I am sorry, but I made some grammatical mistakes that I wanted to correct so this is version 2. Also, I received one email from one reviewer that said that he read this chapter on Sunday and he couldn't review it. I don't know if that happened to anybody else. If it did, please be free to write the review now. And if you hadn't written a review yet, you can write one, of course. Thank you.
Chapter 28 Breaking down
"Many times, shinobis that have a reputation of being tough are the first ones that crack under torture. It's usually the ones that seem weak that the ones that have the strongest inner strength. It doesn't really matter. All of them eventually break. We have our ways.And they are very effective"
Morino Ibiki
Tsunade, the current Hokage of the Leaf, glanced from the podium at all the people that were gathered for Naruto's funeral: Sakura with her new crutches and Kakashi who looked older than ever were at the front. Most of Naruto's old classmates, including Hinata far in the back, were there. Naruto's old teachers like Iruka were there. Even the grandson of the Third was attending with his two teammates. The Kazekage, Gaara of the Sand, was supposed to be present, however he was missing.
While the Hokage prepared for the speech, she wished the whole village were present. However the person that was responsible for his death was not present.
"What is the purpose of our attending on this memorial today?" She started. "It is to commemorate this brave soul who died to protect the village. Naruto sacrificed his precious life to protect the Leaf..."
"Yoshi, Masaharu, what are you guys doing here?" Hyuga Asano inquired.
The other two Hyugas looked at the newcomer.
"Hey, did you receive a challenge letter too?" Masaharu checked.
"Hai. You too? Oh, man. Three challenge letters at the same time. Somebody is up for a beating."
"There is something weird going on" Yoshi commented. "The handwriting in the three letters is different."
"My, my, my. What a great surprise seeing all three of you here!" A fourth person said with the sweetest smile.
"I am talking about precious lives" The Hokage continued "Everyone, although life is dear, Naruto's sacrifice tells us that there is a precious objective more important than life of an individual. What is this precious objective more important than life? Naruto's death was beautiful, because he sacrificed himself for a greater purpose. He was a real warrior. We all have to right to live out happy lives, but the chosen ones give up this right, going off to a battlefield to accomplish their share for the Leaf..."
"You are the Uchiha." Hyuga Yoshi uttered with hostility.
"It's Uchiha-san for you." Uchiha Sasuke informed with an arrogant smirk. "I still remember three years ago when the three of you beat me up at exactly this place. Remember? It was after your idiotic leader had the very stupid plan of me marrying Hinata. Isn't it weird to find you three here? It's incredible how many coincidences happen everyday!"
"What are you talking about? Weren't you the one that send us the challenge letters?"
"Me?" Sasuke repeated with a sarcastic grin. "Are you kidding? Last time we fought I was just a genin, you guys were chuunins and still I managed to score a few hits. Now I am a jounin and only two of you managed to get to jounin status. I could beat you in less than ten seconds if I want to."
The three Hyugas darted a short glance to each other. They surrounded Sasuke
"Hey, hey, hey. Come on guys." Sasuke pleaded opening his arms far too much and leaving himself far too wide open. The confident smirk still hadn't disappeared. "Grow up. We live in a world that has learned to solve problems by talking. You can't solve everything by fighting. If somebody throws and insult, you should..."
Sasuke never got to finish the sentence as the Hyugas jumped on him.
"Yes, the answer is just as I have stated: Naruto, as so many shinobis, spilled his blood in defense of the Leaf. Isn't such a noble goal worth death? To live for one self or die for one self is so insignificant! I cannot tell you to behave as cowards. In the end, the shinobi way is to be a disposable tool for the good of the village. Everyone must think what you can do for your village before thinking about yourselves…"
After ten full minutes Sasuke finally fell down to the ground. He had tried to avoid them and to block the attacks. He hadn't tried to defend himself or to run away from the fight.
"You are weak!" Hyuga Asano mocked kicking the fallen Sasuke in the chin. Sasuke fell heavily against the wall.
"Well, you guys aren't bad at all" Sasuke admitted bleeding from multiple minor wounds. He closed his eyes to fight the dizziness. He thought that he should have taken a combat pill before staging the situation to provoke the fight. Lately his reflexes were off whenever he wasn't having the adrenaline boosts. "I guess these injuries already count as self-defense. Don't they?" There was a dangerous smile on Sasuke.
Masaharu, the only chuunin of the three, was the one that had hit Sasuke the less. He looked carefully at the young Uchiha jounin.
«Could it be...? » He asked himself. Realization dawned on him. It made sense. First the three challenge letters with different handwriting. Next, the Uchiha bastard suddenly had appeared and induced them to start a fight. Finally the Uchiha letting them hit him... This fucking Uchiha had manipulated them to start the fight! What for?
«Damn» He thought as he started to make seals. Reasons didn't matter. He was going to kill the bastard and claim it as a terrible accident.
Yoshi tried to hit Sasuke again. Sasuke blocked the kick and hit Yoshi's crotch with a violent upward kick. As Yoshi with an expression of absolute pain fell, Asano made his move. He tried to make a punch to Sasuke's neck. Sasuke read the pattern, avoided the assault for very little and punched Asano with a well placed punch between the eyes.
However Sasuke didn't have time to avoid the third member of the trio. He turned around but he wasn't fast enough as he felt Masaharu's finger moving too swift and touching his forehead.
He screamed at the top of his lungs as he felt himself falling into a bottomless pit... multitude of images and noises invading his brain. All of them related to death.
Masaharu smiled as Sasuke fell to the floor. He smiled even more widely as Sasuke's face made a strong sound as it smashed against the ground. One instant later Sasuke did a somersault and hit Masaharu with his leg.
Masaharu was falling down when Sasuke moved on top on him and punched him with a finishing blow in the head.
"Is that the best genjutsu you have?" Sasuke mocked "Compared to Tsukuyomi, your technique is not even a bad dream."
Masaharu tried to stand but collapsed.
"Head Trauma. I think you are down for today" Sasuke explained. He raised his eyes. Yoshi and Asano were looking at him with bloodshot eyes. Especially Yoshi, who had an expression of great pain.
"Thanks for all the fun I'm going to have." Sasuke said with a smile.
"Life is dear, but I would like all of you to remember deep inside your heart the fact that our village is worthy of sacrificing your lives. We are fighting for justice. Everyone must perform your duty with your utmost efforts, unhesitatingly sacrificing yourselves. In this world the most revered act is sacrifice and martyrdom, the most shameful cowardice and self-interests. Whenever you feel pain or fear, whenever you feel like giving up, remember Naruto; remember that he died as a hero." Stated the Hokage finishing the speech.
There was a somber silence as the Hokage stood down from the podium. Every one took a moment to reflect on the words. Sakura thought that Naruto would hate that speech. She looked around. Sasuke was still not there.
Yoshi tried to get up for the umpteenth time, but his legs refused to move. He was pushed against the wall when Sasuke shoved him. He tried to counterattack but Sasuke violently punched again. There was some loud noise as his nose broke. Sasuke raised his fist again, but after a few seconds he put it down. Everything was too absurd. Naruto's funeral was probably already over.
Sasuke carefully moved away from the three bodies. All of them were battered but alive. He swore when he noticed he had those idiots's blood on him.
He was starting to walk away and his hand was going for another combat pill, when he saw it again: A shape around his shadow out of the corner of his vision. When he turned his head to focus on it, it was gone.
Sasuke sighed and walked away. It would be annoying if he were going crazy so soon. Although in a way it would be a certain release... No, scratch that. He wasn't going to stop so soon.
At least for now.
"I got into a fight" Was all the explanation Sasuke gave when Sakura asked him why didn't he go to the funeral. He skillfully dodged all her other questions and he hurriedly left her presence. It was the first time the nurses didn't have to throw him out of the hospital. Sasuke paid that fact no mind. He had more important things to do: He had to train. He had to be stronger and kill his brother. The people he had the duty to avenge had increased by one.
Three days later he missed going to visit Sakura for the first time. The next day Sasuke and Sakura got into a fight because Sakura had found out about Sasuke's application for the ANBU. Both of them had gotten into discussions before. However, that was the first time they had raised their voices so much to each other. Sasuke left angrily and didn't return the following day.
The day after that he found somebody blocking his way to the training area.
"What can I do for you, Kakashi-sensei?" Sasuke's voice and tone were formal.
"Do I need permission to talk to my student?" Kakashi replied with a question of his own, walking towards him.
Sasuke shrugged and kept walking at the same pace. Kakashi trailed along. He carefully watched his student. He had seen corpses more animated.
"How have you been sleeping lately? You know that sleep is very important. A high-ranked shinobi lacking concentration or endurance would die quickly in the front-line."
"I don't think I could beat you at a Go game. However fights are usually much faster. It's just a matter of minutes before someone winds up dead." Sasuke said. His expression didn't change while he spoke, Kakashi noticed. It was just the lips that were moving.
"I heard you applied for ANBU admission." Kakashi chatted hoping to somehow reestablish the broken bridges "Have you thought about what animal you want? Personally I'd say you would look good with a wolf mask..."
"I am going to be a demon." Sasuke interrupted. "Wolves are beings that can't live alone. They travel in packs. They care about their families. Demons are solitary beings, bent on destruction. I think it's more fitting for me. I have already ordered the mask."
"Aren't you overconfident? It's not that easy to be selected to be ANBU" Kakashi commented.
Sasuke didn't stop but looked at him.
"You mean you really don't know?" Sasuke inquired.
"What?" Asked Kakashi. Suddenly he had a bad feeling.
"I have already been admitted to the ANBU. The order came this morning."
"Eh? Without any selection process? Sasuke, what did you do?"
"That's the most interesting part" Sasuke commented slowly "I didn't do anything. The Hokage decided on her own to select me for the ANBU. Since I don't have any friendly relation with the Hokage, I guess I should be worried about her decision."
"You are not ready yet to join the ANBU" Kakashi affirmed.
"Maybe. But that's something I have to do." Sasuke finally stopped. He turned around. "I cannot and do not regret the decisions I made or that I'm going to have to do. I am firm on that. What I do regret are the ripples that these decisions have made in the direction of my loved ones. I would die to eliminate those ripples, but it doesn't work that way."
Sasuke resumed his walking. However when Kakashi made a swift move behind him he brusquely turned around with his body automatically taking a defense position.
"At least your reflexes are still working." Kakashi mentioned holding one bell.
"Take one bell and you will pass? That was a long time ago. I'm not..."
"Maybe the trees are more satisfactory?" Kakashi mocked. "Or maybe you are too sleepy for fighting a real shinobi?"
Sasuke glared at his teacher. Kakashi lowered his headband. Sasuke's humor worsened considerably when he saw the sharingan. It took Sasuke less than one second to decide his course of action.
"If you don't attack me with the intent to kill you won't get the bells" Kakashi warned.
Sasuke started a zig-zag pattern to confuse Kakashi. At one point he rushed straight at his sensei after launching six shurikens to throw him off balance. Kakashi managed to avoid them with some difficulty and faced off Sasuke.
They fought Kunai against kunai, bone against bone. Kakashi had expected Sasuke's direct attack to be just a decoy to distract him because his real objective would be the bells.
However Kakashi soon understood that there was a new ferocity in Sasuke that wasn't there before. Sasuke's fighting style had always been practical with no ornamentation; effective and yet intense. Astonishing expertise even when he was younger. It had never been brutal and wild like now. It was supposed to be a practice match, but Kakashi could feel Sasuke's burning intent to kill.
Both kunais collided, both shinobis pushing. Sasuke screamed as he moved his body forward. Kakashi saw Sasuke's grimace of hate as his middle and index fingers moved straight to his eyes.
Kakashi leaped backwards. He adopted a defense position, under Sasuke's cold eyes. The young Uchiha threw unhurriedly something to him. Kakashi was flabbergasted. It was a bell! He checked his belt. His bell was gone. When did he...?
Sasuke was panting. He glanced at the ground and got pale. Kakashi looked at the ground but didn't see anything.
"That was a nice decoy attack" Kakashi finally complimented "You really looked serious so I was distracted enough to lower my guard. Nice job." Kakashi knew that his student blamed him because the spy had used his form to trick former Team 7 into a trap. Even if Sasuke's conscious mind knew that Kakashi wasn't at fault, the subconscious mind didn't agree. He wondered if Sasuke had gone for the bells or for his life. He wondered if Sasuke had actually tried to kill him.
"You taught me a lot of good things, sensei." Sasuke declared still staring at the ground, more specifically at his shadow, with a strange expression. "You taught me about fighting, about teamwork, about chakra control and about the sharingan, among other very good things. But now I have to learn how to kill. I have seen too much death already. Now I have to choose to embrace death as a way of life."
"You don't know what you are asking for. The scent of death will follow you forever."
"Maybe. But that's my choice. I have to learn how to become a death-giver." Sasuke explained.
There was a long pause. Both student and sensei felt that the connection that used to be between them was lost. Sasuke had been feeling that way a lot recently.
"Well, what if I invite you to something to eat to celebrate your improvement?" Kakashi questioned "I don't think your meals are very healthy. I'll treat you with some food fit for humans. If you only eat hunted food when you fall down from exhaustion my teaching ability might be questioned.
"I don't have much appetite." Long Pause. Sasuke's expression turned weary. "Sensei, all the people that I've ever loved or cared about are either dead or worse. You are the only one unaffected so far, so…" Sasuke's expression turned taut again "from now on stop butting on my affairs."
Sasuke left to continue training. Kakashi saw his lonely and lost student leaving. He thought back on a certain day, back in the days of flaming youth, as Gai used to say. The day Team 7 had been created. Out of its three members, Naruto was dead, Sakura was permanently injured and Sasuke was emotionally crippled.
Kakashi started to run. He didn't stop till he reached the Strategy Division.
"Kakashi, do you have an appoint...?" Shizune started to ask.
Kakashi didn't stop to answer. He barged inside the Hokage's office leaving Tsunade's assistant wondering why nobody paid any attention to her.
"Hokage-sama! Why did you let Sasuke join the ANBU? He is about to break down!"
"And nice to see you too" Tsunade answered looking from a long pile of papers and leaning on the chair. "I think we better forget about your polite way of entering unannounced and without an appointment. What's the deal with Sasuke now?"
"Hokage-sama, Sasuke's self-control is as precarious as a man standing trembling on a thin wire over a precipice. He can't join the ANBU right now. He is under too much strain."
"So?" Tsunade wondered aloud as her finger rattled against the table.
"So? Any ANBU mission for him now would be certain death!"
"I am not going to waste my time worrying about that "Avenger". Because of him Naruto is dead and one of our most promising chuunins is off-combat probably forever. Attacking two S-level criminals of great power when he is just a recently appointed jounin was a grave error of judgment. Personal vendettas have no place in the Leaf."
"Relocating him in the ANBU is some kind of punishment then?"
"Sasuke is the one that requested to join the ANBU. If he breaks down in the way... well." Tsunade shrugged "That was everything he was then. It will be his own fault for trying to become like his brother. The sharingan is an asset for the village but Sasuke is starting to be too much of a liability. In the end shinobis are just tools. Sasuke keeps forgetting that. "
"Tsunade-sama." Kakashi said very carefully "Are you sure you aren't letting your own personal feelings get in the way?"
"If I were to let my "personal feelings get in the way", Sasuke would have suffered a sad and terrible accident already. If Sasuke can't function on the Leaf he has to be disposed of." Tsunade countered. "Besides, you perfectly know the reason why Sasuke may be dangerous for the Leaf in the future, or even dangerous for you."
"Yes" Kakashi admitted. "I still remember it."
Kakashi wordlessly left, leaving Tsunade alone in the room. She sighed. Being the leader was sometimes very lonely.
Sasuke was standing in front of the hospital where Sakura was. In a few hours she was finally getting the prosthetic leg.
He should be with her. He had even asked official leave for personal reasons. It had been rejected. He was leaving for his first mission for the ANBU in a few minutes.
At least he should talk to her for the few minutes he had left, shouldn't he? The truth was he didn't dare to see her. He far preferred risking his life in A-missions or even S-missions than watching her and her wounds again.
At that moment Sasuke saw it again: His shadow changing shape for no logical reason. He scratched his back while he saw the new shadow doing the same. The new shape looked exactly like Itachi's shadow.
He was so focused on the shadow that he didn't notice that the part of his back that he was scratching was exactly the part where Orochimaru's seal was.
Sasuke shrugged, covered his face with the demon mask, and prepared to follow Leaf's commands, leaving Sakura's hospital behind.
In another part of the Leaf, a young girl called Hinata was doing the same.
Well, here is chapter 28th of the story. I hope are liking it. I'm very sorry for taking so long for writing this chapter. I'll try to write the next one as soon as possible. I would like to thank a good friend of mine, E.Cherry, that is really helping me A LOT with this story. If it wasn't for her the story would suffer. So, E.Cherry, from here I would like to thank you again for your patience with me.
Well, I hope you like the quality of my story. I'm striving to give you a good reading experience. If you would like to comment on anything, please write me some feedback.
In this chapter I dealed with how would the different characters would react to Naruto's death. Next chapter will bring the darker aspects of the ANBU with Hinata and Sasuke, as well as the future of the relationship between Sakura and Sasuke. I hope you will like it.