New Lives

Chapter 26

"I know he was angry, and he was right to be, but he had no right to try to harm Konohamaru for something his grandfather did years before he was even born." Kidoumaru did sympathize with Sasuke, but he was also angry that the Uchiha would attack one of his students. "Konohamaru is a brat, but he's no murderer and he's not responsible for what happened."

Sakura nodded gravely, "Poor Sasuke, he's spent his whole life trying to avenge his clan, only to learn that his own village was responsible... If he wasn't insane before, that might just do it."

"I never thought we'd be pitying Sasuke, after what he did to Ino and the rest of us, but he has been dealt a bad deck from the beginning, and the game just keeps crashing down on his head..."

"Hey, Kidoumaru-Sempai!" Konohamaru rushed over to where the pair was sitting, "Thanks for helping me out back there."

Kidoumaru shrugged, "Least I could do, since I couldn't have one of my students beaten by a low-level traitor."

"You're all heart, Sempai." Konohamaru looked at the ground nervously, "Is it true? What he said about... About my grandfather?"

Kidoumaru took a deep breath, "It looks that way, but we haven't gotten all of the plays factored in yet. I hope he's wrong, but..."

"But you believe it's true? You believe my grandfather had the entire Uchiha clan murdered..."

"Whatever he did or didn't do, he died saving this village from Orochimaru, and he risked his life for it's people many times. He's still a hero, but he did one awful thing, truly awful thing. I don't know how that all balances out, I'm not the ref in this game, but you should remember his good qualities, and not dwell on his bad ones."

...

"YO! Sakon!"

"What is it, Lefty?"

"I want my own room!"

Sakon laughed, it was an old joke between them, but still funny, "Well go right ahead, plenty of room in the latrine."

"I'll flush you!" "Yeah, right, Lefty!"

Sai turned, "Do you want separate rooms?"

Sakon laughed, "No, well, yeah, but it's not possible, we can't separate for too long, Lefty here's too weak to survive on his own."

"Who are you calling weak, Tayuya-Face!"

"You, Pig-Snot!"

"Girly-Boy!"

"Freak!"

"Ugly!"

Sai shook his head, "Is this a normal fraternal relationship?"

"Well, yeah, except for the being symbiotically linked to each other." Ukon paused, He really doesn't know. Those ROOT #! Really screwed this guy over, I hope they rot in hell. "Er, what about you and Suigetsu?"

"Our relationship is pleasant, he is most helpful to me in my quest to learn more about human emotions, and I'm glad to be able to show him the progress I have made since we were separated."

He's made progress to become this! My God! How can those #! Live with themselves?

...

Kakashi walked into the cell holding Sasuke, "Hey, kid."

"Kakashi."

"Obito's scared to death, he blames himself."

"That's stupid, it was the council's doing, the Hokage."

Kakashi scratched his head, "You know Obito, he blames himself for everything."

"Are you angry?"

Kakashi sighed, "Yes, I'm angry, I'm angry that you could even think that you were justified in attacking Konohamaru, the rest is nothing, I'd probably have done the same, but we both know that kid had nothing to do with what happened to your clan. I'm disappointed in you for that."

Sasuke hung his head in shame, "I know. Konohamaru wasn't even born when that happened, I was just so angry with his grandfather... I can't undo what happened, it was wrong. I let the rage control me again, and a lot of people could have suffered."

"#! Right." Kakashi rubbed the bridge of his nose in consternation, "You'll be out of here soon, and I want you to come back with Obito and me."

Sasuke looked up in disbelief, "You still want me?"

"We need to keep you out of trouble, and Obito and I are the best people for that job. Besides, you've kinda... Grown on me, like a wart or something..."

...

Tsunade looked Obito in the eye, "I don't blame you, Obito. In fact, I'm surprised you don't blame us all for what happened to your clan."

"But that was just a few people, not everyone in town."

...

Kidoumaru picked up a long, extendable arm, "So, this is the puppet that killed the Creep Twins?"

Kankurou nodded sadly, Kuroari was in bad shape, having been torn apart from inside by Sasuke in Cursed Seal form. "Yeah, this happened once before, all of my puppets were destroyed by Sasori, jan."

"Sasori? The puppeteer Sasori? Why would he do that?"

Kankurou shook his head, "Akatsuki sent Sasori and Deidara to capture Gaara and bring him back so that they could extract Shukaku. Sasori held me off while Deidara escaped with Gaara. He destroyed all of my puppets and poisoned me, I nearly died, jan."

"That was when Sakura treated you, right? She told me something about that."

"Yeah, she saved my life, and the others saved Gaara. I rebuilt my puppets and got on with my life... Did Sakura tell you who defeated Sasori?"

"No."

Kankurou smiled, "Just like her. Sakura and Chiyo killed Sasori, Sakura fought him off, with Chiyo manipulating her as a living puppet, jan."

"Sakura... Killed someone?"

"No, Chiyo used Sasori's own puppets of his parents to kill him, Sakura held him off and protected Chiyo and everyone else, jan."

Kidoumaru smiled, Thank God, I'd hate for her to have to know what it feels like to kill someone.

"His puppets of his parents?"

"Yes, Sasori made puppets out of human corpses, including his own body and our former Kazekage. His parents died when he was a kid, and he couldn't handle it... Jan. So he made them 'alive' again, it's sad, really."

"Your former Kazekage, you don't mean..."

"No, not him. He was half-eaten by desert ants when they found the corpse, this was a previous Kazekage."

Kidoumaru sighed with relief and began placing the pieces of Kuroari next to their matching parts. "Don't worry, I learned all about fixing puppets from Maki."

The puppeteer looked up at the Spider-Nin, "Thank you for offering to help."

"It's the least I could do, in a way, it's my fault. I suggested using Kuroari to try to catch Sasuke..."

"It was a good idea, if it had been an enemy, we would have won. But we couldn't kill Sasuke, so he had time to escape, jan."

Kidoumaru nodded, "Fighting without the objective of killing is incredibly hard, having to hold back..."

"Yeah."

To Be Continued . . .