Chapter 13: Preparations
Sasuke aimed upstairs as soon as they made it into the tent. He kind of rested his hand against the back of Destiny's head to keep it from moving too much when he walked into the bedroom and put her down onto the bed. Destiny looked at him, seeing stains of blood on his white kimono attire, and though her mouth was constantly gapped open slightly, she hadn't managed to say a word ever since they left Takigakure. Sasuke sat down next to her, inhaling deeply and none of them said anything for the longest while. Until Sasuke broke the silence.
"You do have the Sake, don't you?"
Destiny nodded, looking at him in a way that told stories. Sasuke could feel it. She was scared. Not only scared of what she had to witness, but scared of him. He looked into her eyes, she looked back but quickly turned her head to the side. Sasuke inhaled deeply, wanting to say something but before he knew it, Destiny threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly. She sniffled, hot tears streaming down her face while Sasuke, still taken aback by the sudden explosion of emotions, glanced to the figure on him, his arms open but away from her, not entirely sure what to do with them. He carefully started to rub her back the next moment, letting her cry against his chest. Both of them remained like this for a fair while until Sasuke's eyes flickered to the door where he saw Hidan standing with crossed arms just like he did earlier this morning.
"So." Hidan glared. "Had a fine evening, yes? And now you two are going to continue your little party here, huh?! Ready to fuck-"
"How stupid are you?" Growled Sasuke. "Just get out." He hissed in an angry undertone, rubbing Destiny's back up and down, trying to soothe her. That's when Hidan heard that Destiny was actually crying.
His arms uncrossed, eyes widened and he rushed over to them.
"Oi! What did you do to her!"
"I did nothing. Stop it!" Sasuke pulled Destiny away from Hidan's attempts of taking her from him.
"Then why is she crying!" Growled the silver head.
"I had to...fight some men trying things with her."
"I'll kill them!"
"No need to." Said Sasuke and both Hidan and he shared a type of eye contact that made it clear to Hidan that Sasuke took care of that already. Hidan sighed and leaned down onto the bed and Destiny crawled over to him once she opened her eyes and realized he was there. Sasuke watched how she cuddled with Hidan, who gladly pressed her against his firm chest to further console her. There was no dirty grin on his face, no smirk out of spite, no territorial combat between them. Not now.
As nice as that moment was, the next morning was bound to be awkward. Destiny felt herself pressed against Hidan's naked and warm chest, and in front of her was Sasuke, still asleep. She glanced around, not sure how to get out of the round bed without having to climb over one of them, or somehow wake them up. She glanced behind, figuring she would crawl backwards,
but Hidan stretched at the subconscious realization of movement and pressed her against his chest even more. Destiny could barely breathe but somehow managed to pry his hands off of her, get underneath the blanket, turn around and crawl through the tunnel in the direction of freedom, but Sasuke's face appeared at the other end suddenly, causing Destiny to squeak.
"What are you doing?" Asked Sasuke, stretching up at the pile in front of him, only Destiny's head was peeping out. The girl sighed a little but decided that she couldn't really explain why she looked like a burrito-roll, and so she just tried to crawl backwards but Hidan peeped her way from his end. He laughed when she gave another squeak of surprise.
When later that day everyone, at some point, met at the kitchen to have something to eat, both Hidan and Sasuke realized that Destiny didn't talk at all while they had breakfast together. Hidan glanced to the sandwiches he prepared, wondering if they didn't taste good, but he soon realized that it must've been yesterday's events that kept Destiny's mind busy. She looked like she was constantly in thoughts, her eyebrows sometimes twitched, but no tone came from her lips. Then suddenly. Hidan's eyes widened, he cleared his throat and got up.
"I'll be right back." He said and rushed out of the kitchen, much to Sasuke's surprise. When Destiny excused herself to the bathroom, Sasuke decided to follow Hidan, and check where his sudden panic came from. He knew why moments later.
"Are you serious." Said Sasuke with crossed arms at the view ahead of him. Hidan whirled around, not expecting Sasuke to have followed.
"Get the fuck back inside, she will be a mess when she sees this!" Said Hidan, trying to get rid off the blood in the grass. Sasuke stared down at him, glaring.
"Don't give me that damn look, Uchiha! Of course I have to sacrifice people, how do you think I'll stay immortal?! And better be lucky I dispose of everyone who sees us here, I'm doing you a big ass favor and it's all for free, so quit complaining!"
"Where's the corpse?" Asked Sasuke and Hidan nudged his chin ahead. "Threw him into that sea over there. Argh. Lord Jashin will be hella mad at me, mad I tell you! I couldn't torture them as much as I wanted to, didn't want anyone to see the damn wounds but gha, I forgot about the blood out here..." Hidan growled and kept kicking at the grass, trying to get rid of the Jashin symbol, rubbing at it with his shoes. Sasuke glanced at him, but decided it was not his problem and so he merely turned around.
"If Destiny sees any of this. I will kick you out." He said darkly but Hidan grumbled a "Yeah, yeah."
"Did you take care of the moths by the way?"
"...Put them in a jar on the nightstand in our bedroom."
"Sasuke?" Destiny called out and was about to walk out of the tent but she ran right into the male. His hands reached to her shoulders and he gently motioned her backwards.
"What is it?" He asked.
"My...my wand." She said softly.
"Ah...yeah." He sighed and walked into the living room with her, pulling out a scroll. With another strange handsign he released the seal and her wand appeared on the ground. Sasuke made no attempts to pick it up, so he gave Destiny the permission to do it. And she did. She picked up her wand and the change of atmosphere couldn't be avoided, it was like the girl started to glow for a brief moment; fuzzy warmth shot through her body.
"You're not going to trick-"
"You've saved my life." Said Destiny gently, looking at Sasuke and he looked back. None of them said another word.
"Accio bag." Destiny then spoke clearly, and on an instant, her bag appeared.
"Where are the moths?" Asked Destiny.
"On the nightstand in Hidan's and my bedroom."
She nodded and summoned the moths, then roamed around in her bag and got out all the other ingredients, including her little teacup sized cauldron. As she had everything with her, she began to brew the potion. Sasuke watched this with utmost curiosity as he sat on the couch, glancing at the liquid that soon turned a pastel pink. Destiny drank it, coughing a little because she really didn't like the flavor.
"How many potions can you brew with that bit of Sake?" Sasuke asked and Destiny responded in Japanese. "About three more." She said, cleaned up he mess and walked out into the winter garden, Sasuke, however, followed her every step, which confused the girl as she sat down by the Koi's pond and swirled her finger around the water, seeing a fish following it curiously.
"Destiny. We need to talk." Said Sasuke firmly and lowered himself down next to her. Just when he wanted to start, Hidan walked in and joined them.
"Oi, did I hear some Japanese again?" He grinned and flopped on the other side of Destiny, despite's Sasuke's glaring. The young Uchiha, however, continued nonetheless.
"I've been wondering about your magic. Because I might need it at some point." Sasuke started. "Is...there a possible way to make somebody forget about something, and alter their memories? Or even control it?"
Destiny nodded. "Yes. There are several ways, actually. I could use Legilimency to infiltrate a person's mind, see their wishes and their fears. Even though witches and wizards don't like the reference, but it's comparable to mind reading, and very useful to see what a person is up to. If I want to change something about them, then one method is memory charms to make a person forget certain things. And another way is the Imperius curse, one of the three unforgivable curses."
"Why is it unforgivable? What does it mean?" Asked Hidan.
"If a witch or wizard uses one of these three curses, they will instantly be sentenced to a lifelong imprisonment. Okay, in the past of course. My father controls politics now and he's very keen on these curses, you see."
Hidan frowned, crossing his arms as well, he seemed interested now, wanting to ask more because he didn't know much of Destiny's life, but Sasuke, being quicker, followed his own questions.
"Why are they so much worse than the rest?" Asked Sasuke.
"Because." Destiny started. "These curses can cause the worst damage in history. Even witches and wizards have some moral, you know? For one, there is the Cruciatus, the one you have seen my father using on me. It is the torturing curse. It will inflict unbearable pain on your victim and it can damage the brain so much that they will remain traumatized and even insane, unable to recover. Bellatrix, I told you about her, has mastered this curse to perfection, torturing one of my classmates's parents into insanity. So much that they didn't even remember they had a child. He had to grow up with his grandmother instead."
Both Sasuke and Hidan frowned; though Hidan wasn't sure whether to be impressed or angry. "Gha, that shit with your father again, that punk! Do witches and wizards even know what pain is!" Hidan growled but Destiny nodded.
"They have to know the meaning of pain in order to torture somebody. The Cruciatus curse cannot be performed without wanting to cause pain, wanting to see and enjoy a person begging for death instead."
"What about the other ones." Asked Sasuke, interrupting Hidan who tried to say something. "What does this Imperius you talked about do?"
"It allows me to control somebody's mind. I can force my will upon them and have them do whatever I want. Whether it's giving me all their money. Or make them leave their home...or force them to kill somebody...no limits. Unless they can fight it, but the Imperius curse is difficult to fight, even trained Aurors, that means the best witches and wizards that fight dark magic, have difficulties with breaking the curse once they have been hit by it. It also depends on the talent of who cursed them, of course. There is no witch or wizard alive that could, for example, ever break the Imperius curses my father can cast."
Sasuke frowned, he wanted to say something but Hidan interrupted him now, as if paying him back.
"What about the other one? The last one?"
"The killing curse. The Avada Kedavra curse will bring instant and painless death to a person. It cannot be deflected, that means all you can hope for is being quick enough to dodge the flash of green light that will instantly shut off all your organs. You can imagine how difficult that is to handle. Those are the three curses. Now...not everyone is able to use them, it requires a lot of skill and...devotion to the dark arts."
Sasuke and Hidan glanced at each other, then back at the girl. "And..." Sasuke started with a cautious tone now that he knew of these curses, and now that he knew Destiny had back her wand.
"Can you... use one of them?" He asked but Destiny did not answer. She looked at him with an unreadable expression while Hidan constricted his eyebrows in concentration, wondering if sweet Destiny could be capable of such things.
"Do you think my father taught me how to give people enchanted hugs?" Is all Destiny commented, looking back to the Koi fish again, ending the conversation this way. Hidan glanced at Sasuke, trying to say something yet again.
"Hidan, leave me alone with her for a moment."
"Oi I need to catch up, I couldn't talk with her for a while, unlike you!" Hidan protested but seeing Sasuke's sudden activation of the Sharingan was enough to make him run out of the winter garden.
"Hm?" Asked Destiny once they were alone and Sasuke deactivated his Sharingan.
"This makes things so much easier. Look. There is a man, who, in my opinion, is the true cause of events. His name is Danzo. I killed him but of course, in this past he is alive. I want to infiltrate Konoha and kill-"
"Can't we simply alter his memory?" Destiny asked softly but Sasuke shook his head. "He is nothing but evil, make one bad thing forget, the other one will leak through. You'd understand if you knew who he is. But don't worry..." He said softly when he saw Destiny's sad face upon knowing somebody else needed to be killed.
"I will kill Danzo and you will, with the Imperius curse, make the other elders leave the village never to return again. Your true part, however...starts...when it comes to my brother and father." Sasuke looked at her then and Destiny stared attentively.
"I want you to meet my father first. I remember not seeing him around much these days. Now I know why."
"Why?" Asked Destiny.
"You see...the Uchiha clan has always been very powerful, and with power comes mistrust. We have been forced to live among our own so the village could hold us together and keep an eye on us. My father, who was...is...the head of the clan, felt betrayed and so he plans a Coup d'état against the village with my clan. My brother is a peace loving man, he loved his village. And that's why he..." Sasuke inhaled deeply but Destiny stretched out her hand and squeezed Sasuke's arm, and both of them looked at each other.
"I understand." She said softly. Sasuke nodded at her.
"I don't know when he started planning. My father, I mean. That's why it's best if you make him forget about the whole coup. That alone will not be the solution to the problem, though. We also need to convince the Hokage that the Uchiha belong to the rest of the village, so the frustration doesn't lead to where it resulted in the end." Said Sasuke. He stopped for a while, staring to his lap. Destiny knew there was something he did not mention yet.
"Can you...do these things?" He asked and Destiny huffed.
"Do you really believe I travelled back sixteen years with you for nothing?" She chuckled and for the first time, Sasuke paid her a sincere and soft smile.