Heroic Nights

Chapter II

Years Change

Sasuke Uchiha had plenty of things on his mind since this tournament thing back when this all began. Things had changed so much over the past five years. The chuunin exam wasn't all he had imagined, but it was where this all began to change – with him – his annoying 'rival'. Naruto Uzumaki or Namikaze, as some would say, even though Naruto did keep his mother's name. Sasuke could understand that. Naruto had already filled in lots of paperwork and named his company Uzi Industries', so it made a lot of sense.

Sighing in frustration, Sasuke couldn't say what he imagined the change to the world would be, as it had honestly not come across his mind before. He had brooding to do in-between training, but he was certain this – this – well; the change happened, but nothing big happened, but many-many small things did. Konoha actually had a civilian mayor who had been dealing a lot of backhand slaps to a lot of arseholes, and Konoha was nicer for it, and the Hokage got to deal with military and military policing issues since he no longer had the city to look out for with every day annoyances.

Sasuke liked the new changes, and it even kept that jerk sensei away from bothering him – well – that and Kakashi was still in jail - probably, and should be for the next five or so years, Sasuke was sure it was something like that, but he never bothered going to the crazy bastards' trial and he sent in his testimony against Kakashi with his own lawyers, thankful that he didn't need to bother with that in person.

It was with disappointment that Sasuke was almost certain that Kakashi had been holding him back. Not on purpose, but by holding Sasuke's teammates back (and they were quite overpowered today without that jerks help), but by holding them back it held Sasuke back. Sasuke hated when he was given special treatment just because of his clan and what happened to him, and acted out. Perhaps if they had a sensei who wasn't favouring one student over the others, he and his teammates could have gone on to be legends of a different type to what they have become today.

Kakashi was Sasuke's sensei, or his teams' sensei – and he was shit at being a sensei. Though, Kakashi wasn't very good at being a human being either. Kakashi couldn't even see it in him to care about his own sensei's only son, and Kakashi knew who Naruto was. Kakashi was a sham of a sensei and even more so as a man.

Though, luckily everything turned around, and even Sasuke saw a new way; the way he should have been moving from day one. However, instead, it started with Naruto. Ever since Naruto left the team, and Kiba took his place, nothing felt the same – nothing sat right, and Sasuke knew it was because Naruto had been a better teammate, and that Kakashi was the reason everything was wrong – Kakashi was not a good teacher – Kakashi was a terrible teacher.

It came as a surprise to Sasuke when he realised that Sakura – The Sakura had a sensei on the side, and she improved in leaps and bounds like she was a natural and held back, but no – being gifted meant nothing to putting in the work. Sakura was working hard for her power, and she practically had that crazy snake lady for her teacher all to herself, and she was proud of herself. Then Kiba was spending most of his time with his family training to use his dog and pee up trees or whatever it was that his clan did to get better at their techniques, but Sasuke didn't care what he did. From what Sasuke had heard, Kiba's clan dogs held Naruto in higher esteem than they did Kiba, but that probably wasn't saying much as Kiba was a bit of a dick, and dogs had instinct for that sort of thing, but he still found it amusing.

However, that ended up leaving Sasuke in the nefarious hands of Kakashi, as the other two just headed off to their own training. Sasuke felt somewhere that the silver haired 'cyclops' meant well – to him because of some kind of connection he felt he had to his old teammate who was an Uchiha – funnily looking into it, this Uchiha would have had more in common with Naruto than Sasuke, as not all Uchiha brooded as his annoying sister proved as she grinned like a loon, and Sasuke suspected she did it on purpose just to mess with him and proper Uchiha etiquette. Though, Sasuke couldn't blame her for not caring about any Uchiha ways since that bastard father of theirs tried to have her murdered by their own brother.

Shaking his head clear of his weirdo sister, though, yes admittedly he was glad his sister was alive, but she was so embarrassing, but at least she wasn't a super villain anymore. He was pretty sure she was sleeping with Naruto, but the least he thought about it the better he felt. He tried to get her to work for him and be a 'good' Uchiha, but Naruto already bought her off with rainbows and candy, he secretly convinced himself.

Anyway, back to Kakashi; he was always so ignorant of Sasuke's, and the team's needs. Ironic when Kakashi was the one who seemed to think teamwork was so important that it was a part of his test when they first met, and when Sasuke was the one concerned about something so soppy the world should be ending or something.

Sasuke sighed as he watched the city below. It hadn't changed too much. Though, crime was down by quite a huge margin, and everything seemed a lot cleaner and nicer, especially when things like slavery and forced labour were outright outlawed. If it weren't for Sasuke and Naruto hiring so many people, and willing to train and help freed slaves climatise to freedom; that could have gone poorly. Though, it didn't go well for slave owners and traders as they tried fleeing the country. A few slavers managed to get away with slaves who had been granted by law, freedom, unfortunately most of them tried running to either Wind or Lightning, and they were now huge trade partners with Fire and already signed some monumental peace treaties, and those slavers were arrested, slaves freed, and deported back to Fire for trial.

However, still, saying crime was down in Konoha, even by the margins it was, wasn't saying much, as once the papers were signed and the Hokage handed over power, much of the criminality that had been so brazen before was quick to go underground and hide a lot better than before, which did damage their bottom lines, but career criminals weren't going to suddenly go straight.

Sasuke had climbed up onto one of the tallest buildings in the Office District as it had a nice view of the lake, and further towards the forest that led out of the cesspool of a city. The building wasn't the tallest building in Konoha, no – that belonged to Uchiha Enterprises on the other side of the city, deeper within the concrete jungle, but he had a great vantage point where he was.

The sun was setting 'under the lake', and bathing the city in orange, and gold colours, streaming and reflecting across the lake, and making the place glow. It brought the boats and ships into shadows, and rainbows danced and shimmered from when it was raining earlier that day, reflecting across the puddles within the city streets and lower rooftops. It was beautiful in a weird way. It cleared Sasuke's head to watch the sun setting. He used to watch it with his mother from across the pond at the park while feeding the ducks.

Stretching some kinks from his muscles the black bat like body armour felt taught as his cape blew back in the breeze, and he could still smell the rainy day. He would have to hurry with his new armour as this one was a little tight in the shoulders.

Sasuke remembered his father hated when his mother took him, his sister, and his brother to the park. Itachi had been a ninja and only just finished the academy, and still he obeyed his mother and went to the park with them. He had played back then. He played with Sasuke and Suki. It felt odd thinking back on those times when he was happy. His mother had such a wonderful smile, and she allowed him to play with the other children, even then, as his dad would say, commoners. Though, Suki always found it easier to make friends than he ever did, which left him playing alone most of the time.

Thinking back was hard. It hurt, but Sasuke felt it was time. He needed to let go. That was the first time he saw Naruto. It was at the park. They were both so young, and such small children. Naruto had been all alone. He had no one then. He was trying to make friends and play with the other children, but it was not to be.

The other children's parents pulled their children away and scorned the small blonde boy. Sasuke remembered that Naruto looked so sad.

That was when some 'men' – around five of them had been taking a short cut home through the park after having had a few drinks. They had all been jonin level ninja, and they saw the small blonde sitting on a swing all by himself.

"Look!"

The man in the green vest pointed out the blonde boy which startled Mikoto Uchiha out of her book. She looked up, confused by the men while her son hid behind his genin brother, and her eyes flickered up to see her daughter paused as she had a megawatt grin as she was approaching the blonde-haired boy. However, Suki's grin faltered as she turned to the men while they sneered down at the small blonde boy as he sat on a swing.

"It's the Demon Brat!"

It was another of the men sneering as he pointed out the blonde boy. It was at that time the small blonde looked up with terror in his eyes.

"He's trying to corrupt the children!"

This man was large and had two huge scars across his face. He had a long-bladed sword on his back. Mikoto frowned as her eyes lay on the sword. However, she didn't move from her bench, only placing away her book and smartly folded her hands on her lap.

Her eyes narrowed as the men jumped the fence into the play park. Parents who hadn't forced their children to leave because of Naruto were fast in grabbing their children and leaving, except Mikoto chose to stay.

"Sasuke-chan...!" Itachi whispered in Sasuke's ear as he pulled him back, holding him flush to his chest. "Stay with me, okay, and just watch. Be brave Sasuke-chan, and don't look away," he finished, and Sasuke felt himself shivering in fear, but his annoying little sister was over by those horrid men and didn't look scared at all. He wasn't sure what was going on. He was scared. He saw the blonde boy was too scared to run away. He wasn't any older than he was and those grown men were picking on him, picking on a little boy.

The men stopped in front of Naruto. He had water bubbling in his eyes and flinched with every movement or small noise. The blonde's blue eyes were searching, scanning, hunting for an escape route, but it was no good; they would catch him no matter which direction he ran.

"Look!"

It was the first man again, laughing as he clicked the bones in his knuckles.

"The filthy little brat is pretending to cry!"

"Demon filth like you don't cry!"

The largest man spoke again, drawing his sword and went to swing it over his shoulder, but it wouldn't budge. It was stuck, mid-swing behind his back as he went with an overhead strike.

Sasuke's eyes widened in shock as his mother had moved so fast it looked like she had disappeared and reappeared out of nowhere. In fact, he didn't even notice her disappear. It was like one moment she was just there. The delicate fingers on her left hand were holding the flat of the blade, and it looked like she wasn't trying at all while the large man was struggling to pull the sword free of her while holding it in both hands.

Meanwhile, Sasuke had been further shocked as his little sister had charged and tackled Naruto from his swing and they landed in a tangle on the ground as she held him protectively. However, Naruto didn't seem to notice at first as he looked over the small girl with her short cut ruffled black hair while she glared back at the man over her shoulder who drew the sword but couldn't swing as Mikoto held the blade. Naruto looked to see what the girl was looking at to see the woman who came to their rescue with his eyes widening.

It was an odd sight as Mikoto was wearing a long flowing purple dress and standard flat shoes. She was beautiful and elegant as she held the weapon from moving any further with dark eyes full of a fury that Sasuke had never imagined. He thought she could quell anyone with just that look, but then he couldn't feel the spiritual pressure the men could.

The men were shocked as they tried to shake off her presence, and with the large man; he was shakily trying to free himself and the sword from her too, but he was having no luck. She was stronger than him, and seeing was believing, but it was still unbelievable.

"Where did you get this sword!?" Mikoto demanded spitefully, but they could only shake and stay speechless while Sasuke felt himself flinch in terror. "WHERE!" she demanded as she tore the sword free from his pudgy hand. The sword flipped around and into Mikoto's right hand. She pointed the blade-tip at the larger of the five men, as she admired the swords beauty, a part of her looking forlorn.

Sasuke had jumped further at her demand. He had never known his mother could get angry – not like that. She had always been so kind, but then, Sasuke felt scared of her in that moment, she was a monster. He realised for the first time that his mother wasn't just his mother, but a powerful and dangerous kunoichi.

"O-outside Konoha!" the larger man finally stuttered out shakily. "I-it was s-stuck in-in a rock with a Konoha headband!"

"A burial site?" she demanded, but he shook his head frantically.

"N-no... it was much too large and the only one," he said quickly. "It was shortly after t-the... that things attack!" he spat out pointing to Naruto.

However, that only angered her more. "You will show the proper respect you, filth!" she hissed out, and her right eye was twitching as a frizz of chakra sparked up her long, loose raven black hair. Sasuke was further surprised as he knew his mother was always polite and nice to everyone, even the hired help.

The five men took steps back as they saw the danger. "I-it's only a-a demon, and that sword belongs to me!"

Mikoto sneered as she flipped the long ninjato into a stabbing grip. It was elegant but practical, and silver coloured. It was dirty because that man had obviously never looked after it. The handle was wrapped in white with an orange cord hanging on the end wrapped to the hilt with a gold coloured coin attached with a spiral pattern.

"A weakling like you, think you have the right to wield the Sword of Waves?!" she demanded as the silver hilt lit with the light of the sun, shining a blue tint that moved with the reflection like the waves of the lake, shimmering down the blade to the tip. "This sword belonged to Whirlpool. This sword belongs to its last son! If you don't leave now, this sword will take your fucking heads!"

Sasuke had startled once again. He thought his mother couldn't surprise him anymore than she already had. Sasuke had heard his father cuss many times. His father was always muttering cusses under his breath about the Hokage – or whoever else bested him or something silly like that. However, this was different. It was coming from his mother. She was supposed to be the polite parent. She was the nice parent. She took Sasuke out for cookies or ice cream while his dad forced him to train every second.

"T-the sword is mine now," the largest man surprisingly retorted as he seemed to return some of his bravado as he may have just realised the sword was worth something. "Maybe after I get the council to have it returned, I'll find the demon brat and kill him with it-!"

Sasuke hadn't been watching Naruto or his sister at the time, and turned to see them, more specifically, Naruto still in Suki's arms as she took liberties and sat on his lap while holding him protectively. Naruto showed fear mingled with hope, but when the blonde boys' blue eyes widened in shock and Suki's mouth dropped open in horrified awe, both staring towards Mikoto Uchiha, Sasuke turned his attention back to his mother. Sasuke almost vomited. He watched, unable to look away as the huge man stood stock still. His eyes looked like the light had been turned off. It started with a thin crimson line across his neck. Then the large body crumpled to its knees. His head was sliding off his neck, when it fell with a thud. His body collapsed down after that.

Mikoto turned her attention to the other four men as they were staring at her in terror.

"He broke the Thirds Law!" she spoke as they all realised, they had all broken this law in front of her multiple times; she didn't offer them a second chance to leave.

Suki became close friends with Naruto after that as Mikoto was only too happy to bring her to play with him. She brought Sasuke too, but he was much too stubborn to join in silly kids' games, but he was annoyed because Itachi was perfectly okay playing games with Naruto and Suki. He regretted not joining in and having some fun. But even for Suki and Naruto; it ended when their father chose to get rid of Suki, but Itachi saved her. Everything became so messed up after that as a week later Itachi destroyed the clan, but not even Itachi knew what really happened. He swore. He knew. He would have never been able to kill their mother.

Sasuke, Itachi, and Suki would have to find the truth. Sasuke now knew for certain that his brother would turn himself in if he was responsible for killing the innocent members of the clan who had nothing to do with the coup or those who were neither ninja or intended to be. Sasuke could only accept that he knew his brother, and pretending otherwise for his revenge kick would get them nowhere.

Back in the present, Sasuke shook his head clear from thinking about that as he had returned home to his manner house. It was large with all sorts of secrets he had hidden under it. It had been his hide away from the world for so long. He wondered whether Naruto remembered that day in the park or whether he was repressing it. Sasuke could understand any child repressing those memories, but he knew Naruto was stronger than that, and Naruto seemed to remember Suki from before she and her team of twit villainesses tried to forcibly recruit him and Hinata Hyuuga.

His mother had been such a great woman, he thought with a soft smile as he slumped down within his secret hideaway in front of his large computer, glaring at the blank screen. It was old, and not as useful as Sasuke had hoped to make it, yet. It was lost technology, and he had always been good at playing with things and figuring them out. They had computers, but this one was on a whole new scale that could speed up digital advancements considerably, plus, help him with his crimefighting. He was certain Naruto probably had quite a bit of lost-tech too, so Sasuke didn't want to be left behind. However, he couldn't think much on that right then, and he had hired plenty of people to work for him and do the research into lost technologies, just like Naruto would be doing, as the world needed to grow and improve.

Sasuke's mind had been on Arrow for a while. The Green Arrow was something he couldn't understand. How could one man change so much by just going out in a costume and beating people up. It was strange, and then Arrow had obviously encouraged others to do the same, so much so that even Sasuke got to 'work', and it surprisingly worked.

The Green Arrow and Speedy's fan clubs had gotten bigger than his, Sasuke's, not Batman's, even though The Green Arrow and Speedy hadn't been seen in years; everyone was certain that Artemis was Speedy in a new getup. At least they didn't have to flee their fan clubs as nobody knew who they really were. Maybe he should have taken some pointers from Naruto. He seemed to like his fan girls when he lived in Konoha. Sasuke had seen the blonde-haired boy actually hanging out with them, or taking advantage of them, not that they seemed to mind.

However, Sasuke was curious about Arrow's motivation. He needed to understand more about that, but he couldn't ask Kakashi as he was in jail – or maybe he was on probation – he was useful after all – but Sasuke hadn't cared as long as Kakashi wasn't bothering him anymore. The silver haired man had been 'feuding' with the archer when he wasn't being a dickhead to Naruto, which was ironically amusing, but Kakashi didn't ever have to know about that. He didn't have anyone else to really talk to about stuff like that, as being upfront with Arrow was out of the question; Sasuke was supposed to use his mind with being a 'Great Detective', so needed to figure this out for himself. But then he frowned as he wondered whether that strange witch who was running Naruto's apartment block in Greyland for him could tell him anything.

Sasuke had heard the witch had been rescued by the Green Arrow, and came to Konoha because she was curious too, and maybe she had made headway. It was really lucky for her that Naruto needed someone to look out for his apartments and that he was such a nice guy that she got a pretty simple job. Even he could admit that Naruto could have been a great friend to have if things had turned out the way they should have, and if he allowed himself to play with Naruto and Suki, but they now lived in different cities, so it would be weird popping by Capitol to have a drink without a reason or some such.

Slumping back in his chair Sasuke felt all of the anger leave him, even when he tried to think of Itachi, it just wasn't there anymore. Itachi would have never hurt their mother. Their father – yeah, sure, Itachi likely wouldn't have hesitated. He was a dick, but their mother. He was still hunting for that secret and the Hokage's had all helped in little ways look into it, but if something fell afoul then it was buried really deep, and he and his brother came to their agreement, and they would hunt out the truth together – Suki kind of didn't care that much, but she promised to keep her ears and eyes open.

The truth was that Sasuke had stopped being angry years ago, but people, teachers, 'supporters' expected, and encouraged it for so long it was ridiculous. He wanted to get to the bottom of things, but how could he when he was starting to suspect the village had a hidden secret that turned him into that arsehole. Things had changed so much. He now only wanted the truth. He would find that truth, and when he did, he would take it where it needed to be taken at the time. He didn't care about the City stopping the Coup and killing those involved; they were traitors, and not for any noble reason, but just because they believed that their superiority should lead, which would have likely led to a lot of death and war, civil and otherwise.

Sasuke scratched his ruffled black hair as he pulled his cowl back and down to hang around his shoulders and just slumped for several minutes when he sensed a presence next to him and turned to his right. She was slender and pretty with bright ginger hair tied back and cool dark eyes, and a smirk on her lips. She was dressed in some blue shorts and top with a black hoody left undone, and white trainers.

Moegi was a few years younger than Sasuke and only graduated the academy that year, and Sasuke was sure it was okay to 'check' her out these days as she always looked pretty good, and he did care about her, and she was always telling him he needed to get out and have some fun, and – he should stop thinking about his student like that, as for one they were ridiculously incompatible in that way, and two, Moegi was his student.

"You're not done for the evening are you, Sensei?" she asked smirkingly. "It's still pretty early, and I was just about to get changed. I could always call on Artemis and-."

"No," Sasuke said coolly interrupting her. "I was just doing some recon, and found some of Jokers men at the docks, and you know when they're involved, its trouble."

"Maybe we should get some back up from the League-?"

"Do I ever agree to that?" he asked as he stood tall over her.

Moegi pouted with a smile. "Just the once for a one-off deal with Super-."

"Yes, and I'll never hear the end of it, so please just get dressed!" he retorted, but he did offer up a smirk while she laughed and hurried off.

Sasuke smiled slightly as he turned to his left where a sword sat behind a protective glass case. It was silver bladed with white wrappings around the handle with silver guard and an orange cord on the end with gold coin and spiral symbol. He had found it a few months ago. It was hidden within his estate, covered in dust and needing some TLC.

Caressing the case with a gloved hand, Sasuke sighed. He had had Tenten's father restore the sword to perfect order, cleaning and cleansing every inch. Sasuke realised that his mother had not lived long enough to have the sword repaired herself. Sasuke had thought about leaving the sword with Tenten's father for him to return to its rightful owner, but he felt chicken thinking about it.

Though, in all honestly, Sasuke wasn't quite sure who to return the sword to. He could easily return it to Minato Namikaze and he could give it to Naruto, or he could return it himself. Sasuke had asked Moegi her opinion, and she said that it would probably mean more being returned by him.

"Stop daydreaming or I'm leaving without you!" Moegi called from behind.

Sasuke chuckled under his breath as he pulled his cowl back on. "Let's go!" he said gruffly as he turned to see the Batgirl waiting impatiently for him all in black with slender cowl mask with only her lower face on display, and white shields over her eyes, and black light-armoured leather curving around her slender figure with a dark yellow bat on her nice chest, dark yellow claws, and utility belt.

"You have to return that sword," Moegi said teasingly. "Give it to Namikaze-sama – or Hanabi-chan if you're too chicken to do it right… or send it in the mail!"

Batman could only scowl and she laughed while she followed him towards the exit-shoots. He could only be thankful that the hickey-seal giving snake bastard, Copperhead Orochimaru hadn't bothered him or Konoha for quite a few years now as he had so much more to deal with; he could wait his turn.

to be continued…