled from her bed and opened the bathroom door to see Sasuke on his knees, his arms wrapped around the sides of the toilet, and his head ducked into the bowl. He coughed, trying to regain his breath.

"Shit, Sasuke, are you ok?" Raine asked, momentarily forgetting what had happened the night before.

Sasuke couldn't respond, his stomach heaved again and he loudly retched into the toilet, vomit scratching at his throat. Raine, slightly squeamish, touched her hand to his bare back- he apparently had removed his shirt in the middle of the night. "Ah," Raine hesitated, "Don't worry, Sasuke, you just drank too much." She rubbed his back slightly before removing her hand out of awkwardness. Sasuke coughed again. Raine heard him spit into the toilet as he looked up at her.

"Get out of here," he rasped. Raine followed his directions and left the hotel room, wallet in hand.

When she returned, Sasuke was laying down on his bed, staring at the ceiling. She noted the small trashcan located on the floor next to his bed. She reached her arm into the brown paper bag she was carrying and pulled out a small tin of mints, a package of pain medication, and a bottle of water. She set them next to Sasuke at then sat on the edge of her own bed. Sasuke sat up, pressing one hand to his forehead and opening the tin of mints without delay, popping one of them into his mouth. Though he offered no thanks to her, Raine knew he was grateful.

"Alright." Raine began, searching for her strength. "Want to tell me exactly what the hell you were thinking last night?"

"Don't raise your voice," Sasuke groaned. Raine didn't respond, waiting for him to answer her first. When he didn't say anything, Raine gave in and continued speaking, slightly quieter this time. "Why did you think that drinking was a good idea. I thought you of all people would have more control over yourself."

Sasuke glared in her direction. "Itachi is my brother." Raine, astonished, widened her eyes but didn't respond, she pursed her lips. Sasuke continued, staring down at his legs. "The last time I tried to fight him I failed. That's why I was with Orochimaru... I had to get stronger. And I did and I haven't tried to find him since then..."

"I don't get it... why would that make you want to get drunk, why would that help at all?" Raine questioned.

"I wanted to stop thinking about him for one goddamned night."

Sasuke reclined back onto his bed and closed his eyes, trying to ignore the furious pounding of his head, and signaling the end of their conversation.

Raine shook her head, not pretending to understand him. It didn't seem like something he would do, but she supposed she could relate in some way. She had tried some drastic things to stop thinking about her past before so she decided not to judge Sasuke for having a bad night, no matter how unlike him it seemed. Sometimes people do strange things when they're hurting.

Hello, thank you for reading the next chapter of my story :)
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