Notes: Hi guys! Guess who is updating on time for once. Camp Nanowrimo hit me like a whirlwind and forced me to write the longest chapter yet.
SP should really hire me to write their SS stuff.
36. High Tide
The 19th of July, the fifth year of peace
Konoha, the Land of Fire
Tap.
Tap.
Ta-tap.
Tap.
The echo of a constant, slightly off-beat rhythm floats in the air. Slowly, it ascends over the high red walls of Konoha and to the sky, only to be swept off by the strong winds that race high above the still sleeping village like wild waves at sea.
Sasuke – who, unlike the carefree sounds, is still very much firmly anchored to the ground and so unable to escape – draws in a deep breath through his nose. He rests a hand to his forehead, holding his breath, and rubs his brow while pressing his lips together so tightly that his mouth is only a pale, thin line.
Tap.
Sasuke snaps his eyes open. He jerks his head to the side to look over his shoulder, his fingers still resting on his brow, and glares.
Naruto is blissfully oblivious to the death glare as he continues tapping his foot against the sandy main street and sending small puffs of dirt-coloured dust flying into the air. Under Sasuke's burning gaze, he changes his weight from one hip to the other, crosses his arms over his chest only to stick his hands into his pockets almost immediately after, and keeps glancing towards the centre of the village and the Hokage Tower that looms far away in the distance, still tapping with his foot.
Despite Sasuke's best effort, staring at the idiot doesn't get him to stop and quiet down. No, instead and to Sasuke's increasing horror, Naruto absentmindedly tugs his neon-coloured shirt straight while gazing at the horizon and starts humming.
Behind Sasuke, Sakura snickers at his suffering and doesn't even bother to hide it. She is leaning against the gatekeepers' post and watching the boys with an evil grin on her face, her backpack sitting at her feet and her hair tied up in a careless ponytail. When Sasuke turns his attention and unflattering scowl to her – after having no success with Naruto – she sticks her tongue out and winks at his ever-growing frown.
Sasuke scowls, catches Naruto still fidgeting from the corner of his eye, and then nods towards him while holding Sakura's gaze. Make him shut up.
Sakura shakes her head, still grinning. Shut him up yourself.
A dirty look from Sasuke. I can't make him shut up, we're still not talking!
A tilt of head and another wink. Guess you'll just have to deal with the noise then.
Sasuke glares at her again before pointedly turning away. Sighing, he adjusts the backpack on his back and checks the main road again. It's still very early in the morning, the streets are empty, and the sun has just barely risen over the village, though Sasuke can't tell that by simply looking. The sky is grey, smudged with clouds like a watercolour painting, and it looks like it will be the first day in a week when the temperature won't climb to be higher than tolerable. It's not a bad weather for travelling.
The tapping grows into furious pounding before abruptly stopping altogether.
"Where is he?" Naruto roars at the unsympathetic sky and almost get his teammates to flinch. There is a desperate, whining undertone to his voice. Then he is off to stomping around the gatekeepers' post in circles while throwing his hands in the air. Naruto's poor overstuffed backpack is forgotten on the ground, lying on its side. A frog-shaped wallet tries to slide out from one of the pockets.
Naruto makes two full rounds around the backpack, cursing with every step, before he comes to a jerking stop in front of his teammates. He wrinkles his nose and scrunches up his face so that his whisker marks stretch into harsh streaks.
"Sensei is late. Again. Again!" he screeches at nobody in particular and swings his arms around like a pair of propellers. His cheeks have a reddish tint to them, and the murderous glint in his baby blue eyes scares an unfortunate gatekeeper checking up on them back into hiding inside the post. "He is totally doing this on purpose, isn't he?"
Sakura cranes her neck to peek inside the post to get a look at a clock.
"Technically, he is not late yet," she says, shrugging. "He still has a minute to show up."
"A minute! Ha! As if. When has he ever come on time?"
Then Naruto stops again, freezing in mid-motion, his eyes wide as he comes to a mindboggling realisation.
"The excuses. Oh gods, the excuses. He is going to try to feed us some bullshit about helping some grannies to cross the street or fetching a cat from a tree or – "
Sasuke mutters a prayer to his long-gone ancestors for the millionth time this morning, asking for patience and strength to deal with these idiots, when Naruto's monologue just keeps going on and on. He blows his hair from his face, glances at his teammates – Sakura has joined Naruto in trying to remember all the absurd excuses Kakashi has thrown their way over the years and acting out a quite good, though not so adoring imitation of the man himself – and frowns at the empty street in front of them.
They should really have learned by now, almost ten years into knowing Kakashi, that this would happen. But no. Here they are, like a bunch of idiots, standing at the village gates and waiting for their team leader to arrive on time as if he hasn't popped up at least half an hour late every single time they have ever left for a mission together.
"Aaaaand Sensei's minute is up," Sakura notes under her breath. She and Sasuke shrug at each other when Naruto hides his face into his hands and moans something about the road of life.
It feels like the good old times, the three of them waiting at the feet of the giant red walls just after dawn. Kakashi is nowhere to be seen, as usual, Sasuke is still trying to get himself to wake up, and Naruto hasn't learned to stand still even after all these years.
But something has changed. This time the looks Sasuke gets from Sakura aren't the wishful glances of a love-sick girl, but a subtle, analysing scrutiny from their medic directed at his way when she thinks Sasuke isn't looking.
She knows.
And Naruto. He knows too.
They had to be told about his chakra because of the mission. It would have been a stupid, unnecessary risk to keep it from them that Sasuke can't use his chakra, as hiding that would just needlessly endanger Sasuke and his teammates' safety if something went wrong.
So Sasuke let them know.
After Kakashi promised them the mission yesterday, he promptly threw Naruto and Sakura out of the office to get a quick, private word with Sasuke, and soon Sasuke too was ushered out of the door and sent off to see Tsunade. Kakashi made it very clear that Sasuke would have no business in participating in their boring C-rank unless Tsunade approved, and there was no negotiating about it. Sasuke had found himself grudgingly agreeing.
When he got out of the Hokage Tower, he spotted Sakura and Naruto still hanging around nearby and ran to catch up with them, almost on a whim, before heading to the hospital. Letting them tag along was the simplest way to explain the situation.
Naruto and Sakura sat in a couple of hard, uncomfortable chairs in the corner of the examination room when Tsunade mapped Sasuke's chakra system with her own smooth chakra for the millionth time. She explained about his condition in a calm, firm voice as she ran her glowing hands over Sasuke's body, stopping every now and then to point out the location of some invisible part of his damaged chakra pathways to their startled audience. At some point, Sakura started asking questions with a lot complicated medical terms, and Tsunade answered them with just as much incomprehensible words neither Sasuke or Naruto understood. Eventually, Tsunade waved Sakura over to come to feel the damage for herself, and Sasuke watched, strangely fascinated, how Sakura's face grew more and more stern with each inch of his body she examined.
Naruto didn't have the recourses to deal with the news with as much grace as Sakura. His face had been growing paler and paler ever since he had seen Sasuke hop on to the examination table, and as the severity of the situation slowly dawned on him, his gaze started to skip from Sasuke to Tsunade to Sakura and back to Sasuke again. Every few minutes, he would open his mouth in an unattractive imitation of a fish on dry land, bite his lip and then clamp his mouth closed, lowering his gaze to the floor. After the fourth time Sasuke was ready to snap and tell him to get out whatever it was already.
Sitting there, half-naked, on a cold, metallic examination table with Tsunade laying bare his most vulnerable weakness in front of his friends didn't feel as humiliating as Sasuke would have thought. Five or six years ago he would have hated the thought of having the members of his old team witness it when Tsunade pressed her warm hands uncomfortably on defenceless parts of his body and made him wince, but now, as he watched how his friends tried and failed to digest the information that something was seriously wrong with him, it both touched and pained him to see the brutally honest worry on Sakura's and Naruto's faces.
Somehow, during this short time Sasuke had got used to the fact that all of this was now a normal part of his reality – his chakra disappearing, Tsunade poking him almost every two days, these long and awkward examinations. Seeing the fresh, genuine shock on his teammates faces was a wakeup call in its own right.
Tsunade hadn't warmed up to the mission plan as she thought it was just playing with fire and asking for trouble. But the damage to Sasuke's body hadn't grown that much since he stopped using his chakra, so there was no immediate emergency on the way. Tsunade could also see what being stuck inside the village without anything to do did to Sasuke's nerves. Keeping him caged like this would just blow up on their faces sooner or later, and who knows what the stress would do to his already damaged, fragile chakra system. There was no easy option out of this.
Surprisingly, it was Naruto who laid the most convincing argument on the table. He spoke up from his place in the corner of the room in a quiet voice while Sasuke and Tsunade were busy glaring daggers at each other and informed them that they weren't thinking far enough into the future. If they couldn't fix whatever was happening to Sasuke, he would eventually have to learn to live the rest of life without his chakra. Sasuke couldn't keep waiting for the medical results forever, especially since his condition had seemed to stabilize – at some point he would have to start living again, and as far as Naruto knew Sasuke, that would mean continuing being a ninja.
But this time he would be a ninja without chakra.
Sasuke could not start training for that too soon. And one day he would have to face the rest of the world without his chakra, the rest of the world that would not slow down and make things easier for him just because Sasuke couldn't use his chakra anymore.
And so, Naruto said and bit his lip, was there a safer way to meet the cruel world and start learning than a ridiculously easy C-rank mission with his old, ridiculously strong teammates worrying over him like a flock of mother hens?
Naruto refused to meet Sasuke's gaze after that, but his speech had done its job – Tsunade allowed Sasuke join the mission, though only after smacking him over the head first. She and Sakura made battle plans – Tsunade promised to brief Sakura later that day about all the details on Sasuke's case – while Naruto avoided looking at any of them, and Sasuke had to stop himself from drumming his fingers against the table in a room where every sound echoed from one side of the room to the other.
After Sakura and Tsunade's heated medical discussion which was incomprehensible to mere mortals such as Sasuke or Naruto, the Fifth Hokage presented two conditions on which she would permit Sasuke to leave. The first was that Sasuke had to obey Sakura to a tee when it came to his health, and she was allowed to hit him if he even looked like he was thinking about using his chakra. The second demanded that the "gathering information on Danzou" part of their mission would be just that – information gathering. Sasuke would only scout the area and listen to rumours in the nearby villages, nothing more. He would not go after Danzou if he didn't want to part with his head, not even if Danzou himself jumped out of the bushes right in front of him and threatened to steal their lunch money.
Sasuke took what he was given and ran with it. A mission was a mission, no matter how easy and suitable for genins it was, and a trip outside Konoha was always a breath of fresh air, literally and figuratively.
The lovely sound of Sakura punching Naruto in the head pulls Sasuke from his thoughts. He has no idea what Naruto said to deserve the hit, but he is certain it was justified.
"Great aim," he says and gets a wolfish grin from Sakura.
Naruto rubs the sore spot on his head while whining theatrically and gets his forehead protector all lopsided.
"Guys, that's not nice…" he says, pouting, and shakes his head. "You're ganging up on me – "
He stops mid-motion when he spots two figures heading their way.
"They're here! Finally!"
Sasuke and Sakura stop teasing Naruto and spin around to look back towards the centre of the village and the main road to see, indeed, Kakashi walking towards them with their client in tow. He has a backpack on his own with him, he has wrapped his forehead protector around his upper arm, and he waves a lazy hand in their general direction when he notices the three of them looking – glaring – at him.
"Morning, guys! Sorry I'm late, I got lost on the road of life as I was looking our client this morning and – "
"We don't want to hear it!"
"Liar!"
"We have heard that one before," Sasuke mutters as Naruto and Sakura scream their heads off at Kakashi who just smiles at them innocently and shakes off the insults like harmless flies.
"Now, now, no fighting in front of the client," he says like the annoying old man he likes to say he is and waves his hand again, this time towards their client who peeks at them from behind Kakashi with an uncertain look on her delicate face.
She is a young woman probably in her late twenties, beautiful in a fragile doll -kind of way with dark, long hair and kind eyes fanned by lush lashes she keeps fluttering like butterfly wings. Her clothes, a light summer dress and a thin, pastel cardigan, are just as unpractical and pretty as is her way to move, soft and inefficient and undeniably civilian. She steps forwards, ends up next to Kakashi and brushes a lock of hair behind her ear. She looks even shorter and frailer when she accidentally makes Team 7 compare her to Kakashi by standing so close to him. She shyly tells them that her name is Yoshioka Hana, and she bows as she thanks them for taking her back to her small home town.
Sakura and Naruto switch from their bloodthirsty growling to bright smiles in less than a heartbeat when they dump Kakashi in favour of introducing themselves to Hana whose wariness of them is soon swept away by their sunny greetings. Naruto is beaming again, looking very tanned and strong in his orange t-shirt that is just a tad too tight on his wide shoulders. Next to him, Sakura is just as attention-grabbing with her toned body, her boxing wrist wraps and training clothes, and soft pink hair that contrasts with her sun-kissed skin. Hana is charmed into chatting with them in no time.
Sasuke, on the other hand, hangs back as he is content to leave the socializing part to his teammates. He glances at Kakashi to see him watching back, and a small smile appears on Kakashi's face when he notices Sasuke looking at him. Sasuke mouths a silent "Hi" and grins when Kakashi nods towards their teammates and rolls his eyes while shaking his head. Sasuke watches him, smiling, a bit too long for them to look only like old teammates before he catches himself. He looks away so quickly that his short ponytail smacks against his neck, wipes non-existent dust from his muted dark blue shirt and walks over to Naruto's backpack which is still lying on its side on the ground like a beached whale. Sasuke hoists the heavy backpack upright, grabs the frog wallet that is making its slow escape and stuffs it into the first, already full pocket he comes across on the backpack.
He hauls the backpack with him as he walks to his teammates and drops it at Naruto's feet.
"Should we get going?" he asks and tunes out Naruto's whine about breaking his stuff at the loud thump. He turns to their client who is blinking at him, surprised, and gives her his name and a nod as his blunt greeting. Hana is still absorbing this, her long eyelashes flickering almost comically, as Sasuke steps away from her and his team with the same directness he just arrived with and heads towards the gates. They are ready to leave, are they not?
As if to answer that, the gatekeepers push the heavy gates open behind them. The giant doors creak in the calm silence of the early morning and reveal the vast forest they were hiding behind them.
Sasuke is the first one to step outside, soon followed by Sakura and Hana. Kakashi walks out with lazy, laidback strides, probably already fishing one of his books from his secret stash. He stops to wait for Naruto, who runs screaming after them half a minute later, trying to hoist his bulky bag on his back as he sprints and shouts obscenities about some unnamed bastard leaving him behind on purpose. One of his louder shrieks sends a flock of startled birds of the forest flying over their heads.
They haven't got far before another voice joins Naruto in trying to wake up the whole village.
"Lord Hokage! Please wait!"
Typical. Just so typical.
Sasuke's tense shoulders rise to his ears as he breathes in sharply and wonders if anyone would notice it if he just kept walking. But he hears the others' footsteps stop behind him, the quiet, disbelieving "Who?" in Hana's melodic voice, and then Sakura is calling after him, telling him to wait.
Surrendering to his fate, Sasuke slows down. Behind him, the others have turned towards the gates that are still close enough to cast their shadows over them. Kakashi's back is stiff and straight as a pole as he stares at something behind the gatekeeper that shouted after them.
The Elders.
"What now…?" Sasuke hisses through gritted teeth. His hair stands up at his neck as he watches the old couple, their thin grey hair and matching condescending expressions on wrinkly, skull-like faces as they take their time walking up to Team 7. They have an ANBU escorting them, the man walks at a respectful distance behind them with his arms folded behind his back.
Sakura and Naruto notice the change in Kakashi's body language and sense the hatred oozing from Sasuke, but they don't understand the reason for either of them. They study the Elders in silence, Naruto already swiping sweat from his brow, and Sakura glancing over her shoulder at Sasuke. Hana is the only one unaware of the tension in the air, but she keeps her voice quiet as she leans over to Sakura and asks who the strangers are.
As if prompted by those whispered words, Kakashi, with his posture taut like a bow, moves to go to meet the Elders half-way. He stops just before reaching them so that the Elders have to come to him instead of Kakashi walking up to them. He is at least a head taller than either of the Elders when he stands in his full height, and as their Hokage, he is far higher-ranking than the two old farts put together, but when Homura and Koharu crane their necks to look up him, they somehow still manage to sneer at Kakashi like he is just some bratty genin fresh out of the academy.
"What can I do for you?" Kakashi asks after a pointed silence. His tone is not as polite as his words. Behind him, Naruto and Sakura glance at each other in confusion.
Koharu is the first one to deign to speak.
"Lord Hokage, we are concerned about your safety during this…mission of yours," she says in her dry, paper-like voice and fans herself with her hand. "It's not proper for a Kage to travel without a suitable guard."
Sasuke doesn't have to see Kakashi's expression to know that he raises a brow at the statement Koharu just gave with a straight face.
"Ma'am, I'm quite capable of taking care of myself – " Kakashi begins with a whisper of exasperation in his voice, trying to talk down the protectors of his safety who have no intention of taking the hint.
"Nonsense," Koharu huffs and points one wrinkly, bony finger towards Kakashi. "Your safety equals the safety of our village. We can't let you leave without a competent bodyguard."
Sasuke has to force himself to swallow the comment about the leader of the Hokage's personal guard – well, a former leader – being right there, close enough to hear every word. And he is not going to even mention the hero of Konoha, their Jinchuuriki of the Nine-Tails and a medic who pales in comparison only to Tsunade who are accompanying the Hokage as well. What are the Elders thinking – this is a fucking C-rank, for gods' sake!
Sasuke steals a glance at their client before returning his attention to scowling at Homura's crowfeet and crinkles. It's likely that Hana had no idea that the leader of the village and his old students, each of them famous in their own way, were the ones escorting her as their extempore summer trip. Now she sure does know – there is no mistaking the awestruck, starry-eyed look on her face. Even the Elders' best attempts at humiliating Kakashi right in front her don't seem to dim the shine of the Hokage's title.
" – I feel completely safe with my team here, thank you very much – "
"And since you are taking valuable assets of the village with you, we have to guarantee their safe return as well," Homura says and considers Kakashi over the rim of his glasses. "It would be a shame, after all, if something were to happen to our precious Jinchuuriki or the next head medic, let alone to an important member of the Council."
Oh, so now he's an important member of the Council? Sasuke scoffs, crosses his arms and doesn't bother to hide the roll of his eyes as Koharu nods along to the other Elder's words so that the loose skin under her chin wobbles. Sasuke is almost glad that it's Kakashi the old coots are after this time, because he suspects that if he had been in Kakashi's position, he might have punched them already. He wouldn't have cared to try to sound even remotely respectful like Kakashi is right now, though by now, even Kakashi's eyes have narrowed into slits.
"Hence we have handpicked an ANBU to safeguard you and yours on the journey," Koharu finishes and nods so that the tight bun on top of her head bobs with her. At her words, Homura motions the ANBU to step forwards.
The man in an alligator mask bows deeply in front of his Hokage with his right hand clasped over his heart. He is at least as tall as Kakashi when he straightens himself up and nods at Team 7 and Hana. Short hair of the colour of the dusty road under their feet frames the porcelain mask and the teal markings resembling sharp teeth. He has two swords strapped to his back, both of them seem well-maintained and are easily within his reach. There is nothing remarkable or memorable about him, just as is expected of a soldier of the black ops, and Sasuke has a hard time connecting the codename with the right face even when he knows most of the ANBU forces because of his former position.
Sasuke can almost hear the whizzing sound of their plan of spying on Danzou and having some fun on the way with his old team crash-landing out of the window.
"An ANBU?" Kakashi repeats and runs a critical eye over Alligator. "Really? For a C-rank? Have you truly this little faith in me?"
The Elders have no taste for Kakashi's objections.
"We could run this decision by the Council if you prefer. But that would delay your departure by hours, and we do have a paying customer whose comfort is our priority, is it not? And I believe most of Council would agree with us about ensuring your safety. Lord Hokage, you are not only your own person anymore, you have a responsibility to stay safe so you can protect our village as our strongest shinobi."
Kakashi's chest heaves with a sharp intake of breath, and though he resists the urge to clench his hands into fists in a tell-tale sign of his frustration, Sasuke sees how his fingers twitch and lips press together behind the mask.
"We are simply considering what is best for the village. And right now that is this ANBU accompanying you," Homura finishes.
"We insist," Koharu adds from Homura's side with an emphasis on both of the words, and unlike her partner, she shows it on her worn face that she thinks she has won.
And she has.
"Well, in that case," Kakashi all but hisses as he realises he has no other options left. He barely glances at the ANBU before motioning him to join Team 7. "You, get over there."
As Alligator obeys and slips past the Hokage without a word, Kakashi keeps his cold, red-and-black gaze on the Elders. On any other person his expression – a rue smile on his lips, none in his eyes – would be unsettling, but on him it is frightening, as the mask hides the nuances and details of the smile and makes him look less human.
Kakashi brings his right hand to his forehead in a mock salute.
"If that was all, we'll be leaving. Good day to you," he says, spins around on his feet and marches away without looking back. He has stormed past the ANBU and Naruto and is halfway through to Sakura and Hana before anyone else manages to get a word in.
"Guys, let's go," he barks, his voice almost unrecognisable, as he reaches Sasuke and dashes past him in the same breath.
Sasuke needs no further prompting to get away from the Elders. He sets off after Kakashi, his own strides slower and less furious than his Hokage's, who, by the looks of him, is quite content leading their group by his lonesome and not talking to anyone.
Soon the others' footsteps join Sasuke's. Sakura and Hana aren't far behind him, and their quiet chatter fills the heavy silence once their group makes it to the shadows of the forest. Naruto's steps are hurried and uneven as he jogs to catch up with them while balancing the heavy load on his back.
The ANBU's feet make no sound on the road.
o0o
After a few hours of walking, Konoha has disappeared from their sight, and the cavalcade of trees they have passed has got a little repetitive, but Team 7 hasn't got far. They can cross only so much distance when they have both a civilian and a ninja without chakra with them, and since leaping from branch to branch up in the treetops is not an option, following the roads is the only one they have. But it is a long way to Hana's hometown, and the excessive excitement of the morning has simmered down long since then.
Somewhere above them, the sun is blazing, but Team 7 can't see it through the clouds that are still to drift away. Not much is to be seen of the clouds either, as the trees and their million leaves cross over the sky like spiderwebs. Sasuke lifts his gaze and squints, trying to spot the sun so he could pinpoint how long they have been travelling.
Not surprisingly, he has found himself walking at the rear of the group. It's a convenient place for eavesdropping on Sakura and Naruto who strut a few paces ahead of him. They have been talking animatedly among themselves ever since their last stop, trivial, harmless gossip that Sasuke listens to with half an ear. Every now and then one of the two turns around to ask Sasuke's opinion on something, so it's not like he gets to feel shut out.
The babbling slows them down somewhat, and Kakashi and their client have managed to escape considerably far ahead. Hana hasn't left Kakashi's side since they first set out and their Hokage's frustration mellowed. Though this sudden hero-worship might have something to do with Hana now knowing who exactly Kakashi is, Sasuke suspects that it has more to do with Kakashi's good looks. Sasuke recognises the doe-eyed look she keeps giving him, and he doesn't miss the way she gradually inches closer to Kakashi as they walk together and chat quietly.
Hana also seems to be a little afraid of Alligator, who so far hasn't said a word or otherwise approached any of them. As the ANBU gear is specifically designed to frighten, Sasuke isn't that surprised that their civilian client is wary of the man. Most of the time, Kakashi has Alligator scouting the forest around them – more to keep him away from spying on them than out of actual need. It is just that each time the ANBU emergences from the trees around them without a prior warning, just appearing out of the blue, he gives Hana the opportunity to startle and jump towards Kakashi and the safety of his strong arms and then giggle at herself about how silly she is being.
Sasuke finds this charade only a little bit more interesting than the dusty road beneath his feet and prefers eavesdropping on Sakura and Naruto instead.
"So, what's the plan again?" Naruto asks for the third time today while scratching the back of his head. "We drop her off and then what?"
Sakura sighs loudly next to him and covers her eyes with her hand, but Sasuke decides to save her from explaining the same thing for yet again.
"We'll take her to her village which happens to be in the area we think Danzou and his group fled to," he says and waits until Naruto swirls around to face him. "Once we are there, we'll ask around if anyone has heard or seen anything unusual that might point us to his direction. And then, depending on whether we got any clues, we either scout the surrounding areas or follow the leads to see if we can find Danzou's new hiding place."
"Ah, okay," Naruto says, nodding. He almost trips over his feet as he keeps walking backwards and stares at Sasuke with an undisguised thoughtful look on his face.
"What is it?" Sasuke huffs when Naruto stumbles again because of not looking where he is putting his feet in favour of gaping at Sasuke.
"I was just thinking – like, about yesterday – can you really not use your chakra?"
"No."
"At all?"
"Technically, I can use it, but every time I do more of my chakra system gets destroyed, so no."
"And there is no way to fix it?"
"Tsunade hasn't found one – she still doesn't know what's really wrong with me, so she doesn't know what problem she is supposed to find a solution to."
Though Naruto knew all of this already, his sad blue eyes still widen at Sasuke's blunt words. Maybe he is processing it all only now. He looks down at his hands, then back at Sasuke.
"But how? Why?" he asks and it's clear he would like to go through all the other interrogative pronouns as well, if given the chance. Sasuke has no answers to give him, so he just shrugs.
Naruto's shoulders sag. He turns around to be the right way around again, but swirls back almost immediately, now with an entirely different expression on his face.
"So that means that we are walking the whole way there and back home too? That's so boooooring."
"Insensitive idiot!" Sakura growls and hits Naruto over the head. "We are walking to make sure Sasuke doesn't hurt himself. And our client is a civilian so we would have to walk anyway. And you wanted to spend time together as Team 7 – we get at least a few extra days together when we walk, so don't whine."
"When I said that, I meant the four of us and a client we would ditch somewhere at some point, not the five of us," Naruto mutters and frowns at the direction where Alligator disappeared off to last time. "I don't get why the Elders would want to send an ANBU with us? They aren't really worried about Kakashi-sensei, are they?"
"Of course they aren't," Sasuke scoffs. "They just want to us to remember to stay in line even when they aren't there to breathe down on our necks themselves."
Naruto frowns, and Sakura slows down so that Sasuke falls in step with her. Naruto follows suit soon.
"What's that supposed to mean?" she asks in a quiet voice and pins her gaze on Sasuke. "Do the Elders have something against us? Or…?"
Sasuke's first instinct is to say nothing. He and Kakashi have been hiding this whole mess from their old teammates to be on the safe side, and nothing has changed since they made that decision. But he has revealed one secret to Naruto and Sakura in less than twenty-four hours already, and he is in the mood to do some more of that. He is beyond tired of having to choose his words around people he cares about.
And when Sakura and Naruto don't know what is going on between Sasuke and the Elders, they are more likely to blurt out something risky in front of Alligator. Sasuke is just protecting himself when he lets them know about the Elders' feud with him, though he opts to leave out the details about Kakashi and him as that secret is not his alone.
Sasuke eyes the trees around them for the ANBU before he begins, irked that he can't use his own chakra to sense Alligator's presence.
"The Elders," he chuckles darkly and waits until he has his friends' undivided attention, "don't like me. They think I'm an incorrigible criminal on my way to ruin the good name of Konoha. If they were asked, they would under no circumstances allow me to represent the village, let alone sit in the Council. And the worst crime I could ever commit is to be associated with the Hokage in any way. Since by just breathing the same air as him, I can obviously damage his reputation, and so the reputation of their precious village."
Sasuke spits the last words out of his mouth, his narrowed eyes focused on horizon in the distance.
"That doesn't make any sense." Sakura's answer is fast and riled up, her brows furrowed as she leans forward to peer at Sasuke's face. "You left the village, sure, but to be honest, you were pretty justified to do that. You didn't attack Konoha or run around the country in a killing spree, you're not a mindless murderer. And it's not like we ninjas are exactly innocent either. To single you out like that is just hypocritical."
"And that Hokage thing is so stupid. You have known Kakashi forever, that's not going to change just because they say so," Naruto adds.
"But he is the Hokage now, so the Elders will try their best to make it change anyway. They don't want him to be seen with the wrong kind of people now that he represents the village."
"That is just so… stupid," Sakura snorts and shakes her head. Naruto, on the other side of Sasuke, nods furiously at her words, his eyes angry and wide and disbelieving.
Sakura frowns.
"But what does our mission have to do with that? Why would they need to have an ANBU here to keep an eye on you?"
"The Elders told me not that long ago that if I am too… friendly with Kakashi, they will put a stop to the orphanage project. Kakashi and I agreed that it would be best if we made it seem like we aren't talking – "
"That's what the fighting thing was about!"
" – but I guess the bastards still have their doubts about that since they decided to send Alligator to keep us company."
"I'm gonna kill them when we get home," Naruto growls. His voice is low and deep with a hint of the Nine-Tails' roar in it, and Sasuke isn't sure whether he actually saw his eyes flash red. Naruto curls his hands into tight fists. "They have no right to do that to you guys, no right. It's just wrong."
"Please kill them, that would make my life so much easier," Sasuke says, only half-joking.
Sakura touches his arm.
"What does Sensei think of this? Can't he do anything?"
"He is not any happier about it than I am. But he is afraid that if he fights the Elders about this, they will find a way to make my life more difficult, or even a way to kick me out of the village."
"And how long is this going to last? Like, are the Elders going to torment you about this forever?"
"Probably."
"That's fucked up," Sakura hisses with a look of disgust on her face.
"Yeah, that!" Naruto agrees loudly and waves his middle-finger in the direction of Konoha somewhere far behind them. Sasuke has to duck to avoid getting the hand in his face.
"What are you two going to do now? With Alligator being here with us?" Sakura asks.
"I guess we have to keep pretending that we don't get along. I don't know if Kakashi has thought of something else, but so far the plan has seemed to consist of us ignoring each other," Sasuke says and nods to where Kakashi is walking with Hana. "So if you could keep quiet about this..."
"Of course!" Naruto says. He lifts a hand to lay it on Sasuke's shoulder, hesitates, his eyes flashing to meet Sasuke's, and then very slowly and carefully touches Sasuke's shoulder.
"Your secret is safe with us," Sakura adds as Naruto withdraws his hand with a sheepish, embarrassed look on his face. Sakura links her arm with Sasuke's. "Don't worry."
Sasuke glances at Naruto and adjusts his arm so that it is easier for Sakura to hold on to it.
"Thanks, guys," he whispers under his breath, so quietly he barely hears his own voice, but Sakura gives him a gentle squeeze, and Naruto is smiling again.
"I'm so gonna hug Sensei," Naruto informs them. "He has had to put up with too much crap to have to deal with this on top of it all."
Sasuke chuckles.
"You do that."
Far above them, white clouds sail over the sky with strong winds like ships at sea, and the sun finally peeks through their cover. Its light shines through the thick forest, and the trees and millions of leaves throw glimmering, all the time moving spots of lights and shadows on the forest floor.
Tree branches on their right swish as Alligator arrives from his latest scouting trip and jumps down on the road. This time Hana's fright looks like to be real – she almost trips on her own feet when the tall ANBU appears behind her, but Kakashi grabs her arm before she can hurt herself. He turns to look at Alligator over his shoulder and says something in such a quiet voice that none of them can hear it.
Alligator makes a gesture that is not quite a nod but not a bow either before walking past Kakashi and Hana and taking the position at the head of their group.
It's the one place where he can't stare at them without them noticing it. Kakashi knows exactly what Alligator is here is for, and he is not going to make spying on them easy for him.
Sasuke squints his eyes at the tight set of broad shoulders of the ANBU. Alligator is ruining what might have been a nice trip around the country by sticking along – all the joy about travelling is sucked out when Sasuke has to be constantly aware of the fact that he is being watched.
But at least he was allowed to leave the village. Sasuke knows this mission is not the most rational move right now, and Tsunade or Kakashi could easily have said no at any point and with good reason, and Sasuke wouldn't necessarily have disagreed with them. But despite all this, here he is, walking side by side with his old teammates on his way to go to gather information on his worst enemy.
Though Sasuke suspects that once they are close enough to Danzou's potential whereabouts, Kakashi will have him busy safely interviewing old ladies and gossiping townsfolk about suspicious strangers while Kakashi himself along with the rest of Team 7 treks through forests in search of Danzou's hideout. At least that is what Sasuke would do if the situation was reversed, so he can't exactly complain.
Sasuke tears his gaze away from glaring at the ANBU and lets it rest on the beautiful, emerald-green forest around them. The little patches of blue and white sky peeking from between the tree branches are a bright contrast against the comfortable dimness of the woods, and the occasional bird flying by, singing, just accents the calm, solid silence. He draws his lungs full of fresh air. What does anything back in Konoha matter when he could just keep walking along the road to see where it ends?
Sakura's elbow tapped against his side brings him back down to earth.
"Are you guys seeing what I'm seeing?" she asks, almost whispering, and points towards Kakashi and Hana.
"What?" Naruto asks in a loud voice and winces when Sakura hushes him, afraid that the others might hear them. Beside them, Sasuke studies their client and the Hokage and sees what has caught Sakura's attention.
Hana is laughing at something Kakashi said. She brushes a lock of her dark hair behind her ear and positively giggles, her eyes shining. There is nothing new about any of that, but the interesting part is that when she lays a hand on Kakashi's arm as if on accident, he doesn't brush it away or step back. No, instead he seems to step closer to her with a charming smile on his handsome face, and says something, causing Hana to burst into laughing again.
"Is Sensei… flirting with her?" Naruto asks, his voice full of bewilderment and disbelief, as his gaze keeps shifting between Kakashi, Sakura and Sasuke.
"That's what I thought too, but I wasn't sure…" Sakura says, hides her smile behind her hand and shakes her head.
Sasuke, speaking from experience, can say for certain that Kakashi is, in fact, flirting with her. Kakashi is using that laidback, self-assured smile like the weapon it is, and though Sasuke can't hear Kakashi's words, he knows there is a warm, teasing tone in his voice that Sasuke can recall just by closing his eyes. He has been at the receiving end of Kakashi's that kind of attention so many times he almost expects to feel a touch of a hand on the small of his back and a hot breath on his neck just by association after seeing that particular look in Kakashi's mismatched eyes.
"He is," Sasuke states bluntly to the great amusement of his friends, and then forces himself to stop staring because he doesn't want to ruin Kakashi's efforts of pretending that the two of them are not together. Casually flirting with a woman he is never going to see ever again with Sasuke watching only a couple of dozen feet away is the easiest way to throw Alligator off their track.
"That's just so…weird," Naruto informs them with a peculiar expression on his face, like the thought of Kakashi being flirty with anyone was a completely foreign, non-existent concept in his world up until to this point. "So weird."
"I think it's cute," Sakura says and unashamedly ogles Kakashi and Hana who don't seem to have noticed the excited scrutiny happening behind them. "She's so pretty. Shame that she lives so far away. And that she is not a ninja."
"What, were you planning their wedding already?" Sasuke asks and raises an eyebrow at Sakura.
"I just said she was pretty!" Sakura laughs and elbows him again. "Almost as pretty as you. But only almost."
"Thank you," Sasuke answers in a flat voice and stares at Sakura until she starts giggling.
Naruto throws an arm around Sakura's shoulders and considers first Hana – who accidentally on purpose runs a hand through her shiny hair like the women in the shampoo adverts on TV Sakura likes to criticize – and then Sasuke.
"Well yeah, now that you mentioned, Sasuke is a lot prettier than her. Sensei could do so much better," he grins and sways with Sakura so that they are like an old dancing couple when she laughs at his joke. Though amidst all this laughing, Naruto steals a shy, slightly frightened look to see if he might have offended Sasuke with his words. But Sasuke just shakes his head and chuckles under his breath at how dangerously close to the truth Naruto just got.
Either they have been walking faster than before or Kakashi and Hana have slowed their pace down, as Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke catch up to them enough to hear it when Hana says something about a book her sister made her read and Kakashi laughs at the statement. It's the deep, quiet laughter that resembles the sound which in Sasuke's world belongs to the moments in bed when Sasuke makes a dry comment between his struggled gasps for breath and shivering on the mattress, and Kakashi laughs, his voice deep and husky and out of breath, before whispering something against Sasuke's neck.
It's weird.
Sasuke is not jealous as he knows he has no reason to be – Alligator walking only a dozen feet ahead of them in full view is an explanation enough – but he can't help but find it strange when something that he has thought to be unconditionally, unquestionably his and his alone is suddenly brought into broad daylight and shared with someone they met only just this morning.
As if aware of Sasuke's thoughts, Kakashi turns to look over his shoulder at the three of them. He holds Sasuke's gaze only a breath longer than Sakura's or Naruto's.
Sasuke masks his nod by rubbing his forehead in the case Alligator or his teammates are watching and turns his attention back to the sky above them. It's easier to watch the clouds drifting overhead than what is happening right in front of him.
o0o
The 20th of July, the fifth year of peace
The Land of Fire
It's the second evening of their mission. They make camp at a safe distance from the road they have been following all day and set a fire. The night is going to be clear, the sky is darkening like a canvas being painted over with strokes of red and purple and black. Stars blink into life one by one as the night sneaks closer, and the wayward sparks from the fire float upwards with hot air and blend into the starry sky.
Naruto has been tasked with the cooking duty for some unfathomable reason, and he is messing around with the fire and a collection of portable pans and bowls. The smell of the concoction he has managed to create is surprisingly good, and Sasuke considers giving the dish a try once he has seen Sakura try it and not die of food poisoning.
Sasuke pokes the fire with a stick he found, sitting on a convenient fallen tree trunk, and tries to kill time. To his left, Sakura is both instructing Naruto with his cooking and chatting with Hana, who in turn is paying more attention to Kakashi than Sakura. But to their client's chagrin, Kakashi hasn't looked up from his book that many times since he landed on his bedroll after sending Alligator to make a round around their camp. After spending almost two whole days talking with her – she is much clingier than Kakashi anticipated – it is no wonder if he needs some time for himself.
Sasuke pokes one of the logs harder than last time and gets it to fall over and send a spray of sparkles into the air.
A bowl filled with colourful, suspicious-looking soup floats in front of his face.
Sasuke blinks, then looks up at Naruto who has appeared to stand next to him, holding the bowl for Sasuke and another for himself in his other hand. There is a shy smile on Naruto's whiskered face.
"I swear I haven't poisoned it, don't believe a word Sakura says."
Sasuke keeps staring at him with a blank expression, though he regrets the plan once Naruto thrusts the bowl into his arms anyway and nearly spills half of the contents on Sasuke's trousers.
"Be grateful when someone cooks for you, asshole," Naruto murmurs as he sits down on the trunk next to Sasuke and starts shovelling the soup into his mouth.
Sasuke considers the sight of his best friend with his cheeks full of soup, then lifts the spoon out of his own bowl while waiting something to jump out at him from the funnily-coloured depths.
"It's not that bad," Naruto slurs with his mouth full of soup.
"If you say so."
In the end, the soup ends up being nice enough, once Sasuke gets past the weird colour. They sit a few minutes in silence, sitting side by side and eating the soup while watching Sakura and Hana talk. Kakashi seems to be comfortable ignoring everyone in favour of his book though Sasuke knows he has read many times already so it can't be that interesting.
"You know," Naruto begins as he scrapes the bottom of his bowls with his spoon, "I've been thinking…"
Sasuke looks up from watching Kakashi and waits for Naruto to continue.
"Like, things have been kinda funny between you and me, and I was kinda maybe hoping that, you know, maybe they could be unfunny again – or I mean, not unfunny cos that's not fun and is that even a word, but like – " Naruto says in one breath and then stops. He fidgets with his hands, swirling his spoon around in his fingers.
Sasuke stops breathing. Naruto keeps his gaze glued to the bottom of his bowl.
"'Cos you apologised already, and I know you meant it. And I said I would need more time and I really thought so, but these two days have been good, like, great, and I just want to – "
"Naruto."
" – like get over this whole mess, especially since you have that thing with your chakra and I just want to be there for you, and I'm really sorry about everything and – "
"Naruto."
" – but it's totally fine if you don't want to – yeah?"
"Unfunny would be good."
For a moment, everything stands still and then –
Naruto's face lights up.
"Really?"
"Really," Sasuke says and lets a smile soften his expression. "And it should be me asking that. You are the one that got hurt, not me."
"Yeah, but it's not like I was the best boyfriend around either. And everything after that… it's not all your fault," Naruto says. He tilts his head to the side as he looks Sasuke in the eye and tangles his fingers together. "It's okay. Honestly."
"I'm still sorry."
"Me too. But like, what I said about your chakra, I honestly meant it. I want to be there for you, really. 'Cos that must be scary as hell, I can't even imagine."
It is.
"Thanks."
"No problem. Hey, you're my best friend, it's kinda part of the deal," Naruto laughs and raises his hand for a fist-bump with a shit-eating grin on his face. "We're all good now, right?"
"We're good," Sasuke chuckles and only this once gives in and bumps his fist against Naruto's.
Naruto's hand is warm and sure, and his hold is strong when he can't contain himself and leaps over to throw his arms around Sasuke in a wild hug. They almost fall of the tree trunk because of Naruto's lunge, and Sasuke spends the first minute of their renewed friendship yelling his head off at Naruto who just keeps laughing like Sasuke screaming at him is the best thing that has ever happened to him. They make enough racket to have Kakashi glance over his book at them with a beginning of a smile on his face, and Sakura scowl at them for behaving so childishly in front of their client.
"Did you ever have the courage ask Gaara out or did you talk about him for days just for fun?" Sasuke asks when he gets enough of Naruto clinging onto him like a particularly loud and annoying leech. The distraction attempt is a success, as Naruto turns so red that even the tips of his ears flare with the deep blush, and he lets go of Sasuke to try to hide his face in his hands.
"Well, did you?" Sasuke asks again when Naruto refuses to answer and instead focuses on squirming away from Sasuke. Sasuke grabs the back of his hoodie before Naruto can escape.
He almost misses the tiny, embarrassed nod Naruto hides under the collar of his hoodie he has drawn up to cover his face.
"You did?" Sasuke blurts out, then realises how disbelieving and surprised he sounds. "Eh, I mean, that's great. Right? Isn't it? What did he say?"
"I sent him a messenger hawk last week," comes mumbled from somewhere deep inside the orange hoodie. "And – and we are kinda trying the long-distance thing now 'cos he's in the Sand and I live in Konoha, at least for now, but we're thinking that maybe I could move there someday or that he could come to Konoha once they choose a new Kazekage though that take a few years and – "
Sasuke stares at his best friend and blinks at the word vomit that keeps pouring out of Naruto's mouth now that he got going. Sasuke wasn't expecting to get this much information – he thought he would have to coax every single word out of Naruto, not that he would be flooded with the latest gossip on the Kazekage's relationship status.
" – so, like, yeah. I guess we're together now, and like… I'm really happy," Naruto finishes, blushes even more furiously than before and disappears inside the hoodie for good.
Sasuke realises there is a smile on his own face.
"Congrats," he grins and bumps Naruto's shoulder hard enough to send him swaying on his seat.
A bubbly giggle escapes Naruto as he tries to catch his balance. A pair of blue eyes study Sasuke from the darkness of the hoodie, then Naruto pushes the hood off and reveals a dangerous smirk on the whiskered face, worthy of the nine-tailed fox living inside him.
"So, speaking of dating," Naruto grins and rocks back and forth on the tree trunk, his golden hair swaying on and off his face with each swing, "who is it?"
"Who?"
"The one who gave you that hickey you have on your neck."
It takes all Sasuke's willpower not to slam a hand over his neck or jump up and march over to Kakashi to murder him. He makes sure his eyes don't glance anywhere near Kakashi before he answers in a flat, unimpressed voice:
"What hickey?"
"The one you have here," Naruto says and points to a spot between Sasuke's neck and collarbone, right where Kakashi marked Sasuke the night he came back from the mission at the cave. "I saw it at the hospital when Tsunade told you to take your shirt off. And I'm pretty sure it isn't the only one you got."
"It's just a bruise. I'm a shinobi, we get those in places."
"Yeah, but not like the ones you have," Naruto sings and leans closer to Sasuke. He straightens his index finger, and before Sasuke realises to dodge, pokes him right on the tender skin on the hickey. 'Cos those are definitely hickeys."
Sasuke can't stop the flinch or the squeak of pain that escapes him at the touch. He slaps Naruto's hand away before he can do any more damage.
"Get lost," he hisses and stands up to get away from his too curious best friend.
"Ha! So they are hickeys!" Naruto exclaims and leaps up on his feet, almost jumping up and down. Behind him, the reason for the conversation is carefully spying them from behind his book, a blank look on his face. On the other side of the fire, Sakura has caught wind of their screamed conversation and is closing in with a predatory look on her face.
"What's this all about?" she asks, her voice loud and her face a one big smirk. Sasuke half-expects her to rub her hands together in excitement.
"Sasuke has a boyfriend! Or a girlfriend! Or something-friend ~ !"
"That's not even a word," Sasuke scoffs, crosses his arms and futilely tries to steer the discussion away from the topic.
"So, Sasuke ~ !"
"Who is it?"
The twin terrors are on Sasuke again.
"You have to tell us!"
In another life, where there were no Elders, this is the moment when Sasuke might have blurted out the name out just to see the astonished, bewildered looks on his teammates' faces. And he almost does so now, because Sakura and Naruto are being seriously annoying, but also because they deserve to know.
But instead of telling them who it is, he glares at them while wishing he could still use his sharingan. He wants to run that decision by Kakashi before doing anything he can't undo. And there is always the risk of Alligator walking in on them while Naruto and Sakura are processing the news – just Sasuke having hickeys is suspicious, dangerous topic when he doesn't know where the ANBU is.
"At the party you said you didn't have anyone. It's been only a few weeks since then – what have you been up to, hooking up with someone so quickly?" Sakura asks and playfully pokes Sasuke into his chest.
"We want to know!" Naruto bellows and his eyes gleam mischievously. They both close in, staring at Sasuke like a pair of starving wolves. "And we need all the details too!"
"I don't have to tell you anything," Sasuke says and pushes past them, shoving them away from his path. He walks over to his backpack on the other side of the fire, kneels down next to it and starts rummaging through it for his bedroll while trying to ignore Sakura and Naruto howling behind him.
"Sasuke! You can't do this! I told you about Gaara so it's only fair that you at least tell us who it is!"
"Shut up, idiot. People are trying to sleep."
That doesn't help.
"Senseeiiiiiii! Make Sasuke tell us!" Naruto whines as he changes tactics and starts making puppy eyes at Kakashi.
"I'm staying out of this," Kakashi states without looking up from his book.
As if this isn't your fault in the first place, Sasuke scoffs and tugs the bedroll out of his backpack while Naruto and Sakura whine something about Kakashi being stupid and a coward. Hana giggles from the other side of the fire.
Finally, Sasuke gets his bedroll open. He slips in after kicking his shoes off, makes a number out of turning his back to Naruto and Sakura, closes his eyes and refuses to acknowledge anything the pair of idiots throw his way, figuratively or literally.
In the end, Naruto and Sakura run out of energy and grudgingly leave Sasuke alone when he keeps ignoring them. Kakashi says something about watch shifts for the night – he throws a stick at Sasuke to make sure he heard too – and slowly their camp quiets down. Alligator appears from the shadows of the night and comes to sit by the fire in silence.
Once Sasuke hears Naruto's muffled snoring and Sakura stops moving around in her sleep, Sasuke opens his eyes. The fire glows orange against the dark sky. His teammates and their client are sleeping in a circle around the campfire, three shapeless figures in their bedrolls bathing in the soft, warm light of the campfire. Hiding a yawn, Sasuke glances around to see Alligator seated on his left, on the tree trunk Sasuke and Naruto were sitting on earlier.
If Sasuke turns to his other side and angles his head a little, he can see Kakashi sitting a few feet away, his back in that familiar slouch, reading his book with his hair falling into his eyes. He smiles to himself every now and then when there is a funny part in the godawful book, and Sasuke, faking to be asleep, is happy to watch through his lashes as Kakashi turns the page again, his long fingers dancing over the pages and the light of the fire playing in his eyes.