Why hello!
First chapter back on the weekly schedule, so I suppose, without further ado and whatnot, we should probably get right into it!
Chapter 82: The Harsh Reality
Kakashi's legs had begun to ache after quite a period of chasing after their targets, and they seemed to know they'd be receiving no rest any time soon, as they practically pleaded with him for some kind of a break. He ignored them as best he could, soldiering on, even past the apparent exhaustion of those behind him as well.
It'd been about a day since they'd first squared off against… Obito and Konan, and though they'd been rebuffed, Pakkun had been able to pick up on their trail once more. They'd chased them through the forests and kept as close as they could without being picked up on themselves.
He tried to ignore the occasional glances that his teammate shot at him, their expressions ranging from worry to pity. It was clear they had not at all forgotten the moment's directly following his and Obito's little duel, when he'd nearly had them charge straight for the Akatsuki's main base, independent of their mission, or anything else for that matter.
Once the pain of the burns he'd taken from the inferno had set in, however, he'd been able to rein himself back under control. Pain had a funny way of making someone reconsider something stupid, and Kakashi, despite his wealth of experience, was no different in that regard.
He'd allowed Tenzo and Anko to patch him up, before throwing Pakkun a bone (quite literally) and having him lead the charge once more.
It was just as he was coming out of his reminiscence that Pakkun's face shriveled up in confusion.
"What's wrong?" he asked the canine.
"Nothing's particularly wrong, I just… I recognize a smell that's coming from around where that Tobi guy's is."
His eyebrows drew down somewhat. "Whose is it?"
"Well, if I'm right… And I've never been wrong, then… It's Sakura's smell."
Anko missed the next branch, narrowly avoiding plummeting to the forest floor beneath them by catching a lower part of that same tree, and catapulting herself back up.
"Sakura!?" She demanded an answer from Pakkun. "You're sure of it!?"
"As sure as I've ever been about anything else." The dog confirmed. "Her scent… it's coming from the same exact spot as three other's. Tobi is the main one, but the other two are… gah, I can't recognize it, we're too far out."
Kakashi had heard enough, even without the identity of the other two scent signatures.
"If she's alone with Tobi, then we're getting over there as fast as we possibly can." He looked to Pakkun. "Guide us?"
"Of course." The dog smirked. "Hell, I won't even make you pay me for this one. I quite like that girl!"
They blazed a path through the forests canopy after that, gunning straight for the location of Tobi and Sakura's scents. After about 15 minutes of traveling, they finally arrived on the scene…
Though what they saw was hardly what they'd been hoping for.
Nearby trees were set ablaze, and the ground all around them had been decimated by a sea of uprooted trees, which snaked around the ground as if to grasp a constantly moving target. Unfortunately, the absence of said target, and the presence of blood all across the dirt beneath, spelled out that this fight had already ended.
"The trail ends here… for all those scents." Pakkun sniffed at the blood on the ground and came away with a small frown on his face. "The blood around here belongs to three figures: Sakura Haruno, Kabuto Yakushi, and Itachi Uchiha. Rather surprisingly, most of the blood is Itachi's. He must've sustained quite the wound."
He wanted to focus on that, to wonder how Itachi of all people had been beaten, and seemingly not by Sakura, but by one of his allies, but something else drew his, and Anko's, eye. An odd-looking object laying on the ground some distance from them. As Kakashi approached it, he recognized just what it was, and swallowed hard on the nothing in his dry mouth.
It was a massive, gray, hand-like wing.
And it had been severed from its owner's body.
Anko kneeled down in front of it and ran her hand across the leathery skin. When she pulled away, she looked up at the three of them.
"Sakura… she was here…" Anko's eyes were wide with fear and terror. "But… they…"
Kakashi ground his teeth together, his jaw aching as he tried to bottle his feelings.
He failed.
"They're gone." Anko muttered, tears gathering in her eyes.
"They're already gone."
/-/
The main hub of the Samurai (Who, as Tsunade had explained to him, were a group of people who had once competed with Shinobi for work during the period of the warring states, but were largely overshadowed by Shinobi nowadays) was, in Naruto's eyes, quite impressive. The Three-Wolves mountains that they approached hung ominously over them, and though Naruto knew they were heading for a peaceful meeting, he couldn't help swallowing on some spittle in his mouth as his nerves acted up.
It felt like walking into the belly of the beast, and to be fair to him, given that they were walking into the fictious mouth of a wolf, that analogy wasn't too far off.
He hadn't been expecting the samurai to come and greet them, but when they did, bowing to them and escorting them inside, Naruto was surprised to find that the people here were oddly… kind.
They were not particularly sweet or caring, but they seemed to do everything they could to make sure the Kage were as comfortable as could be, instead of, as he'd expected, doing just the bare minimum. He supposed that made sense from a diplomatic perspective, comforting them all so that they'd be in good spirits, and just in general earning some respect for their home, but Naruto appreciated it, nonetheless.
As they were given a private room (Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon were given their own to share), they were informed at that time that the meeting would begin in a few hours, seeing as how they were the last of the Kage processions to arrive. The place itself was a quaint room, fit to house three and no more. It had windows and a large-ish balcony, which Naruto couldn't help thinking might be a security risk, but it made the place feel much cozier, so he appreciated it, potential assassination scares notwithstanding.
Naruto himself felt quite a bit antsy as he sat quietly on his bed. Normally, he might've chosen to bother Sasuke, or maybe even Tsunade, but he was feeling a bit more introspective than normal and decided to be alone with his thoughts for the time being. He thought of the Waterfall, of Fu and Sakura, and of his refusal a few days prior to dawn the cloak and vest he'd been entrusted with.
The hours ticked by surprisingly quickly, and before he knew it, it was time for their procession to join the others inside the meeting hall, where they would be discussing…
Actually, Naruto didn't really know what they'd be discussing.
He assumed it would probably have something to do with the Akatsuki, but that was honestly just a guess. He went ahead and asked Tsunade as the three of them (The Genin staying in their room) walked through the winding corridors.
"You're partially correct," Tsunade spoke. "Though there's certainly more to this meeting than you know. I'll ask you to please refrain from making any untoward comments towards any world leaders while we're in there, am I clear, you two?"
Sasuke nodded. "Crystal", though Naruto himself couldn't quite commit like that.
"Why?" He asked the woman. "Do you know they're going to say something that I'm not going to like?"
She snorted.
"Perceptive at the worst of times, I see what you mean, Sasuke."
His best friend nodded with a tiny smirk on his face, even as he let out a quiet "Oi!" in complaint.
"If you must know, then yes, there's going to be a rather sensitive topic coming up during today's meeting, one I'm sure the both of you will have very harsh opinions on. I would ask you hold yourselves to a standard higher than you normally would, and most important keep all questions until the end of the proceedings, when we're back in our rooms." She stared at the both of them, not an ounce of mirth in her features. "I ask again, am I clear?"
He pouted somewhat, before sighing and nodding his head. "You're clear."
"Thank you." She smiled at him, before they rounded a corner and were suddenly face to face with another Kage procession, one that, thankfully, he was a bit more familiar with.
"Well, hello there, you all." Temari spoke warmly. "It's good to everyone, especially after our last meeting was cut rather short."
He and Sasuke both smiled at the woman, even with a reminder of what had happened at the Waterfall thrown at them once more. He waved towards Gaara and Kankuro, her chosen guardians, and the two gave him rather simplistic nods back.
"I wish we had a chance to talk a while longer, but we've a meeting to attend." Temari began walking towards the doors to what Naruto assumed was the meeting hall. "Let's catch up later, alright?"
He couldn't find any fault with that plan, and so joined the three Sand ninja inside of a room that was so simple, it seemed to belie the importance of what would soon be taking place inside of it. For, quite honestly, the five people upon whom lay the crests of the Kage were perhaps the five most important figures in the entire world.
He took a moment to observe the others they'd be dealing with as Tsunade sat down, and he and Sasuke took their seats among the other guardians, residing just behind the Kage, but obscured from view. He'd already interacted with and spoken to the Tsuchikage, his brash attitude and overall self-importance not exactly making Naruto feel all warm and fuzzy at seeing him again. In contrast, sitting directly next to him was Temari, who gave Naruto a rather simplistic feeling of ease. It was good, at least, to have another friendly face on the panel.
It was his first time seeing the Mizukage and the Raikage. The former seemed rather… well, she actually reminded him a lot of Tsunade. She was beautiful in a rather simplistic way, in that he didn't think her particularly exciting or foreign looking, but just… gorgeous. He imagined that look, much like Tsunade's, lent to her a non-threatening aura that she could use to her advantage.
In stark contrast to her, the Raikage was about as intimidating as anyone Naruto had ever seen. Bulging muscles lined his body, and massive golden bracers encased his wrists, probably multiplying the strength of his blows by a good two or three times. Other than that, he had his arms folded over his chest casually, and gave off a general air of superiority.
Naruto didn't doubt that he deserved it.
It was at that point that the proceedings seemed to begin in earnest. The mediator of the meeting, an elderly samurai who introduced himself as Mifune, called a start to the Kage summit, and set the first topic.
The Akatsuki themselves.
Naruto did want to be informed about all this, but at the same time, he thought that it was probably better, as a bodyguard, for him to be ready for any potential threats. Tsunade could always fill him in on anything he'd missed after the meeting was over, and besides, if he were going to miss a topic, it might as well have been the one he knew the most about.
He sat perfectly still, gathering chakra into himself in the event he'd need his Sage Mode's power, were someone to assault the place or some other nonsense. The chance of that was strikingly low (who would be idiotic enough to go after a room filled with five of the strongest ninjas the world had ever seen?), but, truthfully, it would give him some practice maintaining his new state as well, which was a welcome enough thing on its own. He allowed some of the Nine-Tails' energy to flow into him, and balanced that against the natural chakra, allowing his irises to shift from blue to indigo, and then–
"Hey, how you doing?"
He jumped what felt like eight feet in the air, though, realistically, he probably never left his seat. He turned to see just who it was that'd scared the ever-loving shit out of him, and found that it was the woman from yesterday, Kurotsuchi of the Stone.
"Could you maybe…" He whispered as quietly as he could to still be heard. "Not do that?"
Completely and utterly ignoring him, she leaned forward, until her forehead was scant inches from his own.
"Your eyes," She murmured quietly. "They changed color."
He was unsure what to do with that "…Yes?"
The woman smiled. "Neat."
He shook his head with a sigh, trying to tune back into the meeting, or to get Sasuke's attention so he could feign conversation with his best friend to somehow avoid this girl, but no luck, she latched back onto him before he could do a thing.
"So," She spoke. "The Akatsuki, huh? From what some of the advisers back at home told me, there's an elite group that's in charge of tracking those bastards down, a contingent between the Sand and the Leaf, right?"
He turned his head towards her, trying to communicate without saying that he was rather annoyed that she was still talking to him. "Yeah, there is."
She leaned forward once more. "You're a member, right?"
He waited a moment, trying to see if Sasuke, or anyone else really, would stop him from answering the question girl had asked. When no one did, he sighed, and nodded his head affirmative. "I am. But what led you to that, exactly?"
The girl gave a "Pfft." As if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "No way the Hokage would bring just anyone as her Guardians to this meeting, not with the threat of the Akatsuki growing more and more real by the moment. They've yet to assault any of the major villages, but still, they've nearly wiped two minor villages, the Sound, and the Waterfall, off the map entirely. If they could do that, they could organize an attack on the Hokage when she's at her least guarded, traveling here. It only makes sense to bring people with experience fighting the Akatsuki along in that case, doesn't it?"
He… could see what Kurotsuchi meant, at least somewhat. Most of what she said didn't quite apply, as they were nearly entirely sure as to where most of the Akatsuki were; on their way back to their base with the multiple Jinchuuriki they'd captured. If any of them did show up, that'd honestly be a good thing. It would likely mean that some of them had failed.
He was unfortunately fairly sure that they had not.
Another reason he didn't speak was simply the reminder of the Waterfall once more. A reminder of his failure as a leader, his inability to stop Deidara, of Tenten's crushing sorrow at having lost those she'd been entrusted, of their failure to do a single thing to help the people there.
He sighed as he turned towards the meeting, and even as Kurotsuchi tried to get his attention again, he ignored her entirely. After a few more seconds of seeking his notice, the woman simply let out a "Fine, suit yourself." And turned to watch the meeting as well.
"Then, if we're all agreed on the Akatsuki problem," Mifune spoke, turning to each of the Kage, who nodded back to him in return. "We might move on to the second issue of today's meeting; namely, the Stone Village's passage into the Waterfall village, and subsequent annexation of it."
His eyes widened to the sizes of saucers, as did Sasuke's just beside him.
Ōnoki, the Tsuchikage, gave a quiet laugh as he shook his head.
"Annexation? No, no. We have not annexed the Waterfall. We're merely lending support so that they may get back on their feet after the tragic events which took place last month that nearly destroyed their village. After all, the Leaf and the Sand were both unable to lend any serious aid."
Naruto watched as Temari grimaced, and Tsunade bit down on the inside of her cheek, clearly fuming.
"We did what we had to do to protect another allied nation. That is all."
The Raikage sat forward in his chair, leaning his elbow on the table in front of him as he turned to the Tsuchikage. "And in what way did granting that aid require you to occupy the entire village with your ninja? You've infested the Waterfall with many powerful individuals, including more than a few wartime commanders, evidently to hold the place in case of an expected rebellion."
Ōnoki laughed haughtily, as is mocking the concept itself. "An expected rebellion? No, no, I've sent my best so that if bandits attempt to raid the village, as they've already done multiple times, then they'll be wiped out before they can do any real damage. Why, the Leaf's very own protections against said bandits were broken the day before we made it to the village. It was a good thing we arrived, or they might've been occupied entirely."
The Mizukage gave a breath of laughter. "Yes, what a coincidence that all of a sudden the Leaf's otherwise unyielding line would suddenly be broken, and by a well-organized team of bandits with the skills of Jonin." She tapped her fingers on the table in a rhythmic pattern, adding a weight to her words. "Why, if I were a more pessimistic person, I might even say that the Stone had orchestrated such an attack, in order to then swoop in and appear to the people of the Waterfall like guardian angels. Why, the bandit's attack took no lives, and no resources from the Village. It was almost as if it was done for the sole purpose of taking out the barrier before a hasty retreat was made. What a curious fact, ey, Ōnoki?"
Anger burned hot inside Naruto's chest, and he turned to Tsunade, much like several of the others in the room, to see how she'd respond.
"The Leaf Village lacked the resources to assist the Waterfall as we would've wished." Tsunade looked to Ōnoki, and though it was clear she was angry, she made no move to utilize said feeling. "That does not excuse the Stone's blatant disregard for treatise as it has shown here, nor does it excuse the destruction of Leaf Property, or the injuries that those who'd been defending said property took."
"And, of course, when we find those responsible for said destruction, we will see to it that you're the first ones allowed to interrogate them."
Naruto felt the kernel of anger that'd been building inside him suddenly grow tenfold at that, and before he knew it, he was standing up, about to march forward and give these people a piece of his mind…
But a hand on his wrist stopped him.
He turned to see Kurotsuchi with her arm outstretched. She shook her head, before pulling him back over.
"I wouldn't interrupt that if I were you." She shot him an apologetic look as he sat down beside her. "Trust me when I say the fallout of doing so wouldn't be worth the immediate satisfaction of yelling at the old man." She bristled slightly. "And believe me when I say I want nothing more than to do the same."
He pouted somewhat at that, even as the Kage's continued to fire not-too-well-disguised barbs at one another.
"How can you stand that?" He asked a bit rudely, none-too-caring of how he might've sounded. "Your Kage doing something like that… I don't think I could."
Far from being disappointed or remorseful, as Naruto had hoped, Kurotsuchi merely laughed at him a bit mockingly.
"Do you really think that we're the only nation that's ever done something like this?" She asked him, just the tiniest bit of annoyance obvious in her expression. "If you do, then I have a not-so-fun realization to hit you with."
"Sure, the Mist was like that, as was the Cloud, if my history on the Hyuga clan is right," He muttered, remembering back to something he and Neji had discussed once upon a time, a few years back. "But we in the Leaf have always been on the right side of history, so–"
Kurotsuchi bent forward, so hard was she laughing. She was holding her fist in front of her to keep from making any noise, but if the stern glare her compatriot Akatsuchi shot her from her opposite side was anything to go by, she wasn't doing too good a job.
"C'mon, seriously?" Kurotsuchi asked him. "You really believe that the Leaf's never done anything wrong? Why don't you ask the Whirlpool, who were their allies, where the Leaf were when they were being annihilated? Why don't you ask the Rain Village why it went through a nearly decade-long period of civil unrest? Hell, if you want something closer to home, why don't you ask the disenfranchised Uchiha why they suddenly faded from history so much before being eliminated from it?" She held her hands up after a moment, clearly trying not to earn the ire of Sasuke, who was sitting next to Naruto, and glaring right at her. "Er… Sorry."
She shook her head, rallying back, and seemingly trying to get right back at it without missing a beat, but she needn't have bothered. Naruto was listening. Begrudgingly, of course, but listening, nonetheless.
"Basically, dude, my point is that things aren't as simple as you make them out to be. Our nations have been enemies for most of our histories, it makes sense that in your history books, they don't talk about us too fondly. And I imagine they also tend to leave out some other things about yourselves that are in ours, I didn't even bring up some of the things the Leaf did to us in our early days to earn that ire. Ever heard of one Madara Uchiha? He was a menace to us."
He looked down at the ground below him, entirely unsure of just how to process all of what he'd just heard. The only thing that managed to interrupt his impromptu brooding session was Kurotsuchi mirroring his motion, scooching forward in her chair to look at the Kage's ahead of them.
"I… didn't know any of that." He finally managed to speak after what felt like a good year or two of silence.
Kurotsuchi smiled. "Ignorance isn't a sin. As long as you change it, mind you, it becomes a sin after long enough, surely. Still… I agree with nearly all of what you said. The Stone itself is currently making another in a long line of mistakes. This is a large enough issue that it could in due time lead to a war, even.
Naruto looked her way, his eyes wide at the implications of what she'd said. His nerves only calmed when, a moment later, he saw the look in Kurotsuchi's eyes.
It was one of absolute conviction. Of pure determination and strength.
"But I won't allow it." She spoke, and there was nothing within him that could protest against her words. "I'll put a stop to all of this when I'm Tsuchikage. I'll stop this… petty warmongering, this 'fence-sitting'. I'll be a just ruler, someone who won't allow the world to trend any direction but towards peace."
They'd found mutual grounds there, it seemed, and he nodded his head after a moment.
"Same here… I want to become Hokage to protect the people I love… but also… I think I realize now that I want to protect… people." He thought of those of the Waterfall, and of the Sand. Hell, even the Sound Village, as ruthlessly as it had been destroyed. "Not just the ones in my own village, but people all around the world."
Kurotsuchi seemed to find that rather funny, for she laughed for a moment before countering him.
"Hah. All around the world, huh? That's rich." She smirked to show she meant no ill-will by her words. "You're only saying that because you visited the Waterfall, and I'd imagine the Sand, too, personally. I'm willing to bet that you weren't thinking too much about Iwagakure or Kumogakure when you said that were you?"
She'd once again effectively called him out, because, annoyingly, she was right.
"That's… I…"
She shook her head, giving another small giggle.
"No, don't worry about it. I like the enthusiasm." She smiled brightly. "You're just as naïve as I am… I can't help feeling a certain fondness for that." She turned to him and held her hand out. "It's Naruto, right?"
His eyes widened somewhat, but he reached across and linked their hands together.
"Yeah."
"I'll remember that name," She spoke as she shook his hand firmly. "For when we're both Kages, sitting here ourselves, in this very room one day."
For some reason, he found solace in that.
"Deal."
/-/
It was much later in the evening by the time Naruto finally got the chance to talk with Tsunade about what'd happened during the summit.
They'd first gone and made sure that the Genin were alright, and aside from Konohamaru wearing one of the most obviously guilty looks Naruto had ever seen, they seemed like they were doing fine. When Sasuke interrogated them, they said they'd gone out of their room to roam a bit against their orders, and had accidentally knocked over that old guy they'd met the previous day. He'd had to be carried back to his room by his bigger guard.
Naruto had patted them on their heads, telling them they'd done a good job. He'd earned a slap from Tsunade for that, but he considered that a worthy fee.
Sitting in their shared room, both he and Sasuke sat on chairs they'd brought up to a table which sat in one of the room's corners, and Tsunade stood in front of them, rubbing a hand down her face and sighing.
"I suppose I should have expected this…" She muttered under her breath. "So, what do the two of you wanna' know?"
Sasuke didn't seem to have any initial questions, and so Naruto decided to start.
"What exactly did the earth do? I mean, I got the most of it from the meeting earlier, but like… factually, what happened?"
"Do you want the facts as they are, or what actually happened?"
"What do you mean?"
Tsunade crossed her arms over her breasts.
"I mean do you want the story that we all know is true, or do you want the story that's being fed to the major nations?"
He hesitated for a moment, but Sasuke picked up his slack. "A mix of both, if possible."
She nodded.
"From what we in the Leaf understand, the small bandit barricade we'd set up at the mouth of the Waterfall's entrance was attacked by a number of unknown assailants at some point nearly two weeks ago. It was a clean attack, far cleaner than normal bandits should be able to pull off. None of them men manning it were killed, but the entire scaffolding and other things that had been set up to hold the barricade together were toppled rather completely. In fact, it's as if the wall was their only target, and they were not attending to steal any food, money, or people at all."
"Far from a very bandit-ty thing to do." Naruto nodded his head, seeing where the suspicions laid. "But… why would the Earth do it in the first place?"
"Well, like it or not, the waterfall would've been facing a bandit problem sooner or later, and realistically, it's uncertain whether or not our little countermeasure would've been able to hold under that much stress. Sure, the earth jumped the gun on dealing with it, preempting any real attack with one of their own to give them an excuse to set up shop, but unfortunately, we have no real way of proving that. And at the end of the day, what matters now is how the Waterfall civilians see them. They're heroes to them, even if people like Shibuki and some of the other higher-ups know it was all an earth fabrication, they can't exactly say anything about it, or risk being removed from power."
"That must be infuriating." Sasuke commented as he let out a quiet sigh.
"But… Wait, there's something I don't understand." Naruto shook his head, looking between the two of them. "Doesn't everyone, like, all the major nations, kind of already know they did it?"
Tsunade nodded.
"Then why aren't they doing anything about it?"
"Conjecture, even one with quite a bit of evidence, means nothing on the political scale." Tsunade hummed in an amused, if not admittedly dark way. "Hell, proof on the political scale means very little. You'd have to quite literally catch them with their hands sticking out of the proverbial cookie jar to make any real case against them, and unfortunately, if we're sticking to that same metaphor, all we have is a convenient trail of crumbs that leads right to them. Suspicious, damning, even, were they less powerful than they are, but nothing definitive."
He paused for a moment, unsure of how to respond.
"That… sucks."
Tsunade actually let out a bark of laughter.
"I agree with you, but the fact still remains that the Leaf lacks the resources to effectively do anything about it, what with Orochimaru's minions still needing to be accounted for, and we ourselves are dealing with the Akatsuki. We cannot afford to spend anyone on defending the Waterfall from the earth's machinations, and it's more than arguable that we shouldn't try and stop them, even, when the stone can give them that which we cannot afford too presently."
He looked down at the ground, anger filling him.
"But…"
"Yes, I know. They've essentially conquered a weakened state and will likely attempt to annex them into their land in time. I'd like to do something about that, but for now… I cannot afford to. Besides, like it or not, the harsh reality of the situation is that the Waterfall did need that aid, aid that we could not provide. The Stone is not so heartless as to deny them it."
He lowered his head.
Tsunade let out a tired sigh. "For now, all of us should get some sleep. We'll all need it for tomorrow's half of the summit."
"It's not done?" He asked, already exhausted from just a few hours of the first day's summit.
"No, but tomorrow we'll be dealing with more minor issues; tax policies, treaties and trade agreements, border addendums and the like. We'll be communicating the Daimyo's will on these matters."
Naruto stared at her.
"Those're… minor issues?"
"Minor for you, I mean." She smirked. "As the Hokage, tomorrow only gets worse for me."
Sasuke bowed. "You have my sympathy."
"Yes, thank you." She sighed out.
"I think I'm going to need it."
/-/
He wasn't quite sure what time it was when he awoke in the middle of the night, but he could tell, from the small draft flowing into their room from a gap in the balcony door a way's away, that someone else must've been as well.
Given that Tsunade was snoring away in the bed to his left, that left only one candidate.
Said man was silhouetted against the moonlit mountains beyond him, and as Naruto made his way out of bed, and slipped on something a bit warmer to brave the cold night, he noticed the person looked rather pensive.
He walked out onto the balcony as well, leaning on the bar that overlooked the snowy tundra far below them.
"Nice night." He said to the figure beside him.
Sasuke seemed to find that rather funny. "Y'know, we've known each other for, what… Seven and a half… Eight years now? I really don't think you need to open with small talk."
He shrugged. "Ah, well. Figured it couldn't hurt."
"That's fair."
"Hmm."
They sat in silence for a good 30 seconds. At that point, Sasuke let out a sigh, and turned to him with his eyebrow drawn up.
"So, have you come to bother me for a reason, or…?"
He snorted. "I figured you could use someone to talk to; you seemed awfully introspective."
"Have you ever considered that maybe I wanted to… I don't know… introspect by myself?"
"No, the thought never even crossed my mind, why?"
Sasuke sighed, his breath visible in the bitter, freezing air.
"Well, since I can tell you're not going to leave me alone," Naruto nodded to show he wasn't wrong. "I guess I can tell you what's on my mind." He idled for a moment, perhaps sorting out his thoughts. "It's about my brother. About… what I'm going to do regarding him when I see him again."
He'd sort of expected that already.
"So… did you make your mind up?"
His friend gave an affirmative hum.
"I… have." He looked a bit sheepish, as if not having expected to be forced to share this with anyone. "I'll listen to what he has to say. Truly listen. I'll tell him that I want him to give me the entire truth of what happened. If I'm wrong, and he's the evil person I mistook–" He caught the small slip of Sasuke's tongue before he could stop it, and could tell he'd already made his mind up more than he wanted to admit. "That he might be, then I'll kill him, easy as that. If I'm not, though… then…"
Naruto gave a quiet breath of laughter as his friend tapered off.
"Don't quite have that figured out?"
"No, not yet."
"That's fine." He tried for reassuring smile. "I don't think anyone can blame you for that. Not with the circumstances as they are."
It was then, as if on cue, that a snowflake fell on the metal bar just off to his right. It melted quickly, but another fell a moment later, and then another. Before he knew it, the snow had picked up speed, and was coming down quite quickly.
He shivered as the air grew colder.
"Jeez, it's freaking freezing."
"You can say that again." Sasuke hummed out a laugh. "By the way, earlier, when you and that Kurotsuchi girl were talking… What was that part about you wanting to protect people outside the Leaf?"
He turned to his best friend curiously. "What do you mean?"
"I just mean I'd never heard that from you before. It's very… You, so I didn't doubt that you'd say it, but… that's a tall task, y'know. Trying to protect the whole world, when you're just one man… When there are people like the Akatsuki out there as well…"
He nodded, trying to show his understanding.
"That may be so, but… When I'm Hokage… I'm not going to let people like them roam free. I'll stop those guys; I'll protect people. I'll save villages like the Sound from destruction, and I'll protect villages like the Waterfall from being as decimated as they were." He reached his hand out, as if to grasp the moon hanging in the sky, and balled his hand into a fist, catching only a few errant snowflakes instead. "I'll defend the whole world; that's the kind of Hokage I want to be."
Far from being some rousing speech that would instantly earn him Sasuke's infinite respect, his best friend instead laughed at him.
"I see what Kurotsuchi meant; that is awfully naïve you."
He rounded on the man with an annoyed expression.
"Hey, whose side are you on, exactly?"
"There's a difference between being on your side, and blindly agreeing with whatever you say, regardless of its content."
He muttered something rather unflattering about Sasuke under his breath as he stared out at the mountains beyond them.
"But…" Sasuke's voice cut back in. "That kind of naivete is something I would want to see in a leader. Someone who genuinely believes in the goodness of people, of protecting the innocent, of being like some kind of storybook hero… I think that's important." Sasuke smiled reassuringly at him, completely seriously. "Hold onto that naivete, Naruto. Even if I think it's a bit silly… don't abandon what makes you… you."
He gave a laugh at that.
"Tranquility of the self, remember? Not abandoning myself is… pretty much my thing now."
Sasuke snickered slightly as they stared out at the moonlit night. He followed, and before he knew it, they were cackling madly. Well, up until Tsunade yelled at the both of them to keep it down, at which point they grumbled their apologies quietly and kept staring out into the air. It was then, however, that Naruto noticed something in the falling snow.
"Hey," He asked his friend. "Do you see that?"
"You mean the black speck steadily headed our way?" Sasuke responded. "If so, then yes."
Said black speck continued to grow in size as it approached them, and by the time it was only 20 or so seconds out, Naruto could actually identify what it was.
It was a messenger hawk.
It landed right on the banister next to Sasuke, and he saw about unwrapping the message tied to its leg.
"It's… from Kakashi." Sasuke murmured. "That's…"
His best friend unfurled the note and partook of its contents. After around 15 seconds of reading, his face blanched, and his eyes went wide. He practically thrust the note into Naruto's hand as he hurriedly moved back into the main room they'd been sharing.
"I'll go wake Tsunade and the others." His best friend uttered with his face pale. "It's nearly morning. We need to get ready and be out of here by sunrise"
Naruto could only imagine what it was that could disturb his friend so deeply, and so he turned the letter so that he too could read of it as Sasuke woke Tsunade.
As his gaze followed the words on the page, and he read the message Kakashi had sent to them…
His heart skipped a beat.
/-/
"I'm so sorry… Sakura."
Pain lanced up her left shoulder, and into her neck, originating from her Curse Mark. It was like flame was pouring back into it, the inverse of the normal feeling of it covering her body. As if the darkness of the mark itself was receding back into the pronged black design.
"W-We're nearly there…" That same voice that'd apologized to her rang out through the room, and she recognized it this time. It was Kabuto. She could not see him, with her head tied down to the medical bed the rest of her body was strapped to, but she could hear his voice. "Shouldn't… be much longer…"
He sounded defeated, utterly so. Sakura could imagine why. Despite his best wishes, he'd been forced to perform the surgery that Tobi had wanted done on her regardless. She felt another sharp pain and let out a scream as something was ripped from out of her.
It felt both physical and spiritual. As if something had, quite literally, been pulled from out of her neck, and as if her chakra had been disturbed along with it.
It was then that she felt something be pushed against her neck. A globule of… something horrifying. She couldn't see it, but she could feel as it quite literally joined with her neck… and as something began to grow out of it.
She let out a rasping scream as she felt whatever it was writhe, becoming bigger, larger, more grotesque. It grew a chakra of its own from out of hers, and limbs began to pry away from her body. Finally, after a sickening squelch, the figure landed on the floor just off to her left and let out a gasp.
"Finally." Tobi's voice echoed out through the small room. "Welcome back to the world of the living, Orochimaru."
Fear shot through her at that name, at the yellow irises of the man who'd cursed her, who'd tormented her, kidnapped her, and experimented upon her. She tried to turn her head, but she was still locked away.
"Ah, Kabuto, you may free our guest, now. We've no further need of her, so why don't you take her to where the other one is?"
The metal bar holding her neck still unlatched as Kabuto's hand, or at least she presumed it was Kabuto's hand, coursed across it. He helped her up and out of the constraints, and she got her first real look at the room around her.
Tobi stood at the back of the room, still mask-less, but looking far more pleased than he'd been a while before. He had some small knicks, his left arm in a split, and one particularly large burn in his uniform from where they'd managed to land a few hits while fighting him…
But he'd taken no damage of note.
Perhaps the person who drew her eyes the most, however, was the figure standing nakedly in the middle of the room.
Orochimaru turned to her, and, despite everything, despite having been dead, smirked rather devilishly.
"Sakura Haruno… is it?" He closed his eyes, shaking his head, though his unnerving smile didn't dissipate. "It's been an awfully long time. I suppose I should thank you for being the vehicle of my revival. Even if I never intended it, you served your role as a carrier of my mark nicely. Now, I can rejoin with the Akatsuki, and recommence our goal."
That set off an odd warning siren in her head. As far as she could remember, Orochimaru and the Akatsuki had been after very different things when they'd last squared off, and that battle had ended in Orochimaru's forces being almost summarily defeated. Hell, it'd ended in his death.
For him to suddenly want to be on the side of the Akatsuki once more…
"What did you do to him?" She asked Tobi in a low tone, not having much energy for a fiery show of strength.
Tobi, or Obito, she supposed, simply smiled menacingly.
"I've no idea what you mean."
And without a chance to get another word in edgewise, she was escorted out of the room.
Kabuto walked her through a few winding hallways, and though Sakura didn't recognize them by sight, she did by feeling. It was the same route she'd taken to get to the laboratory when she'd been imprisoned here…
Which didn't bode well for her destination.
"You're not wrong, Sakura."
She turned to look at Kabuto questioningly and saw the downtrodden look on his face had only intensified.
"He's got Orochimaru under some kind of Jutsu. I don't know what it is that would be powerful enough to completely change someone's self, though, especially not without them even realizing it. Even when you called it out yourself, Orochimaru didn't seem to suspect anything, and I know that bastard… he should've realized what was going on there. That he didn't…"
She could see the writing on the wall just the same as him.
"It might be… the Sharingan he obtained from Danzo… gods, four or so years ago now." She looked up at Kabuto. "It belonged to Shisui Uchiha, he said. I don't know what it did, or anything, but... It's a possibility at least."
Kabuto nodded. "I'll try and look into it as much as I can, but, well, as you might imagine, my freedom around here has been all but eliminated."
She felt a question come to her.
"Why didn't they just kill us?" She asked. "I mean, I know why they didn't kill me and you immediately, they wanted Orochimaru and they needed the both of us for that, but… Why not just kill us now? I'd think we're just an unnecessary risk for them."
Kabuto looked down at the ground, his eyes heavy.
"Kabuto?"
He ground his teeth.
"They didn't kill us for two simple reasons; because we're no longer any threat to them… and they want us to live long enough to know it."
Her eyes widened slightly. "What… do you mean?"
Kabuto looked like he felt terrible as he rubbed the back of his neck, perhaps subconsciously.
"Sakura, try and access your curse mark's power."
She tilted her head somewhat, and it was then, in the hallway, that an idea bloomed at the back of her mind that shot ice up her spine. She did as Kabuto had commanded, trying to allow the black markings to flow across her skin…
Nothing happened.
She tried once more, this time to try and force herself into her evolved state, to bypass the initial reaction… but again, nothing happened. She found her breath shortening as she reached behind her neck and felt around for her curse mark.
Clearly, she had to have just been missing it… that had to be it. It couldn't be… the source of her strength, the crux upon which she'd built her entire style, her entire power… it couldn't just be…
Gone.
"You…" Words barely came to her. "I…"
"I'm sorry, Sakura." He wouldn't meet her eyes as he brought her into the major prison complex, and in front of a different cell than she'd been in before. This one was far more run-down and dingy. "I'm so sorry."
She was barely able to fathom the man's words as he passed her over to the guards. One of them pushed her into the grimy stone construct, and locked the door behind her, sealing her inside.
She was suddenly very alone.
"Who's there?"
Or at least that was what she'd thought. She turned around to see another figure inside of the same cell as her. It was initially hard to recognize him, without the Akatsuki cloak she'd grown so used to seeing upon him, and wearing only a simple, gray undershirt and baggy pants. He certainly didn't look very intimidating at all any longer…
But this was undoubtedly Itachi Uchiha.
"Itachi, I…" She stepped towards him. "I–"
Her voice cut off abruptly as she saw something else different about him. Wrapped around his face was a bandage. It was tied just above his ears, and passed just over the bridge of his nose, wrapped around the entirety of his head.
More alarming, however, was that it was tied over his eyes.
"I am sorry, Sakura." He looked towards her… no, that wasn't it. He'd moved his head to where she'd sounded like she was standing. "It appears we've failed."
The ice in her veins seemed to freeze over even more thoroughly still.
Itachi Uchiha, prodigy of his clan, and master of the Mangekyou Sharingan…
Was blind.
End Chapter 82
Dun dun dun!
In all seriousness, good to be back to doing this story weekly. Felt like we were moving at a glacial pace when it was biweekly. Anyways, this story will hopefully be done in 3-4 months, or at least, so I hope, so do look forward to that.
I know my wrists do.
Anyways, that's all from me, see you all next week!