Chapter 14 Fight the future

"I'm not interested in my future: I already know it. I'll face off my brother, the person I used to adore, in the middle of a field of fire. Either I'll kill him, or he will kill me. That's it. After that? Well, after that... I... I don't know. You got me there. I haven't thought that far ahead. I guess I could always curl up and die."

Uchiha Sasuke

Tsunade, fifth Hokage of the Leaf, was hurrying up towards one of the medical rooms, where he had heard that the person responsible for the worst headaches in her short career was currently being treated.

He stepped inside without even knocking. Sasuke had his hand bandaged, but the most visible damages came from the head. The person treating him was Chimi. A nice boy, but he was bound to make more harm than anything. Not that it would be a great loss.

"Hi, Sasuke-chan" she said, dismissing the other doctor with a wave of her hand, and starting healing on her own "Your wife is beating you already? I think there is a shelter for battered wives in the village."

"Tsunade-sama, your concern is so overwhelming I feel like crying. Pity that I don't have time. I have to inform about something important."

Tsunade glared at him, while she tended his wounds, wondering what he was going to say now

"These wounds were made by Kaguya Kimimaro, one of Orochimaru's henchmen. He came to try to convince me to join the Sound. I also had another visit. The Sound Four, Orochimaru's elite guard. They tried to convince me to go with them three days ago. I acted as if I agreed, and later I also killed them."

Tsunade was speechless by his words. What was Sasuke planning now? She already knew everything about the Sound Four, but the Kimimaro guy was new.

"Two ANBU members have already died" continued Sasuke, and there was sadness in his voice "So I formally request my dismissal from Team 7. If Orochimaru keeps sending shinobis more people could die."

Tsunade couldn't for the life of her figure out Sasuke. One day he was planning on betraying the Leaf, and the next second he feels all sad about two ANBU he didn't even know.

"Sasuke, are you saying that you have been dealing with the Sound Four, and you didn't inform the Leaf? You could be accused of treason for dealing with the enemy."

"I just knew that you wouldn't believe me since you would expecting me to go to Orochimaru for power to defeat my brother. I decided to kill them, to prove my loyalty to the Leaf." He said with an innocent voice.

Tsunade, Hokage of the Leaf, had just decided something: Uchiha Sasuke was an utter, complete, absolute son of a bitch. He had, somehow, found out that they had witnessed his rendezvous with the Sound, and he was actually using for his advantage. She didn't believe him, and he knew she didn't believe him. Worse, he knew that she knew that he was lying. However, there was no proof. If he were to bring now the case for prosecution, it would be rejected. She had just been appointed Hokage, and if he were to execute the last survivor of one of the founding clans of the Leaf without proof, many people would fear her. Using ANBU to restrict his movements had already proven fruitless.

The worse part, this son of bitch knew it.

She could try using a dangerous hand: Telling bits of real information that the spies of the Leaf had recently uncovered

"You don't have to worry about Orochimaru. I can't tell you why, but he won't be interested in you for a few years. Three of Four, I think"

Sasuke didn't say anything for a few seconds. He appeared to be deep in thought.

"In that case" said Sasuke "I request for Uchiha Sakura to be dismissed from Team 7. According to the S–Criminal, Uchiha Itachi, a statement that can be confirmed by Jiraiya, one of the Three Sannins, the organization Akatsuki, which he belongs to, is trying to abduct Naruto. If she stays with us she is in danger."

«Bingo», thought Tsunade. Finally he got to the point. He was afraid for Sakura. Apparently, the pink-haired girl was Sasuke's only weak point. Well, she could use that.

"I refuse the request. We would go crazy if we acted just in fear every time there is a threat. You shouldn't underestimate so much Sakura, Sasuke-kun. She has a lot of talent."

"Underestimating her?" asked Sasuke. "Hokage-sama, I am not underestimating her. I am just not overestimating her. I would say the same for everybody else, including you, Hokage-sama. Uchiha Itachi killed the strongest clan of the Leaf in one night. If he were on a rampage today, do you think the whole Leaf village would be enough to stop him?"

The question lingered on the air, as there was no answer that Tsunade could give.

"In that case, you should stop chasing him. He is just too strong, and the sacrifices you would need to make to reach him are too great. It will only end in tragedy." She said, after deciding to use the good-advice card

Sasuke smiled and looked to the window

"Today I killed a man. He was the last survivor of the Kaguya clan. Would you like to hear a true tragic story? The Kaguya clan was a made of proud warriors, people that were too damn proud to ever back down from a fight, too proud to pledge their liberty to any country. However, times were changing, and countries and Hidden Villages were becoming stronger, and truly free people could not be left alone. Eventually, they Kaguya clan chose to ally with the Hidden Mist Village to survive."

Sasuke sighed and light a cigarette.

"You smoke?" asked Tsunade, who had just finished doing what a doctor could. The rest of the healing process was a matter of time.

"Only in funerals" answered Sasuke "This one is for Kimimaro."

"Then you are bound to smoke a lot before your life is over" said Tsunade

Sasuke smiled and continued his story.

"The Kaguya clan tried to keep their free spirit, even if had pledged loyalty to the Mist. However, the strict rules and regulations of the Mist were against that spirit. Shinobis were, and still are, supposed to be tools for the village, nothing else. Eventually, the Kaguyas couldn't stand the fate of shinobis, and they rebelled. Together and proud, they faced the immense superiority of the Hidden Mist, and were all slaughtered. They couldn't stand the coming of the new times, but at least they died proud. Still, the last survivor of this proud clan chose to live and die for Orochimaru."

"And the point is?" asked Tsunade

"There is no point. I just told one boring, pointless, tragic story. Still, I'd like to know the reason he chose Orochimaru. Even at the end, he was glad he was dying for his master"

"It sounds as it is you that is interested in Orochimaru" warned Tsunade. Sasuke smiled.

"I guess. Out of the three Sannins, Orochimaru is truly the most interesting. No offense, but Jiraiya is a porno writer, and you were a known gambler and spent your time drinking and gambling for the last ten years, before you were chosen as Hokage. Orochimaru created a Hidden Village where there was nothing."

Tsunade was glaring intensely at him.

"The way you are talking, it sounds as treason."

Sasuke smiled.

"What are you talking about? I just said Orochimaru is remarkable. Nothing else. If it were treason, I wouldn't be saying it to you, Hokage-sama" He smiled again, that innocent and fake smile. Tsunade was seriously thinking of strangling him, and to hell with the consequences.

"Do you know why is he so interested in you?" She suddenly said, still glaring at Sasuke

"No" he simply said. There was something in his voice that made Tsunade shake. There was something wrong.

"He wants your body." She said, waiting for Sasuke to start asking what the hell she was talking about.

"Yeah, I already noticed he was a little pederast." commented Sasuke without missing a beat.

Tsunade was surprised, but still she persisted.

"He wants your body. He has developed an Immortality Jutsu, where he can transfer his spirit to a new body when the old one is damaged. However, he needs a fresh body, and the original owner doesn't survive the transfer."

Sasuke was silent for just a few seconds

"So, that's the reason he was so interested in me." He commented.

"That's right, he wants you. Or actually, he wants your bloodline, the Uchiha bloodline." She said, raising her voice, hoping to get a reaction out of him.

"What a pity. I thought he loved me, but he was just after my body" Sasuke said with sarcasm dripping from his voice. "Well, so if it's like that, I have decided that I'll keep on rejecting him, as I have done before" Tsunade glared at him. What was wrong with Sasuke? He should be surprised, or scared, and maybe he was. Still, his face wasn't showing any emotions, just a small smile. Wasn't Uchiha Sasuke supposed to never smile, just to smirk?

"Well, thanks for the information. It has been a pleasure. Bye" he said, and there was a lot of satisfaction in his voice. Immediately Tsunade instinctively knew, in the funny way instincts work, telling the entire conclusion, without bothering to explain to process that led to it, that she had been led by the nose into his scheme.

"You can't tell this information to anybody!" Almost yelled Tsunade "If shinobis started knowing that Orochimaru has the secret of Immortality, the number of missing-nins would exponentially increase."

Sasuke shrugged as he left

"If I were immortal, I would have to kill myself" he said, almost to himself, as he left.

Tsunade saw him getting away. She was worried. First, she hadn't meant to talk about Orochimaru's secret jutsu. Also, she was worried because Sasuke was no fool. Sure, he had an ego the size of a mountain, he had a brother complex and he was obsessed with power to kill his brother, but he was also very smart. How come he had then started praising Orochimaru? That had been a very stupid move of him, but it had somehow moved her to start talking about the Immortality jutsu. Was that his plan all along? No, impossible, he couldn't know it.

"Uchiha Sasuke, if you go to Orochimaru-sama, he will take your body. Your desires will be his desires. He will be the one with the duty to kill Itachi, and you will know no more pain" said a dying Kimimaro

Sasuke exhaled the smoke outside the building. He had been nervous with the whole trap he had set for Tsunade. Sure, he had wanted Sakura to be safe, but after his request was refused, he had tried to bait the Hokage, saying how much he admired Orochimaru and even saying the Kaguya story to distract her, to find out the truth

So, the story of Kimimaro was true. Orochimaru had really developed a jutsu to take over the bodies of people. The rest of the story was probably true too. It was... tempting, surprisingly tempting. No more pain, no more suffering. Everything would end

"You have to try to be happy" said Sakura

Sasuke smashed hard the cigarette with his foot, and walked to his next destination.

"Hurry up, baka" yelled Sakura "We have to buy snacks"

"Why? Just bring ramen" answered Naruto

"Uchiha Sasuke, do you think you have the right to marry? You are just Itachi's prey, and if stay married, Itachi will target your wife" said Kimimaro, the second thing that he needed to find out.

The skull's empty sockets were staring at Sasuke, which was staring back. The skull was human but very small. It probably had belonged to a small child, even a baby. Why anybody would like to keep a skull was anybody's guess. The room was dark, and there was like an oppressive feeling in it.

"Do you like my grandchild, young Uchiha?" asked a coarse voice

Sasuke turned to the owner of the voice: An old woman that also had two empty sockets was the eyes should be. The rest of the face had multiple scars.

"I never said my name, nor did I speak a word. How do you know it's me? Kikkyo-san"

Kikkyo laughed. It was a revolting sound, made by a toothless mouth.

"The reason I know your name is the same reason you came to me, isn't it?"

"My father spoke about you." Explained Sasuke "He said you had an amazing ability: The power to predict the future. He also said that many people went to you, but the price you asked was always too much."

"Your father, hai. He was a good man. He came to me because he was worried about his son. Out of the many possibilities that his future offered, one of them, not the most probable, was that he was going to be killed by his own son. I could have told him that, but he refused to pay the price."

Sasuke was silent for a second, and when he spoke, there was a dangerous edge in his voice

"You knew he was going to die? You knew it and you let him die!"

"Poor, foolish Uchiha. Do you believe the future is a straight course? There are multiple paths that the future can take. My cursed ability is to see all those paths, and see which ones are the most probable. For example, I can see the future your life would have taken if your sensei had not came back the night of the full moon. Yet he came back, he saw you speaking with the Four Sound, and your whole future went in a different way"

Sasuke bit his lip. This Kikkyo knew everything. She was dangerous, but he had made a small background check before coming. Apparently, nobody ever came to her house, except her son-in-law, that didn't even bother to listen to her. He would try to play his cards right and find out a vital piece of information. He would have to risk it

"I don't care about the past. I came to ask you about the future. But first I want to know the cost. What is it what you want?"

"What I want? I want a head. I want to hold the head of a demon. I want to spit to the head of the Kyuubi, the monster that destroyed my family."

Sasuke wondered if he had made the right choice, dealing with a mad woman

"I don't want to correct you but, wasn't the Kyuubi destroyed years ago?"

The woman laughed again. Sasuke decided that the woman was indeed crazy.

"I had the talent of predicting the future since I was very young" said Kikkyo "A rough very little polished talent. So I felt that the Hidden village of the Leaf was in danger from the Kyuubi. I tried to flee, but we met the Kyuubi in the way. My two children and my little granddaughter died in front of me. My own eyes were lost that day. I totally developed my powers the day when the future lost any meaning. Destiny is a cruel and sarcastic master."

"I can't give you the head of a monster already dead, Kikkyo-san. Not to mention it was too big to fit in this room. Is there any other price I could give?"

Kikkyo laughed again. Sasuke noticed that this time he seemed to be laughing at him. Had he said anything wrong?

"To you, young Uchiha, I'll let you know the answer to your question for free, since there are many of your paths that end up with you watching the dead body of the Kyuubi. I'll answer only one of the many questions you have"

Sasuke was already totally sure that the woman should be in a mental hospital. The Kyuubi had been destroyed years ago, everybody knew that, and he wasn't planning on developing a time-travel jutsu. Still, it was worth a try to see if her powers were real

"I have something that I wish to know" started Sasuke

"Actually, there are a lot of things that you wonder. Why did your brother kill your whole family?"

"I don't care about it. Maybe he was just mad with my parents because his curfew was too early. Maybe all children go to a phase when they want to kill their parents. Maybe it was a really complicated reason, which I'm not fit to understand. For all I care, maybe he was bored. I don't know, and I don't give a shit. I am going to kill him."

"You are also wondering something about your wife. Is she pregnant? Is the doubt that made you stay in the Leaf true or false?"

"I'll know the answer with just time." answered Sasuke. "I am not going to waste my only answer in that."

"You are even asking yourself about the one you call only to yourself your best friend, one that survived when my children were destroyed. You wonder about his mysterious power."

"I am curious, but not enough to waste my time in idle speculation."

"You are also subconsciously wondering something, but your conscious mind still can't even think about it"

"So you even know about the questions I don't know I have?" Asked Sasuke without a trace of humor "Can you read the future and tell me which question I have?"

"There are multiple paths you can take. But in not one of them you ask about your own destiny."

"I'm not interested in my destiny, because I already know it. I am going to face off Itachi sooner or later, and I am going to kill him or die trying." He said, offering his hands to the woman "My question is another. Even if you only can see possibilities and possible futures, you could still see a pattern. My question is this: Will Itachi ever attack Sakura?"

The woman took Sasuke's hands while he laughed, a laugh that was uglier than ever.

"So, that's what you want. That's so noble of you, young Uchiha!" She said with scorn "You care so much about your loved one that you are afraid that the killer of your family will go back to continue his job."

"Who said she is my loved one?" He countered "I just don't want anybody to die. That's all."

The woman looked at his direction, and Sasuke was not able to keep the gaze of the empty sockets.

"What would you say if I were to say yes?"

"I'd take measures to hide our marriage, and I would leave the Leaf immediately. No more delay, no more planning."

The woman was silent, and Sasuke had the feeling that she wasn't even listening. She was maybe too busy contemplating in his bloodstained hands the different futures his paths had.

Sasuke kneeled down and waited for a long time, while the woman concentrated. He was almost dozing off when finally the woman smiled. The first non-vicious smile he had seen coming from her.

"So young, and so much suffering..." she said with a hint of admiration.

"What is the answer?"

"You don't have to worry" she said, and her voice was honest "Itachi had his own reasons to slaughter your clan, but he will never target Sakura. I have seen all the possible futures, and in none of them she is targeted."

"That's good" said Sasuke, and for the first time since he had fought with Kimimaro, he smiled with a relaxed smile "That's good."

"Don't forget to bring me the head of the Kyuubi, Sasuke-kun" she said, and her voice was cracking again.

Sasuke decided to leave. The woman was reliable, indeed, except with her fantasies of the Nine-Tails demon. Hell, even kindergartens knew how the Fourth had sacrificed his life to destroy the Kyuubi

"Sensei" said Sasuke that had raised his hand. He didn't give a shit about school anymore, but he had to be the best, just as his brother was. "When was the date that the Fourth destroyed the Kyuubi. It doesn't appear in the textbook"

"Well..." said his sensei, which suddenly had a nervous look in his face "I don't remember now. I'll look into it and I'll tell you later."

Sasuke thought about pointing out that he had said the same thing last week, but after a few seconds, decided to let it drop. None of his business.

Sasuke was silent while he left the house shrouded in darkness. Behind him, the woman was laughing.

She laughed for a long time, and the laugh was uglier than ever.

Sasuke reached his house, and met Sakura that was carrying some snacks. They stood silent, looking at each other, until Sasuke lowered his head in shame. He still remembered that he had made her cry

"Did you find out what Kimimaro told you?" She asked

"Aa" he said with a weak voice

"We are having the party now" said Sakura with a firm voice. "Are you coming?"

"All right" said Sasuke, but still he didn't move, looking for a nice thing to tell her. "Sakura... you... you are ugly when you cry."

He heard her backing down when she heard his words, and he kept speaking

"So, please, don't cry. If I make you want to cry… hit me, punch me or whatever. But please, don't cry."

She stood, and still Sasuke didn't dare to raise his head, until he felt her hand holding his chin and raising it

"Sasuke, I'll promise you I'll never cry again" she said

Sasuke smiled, and Sakura didn't let go of the hand

"Sakura..."

"HEY, GUYS!" yelled Naruto. Immediately Sakura and Sasuke looked away from each other "I BROUGHT SAKE!"

Both of them looked sharply at him

"Baka! We can't drink sake! We are under age!"

"Ahhhh, come on. Just two cups. Just the three of us."

"The three of us?" Yelled Sasuke, as some images appeared in his head. He looked at Sakura that was blushing too.

They stared at each other, each of them redder than a tomato. He thought that she looked funny, and couldn't control his smile. She smiled too. Eventually, Sakura started to laugh, and before Sasuke could control himself, he found himself laughing too.

He stopped. He realized that he couldn't remember the last time he had laughed. He laughed even higher than before, as Sakura, while Naruto looked at them with a surprised look

Sasuke then remembered what Kimimaro had told him, the last thing that he had said, and he tried, unsuccessfully, to push it to the back of his mind

"Uchiha Sasuke, do you have the right to be happy?"

He thought that maybe that was the last time he laughed, and so, he laughed even higher than before.

However, this time his laugh was emptier than before.