Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
A/N: I . . . need to stop making promises I can't keep.
Edit A/N 12/22/2011: This is the same chapter I uploaded yesterday. I smoothed over some of the worse parts of this chapter, but it still requires future editing. If you wish, you can look this over again. Nothing much has changed though.
21. Wartime Scars
Sai watched as the last bit of ink sank through Sasuke's skin. His mind automatically switched to the memory of another body, another place, and a completely different situation. He closed his eyes, and the image was wrenched out of his mind.
Sasuke, the boy with the Sharingan, sank to the ground, unconscious. This was to be expected. Instead of his own chakra in the ink like before, Sai had put sedatives. Sasuke wouldn't open his eyes for quite a while.
For a moment, Sai wondered if he should wipe Sasuke's memory clean. He knew the boy didn't mean to choke Sakura; he himself saw the cloud of malicious chakra that possessed Sasuke.
Perhaps it would be kinder for him to forget . . . ?
That thought alone shocked Sai out of his reverie. Pity. That was an emotion. An emotion he could never afford.
Kill me.
The haunted look on Sasuke's face haunted Sai.
The Uchiha would never admit it was his own humanity that stopped him from following Sasuke's wishes, just as he would never admit he came here to rescue his friends.
So Sai smiled. Smiling was easy: muscles around the lips contracting and relaxing to form what humans call an expression. Smiling didn't mean anything.
Sai whipped his brush and quickly drew a lion on tree bark. It prowled around Sasuke and Sakura protectively, stretching its back-and-white jaws.
The earth shuddered another time. Sai would have to join Naruto in his fight with Gaara soon.
He looked back at Sasuke and Sakura.
Kill me, the ghost repeated.
Sasuke was so much like him.
Sasuke Uchiha had been battling a Resurrected Sand ninja when he sensed it: Madara's chakra.
It was an essence that stank so much of blood he would recognize it from anywhere, a shade that would never leave his mind.
The boy's heels pivoted. He posed to leap off the tree branches, only to realize he was stepping on one of his Shinobi comrades' bloody, mangled legs. Disgusted, Sasuke kicked the corpse away before pursuing Madara's undead army.
That traitor . . .
He thought of the horrible scene in Madara's Sharingan lab and the beast inside his heart bristled. All of those Uchiha eyes Madara used for his own selfish purposes . . .
War-smoke wafted drifted into the sky, and blood of the murdered travelling to the heavens, carrying their last anguished breaths . . .
One Sasuke Uchiha left the destroyed village of Saigomade to chase after a trap.
Sasuke knew where he was even before he identified the smell of anesthetics and medicine. He opened his eyes and saw, to his expectations, blank white walls and a privacy curtain draped around his bed. A window was left open next to the bedside table. Birdsong and scattered shouts flowed into the room.
There was no pressure on his head, indicating Sasuke was no longer in danger of losing his memories . . . and turning into the monster of his past self. Madara's controlled amnesia that caused Sasuke to forget all he had experienced in the present world, forget his friendships and bonds, forget his losses and regrets—along with the Voice himself, it was gone.
But now he knew it too, didn't he? No matter how hard he tried to forget the past, that monster was still within him, seething, searching for revenge. All it took was a little flick of Madara's finger.
Mind still in a numbing haze, Sasuke checked his body slowly. He found not one chakra limiting device, not a collar or a handcuff. He glanced at his own hands.
Perhaps this was an illusion after all? It wasn't possible, was it? To have a murderer let loose this way?
The privacy curtain was pulled apart, and Kakashi, dressed from head to toe in black, appeared by Sasuke's side.
Sasuke tried to rise but was knocked back down by an unexpected nausea. White spots erupted in his eyes and bile rose from his throat. With the danger of throwing up near, he sank back to bed.
"Kakashi," he said instead, wishing his voice hadn't croak so. Let him go through his impending execution with some dignity, at least.
"Sasuke." The man's voice was colder than Sasuke had ever heard.
Kakashi seated himself on the bed, facing away from Sasuke. Icha Icha Paradise was held in his hand, closed.
Just who was the Copycat Ninja, at that moment?
A friend? A teacher? A fellow shinobi?
Or a jailor?
"How long was I out?" Sasuke asked. He didn't normally start conversations, but the chill of the room was making him shiver.
"Five days." Kakashi gave a small sigh. "In an earlier checkup, they purged your chakra. That may have affected your mobile abilities. Of course, the multiple Chidoris that went on back there didn't help either."
"Is that why they are holding me captive here?" asked Sasuke. There was no anger or sarcasm in his voice, only indifference. "Because I can hardly walk?"
Kakashi looked at his student for a while before answering, "No."
"Then, Naruto . . . Sakura . . ." Sasuke's throat constricted. "Are they alright?"
"They are," the man replied shortly.
Then, Kakashi, pocketing his copy of Icha Icha Paradise, spoke, "Do you remember what I told you before the Chuunin Exams?"
If you show any signs at all that you are betraying the village, I will not hesitate to kill you.
"Of course."
"And do you understand the magnitude of your crimes?"
Sasuke held his breath, waiting for Kakashi to continue.
"Even though Naruto and Sakura, and even Sai, denied that anything happened, the evidence surrounding the Shukaku fight indicates that something happened." Kakashi's eyes roamed around the room, as if he wasn't interested in what he was saying at all. "We found traces of fire and lightning attacks where the Shukaku never stepped on—you are never the one to miss twenty yards of your target—and yet burnt clothes and red welts were found on Naruto's body. Welts from staying too close to an electrical current. And hands," he looked at Sasuke again, piercing, "the One-Tailed Beast can hardly strangle a thirteen year old girl, can it?"
The feeling of her neck beneath his hand sent Sasuke's stomach turning. Unconsciously, his fingers twitched.
"Sai was able to call reinforcements and medics through his ink creations. By that time, though, Naruto was already done with the kid Gaara. You were then brought in."
Sasuke nodded. His thoughts were in a torrent. The news of his friends was reassuring, but it did hardly a dent on his growing guilt.
"They were all ready to shut their mouths about this," Kakashi continued. "Your teammates. They were gonna take this to their graves. It was all useless, however, when the business was handed to Yamanaka Inoichi. Though Sakura and Naruto did cause some trouble."
Inner Sakura and the Nine-Tails, Sasuke thought.
"By then, they were perfectly willing to deem you traitor . . ."
His heart stopped.
"But I interfered."
Sasuke looked at Kakashi. Had his teacher just . . . ?
If you show any signs at all that you are betraying the village, I will not hesitate to kill you.
"I suggested another checkup, this time in your brain, for the possibilities of mind-control," Kakashi said. His voice, though as unemotional as before, seemed to gain some warmth. "They detected foreign chakra there—chakra that not even our best sensors could identify. This brings the possibility of a foreign shinobi with a blood limit of long-distance brainwash. The higher-ups all agreed that this was the work of Cloud ninjas, whom you would have the most possible contact with.
"This, added to Sakura, Naruto, and Sai's testimony, should have determined your innocence. Even so, the Council wished to revoke your status as a shinobi. But they couldn't. They couldn't decide on such a politically sensitive matter until a new Hokage was inaugurated.
"So in the end, you are free of all charges."
Kakashi's words sunk in slowly.
"Free of all charges . . . ?" Sasuke said incredulously.
His teammates were safe and well. He wasn't going to get executed. Far from it—he was declared innocent! It was almost unimaginable . . . everything fell so perfectly into place . . . and yet . . .
"Yes," Kakashi said, interrupting his thoughts, "but under surveillance for an undeterminable time. And don't try to explain your actions to me."
The man looked out the window, where clouds were gathering fast in the sky.
"It's best if you explain the truth to all of us. At the same time."
With a start, Sasuke realized this might be the first time Kakashi had most likely just disobeyed orders from higher-ups with what he had said.
Sasuke was so lost in his thoughts he almost missed a very, very important fact.
"Wait, hold on a second," he said. "'Until a new Hokage is inaugurated.' What does . . . that mean?"
His teacher's face instantly darkened.
"Today is the funeral ceremony for the fallen shinobis of Konoha." Kakashi stood up and moved for the door before facing Sasuke. The man's expression was unfathomable. "Your clothes are under the bed. If you hurry up and get changed . . . you might see him one last time."
They were standing right in front of Naruto's apartment building, Sasuke and Kakashi facing Sai, Naruto, and Sakura in a backdrop of an empty Konoha street and gray skies. Everyone was in ugly black mourning clothes.
"Sasuke," Naruto stated plainly.
"Naruto," his friend acknowledged.
Naruto suffered few injuries due to the Nine-Tail; he had not a bandage in sight. The only visible scar across Sai's left arm was pink and dated. Sakura looked unmarred also, but Sasuke noticed her high-collared shirt covering her neck.
The two best friends continued their stare-down for a few more seconds. Then, Naruto grinned.
"You bastard, finally woke up from your beauty sleep?"
Sasuke would never understand how his idiotic friend always seemed to know the right words to say at the right time, how the atmosphere would always warm whenever Naruto opened his mouth. But right now, Sasuke was thankful of this ability.
So of course, he shot back:
"If you train more instead of spying on your teammates, you might have a hope of beating me one day." He smirked. "Do-be."
"Are you insulting my abilities to beat you into a bloody pulp?"
"As if you can even put a scratch on my forehead protector."
Naruto suddenly grinned and wrapped his arm around Sasuke's shoulders, causing the latter to slump under his weight.
"It's good to have teme back . . ." Then, before the scene got too cheesy, Naruto added, "I mean, who's going to be my slave otherwise?"
"Hn. Likewise, moron. Likewise."
From the corner of his eye, Sasuke saw Sakura smiling in relief.
Sai opened his mouth to speak. Sasuke immediately despaired, knowing it would be another poke at his sexuality, especially with Naruto's arms around himself.
But instead, Sai asked, completely out of the blue:
"Why did the chicken cross the road?"
They stared at him. He shrugged.
"I read somewhere that it was good to alleviate tension with a well-timed joke."
Kakashi and Sakura laughed.
Any cheerfulness, however, was gone by the time they reached the Hokage Tower. There, the funeral would be held for Konoha's most honorable men. Team 7 was slowly shocked into soberness.
Masses of black congregated through the streets. Villagers—civilians and shinobis alike—walked in with a sense of dream-like daze. Overhead, rain was falling. The sky had, too, begun its grieving.
They were separated by rank; Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto hurried to the front rows while Sai and Kakashi stayed behind. Through the rain, Sasuke saw Chouji crying together with his team. Sakura quietly explained that Chouji's father was one of the many who had fallen along with the Third. Sasuke felt his heart numb.
He saw that some shinobi in mourning while they should've died in his past life, yet some who were supposed to live were dead. Like Chouza.
You win some, you lose some, echoes of the Voice seemed to say in his mind.
Up at the stage, words of grief, loss, honor, and hope were lost. Everyone was deaf that day. Death and mute.
It all seemed wrong somehow. People were too silent. Naruto wasn't talking. Kakashi wasn't late. Sakura wasn't asking Sai for dates.
The village needed a leader. But the Hokage was dead. Killed by Orochimaru.
I could've prevented this, Sasuke thought. His eyes couldn't leave the sobbing figures of Konohamaru and Chouji as they, the family of the deceased, paid their respects to the dead. I should've prevented this.
But he didn't.
Why wasn't it enough? Sasuke's fists tightened as tears—something so foreign to him—threatened to flow. Why wasn't it enough? Why couldn't his information help? Why did the Third had to die?
Why was his self so worthless?
Sasuke marched back from Sarutobi's coffin. He couldn't look at the dead man, too afraid of the accusation he would see in Sarutobi's dead eyes in the photo.
Sakura arrived back to his side, her hand empty of the mourning flower. Sometime later, she leaned over to sob in Sasuke's chest. And sometime later, Sasuke hesitantly placed his hand on her head. Her hair was wet from the rain, like his, and she didn't flinch away from his comforting touch.
People began to leave. Konoha must move on, be rebuilt. Leaf sprouts from withered branches. No matter how weak the village was now, it could only become stronger with all the people's efforts. No matter how painful, life must go on.
But some stayed, too stubborn to abandon their great leader. These were ninjas. They had all known the great Kage as a leader, as a comrade, as a teacher. As a father.
Spots of black dotted the nearly empty roof. From afar, they would all seem like ants. And somewhere among them, five shinobi, from Genin to Jounin, stood together silently in the rain.
Team 7 was five spots of black among a hundred others, part of a more that seemed to never be whole again.
The coffin was lifted away when the clouds parted. Left over mourners were politely asked to leave. The Sandaime's burial had to be conducted in secret with many layers of protective jutsus to make sure grave robbers wouldn't visit.
As they walked down the stairs of the Hokage Tower, Sasuke made up his mind and pulled Team 7 away from the crowd.
"What is it?" Sakura asked. Sasuke shook his head, a nonverbal message that told her, I will explain later.
The four members of Team 7 gathered around him by the trunk of an oak tree, patiently waiting for him to speak. Other shinobi teleported or walked away; none paid attention to a Genin squad.
Sasuke took a deep breath in.
"I . . . need to tell you something . . ."
He wouldn't be able to explain everything. Trustworthiness aside, if the news spread to the Leaf Council via forced mindreading, he was done for.
But he could tell them some things. A day such as this would never be repeated. He owed them that much.
"It's about what happened back with Gaara . . . what happened with me . . ."
And it was time, anyway.
A/N: Hi, I'm back. I'm sorry for not updating yesterday, which was SNU's one-year anniversary. And I'm sorry for the disappointment that is chapter 21. :( To be honest, Sasuke, Not Uchiha has come to a point where every word feels like a step through wet cement, and every sentence seems like, well, crap.
As far as this story goes, there will be two more arcs left in Part 1. I'm thinking of separating Part 2 into another story so SNU wouldn't become, like, a 200,000-word epic or something. O.O
Sorry again . . .
Edit A/N 12/22/2011: This isn't a cliffhanger, just like what happened last chapter wasn't really a cliffhanger either. The next chapter will be the start of a rather filler-ish arc. But hopefully not so. You'll see. :)