I'm sorry, Sasuke; this is it.
I'm sorry, Sasuke; this is it.
I'm sorry, Sasuke.
When he wakes, it's to the sound of rain pouring down all around him. There's voices familiar and unfamiliar.
He rolls over, his eyes sliding open.
His brother's stony, cold face stares back; eyes that had terrorized him, eyes that had brought him to his knees, eyes that he had put his own against—
A hand reaches down, gently closing them. There's Kakashi, looking solemn. And Naruto at his side, the blond torn between amazement and fear.
But Sasuke spares only a moment to look at them; as always, his attention returns to his brother. To his eyes that have closed for the last time, never to open again. Sasuke may not have struck the killing blow, but it was clear that their battle had struck the life from Itachi Uchiha.
Good, Sasuke thinks. Rot in hell.
He succumbs to the exhaustion that aches in every bone. Trapped in his own body, aware of everything and yet unable to move, he watches as they discuss what to do with him.
After some deliberation, it seems they've come up with a plan.
"Sasuke," asks Kakashi, kneeling beside him. "We're going to bind your wrists and seal your eyes," he explains. "As far as Konoha is concerned, you're a wanted criminal. But…considering the fact that you've offed two Akatsuki members and Orochimaru single handedly…I think there's a serious chance that you might be offered leniency. If you cooperate."
If I cooperate.
Did he care? Not really.
But they weren't going to offer him a choice; they never had.
In this case…it made sense to stick with Konoha, at least for now. Now that Itachi was dead (truly dead, there was no illusion this time) it was time to pick up the pieces of what he left behind.
He gives Kakashi a slight nod with all the energy he can muster.
As the silver haired jōnin ties his wrists and binds his eyes, Sasuke thinks he catches a twinkle in his lone eye. Sakura and Naruto certainly seem happy. To them, it was the end of a years long effort to bring him back.
He's hefted onto his feet. There's other people there he hadn't noticed before. There's Shino and Kiba, and that Hyūga girl who'd stared at Naruto day in and day out in their Academy years; he can't remember her name. There's the jōnin and his replacement—both eye with him with wary glances. Sasuke can't blame them…the last time they'd met, he had tried to kill them. Sakura and Naruto could forgive, but perhaps these two couldn't.
"You were traveling with a team," says Kakashi. "Where are they?"
Suigetsu and Jūgo, and of course, Karin. He had freed the former two from a hellish life of captivity; Karin was loyal to him out of some combination of obsession and lust.
Somehow, someway, he'd grown fond of them. Suigetsu would get by just fine without him. Jūgo would inevitably collapse back into that same state of existence he'd been in before, his aura of peace torn apart by uncontrollable rage. And Karin…he had no idea.
Perhaps Jūgo alone would return with him; maybe all three of them. Leading a pack of Konoha shinobi directly to them felt like a poor way of giving them that choice.
Yet, the arrayed team stares and stares, and Sasuke begins to realize that silence is not an option here.
"A few kilometers that way," he murmurs, jerking his head in one direction.
"Hinata," says Kakashi.
The blue-haired Hyūga jumps to attention; she forms a hand-seal and that accursed Byakugan comes to life.
Hinata…sunflower…
It's not a very fitting name, he thinks, just from looking at her, what with her dark hair and drab clothes.
"T-they're there," she stammers out. "Three of them and an Akatsuki member. One of them seems to be battling with the Akatsuki member…u-um…I believe it's Kisame Hoshigaki."
"Hinata, you stay here with Sasuke," says Kakashi. "The rest of you—let's go!"
They leap off out of the destroyed rubble of his clan's hideout. Itachi's body is still there; Sasuke stares and stares at it, his final words echoing in his head…I'm sorry, this is it, I'm sorry, this is it…
Hinata is silent. Her Byakugan is still activated, and though he can sense that her guard is up, she seems more focused on keeping an eye on her compatriots.
If he wants to, he could try to make an escape. But how far would he get with bound hands and sealed eyes? The idea of being chased down and humiliated by a laughing Naruto made his pride burn.
At least if he stays here, he can keep some semblance of his dignity.
He tears his gaze away from Itachi's still corpse. The ghost of a smile on that monster's lips taunts him—someone like him, who'd done the things they'd done…they deserved a death of unimaginable suffering.
They didn't deserve to die with a smile.
Time passes; the rain stops. Sasuke sits down at one point, his wrists already chafing from the rope that bind them together. Hinata remains facing in his direction, despite the fact that her actual gaze was kilometers away.
He stands up when he hears them returning.
Karin hugs him—he can't push her away, what with the bindings. It's Jūgo who pulls her off of him with a single hand, like a giant swatting a fly away.
"Well done," booms Jūgo, patting Sasuke on the shoulder.
"Not bad at all," Suigetsu said, grinning with pointed teeth.
Karin has tears in her eyes. "You did it!" she proclaims, as if he needed to know that after staring at Itachi's corpse for what felt like forever.
He's silent for a moment, surveying their carefully. This the climax of it all; the culmination of the sole reason he'd put this team together in the first place. What could he say?
"I see you avoided my predicament," he says, raising his bound hands slightly. All three members of Team Hebi eye them warily.
"Well…the silver haired one explained that you were coming with them voluntarily," says Jūgo. "It is voluntary, right?"
Sasuke eyes the assorted Konoha shinobi behind his team. Naruto and Sakura stare with a mixture of wariness and jealousy—the rest of them have only wariness.
"I suppose," says Sasuke.
Team Hebi relaxes. "Alright," Suigetsu cries. "I've always wanted to see what Konoha looks like."
Kakashi steps forward then, that twinkle still in his eye.
"Looks like you're going to get your chance," Kakashi says with a touch of dry humor in his tone. "Let's…well, let's go ahead and get him sealed away."
Maybe they expect Sasuke to look away, but he doesn't. He watches as they take out the storage scroll and ink the necessary seals. Then he watches as Itachi's body disappears into the scroll; flesh and blood condensed into ink and paper.
Kakashi slips the scroll into a pouch around his thigh.
Even there is too good for him, Sasuke thinks. They should've burnt the corpse and thrown the ashes into the wind.
A man like that…
He deserves so much more than a peaceful death. He deserves the deepest pit of Hell to burn in for all eternity.
I'm sorry, Sasuke; this is it.
Fuck you, Itachi, Sasuke thinks.
The clouds begin to clear in the early evening.
Though he was bound, they weren't so brazen as to actively keep a guard at his side. Despite that, he knew they were watching, waiting, ready to see if he would make a move…
And there was ample opportunity.
Twice, covertly, during the brief windows when no one was close enough to overhear, Suigetsu approached, wondering if he had some plan to get out of this situation.
To that, Sasuke had simply answered him with a blank stare.
Once Karin made the same request; though he noted she'd left Jūgo and Suigetsu out of the equation.
He didn't even bother looking toward her.
When they made camp, two fires were made. Kakashi was off somewhere unknown—no one else has the ability to use the Fire element. Like caveman, they start clapping rocks together with tinder in a vain attempt to get a fire going.
Despite everything, Sasuke finds himself amused. A few of them cast glances in his direction, but none seem brave enough to ask for his help—and none would dare remove his binds, either.
Eventually, Karin speaks up.
"I have some matches," she said, red hair falling in her eyes.
Jūgo blinks and asks the question that's on Sasuke's mind. "Why would you have matches, Karin?" Sasuke was capable of lighting a forest on fire if he so chose—why would she have matches?
"It's because she wants to hide the fact that she smokes from Sasuke—"
Suigetsu's words are interrupted when Karin's fist erupts through his chest. Her hand explodes out the other side; thankfully, his knack for turning body parts into water stop him from any serious harm.
"You smoke?" Sasuke finds himself asking, an eyebrow raised.
"J-just when I'm stressed!" Karin stammers out, pushing red-rimmed glasses up the bridge of her nose. "It's really not often at all!"
"Oh, please," says Suigetsu. "She does it every time you reject—"
Once again, he's impaled by her fist. Neither Jūgo or Sasuke flinch at the two squabbling and arguing loud enough to send animals all around them scurrying into the underbrush.
The Konoha shinobi are unnaturally quiet. Sasuke can feel Naruto and Sakura's eyes on him—he doesn't look back. They're jealous, he knows too well. The two have conducted fierce whispering matches with Kakashi throughout the day, none too subtle about their displeasure at Sasuke having not even acknowledged their existence. To Kakashi's credit, he simply had told them to give him time.
"You're welcome," Kakashi had told him, with a pat on the back. There would be a cold day in Hell before Sasuke ever said 'thank you' to his former teacher. He did appreciate the efforts though.
He has enough on his mind as it was without having to insert Naruto and Sakura into the mix.
He's taken through the streets of the village like some common criminal. They take his team to some undisclosed location while they escort him to the prisons buried beneath the bowels of Konoha.
The people gawk and stare. Where years before they would stare with either cool indifference or pity, it was now a sea of curiosity. Is he a returning hero who'd slain two beasts of the modern age? Or was he a rabid dog finally brought to heel?
He keeps his head up and fixes his gaze on a point in the distance. Above all, he is an Uchiha—and he does not want to give these people even the slightest impression that their gazes matter to him.
Kakashi is on one side, Naruto on the other. Things are tense; then again, they have to put on a show now.
Once they haul him inside the prison, he is taken through processing. His fingerprints are taken, his things are cataloged. It's the first time in years that he's been separated from the sword Orochimaru gave him. They ask him questions to verify his identity; his mother's name and his natural elemental affinity, and to cap it all off, they ask him to recount what happened during their mission to the Land of Waves, back from when they were fresh-faced genin.
The man who conducted the interview was cold-faced and serious. He was vaguely familiar; blond hair and blue eyes, though not like Naruto. He has to be related to Ino, Sasuke thinks, for the resemblance is too uncanny to be mere coincidence.
As Sasuke recounts their mission to the Land of Waves, the irony is not lost on him. Telling tales of when he was a Konoha shinobi while he sat bound to a chair in their prison.
"So, you're inside this boy's trap."
"Yes," says Sasuke. "My Sharingan awakened—I was able to see his movements and begin to mount an offense."
"What happened after that?"
Sasuke's lips press into a thin line. "I was defeated," he says. "Naruto managed to take him down after."
The blond man doesn't flinch. "What happened between those two things?"
Sasuke sees now that he is wearing a small ear-piece; on the other side of that one-way mirror must stand his former team.
Sasuke inhales.
"I saw the boy try to attack Naruto. I threw myself in front of him to stop the blow."
"You sacrificed yourself," says the man. "To save Naruto."
He stares. "Yes," Sasuke says. "I did."
"Why?"
"I don't know."
The man has the tiniest of smiles on his lips.
"You killed Orochimaru?"
Sasuke doesn't know what to say.
"A cousin of mine went on a mission to Otogakure and never came back," says the man. "Ever since then—" He sucks in a breath. "My daughter was fond of you back in the day; she seems to share Naruto's conviction that there's some hope of redemption for you."
"Ino," Sasuke says quietly.
The man nods.
"There's going to be a trial," he tells Sasuke. "They're arranging it now. A lawyer will be in here soon to talk to you—the audio recording will be turned off, so you may speak in privacy to her."
Ino's father stands up; he offers Sasuke a soft nod before leaving the room, taking with him a clipboard that he had been jotting notes down on the entire time. Sasuke stares at the one-way mirror, unsure of what to think.
The lawyer comes. She's an unassuming lady, with a briefcase and red-rimmed glasses that remind him of Karin. She speaks in a soft, but sharp tone.
"Normally the penalty for desertion is at least ten years imprisonment," she explains. "The elders are pushing for the maximum; the Hokage, however, seems inclined to give leniency."
"Why?" Sasuke finds himself asking.
His sole memory of Tsunade is of her standing in a corner of his hospital room, a cold sweat on his brow as he'd been lifted from his Tsukiyomi induced nightmare.
The lawyer smiles.
"I'm afraid I don't have the Hokage's ear—the whys and the hows elude me."
She packs up after telling him a few more minute details. The trial, apparently, is set for tomorrow. According to her, the normal bureaucratic hoops that had to be jumped through would take months for a trial date to even be selected.
It seems that Sasuke has a guardian angel…or someone was out to get him, depending on how the trial went.
No one else is allowed to visit him. The next time he sees Naruto and his team, it's as he's being lead into a small room.
This is no courthouse; it's a small hall with perhaps thirty people filling it from end to end. The Hokage, Tsunade, sits at the front, her dark-haired assistant standing behind her.
There's a chair in the center for him, with cuffs to keep him penned in as if he's some sort of animal. The man from yesterday—Ino's father—sits him down and secures him to the chair.
He gives Sasuke something resembling a smile, then walks off.
Sasuke looks around as everything is set up. His team is there—both of them, former and current. Naruto gives him a thumbs-up while Sakura simply smiles; Kakashi is reading his book. Karin and Jūgo look worried while Suigetsu seems remiss about his sword having been taken from him. His lawyer is there, but is quiet, reading some papers.
There's other people in the room; three of them are at the front near Tsunade. An elderly woman and two elderly men, one of whom has their face and arm bandaged, a cane resting against the wall beside him.
That one doesn't take his eye off of Sasuke for even a second.
Sasuke stares right back, unfazed.
Before long, the Hokage is calling everyone's attention.
"Thank you all for coming here on such short notice," says Tsunade, her voice booming throughout the room. "Today, we are going to decide the fate of one Sasuke Uchiha. A request has been made to offer leniency for his crimes; first we will hear the arguments against, then the arguments for offering leniency."
Her assistant steps forward.
"Lord Danzō, you may begin your argument when ready," she says.
Danzō winds up being the elderly man with the cane; he stands slowly, though Sasuke is conscious that he has the attention of the entire room. No one makes a sound, not even Sasuke.
He begins to speak, but Sasuke does not pay attention. He just stares at the man, who stares right back, even as he attempts to persuade the room that Sasuke is deserving of nothing short of the maximum sentence for his crimes.
"A criminal killing other criminals does not excuse anything he has done, It is time we stop allowing the Uchiha to run rampant across the continent." Danzō finishes. "A dog that bites the hand of every owner he's had must be disciplined firmly…or put down."
When he sits, the room is silent. Tsunade stares at the man with a look of distaste that is palpable to all in the room.
"Alright," says Tsunade's assistant. "The other elders may speak next, then we will continue from there."
The two other elders give their opinions. Though both recommend jail time, they are much more neutral on the manner—they regard him with pity, he can see it from the way they glance at him.
From there, it goes around the room. There's Sakura, then Team Hebi—Karin, Jūgo and Suigetsu—who make it very clear that his one and only goal was to kill Itachi, nothing more, nothing less. And last but not least Naruto, who talks for perhaps twenty minutes and captivates the entire room as he does.
They're making me out to be a saint, he thinks.
And it's working.
Kakashi is the last to go up. He reads reports aloud to the audience that confirm the deaths of Orochimaru, Deidara, and Itachi Uchiha.
"Sasuke's killed just as S-rank criminals as we have as of late," he finishes.
When he sits back down, Tsunade's assistant gives the floor back to her.
Tsunade makes a big show of it—she considers the point aloud and weighs her reasoning. But Sasuke has long since grasped that this is a show trial, nothing more.
From the very beginning she has been planning to pardon him.
When Tsunade speaks, she keeps it simple and concise.
"My ruling is this: one month's imprisonment and six months probation."
Danzō's lips are thin. He can hear his team—both of them—hooping and hollering behind him.
Sasuke can't bring himself to care.
He has already been in prison; for ten years, tormented by what had happened to his family. He had left his home, given himself to the Devil, and had put everything on the line just to bring down the man who'd caused all that torment…
And now, Itachi Uchiha was dead.
Sasuke has nothing left to fight his demons. And frankly, he doesn't care much about combating them. He had given into them in order to acquire the strength to defeat Itachi…and now that his grisly task is over and done with, what was the point in resisting them?
There was nothing left for Sasuke in this world; just an empty compound, two teams that would be better off without him, and a clan name.
He had anticipated dying.
Then, he had anticipated dying for his crimes.
Now, they were going to let him off with a figurative slap on the wrist.
Sasuke breathes in, then out, not sure what to think.
He supposes that he's thankful. Even if it doesn't matter in the end, avoiding a lengthy prison stay was…preferable.
Ino's father comes and helps him out of the chair. Team Seven and Team Hebi's cheering rings throughout the room; the elders are silent, Danzō burning a hole in the side of Sasuke's head.
He gets a bad feeling from this Danzō.
Sasuke has heard of him before—from Orochimaru of all people. After Sasuke's ill-fated reunion with Team Seven, the two had engaged in a conversation about what happened.
"You say he said he was sent to assassinate you…then chose to simply try and take you captive?"
"Yes."
"Hmm. That Danzō…the boy must have gone against his orders."
"Who?"
"Don't worry about it."
Now Sasuke can put a face to the name. Danzō.
Maybe all of his enemies aren't dead quite yet.
He's reading when he hears the guards coming down the hall.
The Life of Sasuke Sarutobi—his namesake. Kakashi probably thought he was being clever when he brought it to him.
It was better than nothing.
Sasuke sets it down, looking up.
There's Naruto, flanked by two guards.
They let him inside of his cell. If it's his lawyer or some aspiring journalist, they bind his wrists and keep a guard inside the cell with him; for Naruto or any other member of his team, however, they leave him untethered. His eyes, however, are sealed at all times.
He keeps an eye on Naruto, who sits on the floor on the opposite side of the cell. He isn't bombastic and energetic—he isn't wearing that trademark smile of his, either.
Instead, it feels as if Sasuke is staring into a mirror.
Naruto is quiet. The silence stretches on so long that Sasuke begins to read again; he'll say something when he's ready, the Uchiha thinks.
And say something he does.
"What are you reading?"
Sasuke exhales. "Why don't you just go ahead and tell me why you're here?"
Small talk has always bored him.
When he looks up, Sasuke begins to understand the severity of the situation.
The blond can't quite meet his gaze. His entire body is shaking.
"My…my teacher…he…" His voice is so quiet and raspy that Sasuke strains to hear. "He died."
"Jiraiya?" Sasuke chews the inside of his cheek. "How? And who did it?"
Naruto's voice shakes.
"The leader of the Akatsuki," says Naruto. "Ero-sennin, he—he went on a mission, while we were tracking you and Itachi down…" His breath draws short suddenly, turning his head, his blue eyes glistening with unshed tears. "I guess the bastard was just too strong for him."
"That's…unfortunate."
Sasuke feels stupid just saying it—but he has no idea what else to say. He has enough trouble dealing with his own grief; dealing with someone else's is not part of his repertoire.
Even Naruto seems to realize that, chuckling despite the circumstances. Tears have begun to drip down his cheeks.
"I mean, I guess I wasn't expecting a pity party," the blond says. "I just…"
Naruto breaths in, then out.
"Do you remember back when we fought in the valley? What we talked about?"
Sasuke stares.
Of course he remembers—it wasn't the brutal hand-to-hand combat that he recalls from that fight…but instead, it was watching Naruto pour his guts out to him.
He saw me as a brother, Sasuke remembers.
"What about it?" asks Sasuke.
"I just wanted to let you know that…" Naruto looks him in the eye. "That you were right: I couldn't understand what it was like to lose someone close to me."
Sasuke sighs.
"It's fine," he says.
"Y'know, he hated you," says Naruto, chuckling again. "Over and over again, when we were traveling after you left, he'd tell me that you were a lost cause…that you would end up just like Orochimaru, lost to the abyss. But here you are, Sasuke…here you are."
Sasuke closes his eyes.
"Here I am," he murmurs. He stands up, walking slowly over to where Naruto sits; after a moment's pause, he sits down beside the blond. "What are you going to do?"
Naruto chuckles.
"I want to kill the bastard," says Naruto. "Rip him apart limb from limb for what he took from me; but then…" He grins slightly, as he looks at Sasuke. "Then I look at you, you sorry bastard, and see what that kind of attitude got you: depressed and cranky. I think…I think I'll find some other way to handle it. I'm going to kick his ass for sure, but after that? I don't know."
Sasuke can't even bring himself to be offended by the slight.
"You do what you have to," Sasuke said. "Whatever happens, just be ready to pick up the pieces afterward."
The earth shakes—the world seems to be ending. A single crack forms in the stone that makes up the roof of his cell.
Then things quiet down.
Sasuke doesn't know what to think; all the guards have run, leaving him alone. There's no one else in this wing of the prison, one of the deepest, darkest cells buried underneath of the Hokage monument.
They were talking about an attack.
Sasuke sits down on his cot.
His eyes are sealed, his chakra kept in check by inscriptions carefully written into the walls. And the keys are on a hook about ten meters away, about nine and a half meters too far for him to even debate trying to reach for them.
What else can he do but wait?
He picks up The Life of Sasuke Sarutobi and begins to reread it for the sixth time.
Sasuke has read it another four times before anyone comes to get him.
He has lost track of time—there's no windows, no people, nothing to judge day and night. The plumbing in his cell isn't working and nobody has been by to provide him with meals; he wonders if they plan on starving him out.
Then he hears footsteps. Sakura is at the forefront, followed by Naruto and Kakashi, all of whom look as if ten years passed.
"Sasuke!" says Naruto, shoving his face against the bars, hands gripping them tightly. "You're okay!"
"I'd hope so," Sasuke says, his tone dry. "What the hell happened?"
He doesn't believe it until he sees it.
Apparently, they had been forced to dig through what seemed like a tonne of rock to get to him. The prison itself was protected by the fact that it was under the Hokage monument—the entrance, however, was a different matter. Sakura's brute strength has carved a way through the rubble that buried it.
When they see sunlight, Sasuke is blinded momentarily. He holds a hand up to shield his eyes…
And when he lowers it, he sees that they were right. Konoha is no more; it has been reduced to cinders, the center of the village turned into a crater, the outskirts swept by untold destruction.
Sasuke never thought he would live to see the day Konoha was destroyed. It seem that he'd spoken too soon.
"My clan's compound," he finds himself saying. "What happened to it?"
Naruto, Sakura and Kakashi exchange glances.
"We're not sure," says Kakashi. "Er…technically, we are supposed to take you directly to the temporary detention center, Sasuke…"
Sakura clears her throat. "But I don't think a detour is out of the question, is it, sensei?"
"Of course not," Kakashi replies.
"So long as this dope doesn't try to make a run for it," Naruto says, playfully elbowing him in the side.
Sasuke's lips are pressed thin.
When they reach the compound, they find it mostly intact. The Uchiha's isolation came in handy for once—it's all the way on the outskirts of town, avoiding the worst of the damage. The houses are intact, but rubble has swept through them, causing some to crumble and others to look as if a tornado had ripped through them.
Sasuke walks through the streets, his team in tow. He finds his home—his family home—and walks inside.
"Shoes off," he tells them at the front.
None of them say anything. Sasuke takes inventory of everything; the kitchen is damp, a busted water pipe leaking water out into the garden. The fish have multiplied to obscene levels, swirling around like a mob within the waters.
They wait for him in the main area as he examines the room. His old room is intact; as is Itachi's, though he avoids that like the plague. A tree trunk has impacted the side of his parent's room, tearing through the wall and exposing it to the elements.
Sasuke notices something then; a crack in the wall.
With his Sharingan activated, it becomes evident that there's some sort of hidden compartment. With the eyes of his family, he is able to open it.
Inside is a book; worn and tattered, but still intact. Sasuke opens it, flipping through a few pages…he recognizes the neat, tidy handwriting of his father.
It wasn't a diary. Perhaps a memoir was a better way of putting it—Sasuke skips to the end, where it's dated the day before the massacre.
He realizes that his hands are shaking.
Sasuke puts the book back where he found it, closes the compartment, then walks back to his team. His heart is heavy, but even if this Pein's assault has wiped Konoha off of the map, it hadn't erased the last vestiges of his once great clan.
"Alright," he says to them. "Let's go."
Naruto is a hero now; the guards whisper about him every time he comes to visit Sasuke while he's in the detention center.
Sasuke feels perturbed. Knowing that Naruto was strong enough to defeat the leader of the Akatsuki was one thing…
But he'd also been strong enough to spare his life when it came down to it.
If it hadn't been for that act of mercy, many in the village would be dead—Kakashi included among that number.
Sasuke doesn't know how he feels about that.
Yet he has also begun to realize that it was only a matter of time before Itachi died. Sakura has told him the results of the autopsy—apparently, he had a disease so far along that it'd been a matter of weeks before he would have passed away naturally. It'd apparently been gnawing at him for years.
Sasuke had just put the bastard out of his misery.
They ask him what they'd like them to do with Itachi's corpse.
Burn it, is his first thought.
But the fires of his rage have dimmed low during his days and weeks of imprisonment.
He thinks of what his family would want—Fugaku and Mikoto Uchiha, two lives cut short by Itachi. Somehow, he knows that, despite the nature of their death, they would want Itachi to remain with his family.
Sasuke chooses to do it himself. His family's graveyard is still mostly intact—a few tombstones were overturned by the shockwave, but it was nothing that couldn't be fixed.
He is taken there by Naruto and Sakura, who sit quietly in the background as he begins to shovel away at the earth.
When he's done, he's sweaty and his arms ache. He climbs out of the grave he's dug, nodding at Naruto who steps forward.
The blond unravels the scroll, then steps back.
A moment later and Itachi's corpse is there.
He stares at it; and stares. And stares.
…this is it.
"I'm sorry, Sasuke," says Itachi.
Sasuke's head snaps up—but he finds that it's Naruto who had said the words, not Itachi.
Itachi is dead. He still has a smile on his face, for God's sake. His corpse is right there.
Sasuke feels bile in the back of his throat.
He can't bring himself to gently lower his corpse into the grave. Instead he kicks it in, Itachi's corpse landing with a thud at the bottom. Even still, he can see his smile.
Sasuke begins to shovel away, grunting with every motion. Dirt begins to wipe away that smile; soon Itachi's frame is hidden from view. Before long, he's gone entirely. Yet there's still more dirt to shovel.
His eyes burn. Sasuke keeps shoveling until the ground has evened out, before collapsing. He grits his teeth, pounding the earth, cursing Itachi's name.
"You son of a bitch," Sasuke swears. "I hate you. I fucking hate you."
Even the words sound hollow to his own ears.
When his month long imprisonment is finally over, Naruto, Sakura, and Kakashi take him to get some real food. They've given him some basic clothes and a cloak—his old attire was destroyed in his battle with Itachi.
Ichiraku's is where they go, obviously. Not the real place—which is still being rebuilt—but a hastily made tent with the owner and his daughter working away in the back while patrons slurp nosily.
They find a table and order their food.
The three of them start talking about anything and everything; the rebuilding efforts, how the last remnants of the Akatsuki have gone to ground, how Tsunade has recently woken up from her coma.
Sasuke stares at the table.
I'm sorry, Sasuke—
His fingers tighten into a ball.
—but this—
"Sasuke?"
Kakashi nudges him on the shoulder.
He looks up, his gaze alert. "Yeah?"
"Sakura asked you a question," Kakashi says.
Sasuke looks to the pink haired kunoichi, who offers him a gentle smile. Her green eyes twinkle.
"We're still stuck with the communal housing until more places are built," she tells him. "Are you okay with staying with Naruto and Sai?"
It's not as if he has a choice. "Sure," says Sasuke. "That's fine." He breaths in, then out, blood leaking from his fingers, his nails digging into his palm. "I am…free to go…aren't I?"
Naruto frowns. "I mean, as long as you stay in the village and don't make a mess, and answer the Hokage's summons, then yeah—"
Sasuke stands up.
"I'll see you all later," he says.
Then he vanishes without a word, out of the tent and into the morning light.
He doesn't know where he's going; his head is spinning.
Sasuke blinks and he finds himself in his family's compound.
He heads to his home—his old home—and heads inside. Taking his shoes off at the door, he treks to the wreckage of his parents' bedroom.
With his Sharingan, reopening the secret compartment is child's play.
He sits against the wall and begins to read.
His father's memoirs are a humdrum affair. It starts five years before the massacre, when Sasuke was still a toddler and Itachi had just graduated from the academy.
A lot of it is about work. Their clan members dying on the job, slain on missions or being ambushed out on the streets of Konoha. Just from the writing, Sasuke can see how the loss of each and every clan member impacts his father.
He closes the book after some time, stowing it away. His head hurts, his eyes burn. He goes out into the garden and sits, staring at the water and the fishes until the morning bleeds into the afternoon.
His legs are half-asleep when he stands. The weight of his father's memoir at his side, Sasuke leaves the Uchiha compound.
He finds Naruto in the makeshift market district, being harassed by a group of civilians. They're begging him for details on his battle with Pein, poking and prodding at him, the blond simply too nice to tell them to scram.
When Sasuke approaches, Naruto doesn't notice him at first.
The civilians, however, do. They take note of him—the most cowardly retreat at first glance. The rest wait until he's almost upon them before hastily making an exit. When Naruto whirls around, now completely alone, he looks bewildered…until he sees Sasuke standing there with a bemused expression.
"Jeez!" Naruto says. "You up and disappear on us earlier and then you come back and scare away all of my fans?"
"Something like that," says Sasuke. "What do you say about the two of us going out somewhere and training?"
The blond grins. "I thought you'd never ask!"
It's that night as he lays in bed, bruised after a day's training with Naruto, that Sasuke cracks open his father's memoirs again.
Using his Sharingan to see in the dark, he reads. Naruto's snoring fill the room; outside, he can hear a dog barking. The place they're in hardly qualifies as a shack, but then again, some people are still saddled with tents or even sleeping under the stars. He can't bother to complain.
One time, his mother had told him that Father had spoken just as much about Sasuke behind closed doors as he had about Itachi.
Judging by his memoirs, his mother had lied to him.
There were pages upon pages of his father talking about Itachi—about him becoming a chūnin, and eventually, about him being inducted into the ANBU.
By comparison, Sasuke was given little more than a footnote here and there. Itachi brought Sasuke into the station today…or…Sasuke nearly cut his finger off with a shuriken.
But Sasuke grew increasingly less concerned with that. He was more worried about the other things his father wrote about.
That secret compartment had been hidden for over a decade; only a person with a fully matured Sharingan would be able to see and open it.
His father had no qualms about recording treasonous things, that was for sure.
He spoke of how the clan had been isolated—how the Uchiha elders were growing restless with the state of affairs. While his father doesn't outright state it, Sasuke begins to put the pieces together. The clan had been brewing something before their untimely demise.
It's late, though, and he can hardly keep his eyes open—he closes the book with a snap. By the time he puts it away and rolls over, he's half-asleep.
He dreams of a night long, long ago.
"Itachi," Father says, "You are the pipeline between this clan and the village. We're relying on you to get the intelligence we need—why must you jeopardize everything by missing these meetings?"
Mother is beside him; Sasuke can see her worried face through the crack in the door. Father is frowning as always—Itachi is bowed before them, eyes downcast, his expression blank.
"I'm sorry, Father," says Itachi. "I had a mission to complete."
"The clan comes before any mission," Fugaku replies. "You'd do well to remember that."
Itachi is silent for a moment.
"Sasuke," he says, turning his head. Fugaku and Mikoto jump—how they hadn't noticed him, he wasn't sure. "You need to get to bed."
The dream melts away.
When he wakes, it's to Naruto shaking him on the shoulder.
"C'mon!" he says. "It's time for your first mission!"
Sasuke gets up.
He feels as if he's a genin again—the mission is simple. To help in the rebuilding efforts, by carrying lumber or hammering nails in.
Naruto summons a hundred clones, trying to fix everything through brute force. Sasuke is a bit more methodical about it—he uses his Sharingan to see where to put where in exact measurements, then does it as skillfully as he can manage.
By midday, they're both sweaty and exhausted as they break for lunch. Ichiraku's again; this time, Sasuke stays through the meal. The father and daughter who run the place regard him with warm eyes, and even give him a bowl on the house.
"Welcome home," they say.
It's the closest that's felt to true since he walked through those gates. Yet it still isn't quite there.
After, they're back in the trenches and Sasuke feels good. After a month of idling and reading, finally doing something feels like liberation.
Naruto is all smiles afterward, clapping him on the shoulder and congratulating him on a job well done.
It then that they run into familiar faces.
"Holy—GRANDPA, LOOK!" they hear a voice yell.
Tazuna looks much the same as he did years ago; Inari has grown hand-and-foot though. The boy gives Naruto a tight hug, before grinning up at Sasuke. "Sasuke!" Tazuna says warmly.
Tazuna shakes his hand. They talk for a while, catching up on things. Apparently, the Land of Waves of thriving now; Tsunami is back home, but they're sure that she would have loved to see the two of them.
"You guys should see what we've done with the town," Tazuna says fondly.
"Actually," says Sasuke, "I have."
Tazuna and Inari blink. "Woah! When were you in town?"
Naruto gives him a curious look. "Yeah…when were you in the Land of Waves, Sasuke?"
Sasuke thinks on his feet.
"We were tracking someone down," he says. "I asked around and they said you were out of town," Sasuke says to Tazuna and Inari. "Otherwise I certainly would have paid you a visit."
He's lying through his teeth, of course.
He had visited—with Suigetsu, to pick up Zabuza's sword and go on their merry way. But he certainly hadn't given any thought to visiting Tazuna or Inari. His mind had been preoccupied by other things at the time.
They talk and they catch up, but Tazuna has some meeting to get to and Inari is stuck to him like glue. By now it's evening—Sasuke and Naruto trek back to their shack, where they turn in for the night.
Sasuke feels alright.
Until he flips open his father's book again, and a feeling of dread settles in his stomach.
Once again, he feels lost in his father's memoirs. In the last vestiges of the man named Fugaku Uchiha that were left on this Earth.
Even if his father never explicitly states it, it quickly becomes clear to Sasuke that they were planning something big. There's accounts of secret meetings, Fugaku noting the people who hadn't attended. When Shisui died, Father doesn't even consider Itachi as a suspect at first—he initially assumes it to be a village elder, namely Danzō.
In his last days, his father grows increasing panicked.
The village has stopped proposing meetings to try and sort out the Uchiha's isolation, Fugaku writes, in the last pages of his memoir. I fear that the game may be up. The time to strike is upon us—if we delay it any longer, I fear that Konoha will make the first move. If we succeed, may the Heavens forgive us. And if we fail…
He leaves that unanswered.
The next page is the final one.
Sasuke has impressed me more and more in the past few weeks. While he's no genius like his brother, he has a tenacity I don't think even Itachi could match. I should have taken more time to train him when he was young…now I fear he'll resent me forever.
We've set the date for a week from now. Itachi's loyalty is becoming increasingly uncertain, but in the end, I can only have faith that he'll do the right thing. If we fail, then I fear they'll spare no one. I can only hope that everything goes according to plan.
And that was it.
Sasuke's hands are shaking.
His head spins.
He closes the book and puts it away, rolling over in his makeshift bed—but sleep does not come. His head is throbbing now, his eyes burning.
They were planning a coup, Sasuke thinks.
Before long, sleep claims him. He can't think; he can't think.
The next day, they're back at it again, working from morning until dusk. All the while, Sasuke is lost in thought.
At dusk, instead of retiring to the shack, he goes to their graves.
He kneels before them. The tombstones have been polished, cleaned up, and picked up—this is Naruto's work, he realizes.
Here lies Mikoto Uchiha.
Here lies Fugaku Uchiha.
"What were you two planning?" he whispers to himself. "Why did you do it?"
Of course, he knows why. Fugaku had spelled it out plain as day, the pieces there for Sasuke to pick up—the Uchiha were isolated, borderline persecuted, and they simply got tired of spilling blood for a village that didn't seem to care.
Sasuke has no love for Konoha, but to start a coup over it…even that seems a bit far to him. They could have packed up overnight and left; any of the other villages would have opened them with open arms. This was their home, yes, but if they overthrew the Hokage and turned it into a bloodbath, would it stay as such?
Konoha had to have known. All those "meetings" to discuss integrating the Uchiha into the village? They were negotiations to try and stop the coup; it had the Third Hokage's fingerprints all over it.
The village had to have known…but Sasuke remembers that night. It was his parent's blood on Itachi's sword—Itachi had shown him details too vivid with his Tsukiyomi for it to be fabricated.
He thinks. He really thinks; the pieces are there, he just can't quite put them together right.
Sasuke sits before Itachi's grave. There was no tombstone for him yet, simply a small pole with a piece pf paper that read "Itachi Uchiha" and nothing else.
"Why did you do it?" he asks the cold earth. "Why?"
In order to achieve my limits, had been what he'd said on the fateful night. But it was all too convenient. The clan was planning a coup—the village was wise to it and a counter-strike was due any day. Then, all of a sudden, Itachi slaughters the clan to a man? Why? Why would he do it?
It begins to rain.
As time passes, a puddle begins to form on the Earth overtop of Itachi's grave.
Sasuke can see his reflection in the water, his resemblance to Itachi uncanny.
I'm sorry, Sasuke; this is it.
His entire body begins to shake.
Itachi's loyalties are becoming increasingly uncertain…if we fail, then I fear they'll spare no one.
I'm sorry, Sasuke; this is it.
"No…" he whispers.
You're not strong enough, Itachi had whispered, his hand around his throat.
"It is time we stop allowing the Uchiha to run rampant across the continent." Danzō had said. He remembers how his father had suspected him as being behind Shisui's death, how he had sent Sai to assassinate him…
"No…"
I'm sorry, Sasuke; this is it.
His eyes burn. He clutches at them, crying out in pain, even the cold rain not soothing the agony.
He remembers. He remembers.
…because that's what big brothers are for…
I'm sorry, Sasuke; this is it.
…I'll always be here for you, even if it's as an obstacle for you to overcome.
I'm sorry, Sasuke—
He remembers that night…
Waking up.
His eyes burning; his entire body running on sheer adrenaline.
Throwing a shuriken at Itachi, having caught him off guard—he'd knocked off his headband. Itachi turned, looking back at Sasuke…
And he'd cried as he bent low to pick up his headband.
—this is it.
He did it for me, Sasuke realizes. He did it for me, he did it for me, he did it—
The next morning, Naruto wakes up.
He yawns—then looks over to find Sasuke's bed empty; so is Sai's, for that matter.
The blond doesn't think much of it. He must have slept in and missed the early work call.
There were communal showers, with hastily-assembled individual stalls. Naruto sees Shino and Neji there, both of them greeting him warmly—by their standards—as they wait in line.
After, with dripping wet hair and a fresh jumpsuit on, Naruto heads to the worksite.
Only to be stopped halfway by an ANBU member.
"I'm sorry to interrupt you, sir," the masked man says, "but the Hokage has requested your presence in her tent."
Naruto blinks. "Uh…okay," he says.
Being addressed as sir definitely felt off to him, but it was better than being ignored.
The Hokage's tent is an unassuming place, but Tsunade has never been a grandiose woman either. She sits in conference with the rest of Team Seven, including Sai and Sasuke's own team.
Sasuke is noticeably absent.
"What's going on?" Naruto asks; all eyes turn to him as he ducks through the tent flap.
The air is thick with tension—Naruto swallows. His fingers twitch at his side…no…it couldn't be.
"Sai?" Tsunade says, gesturing to him.
Sai looks to Naruto, his expression blank.
"When I woke up this morning, I found Sasuke gone," Sai says. "There was a letter on his pillow addressed to the Hokage."
"What does the letter say?" Naruto feels bile in the back of his throat.
Tsunade sighs, her gaze sunken.
"I can't say," she says. "But…I don't think that Sasuke will be coming back anytime soon."
This time, he doesn't leave in pursuit of vengeance.
He did it for me.
Those words haunt him.
And yet, everything falls into place.
He had wanted him to grow stronger, to keep him safe against people like Danzō. And when he had learned of the disease eating away at him, Itachi had forced Sasuke into a situation where he'd had to get stronger, lest his demons consume him.
And his final words…I'm sorry, Sasuke; this is it.
He had been protecting him.
The clan was doomed—Sasuke knows that if Itachi alone could defeat them, the village would have slaughtered them all. Including Sasuke. So Itachi had made a choice. He'd killed the clan and fled into exile…and had spared his brother's life in the process.
Is there any proof of this?
Even in his final moments, Itachi had been trying to uphold the lie.
But Sasuke knows; he knows it's all true. Everything clicks into place, it makes sense in a way that it hadn't before—
And that means that Konoha had a hand in his family's death.
Perhaps they hadn't given the order. Maybe Itachi had gone rogue and chosen to do it himself. But…
Just the idea of staying there makes him feel sick.
That night, he grabs what little possessions he has, taking care not to wake Naruto or Sai.
He thinks.
Last time, he had vanished into the night; they had sent a team after him immediately, and had nearly succeeded in bringing him back.
This time, he has no intention of joining an enemy of Konoha. He just wants away from this village, from this place, before the memories and the demons consume him.
Sasuke feels the need to explain himself—they have let him back into their village, given him room and board, forgiven him for the most part.
Naruto, Sakura, and Kakashi will not be persuaded no matter what he says or does. Team Hebi must be kept in the dark, because even if he manages to contact them discreetly, they will wish to come along.
At the very least however, he can explain himself to the Hokage who granted him clemency.
Sasuke pens the letter.
By the end of it, tears have since welled in his eyes. His hand is shaking—he signs it with his name, tucks the scroll closed, and writes For the Hokage's eyes only on the outside.
Then he leaves into the night…again.
There's no security; all of Konoha's manpower is being used to either rebuild the village or bring money into the coffers. He is allowed to practically stroll out what remained of the front gate without a single person to block his path.
He walks.
And he walks.
And he walks.
Even when the sun crests the horizon, he keeps going.
His feet burn.
His head is still spinning from what he's learned.
But he walks.
And he walks.
And he walks—
It's the first month or so that is the most difficult.
He had left without food or water, with only his shinobi tools and the clothes on his back. Water was easy—the Land of Fire was rife with streams that are easy to come back; the crystal clear water is as fresh as fresh can be.
Food was a little harder to come by. Hunting with only shuriken and kunai proves to be more difficult; humans are predictable, animals can be tricky at the best of times.
Still, he never went to bed with an empty belly.
He sits by campfires at night and thinks. During the days, he walks and walks, not paying attention to maps or signs, passing through town after town.
Inside of one particular inn, he finds that a new copy of the bingo book has been issued. A half-drunk Konoha shinobi lets him take a read through it; the poor sod didn't seem to recognize him.
Sasuke looks through it. There's some familiar faces, plenty of unfamiliar ones…but no one in it does he find himself. It seems that his letter to the Hokage must have worked.
Not that it matters, though. Sasuke can't imagine returning to Konoha even if his life depends on it. That place feels cursed now.
One night, his demons almost get the best of him. He's so tired, so exhausted—he had drifted from the Land of Fire and is now somewhere in the Land of Stone.
He finds himself in a tavern nestled in a small little valley, surrounded by fields of crops that have been carved into the landscape. Inside the tavern, sake flows as freely as words—and Sasuke wants something, anything to bury the turmoil inside of him.
The young Uchiha drinks and drinks.
The next morning, he wakes up in bed next to a young woman. How or why he'd gotten there, he isn't sure…but he takes his leave before she wakes up, disappearing through the window.
He feels a little better. Not by much, though—his head is throbbing and the hills in the Land of Stone are hard to traverse even with a fully alert mind. He goes as slow as he needs to, and by the afternoon his headache is gone and he genuinely does feel better.
The Land of Earth is beautiful. The people are a little hostile though, as even if they don't recognize his Uchiha heritage, he oozes a Konoha upbringing. There is no love lost between the two countries, with far too many atrocities having been committed by both sides during the Third Great Shinobi War.
He tends to stick to camping beneath the stars instead of finding taverns.
Sure, once or twice he wakes up to bandits creeping up on him, but they're easy enough to deal with. Half of the time he doesn't even need to unsheathe his sword—he leaves them bleeding and sometimes unconscious, but alive. And then he moves on.
He takes great care not to use his Sharingan unless absolutely necessary. It wouldn't do for rumors of a red-eyed Konoha shinobi to get back to his home village; then Naruto and his ilk may have a place to look in order to track him down, which he's sure the blond is doing.
Sometimes, he wonders what is happening in Konoha.
He wonders if Sai and Naruto are still staying in that shack-of-a-house. He wonders how the rebuilding process has gone. He wonders if Team Hebi has made a home in Konoha or if they've moved on to greener pastures. He wonders what it would be like if he stuck around.
Then he remembers.
He did it for me, Sasuke thinks, closing his eyes. He did it for me.
One evening, Sasuke is training. His Sharingan is active, his muscles are aching, his chakra is flowing—he's blasting apart boulders with Chidori and incinerating small clumps of bushes with Fireballs.
All of a sudden, the world is different. His Sharingan is sharper; there's a burning behind his eyes.
He knows what it is before he sees it.
In the reflection of his blade, Sasuke can see that his eyes have changed.
I didn't kill him, he tries to reason.
And in the strictest sense of the word, that is correct. Sasuke had not sunk a blade into his dear brother's chest—but he had battled him, whittled him down until he had been forced to call upon the ultimate weapon he'd dubbed Susanoo.
It had been that that killed his brother; the strain of the Mangekyō Sharingan, the exhaustion that had racked his body, the disease that was eating away at him inside. He had been coughing up blood until his final moments…and had collapsed dead at Sasuke's feet.
He hadn't done the deed himself, but he might as well have.
And now, even though Itachi is long gone, it seems that he has given one last gift to Sasuke. The ultimate power of the Uchiha clan.
He refuses to use it. He knows the price of that power—blindness, if not worse. And the price of obtaining it has been too high. Even if Itachi would have died either way, Sasuke does not want to think that he profited off of his brother's death.
As far as he's concerned, he is the last Uchiha. He will be the last Uchiha. And that will be that.
His journeys take him to a multitude of different places.
He scales the mountains of the Land of Lightning. He stares out at the endless blue sea while traveling through the Land of Water. He doesn't feel like getting lost in the Land of Wind, but he does come close to its border, able to see the desert that stretches on further than any ocean from a vantage point.
Sasuke avoids Konoha like the plague. He hears news from there occasionally—apparently Tsunade has decided to step down, and Kakashi is to take her place. He can't blame her; the stress of Pein's assault and the aftermath would have brought any Kage to their knees. She is old, with only so many years left to live, and even the civilians whisper that she has earned a reprieve.
Kakashi as the Hokage, Sasuke thinks when he hears the news. I never would have thought.
On his travels, he hears something else—Danzō is dead.
Killed, apparently, attempting to coup the government in Konoha.
Sasuke somehow knows there's more to the story than that. But he is hiking through the Land of Rice Paddies when he hears the news, and the details are lost to him.
It's been nearly a year since he left Konoha now. He has visited every single country he can think of; now he's back in the Land of Earth.
The inn he had visited once is still there. This time though, he has no intention of getting drunk. He thinks that the innkeep recognizes him, but the old woman says nothing; when he forks over the money for a room, she takes it with no questions asked.
He sleeps the night away, thinking about life and his clan.
When he wakes, it's to a tapping at his door.
Sasuke opens it.
On the other side is a young woman, vaguely familiar, with a squalling infant in her arms.
"Um…h-hello, mister," she says quietly. "Do you recognize me?"
He tilts his head to the side. "No," he decides on.
The girl swallows audibly. "A-ah. Well…I recognize you."
The child cries and cries, her noises undercutting every word of their conversation.
"What do you need?" he asks, putting his hand against the doorway.
She swallows again. "A year ago…give or take…you came here. I was in the tavern—I saw you. One thing led to another and…"
He remembers now.
Then he looks down at the child.
Sasuke knows what she's saying.
"No," Sasuke murmurs, dumbfounded.
The girl nods.
He takes a step back; the wind is sucked out of his lungs.
"She's definitely yours," the girl whispers. "I—" She pauses. "You're the only man I've lain with in years."
She hadn't even needed to say it; he can see the resemblance. The infant tucked into the girl's arms looks just as he did as a baby, all rosy-cheeked and chubby, with big black eyes that squint as she continues to cry and cry.
"You need to take her," the girl says.
"What?"
"The innkeep…she's my mother," she murmurs. "You're from Konoha, aren't you?"
"I am."
"Here in the Land of Earth…having a child out of wedlock…it's seen as an immense shame," the girl tells him. "With her around, I'll never—I'll never—"
Sasuke knows. Konoha is fairly liberal by ninja village standards, but some of the old clans are rigid as they come. There's whispers of babies handed off in the dead of night, of men and women alike being disinherited for wanting to follow their heart. A place like the Land of Stone—and by extension, Iwagakure—was even more rigid than that, if the stories were to be believed.
"I can't take her," Sasuke says, unable to take his eyes off of the babe. "She—I…I can't."
"Mister—" She doesn't even know his name. "I don't have any other choice. I wanted to keep her…but my mother…she…I can't protect her any longer. I was so happy when I heard that you'd come back. You have to take her, please…"
The girl steps forward.
Sasuke recoils—but the next thing he knows, the baby is being tucked into his arms. He holds her head up, stares down at her…
And she quiets down immediately.
She makes a little noise, staring up at him, her fists and legs so tiny. She's swaddled in a blue blanket that looks as if it's been through ten generations of use. Is this what an Uchiha deserves?
He stares.
And he stares.
"What's her name?" he asks.
The girl swallows.
"In the Land of Stone…it's tradition for the father to name our children."
He leaves later that day.
The sun is hot; but there is a stream near the inn that allows him to refill his canteens and cool off a little.
His daughter makes little noises as he scoops water into his canteen. He looks down at her, his heart thumping loudly in his chest.
Her name is Mikoto, and already, he loves her more than anything.
Author's Note:
Thanks for reading!
I'm (probably) going to leave this as a one-shot. It's a nice, neat, self-contained story.
Some of you guys may have questions. Honestly, I think it's best not to answer them all. Some can be gleamed from minor details sprinkled throughout the story. Others just aren't important enough to answer within the context of the text. Personally, I think it would ruin the spirit of the story to sit here and answer every question you may have...the story stands on its own well enough, I think, and that's all that matters.
That's not to discourage you from speculating or giving me feedback; I'd love to hear what you guys think! I do have relatively sparse plans for a sequel that involves Sasuke returning to Konoha far down the line with his daughter, attempting to reintegrate into a village that's moved on without him. But that's really up to how well received this is.
I think I've yammered on enough. Be sure to leave a review if you enjoyed the story. Cheers!