The night sky gave its brightest smile. A crescent moon with thousand of stars following its tender light.
Through a tiny window car the sky illuminated a couple. Along with the wind swinging into branches of the trees.
A forlorn attempt from the universe to made the couple night somewhat intimate.
As clueless as the lady with cherry blossom hair, the moon eventually hide behind the cloud. Left the couple to their own effort
/
hERe aFtEr
8.
/
Tokyo, 2021
That same night
From the corner of his eye, a women whom he felt strange sat rigidly her back few inches apart from the seat, and hands held onto each other on her lap. A perceptible gesture to screamed the uneasy feeling inside her.
Easy to tell. For Sasuke put on the same shoes.
"Could you lead me the way?" Sasuke asked as he step on the gas pedal.
Slowly they left the parking lot then passing through the hospital's front gate with vines decorating on its tall rails.
"Just go straight, Sasuke-kun. Can you see the wall at the end? From there you should turn left and my home right after that turn."
Followed his eyes to Sakura's finger then to the road ahead, Sasuke was assured their trip-as well as their conversation-would not be last for long.
The answer was something he did not well thought. "Oh, it's near?" Sasuke meant to telling himself.
Sakura turned her head so she could peeked out Sasuke's confused look. Then nodded her head before went back to see her daily route ahead. "It'll probably took only five minutes from the hospital."
For five minutes worth of conversation, Sasuke needed to recalculate his plan. He never like to be rushed though.
And as the car went on it took one and half minutes for him to figured out that the deserted and narrowed alley was the exact imagery of his mind right now. He scratched his right temple with his index finger.
To his surprise, Sakura initiated the conversation first. Hesitantly she looked at her companion. "I heard about your dad, Sasuke-kun. Eventhough it's been more than a year, I'm so sorry for your loss," Sasuke heard the familiar tone of her voice, "When I met your mom, I could say I missed him to be there with us."
Sasuke then caught her eyes under the dim light of the street light they were passing by. "It was too sudden to be true at that time. But, we finally passed the grieving steps."
"But, it seems your mom still having a hard time on her own."
"Ya, most of the time. You know, since dad passed away last year today is the first time she decided to come to an open event," exhaling a deep silent breath, Sasuke then slowing down the car when the wall of bricks getting closer.
"I heard the same thing from your mom. Aah, turn left," Sakura reminded him.
Sasuke pulled the steering wheel to the left. He heard Sakura mentioned a red rooftop house three houses away from them before he tried to speak of his main intention for tonight.
"Sakura, I really appreciate what you did today."
"It's been my job to do so." Sakura released her clasped hands to shouldered her bag carefully. "Here it is."
Did not quite get what her companion words meant. Sakura was indeed nervous and tired at a time.
Took his back from the driver seat, Sasuke leaned forward and squinted his eyes. Sakura's house was pitch dark. But, of course it was because she left her house in the morning with Mikoto. Then who could ever guess she had to proceeded two emergencies in a row. She ended up coming back home two hours prior to midnight.
The car stopped right in front of a small wodden gate. Sasuke observed her cramped front yard where tiny flower pots and few decorative plants sticking out from here and there.
Before he reached to unlock the door, he corrected his words. "Once again, I appreciate that you're willing to come for my mom."
He had been repeating himself. Now she got what she had misunderstood, Sakura couldn't kept her smile. "Aaah, sure, Sasuke-kun. I'm glad I could do that for her."
The car was that good it prevent any noise leaking from the outside. So when it stop and not a single words were being spoken it became dead calm thus made the unbareably awkward for both of them.
"So, thank you for the ride, Sasuke-kun," said Sakura after a few heartbeat and an awkward blinking eyes.
Carefully Sakura pushed the door open. She got off from her seat to met the breezy night. She then faced her companion within just few quick steps. Sasuke had already lowered his window.
"Let's talk again another time. See you, Sakura."
Stood by her small gate, Sakura raised her pinkish eyebrows.
"Yeah, I'll see you again, Sasuke-kun," she finally answered with a shy smile and those widen emerald eyes.
Sasuke watched as the strange face from five minutes ago turned into someone whom he wished to see again for some other time. He distinguished the feeling in a split second.
She's just Sakura. He told himself realizing the obvious.
Their gaze lingered longer. Until the the cold night wind took it away. The wind brought Sakura's hair to tickled her tired face.
Sakura felt grateful for the wind, because it seemed not only swept away their awkward stare but also her disappointment from before this.
Sakura took a step back toward her pitch dark home with a waving hand. She heard the ever so smooth car engine and the sound of the tires trampled the gravels on the side of the road. She did not need to look back to know that Sasuke had already gone when she finished the last twist of her key.
She never felt this happy to come home late.
And on the other hand, Sasuke who had broken the strange line he had been keeping to himself, felt a surge of reposeful contemplation. He contemplated years of pretense that he did not have the necessity to meet or even talk to his used to be bestfriends.
Looking at how they came back into his life in a best possible way. The audacity, he smirked to himself.
/
On his rebelious days when he found his rivalry with Itachi was maddenning and boring at the same time, Uchiha Sasuke realized that one way to beat Itachi might not come from Itachi's own path.
Unlikely for him so he took a detour. He reset his boundaries to challenged himself for a new rough experiences he could possibly get.
Most things worth having never really come easy, for Sasuke had to scraped his knowledge of mixing drinks from a former drug dealer in a shabby underground bar. In spite of that fact, Sasuke gained himself a certain path to his currently successful brands.
Sasuke walked side by side with a slender and sharped eyes man named Suigetsu. Walked away from the crowded and clamorous bar toward the stair hidden at the back door of the bar, both of the man looked indifferent keeping up their long strides. Still under the radiance of the dim lighted room on the second floor, Sasuke watched as Suigetsu carefully knocked on the big red door in the middle of a long aisle.
"C'mon in~" a cheerful tone-in its distinctive manner-came from behind the door.
Suigetsu reached to the door knob. Then there was this man sitting behind his unusual long-desk, whose black hair long and straight, eyes slanted, and lips on natural reddish-purple, his feminine stature radiated strongly over his shockingly pale white skin.
He waved his right hand to Sasuke, a gesture to coming closer, while he held a long cigar in his left hand.
"Look at you! You finally have time to meet me!" with an open arms, Orochimaru held his brother-like pupil.
"Nice to see you again, Orochimaru-sama." Sasuke never been held in a tight hug for a long time, and certainly not from a man.
"Let's come in, Suigetsu, too."
Nodding his head, the said manager of the bar closed the door behind him.
Orochimaru led them through a door behind his desk. It was noticebly unusual room for a lounge. The lavish chandelier hung low in the middle of the room caught his attention immediately, then to the two roof-high windows facing him with each was draped by widely opened maroon curtain. Still, the room was in a cold and sombre atmosphere.
Orochimaru swayed his right hand to the long couch on the opposite side of his also maroon armchair. "To what do I owe this pleasure, Sasuke-kun?"
Sasuke wasted no time to tell him his problem, the reason why he desperately needed his former brother-like boss slash sensei. Spesifically he needed to get rid of the traitor behind the multi billion-dollar scam of his hotel.
"That's sounds devastating for Itachi-kun, that's why you came here to help him." Orochimaru's eyes told Suigetsu to do him some favor, which he immediately understood by standing from his seat to the stack of Orochimaru's personal drinks at the right side of the room.
Started from the list of the suspects, Sasuke handed him the file. "Could you fill me any information about these names."
They waited as Suigetsu still busied with their drinks. Orochimaru put a confused look, he hesitantly mentioned one name, "This, Ryouichi Kudo, I know exactly who he is."
Sasuke's piqued.
"Shimura Danzo's personal accountant."
"Aah, now I remember," said Suigetsu chimed in, "does he got involved?"
"I don't know, yet, I found out those developer who scam us used to work with him. And his father, Asahi Kudo, was my dad's close relative and a partner who's now the third highest stakeholder after Itachi and I."
"Oh, I know him too. His bussinesses range is wide from foods, garments to properties, right?"
Sasuke nodded his head.
"Why the heck a son of an old money like him would want to be Danzo's subordinate?" Obviously none of three man in the room knew the answer to Suigetsu's query.
"For as long as I know Asahi-san was having a hard time with his son, they're always fight. And now I probably know why. Ryouichi's connection to the Yakuza might be the reason."
"Past tense," Orochimaru corrected Sasuke, "do you know who Shimura Danzo is?"
"A former Yakuza boss."
Orochimaru's slanted eyes were piercing to somewhere through Sasuke; while sucking his expensive cigar.
"Yes, you're right. When I moved here to open my first bar, I remember he was running the shit out of this city like an old coyote for years. But, since Ryouichi became his personal accountant, Danzo wasn't active that much. Danzo was loyal to his comrader though," Orochimaru smirked at his own words, "or should I say because Ryouichi earned himself a spot in the hierarchy where he managed to doubled up Danzo's money. Danzo practically treated Ryouichi as if he was his own son.
But, then one day, all of a sudden, Danzo kicked him out of his house. The funny thing is so many people tried to work or even tried to recruit him, unfortunately he moved overseas not too long after."
Sasuke waited patiently as Orochimaru sucked his cigar then made another slow puff of white smoke.
The smoke lingered in the air when Suigetsu brought their long-waited drinks. Sasuke muttered a thank you before he took his.
The perfect rounded ice cube which also fit perfectly inside the glass of wine was a piece of art, Sasuke sent Suigetsu an impressed look. Suigetsu's excellence in wielding a knive was unlikely to compare nor doubt.
"The rumor had it, Ryouichi stole Danzo's money, yet the others said he had a secret relationship with Danzo's stepdaughter. Surely, either which one was a stab on Danzo's back."
"And that's why he ran off," said Sasuke.
"Yeah, who could live after taking a stab to Yakuza's boss, right?"
Suigetsu hesitantly said, "But, people said Danzo was quite taken aback as well, because Danzo quit from his position not too long after Ryouichi left Japan. He also sent her stepdaughter away to UK, after marrying a foreigner."
"Do you know where Ryouichi headed to?" Sasuke asked.
"We never heard anything anymore, it was like they forced themselves to not talk about him." Suigetsu shook his head.
Orochimaru sent a sympathetic look.
"My guess is, the father had nothing to do with it," he said. "For as long as I remember Ryouichi lived with Danzo and never left his side. I could guarantee he could get anything he never had before for being Danzo's pretense-son, an unlikely situation for an ambitious person like him wanted to go home. Now you had explained his bad relationship with his father, it all make sense."
"Do you think those scammers would work on their own without Ryouichi's intervention?"
The slanted eyes were piercing to disagree, "No, the least thing that could've been happened."
"Yeah, I guess so," Sasuke sighed as if accepting a defeat.
Orochimaru continued, "The possibilities for Ryouichi to interferes his father's bussiness is high. The reason are whether he need money or pure revenge."
Looking at how Sasuke scrunched his forehead. Orochimaru added, "First let's start from Ryouichi, I'll try to dig out what have he been up to."
Then he gave a commanding glance toward Suigetsu, "You should reach Karin for a help."
Suigetsu nodded his head as quick, "I'll get her soon," before his mind raced for a detterance after hearing the red-haired lady's name.
"I hope Danzo's people won't know about this, it'll probably get you any trouble," Sasuke said looking worried.
"No need to worry, Sasuke-kun, we just know how to deal with them." By that means Karin knew how to deal with them.
Although she was pretty rowdy and looked slutty, Suigetsu got to admit her ability to extracting such informations despite the inconvenient objects. She was that good, Orochimaru trusted her the free access to all of his bars.
So, it led her and Suigetsu into the complicated relationship which people love to called it friends with benefit. Not sure about the friends part though, Suigetsu thought to himself, because they were always drunk to even noticed.
"Little trouble here and there won't hurt me, Sasuke-kun," Orochimaru winked his left eyes. He watched as he earned a grin from his dear pupil.
Thin smoke floated above his head.
True to his experience. Sasuke remembered the old days when Orochimaru nearly death from a shot through his right chest, or when Orochimaru got to spent four years in jail because Sasuke himself-as the sole witness who could-reported him for drug dealing.
"Thank you for your help, Orochimaru-sama."
A smile spread upon the feminine face with age lines now adorning the corners of his eyes. "My pleasure, Sasuke-kun."
After all, Orochimaru owed Uchiha Sasuke his life. If it wasn't for Sasuke, he wouldn't redeemed himself, nor his bar would survived. Because when most of his so-called friends left, Sasuke managed to practice what he had learned by just months of observing, and he took care of the bar to its finest.
The three men seperated ways after taking a pat on each other shoulders. Sasuke said another thankful note to his former sensei and the manager.
Before entered his red Purosangue* Sasuke push a button on the steering wheel to call someone.
"Yow, Sasuke-kun," said the never changing tone of his boistorius friend.
"I need to talk."
ePiLoGuE
Tokyo, 2020
New Year's Eve
"Happy New Year!"
The crowded bar was aglow. People packed the entire place with friends, co-workers, and of course lovers.
Like Cinderella who was running out of time, Sakura readied herself to leave the party. Not exactly the same, she left without have to worry about the glass shoe neither a prince charming on her tail.
Instead no one was complaining, they knew that just her typical. She never stay at party like that. But, that what she thought.
Before Sakura managed to excluded herself from the group of co-workers, someone was calling her name, "Sakura."
It was Akane Houra, he reserved the room for tonight. Like he always did.
"Akane-kun, thank you for tonight. I'm sorry, but I need to catch the train to Hokkaido."
"Aah, why didn't you tell me," Akane mumbled his disappointment. "I'll take you to the-"
Sakura waved her hands immediately, "-Happy new year, Akane-kun. Bye!"
Akane was flustered.
Sakura turned around-her body automatically deflected from Akane's courtesy-so fast she bumped into someone's chest.
Obviously a man. A huge man.
"I'm really s-s-sorry," she stammered to see the man towering over her.
"It's okay, miss. Did you hurt yourself?" He asked.
Sakura merely shaked her head, "I-I'm okay... "
"Juugo, hurry up!" The huge man turned his head to answered, "Yeah, comin'."
Sakura finally left the crowd into the open space outside. Her uber had been waiting for her.
/
Akane Houra was flustered when Sakura rejected his offer. He was, once again, felt ashamed.
"Hey, Akane!" His friends, not from the hospital, came to his side when he waited the bartender making his orders.
"Happy new year," he said with frowned face.
"I saw her, you know," one of his friend nudged Akane's arm, "Haruno."
Akane tried to remember. He did introduced her to many of his friends.
"She left early to catch the train to her hometown."
One friend smirked, "So how is it going between you two, Akane-kun? She left without you is that mean something?"
"Why?" another friend asked.
"She was playing hard to get with him."
"No way!"
"Dude, shussh," Akane looked around, afraid if one of his co-workers from the hospital could hear them. "It was all because of my dad, he was mean to her. You know what an old-geezer he was."
His friends merely nodded, assuming it could have been true, because Akane's family worshipped their social status. Although Akane hated his family for that..
The truth was Akane also hated that he had the audacity to outshine her at the hospital with privilege as his huge step stones. No one dare, even Sakura, tried to interject.
"Yeah, she's also kinda troublesome. She could get anything she want with you."
"She's different, not troublesome." Akane saw his orders. When he was reaching to the glass, there was someone else's hand who was fast enough to grab it.
"This is-uh? Oh! Uchiha Sasuke!?" Akane surprised even more to see who the man was.
"This is mine." Without the slighest hint of guilty.
Akane blinked his eyes, "Excuse me? I asked for this-"
"-Do we know each other?" Sasuke sent a sudden glare unnecessarily.
"Itachi. I know you're Itachi's brother, right?" Quite taken aback, Akane should had wondered why he even answering the man's rude question.
"Okay," As if he was expecting to hear Akane's answer, Sasuke removed his hand from the glass; he proceeded to talked to the bartender.
And then he left Akane and his friends without even spare a glance.
"What the-" Akane was stupefied.
*New Ferrari SUV