Hi there, everyone. Welcome to the next update for Darkness Rejected. So, I must admit, I didn't think I'd crack over 15 follows and faves on this one, but everyone whos given me feedback so far has been truly wonderful, and I'm glad you all are enjoying the potential that this story has to branch out into some interesting paths. I've received a couple DMs wondering if I had decided to not continue it because I didn't have the next chapter up within my usual time frame, but you don't have to worry. I struggle with some health conditions that sometimes drain my energy, but I assure you, you don't have to be concerned. Like I always say, if y'all keep reading, I'll keep posting. I don't plan on going anywhere.

Chapter 2: Fallout

Sasuke remained under observation for the next day and a half, mostly from some discovered damage to his internal organs from the overuse of the curse mark. His lungs in particular had suffered quite a bit, and he was fortunate that he only needed one quick session to patch it up. It could've been much worse if he continued to push past his breaking point. Around noon of the following day, he was given some medicines to take home so he could avoid any lingering effects, and released, but only in terms of no longer being a patient under the care of the medical corps. The moment he was out of their hands, he went straight into Kakashi's. Lady Hokage had been gracious enough to let him get rested and healed, but there would be no more budging on anything else until she got to speak to Sasuke directly. He'd wanted to stop by, maybe try and talk to Naruto, but Kakashi had ushered him by, saying there would be time for a team meeting later. Sure, Sasuke thought, but would their team even still exist in the form he had become accustomed to knowing it in after everything was said and done today? They'd broken teams apart for much less than what he'd done or tried to do.

As they entered the Hokage's tower, he felt a sinking feeling fill his chest and then drop down into his gut. The energy the place gave off, the angered faces of the few aides that they passed…all of it was starting to make him tense up, even wanting to snap at the next one who glared at him, but he pushed back on the impulse as hard as he could. He had to keep telling himself that a few angry looks and an atmosphere of nervousness and uncertainty was the least he should have been expecting. There was no reason to worry. Not yet anyway. Plus, Kakashi didn't look or sound all that nervous, but it was hard to tell. His sensei was an enigma at the best of times, and Sasuke never could get a proper read on the man. They reached Tsunade's office door and after a quick knock by Kakashi and a muffled 'come in' response, he opened it and Sasuke had to take a breath to steady himself. In the office was Lady Tsunade behind her desk, her assistant Shizune standing not far away from her, and an ANBU, a different one this time. When Kakashi closed the door, the man gave Tsunade a nod and was gone without a word. Good. Sasuke didn't know how calm he could be with one of the faceless elites no doubt staring him down the entire time. "Lady Fifth, Sasuke Uchiha as you requested," Kakashi said with a nod. Tsunade returned it, though somewhat curtly and motioned for Sasuke to sit in the lone chair before her desk. He did so, and she rubbed at her temple, taking a slow, drawn-out breath before beginning.

"So. Where should I even start? Sasuke Uchiha, you attempted desertion of not only your post as a shinobi of this village, but as a team member of squad seven. As if these two things were not already severe enough, you did so in the attempt to join up with an S level criminal, and sworn enemy to everyone in this village, Orochimaru. The man who wanted to destroy everything we hold dear, the man who slayed the Third Hokage and damn near succeeded into drawing us into a war with our allies in the Sand. And on top of all of THAT, two of our genin are in critical condition and you attempted to murder one of your squamates." What she left unsaid was she'd taken this last offense more personally than most of the rest, given her care for Naruto. "I'll be as brutally honest with you as I can, Sasuke. When I first heard of all this, I wanted to have you thrown in jail. It's hardly a stretch to say you'd deserve it." Her anger, flaring up more and more as she spoke, calmed slightly when she took in another breath. "However, Kakashi lobbied in your defense, rather convincingly I may add. He told me of the circumstances surrounding not only your 'relationship' with what Orochimaru promised and the curse mark placed on you, but also your recent run-in with your brother being a catalyst for your drive to seek even more power. And well...given my history, I know better than most the way that Orochimaru can worm his way into your head, preying on your worst insecurities and fears."

Even if she hadn't had years of firsthand experience watching her old teammate slip into darkness, their recent encounter had only solidified in her the knowledge that, in his insane quest to learn every bit of jutsu he could and to 'master the mysterious of nature' or however he put it, he had become a monster. Such was his power of persuasion that she, if only for a moment, considering doing what he'd asked of her to perhaps get her lost loved ones back. If that could almost work on her, someone who knew him so well and a Sannin at that, there was hardly any hope a genin with the past that Sasuke had been cursed with could fare even half as well as that. Not even close. "So, in light of the circumstances, Kakashi's testimony, Naruto sending his own words, as well as that nobody was actually slain in the attempt to find you, I have decided on an appropriate punishment."

"Whatever you decide, my lady, I won't say I don't have it coming," Sasuke said, bowing his head.

"For starters, you won't be serving any jail time. And that is strictly because of Naruto, the one you directly harmed, saying he didn't want that for you. If not for that…. well, I don't believe I need to elaborate further, do I?" Sasuke shook his head. "You will, however, be placed on a year of supervised probation. I wanted to place an ANBU on you for this, but Kakashi has graciously volunteered to be responsible for you, both in the village and out in the field. And I warn you, Sasuke, a single step over the line over this allotted year? Nobody, not Naruto, Kakashi, or the gods themselves will be able to convince me to not have you thrown in jail. In addition, any mission payments you would normally receive for assignments will be docked for six months. And finally, you will be made available to the various corps as an extra pair of hands for six months as well. Anything required, no matter how small if you are not on a mission, you'll be there if they request it. Are these terms agreeable?" Sasuke again nodded without a word. "Very well…then consider yourself re-instated to the shinobi rotation, albeit conditionally. Kakashi, see to it that he gets a new headband. I understand something happened to his old one."

"We'll take care of it, Lady Hokage. Thank you," he said. Kakashi and Sasuke both bowed their heads again and left with nothing else being said. What could he say? In retrospect, he'd gotten off lighter than someone else in his shoes might have. He said a silent thank you that he had people like Naruto and Kakashi in his life. Without them, he'd probably halfway to the nearest ANBU prison cell at this very moment. "Now then. If you still wanted to drop by and see Naruto, we can. I could tell you weren't aware he asked me to tell Lady Tsunade what he said. "

"Yeah…let's go ahead and rip that bandage off now," Sasuke muttered. Even though Tsunade had said ANBU wouldn't be tailing him as part of his probation, he still felt on edge, though maybe that was just residual nerves from standing in the presence of an angered Kage. Truly, he understood why she'd been chosen now. The woman's aura was petrifying in a way. Once they got back to the hospital, they were directed to Naruto's room. He was the one to knock this time, and when he and Kakashi entered, they saw Sakura was already there. She was sitting beside Naruto's bed, both eating from bento boxes she'd probably brought in. It certainly wasn't something the hospital carried. Sakura's eyes narrowed just a bit and the smile she'd had vanished. It actually made Sasuke flinch just a bit, remembering what she'd said to him That lack of trust was going to take some getting used to from her. Naruto didn't seem phased at all, however.

"Kakashi-Sensei, Sasuke! How'd it go with Granny Tsunade?" Naruto said with a smile. Kakashi did Sasuke the favor of communicating the punishments meted out to Sasuke, and Naruto after a moment shrugged. "Well, I guess you got off sorta lucky. It could've been a lot worse," he pointed out.

"Yeah…listen, Naruto I…I…well, I heard what you had Kakashi tell Lady Tsunade. You're the only reason I'm not locked up right now. She said so point blank," he said. "I owe you a lot for that one."

"You got that right," Sakura muttered. Naruto nudged her arm.

"C'mon Sakura…. he's trying," he said softly. Sakura sighed, and nodded slightly, but otherwise didn't respond. Naruto had spent the better part of her visit with him trying to talk to her about this anger she had towards Sasuke. Saying that if he didn't feel like that, she shouldn't either. But Sakura just couldn't see it that way. Every time she closed her eyes or didn't have some sort of distraction, her mind flashed to Naruto making that promise to her, then to the overheard chatter from the medical corps ninja as they left his room. 'Lucky to be alive' had been the gist of it, and no matter what Naruto said, she couldn't just let that go right now. She'd try, but she wasn't making promises she couldn't keep easily. "You don't owe me anything, Sasuke. That mark on your neck really had you messed up, but your back now. And I get the feeling you won't be trying that again, right? Because you know I'll kick your ass next time you try," he laughed. "That's the most important thing in my book."

"Yeah…I suppose so. But even still…thank you, Naruto. And your right. I won't be leaving again. I know now that the path I thought I wanted was only going to take me to places that I couldn't stand to go to. I know that I'll need to prove it. Not just to you and Sakura, but to everyone. And I plan to start as soon as I can." They filled some of the time with what they'd planned to do when Naruto was cleared to leave the hospital, but eventually he began to tire out from all the excitement and a medic shooed them out, saying visitor hours were about to end as it was. The moment they were out of Naruto's room, Sakura left. She'd said she had to get home to help her parents, but Sasuke knew better, as did Kakashi.

"I can try to talk to her if you want," Kakashi offered.

"No. Leave her be. Just consider it an extension of my punishment," Sasuke said.

-One Week Later-

Word quickly spread amongst the rookie nine and Team Guy that Sasuke had been reinstated along with the other terms of his return. Naruto, once he was out of the hospital, did his part and tried to mitigate some of the damage, but he'd met with mixed results. Shikamaru and Choji weren't that hard to convince to allow Sasuke a chance to atone, though it had taken a bit of coxing. While Shikamaru had been the one to refer to Sasuke as one of his comrades when they'd left on the mission, his best friend had nearly died in service to it. Choji had been the one to point out of course that it had been his own actions in taking his special food pills that was responsible for his condition. Though he wasn't happy with what happened, the big man of squad ten seemed willing to let bygones be bygones just this once and, upon seeing Choji and Sasuke shake hands, Shikamaru had relented. Though he made a point to say that he'd personally lead the mission to track Sasuke down if he tried to leave again. And it damn sure wouldn't be a retrieval mission this time.

Kiba was a little bit of a different story. The Inuzuka clan was fiercely protective of their ninja hounds, and after Akamaru had ben roughed up as much as he had been, it was little wonder he'd been furious when Naruto approached him. It took a while, but he was at least convinced to take a wait and see approach if nothing else. Team Guy, however? They were the worst. Neji himself was like Choji in that he'd be willing to let Sasuke slide this once. After all, Neji did sort of owe Naruto one for opening his eyes to what he could be. But Tenten and Lee were an entirely different story. Tenten had basically threatened to gut Sasuke herself for what happened to Neji, and even the normally upbeat and perky duo of Lee and to a slightly lesser extent Guy had been similarly angry. Naruto decided it was best to give them time to their selves to let them process it on their own terms

In the meantime, squad seven had been put back into the mission rotations and had already gone on a couple lower C, upper D rank missions meant to get them back on the same page. They went off without a hitch, save for a few scratches here and there, but the entire time, the lingering tension between Sasuke and Sakura remained. Kakashi could tell Sakura was trying to remain civil, but it was such a jarring change in the pink haired kunoichi's demeanor towards someone she used to trip over herself to impress, it was almost impossible to miss. Sasuke, to his credit, rolled with this and never seemed to take it personally. He'd always been on the more mature end of the spectrum of their team, but to see him take this in stride so much was encouraging. Things would iron themselves out, Kakashi thought. Time heals all wounds eventually.

Naruto after all certainly seemed no different. He'd gone right back to treating Sasuke like he had in the past. Challenging him to sparring, boasting about new techniques he was working on and how it would make him even stronger than Sasuke, the two had even fallen into their old habit of trying to out eat one another once already. Kakashi suspected this was just Naruto expressing how happy he was he hadn't lost his best friend to Orochimaru. Who could blame him?

Currently, they were on an escort mission. A merchant from the Land of Greens had asked for shinobi protection from a local gang of thugs who had been making his delivery routes a living hell for him lately and as they were the only ones available, squad seven was the lucky winners. It honestly brought back some flashbacks to their first real mission with the bridge builder, minus the deception about the real threat. The man had been upfront in that some of the gang members were rogue ninja. None of them were Zabuza level, but still, Kakashi had told them to be prepared for a fight at any time. "Alright, let's stop and take a rest here," Kakashi said, glancing over his shoulder. The convoy came to a stop, the genin coming to stand around him. "While were breaking for lunch, I want you three to set up a perimeter. According to the client, we are deep into the territory they normally get attacked from." They nodded, Sasuke heading north of the group, Naruto to the east and Sakura to the west. Kakashi headed to the back of the column where he could watch the backwards approaches. As he did this, he felt a cold breeze blow by him. On its own, not that ominous. But here, in the Land of Greens where the temperature rarely dipped below a certain range, he couldn't help but feel, deep in his gut, that it was an omen of sorts. He prayed he was just being paranoid. He'd had his fill of bad news for a while.

-Unknown location-

In a closed off, out of the way cave, a man wearing the cloak of The Akatsuki and a headband from the Hidden Star village with a line carved through the center slowly walked into the central chamber, his dark eyes flicking upwards to see a large statue, where several other people garbed in similar clothing stood on the fingertips of its outstretched hands. Sensing his presence, the cold, purple eyes of their leader turned to look at him. The swirl pattern seemed to almost spin as he did this. "Toshiro…your late," came the distorted voice. Toshiro leapt up, taking his place on one of the fingers. He was the last one to arrive, as was often the case ever since he'd been recruited.

"Forgive me, my lord. A pressing matter with one of my informants bid me to see to it. However, I don't return to you empty handed. I have a lead on the first of the tailed beasts, as well as news from the Hidden Leaf," he said. At this, two more lets of eyes turned to him, one belonging to Itachi Uchiha and the other the…. eccentric artist Deidara. "It would appear that, after a fierce confrontation, your little brother was brought back to the village after attempting to leave it. Zetzu confirmed this fight was taking place, and I personally went to the valley to verify it," he said to Itachi. His partner, Kisame, let out a chuckle.

"Well then, it would appear that Orochimaru's plans are set back yet again."

"Good riddance, I say. The man has been a thorn in our side for years," Sasori the puppet master practically hissed.

"Sasori my man, still bearing a bit of a grudge, hmm?" Deidara smirked.

"Enough." As the voice of their leader cut through the chatter, they fell silent. "What the snake does is of no great concern to us. Our preparations are nearing their completion, and with Toshiro finding the hidden location of one of the tailed beasts, we can now begin in earnest." Nods came from all around. "Soon…the shinobi world will see the terror that they have brought onto themselves. And they will know Pain."

That's it for chapter 2, ladies, gents, and that lovely rainbow in-between. Now, I know you might be wondering who Toshiro replaced on the Akatsuki…and I'm gonna come right out with it. Tobi. I told y'all this story would be very different than the canon story. No overly long outro for you this time. Please take a moment to review if you enjoyed it, and I shall see you next time!

Till then,

Elise