A/N: A big thanks goes to Fugitivus! Thank you so much for the support and feedback you continue to give to me!
Another thanks, as always, goes to my wonderful beta HailZuko89 and her continued support and efforts to help me improve this story!

Chapter 14 A Mission with Sai

Sai had sought him out to discuss strategies for their mission and Sasuke wasn't exactly pleased with the concept. After all, light changes in appearance could mean anything for an artist like Sai. To make matters worse, Sai had requested he wear something casual, at which point Sasuke had reminded Sai that he hadn't the need for anything like that so far. Much to his dismay, Sai assured him that he'd take care of it. His attempts to get Sai to clarify exactly what that meant ended in that stupid smile and an assurance that he wouldn't have to wear girl clothing. Which didn't help any.

At least he'd have a break from the weird guy for a couple of hours before mission preparation. He used the time to hone his chakra control and prepare mentally. Namely, crafting a fake persona based on the instructions given to him. At the same time he wondered how Sai would get his act together. He just didn't seem the type to get an act across as natural.

00100

Sai, meanwhile, was shopping, and there was this spark of... he couldn't name it. It was a feeling, and it reminded him of free time with an empty canvas and an idea. It reminded him of the gleam in Naruto's eyes when he was expecting ramen, or a Sakura that had just unlocked some medical mystery. Now he too had it at the prospect of having a reason to take influence on someone's dressing choices. It was a faint thing, moving from his belly to his limbs, energizing. He was ready for this challenge.

He suspected that the Uchiha wouldn't be overly thrilled (he certainly hadn't been when they'd discussed it, nor had he appreciated the effort), but Sai was determined to give it his best anyway. He also didn't get many chances to create such a makeover for himself. After all, his usual dress code was ruled by practicality, much like the Uchiha's seemed to be.

He doubted that Tatakai would appreciate his efforts, especially because he didn't seem to care about looks and seemed to be annoyed at anything that he deemed unnecessary. But Sai's artistic side relished the opportunity to give aesthetics equal thought for once. It would be interesting to let such demands influence his pickings, though he wouldn't let them rule over it. At least, not totally.

As he entered the Ninja store, one specializing in weapon concealment, he thoughts turned to the mission overview as he began to look through the selections.

Overlooking the arguments about appearance, the briefing had gone by without a hitch. Sai had informed Tatakai of the concept they'd act according to, acting being the key word, as that was what they'd do. Tatakai hadn't seemed overly bothered, he'd even seemed confident.

Of course, they didn't let him know that the mission's goal wasn't what it claimed to be up front. That it, in fact, was further testing of Tatakai's skill set and habits rather than a real mission. Well, it was a mission alright, but not for Tatakai. It was for Sai and Shikamaru to figure out how he handled different situations (revealing his strategies), and how well and consistent he could pretend (discern his lies from the truth), how he handled pressure (keep up with mission expectations and lack of progress) and distraction (Sakura's mission).

Plus, Sai was going to study how the Uchiha interpreted the set of instructions on characteristics he was to display. It would be most interesting to see the emotional responses. He knew he had a lot to learn.

Shikamaru had reviewed the social aspects of the assignment. Together they had created not only a fake mission, but also a fake relationship and backstory of two fictional friends and pointers for discreet changes in personality and mannerism to become them. Sai was most curious what the Uchiha would do with these instructions. Sai considered himself passable at this kind of infiltration, but it was not the thing he excelled at, so it would be good to see someone else have a go at such instructions. And the mission was safe enough to allow discrepancies and minor mess ups, it being within Konoha and all. It would be the perfect learning field for both of them.

The ideas for this "mission" had then been brought to Tsunade and she'd given her blessing. If they so happened to track and possibly stop some unapproved activity, then all the better...

Sai thought back on when he'd sat down with Tatakai to discuss the necessary preparations. The Uchiha had taken Sai's instructions with barely a hint of emotion, with exception of the visual compounds that had been met with mistrust and a hint of dread, or so he'd deciphered. Sai didn't know what to expect.

It should give insight into their charge's mind, however: How he reacted to half-spontaneous situations and how consistent he was with handling details during the act.

Something else was keeping Sai's mind busy, too though. This official mission would give him some ample time to spend with and observe the Uchiha. It was time to start focusing on that little side-mission the brother had given him, find out how far the younger Uchiha had gotten and if needed, find ways to mislead him. It didn't matter that he'd gotten no order from his superiors. He'd seen what book Tatakai had been reading, he knew that Shikamaru had given him hints to find it, he knew that Shikamaru didn't know yet. And chances were that if this kept up, Tatakai would figure out things before Shikamaru realized what he'd set into motion. It didn't matter that Sai wasn't particularly adept at this type of investigation, this kind of manipulation, seeing as it involved too many emotional responses. His skill set would have to do, there was no one else who knew enough.

Sai had found all the items he was searching for and brought them to the counter. He'd go home and pick up some things after this, then he'd head over to Sakura's.

00200

Sasuke let Sai in, who had a shopping bag on him in addition to his usual backpack. Sai looked different. Instead of his weird belly-revealing uniform, or the formal clothing he wore when he was in civil, he wore a scarlet dress shirt, sleeves coming down to just above the elbows. It faintly crossed Sasuke's mind that Sai was always covering the slave seal, and this shirt was no exception to that rule. It displayed artistic swirls and motifs of different animals in black with discrete golden linings. Pants and shoes weren't standing out as much; both were simply black and comfy-looking.

He held out the bag that Sasuke suspected held the clothes Sai expected him to wear, and quickly took off his shoes after Sasuke had taken it. Sasuke led him to the kitchen to offer him a glass of water, then took the bag to go change. There was no point in arguing. Itachi had always put the mission before pride, willing to sacrifice comfort in favor of a mission's success. But he'd also taught him that it was best to change things just enough to throw people off. Changing every detail about oneself was a straining exercise in the long run, and was to be avoided. Sasuke wondered if Sai knew that.

It wasn't as bad as he'd feared. Sai hadn't gotten him a matching outfit. Instead, he'd gotten him several dress shirts and two pairs of trousers. Sasuke settled on a black dress shirt, sleeves again long enough to cover up the slave seal. The midriff portrayed a scene of a shore and cliff, stylized a bit like a woodblock print .

It could have been worse. It would fit into the setting they were supposed to enter, and Sasuke was less bothered by the motive and artistry of it than he would've expected. The shirt didn't show off his body in salacious ways. It wasn't all that flashy, clearly not meant to attract attention, just underline his presence in the setting as a unique person. Of course not as Sasuke, but as the fictional "Kai". (Sasuke couldn't help but think of the irony of sharing the same phonetic sounds to a base technique to combat genjutsu as his name when he was about to create the illusion of said person existing.) In his opinion, whoever had come up with it hadn't been very creative, as it obviously derived from the name Tatakai, which they knew him by. Another fake character, another illusion, though by now so closely entangled that Sasuke wasn't exactly sure what was not "him" about it. "Tatakai" had never been about hiding his personality. Its only purpose had been to stay safe and under the radar with his heritage.

When he finally emerged, Sai critically eyed him, then nodded. Sasuke couldn't quite put his finger on it, but Sai was looking slightly different, just enough to throw him off. It wasn't only the styled hair; that was obvious. No, there was something off about his face.

"Well, let's add some finishing touches upon your face and hair, then I'll show you some tricks with the bracelets."

Sasuke had protested when Sai had brought a brush towards his face, at which Sai had told him to suck it up and look at him. Apparently, Sai had applied some makeup to his own face, too, making his eyes appear slightly wider, more popping. His jaw, too, seemed more pronounced, and now that Sasuke was paying attention, he realized the eyebrow shape was altered as well, thicker, more angled. The makeup's purpose wasn't an attempt to pretty up. It was a carefully applied illusion.

He could see the point of it, even though he didn't like the idea. Sai didn't leave him much of a choice, anyway, making it clear that he would not tolerate arguments on his choices as the mission leader. That was how Sasuke ended up with french braids on one side of his head, imitating a sidecut, and his bangs styled to fall over his eyes just so, helped along with hairspray by Sai.

He'd asked why they didn't use a henge jutsu to do the job, as it would make more sense to be able to quickly switch the henge when shadowing someone, but Sai reminded him that this evening was a trial run, and that it was easier to get into character when consciously dressing up in beforehand. It was also less likely to be detected and unveiled.

Sasuke scoffed at the first part and secretly agreed with the second.

Sai had introduced him to the storage properties of the bracelets, the only physical weapons he'd be able to carry. Then Sai briefly repeated the evenings schedule, what they were looking out for and what to do in which scenario.

Then Sai gave the sign to slip into character, and became "Yuu". He left through the front door, as they would only meet up at the first pub, just like the old friends they were acting to be.

Sasuke dimmed down his chakra, holding it under wraps on a civilian's level so as to blend in like he'd done many times before as a kid. The instructions on his character were close to a conceptual character Itachi had made him use before, so he'd adapted that to his current situation. Going into his room to get a pair of socks, his gaze swept over the bed on the other side of the room.

Naruto…

He hadn't heard from Sakura since yesterday. And annoyingly, the character he was supposed to play would most likely remind him of Naruto, too. This was so stupid. He just hoped that Sai would do a decent job, otherwise this whole thing would end up being endlessly awkward.

He slipped on his shoes and stepped out of the apartment complex, down the path that Sai had told him to take. He needed to focus on the mission now. He couldn't think of Naruto and Itachi and Akatsuki. He hoped that Sakura would contact him anyway. Not knowing what was happening was causing him agitation in the worst kind of way.

00300

Sasuke entered the tavern, keeping an eye out for Sai, or rather, Yuu, as he'd have to call him now. He found him at the bar, idly twirling a glass of rice wine. Sasuke pushed away all thoughts of how he would never do something like he was about to as himself, and quickly called out "Yuu!" in a Naruto-loud way. Sai turned around, a smirk pulling at his lips. It was better than his 'friendly' smile, which was plainly creepy. From what he'd read about Sai's character Yuu, Sai was supposed to be calm mostly, but quickly rising to a discussion over any subject he knew about (though for some reason he was forbidden to referencing any books), and a fan of action movies.

Sasuke himself was supposed to portray a somewhat loud, outgoing kid that often listened to music and had an opinion on everything.

Their backstory was that they had gone to school together, then Kai's parents, a trader family, had relocated to Iwagakure, the Village of Stones, and only now returned. They were catching up.

"So, what's up?" Sasuke asked, grinning widely. It felt strange, but he ignored that when grabbing Sai's outstretched hand in a handshake, pulling him close to clap his shoulder like he'd seen other guys his age do before.

Sai copied his movements without a hitch, probably familiar with the gesture. "I'm good. Have you settled in alright?"

Sasuke projected an easygoing smile. "Yes. It's good to be back, though I had a bit of trouble finding the way here. It's sure changed a lot since I moved away."

"We didn't really go into these parts of the town as kids, either," Sai said with a wink and a smirk.

"Yeah, true. So how's work these days? You never actually mentioned what you do in your letters!" Sasuke asked. They hadn't even started, but he already thought of it as a challenge to see who would be better in coming up with plausible answers on the spot...

"I'm an apprentice in fabric printing. Our company's doing well, though my coworker's an idiot, always retelling the latest chick-flick. And they're so stupid and unrealistic."

"And your action movies aren't?" Sasuke smirked at the sight of Sai's eyes going big at his statement. "I'm sure…" he continued, determined to fan the flames, just for the heck of it.

"Action movies are epic. Who cares if they're exaggerated!" Sai cut him off.

"Chick-flicks are romantic, who cares if they're exaggerated!" Sasuke imitated in a high pitch.

Sai shook his head and gave him an offended shove, though it came across as almost hesitant. Yeah, Sai's acting skill was shaky, as expected. Sasuke was almost amused that he hadn't started resorting to his sexist jokes yet. That was where Sai seemed the most comfortable in real life.

Just then, the waitress came to take Sasuke's order. Once she was gone, Sai turned to him again. "So Kai, how do you like today's Konoha?"

"I haven't been here for more than a few days, and those were pretty filled with meeting up with old business associates. I was hoping you could tell me about all the good sites."

"Sure thing, there's the cinema, and they play "Bakemono no Ko" currently." Sai obviously tried to keep on his topics, probably having researched them beforehand.

"How about museums?"

"Nah, don't want you to ruin the calm atmosphere."

"Why, you haven't seen me since I was a kid. I calmed down." Sasuke made an outraged expression, making sure that his voice was a bit louder, just enough to contradict his words and make the whole show believable.

"What have you been up to anyway? You never wrote about any girls, either."

"Yeah, all boys school, remember?"

"What about that band you played in? What do they do now?"

"They'll have to do without me, obviously."

"And you? Don't you miss it?" Sai's eyes were comically wide in attempted curiosity. It was kinda funny.

"Well, if you're so worried about me, why didn't you recommend a jazz pub then, instead of a cinema?"

They settled into some kind of banter. Sasuke was probably being a bit more sassy than the character description had intended, but Sai was also tagging along with that kind of talk. They probably (hopefully, because what did he know of it) really looked like two guys hanging out to catch up. Sasuke was subtly keeping track of his surroundings, and so was Sai.

Yuu wasn't as awkward as the real Sai, but he had telltale lapses. It was bound to get annoying. Sasuke wouldn't be able to cover up all the time, and Sai seemed to have barely any social instincts. Facial reactions seemed to take conscious effort half the time, too. At least the voice was somewhat convincing.

It was by the third pub that Sasuke got fed up with it. They had started a conversation on Iwagakure's weather of all things. Sasuke, having been there before, of course knew and drew the information from memories. Sai was comically over-the-top with his reactions altogether.

"Yeah, the mountains are tall, no big deal."

"But aren't those harsh conditions to live in? You must get a lot of snow." Sai was overdoing it, eyes ridiculously wide again.

"In the winter, yeah. The trading routes are closed then, so the only people crazy enough to seek us out are ninja."

"But they're pretty cool, I mean fighting with swords and chakra, and they're really strong. They can do anything!"

Sasuke's eyes swirled, staring into Sai's. 'Tone it down! No one shows astonishment like that, not all the time!' Then he squinted his eyes, and leaned back, now using his voice.

"What are you? Five?" he sneered, just hoping that he'd get things through. Sai was not helping their case.

"Ha Ha," Sai crossed his arms, "and you don't need to be so loud." He smirked, leaning back.

Sasuke rolled his eyes, ignoring the nuisance that was supposed to lead this mission.

"How's your sister?"

Sasuke looked up quickly, eyes narrowing. The abrupt change didn't help with the topic that Sai had picked. Damn him.

"What?! I haven't seen her in forever, sorry for being interested."

Sasuke made things up through his teeth. "She's dead, blood poisoning from a splinter. Happy now?" He'd seen this happen a couple of times in the cages of the slave houses. He couldn't help but think of Itachi, who had had this weird persistent cough the last time he'd seen him. Sai had also mentioned him coughing after having met him. Sai, who dared to ask this question while knowing fully well that he still hadn't seen his only sibling.

"Wah, sorry, didn't mean to step on your toes. I didn't know, alright?"

At least Sai hadn't messed up the reaction to this one.

"Well, now you do. Don't bring her up again." Sasuke couldn't be distracted now, even if Sai didn't have any sensibility for this kinda thing.

"Have you seen Mukoku?"

"No, I haven't." Sasuke answered abruptly. He knew he'd messed up, his character was supposed to be open. He'd prided himself in being a decent actor, but all too easily he'd slipped back into old memories, old habits. It had been too long since he'd slipped into a role properly. He should probably try, it wasn't like his "sister" was real.

"She was gentle," he said in a thoughtful voice, "always tried to look after me."

"I'm sorry." Sai looked repentant. Then, after a moment, he perked up, destroying the atmosphere and his grin was too close to his usual one for Sasuke to be comfortable. "I wanted to ask, where'd you find the shirt? I quite like the craftsmanship."

Sai hadn't just asked that. No, really, he had. Sasuke shook his head, this was so awkward, and Sai didn't even seem to realize it.

"A friend gave it to me for my birthday. She's very into style. It's alright for going out."

They fell back into silence. This pub seemed just as boring as the others. Something had caught Sasuke's eye though. He'd only added up the things to the point of it striking him as weird now, though. There was a chair in the corner, and there seemed nothing special about it at first glance. It was more the quick succession on which people frequented it that had caught his attention. The people would sit down, talk to the barista, order something, get a drink and barely two minutes later, they'd be gone. Sai's back was towards the corner, so Sasuke used his eyes once more, this time sending a bunch of memories of different people in the same seat to him.

Sai narrowed his eyes and nodded, not turning around. Then, he pressed a finger to one swirl on his chest. It looked almost like he was scratching his chest, fumbling with the shirt or something, but Sasuke knew he was pushing chakra into what he suspected to be Sai's fighting ink. The swirl moved, forming letters: Normal.

The letters unfurled again.

Meanwhile, Sai changed the subject once more. "Read anything interesting lately?"

Sasuke subtly kept an eye out on the corner, now idling his fingers with a spoon in the light dish he'd ordered.

"Been brushing up my knowledge on Konoha history, I guess."

"What did you find?"

There, another person sitting down, the barista coming over again just a minute later. He distractedly answered: "Found some things on the Kyuubi."

"The nine-tailed fox? That was a terrible attack."

"Konoha seemed to have recovered quite well. I don't recall that I noticed much in the years I grew up here."

"It did. They did a lot of reconstruction, had to move and rebuild some clan compounds on a big scale. But I was just born at that time, so I don't remember what it looked like."

"Do you know if they got any old maps? I'd love to look at them; it'd be interesting to see what was changed and figure out why. It must have been an epic battle."

Epic. The word seemed to misrepresent the gravity of the loss. More like "devastating" or "horrible," but even those didn't quite seem to cover it. There was just no word for it. Itachi had recounted to him the basic details of the massacre, but there were still some lingering blanks. He was fully determined to see those maps and understand how Konoha had looked at the time of his birth and how it had changed.

00400

Sai had followed all of Shikamaru's suggestions. Especially the ones on how he should ask questions to further be able to assess their charge. He'd also been trying to figure out how much Tatakai had figured out about the Uchiha Clan's past and how to lead him off course. Sai had failed in that regard, as Tatakai had taken the opportunity to ask him for more information. Really, Sai should have expected that one. But at least, if he got him those maps, he could be there and maybe give some (mis)directional input. Sai had read up on the events leading to the Uchiha clan's demise himself after having met their killer.

There were other facts that he gleaned from their night out, though. Tatakai had a sharp eye for off-patterns. And he had an interesting technique to share his thoughts.

Sai knew that their evening together was coming to a close. They had found something possibly off here, and they needed to get back to Sakura's to strategize.

He subtly motioned that they'd be leaving. They paid and then said good bye in front of the pub to go their separate ways back to Sakura's.

When Sai got there, Tatakai was already waiting, drinking a glass of water. He'd taken out the braids of his sidecut imitation and his hair was wiring away in weird angles and locks of waviness. It looked kinda funny.

Tatakai got straight to the point. "Normal?"

"Yes, you can wait until the waitress comes around, but going to the bar to order is a lot quicker. They prepare your drink there and then, and you can take it back to your own seat."

"Oh, uh…" It was obvious that Tatakai had no clue about pubs, or how to proceed. A moment later, he harrumphed and changed the subject "… meet me in the afternoon for some training at the Hokage Monument, will you."

It wasn't a request.

00500

The lack of news was unnerving. It had been more than a day since Sakura had him go to Tsunade. More than a day since he'd last heard from them. He lay awake in bed. The early morning hours had been restless. Apparently, Sakura didn't intend to send regular reports, and while the mission had helped somewhat to distract him, it hadn't helped him sleep easier.

They quite possibly had hit the area of conflict... Still, he didn't do well with being cut off…

Annoyed at his inability to push the matter aside, he got up and went for a run. Then, upon returning, he rummaged through Naruto's belongings in order to try to find the camera he had thought he'd seen in the other boy's stuff. He'd put together a plan on how to get Sai to 'act', well... more normally. For that, he needed to take on the unpleasant task of taking selfies of different expressions.

00600

"Report."

Sai was standing in front of Shikamaru. Shikamaru had been listening to their conversation through a bug they had placed on Sai, as he was their back-up. The third member of the team.

"He did alright. He's really good with changing his posture and hand movements. He's definitely trained in this sort of thing. Also, he's got this telepathic communication with eye contact. He could share his visual memories of a corner that he considers suspicious. I don't think he has much experience with pubs and similar settings."

"That's not surprising. He's been made a slave in his early teens, and I doubt his brother took him drinking much before that."

"He wants to meet up for training."

"Uhum."

"He wants that map."

"Sure, probably in the archives."

"I'll see what I can do."

"If that will be all?"

That map and the possible conclusions that could be drawn from it left Sai with an uneasy feeling. He was lucky that the subject had come up under his watch and that, if he brought Tatakai what he wanted, he could also discuss it with him and keep an eye on how Tatakai's view on Konoha was affected. He knew that now that Uchiha had gotten the idea, he'd search until he found something. This was the reason why he'd rather be a step ahead and provide that map for him in a controlled environment rather than have him look it up and draw conclusions on his own. It was why he was walking through Konoha's non-classified archives this morning, in the hopes of finding such a map if it existed, and he was fairly sure it did.

Indeed, in the end he had found what he wanted and successfully made a copy that he could take with him. He concluded that he'd eat a quick lunch, and then go meet Tatakai at the Hokage Monument.

00700

When Sai arrived at their designated spot, he found Sasuke sitting in the shade with several pictures of himself spread out before him. After motioning Sai to sit down, he instructed him to try to name the emotions displayed, then try to mimic them in front of a mirror, and after that, draw them.

It was a difficult task for Sai at first, because Sasuke's pictures didn't show emotions in their full blown or exaggerated appearance. Rather, he'd been trying to capture the emotions that one would display in a normal conversation instead of a full on emotional display.

Sai had an extraordinary visual memory. Not quite on the level of photographic memory like Sasuke had, but close… So, once he had successfully named the emotions, he remembered them quite easily. Applying it to his own facial muscles proved the next challenge. He was starting to get the hang of it after a while, though, which was the point when Sasuke told him to start capturing his own face displaying those emotions in drawings, so he'd remember and have an easier time replicating them without help in the future.

A furrowed brow here, twitch of lips there, slightly widened eyes or wrinkled nose… The change in expression was minimal sometimes. Sasuke had nicked Sakura's hand mirror from the bathroom so Sai could compare his facial expressions to Sasuke's pictures.

Sai was also quick in drawing his own in between, during which Sasuke ran through some kata and a mock fight. After that they went to Sakura's again, with another two hours to kill.

Once they had settled down in the living room Sai spoke up, grabbing his copy of the old map as well as a recent one. "I got the maps."

Sasuke had perked up and Sai could now clearly see the curiosity and interest in his face, though he also noticed that Sasuke's body language spoke louder, making a mental note to later request a review on that, too.

Sasuke had laid out the older map and was studying it. Sai knew that he was looking at the smattering of houses that were spread across the city, all represented by the Uchiha fan, the clan's crest. Sai also took note of the shift toward the police department close to the center, and the plot of earth and houses that had later become the Uchiha clan compound.

Sasuke mumbled, "There was no Uchiha compound back then."

"It appears not."

"We used to live within the core of the city. I... didn't know." Tatakai's voice was muted. Sai recognized the expression as either thoughtful or sad, he wasn't sure which.

Sai had already prepared for that assessment, so the response came easily. "Maybe they pulled families together to live within their clans during the reconstruction of the city."

Sasuke nodded absentmindedly and pulled over the recent map, looking at it for a couple of minutes. "None of the other clans that were spread out moved into a compound."

"Maybe your family requested the change."

"Maybe…" He pulled the old map close again, turning back to studying that one, lips pressed to a thin line. He looked grim all of a sudden, then he blinked a few times, swallowed and rolled up the map. "May I keep this?"

"It's a copy. I don't really need it back right now." Sai didn't want to say that he could keep it exclusively, but he didn't really want to take it away, either.

"Thanks... you know, for finding me a map." Sasuke's voice sounded just a tiny bit raw. "Let's prepare for the mission," he said a moment later, voice steadier.

00800

They had changed, hair and makeup done, and were again leaving the house at different times and through different routes. They settled on a free central table from where they'd have a good overview on most everything.

Sai was doing better with facial expressions this time, and Sasuke felt more at ease because of it. He was calmly conversing with Sai about the most random things, steering clear of any possibly sore topics.

Just as they had the night before, they went to two other pubs. There didn't seem to be anything weird going on there, however, and they had to call it a night without having found anything. They agreed to meet up for training and strategizing again the next day.

Sasuke, meanwhile, was becoming more and more agitated. He still hadn't heard from Sakura, but he knew it was too risky to activate the seal. To distract himself, he focused on teaching Sai. Sai was also the one who got the brunt of Sasuke's mood. Luckily he wasn't really bothered by it and they got along well enough to work.

00900

"So I hear you're teaching Sai now."

Shikamaru had shown up unannounced at Sakura's apartment again.

"What are you doing here?"

"Checking up on you, obviously, though I wonder why I bothered."

Sasuke suppressed the urge to roll his eyes. "What do you want?"

"I read Sai's status reports. You're teaching him now."

"His acting skills are shit."

"Not gonna comment on that."

The awkward silence that followed only raised Sasuke's impatience. There still was no word from Sakura, and today he'd suddenly started wondering if he'd feel it through the seal if she died.

The seal only ever reacted if his owner pushed chakra into their seal. Today's contemplations had started to tear at concepts he'd considered true and unmoving before. Would he feel if he was released from slavery through Sakura's death? (Was that even how the seal worked?) Even more unsettling was that he wasn't sure how to feel about that possibility. In the past, he'd always imagined an owner dying as his hope. It hadn't happened, mostly because the seal shut him down whenever his thoughts went towards intending to harm his owner, so he'd scared them off instead.

But now, he really wanted to know what was happening to her. Naruto was the only connection to his brother that had shown promise, and she was there while he was not. And they could be fighting and dying at any moment and he'd be stuck here under Shikamaru's misleadingly uninterested gaze.

Shikamaru, who pissed him off, but who last time had finally given him some kind of hint to crack. Some clue that could be hunted down.

"Well, as nice as this is, since you don't have any questions, I guess I'll be on my way." Shikamaru shifted from the sofa. "By the way, interesting literature you've got there."

00000

Sasuke had some time to kill. Seeing the map had given him an idea, and right now, any distraction was a welcome one. Though, he would have gone even if he hadn't needed one. He was on his way to visit the street where the Uchiha Clan police headquarters had been. The map had brought it to his attention, and he knew at least that one building had been rebuilt at its old place after the Kyuubi's attack. He wanted to know what had become of it with the Uchiha Clan gone.

He knew what it had looked like, having been there as a child. And the map said it should be just around the next corner.

It was the same building. He searched for the Uchihas' fan in vain. Instead there were characters lined down, informing the person that this was Konoha's Economy Administration Office.

There was no sign that this had ever been Konoha's police department, much less a headquarters led by the Uchiha. In fact, a plaque at the door described that this had been renovated so the Konoha Economy Administration Office could move in, as they had expanded and needed more space. There was no mention of what this building had been before, and it made Sasuke furious.

Sai bore the brunt of it, both in mission prep time and the discussion after. Sasuke had a hard time keeping the act up during the mission as well and only years of practice in pushing thoughts away to focus on an assigned task kept him from messing up too badly.

It was to no real surprise therefore when he once more was approached by Shikamaru the next day to talk about Sai's report and his behavior.

"Sai says you're angry."

"So? I did the mission fine so far."

"If Sai recognizes an emotion, it must be pretty obvious…"

"I've been teaching him."

Sasuke crossed his arms, absolutely not in the mood for an interrogation, but this time, Shikamaru didn't back down.

"That's great, but no reason for you to give him a hard time. If you can't control yourself, we will take you off the mission."

"I'm doing my job. It's not my fault if we don't turn up with anything."

"I don't think this stems from frustration of not getting any results. I know you're not the most patient, but I know you have more patience and understanding of the work of a shinobi than that. You better get it out of your system before it blows up in your face, for real."

Sasuke bit back a sarcastic comment. "Hn."

"Either way, Sai doesn't deserve you giving him a hard time. I'm not saying you should suppress all your feelings, but it is interfering with your work, which in our profession is not acceptable."

"So, what do you want me to do? Take a break, wait it out?" Sasuke sneered.

"Talking about what bothers you might help. Ever tried that?"

"No." It could have been either refusal or affirmation. Or both. The guy had never been very forthcoming.

"You know what will happen if we deem you unfit to stay on this mission? I'm telling you, it won't stop in taking you off this mission. It's a whole rat's tail that will follow and once that happens, you can forget attending Team Seven's missions with Naruto for a long long while. I won't be able to get you out of that mess."

Shikamaru leaned back against the wall behind Naruto's bed. Sasuke was observing him with narrowed eyes, biting his lips as Shikamaru continued.

"Also, just so you know, I'm soon due to write an assessment on your psyche. I'll be the one determining if you'd be fit for doing higher-ranking missions and leaving Konoha to attend them… and up till now you haven't been cooperative. And just because you need to convince Kakashi and Sakura doesn't mean that the official administration processes can just be skipped if you do."

"And you're only now informing me of this?! How come I was allowed to do any missions at all?"

"Easy, I vouched for you. I wanted to see how you'd act. I gave you a chance to show your skill-set and it gave me a chance to assess it. That includes motivations, teamwork, and emotional stability in, both, uncertain situations and under pressure. How you conduct yourself during this will determine your future as an active shinobi."

"Alright, got it. I need to pull myself together. I can do it."

"That won't do. I won't know if you just suppress and bottle things up if you do that. And then, what if something really sets you off? What I'm saying is that you need to find a way to stabilize and balance yourself, and that it would do you good to include me in some way because I'm the one assessing you."Shikamaru had sat back up and was now sitting quite attentively, though still in his usual slouchy way, and therefore seemed deceptively unthreatening. "You've been acting more unstable lately. And I'm beginning to think that you can't handle the uncertainty of Team Seven's fate while they are out on missions."

"I can."

"Then what had you so pissy yesterday?"

"Urgh…" Sasuke was visibly struggling to answer. He grit his teeth, before finally letting a frustrated sigh escape his lips. "I went to see what happened to the police department. It's been stripped of anything related to the Uchiha, their service and what happened. Instead it now holds 'Konoha's Economics Administration Office'." He spat the last part.

"So you're angry because they don't get the recognition they should have… I see. Well. I can give you a couple of reasons why they did that, if you're willing to listen."

"Hn." The sound was more of an unwilling grunt than anything else.

The Nara took it as a yes anyway. "The Uchiha Police Department building is located right at the core of Konoha. The Uchiha on duty there were also murdered on the day the rest of the clan got massacred. Instead of building a memorial right in the center, where people should feel safe, they chose to build one in the Uchiha Clan compound only, and renamed the building. They did this to erase the memory of the fact that Konoha couldn't prevent this from happening right under their noses. It would have done no good to the citizens mentality to have a reminder right there in the very center of the city."

Sasuke looked grim, but he didn't say anything. They sat quietly for a few minutes, until Sasuke got fed up with it.

"So what else?"

"The massacre..."

Sasuke's eyes widened ever so slightly.

Shikamaru continued with a gentle voice. "Have you ever tried talking about it with someone else?"

Lips pressed together, eyes narrowed and looking away, he was holding back a bitter chuckle. "It's not like talking brings them back."

"No, it won't, but it might give you some peace of mind."

"It didn't," he snapped.

They fell back into silence, and this time it felt even heavier. Sasuke looked out of the window, gritting his teeth. "Why do we need to talk about this anyway? We both know what happened: My clan got murdered and my brother and I fled. It's done. It's over. The end."

"I'm sure you know what happened. I, on the other hand, can only guess. We are talking about it because I need to know how it affected you, and how being back here will affect you. You're researching the Uchiha, Konoha's politics, cartography, history, anything related to them. And I think it is linked back to the massacre."

"So you got me all figured out. Great job. You know with whom I talked about it? Huh? My family's murderer. I asked him why. I asked him fucking why and I never got an answer!" Now that he had started talking, more words came. "You know, it's kinda ironic; I might know the details, but really, it doesn't make much difference. I know no more than you do about the why!"

Shikamaru recognized the raw emotion in Sasuke's face and posture. He had started to crack open and he was probably right about them knowing equally little, though Shikamaru had the uncomfortable suspicion that he had the rough picture whilst Sasuke only had the colours. Now that he was starting to acknowledge and spill them, it was starting to take shapes in ways that were worrisomely fitting into what Shikamaru had been starting to suspect during his research.

Still, there were many details he had to get or confirm to really figure this out, and extracting information was a walk on the rope with this guy. Shikamaru had conducted his prodding very carefully. He'd gotten Sasuke close to edge with his emotions. He'd asked questions, listed consequences and, unlike all the times before, he was demanding and not relenting. It was time to get some answers.

"So you know him, their killer!?"

A/N: Hi, so my beta had suggested to shorten the dialogue with Sai because it wasn't exactly relevant to the storyline, though it was building up their alternative characters. I hope those scenes didn't bore you, I thought there was a bit of humor sprinkled into them and that's part of why I didn't want to shorten them. Also, since this story has not been gaining much attention anyway, I decided not to care and just see what happens. Feedback on that would be nice, though.

I know this chapter wasn't the most tension filled, I really wanted to separate it from the happenings in Team 7 to portray how cut off Sasuke feels. I feel like it's not evident enough and a struggle to write. I think my favorite part of the chapter was the Scene with Shikamaru. I think the next few chapters are gonna be a challenge to write because keeping track of how much each of the characters already know, while they continue to figure out more and more, is hard, and I also have to keep in mind who had which sources, but I guess that's what's making this story fun to write for me. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it so far and take care in these troubled times! Update's on the progress, as always, on my profile.

Reviews would make my day!

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