I'm really sorry for the long wait, but Christmas has been kind of hectic, so thank you for your patience. I hope you all had a great Christmas and wish you a Happy New Year – may all your resolutions come true, because mine never do ^^
11. Shocking news
The room was doused in perfect darkness, so dark that he couldn't even tell whether his eyes were open or not. The eyes that were known all over the country. The eyes that were feared by everyone who ever looked into them. The eyes-
-the very eyes that could barely read the labels of the bottles he used to quiet his nerves.
His ears weren't as easy to fool though and neither were his instincts. His instincts were all but screaming right now. It was anything but an unfamiliar sensation and for a moment he contemplated ignoring it altogether and just submit to the peaceful quiet of the bedroom and the lack of any indicators for a disturbance.
But wasn't it a little too quiet?
His head moved to the other side of the bed, his hand following suit, groping over tangled sheets, along the space that ought to be occupied. Empty now, empty and cold.
Not really an uncommon thing either, but even so it led Sasuke to pay attention to his trained instincts and the overwhelming feeling that something was out of place. That something was not quite right.
Careful to keep the covers from rustling, he sat up, his eyes scanning the dense darkness surrounding him. He could swear that right there in front of him was a spot where the darkness not only looked but also felt darker.
As his charcoal eyes turned crimson he knew that it was more than a mere phantasm.
Though he didn't think it possible, his heart still picked up its pace and volume, hammering so loud as though it was right between his ears. And try as he might, he could not seem to quiet the traitorous sound.
Without making the slightest noise, he slid to the edge of the mattress, flinching, as the wooden floorboards creaked under the weight of his bare feet. Oh so slowly, Naruto moved his hand towards his bedside table, reaching for the first thing he could put his fingers on.
Unfortunately, it was only his alarm clock, but in the hand of a true master, even a mere stone can be more frightening than the sharpest sword, right?
With that in mind and his clock poised in his hand, as though it really was an object to be feared, Naruto rose to his full height, not sure if being silent was even necessary at this point. Whoever there was in his room had to know that he was awake already and it didn't seem to unsettle him in the least.
Despite how much he hated being underestimated, just now that might turn things in his favour. He'd soon enough convince the intruder of his misjudgement. Uzumaki Naruto was no one to mess with – especially not at three o'clock in the morning.
For a brief second, the briefest and most unrealistic of seconds, he thought it was Sayuri. What a comforting notion that would have been, but in the end he only felt foolish for even having entertained that thought. He could never forget the way she felt. Never. And the chakra emanating from that large, dark silhouette was anything but familiar. Anything if not sinister.
Maybe not quite as unfamiliar as he thought…
It was impossible for him to tell or to grasp any clear thoughts, as he realised just where that person was standing. And, forgetting that he was unarmed, forgetting that he was stark naked, forgetting the whole world around him, Sasuke stood up.
His eyes shifted.
"Step away from the crib."
"Identify yourself."
"I let myself in."
What a bold and absolutely useless statement to make. As if he could have gotten in any other way. Still that gave him a chance to locate the speaker and do a first bit of analysis. The voice was composed and husky, rattling through the space of the room and seeming to come out of every direction all at once. Something about it vaguely scratched at the edge of memory, but he wasn't quite awake enough to channel his attention on anything but the situation at hand. It would have appeared very foolish to him, if he let himself be distracted by sorting through the folders in his memory section, with no hint, other than the sound of a voice. He'd soon enough find out who he was dealing with, for now it was enough to know that someone who would break into his house and stalk him in the darkness couldn't be a well-disposed person.
"Is that clock meant to serve as a weapon against me? If so then you can drop it right away. It won't work."
The words in and of themselves were taunting if anything, but the voice was nothing but blank. Just where had he heard it before?
"Show yourself!" Naruto growled, tightening his grip around his weapon of choice slightly, tensely, while he felt a growing anger swell inside of him, an anger that nourished the malicious demon in him and would soon enough taint his vision red.
His eyes, never once blinking, remained fixed on the shadow as it began to move. Step by slow step. The floorboards did not creak under his weight as they had under his, which assured him that he had a skilled opponent in front of him. But there was something else… Something like a faint rustle accompanied his every movement.
A myriad of heartbeat explosions later, the man finally abandoned the shadows and his face was illuminated by the faint glow of moonlight. Naruto almost dropped the clock as he recognised his visitor.
"What a cold reception," the man said with something akin to disappointment resonating in his voice.
A man. He had guessed right from the silhouette. But just what was another man doing in his bedroom? And how had he gotten here? Why hadn't he noticed him earlier?
Why didn't the alarm go off?
"And if I choose not to?" he drawled, sounding almost bored and definitely not unsettled, like you should suppose a burglar would feel after being caught. But then Sasuke did not believe for a single second that this man was a mere burglar.
A quick sequence of seals and then the bedroom was doused in an eerie blue light, emanating from Sasuke's hand and throwing strange shadows all over the walls. A shrill screeching, like that of birds suffering an electric shock, reverberated in their eardrums, leaving their hair stand on end. He wouldn't allow that man to stay in the cover of darkness, but even exposed in the glaring light, he couldn't make out more of him than before, since he was still standing with his back turned to him, his body hidden within a heavy cloak.
"That would be highly foolish," Sasuke said blankly and what an effort it was to have his voice sound that way! Something that usually came natural to him was now a great challenge. How could he stay calm, when fear was eating away at the essence of his very being? His nerves were so tense, it felt as though they might snap like brittle tubes at the tiniest movement and instead of staying focused on his opposite, on analysing his movements and being prepared to counter them, his thoughts were straying into directions he didn't want them to go.
Where was Sayuri?
What about Mikan?
What if it was too late?
Inadvertently a picture of his parents forced itself into the front of his mind. His mother lying on the ground, her eyes closed and her ink black hair fanning out underneath her, as though asleep, with only a narrow trail of red, trickling from her slightly parted lips and his father lying above her. Although at first he hadn't detected any sign of injury on him, it was far easier to tell that he was dead than it was with his mother. Just the way he lay there, powerless, with his head bowed – he had never seen his father in such a weak pose. It was only later that he registered the blood pooling all around them, spraying the walls and floors. And that smell. The metallic tang of blood and gore – it was the first time he had smelled it, but ever since then it had accompanied –haunted– him on his way through life. Who would have thought, before that day, that the roads of his life would be tainted red?
He was almost sure he could smell it again, hanging heavy in the room – too heavy to be a mere product of memory.
"If that is the case, then it seems like I don't have another choice."
The man said as he slowly turned around.
He knew who it was, even before he spotted his face.
"G-Gaara…? What are you doing here? I nearly had a heart attack."
Naruto's tense posture relaxed and with a casual movement, he tossed the alarm clock on his bed, before laying his hand on his heart, pressing against his chest to help calm it.
"I knocked, but you didn't react," Gaara explained and kept standing there in the moonlight, with his arms crossed in front of his chest and a rather tense posture. With him it wasn't anxiety though, it was just habit.
"Oh… eh… yeah, I was sleeping…" Naruto grimaced, knowing that it wasn't much of a ninja-ish thing to do. They were trained from the start to keep their instincts alert, no matter the situation, even in sleep. But then he had succumbed to one, maybe even two, of the three ninja vices, so that might explain his inattentiveness. They weren't called vices for nothing. But why did Gaara – the Kazekage – of all people have to catch him unprepared?
"So what brings you here?"
"I am here against the will of the Hokage and Konoha's council," Gaara started, watching Naruto's reaction to his admission and the Uzumaki did not look surprised, he'd say he looked grim. After all, it wasn't really a novelty that he was being kept in the dark.
"I see." Naruto nodded and sat down on his bed. "Go ahead."
"Hn." The Suna-nin nodded thoughtfully, wondering how much he should tell him. Eventually he decided on everything. "In the past weeks various people from Suna and Konoha Gakure vanished during their missions."
"What?"
People from his very own village vanished and he didn't even know about it? Was that how politics functioned? Covering everything up and doing nothing? Has it always been this way? Or was it his personal disappointment about Tsunade's actions concerning his own person that made him deem their procedures reprehensible, when just a few weeks ago he had never questioned them?
Again Gaara just nodded, giving Naruto a moment to digest the news, before he carried on, "The first two have been found in the course of this week-"
"-really? How are they? Where are they? And who did that to them? Did they see their kidnapper?"
"Perhaps. But they are in no condition to talk about it… ever."
That left Naruto blanching and his stomach churned. He didn't even know who it was, so it was probably just the alcohol he had consumed or maybe the butterflies in his stomach, which must have been struck by a heart attack in his stead, the moment he had still thought Gaara was an intruder, which he in fact still was – just none of the bad kind, although he sure enough had nothing but bad news in tow.
"But something about their corpses was peculiar, something they both had in common… …"
"Well…? What is it?" Naruto asked as the silence had dragged on a little too long for his liking.
"Snakebites."
A mask, too familiar in colour and pattern to leave any doubt about the identity of its wearer, and then the blood-red eye, flashing from out of the single hole. However, it was not the Sharingan, which captured Sasuke's attention, not even the fact that a supposedly dead man was standing right here in his bedroom; the only thing Sasuke had eyes for in that moment was that this dead man was holding his son.
"So this is the newest spawn of the Uchiha," Madara said and brushed a hand across Mikan's head, never once taking his eyes off Sasuke, enjoying to see his composure crumble little by little.
"Put. Him. Down." Sasuke's voice was a low growl, barely passing as human, and in that moment, Sasuke wanted nothing more than to cut off Madara's hand, so he could never touch his son again.
"Now that would be foolish. Besides, you are in no position to make demands. I'd advise you to calm down. You don't want to risk hurting your own son, do you?"
That logic, cruel as it appeared to him, was irrefutable and so Sasuke lowered his hand, but kept channelling his raiton chakra through it, just to make sure that he wouldn't miss a single movement Madara might make, especially since he knew that already the slightest of movements would suffice to snuff out the life of his son like a birthday candle.
"Don't you value your son's life?" Madara asked, holding his hand above Mikan's tiny face, like he meant to grasp it and squeeze it out like an orange, or rip it off, or twist his neck, or-
-in that moment so many possible, if not likely, cruelties ran through Sasuke's head that he felt paralysed by fear and raw anger and didn't even know what to make of Madara's words.
Calm.
He had to stay calm if he wanted to save his son's life.
Inhaling deeply, he closed his eyes for a brief second and when he opened them again, they were back to their usual black; powerless and in the dim but flickering light almost sightless.
"Good boy," the Akatsuki nodded and lowered his hand, but that wasn't enough to put Sasuke at ease. As long as he was still holding him, he was in the greatest danger.
And all of this because he betrayed him.
Because he failed to kill him.
Because he has been too weak.
Because he was still too weak.
"What do you want?" Sasuke asked, his voice quivering with a mixture of anger and fear, his posture dominated by resignation. It was his fault that his son was in danger. He would do whatever it took to get him out of it. No matter the price.
"I'm here to have a look at the new addition to the family. The future of the Uchiha-clan."
He lifted the small boy up to consider him from all sides, and it was only now that Mikan finally woke up and it took Sasuke every bit of self-restraint not to rush forward and snatch him out of Madara's hands. He knew that he wouldn't be able to anyway.
"I'll make sure that he won't turn into such a disappointment as his parents."
Parents…?
"Where is Sayuri?" Sasuke asked in a hollow voice and felt his blood freeze at the thought of the empty bed in relation to the current situation.
"Oh… her," Madara snorted dismissively and pressed the now crying infant against his chest. "She has too light a sleep for her own good."
Sasuke's body tensed as Madara's leg moved, kicking against something solid and a moment later a lifeless body rolled from behind the bed, coming to a halt as it-
-as she collided with his feet, her hand falling limply to the ground beside her face and hitting it with a hollow thud. Sasuke found himself staring in horror into half-open, though unseeing, eyes. Her pale, uncovered skin like a canvas on which disturbing flames of blue danced and flittered wildly in a flurry of movement. But then how could she appear so still?
This can't be… it has to be a Genjutsu… she can't be…
Sasuke's head shot up, his lips curling back in a snarl and he could no longer stand to wait for an opening to attack. With his bluish glowing hand pulled back, the 'real' Sasuke stepped out from behind the curtain. His black and red eyes focused only on the narrow strip of skin between Madara's mask and his coat. It was only half a metre that separated his hand from Madara's neck. Only half a metre he had to overcome, so he could cut his head off, while Madara's attention was still focused on his Genjutsu-self.
Forty centimetres.
Thirty.
Twenty-
That is when Madara spun around, holding Mikan up to shield himself.
And he couldn't stop.
"Snakebites?" Naruto grimaced, having the image of a giant snake in mind, which slithered from village to village and kidnapped people, only to bite and drop them off again. A really scary thought. And again something about this felt so weirdly familiar. He must have really drunken a huge black hole into his memory section…
"At their necks."
"Okay… so they were bitten by snakes… and…?"
It wasn't nice and all, but Naruto couldn't quite tell what Gaara found so remarkable about that.
"How many ninja do you know who have a contract with snakes?"
So that was it! He understood him a little better now, though Naruto still couldn't say that the penny dropped.
"Ehm… just two.
"Two?" Gaara raised an eyebrow. "That's one more than I know."
"Well… okay, just a single living one, but on a whole two." Naruto shrugged and scratched his head.
"That is still one more than I know. Who are you talking about?"
"Orochimaru and Sasuke."
"Sasuke, huh?"
"You didn't know?"
"No, and neither does the Hokage," Gaara murmured and walked to the window, casting his pale green eyes over the moonlit village. "Our assumptions merely involved Orochimaru."
"But Orochimaru is dead since what…? Three or four years? How is he supposed to walk around and bite people?"
Utterly absurd. Is that what came about when the higher-ups of Konoha got together? It was really high time for him to take over!
"It is assumed that Orochimaru is dead, but fact is that no one ever saw a corpse. We only have Sasuke's word for it. Back then they believed him, because they had no reason to doubt him. But as it now stands, they are no longer sure about his credibility."
"But Sasuke killed him! Why should he make that up?"
"That's the big question," Gaara said, turning back to Naruto. "But whatever it is, his explanation had better be good. Maybe you should prepare him that he'll have to undergo another interrogation concerning Orochimaru's demise."
"That won't be necessary. He told the truth – I know he did – so there is nothing for him to worry about."
"I admire your trust in your friend's honesty, but there are moments in life when knowing one tells the truth is not a certain warrant for others to know so as well and I haven't had the impression that the sympathies were in his favour."
"Are you saying they want to make him a scapegoat?" Naruto growled, his blue eyes only narrow slits now.
"All I'm saying is that he should be prepared."
Gaara would not interfere in Konoha's business, at least no more than he just had, and so he went to the door, before he could let anything else spill.
"Wait!" Naruto shot to his feet, but the moment he was standing, he was hit by a sudden wave of dizziness and nearly threw over his bedside lamp, as he reached out for anything to hold on to. "But what is Sasuke supposed to do when they've already decided that they won't believe him anyway?"
"That's not how it is…" Gaara murmured. "Sasuke will know what to do."
And with that he walked towards the door again, but halted as the actual reason for his visit forced itself into the front of his mind. As it seemed he would do a bit more interfering after all…
"Oh, and by the way," he said and looked over his shoulder, meeting Naruto's wide blue eyes in the semi-darkness. "It's not sure how reliable the source is, but Akatsuki agents have been sighted again. They don't want to tell you about it. As the Kazekage I understand their decision, but as a former host I think you have a right to know."
Sasuke woke with a start.
His heart was pounding violently against his ribcage, his face covered with cold sweat, while his head felt hot and dull, like he was having a fever. Instead of waiting for the haze that fogged his mind to disperse, he turned his head to the other side of the bed, his hand following suit, groping over tangled sheets, cool to the touch. His heart nearly exploded with suspense, beating so loud that it drowned out all other sounds. Then, finally, his hand encountered a warm body, heaving up and down in the faintest of movements. At length he dared to exhale again and only then did he notice that he had held his breath the entire time and was panting now even harder than he had when waking up.
It was just a dream.
He rolled around on his back again, placing his hand in the middle of his chest, right above his pathetically fast racing heart, his dark eyes trailing the pale stripes of moonlight on the dark ceiling in an attempt to seek distraction from the images burning on the inside of his lids, as though they had been etched into them with glowing embers. For him to be unsettled so much by a mere nightmare… especially since it must have been the dozenth time already that he's had this dream or one of an equally disturbing content, though it has been a while, almost months… They all varied greatly in their content, scenery, in their choice of atrocity, but what they all had in common was that they ended with him losing everything.
Again.
Once he had calmed down, Sasuke sat up, brushing away the strands of hair, which stuck to his sweaty forehead, before his eyes wandered to the crib. He meant to get up and check on Mikan, too, despite knowing that it had only been a dream and that whatever demons were haunting him in some of the darker nights, would never leave the realms of his sick and utterly masochistic mind and were accordingly no threat to his family, but still he wanted to be absolutely sure, when he remembered that his son wasn't even there.
He should have listened to Sayuri after all, and picked him up on their way home, but it was too late for that now. Besides, only because he's had a nightmare didn't mean that Mikan was actually in danger – if something happened every time he dreamed badly, then Armageddon would have long swept over the face of the earth.
With that in mind, Sasuke remained where he was, but he still couldn't shake off that bad feeling and felt like he had to do something. That is why he turned to his bedside table and checked if his weapons were where they ought to be, pinned to the bottom side of the shelf above the middle drawer. A good hiding place, actually, but still Sasuke removed two of the kunai and stuffed them into the narrow gap between the mattress and the bed frame, so he could get them much faster if necessary.
It was just a little gesture, but still it left him feel a little calmer and so he let himself fall onto the mattress again and stared at the unchanging ceiling. With the familiar sound of Sayuri's soft breathing in his ear, which was from time to time interrupted by pitiful moans that made him sure he wasn't the only one who dreamed bad tonight, he prepared to go back to sleep and closed his eyes-
-and saw blood red Sharingan, Sayuri's hand falling limply to the ground, Mikan's face, doused in glaring blue light, his own reflection staring at him out of his son's watery eyes, before he-
His eyes popped open again, his heart racing. Just what was wrong with him today? He often had nightmares; in the past he had, although lately it had become much rarer, but usually, the moment he woke up it was over. He knew that it wasn't real, so why did it upset him so much?
Knowing the why's changed only very little about his situation and so Sasuke gave up on his endeavours and took a deep breath, before he rolled around and put an arm around Sayuri's waist, pressing his body against hers, her back to his front. He dragged his lips along the warm pulse in the crook of her neck, first just softly, then more persistent, insistent, until he finally felt her stir, sleep slowly abandoning her. At least a little…
A small sigh eased past her lips, as she left behind the world of dreams in exchange for the far less colourful reality. She brought a hand to her face, rubbing the sleep from her eyes, when Sasuke grabbed her wrist and pulled her around. A choked gasp escaped her throat as Sasuke rolled onto her, trapping her beneath him, his full weight bearing down on her, taking her breath away. Her eyes popped open in an instant, trying to find out what it was that had woken her up so harshly, which took her a moment, tired as she still was.
"Sas-hmmm…"
He quieted her by pressing his lips against hers, kissing away her protests. He wasn't out for any discussions just now. He needed the distraction. He needed to feel something good. He needed her. Just that simple…
And despite being tired, despite the discomfort, despite the lack of tenderness on Sasuke's part, Sayuri responded to his so-called caresses. There was something urgent about the way he tightly wrapped his arms around her torso, almost frantically, painfully so, or about the way he held her close to his own body, disabling her from moving. It was just something… something about the way he felt…
She felt close to suffocating, but in a weirdly positive way, as she was kissed senseless by the Uchiha and barely registered how he slid his knees between her legs and pushed them apart. Only as he at length removed his demanding lips and shifted his weight, leaving her gasping for the air that had been denied to her beforehand, did her head feel clear enough to begin wondering about his sudden behaviour. However, Sayuri did not voice any of her thoughts. After all she knew when to ask questions and when not to. And maybe-
-maybe they were more similar than they appeared to be…
"It's okay," Sayuri whispered in a breathless voice and slung her arms tightly around Sasuke's neck, pressing her lips against his dark hair, right above his ear. "I'm here."
To say that Gaara's news had taken Naruto aback, wouldn't even nearly do justice to the shock he felt right now and regardless of how often Naruto had called him back, desperate for an explanation, the moment the Kazekage had stepped out of the door, he was gone. As though he had actually dissolved into the sand he always carried in the gourd on his back. The streets were empty. There were no sounds but those of rustling leaves, he had at first mistaken for the characteristic rustling of sand that always accompanied the Suna-nin.
Turning back inside now, going back to bed, for what else was there to do at three o'clock in the morning, still with a semi-drunken mind, the questions still burned in his brain and his attempts at recapitulating and making sense of the situation was like adding fuel to the fire, turning the inside of his head into a literal conflagration.
Akatsuki, huh?, he thought as he folded his arms under his head as a cushion, seeing as his feet were resting on his actual cushion, his eyes fastened on the ramen poster, right above the head of his bed. He'd like to have some ramen now, but then when didn't he?
There've been no news, no sign of life of Akatsuki for almost a year – ever since the day they fought Pain. The day they fought Madara. With neither of them alive, the organisation was lacking a leader and rumours had it they disbanded. If their intel was correct, then the only living members were Kisame, Konan and Zetsu, but Konan had left them and who was there to keep the two remaining ones together? How could you even call two people an organisation? Despite having no proof for it, other than a lack of proof against it, they were almost certain that their assumptions were right. That Akatsuki, as such, was no longer a danger – an estimation which did not refer to its remaining members. In the end they were still S-rank nuke-nin, but as individuals it shouldn't be too hard to deal with them.
And now they had found together again?
Or had they really ever been apart? They might have kept a low profile in the past year in order to recruit new members and restore their strength, but even so, without Madara there, was their aim still the same? Were they still after the Jinchuuriki? After him?
Questions upon questions and no one there to answer them…
A frustrated sound passed his lips and he pressed his palms against his eyes as he was overcome by the full weight of his predicament. He was just all too willing to do something, but neither knew what nor how. He was almost sure even that at this point there was nothing he could possibly do anyhow, but he has never yet been one to easily acknowledge or give in to his own weaknesses.
But after what happened, he couldn't just go to Tsunade; especially not after Gaara told him that she didn't want to tell him in the first place – something he really shouldn't think about if he wanted to keep his cool. But he somehow had to do something! He couldn't just sit back and wait for Akatsuki to show up on his doorway, destroying everything they came across on their way here. He was a Jinchuuriki and accordingly they were his problem, but what could he do when all the information was deliberately kept from him? He'd need a messenger or a spy who could supply him with intel, but unfortunately his relations didn't reach so far, unless…
For the second time in this far too short night, Sasuke woke up as his instincts screamed danger. It was all the same, just more acute, more real, which made him sure that it was not a mere dream. The footsteps were so loud, so bold – none of the enemies he pictured in his head would be this careless.
Careless or not, this time round he would not waste any time. And so the moment his eyes flew open, he already had his Sharingan activated, his hand already closed around the two kunai he had just hidden in the slit beside his bed. The ones he now sent soaring through the air, taking dead aim at the door, the very moment it opened.
"Oi—WOAH!"
Two dull thuds sounded through the room as the two daggers hit the door, the intruder had pulled shut just in time to hide behind it. Sasuke's first reaction was to hiss a string of curses and sit up, getting ready to attack. Once the initial shock and the rush of adrenaline about actually finding an intruder subsided, Sasuke's mind was clear enough to analyse the situation and then everything fell into place and all the alarm bells in his head stopped dead at once. This was no dream and they were not in danger, still he almost wished the kunai hadn't missed …
"Teme! What the hell was that?" Naruto's voice sounded from behind the closed door, before he slowly, cautiously opened it bit by bit and peeked through the gap.
"What –the hell– are you doing here?" Sasuke countered and glared at Naruto, as he finally dared to enter the room.
Just why had it taken him so long to notice that someone was in their house? It was only Naruto, but it could have been anyone else just as well, although, if it had been someone from outside the village that person would have first had to get past the security system of the village and then the alarm would have sounded. Still that was no excuse for his inattentiveness. What kind of a shinobi was he?
"I need to talk to you two."
"In the middle of the night?"
There was just one thing, Sasuke could imagine Naruto might want to talk about with the two of them and that was a conversation he didn't want to have right now, or well… ever.
"If this has anything to do with Hinata and-"
"-What? No! It has nothing to do with her!" Naruto bellowed with an awkward smirk on his face, which soon enough yielded to a serious look again.
Sasuke watched him for a while, without a doubt still sceptical about what could motivate the Uzumaki to show up here so boldly, right in their bedroom in the dead of night, without even knocking at the door or anything. The unusual seriousness of Naruto's expression, however, led Sasuke to heave a resigning sigh, before he turned around and poked at the heap of blankets, rolled up on the other side of the bed, but receiving no visible response, he began shaking at it.
"Huh?" Sayuri raised her head and rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand, before an annoyed groan escaped her lips. "Again? You've got to be kidding me…" She rolled her eyes and slumped back down, burying her face in the thick pillow.
"Naruto is here," Sasuke smirked and watched her roll around on her back, giving him a perplexed look through lidded eyes.
"Naruto…?"
"Hn." He nodded as Sayuri propped herself up on her elbows, looking more asleep than awake still. "And cover yourself." He pulled the blanket in place, before it could slide down any further and reveal more skin than Naruto, or anyone else, should see.
"Err… I'm sorry… I didn't know you… eh…" Naruto stammered and kept his gaze pointedly fixed on the wall, his face burning red. "I wouldn't have… ehm… maybe I should wai-"
"God, Naruto," Sayuri moaned, "there is nothing under your bed. Go to your own room. There is no space here and you snore."
Having said that, she closed her eyes and snuggled back into her blanket, her soft breathing signifying that she was asleep again.
"Err… okay…?" Naruto gave Sasuke a questioning look, but the dark-haired man merely shrugged and then brushed a stray strand of hair out of Sayuri's face.
"I don't think she's much for talking right now… come back tomorrow."
"But it's urgent!"
"Hmpf." Sasuke exhaled wearily, still having a few doubts about that, but then even for Naruto it wasn't exactly common to show up in the middle of the night. "Go wait in the kitchen then."
"Eh… sure," Naruto nodded hastily, again blushing as he figured out that Sasuke was probably no more dressed than Sayuri was. What a great timing he had.
He quickly fled the bedroom and first thing he did once he entered the kitchen was pour himself a glass of water and drain it in one gulp, before refilling it again.
"This better be important," Sasuke droned and leant against the doorframe, only dressed in his boxers.
"What do you think of me? Of course it is!" Naruto snubbed, but then fell quiet and thought about where to start; it all went somewhat slower today. "Well… you know… …uhm…"
"Idiot," Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Have you unlearned speaking?"
"Hey!"
That bit of teasing was enough to loosen Naruto's tongue and so he began telling Sasuke everything he learned during Gaara's brief intrusion; everything about the missing people, about Orochimaru, about Akatsuki and only fifteen minutes later, they both sat at the table, poring over what all of this might mean, at first in the wider scheme of things and then what it meant for them personally. What they should do about it…
"The jûin is gone. Anko can verify that. And since then I am not able to summon snakes any longer. That should be proof enough of his death."
He explained that same thing to them 3 years ago, but these old people must suffer from partial dementia concerning everything that spoke in his favour.
"Good, I knew that wouldn't be a problem," Naruto sighed, but despite his confident words, he still felt relieved that Sasuke had solid evidence for his innocence. "This only leaves us with Akatsuki now. You think they are back together?"
"No. I think they've never been apart."
"How can you be so sure?"
"We're talking about Uchiha Madara," Sasuke said, but didn't add anything, as though that simple statement was self-explanatory and to him that's what it was. He never believed for a single second that Madara was dead. It was only a matter of time for him to come back and actually he had been sure it would take longer than this, but apparently he's been mistaken… At least he finally had the assurance now although, against expectation, he didn't feel any better for it.
"How can they just hide something like that? Isn't that… I don't know… illegal?"
"No. They can do however they please. And as long as they are only talking about assumptions it's even understandable that they don't want any of this to get known."
"Understandable? Are you kidding me?"
"They don't want to risk starting a panic." Sasuke shrugged, while Naruto stared at him with wide eyes, wondering how their opinions could be so far apart, when he'd been sure Sasuke would meet him with understanding.
"Tze, fine…" Naruto grumbled with a hint of resignation about him, before he came to the real reason for his visit, "So what are we gonna do now?"
"We?" Sasuke frowned, while Naruto was slowly but surely getting impatient.
"Of course we! Who else if not us? Who is strong enough to defeat Akatsuki? Who would do it?"
"…"
The answer to that was simple: he, Uchiha Sasuke, would do it. Madara was his business, his responsibility, his burden. This had nothing to do with Naruto or anyone else. He'd end what he had begun. He had to.
"The Akatsuki are after me, because I'm a Jinchuuriki and they are after you because you betrayed them. We're in this together," Naruto said and wished Sayuri was here, because now it was about convincing Sasuke to help him and it would have been much easier to just convince Sayuri and let her work on Sasuke then. She was one of the few or maybe even the only person he actually listened to.
"We are probably the only ones who stand a chance against Akatsuki, but… they won't tell me anything," Naruto said bitterly. "So you'll have to do that. Whenever you hear something, promise you'll tell me. Whatever it is…"
Sasuke would be his informant. Once this whole Orochimaru-thing was off the table, he should have access to all the information they needed. After all they regarded Sasuke as their weapon against Madara and they weren't as averse to sending him into battle (sacrificing him) as they were with him. He even heard some wild hypotheses about handing Sasuke over to Madara to propitiate him, although it didn't really make any sense since Madara was after him – after the Bijû he was hosting.
"Hn." Sasuke gave a noncommittal shrug, but that wasn't enough for Naruto.
"Promise!"
He leapt to his feet and held out his index and middle finger expectantly, but Sasuke merely crossed his arms in front of his chest and gazed to the side. Naruto's hand remained where it was though and he began making impatient sounds and after about a minute Sasuke finally gave in and locked his fingers with Naruto's, like in old academy days when they had always refused to follow this part of the protocol.
The blonde nodded solemnly and just as Sasuke wanted to pull his hand back, Naruto tightened his grip and said, "Whenever you know something you'll tell me and whatever happens then, we'll go through this together. We won't allow the people we love to get hurt again." He nodded again and held Sasuke's gaze, before he finally released him. "Not ever."
Naruto stayed for well over an hour and once he was finally gone, Sasuke returned to his bedroom. It was not quite so dark any longer, with the pale grey of early morning crawling through the wooden blinds. His charcoal eyes at once moved to the peacefully sleeping body, occupying nearly three-quarters of the bed, then to the empty crib, which left him with a somewhat uneasy feeling.
He'd get him first thing this morning.
Without making the slightest bit of noise, Sasuke walked to the bed and sat down at its edge, from where he looked down into Sayuri's face, which looked washed-out and faded in the faint grey light that drained the whole room of its colour. He softly ran a hand across her cheek and watched her scrunch her nose, before snuggling deeper into her pillow with a small sigh.
"Not ever," he whispered and rolled his eyes because of repeating Naruto's overly dramatic words. Was he contagious? He'd be damned if he started talking like that dimwit now.
But for once, Naruto had actually said something intelligent. He would not allow any of the people he loved to get hurt again. They had already suffered more than enough because of the choices he had made in the past. That would not happen again. No one should have to suffer on his account.
Cautiously he leant down and placed a kiss on the side of her slightly parted lips.
I'm here.
An amused snort escaped his lips as he thought back of her words. He couldn't believe he was this easy to read…
"Tsunade-sama!"
Shizune rushed into the office of her mentor, only to find her half-lie with her head on the table and her hands clasped above the back of her neck, still dead to the world.
"Tsunade!" she bellowed, louder this time, and caused the other woman to shoot up from her desk in one jerky movement, before almost collapsing in on herself again, but with some effort she managed to keep her head up by resting it on her hand. And now there she sat with her bloodshot eyes, her tangled hair and the trail of dried drool on her chin, looking as dignified as you would expect from the head of the Village Hidden in the Leaves.
"Whatisit…?" she mumbled heavy-tongued and started massaging her throbbing temples. She really overdid it last night, but after all the bad news she had needed something to help her fall asleep, some kind of nightcap, but upset as she had been, she had needed quite a lot of it and now she was suffering the consequences. Somehow she had a feeling that she wouldn't even feel half as bad if her hangover had been a result of a great night out.
"We received a message from Anko's team," Shizune said and filled a bit of yesterday's tea into a cup and passed it to Tsunade. "They identified the person responsible for the kidnappings."
"What? Who is it?"
"Yakushi Kabuto."
Tsunade's amber eyes widened at the news, the shock making her forget about her aching head even, at least for a moment… So Kabuto was the snake-summoner? It made enough sense. After all the years he spent with Orochimaru he had likely copied a trick or two from him. It was just weird that he showed up now of all times, after having stayed underground ever since the fall of the Hidden Sound. At least that refuted the assumption of Orochimaru being alive.
"They tracked him into the Land of Thunder, but lost him again."
The bad news was piling up. Not only Akatsuki but also Kabuto – that were a few too many incidents too seem accidental.
Something was definitely happening and it was happening fast.
Oh God, was the first thought that ran through Sayuri's head as she woke up that day. Greeted by the harsh, bright light of midday sun, her eyes couldn't be prompted to stay open and quite frankly she didn't want them to. The light was a stab where it touched her. It was just too painful. After a lot of rolling around and cursing whatever it was that had woken her up (probably the sun) she sat up, but wished she hadn't. The whole room seemed to be floating, there was nothing static, nothing to stabilise her and keep her from wavering and falling right over again. Her head was aching, her eyes were aching and so was her stomach – hell the pain even seemed to reach down into the ends of her hair! This was probably the worst morning she has ever had…
With more of an effort than she could be proud of, she managed to crawl into Sasuke's large black shirt and got up, keeping a hand at the wall though, just to be on the safe side. Her stomach was churning with the alcohol that poisoned her system, causing intense waves of nausea to roll over her and she had to take deep breaths and wait for it to pass, before she finally made her way out of the bedroom. Her plan of heading straight to the bathroom, where not only a wide range of pain medication, but also a toilet were waiting for her, was not put into action though, as she saw Sasuke sit in the living-room.
She approached him as though she was walking on eggshells and slumped down on his lap. Without bothering to hide her anguish, she buried her face in his shoulder and slid her arms under his, folding her hands loosely at the small of his back. She felt really small there in his arms. Like a starfish, clinging to a big, solid rock for dear life, while merciless waves were thrashing down and around her, trying to pull her into the depths.
"Headache?" Sasuke asked and took a sip of his coffee as though nothing had happened.
"Uh-huh," she nodded miserably.
"Tze, serves you right," he gloated (although he hadn't felt so great this morning either) and slid a hand under her shirt, moving it over her bare back in slow circles.
"Nice…"
"No one told you to drink so much."
"Yeah, but no one kept me from it either."
"Tze." Sasuke sneered and passed her his cup of coffee.
"Thank you." She took the cup from him, but to her great disappointment, the caffeine made her feel no better, it only added hot flashes to her current grievances. She'd never drink again.
"We should go and pick Mikan up," she sighed, but snuggled closer to Sasuke, wanting to just stay here until she was better, but then Sasuke put his index finger under her chin and pushed her face up. Over his shoulder she could see Mikan's playpen, right next to the door leading onto the porch and in the middle of it sat their son, playing with a teddy bear.
"You already did…? You're the best."
"Don't say," he said dryly, making Sayuri giggle, before she kissed his cheek and leant back against his shoulder.
"I've had a strange dream…"
The first time she had left the village had only been a few months ago and she couldn't recall ever having had the desire to see anything of the world outside the high town walls containing her home; the tiny idyll created by the people she cherished more than anything, the people she loved more than anything, the people-
-the people that were gone now more than anything.
And now they were leaving this place, too. Leaving it all to the memories that had become an inseparable part of it, just as they were an inseparable part of them. Oblivion is a comfort too sweet, too desirable and they just weren't good enough people to deserve any part of it.
It's not like feeling good or indifferent about it, would just undo what happened.
Twenty
Twenty-one
Twenty-two…
Twenty-three…
…Twenty-four…
…
…Twenty-…
…-five…
The small girl stopped then and turned around, unable to get herself to take just one further step away from her past home. Or maybe it was that she wanted to make sure it was still there, still with it's streets drenched in blood and sin and the broken walls and the haze of death and all the memories … all the ghosts …
Maybe she turned around with the hope of finding it had all been a dream; that everything was still the same and she was just in the process of abandoning an intact home. She hoped to see the buildings whole; whole and full with people, happy people. She wanted to stay in the place that had seen her laugh and cry; the place that had meant to be her future; the future of so many people; the place that was nothing now, if only-
-if only it had been a dream. If only it never happened.
Maybe she wanted to stop herself from making the biggest mistake in her life.
But of course it was no dream. Of course there was no mistake bigger than those she had already done, they had all done. The mistakes that left her all alone, but even so she'd rather stay behind, haunt through her broken home and drown herself in the ether of memory. She wanted the pain, because it reminded her that there used to be a time when she felt better, when she felt loved.
When she was loved.
Twenty-six
She was forced to move on, but couldn't stop looking back at the future she'd never have; the life she could never return to; all that was left for her was a life she didn't want to live.
…
…