AN: It's been a while since I posted a chapter. As I've been writing, I suddenly realized that this thing had grown much larger than I originally intended. So in the past month, I sat down and wrote the entire story out. I'm really excited to share with you guys the twists and turns. It's going to be an interesting ride.
From this point on, I am going to post a new chapter every week.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
Lesson Twelve
A Change of Leaves
x
Ame Uzumaki gave that mischievous grin, an effortless mimicry of her father, and Mizuka Houzuki knew she was in trouble. Mizuka backed up against the dresser under Ame's predatory stare. Her hand knocked against a collection of wooden figurines that tumbled to the floor. Ame leaned forward and placed both hands on the dresser, trapping Mizuka in her snare.
Mizuka watched the moisture along Ame's lips in morbid fascination as Ame licked them and said, "Do you like my room? I could show you the bed."
It was as if Mizuka had been hit with a lightning jutsu. Her brain stopped, as if the ability to process what was going on was suddenly too overwhelming. What was happening? Was this really Ame Uzumaki? Was Ame Uzumaki into girls?!
The only thing she could focus on, the only thing she knew for a fact was the moisture of Ame's lips as they drew closer. Ame stopped a breath from her mouth, then dipped down and sucked in the skin of Mizuka's neck. All at the same time, Ame's hand trespassed underneath Mizuka's shirt.
Mizuka suddenly found herself wet in too many places. In a mixture of excitement and embarrassment, she burst in a splash of water all over the dresser.
Ame threw her head back with laughter.
After several seconds of Ame's persistent laugh, Mizuka finally found the confidence to reform herself outside of Ame's reach. Mizuka snatched down her shirt and glared at Ame in a boiling rage. She couldn't believe she had fallen for that. Her years at the Academy was subjected to Ame's persistent attempts to make her "splash." But since her graduation her chakra control has improved considerably and haven't had an accident in a long time.
"I am not here for your amusement," Mizuka spat.
Ame's laughter stopped at the heat in Mizuka's voice. Mizuka spun around and slammed open the door to get away and out of this compound as fast as possible. This was all just another elaborate prank. When Ame had invited her over for a spar, Mizuka couldn't say no. Who wouldn't want to see another compound's sparring fields? Spar turned into dinner. Dinner turned into Ame "showing" Mizuka her "shuriken" collection in her room. Of course, Mizuka hadn't been aware of the double quotation marks at the time.
"Wait," Ame said from behind her.
Mizuka stumbled to a stop when Ame appeared at the main gate using that stupid hiraishin jutsu of hers. Mizuka locked her hands together in a seal and prepared to escape into the humidity in the air. Thankfully, it was a humid night.
"I'm sorry," Ame said immediately. "Please don't leave."
"You didn't invite me over for a spar," Mizuka accused. "You are the worst. People like you are the reason why I hate Konoha."
Ever since she graduated, Mizuka has taken on mission after mission. Konoha had never really felt like home. But with the situation going on she's been stuck in Konoha for the past several weeks, apparently enough time for Ame to track her down and corner her.
Ame's eyes grew wide and her cocky swagger suddenly broke down into awkward insecurity. "We're always on different teams," Ame told her. "And you're always out of the village. I just wanted to show you how much I like you."
"What?" Mizuka asked. Somehow thinking that this was all an elaborate prank was easier to believe.
Ame combed her fingers through the side of her hair that wasn't braided back. "I like you like you, ever since the Academy. Be my girlfriend."
Mizuka's face heated with a blush that began to boil on her cheeks. This was a lot to take in at once. She didn't even know if she liked girls!
"You know that Houzuki can't kiss?" Mizuka asked, picking the first excuse she could find.
"I know," Ame said. Because of their sharp teeth, the former mist clans didn't kiss unless they risk biting out their partner's tongue.
"My family wouldn't approve," Mizuka lied. The Houzuki were the most liberal of all the former mist clans. A clan known for its insanity tended not to judge.
"Excuses," Ame chirped. It took only a moment for Ame to regain that confidence only the daughter of a Kage could have. Ame stepped forward careful at first but when Mizuka didn't run away like a startled fish, Ame hopped further forward with excited exuberance. "I was really hoping tonight would go smoother but you have to admit it was great until… you know, that is still funny as fuck."
Mizuka shook her head as she attempted to walk away, until Ame caught her by the wrist and swiveled her around. Mizuka's eyes snapped open to Ame closed ones and swallowed when Ame pressed a closed-mouth kiss against her lips. Ame drew back with a smile. "You don't have to answer me yet but let me walk you home."
"I don't need you to walk me home," Mizuka claimed. Besides she wanted the walk to get her thoughts out of the whirlpool Ame had created.
"There are still people harassing your family. It's late and no matter how intelligent, beautiful, and deadly you are we are stronger together. I'm taking you home."
Mizuka bowed her head in embarrassment when Ame reached out and boldly grabbed Mizuka's hand. Mizuka could have pulled away, could have melted her hand through Ame's fingers but she didn't. Instead she attempted to process the thought that Uzumaki Ame, the kunoichi referred to as the Fox Princess of Konoha, heir to the Demon Fox, liked her. Ever since the Academy apparently.
A part of her had to admit that Ame's pranks had been the most interesting part of the Academy. Mizuka had just wanted to be invisible and had hated Ame for refusing her to do so. Now she didn't know what to think.
Ame tensed. Mizuka did the same and realized there had been four sweaty bodies following behind them. Mizuka reached for the kunai in her pockets, but Ame caught her hand and tightened it, not to hurt but in warning. Ame turned on her heels and crossed her arms.
It had been Mizuka's experience that most ninja go through life carefully. Life had no security and it was best to be observant and distrusting. That wasn't Ame.
Ame leaned on her hip with an arrogance and swagger Mizuka imagined only possible from someone who could rely on a Kage to protect her. Ame's arms were crossed in a manner that did not allow easy access to a weapon, as if to say she didn't need it.
"What do you want?" Ame demanded.
"Uzumaki-san?" They exclaimed in surprise, and then spat vehemently, "First, you attempt to assassinate the Hokage and now you're trying to kidnap the Kage's daughter?"
Ame threw back her head and laughed. Mizuka wished she could afford to find humor at the absurdity of the situation but all she found was caution. She determined at least two of the drunks were chuunin and even though she's had worse odds on missions before, it was going to be a bloody encounter. Mizuka pressed her hands together to summon a mist.
Ame turned and locked Mizuka frozen with a shake of the head. Ame rocked forward on her foot and said, "As you can see I am perfectly fine, in fact..."
There was a small shift in the air. Mizuka noticed only because it displaced the water particles clinging to tonight's humidity. Ame didn't flinch. The drunken ninja stumbled. Mizuka rolled her eyes with a scowl. Of course daddy came to save his little girl.
Naruto Uzumaki crossed his arms and gave the ninja before him a scrutinizing glare. "Hokage-sama, the mist ninja is trying to kidnap your daughter!"
The Hokage gave the ninja a patronizing look. "You mean the leaf ninja who is my daughter's girlfriend is trying to kidnap her?"
Their eyes bulged almost comically, but none was more shock by the declaration than Mizuka. She was not dating the Kage's daughter!
"I appreciate your initiative but protocol dictates you report to an ANBU if you suspect suspicious activity. Accidents can happen when citizens who are not aware of the full situation get involved. Investigating the assassination attempt is under the ANBU's jurisdiction. Let them handle it. Because it would be regrettable if you made such a mistake as attacking my daughter's girlfriend." Mizuka gulped at the sudden weight of the killing intent that choked the air.
"We are so sorry." On hands and knees, they all bowed several times and rededicated their lives and their children's lives and their children's children's lives to the Hokage. They wished him good health and a long reign. They promised to name their children after him. Mizuka cringed at the way they worshiped the man's feet. It was a level of respect her family would never be afforded in this village.
"Go home," The Hokage told them as gently as speaking to his own children.
"Yes, sir."
Mizuka watched as they scurried home, still bowing at they went. Then the Hokage turned around, sent Mizuka a wink, and faded like mist along a breeze. It took several seconds and one glimpse at Ame's foxish smile to realize it had all been an elaborate genjutsu. She had been ensnared the moment Ame turned to her and shook her head, the drunk ninja even minutes before. No wonder the kunoichi had been so cocky.
Then Mizuka declared hotly, "I am not your girlfriend!"
"I couldn't help myself." Ame laughed, caught Mizuka's hand again, and tugged her down the road. Ame looked back at Mizuka with a thoughtful stare. "Don't be too hard on them. They were drunk. They care so much and do stupid things because they love my dad."
"The ANBU have the Momochi clan completely locked down and yet we still get mistaken for them."
"You both do have sharp teeth."
Mizuka snatched her hand from Ame's grip so fast she splashed droplets of herself on the ground. "We're paler than the Momochi clan. We dehydrate faster in the sun. We all have white hair!"
Mizuka boiled when Ame placed a hand on her shoulder. Ame didn't flinch at the heat and told her with a smile. "I know. My dad once told me that you can't control another's person's ignorance. Only your own."
Mizuka snorted and dropped down on the swingset at the center of the park. "Konoha doesn't change."
"It just takes a little bit of time," Ame said as she sat down on the swingset next to Mizuka. "And a few brave enough to do something about it." Ame leaned against the chain and then her lips widened in excitement. "If you really want change, you should be the next Hokage."
Mizuka laughed shrilly at that. "Konoha will never have a mist ninja as Hokage."
"How will Konoha ever change if you don't?" Ame reached out and knocked on the hitai-ite against Mizuka's forehead. "You're a leaf ninja."
The idea was preposterous. The last time a Houzuki was a Kage, it was a disaster and led to the end of Kirigakure. But for some reason, the idea kept wiggling through her thoughts and refused to give her peace. Mizuka would have to be crazy to pursue this.
But if the Uzumaki were characterized as unpredictable then the Houzuki were literally batshit insane.
And why not? Fuck it! Mizuka Houzuki wanted to be Hokage.
Mizuka lifted her head triumphantly. For several seconds she laughed maniacally before she grabbed at Ame's shirt and pulled the red-haired kunoichi forward. In her haste, Mizuka teeth cut Ame's lip and blood dripped between their kiss. They pushed back to breathe, eyes alit with fire.
The Houzuki smiled. The Uzumaki grinned. And the world trembled in fear.
ANBU Fox was patrolling the Kage's Tower when the report came in over the radio, "Seals have alerted us to two unidentified persons exiting Konoha through the sewage pipe."
Fox radioed the nearest ANBU in that vicinity, "Raccoon, Lynx, pursue. Detain these individuals at all cost, use of deadly force only if absolutely necessary."
Fox was already running across the rooftops to rendezvous with the ANBU team outside of the gates. He mentally checked which hiraishin kunai was closer to that portion of the gate, then shuffled through his pocket, and within a blink teleported to the middle of Iruka's living room. As Fox crashed through the window, Iruka shouted from behind him, "That's the third one this month!"
Fox pushed up from the fire-escape and never stopped his momentum as he vaulted over a chimney and jumped toward the gate. There were seals in its walls that not only repelled chakra attacks but refused anyone's attempt to stick to the surface with chakra. Fox barely caught the edge of the gate and lifted himself over the top. Without pause he jumped off the other side and landed without so much as a noise.
There were three dead bodies.
"What the fuck happened?" Fox demanded of the ANBU left standing, who clutched at a bloody left arm. The wound didn't seem urgent enough to require immediate assistance.
"They wouldn't listen. They tried to run. When we tried to restrain them with a jutsu they attacked. Their jutsu killed ANBU Lynx. I countered. Deadly force was absolutely necessary," the ANBU replied with all the emotion of a block of wood even though his partner was lying face-dead in sewer run-off.
Fox frowned when he flipped over the bodies and met the unmistakable faces of two members of the Momochi clan. He knew what the Captain would order him to do. "You are to submit a detailed report of what happened in the next few hours. But for right now, help me dispose of the bodies."
Tomu's mouth tasted of ash when he turned the doorknob of his apartment. Tomu knew that word of the deaths could not reach the Momochi clan at risk of mutiny. There was no choice but to dispose of the incident quietly even though Tomu's conscious refused to be quiet about it.
As he entered the apartment, he found Sasuke on the couch reading a book but the radio was droning on in the background. The soft chords of the biwa greeted Tomu as he walked inside and headed straight to the bathroom.
The water rinsed red. Some of the blood had gotten matted in his hair. It began to crust underneath his fingernails. The Momochi clan might never find out the truth. They might believe that their family members made it out safely. They'll never know. The guilt overwhelmed Tomu, tied too closely to the lingering pain he still suffered from his own recent loss. Tomu broke into sobs in the shower.
He didn't pull himself from the bathroom until an hour later. Exhausted.
"You really shouldn't be working."
Tomu cringed. He had been hoping that the shower ran loud enough to prevent Sasuke from hearing. Tomu mumbled, "It keeps me busy."
"You're running away."
"Yeah, like you're a fucking expert on how to handle grief," Tomu spat. "You ran away. I'm still here. I'm still doing my job."
The tension in the room was suddenly so heavy, the weight was palpable. Tomu surrendered first as he stormed toward his bedroom and slammed the door behind him. Sasuke watched as the pictures on the wall shook with the force of it. One fell and cracked.
"I'm not Naruto," Sasuke grumbled. He couldn't say the right words. Even though Tomu had allowed Sasuke to move back in there was still a wall between them that even forgiveness couldn't batter down.
Sasuke bookmarked his page and reached around the couch. He picked up the picture frame, brushed the broken glass into the trashcan, and attempted to hang it back on the wall. The missing pieces made it seem as if a jagged line had ripped between Mushi and Tomu in the picture.
He knew what Tomu was going through, more than anyone he knew. But he didn't know how to help. Even just a few words had sent the kid running away. With a defeated sigh, Sasuke turned off the lights and retired to his bedroom.
Sasuke was tucked into bed when the slight noise of the door snapped him awake. The covers lifted and the warmth of another body hit him. Sasuke's memories flashed to when he was a child, crawling into Itachi's bed after a nightmare.
Sasuke gave a non-committal grunt, rolled over in bed, and went back to sleep.
The second time Sasuke woke up that night, he was woken by a sharp kick to the butt. A first in his entire life and Sasuke had grabbed the hilt of a kunai underneath his pillow.
"The fuck, man, move over," Tomu voice suddenly complained from the edge of the bed where Sasuke had slowly pushed him over the course of the night. At Tomu's voice, Sasuke slackened his hold on the kunai but was still undecided whether or not he was going to use it. Woken up out the middle of his sleep and there was no one trying to kill him, he was extremely grumpy.
Sasuke kicked back, hard. Too hard Sasuke realized after he heard a thud and a groan. With a grumble, Sasuke turned and leaned over the edge of the bed to make sure the stupid kid didn't have a concussion or something.
"You can't hog everything," Tomu threw a pillow straight into Sasuke's face. Sasuke was not amused.
"It's my bed."
"Dude, I pay the bills. And it's a fucking king-sized bed."
Tomu grabbed the bottom of the bed frame and with a little chakra, easily began to lift the bed into the air. Sasuke grabbed at the sheets as the bed began to lift underneath him. His kunai rattled to the floor. Sasuke landed awkwardly, the mattress fallen atop him to trap him in the corner. With a fury, Sasuke kicked off the bed and it fell back with a plomb, to the point where the bed frame cracked in the middle.
Both men, tousled hair from sleep gave each other glares that could level a village. Exhausted, they climbed back into bed. The center was cracked so badly that both men slid inwards until their backs collided against one another.
"You are the worst," Tomu grumbled.
Sasuke grunted.
They were so close that Sasuke felt warmth emanating from the shoulder where Tomu's ANBU tattoo was located. Tomu was being summoned. Tomu grumbled, crawled out of bed, and dragged his feet out the door.
The room suddenly felt colder than it had been before.
Captain Tiger knew that the tension between former mist ninja and the ninja of Konoha would not be resolved until someone took responsibility for the assassination attempt. To find the orchestrator behind the attack Captain Tiger pulled together a team of ANBU from different divisions inside Konoha.
"Let's review what we know so far," Captain Tiger instructed to make sure every individual was on the same page. He motioned to ANBU Squid.
ANBu Squid stood up and Fox recognized this ANBU as one of the liaison to the Mist clans. "The man who attacked the Hokage is named Jin Momochi. He's an old war veteran and has suffered mental and psychological issues since the Second Shinobi War. For the past five years, he has been a problematic member of the Momochi clan. He is a known drug addict. He's started several fight in bars all throughout Konoha although the Momochi clan has always bailed him out of jail. Two years ago, he drunkenly attacked his nephew, of which the clan kept quiet. In summary, he was a very unstable individual. Whether or not the Momochi clan is behind the attack is debatable. We all have one of those 'uncles' in the family."
Fox could sympathize. He knew personally what it was like to take responsibility for family members always fucking up. Fox wondered if Jin Momochi could have possibly acted alone but that idea was quickly replaced by the next speaker.
ANBU Vulture stood up. "ANBU Vulture, reporting from the coroner's unit. We were unfortunately unable to glean any useful information as most of his memories were drug addled. Besides the drugs, this man was mentally ill who thoughts revolved around his experiences of the war. From his corpse, there is no way to determine his motivations or if he was working with anyone else."
It all seemed too coincidental for Fox. The only time the coroner's unit was useless in a case was if there was no body to begin with. Either it was idiotic luck on the assassin's part or someone who intimately knew how the coroner's unit worked was exploiting the system.
As he listened, Fox flipped through the folder given to everyone in the meeting. He shuffled through images of the body and the crime scene to the toxicology reports. His eyebrows drew up and the sheer amount of drugs they found in the guy's system. It was far beyond the legal level issued by the government. He scanned the chemical compounds. The base of it was poppy but it had been altered in some way.
ANBU Panther stood up. "My team has, to the best of our ability, recreated Jin Momochi's tentative schedule for the two months leading up to the assassination."
Fox flipped to the next page to scan the schedule built upon sightings and practically interrogating everyone in Konoha. He'd imagine if pedestrians had seen the man within the last two months, most would volunteer the information. They even had the days the man had gone grocery shopping. As Fox expected, Jin Momochi had spent quite a lot of time at a drug den.
When everyone had given their report, the Captain addressed the room. "This is not enough. At this current time motivation or the how is not important. Even if this was an isolated incident our primary objective is to definitely prove that the Momochi Clan was not involved. People in the streets are demanding blood. Last night, two members of the Momochi Clan attempted to run. Our ANBU tried to detain them and it ended in a fight with both members of the Momochi clan slain. Currently the Momochi clan and the public is unaware of the incident. If this continues, things will get ugly in Konoha."
"That's proof enough right there," ANBU Vulture reasoned. "Why else would they try to run if they are not responsible?"
"Probably because ANBU currently have them barricaded in their own compound," ANBU Squid retorted. "What everyone in the room needs to understand is that the Momochi are not the same as the Houzuki Clan. When Zabuza Momochi rebelled against Yagura, the Fourth Mizukage, in retribution Yagura went into the Momochi clan and slaughtered all of the children. There's an entire generation of Momochi missing. Because of this scar that the Mizukage has inflicted on them, they are deeply afraid that it might happen again. This is the clan where Sandayuu Momochi drew the line when the Mizukage dropped that bomb on non-combatants during the Fourth Shinobi War. Having an ANBU barricade around their compound, is scaring them. So yeah, they are going to do stupid shit."
"We cannot afford to lower the barricade until we have proof that they didn't do it. This is for their safety as well as for Konoha."
"Perhaps," ANBU Vulture ventured to say, "we give the people what they want if it prevents tearing Konoha apart. We can falsify evidence and definitely blame the Clan Head. With someone to take responsibility, Konoha will be pacified."
ANBU Squid stood up so fast from his seat, the chair knocked over. "You charge the Momochi Clan Head with a crime he didn't commit, and they'll be running towards Ame. Maybe they won't make it but they'll kill anyone who gets in their way."
"Judging from the information we have gathered, there isn't a way to prove that the Momochi clan did or didn't order the attack. Perhaps we have no choice but to choose a scapegoat."
"Or maybe this is the point," Fox spoke up for the first time since the meeting started. "What if someone manipulated Jin Momochi to attack the Hokage in order to incite a rift between Konoha and the former Mist clans? Think about it. If I really wanted to assassinate the Hokage, I certainly wouldn't get a drug addled junkie to do it. It obviously wasn't going to work. There's a hidden agenda here."
"Are you suggesting that we have a foreign unknown in Konoha engaged in sabotage?"
"Perhaps," Fox said slowly. "But past cases have proven that when there is a body left to examine, foreign spies are always caught and identified. They don't know enough about the Yamanaka clan to realize that Yamanaka's techniques rely on memories and that memories can be severely addled and altered. Yes, genjutsu had been used before but using that method lets us know that someone has been tampering. Choosing a junkie, it is a genius way of outsmarting the coroner's unit."
"You're reaching," ANBU Panther said frankly.
"No, this isn't some foreign spy wreaking havoc, this is someone who has lived for years in Konoha and knows how the system works. They know how a Yamanaka work. They know the politics between Konoha and the former Mist clans. This is a conspiracy."
Captain Tiger pinned Fox with a challenging gaze. "Prove it."
It was easier said than done.
Sasuke's hair tickled Tomu's ear, who had unexpectedly leaned over the couch to study the file in Tomu's hand. His presence distracted Tomu from burning his eyes through the page. "This about the mist ninja?" Sasuke casually asked.
"Leaf ninja," Tomu corrected automatically.
"Do you need help?" Tomu turned to stare at Sasuke and found Sasuke's dark eyes watching him intently.
"You're not ANBU anymore," Tomu reminded him. Sasuke walked around the couch, snatched the folder from Tomu's hands and perused the information.
"There's not much here. What's the objective?"
Tomu sighed. He should probably give his eyes a rest anyways. The last few hours had been spent fighting the words blurring on the page. "I need to prove that the Momochi clan didn't order the attack."
"They're not stupid," Sasuke answered as if that was concrete enough evidence to prove anyone's innocence. "Who sends a junkie to assassinate Naruto? That was doomed to fail."
"Unless someone wanted to intentionally incite violence between Konoha and the clans."
"Hn. How do you know the guy didn't act alone?"
"The way dead ends have been erected too neatly." Tomu rubbed the aching bridge between his brows. "I'm headed to bed. You think you can find anything be my guest."
Technically Tomu wasn't supposed to take his work home. He was supposed to leave it in the underground. But time was of the essence before Konoha was force to either use Momochi as a scapegoat or Momochi attacked first. He needed all the spare seconds he had working the case.
But for right now, he was going to go to bed for a few hours. Or at least try to.
Unable to get to sleep, Tomu bit his lip and activated his sharingan and relived in vivid detail the various times he activated the doujutsu around Mushi. Several hours later, through birthdays, and dates, Tomu focused on the sex until he came into his bedsheets, jolting him out of the fantasy and reminding him that none of it was real. It was a cruel jolt, that left him empty and sobbing with tears.
Tomu pulled himself out of bed and took a shower to clean himself up. He noted that Sasuke had moved to his room. Tomu sighed when he stared at Sasuke's bedroom. Tomu hasn't gotten any sleep but he was afraid that if he was alone it would tempt him to the memories again. Tomu gently opened the door and found Sasuke asleep on the floor witha pillow and blanket. Sasuke must have thrown out the broken bed. Tomu slid next to him and wrapped the covers over his shoulder.
Then he woke up in the middle of the night, cold, and instinctively yanked the covers towards him. He flipped over when the covers were yanked back out of his hand. "There's enough for both of us."
"Get your own." Sasuke grumbled in turn.
They yanked and pulled until the covers tore in two and suddenly neither piece was enough for the both of them. Both men grumbled as they wrapped themselves in what they had and went back to sleep.
Tomu opened his eyes and stared around the room in confusion. He looked over and Sasuke's spot in bed was empty. Tomu dragged himself up and froze when he entered the living room and saw that the sun was bright through the windows. Sasuke was sitting on the dining room floor, going through the paperwork.
"Why didn't you wake me up!" Tomu demanded angrily. He wanted to start early this morning to begin tracing Jin Momochi's schedule leading up to the assassination. Perhaps if he walked the same roads, he'd see something.
"You needed the sleep." Sasuke said, and then as if it was not important at all, "I found something."
"What?" Tomu asked as he combed several fingers through his bed-hair and crouched down to where Sasuke was studying a map of Konoha. "Alright, what you got?" Tomu asked, his anger over the missing alarm gone for the meantime.
"A week leading up to the assassination attempt, Jin stopped visiting the drug den he frequented," Sasuke tapped on the copy of Jin's schedule. "During that week, where did he get his drugs? He hadn't been spotted at the clinic or any of the other dens. Where else can you get drugs in Konoha?"
"There's nowhere else. Naruto has gotten such a tight control on the situation that they either flow through the government or through the dens."
Sasuke gave Tomu a fixed stare, "Who supplies the government and the dens?"
Tomu's eyes widened. "You think the Akimichi is trying to start a civil war?"
"It was your idea in the first place." Sasuke shrugged his shoulders. It was circumstantial evidence at best and nothing Captain Tiger would approve of. "Then I began thinking, if I wanted to convince someone to assassinate the Hokage, I would approach them discreetly with no one else around. According to this schedule, he stopped going to the den on the 8th, which mean someone probably intercepted him. I've been mapping his route and trying to determine which areas would be best suited to make contact."
Tomu stared at Sasuke until the words tumbled from his lips, "I could kiss you right now."
Sasuke jolted up with a glare that said, 'Don't you dare.'
Tomu chuckled as he joined Sasuke on the couch. He bit his lip as he followed the red line of the route. "All of these streets are very busy. It would be very unlikely if someone approached him." Sasuke nodded, acknowledging the problem he's been stuck on all morning.
"Wait," Tomu pointed to a street name. "In his file, no one has ever spotted him walking along this street. But, if he takes a shortcut through here," Tomu dragged his finger across what looked like a building on the map. "It's two buildings," Tomu explained. "There is a small alley between them that lets out on the other side."
It was something Sasuke would have never known by staring at the map. Before Tomu could jolt up and follow the lead, Sasuke caught Tomu by the arm. "Let me go with you."
"Look, I know you're probably bored but I could get in trouble for letting you follow me around on this case. You're not ANBU. And you probably won't be reinstated until Naruto is back on his feet and there is someone in Konoha who can handle you. I'll be fine. How about you grab some groceries because we're running rather low."
"I'm not some fucking housewife."
"No, you're my bum roommate who doesn't have a job." Sasuke was about to hit him. He could tell. "Sasuke, please. It's been a long fucking week and I do not have the energy to deal with your shit right now."
Sasuke battered Tomu with a glare as if it could physically tear down Tomu's stubbornness. But this was one battle Tomu refused to stand down. They could have been there all day. Sasuke let go of Tomu's hand and tucked his head against the couch pillow. "What groceries do you need?" Sasuke mumbled.
Tomu wrote a quick list and rushed out the door with a relieved sigh. He never knew which battles Sasuke would concede to.
ANBU Fox dropped down into the alleyway and immediately activated the sharingan. The alleyway was a very narrow space with hardly room to fit two people standing shoulder to shoulder. There was trash throughout the space but what caught his attention was how someone had dumped an entire trashcan and spread a black bag along the ground, as if someone used it to lay down. Tomu crouched down and picked up loose strands of hair.
They were brown but he had to run it through the lab to be sure it confirmed a match to Jin Momochi. Tomu's sharingan eye caught it immediately, a bag tucked away behind the trash. He opened it and found it largely empty but for faint traces of vaguely brown powder. The needle immediately hinted at what Tomu was dealing with.
It was a new drug, only recently introduced to the world economy. He's seen it before in Ame. Rumor had it that it was a problem in many civilian populated areas. No one knew where the drug was coming from but if Tomu had to hazard a guess, it was probably the Akimichi. After hearing the problem it was causing in the capital, but never seeing its like once in Konoha, Tomu had the suspicion that the Akimichi didn't like the drug on their own streets although they could care less about everyone else's. The drug was so addictive that it could put a ninja village at risk by rendering an entire ninja population incapable of service. Say what you will about the Akimichi but they did love Konoha. And money, but not when it puts Konoha at risk.
The problem was connecting the drug to the clan. Fox had no doubt that they've covered their tracks.
Fox snapped on gloves and deposited the small amount into a clear white bag. It should be enough to see if this was the substance found in Jin's system when he died. Fox knew forensics might be able to uncover the exact chemical make-up and where the poppy plant it was extracted from might have come from. If it could be traced to the large piece of land the Akimichi owned in Fire country to grow their drugs, it would be the missing puzzle piece he needed.
Fox went straight to the lab with his discovery. Within seconds they were able to match the strands of hair to Jin. "What about this?" Fox asked as he handed over the drug. If he knew where it came from, he could figure out how it got into Konoha.
"This will take some time. It should be ready by tomorrow."
"Thanks," Fox replied and decided to call an early day.
Sasuke decided that he hated grocery shopping. There were too many choices to choose from and he didn't know exactly what Tomu wanted. There were too many old ladies going too slow at the checkout. There were too many people crowding the market. But he didn't kill anyway, so his therapist would consider it a success.
Sasuke slammed the bags of groceries on the counter and noticed that the lights were already on. Tomu must be home early. He had kicked off his shoes at the door and peeked into Tomu's bedroom. Sasuke froze at the sight of Tomu with his sharingan active staring blankly into nothingness.
Immediately Sasuke knew what Tomu was doing. He rushed to check the boy's vital signs. Sasuke cursed as he grabbed a knife from the kitchen and placed Tomu's arm over his lap. It was dangerous to suddenly wake them out of it. They have to wake themselves to cause the least amount of damage. Sasuke pressed the knife into Tomu's arm and constantly applied pressure to the point. Eventually the pain will grow stronger than the memory and it will tug him back to reality.
It took ten long ass minutes before Tomu jerked into a sitting position. "Hey," Tomu complained faint. "What are you doing to my arm?"
Sasuke punched him in the face. Tomu cradled his nose and complained, "What did you do that for?"
Sasuke grabbed him by the shirt fiercely. "Uchiha have died in their memories. Do you think you're the first person to deal with your grief in this way? They begin losing track of time and die of starvation before anyone finds them. If not, they begin confusing their memories with the real world and they get stuck. They're practically in a coma and don't ever come back."
"I didn't know," Tomu said softly and immediately deactivated his sharingan.
Sasuke's shoulders relaxed. Of course he didn't know. Sasuke had never told him. Sasuke was silent for a second and then said, "You need to get out of this place. Believe me, it's not healthy living with your ghosts."
Tomu looked around the small apartment. Everywhere he looked he saw Mushi. He scratched his arm nervously.
"You should move back to the compound," Sasuke suggested.
Tomu looked up at Sasuke. "You should move back to the compound."
Sasuke opened his mouth to say something but didn't. Sasuke's brows furrowed together. Then Sasuke kicked Tomu off the bed. "Make dinner."
"You could say please," Tomu grumbled as he opened the refrigerator.
Sasuke watched him out of the corner of his eye. It was something only a Uchiha or Yamanaka had to worry about: losing themselves to their memories. It was why the clan highly suggested using the sharingan during battle only. But no one had taught Tomu how to properly use it. Instead the boy used it for every birthday, sexual encounter, and any event he thought worthy of remembering. Sasuke was going to have to watch him very carefully.
Finally, Tomu placed two bowls of tomato soup onto the table. "Did you find anything?" Sasuke asked.
Tomu nodded and recounted what he had found in the alley.
After they finished dinner, Tomu showered while Sasuke washed the dishes. Sasuke looked over his shoulder when Tomu went into his bedroom to lay down. Tomu stared up at the ceiling in his bed. And he thought of Mushi. No doubt Sasuke probably had a point but Tomu was pretty confident he could find his way back. He just need to feel her skin against his again. Tomu was about to activate his sharingan when the door suddenly swung open and Sasuke dropped down onto the bed.
"Sasuke, wrong bed."
"Go. To. sleep." Sasuke growled out before tugging on the covers. Tomu grumbled when he pulled them back.
One more tug and they found an agreeable medium.
That morning, Tomu jogged to the ANBU underground to see what forensics had found. Then he would take the sample and see if he could convince an Inuzuka to track it. He would have to pull a few favors as they don't like their dogs sniffing drugs unless it was a formal mission.
Fox greeted the scientist in the room, pulled the box with the number on it, and reached for the report. "What the fuck?"
According to the document, what Fox had found yesterday was sugar. Fox immediately activated his sharingan and went back through the details. No, definitely not sugar.
"Where is the original sample?" Fox asked.
"Over here." The scientist on duty broke a seal in one of the desks and opened the tray. Tomu frowned. This was sugar. With his sharingan he could see his fingerprints were no longer on the bag. This had been switched in.
Fox looked at the report again and found the codename of the agent who analyzed the sample. "When does he come into work?"
"Not for a few more hours," the scientist replied.
Fox cursed as he took the sample and the report. He raced back to the alley hoping he had missed some. Fox gritted his teeth angrily. This kept happening. Shit disappearing. Evidence gone in the middle of the night. And this case was way too important to let it go this time. He was practically running through the underground to reach the nearest exit.
He was focused on his thoughts and hardly paid attention to the people who passed him in the hallway. Suddenly someone passed him by too close. Fox looked up into the eyes of the man, and his sharingan activated on instinct, right before a kunai was suddenly shoved into his gut as he was quickly pressed back into a room. Fox hardly had time to react, when the kunai stabbed into him again and again for good measure. Quick, professional, he was dying.
His attacker pulled the mask from his face and cursed, "Oh fuck. They better pay me extra for this."
Fox closed his eyes for the last time.
And then opened them back in the hallway. He looked around confused as the man who had attacked him casually walked towards his direction. The door of the room he had been slammed into was only a few more steps away. Fox walked towards it. The man turned.
This time Fox caught the kunai and the force of it threw him back into the room. He wrestled with the man to get the kunai out of his hand and his sharingan noticed another in his other hand. Fox rolled to evade it in the small room. It didn't allow much space for taijutsu. Fox eyes widened when the room suddenly lit with the light of a paper bomb that fluttered inches from Fox's face.
The sharingan allowed him time to come up with a plan. He was too close but Sasuke had taught him some moves to counteract other fire techniques. Fox sped through the hand signals.
The explosion burst down the door and lit the entire hallway in dark smoke.
Sasuke stared at the instructions on the box of instant white rice. He was determined to cook dinner tonight. Tomu was working himself too hard and Sasuke needed to take some of the pressure off the kid. Sasuke set the pot to boil, frowned at how long it was taking, and did a small fire jutsu in his impatience.
Sasuke whipped around when a sudden presence entered the room. He heard the fall of a footstep and flung the pot on instinct at his attacker. His eyes went wide at the sound of a startled girlish scream and turned to find Ame Uzumaki's mouth gaped open liked a fish as the boiling water burned into her skin.
Sasuke snapped the girl under his arm, hauled her to the bathroom, and dropped her under a shower of cold water. Oh Kami. He hurt one of Naruto's children. Sasuke's hand were shaking under the torrent of cold water. What had he done? Stupid Sasuke. Stupid fucking Sasuke.
His breath hitched when her small hands rested against the sides of his face. He was crying. Ame wasn't. "Fuck that shit hurt. Move, I'm soaking wet and I have healing chakra."
Sasuke nodded his head numbly and moved aside. Ame hair was bedraggled. She lifted herself atop the counter and began healing her burns. "That was my fault," Ame whispered. "I should have knocked. You'd think I'd learn the first time."
It took several seconds for Sasuke to get his shit together. He turned off the shower and watched water drip from his clothes. Belatedly, he realized Ame had used Tomu's hiraishin kunai on the bookshelf. But he didn't recognize her scent or the weight of her footstep and automatically assumed threat.
"I hiraishined behind dad once before." Ame said as she kicked her legs. "Except Dad, he went all Demon Fox and-" Ame tapped the long ragged scar down her arm. "It's why he locked away the Kyuubi - because he hurt me. Lesson learned. Don't hiraishin behind S-class ninja."
"Why are you here?" Sasuke didn't mean to sound rude but the sudden incident has left him exhausted.
Ame lifted up her head and weighed her words. "I came to get you. Tomu is in the hospital."
"It wasn't Orochimaru," were the first words out of Tomu's mouth when Ame and Sasuke hiraishined into his hospital room. Sasuke didn't know how much he needed to hear those words until he did. The fear that had throttled his throat began to ease. The tension in his shoulders were able to relax enough for Sasuke to cross his arms.
"Your habit of ending up in the hospital is increasing of late. I don't like it," Ame told him quite frankly.
Sasuke scanned over Tomu's injuries. There was an unmistakable smell of fire about him but he hadn't suffered any burns. But he did have a concussion and a severe fracture in his leg.
"What happened?" Sasuke asked.
Tomu dropped his eyes to fiddle with a loose strand of thread in the hospital sheet. Tomu glanced briefly at Ame.
"Don't give me that Tomu. While dad is gone, I am the head of the Uzumaki clan. I am entitled to know what's going on. So what the fuck happened this time?"
"I think someone tried to assassinate me," Tomu whispered.
Before Sasuke could say anything, Ame was already sighing in exasperation as if she couldn't even be bothered to be surprised by the news. She lifted her hands and ticked off her fingers, "Your psycho cousin tries to kill you," Ame glanced at Sasuke, "No offense. The Snake Sannin is after you and now someone is trying to assassinate you, all within the past year! Seriously Tomu, I'm considering locking you in the basement."
Sasuke found himself nodding his head in agreement. Tomu always bemoaned the fact that he was a well of bad luck but only now did Sasuke start believing it. "Describe the attack."
Tomu went further back and described the incident that had happened in the lab and then the weird time gap in the hallway. Sasuke was impressed by the fact Tomu had managed to perform the fire shielding jutsu in a snap of the moment. There was not a burn on him. But the force of the explosion had knocked him back to the wall, which had contributed to his other injuries. Sasuke was concerned by the time distortion.
"I don't know what happened. I'm not sure it was a genjutsu or what."
Sasuke grabbed Tomu by the jaw. "Activate the mangekyou."
When it came to the sharingan, Tomu didn't question him anymore. He did what he was told. It was still uncomfortable to have Sasuke piercing him with hard amber eyes.
"The tomoe reminds me of Shisui but it's not the exact pattern. You have Amaterasu in your left eye but you could have a powerful genjutsu ability in your right. I'm going to have to go through the family records to be sure. It could be something akin to what Obito had. It's very probable the mangekyou automatically casted itself when you looked into the man's eyes." Sasuke said very sharply, "You could have died."
The concern and reprimand in Sasuke's voice was uncomfortable. He mumbled, "The Captain stopped by briefly. Since it was an ANBU who attacked me, he decided not to post any guards on my door but you're essentially back to bodyguard duty."
"But why?" Ame asked. "Is it because of the sharingan or do they know about dad and someone is trying to lure him back home?"
Tomu shook his head. "When that guy killed me he didn't know who I was. No, this was about the evidence. I was getting close. Those drugs were the link. If only I can-"
Sasuke said decisively. "I not losing someone else to another one of Konoha's conspiracies. No, you will heal."
Tomu grumbled as he face-planted in the pillow. "Yeah, the Captain took me off the case anyways. I'm on leave."
"When you get out of here, you're moving back to the compound," Ame decided.
"There's nothing wrong with my place. Besides, I can't because Sasuke is supposed to guard me." Tomu gave a smug smile at his perfectly valid excuse.
"While I watch him here in the hospital, begin packing his things. I can handle my own items." Sasuke suddenly said, completely disarming Tomu.
Ame swirled the handle of a hiraishin kunai in her fingers thoughtfully. "What about Mushi's stuff?"
Sasuke was well aware that Mushi clothes were still in the drawers, her hood still hung from the coat rack, her shoes were still on the shoe shelf.
"Don't touch them," Tomu grumbled under his breath.
"Tomu, you can't keep her clothes forever."
"Don't touch them," Tomu snapped.
Ame huffed, "I'll put them in a storage scroll." Then she hiraishined away.
Tomu glared at Sasuke as if he had betrayed him. Sasuke shrugged his shoulders and then leaned against Tomu's bedside. Tomu dropped his head to his knees until reason finally caught up with his turbulent emotions, "Cousin."
"Hn."
"If I die, don't throw away my tape collection."
"What am I supposed to do with it?"
"Listen to it. Appreciate it," Tomu answered obviously. "Don't destroy Konoha either."
"No promises."
"You don't have to do this," Tomu said for the seventh time today. Tomu had been released from the hospital but he was confined to a temporary wheelchair that Sasuke pushed down the streets.
The walls of the compound approached them quickly, too quickly. Sasuke stopped before the open doors.
"I can wheel myself in."
Sasuke clenched his fist around the handles of the wheelchair and pushed Tomu inside. Sasuke looked around. It was odd and disorientating and he could feel the panic in his chest, but this time, now knowing to expect it, he could control it better. "It's empty."
"It normally is during the day. Most of the kids leave for school. Naruto hires assistants to help with the babies and toddlers. Everyone kind of calls them 'Auntie.' They're located further in."
Sasuke noticed that most of the houses had been renovated and repurposed. Ame poked her head out of the main house, where his old home used to stand. Sasuke asked annoyed, "What happened to my house?"
"Naruto thought it bad taste to continue living in it, so he destroyed it and built on top. That's the only house he completely destroyed. The rest of them I renovated. Further in the back, there remains a lot of untouched houses. I haven't gotten around to fixing them up yet."
"You fixed them?"
"I used to work in construction when I was a civilian. I did most of the work. Naruto was the labor. Seriously, don't trust that guy to build a house."
Ame skipped over to them with a mischievous smile. "Oh no," Tomu whispered.
"Five."
"Ame, you didn't." Tomu groaned.
"Four, three, two, one!" Suddenly children began popping out of every crevice. They threw paint from the rooftops. They tossed balloons and threw streamers. Everyone shouted, "Welcome home!"
"Ame! They're supposed to be in school!"
Sasuke left Tomu with his party. He couldn't handle being around that many number of children anyway. Sasuke stepped back and went exploring around the ground, or rather familiarizing himself with what has changed. The large training grounds of the Uchiha were pretty much the same and evidently Naruto saw that it got plenty of use. Grass was overturned everywhere and target dummies were worn down. The marks where he used to throw kunai were still on the trees, except now, joined by a few others.
Sasuke walked further and further away from the noise of the main house and the quieter it got, the more it reminded of Sasuke how it used to be. More and more of the houses in the back had remained untouched, and sometimes when Sasuke turned his head too quickly, he could see the shadows of the people who used to live there. Except now, where the memories used to fill him with anger, he just felt a dull ache.
Sasuke stopped and coughed in the smoke when he opened the door to his uncle's old forge. The equipment was outdated but that was easy enough to replace. A smiled touched his lips when he dragged his hand around an anvil.
Sasuke retreated back outside. He closed the door behind him, sucked in a breath and continued forward until he opened the rustic back gate of the compound. The gate creaked open to the large maple forest that has now invaded inside of the compound itself. New buds and saplings grew were they hadn't been before. He followed the trail up the hill to the small Uchiha shrine located at the top.
Naruto hadn't touched it. Nor had Naruto touched the small graves surrounding it. Then Sasuke legs grew numb as he pushed himself forward until he eventually found the two stones – the markers he had used for his parent's grave. They were undisturbed, as if time hadn't moved here at all. Sasuke bowed his head. The last time he had been here, Sasuke had buried his parents.
And now he was here again, years later – older, stronger, and perhaps a little wiser than he had been at twelve years old.
He expected to feel angry, a rekindling of his thirst for vengeance, ashamed of himself that he had taken so long to return, perhaps even break down in tears.
He never expected to feel at peace.
"I'm home."
After he left the graves, Sasuke explored the empty houses in the back of the compound. Even when he had been living here, he had not gone into any house but his own. There were still personal effects that Naruto had stuffed into boxes throughout some of the homes. It was obvious that someone came through and dusted from time to time, but otherwise they were untouched.
Sasuke opened a drawer and paused his hand on a folded white piece of cloth. Sasuke grabbed it and shook out the yukata to reveal the Uchiha symbol on the back. His fingers grazed reverently over the fan.
He knew he couldn't wear it. He was supposed to be a secret but... Sasuke slipped it slowly over his shoulders.
Sasuke didn't reemerge from his foray into the past until the compound was once again quiet and most of the children had been sent off to bed. There was still evidence of the party: streamers caught on trees, pieces of popped balloons strewn around, and the distance smell of chili that seemed to linger in the grass.
Convincing himself that he was looking for Tomu, he stepped into the main house. The door was swung wide open and for just a moment, a sense of déjà vu hit him. Before the massacre, the door was always open and family members came in and out as they pleased. Open doors. He missed them.
But that's where the similarities ended. It was drastically different than the one he had known as a child. It was less traditional with wide open spaces to allow children to run around unfettered. There were a lot of windows that Sasuke imagined lit up the place during the day.
"Do you want some cake?" Sasuke realized he had just passed the entryway to the kitchen where Ame was swinging her legs against the countertop with a piece of cake in her lap. "It's strawberry."
"I don't like sweets."
"More for me," Ame said smugly as she stuffed a piece of it in her mouth. "Looking for Tomu? His room is down the hall to the left. First one."
He knocked on Tomu's bedroom and waited impatiently for him to say something, then frowned and pushed open the door. Sasuke's frown grew even darker at the sight of Tomu staring blankly with his sharingan activated. Heated breaths left his lips, the blanket pushed off him, and an erection leaking pre-cum onto his stomach made it rather obvious what sort of memory he was reliving.
Sasuke paused in thought to figure out a safe way to pull him out of it. It would have to be something that overrode the senses he was experiencing right now. Sasuke would probably have to cut the kids arm off just to activate a sense extreme enough to override the highs of sex. He was going to have to wait. He rubbed the bridge of his nose.
Several minutes later, Tomu's body tensed with a moan and cum jetted onto his chest. Then Sasuke stormed forward and none too kindly kneed Tomu in the nuts.
"WHAT THE FUCK?" Tomu snapped out of it, jumping so high he literally fell to the floor in the fetal position.
Sasuke snatched him by the hair. "If you weren't already healing from injuries, I swear I'd put you in the hospital again." Sasuke said and then dragged Tomu naked through the house to a bathroom, turned the shower to cold and threw the kid in.
Tomu screamed as if Sasuke was torturing him. "What did I do to deserve this?" Tomu whined, hiccupping in the shower.
Sasuke folded his arms and pressed his back against the shower door. "I told you to stop doing that."
"It was just one more time," Tomu complained as the cold beat against his shoulders, still rocking to lessen the pain Sasuke inflicted on his sensitive groin.
"It is possible to masturbate without the sharingan," Sasuke snapped. It was literally like dealing with an irresponsible child.
"Oh yeah like you would know," Tomu snickered as he tossed aside his wet bandages in the shower. "Look, that was the last time I promise. But you kick me in the balls again and I'm burning you down with Amaterasu."
"You mean the jutsu you don't know how to stop?" Sasuke scoffed. "You'll just end up burning your own balls off."
"You know what, shut up. Why are you still here? I can take a shower by myself."
"It wouldn't surprise if you need to the sharingan to help you take a shower too."
"Well…"
Sasuke turned his head. "Wait, seriously? You use the sharingan to take a shower?!"
"Just to make sure everything is clean and I don't miss anything! Do you know how much you can miss without the sharingan?"
Sasuke sucked in a breath. It was the most absurd thing he had ever heard. Sasuke's head slapped back against the shower as a confusing burst of laughter fell from his chest.
This kid was driving him insane.
Sasuke waited until he was certain Tomu had fallen asleep, which oddly ended with the two of them squeezed into a single-sized bed fighting each other for limb space. Eventually Tomu had ended perched horizontally, his head settled on Sasuke's stomach and his legs sprawled against the wall. Sasuke listened as Tomu's breathing evened. He wondered if this was how Itachi felt to watch him sleep. To wonder at his dreams and wish he could take away the problems weighing down the slight frown on his lips.
Kami. Sasuke could no longer imagine a life without this kid.
Eventually, Sasuke slipped out the bed. He walked down the dark hallway and paused when he heard hushed voices. Alarmed, Sasuke crept forward and leaned his head into the library. A small figure was curled up on the couch, head leaned against the pillow, toes curled underneath his legs. Sasuke recognized the face of Naruto's second heir Ichigo. Atop his stomach sat a small frog with its mouth wide open.
"...and Goku defeated Piccolo at the tournament. The end," Naruto's voice droned softly from the frog. A pause, "You still awake?"
"Yeah," The preteen answered timidly.
"Nightmares really bad tonight?"
Another long pause, "Yeah. I'm sorry. I know I'm not supposed to contact you and-"
"It's alright. I'll stay up with you as long as you need. Want to read another story?"
"Dad?"
"Yeah?"
"I miss you."
"I miss you too."
Ichigo curled around the frog as if he could curl underneath his father's voice like a blanket. As Naruto began the next story with, "Once upon a time..." Sasuke silently slipped out of the house.
Honestly, it was still hard for him to imagine Naruto as a father. Sometimes he still saw that unpredictable knuckle-headed little kid you couldn't trust with the Daimyo's cat. But he supposed that was his fault for being stuck on the past. Naruto wasn't a kid anymore. Neither was he.
No one could enter the ANBU underground without the tattoo on your arm. Without it, all kinds of alarms would set off before you made it an inch inside. But as Sasuke was on temporary leave, his tattoo hadn't been deactivated. It was simple for him to henge his way underground into Captain Tiger's office.
Before Captain Tiger could look up from his desk, Sasuke demanded, "I want back in. Put me on Fox's case."
The Captain didn't even seem surprised by Sasuke's presence. "Crow, you are aware of the case he was working on? The ANBU agent who attempted the assassination was one of our top tier agents in the assassination division. Only someone with high connections, a lot of money, and probably a bit of blackmail can hire one of our own agents right from under us."
"I understand. I will continue the investigation where he left off. Furthermore, the assassin was targeting the mask. They do not know his identity."
Captain Tiger shook his head. "An investigation into Konoha's elite could take months, but it does not resolve our current issue. Although I doubt the Momochi clan were behind Tomu's assassination that does not prove the Momochi clan's innocence in all of this. They still could have easily given Jin Momochi the drugs. Its circumstantial evidence. It's not proof."
"I can get you proof," Sasuke said without missing a beat.
"How?"
"I need a body."
Sasuke had only seen Orochimaru perform the technique once, but it was once with the sharingan and that was enough. Sasuke needed a living sacrifice for the technique to work but Tsunade had compromised with a terminally ill patient from the hospital who was schedule to end life support in the next week. It would have to do. It was lucky that they had Jin Momochi's body.
Only four people were in the room: The Hokage, Ino, Captain Tiger, and Sasuke. Sasuke smeared the DNA of the assassin on the specialized scroll. Sasuke began the seals and declared, "Impure World Reincarnation."
Dust and ash began to cover the sacrifice and he screamed in pain. Honestly, Sasuke found the jutsu distasteful. Not because it wasn't useful, but it linked him to Orochimaru and that chafed him. The jutsu took hours to complete but eventually the man sat up with Jin's cracked face.
"I fucked up didn't I," Jin Momochi moaned as Ino approached him and got to work. Even though the man was technically dead, it was still possible for him to lie and protect the Momochi Clan.
"Do you remember attempting to assassinate the Kage?"
"Which one?" Jin Momochi asked.
"There's more than one?" Ino asked curiously.
"I was a part of the conspiracy to assassinate the former Mizukage, Houzuki, but the Demon Fox took care of it first." It was the first time anyone had heard about a conspiracy among the mist ninja but none were surprised.
"We're referring to the Hokage."
"Ah yes, not one of my better days."
"I'd say, considering you died," Ino drawled.
"There are days worse than death," Jin Momochi winced as his eyes grew distant.
"Are you apart of a Momochi clan conspiracy to kill the Hokage?"
Jin Momochi barked out, "Why would the Momochi Clan want to kill the Hokage? He's treated us far better than the fucking Mizukage ever has."
"What happened then?"
"There was this guy who stopped me on the streets. Gave me some drugs. Best high I've had in a long time. He said he'd give me some more to assassinate the Hokage."
"You did it for drugs?!"
"Obviously it was a good idea at the time." Jin Momochi replied sarcastically. Sasuke had a feeling that this is who the man was before the drugs, before the wars scarred him.
"Who was the guy? Can you describe him?"
"I could, but I doubt it would help. He was certainly wearing a henge."
"Is there nothing you can tell us about this guy?"
After a pause. "I'm sorry. He was careful."
"And where exactly did he approach you?" Sasuke stepped forward to ask and gave a smug smirk when Jin described the alleyway Sasuke and Tomu had discovered.
Ino continued with the cross-examination, making sure that the information they already had and facts checked out correctly. Ino gave a slight shake of her head. Jin wasn't lying about anything.
"It certainly wasn't the clan. They wouldn't trust me to do anything right. Before you put me back in the dirt or whatever this jutsu is can you just let them know I'm sorry? I didn't want to cause trouble for everyone I just... couldn't help it. Sometimes we make stupid decisions and there is no amount of redemption that can take them back."
"They'll forgive you," Sasuke said suddenly. "Because you're family."
Jin gave a waned but grateful smile. "The shit we put family through, huh?"
"Alright, I've heard enough. Go back and question the Momochi clan member on what they were doing at the time of this drug meeting. If their alibis check out, I'll call off the ANBU from the Momochi compound" the Hokage ordered.
The ANBU were called off four hours later. The tension that almost threatened to break Konoha in half eased for the first time in weeks. Over the radio, a representative of the administration declared that they had uncovered definitive proof that the assassin had been working alone. Although privately, Sasuke knew Tomu and he would be searching for the man behind the drugs.
Tomu and Sasuke sat atop the walls of the Uzumaki compound.
Tomu bit his lip and then asked, "Have you ever thought about using that jutsu for... personal use? I mean, don't you ever want to see your parents again?"
"No."
"But you don't at least want to talk to them one last time?"
"That's not a conversation I want to have," Sasuke said frankly. It had never crossed his mind to use the resurrection jutsu in that manner.
"But what about your brother Itachi? You could bring him back."
"The dead are dead," Sasuke answered. He wouldn't dare dishonor Itachi in that manner even though Itachi has been brought back once before. Sasuke had once thought that it would be nice to have one last conversation with Itachi, share several more words with each other, but every day that passed, confronting Itachi's ghost has begun to matter less and less. He buried Itachi. Let Itachi rest.
Sasuke told Tomu, "Mushi's entire body was burned in the fire. There isn't DNA of her left to use for the jutsu."
"That's not what I was asking," Tomu snapped and tucked his head into his arms. "I know she's gone."
Tomu looked up at Sasuke and then back at Konoha. Then he whispered, "I think I'm more addicted to the pain. Whenever I use the sharingan and relive the memories, I try to get lost in them because I know when I snap out of it it'll hurt all the more. And I want it to hurt, because I know that eventually the pain will fade. I go in and come out just to live the pain all over again as if her death had just happened."
Sasuke understood a little. When his family had died, he wanted Itachi to hurt. When Itachi died, he wanted everyone to hurt. His grief was rooted in causing pain to others but for Tomu, he caused himself pain.
Tomu scratched his neck self-consciously. "I know I haven't been easy to deal with lately, but thanks for being here when Naruto couldn't be."
"I haven't done anything."
"Just... thanks."
Sasuke looked down as Tomu stretched out his legs and placed them across Sasuke's lap. Sasuke stared at Tomu's legs annoyed, then leaned his head against the gate. Spring was dawning in Konoha. From the gate, you could see the stretch of green forests wakening up from winter. Those were the forests he trained in with Itachi. He played hide-n-seek with his cousins among the boughs. He'd sit atop the gate with his mother with a cup of hot chocolate and map the stars.
He missed this view.
x
Sasuke could no longer imagine a life without this kid.
