38. Mission: Failure
"It's half past eleven now – where the hell is he?!" Naruto, who was wandering restlessly from one side of the roomy kitchen to the other, asked for about the one-hundredths time this hour, just changing the frustration-level in his voice and the time designation in his sentence. His two female team-mates and the big black dog sat on the floor in front of the dark, wooden table, every once in a while getting up to peek out of the window or into the corridor, in search for any sign of the man they were obliged to keep watch on, but in vain; he still hadn't returned yet and the mood in the Uchiha-mansion got palpably tenser the more time passed.
"Didn't your Bunshins find him yet?" Sakura asked yet again in a distressed voice, but just as always she received the same answer.
"No, nothing… even though they should have long been done with scouring through the village by now…" The blonde ninja replied, completely churned up inside, while the pinkette just heaved a weary sigh and directed her eyes to the door, as if expecting the Uchiha to just walk in as if nothing had happened.
"Guys…" Sayuri, who had remained completely silent the entire time, finally raised her voice, even though you could clearly hear that it cost her quite some overcoming to do so.
"I guess there's something I didn't tell you…" She really didn't want to do this, but Sasuke was already thirty minutes over the time limit they had set and so she felt she had to tell her team-mates, about her suspicions.
"About Sasuke?!" Naruto exclaimed in a shocked voice, spinning around like a scalded cat: "What is it? Spill it out already!"
"Well, you know… I'm not a hundred percent sure about this, that's why I didn't tell you earlier, but I think that he's been gone one night before, right after we started sharing a room…" She stated hesitantly, her eyes fixed on her hands that rested on her knees and clasped the fabric of her kimono almost frantically.
"What?! Are you kidding? How can you not be sure whether he was there or not and why the hell didn't you tell us earlier anyway?" Sakura snapped at her, apparently glad to have something she could direct her tension at. "We are a team, right? - so don't you think it concerns us, too?"
"Of course it does, but that was while I was still ill and so I didn't know whether it was just some sort of feverish dream or reality and I didn't want to bring him into trouble for nothing… that's why I kept it to myself…" The violet-haired girl explained herself in a low voice, still unable to detach here eyes from her knees and direct them at her team-mates, out of fear of looking into their disappointed faces.
"So you thought he had sneaked out at night and you did nothing about it – even though you knew perfectly well, that it was our mission to make sure that something like this didn't happen?" The Haruno enquired, furiously banging a flat hand on the table, which shook violently under the impact, but didn't break down like the last one that had experienced an outburst of fury by the pinkette. The loud bang cut through the silence with surprising intensity and caused Sayuri to wince, especially since her already guilty conscience increased even more and she was overwhelmed by a sudden surge of remorse.
"I didn't do nothing…" The violet-haired girl defended herself meekly, even though judging from her tone you'd guess that she wasn't so sure of that herself. "I talked to him and kept a closer watch on him after that…"
"Oh, really? Well why didn't you say so right away - that changes just about everything! So what did he tell you then, huh?" The pink-haired Kunoichi ranted in a sarcastic tone, hardly able to keep the frustration out of her voice. "I mean we are just talking about Uchiha Sasuke, also known as the impersonated honesty– there's no way he could have lied to you, right?"
"Cut it out you two!" Naruto finally intervened in their quarrel, his shaky voice catching the attention of his two team-mates that had almost forgotten about his presence, but now looked a little startled into his infuriated face.
"Naruto-kun…" Sayuri murmured feebly, but fell silent as she caught sight of Naruto's trembling fists, he was clenching so tightly that his knuckles were turning white from the pressure.
"What's the matter with you two?" He scolded them in a quavering voice, while he shifted his eyes from one girl to the other: "You're so absorbed in your bickering - it seems you've forgotten what this is all about!"
The two girls directed a puzzled expression at the blonde boy in front of them and listened intently as he carried on scolding them: "It seems like you have totally lost it! Sakura-chan – from how you're talking, it sounds as if you seriously believe that Sasuke has been scheming something the entire time! It's true that he's been a Nuke-nin, but he is back now! Just because he's still under observation, doesn't mean he's locked in this mansion – he can go wherever he likes – he should have told us though, but you know exactly that that's just not like him, but that doesn't mean that he has changed sides again… or that he has never been on our side in the first place…"
Sakura cast her eyes to the side, after Naruto had finished his sermon; realizing that he was probably right and that she had given up too early.
"And you, Sayuri-chan" The Uzumaki now turned to the other girl who already wore a guilty expression on her face, but he nevertheless started berating her: "You should have told us. You said you didn't want to get him into trouble - just what do you think we would have done? Did you think we'd just run off and tell everyone we come across about it – don't you have any trust in us at all?" Naruto looked at her with a pained expression, making her feel even more miserable than she already did. Biting her lower lip to keep it form shaking, she shifted her eyes to the floor again, trying to fight back her tears, even though they had already started flooding her eyes.
A subdued mood filled the neat kitchen of the huge mansion now; the three people inside doing their best to avoid each others gazes, while they were still engrossed in their thinking.
"I'm sorry…" Naruto eventually stated, feeling guilty for the harsh words he had used, as he saw how they affected his team-mates.
"No… you're right…" Sayuri stated hesitantly, trying her best to shoot an encouraging look at the blonde, while she tried to smile away her tears.
"We really did behave incredibly stupid." The pinkette added as she got to her feet before she exclaimed in a feigned cheerful voice: "Maybe we should go and search for Sasuke as well – I mean let's be realistic – I don't really think that your clones will be able to do the job all by themselves…"
"Hey!" Naruto exclaimed in an offended voice, before a small grin started to appear on his lips. "Allright then, let's go! – Get up Sayuri-chan!"
"Okay…" She stated and got to her feet as well, glad to have something to do other than just sitting around and doing nothing.
"Allright then, the one who finds him first, gets invited to free Ramen from the others!" Naruto hollered while he created a bunch of further shadow clones that ran out of the kitchen at once, joining the other clones in their search.
"There's no way I'll loose!" The blonde prophesied with a self-assured grin and ran right after his bunshins, while the two girls just sighed and followed their 'team-mates' at a comparatively slow pace.
…
…
The cutting winter wind raged over the land and shook the trees heavily, causing the last remaining leaves to fall from their branches and drift through the air, wafting almost playfully around the three shadowy figures that stood at the edge of a deep, sombre forest.
"Go ahead…" The dark-haired figure ordered the man in front of him, as the clouds passed by and the moon once again bathed the whole area in its soft, dim light. "… and where is –"
"Stop right there!" The man with the blade on his back interrupted him brusquely: "You don't seriously want to ruin this sweet moment of reunion, by asking after that stupid bitch?!" He asked in a melodramatic voice, while he turned around and crossed his arms in front of his chest in a feigned offended manner; however the tall man to his side didn't show any interest in his theatrical tour de force and answered in his stead.
"She's with the suspect… probably still interrogating him…" He mused, directing his eyes at the dark-haired man in front of him, whose interest he had apparently awoken.
"Suspect…?" He asked in a nonchalant voice; it seemed as if he had missed more than he had imagined.
"Yeah, but I doubt that she is still interrogating him – five minutes alone with that foureyed chatterbox and you'd spill everything, just to get rid of her…I really feel sorry for that poor guy."
"If your tolerance limit is that low, maybe it was a bad idea to recruit you…" The apparent leader of their little group stated dryly, raising an eyebrow while his eyes rested with mocking apathy on the man in front of him.
"Ah, come on – I was just kiddin' - you know that I've endured her company for way longer…" He defended himself, while a bitter smile crossed his lips and revealed his sharp, white teeth, before he added: "I'm dead inside though, but I've endured…"
"Lead me to her…" The dark-haired man ordered and turned his eyes to the man in front of him again, who hence sighed dramatically, before he cast a piercing glance at his opposite: "Only just back and already acting bossy again, huh? Fine follow me then!" He grinned archly and jumped into the nearest tree, vanishing in the dark forest behind him, closely followed by the rest of his team.
…
…
It was almost three in the morning now and they still hadn't been able to find even the tiniest trace of their lost team-mate. They were convinced now that he wasn't in the village any longer, even though none of the guards, positioned at the gates had seen him leave through them… but they knew that if Sasuke had wanted to leave unseen he would have succeeded in doing so without any difficulties – a fact that had them worried even more: Why would Sasuke want to leave so suddenly? Something must have happened and gone unnoticed by them, therefore they didn't trust in their own discernment any longer… That was the main reason, why they were now standing in the office of the Hokage, waiting for her to show up, since she had already been asleep - not surprising, considering the late or rather early hour.
They hadn't meant to go to Tsunade that early, they had actually intended it as a last resort, however since they had been on the scout for more than three hours and bearing in mind what Sayuri had told them, they had decided to fill the Hokage in already – especially since they also contemplated that something might have happened to Sasuke, even though they didn't really believe it.
Standing in front of Tsunade's empty oak desk, like intimidated pupils expecting to get a detention, the three Shinobi had been waiting for the head of their village for almost fifteen minutes, when the door finally flew open and a blonde, dishevelled woman scuffled into the office, not casting a single glance at any of them, but walking straight to her desk and seating herself in her chair, while her personal assistance, looking as fresh as a daisy, entered right after her and just positioned herself next to the door, nodding at the three people in front of her salutatory.
"It is three o'clock in the morning…" The Godaime rasped in a grave voice, throwing a menacing glare through narrowed eyes at the attendant part of Team7: "I can't think of anything that could be important enough to justify your disturbance of my sleep, so in case you're unable to convince me of the opposite you'll end up doing D-rank missions for the rest of your ninja career."
"WHAT?!" Naruto shrieked ashen-faced, the word 'D-rank' making him completely forget about the reason why they were here. "You can't do that! That's-"
"Naruto!" Sakura cut him off sharply, before she turned to the Fifth and said in an apologetic but also urgent voice: "We are really sorry for waking you up, but it really is this important…"
"I hope so – for your sake at least…" The blonde woman yawned disinterestedly and rested her head on her arms, she had crossed on the table. "What are you waiting for? Spill it out already or I'll feel forced to sharpen your sentence…"
"Please, Tsunade-sama – Sasuke is gone." Sakura explained desperately and watched how the head of the Hokage shoot up at once, before she exclaimed with a shocked expression on her now wide-awake seeming face: "WHAT?!"
"We've searched through the entire village but we couldn't find him." Naruto added and flinched as the honey-eyed woman banged her hand on the table and rose up from her chair.
"I can't believe it – you had the simple mission of keeping watch on him and you seriously lost him?! – Do you have any idea what this means for us?" She asked, but the three shinobi just shook their heads miserably, not daring to look directly at the infuriated woman, who seemed ready to explode.
"Of course you don't know it – how could you? No one knows what it means – there have been so many inconsistencies with his return, so many scenarios we have to take into account…" Her voce failed her, so she clasped a hand to her forehead and let herself fall into her chair again, taking a deep breath and messaging her sleeves before she turned to the dark-haired woman at the other end of the room. "Shizune – order our best ANBU squads to scout the area for Uchiha Sasuke and bring him back – if necessary even by force."
"Alright, Tsunade-sama." She stated and was just about to walk out of the room, when the blonde held her back again: "And send for Nara Shikamaru and Hatake Kakashi, we might need their help here."
Directing another nod at her boss, Shizune finally rushed out of the door and began carrying out her task.
As soon as she was gone, Tsunade leant back in her chair and shot a reproachful look at the three ninjas in front of her, who just stood there like a picture of misery, but didn't dare say anything again…
About ten minutes of profound, tense silence later, Shikamaru, looking even drowsier than the Hokage herself, entered the office and greeted the people inside of it with a loud yawn.
"What is it now…?" He asked with an annoyed expression, stretching his arms over his head while he walked towards Team7 and positioned himself right next to them.
"We're still waiting for Kakashi to turn up. I'll start explaining once he's here so I don't have to do it twice." Tsunade stated as she got up and walked over the moss-green carpeted floor towards the window, watching a great number of shinobi, wearing white masks of different shapes and with different patterns, gather in front of the Hokage building and swarm out to the four winds simultaneously.
"Sorry for the delay" Kakashi apologized as he swung the thick wooden door open, which creaked unpleasantly loud from the movement and walked into the room, apparently too tired for his usual appearance-procedure with the smoke and all that fuss… He shot a scrutinizing glance at the tense people inside of the bureau, until his eyes reached Shikamaru, who merely shrugged, looking about as clueless as he did.
"Then we are complete now…" Tsunade turned around to face the people in front of her and started to explain: "I've just been informed by Team7 that they've lost Uchiha Sasuke." Kakashi's and Shikamaru's eyes widened slightly, while the other three shinobi just looked down guiltily, not needing the Hokage's accusatory words to add to the guilt they were already feeling…
"I've called for you, so we can go through the possible scenarios we have to expect and prepare some emergency plans." Her eyes rested on the Nara, while she said that, since it was generally known that, with his high IQ, Shikamaru was able to go through over 200 situations and strategies simultaneously and choose the best one out of these in practically no time.
"I'll start here, since I've prepared for a situation such as this from the very day he returned" Tsunade's eyes wandered over the five ninjas standing in front of her, before she cast them down a little and muttered in a discouraged tone: "Even though I hoped it would turn into a needless effort…"
Her eyes fell shut in a pensive manner, so she didn't see how her words affected the people in front of her. She shook her head a little, as if meaning to shake of the feeling that was starting to overcome her and opened them again, explaining in a clear and sharp voice: "When Sasuke came back, he said he had left Orochimaru, because he couldn't teach him anything new, but it is very unlikely that Orochimaru would have let him go like that… therefore we need to consider that Sasuke has been sent as a spy, either to gather information, or to prepare a coming assault on the Hidden Leave –"
"No Way! He would never do that! We are talking about Sasuke here – he is one of us again, he wouldn't betray us like that…" The blonde boy defended his best friend vigorously, even though he himself had some doubts about the trustworthiness of his own words…Nevertheless he tried to save his friend's neck, by interposing a speculation of his own: "What if Orochimaru came to take him back? Maybe Sasuke needs our help!"
"Rather improbable, but possible… we can't tell for sure and that's where the real problem lies…" Tsunade sighed and rubbed her sleeves, pressing her eyes shut tightly, before she enquired: "When did you notice that he was gone and when was the last time that you've seen him?"
The three shinobi of Team7 exchanged some uncertain glances, matching their rather crouched posture and their dejected countenance perfectly, before Naruto straightened himself and started to retell the last part of their day: "The last time we've seen him was during dinner, we – wait a minute! What if he was so disgusted by the food that he took to his heels? - No offence, Sakura-chan!" The blonde pondered and in consideration of his incredible naivety, he might have seriously believed this to be true, however he was brought back down to earth pretty quickly, as Sakura's flat hand collided painfully hard with the back of his head; even the sound of the hollow bang, causing everyone in the small bureau to flinch - everyone except for Sakura at least, since she just groused mercilessly: "Baka! This is no time for your silly jokes, so cut it out!"
"Ah – okay, okay, Sakura-chan, I'm sorry." He whined an apology, clasping his arms around his head to keep it from crumbling apart, before he carried on with watery eyes: "Okay, well, as we've finished eating he left the room without saying anything and as I've searched him, just about thirty minutes or maybe an hour later he was gone. I went back into the kitchen then and asked Sakura-chan and Sayuri-chan if they knew where he was, but they didn't, so we've decided to wait until eleven o'clock and search for him if he hadn't returned by then… which he hadn't, so we've spent the time from then on, until about thirty minutes ago, with searching through the entire village, but we couldn't find him; that's when we came here…" Naruto finally finished and looked at the Hokage, who had just opened her mouth to say something, when she was interrupted by Sayuri: "What about the bird?"
"Right, the bird! I've completely forgotten about the tiny guy…" Naruto reminisced with a faraway expression about the little creature that had been practically his pet for nearly five wonderful minutes.
"What bird?" Tsunade asked sceptically and Shikamaru and Kakashi also eyed the blonde rather uncomprehendingly, but Sakura started to clarify things for them: "While we were eating, a bird came flying into the kitchen and landed right in Sasuke's cup of tea. It just sat there and stared at him, until Sayuri picked it out again… a short time later Sasuke left the room and right after that the bird flew off again, as well…" Sakura pondered, only just becoming aware of the chronology of these events.
"Maybe the bird was some kind of messenger…" Kakashi mused, his one visible eye meeting the shocked expressions of his students.
"Tze - and we even talked about how weird this whole situation was… and yet we didn't even suspect that there might be more to it…" Sakura stumbled, more to herself than to anyone else, staring through unfocused, blank eyes to the front, appearing as rigid as a pillar of salt.
"But a bird…?" Naruto threw in with a sceptical cadence in his voice: "Doesn't really sound like Orochimaru, if you ask me…"
"Well he couldn't just let a snake wriggle though our window – than we would have known at once…" Sayuri stated, even though right now, she had some slight doubts that they really would have known it then; after all the bird hasn't exactly been inconspicuous either and they hadn't even had the slightest suspicions about it…
While thinking about all these things, she nervously fiddled around with her fingers, every once in a while trying to blow an annoying strand of hair out of her eyes until she just pushed it behind her ear and looked to the side as Kakashi raised his voice: "Maybe it wasn't Orochimaru, but someone else…"
"But who?" Tsunade asked, anxiously skimming a hand back and forth over the abrasive surface of her oak table; she didn't like the turn, things were taking, everything was way too vague for her taste and the clueless expressions on her opposites' faces made clear that they were none the wiser, either…
"Maybe it was one of Orochimaru's subordinates that just acted as a messenger … maybe the bird was a sign for something…" Some startled expressions turned towards the violet-haired girl after she had proclaimed her assumption which again brought Orochimaru into the centre of attention and Kakashi took up her idea and continued: "Maybe the fact that Sasuke has left the village now of all times, means that they are planning an attack soon…"
Tsunade's eyes widened at that point and everyone else was also staring around rather uneasily, until a slight cough on the part of Shikamaru, who had remained utterly silent up to now, caught everyone's attention.
"There is something else that had bothered me all along…" He started, looking into the faces of his comrades that seemed to be strung to breaking point, in anticipation of his ideas. "The Uchiha came back, somewhat three years after he left, right?" Some quiet nods, affirmed his assumption so he carried on: "I'm no expert on that subject, but from what I've heard, Orochimaru has to find a new vessel for his reanimation jutsu every three years – so it is very unlikely that he would let his chosen subject go just like that and not put up a fight to get him back, especially after all the time and effort he has put into his training…"
"We are all well aware of that, so what are you driving at?" Tsunade asked him, furrowing her brow, which caused the Nara to sigh, apparently annoyed about being rushed, as he so often was, before he finally elucidated the essence of his assumption: "As I said I am no expert on that subject, but maybe Orochimaru never let go of the Uchiha – maybe he did perform his reanimation technique according to plan and came back to Konoha in Sasuke's body, for who knows what reason, but it sure has something to do with the destruction of the Hidden Leave."
A breathless silence followed Shikamaru's words, everyone in the need to digest what they had just heard, while their expressions pretty much revealed their inner state.
Everybody was more or less speechless and stunned, and started going through the events of the past weeks in search for any sign that might confirm Shikamaru's theory, hoping not to find anything, even though they had noticed before that Sasuke had behaved rather uncommonly and out of character at times… but that didn't mean it hadn't been him in the first place: the thought of having spent the last couple of weeks, living together with Orochimaru was so absurd that it was almost funny, but just almost…
Especially Sayuri had a hard time with taking Shikamaru's theory into account; thinking back of the night she had spent with Sasuke in that cave, just imagining it was Orochimaru instead of him, made her feel terribly nauseous, so she moved a hand to her tense neck and forced herself to take a deep breath, trying to fight back the pictures that started to invade her head – there was no way that it had been Orochimaru, even though his behaviour that night had been extremely unusual for Sasuke, it had nevertheless been him. They all knew him for years now and they sure would have noticed if it had just been some lookalike – at least she wanted to believe that that was the case, but apparently Naruto felt that same way about this whole thing as she did, since as soon as he had recovered himself again, he exclaimed in a loud voice, appearing completely wrought up inside: "No way! We've been with him, almost twenty-four hours a day for almost an entire month – we would have noticed if it hadn't been him! I know we would…"
Another long silence followed Naruto's desperate words, before Shizune, who had shortly before re-entered the room, asked: "Tsunade-sama, what are you going to do now?"
Sighing wearily, Tsunade once again started messaging her sleeves, before she started to reflect about their possibilities with a concentrated expression on her face: "The last time Orochimaru attacked, he was supported by Suna-Gakure… Fortunately they are our allies now, but still, we need to assume that he wouldn't attack us on his own… accordingly we need to be prepared to repel a major offensive, which means we need to tighten the guards at the borders drastically…" The blonde woman started announcing her plans, when Shikamaru added: "That would just secure us from attacks from the outside, but what if something happens from the inside? We still don't know the reason for the Uchiha's stay during all this time, maybe he has plotted or prepared something…"
Weird how quickly they had adopted the idea that 'the Uchiha', since they no longer referred to him by his first name, had betrayed them again and disposed of everything that militated against it…
"This means, we have to fend off unknown forces from the outside, while we also have to consider the existence of some unidentified dangers from the inside…" Kakashi summed up their situation, his gaze tightly fixed on the table in front of him, as if it was some object of greatest importance that could help them come up with the right answers to the numerous questions that still occupied them.
"Worst case scenario: some circumjacent villages hear about our desperate plight and decide to seize the chance to destroy Konoha-Gakure by ganging up against us." Shikamaru concluded and looked into the paralysed face of the Hokage, who turned her head to him with almost robot-like stiffness and asked with a strained voice: "So what do you propose?"
"As long as we don't know what's going on, we should keep things secret… Just inform the most trustworthy persons about what is really going on – this way we can shield us from attacks just based on the idea of a weakened state of our village and besides we can avoid a panic, which would be favourable, in case we really have to expect some threats from within our village…" The brown-haired ninja proposed looking at the sceptic features of the Hokage.
"But we have to put everyone on red alert, as long as we don't know the purpose of the Uchiha's stay here… and how can I mobilize our entire troops and have them run through the village without giving a reason for it?" Tsunade interjected, getting up from her chair and walking restlessly through her small bureau, but the Nara had something up his sleeves for this situation as well: "The first days we can disguise it as an exercise for a case of emergency… after that we just put our ANBUs and some Jounin on the case – we'd have to pass on doing too many high-ranked missions in the next time though and mainly let our Genin and maybe also some Chunin do the work, since they are the ones we can relinquish rather than anyone else for this mission… but it should buy us enough time to at least realize the danger and then act according to that…"
Gritting her teeth, the Godaime weighed the words of the considerably younger man, torn by an inner conflict, resulting from the knowledge that she, as the Hokage, carried responsibility for an entire village, for thousands of people, therefore she couldn't afford coming to a rash decision, same as she couldn't afford doing nothing… At times like these, she really regretted having accepted the position of the Hokage, especially since she knew that she had just been number-two choice: actually they had meant Jiraiya for the job, but since he had refused, they had switched to the next available Sannin and since asking Orochimaru was out of question, they had come to her… And now she was sitting here, bound to this old table and the small office, forced to make momentous decisions each and every single day, unable to carry on with her old lifestyle, while that pervy old sage was doing his globetrotter-thing again, making sure not to miss a single spot – on a girl – for his inquiries, while she was left here, badly needing his advice…
"Tsunade-sama?" It was the second time now that Kakashi tried to address the blonde woman, who was apparently too absorbed in her own thoughts, to notice his repeated attempts of catching her attention. With a frown on his face, the Hatake exchanged some insecure glances with the other people in the room, before he stepped to the side, as Shizune pushed her way through the row of people that was reaching from one side of the room to the other and walked straight towards the leader of their village, directing a worried look at the apathetic woman that now really did look like a woman at the age of 50 years, before she gently stroked her shoulder and called her name again. This action finally woke the honey-eyed woman from her trance; she raised her head slightly and her beforehand blank eyes focused on the people in front of her piercingly, but despite all that you could still see a deep set tiredness glowing in them that was impossible to blink away just like that.
"Tsunade-sama, Shikamaru is right." The grey-haired Jounin once again addressed the Godaime, this time sure of her undivided attention though: "Keeping the main information to ourselves is probably the best way of approaching this situation – it should give us the time we need to detect whatever there is and make all the necessary preparations; nevertheless I'm of the opinion that we should send a confidential message to the Kazekage and ask for Suna-Gakure's aid, in case it comes to the worst…" Kakashi concluded and looked at the blonde in anticipation for a reply, as did everyone else in the small bureau; it seemed as if they were all confident about their decision, completely unlike the Fifth, who again let out a weary sigh, nervously ticking with one of her fingers onto the surface of her wooden desk in time with the annoyingly loud clock that was standing in one of the huge shelves at the side of the room, reminding her with mocking perseverance of the late hour in which she was actually supposed to be asleep and recover from her tough day; however now she was sitting here in this office, too tired to trust the accuracy of her own judgment and nevertheless forced to make her decision.
"Allright…" She finally muttered, rather half-heartedly though, since she still had her doubts about keeping such important information to herself, but finally accepting that it was for the best of the entire village… Even though it had taken her much of an effort already, she knew that this had just been the easy part of all this – the worst was still to come: she would have to inform the elders, who had been against Sasuke's return from the very first day, of the momentary situation and their plans and endure their inevitable criticism and clamouring… there was no way she could survive this sober: "Shizune!" She called out, so dreaded by these thoughts that she had actually forgotten that her assistant was still standing right beside her, however a good assistant and above all friend as she was, she didn't even need to ask what her boss wanted, but went to a small, almost antique looking cabinet, appearing a little lost next to the huge shelves next to it and pulled a bottle of Sake and three glasses out of it, which she then placed on Tsunade's desk and filled them. As the blonde woman was just about to grip for her glass, her eyes fell on the three Chunin and the one Genin in front of her, their miserable appearance causing her features to soften in sympathy, before her face hardened again and she exclaimed in a clear, business-like voice: "Naruto, Sakura, Sayuri. Since you haven't been able to fulfil your task of supervising Uchiha Sasuke, your mission will be considered as a failure. Shizune!"
With a sweeping gesture of her hand, the Fifth indicated to her assistant to fetch some further glasses, earning a questioning and somewhat hesitant glance from the black-haired woman since she wasn't exactly fond on giving alcohol to minors.
"They probably need it more than anyone else in here…" Tsunade's voice had softened again, as she looked at the downcast people in front of her that were, even though she was damn mad at them at the moment, actually quite precious to her. Talking about all these things had made it painfully clear to them, that there was no hope of having misinterpreted things. Sasuke was gone again and the fact that he had betrayed his village a second time, had left them – his friends – behind a second time, shattered all hope that he would ever return again. In fact he couldn't – considering how hard it had been for him to come back after the first time, it would be impossible for him to ever return to Konoha after having betrayed it twice. However there was no need to worry about something like that; it was evident that he didn't want to return and from what they've had to listen to for the last hour, he apparently even aimed at the destruction of the Hidden Leave… He had just been acting a roll all this time and they hadn't even realized it. Furthermore they had taken him back and treated him as if nothing had ever happened between them in the past, had opened their hearts to him and yet it hadn't been enough to make him stay, they had both failed as ninjas and as friends… Maybe it wasn't that bad to believe it had been Orochimaru and not Sasuke…
As all these realizations started to invade their minds, even though something in their subconsciousness struggled vehemently against it, the three shinobi drained their glasses, feeling to hollow to even grimace, as the sharp tasting liqueur found its way down their throats, leaving behind a burning feeling in their gorges, but they were just too distracted and numb to even realize it. They didn't get any happier or chattier either, as the warmth of the alcohol started to spread from their throats to their entire bodies, in fact, it was giving even more substance to their thoughts, as the rest of their bodily functions drifted into insignificance and a desperate melancholic feeling started to take over their minds. However they weren't the only ones who were overcome by these kind of emotions, they would have probably felt different, if they had known that at the same time, the person whom their thoughts had circled around in the past couple of hours, was standing, equally smitten by a melancholic mood, even though no one who'd look at him would have been able to tell the inner turmoil he was beset with, on a small plateau, savouring what he thought to be the last images he should ever catch of the village he had once called his home, before he, with grim determination, once again turned his back on his past life and joined the group of people that would accompany him to the day, they had prepared for in all this time…
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