Note: I got weirdly emotional writing this chapter, so the flow is probably off. I tried to fix it but I probably failed. My bad, if I did.
Thank you so much for your reviews Suzuya and RainbowStarMountain!
Suzuya- ¡Muchas gracias! ¡Me alegra que te guste la historia!
Rainbow- I'm glad you liked the explanation of Kakashi's guilt towards Naruto, Sasuke, and Itachi! And yeah, when Kakashi is praising him, the Akatsuki is like 'That? That little shit? You mean him?'. In response to your question, there will definitely be a slow burn process of Kakashi (trying) to bond with Naruto and Sasuke. Haha, you read my mind about the prison thing. I have a moment I'm pretty excited to write about concerning them sneaking in, so I hope you'll enjoy it when it pops up in a few chapters. I love the term "Brat" or "Little shit" used in an affectionate term. A lot of people I see online are like "But that's hateful-" like no honey, bastard is 100% a pet name lmao. I'm glad you're interested in the anime, a tip if you do watch it, look out for Ao and Captain Gi-Gan. They're the best rough parents lmao. I high key use Ao as inspiration for how I write Kisame. Also, absolutely do not worry about your reviews being too long. You asked if I was going to read through all of it, 100% yes. It hypes me up so much to read reviews, I absolutely gush while seeing them. I hope you enjoy this chapter too!
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As Sasuke woke the next morning, he noticed that tensions were high with the Akatsuki. Konan and Nagato both seemed more on edge than usual, though he didn't understand why. He shook it off, standing up from the bed. He was still aching, that was for sure. He also knew that he would have to work on hiding it better within the next few hours, however.
After all, he didn't want Itachi to worry over him. If he was too injured, it would break his brother's heart regardless of if he was mad at him over join with Tobi against his wishes. That much he knew already. When Itachi wanted to be, he could be a complete mother hen. Sometimes he was worse than Konan, to be honest.
The teen headed over to where everyone else was sitting, in the living room space. It looked like they were about to head out soon. They just had to wait a bit, since Naruto and Karin were still sleeping. She had spent a lot of energy healing Sasuke up as best she could, even if it wasn't all the way.
He could see all the stressed looks on each of his brothers and sisters' faces, as well as the rest of the Akatsuki. He took the bowl of oatmeal Kisame handed him silently, heading to sit with the others once more. Everyone seemed in a foul mood. The teen pressed his lips together in regret. He supposed Kisame and Itachi were right. He wasn't ready to take on such huge missions. But, to be fair, if he had known they were assassinating a kage he probably would have joined one of his elder classmates as Itachi had suggested.
Oh, who was he kidding? He was way too arrogant for his own good. He deserved to learn this lesson, he decided guiltily. He sighed at these thoughts, taking a few spoonfuls of oatmeal and gently doing his best to swallow. He noted with a bit of embarrassment that even food as liquified as this was hard to swallow now. He had his tongue back in place, but he knew he had to be gentle. The stitches needed time to mold into his tongue. Kakuzu had said it could hurt it if he messed with it further. It wasn't going to fall off again, was it? Sasuke shuttered at the thought, lowering his half-eaten bowl. He had suddenly lost his appetite.
The others around him were busy with talk of which route they should take, so luckily no one seemed to notice when he stood up to go scrape his leftovers in the cooking pot. Or, well, he thought at first.
"You should have eaten that. You're all banged up. A healing body needs nutrients to heal." Sasori sat on the countertop, behind him as he finished scooping it away. He gave a light shrug. "No, really. When was the last time you ate, Sasuke? We didn't have time for dinner yesterday and from what we gather your...interrigation...started in the morning, barely after you had left the house with Kakashi. I doubt they stopped for a lunch break."
The teen shrugged again, but seeing the warning look on Sasori's face, took a breath. He pointed to his tongue, now stitched through the middle, sideways.
Sasori tilted his head a bit. "Does it still hurt a lot, you mean?" seeing a shake of his head, Sasori frowned a bit. What was wrong, then? Sasuke looked embarrassed but made a slight motion of his hand going in and out of his mouth, and suddenly it clicked. "Oh, you're worried it'll mess up the stitches and fall out?" Sasuke nodded, Sasori getting off the counter and motioning towards the food. "Well, it shouldn't if you're careful. It's not all that solid, after all."
Sasuke only gave another light shake of his head, hoping Sasori wouldn't make him eat it anyway. It made him sick thinking about it, but he also knew he needed to eat something. He was relieved when Sasori gave him a nod, the older ninja offering, "Alright, if it makes you uncomfortable, we can try something else. I happen to know of a restaurant on the way back since I have to go there a lot to meet up with clients. I'll ask Nagato and Konan if we can stop there for lunch. Last I checked, they had tomato soup on the menu." knowing it was one of the boy's favorite foods. "But you need to start working on eating things that require the tongue soon, alright? Maybe just for the first few days."
Seeing the way Sasuke's face lit up a bit at the mention of tomato soup gave Sasori a bit of relief himself. Seeing the prideful teen so sad and wounded was honestly a strange sight. So it was good to see the triumphant smile, even for a moment over something so small.
It was at that moment that Sasuke was practically tackled from behind. "Bastard! You're awake!" Naruto smiled, hugging onto Sasuke from behind. It was quite the surprise for Naruto when he felt Sasuke squirm in his hold, the older boy giving a high pitched grunt. The Uchiha sent his elbow soaring into Naruto's side in a rather painful manner, the blonde yelling in surprise and grabbing his ribs. "Hey! That fucking hurt!" he growled, looking ready to rumble with Sasuke.
Sasuke turned on his heel, his smile gone, replaced with a furious glare. Sasuke raised his fist in warning, clearly ready to fight despite his injuries. "Damn it, why was I even worried about you? I didn't do anything, why'd ya hit me?" he argued, grabbing the front of Sasuke's shirt.
Naruto quickly let go as he felt a hand on his shoulder but assumed it was only Konan ready to give her normal spill about not fighting with his brother. Instead, he was surprised to see that it was Deidara holding him back. The younger quickly became puzzled. Wasn't Deidara usually the one cheering on their fights?
"Naruto, look at Sasuke." the blonde froze for a moment at how serious Deidara sounded, not used to it with the fun-loving artist. He obeyed, more out of surprise at Deidara's attitude than compliance. "Really look at him," Deidara repeated.
As Naruto focused his view rather than simply flinging himself around with affection at the other without looking as he normally did, his annoyed look quickly dropped. He noticed Sasuke had slowly lowered his fighting pose into one of slight embarrassment as Sasori laid a hand on the Uchiha's shoulder.
Sasuke's comfort with the topic was the least of Naruto's worries, though. Now that he looked at the other, he noticed how banged up he was. The other had bandages wrapped around his ankles and wrists alike. His skin was littered with a few harsh looking welts as if he had been beaten over the skin with something. There were cut marks littering his body, poorly sewn together with weak thread. The worst seemed to be the three slash marks over his mouth, three perfectly cut lines running from above his lips to just below them. The stitching was terrible, leaving them a bit sore looking. Then, that was only what he could see. He didn't want to imagine what was under the many bandages running along his body.
Suddenly, Naruto knew why Sasuke had elbowed his so hard as well as why Deidara was so serious. He could feel the eyes of both the artists, the only other ones in the kitchen, drilling holes into him. The blonde ducked his head a bit, guilty for throwing himself on Sasuke they starting up a fight without looking. He glanced over at him, hurt to see his brother in such a state. He bit out, "I'm sorry." with anger, though not at Sasuke anymore.
Who the hell had done this to him? Who the hell did they think they were to hurt Sasuke? He felt his anger boiling up inside him, the hand on his shoulder giving a firm squeeze. Deidara spoke, "He's alright, kid. We'll be able to restitch him with the best medical supplies when we get home tonight. There'll probably be some scarring, but they should fade over time. He'll be almost completely the same, physically." he tried to comfort him.
Naruto's hair fell a bit in front of his face, seemingly taking this harder than Sasuke had thought any of them would.
Sasuke knew he was cared about. Before all this, he knew they would always protect him. He knew they'd always be his family. He knew they'd always love him. In what way, though? He was only now realizing.
The best way for Sasuke to describe how he viewed his relationship with the others before all this was to think back to his biological father. Fugaku. He had always loved the man, wanting to make him proud. Wanting to receive his affections the same way Itachi had. In the end, however, it had always felt like Fugaku loved him more out of obligation as his father than for who he was.
As such, that's how he had viewed his relationship with most of the others in his little 'Akatsuki family', outside of Itachi and Konan. He loved them all, but he had always assumed it was one-sided. That they loved him out of obligation rather than true affection, just as Fugaku had.
When Kisame trained him in sword fighting, it was to please Itachi, he figured. When Kakuzu and Hidan sparred with him, it was to build his usefulness, he figured. When Deidara or Sasori used to accept his shitty drawings and hang them on their walls, he assumed it was simply to make him happy so Konan didn't bother them about upsetting him. When Zetsu played chess with him, or Tobi roughhoused with him, he guessed it was out of obligation as an older 'family' member. Even Nagato, who he considered himself closer with than his biological one, had presumed he was loved because Konan had wanted kids and Nagato wanted Konan happy. That was what he had said the first night when they first 'adopted' them.
He had always guessed that the ones younger than him simply looked up to him since he was older, that it was a given. He assumed that Karin and Neji had always comforted him or made it up to him after teasing him simply because it was their job as an older sibling. He had always imagined that their love and protection was just something they had decided to do. Like a check off the list of things to do in a day.
That was what he had thought before. Now, seeing the agony on everyone's face as they saw him, something clicked. Sasuke felt foolish for thinking otherwise all these years. They didn't love him out of obligation. Far from it. He could tell that their happiness was connected directly to his, in the same way, Sasuke grew upset at the idea of accidentally leaking information on them and getting one of them hurt. The idea alone was unbearable because they were more than just family. They were friends.
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The Uchiha noticed Karin waking up about an hour later and took a breath. It was time to go. The burning on his ankles hadn't completely healed since Karin couldn't use much medical ninjutsu without risking his tongue reattaching strangely, but for the most part, they were better. He could walk around now, which was nice. They just had this sort of dull aching. The pain was mostly subsided due to Karin's medicinal herbs and Hinata's creams.
Kisame glanced over at him, "Are you good to run with us, or do you want to hop on again?" looking completely serious, much to Sasuke's embarrassment. The teen only shook his head back and forth, ducking it a bit. He wasn't completely sure he could keep up, but he didn't want to be carried now that he was in a clearer mindset. He loved Kisame, but his pride could only take so much thrashing.
Within a few moments, they were leaving the hotel room and heading downstairs. Sasuke noticed a man approaching them and averted his eyes. Oh, fuck. Just his luck.
"Hello there!" the man started out with, looking a bit nervous at the large group of shinobi. He was an elderly shop owner that Sasuke recognized far too easily. "We just wanted to warn you all before you leave to be on the lookout. Multiple items have gone missing from our stands outside. We believe a ninja thief is on the loose. No one saw a thing. They just up and disappeared!" he laughed. "At first I thought it was just my clothes blowing in the wind again, but then a few others said they were missing things too. One was missing an entire beef slab and a tomato! Who steals those two with a bit of honey on the side? That sounds like a horrific meal." he tried to laugh it off as he warned them.
Sasuke silently gave an annoyed look as Kakuzu glanced at him from the corner of his eye. He could feel the others resisting looking in his direction as well, so he snorted a bit and took the lead to get them out of the small village. That meat's quality was horrific alone. It wasn't like siding it with honey and tomato made it any worse. As they headed out, he noticed the eyes of the Akatsuki on him. Shit, they knew.
Hidan smirked as they made their way further into the Rain territory. "So, putting your stealth classes into use? Pro-tip, don't steal from countries your village is in a fucking alliance with." he joked.
Sasuke sent him a dirty glare, Sasori moving a hand in front of them both. "Don't start it. We're close to the place we'll be having lunch. We'll be kicked out if you two go at it again." thinking of the many times Sasuke and Hidan had gotten into arguments in public, resulting in swearing free for all. He hoped this time they could just go out for a nice and simple meal. He wasn't exactly hungry, but the mood of going out to eat was always something to remember.
