Sasuke's spiraling thoughts keep him up for the rest of the night. Or more likely, the rest of the early morning considering Oki-Itachi doesn't return to bed, but starts taking all the items from Sasuke's side of the room and placing them in a sealing scroll.
The human walks quietly, probably thinking Sasuke is asleep since he's lying with his back to him on the pillow, but the Chibi feels the slight vibrations on the ground as he moves. It's how Sasuke knows when the Oki stops by the table and crouches behind him. He keeps still as the human's hand approaches and waits until the fingers arch to grab him before slamming his elbow up into the Oki's thumb.
The finger cracks and the human gasps while Sasuke leaps to his feet, tearing out his headband from where he stuffed it in his splint and tossing it like a shuriken at the table's front leg.
A hand wraps around him, pulling him up, but Sasuke smirks as the headband strikes the table leg and a piece of the wood snaps off. The table tips, falling towards Oki-Itachi's knees, but the human leaps back and the table clatters onto the floor.
Sasuke's grin twists into a scowl. It took weeks of carefully chipping away at the table leg with his headband's metal symbol to set up that trap, and yet it had failed!
"That was a good try."
Sasuke glares at Oki-Itachi, believing he's being mocked, but the human is giving the broken table a considering look. "It might work on Deidara or Hidan." He turns to Sasuke. "You should try it on them next time."
The Chibi's eyes widen. Is...Is Oki-Itachi giving him advice on how to escape?
Sasuke shakes off the thought—if the man really wanted to help him, he would let Sasuke leave now!—as the Oki takes the jar out of his weapons pouch and drops him inside. The teen lands in a crouch on the towel padding the glass and stands up, but freezes.
A plastic water bottle sticks to the jar wall before him, the same type pet gerbils drink from...
Sasuke turns to the Oki and glares.
Oki-Itachi sighs. "I know you probably think it's demeaning, but a regular water bottle would crush you and it's going to be very hot today."
Sasuke keeps glaring.
The human frowns, yet simply screws the lid on the jar and sets it in his weapon pouch. He doesn't close the pouch flap though, so Sasuke sees the Oki grab his right hand, and with an almost unnoticeable wince, push his thumb back into place. Sasuke realizes he dislocated Oki-Itachi's thumb as the human pulls out a bandage roll and ties a strip firmly around his finger before putting it away.
Then Oki-Itachi bends down and drags his pillow out from under the broken table as well as plucks up his headband. He seals the cushion in the scroll, but drops Sasuke's headband in the jar, which the Chibi catches and quickly tucks in his splint.
He's not sure why the Oki gave it back to him after he used it to make a trap, but perhaps the human doesn't deem it much of a threat considering his trap failed.
Oki-Itachi tucks the scroll in his pocket and surveys the room. Sasuke also spares the room one last look before Oki-Itachi walks out and shuts the door behind them.
The human heads out of the base, only stopping by the kitchen to remove four bread rolls from the oven, which turn out to be anpan. Sasuke eyes the roll suspiciously once Oki-Itachi drops one in his jar, but when he take a bite of it, instead of the red bean paste he was dreading, hazelnut filling warms his tongue.
Sasuke contently eats the rest of the roll while Oki-Itachi joins Kisame in the living room and together they exit the cave.
The Chibi frowns, watching the waterfall get smaller and smaller behind them until its thunderous roar is nothing but a whisper. Will the next Akatsuki base be like that one? Or better? Maybe worse?
The uncertainty makes him nervous, but there's nothing Sasuke can do about it, so he takes another bite of the anpan and faces ahead.
—
It's about four hours later when the humidity starts bothering Sasuke. Oki-Itachi stopped an hour ago to give him another bread roll, but didn't provide anything to drink with it and the sun has been shining all day.
Sasuke scowls at the gerbil water bottle beside him and crosses his arms. He won't drink from that thing no matter how hot it gets!
Despite his resolve, it gets harder and harder to ignore the swish of sparkling water in the bottle as the minutes pass by, especially since the Chibi has nothing to distract him besides the scenery and the rare bit of conversation between the Akatsuki members.
Still, Sasuke does his best to ignore his thirst and the sweat rolling down his forehead as Kisame asks, "Should we set up camp at night or keep going till we reach the base?"
"We can keep going," Oki-Itachi says. "By nightfall we should be close to Ame anyway."
Sasuke raises his head at the information. They're going to Amegakure? But the Akatsuki are wanted criminals across the Elemental Nations, so isn't it risky to have a hideout near a shinobi village? Though, perhaps their base is well-hidden thanks to all that rain and fog surrounding Ame.
"I hope the others haven't arrived yet," Kisame sighs. "Fighting Hidan is getting boring since he always waits in the same spot behind the door and uses the same method to try killing whoever walks in first." He huffs and sends his partner a sharp-toothed grin. "How about you go ahead of me just in case—"
A thunderous crack rattles the air and Sasuke whips left to see a large tree tumbling towards the missing-nin. The Chibi stumbles as the Akatsuki members leap back and the tree hits the earth with a deafening thud.
Sasuke braces himself against the glass, muscles tensing when he notices the fallen tree has bright green leaves. It doesn't look sickly or weak, so why did it fall?
The humans seem to notice this too as Kisame grabs his sword handle and Oki-Itachi summons his Sharingan while examining the tree. His eyes stop on the tree's base, then narrow.
"There's traces of chakra around its roots." Oki-Itachi walks over and crouches to better inspect the tree, Sasuke also peering at it.
Though the Chibi gasps at seeing large cracks in the bark spreading from a coin-sized crater in the wood. This mark...could it be…?
Sasuke gets an answer as a sharp whistle pierces the air and Oki-Itachi stands up so quick the Chibi nearly crashes into the gerbil water bottle.
"Is that..." Kisame squints at a tree branch above and Sasuke rights himself, looking up.
His eyes widen, and he blinks, but the image doesn't change.
Namikaze Naruto stands on the tree branch, a feral grin on his face while he holds a familiar hand seal and thousands of his shadow clones burst across the trees surrounding them.
Kisame's jaw drops and Sasuke wonders if he's dreaming as a Rasengan whirls in the Naruto clones' palms and they spring into the air with battle cries. The clones plummet towards the missing-nin and Oki-Itachi tries stepping back, but his feet don't budge. He looks down to see tree roots have erupted from the earth and are coiled tightly around his and Kisame's ankles.
The sharkman smirks. "Now this is going to be interesting!" He pulls out his sword and slices through the dozens of clones falling in front of him, angling his head to dodge the ones that get past his blade before swinging back to catch the clones behind him.
However, Oki-Itachi doesn't move and hundreds of Narutos drive their Rasengan into his body. The jar shakes violently and Sasuke is pitched to the side as the world flips and tilts. Yet it's the sting of his cheek smacking into the glass that finally knocks him from his stupor and he realizes this is really happening, Naruto is here. And he must be here for him. Otherwise, the Chibi wouldn't have risked revealing himself to humans.
Dozens of crows erupt from below and Sasuke suddenly realizes he's in a tree, Oki-Itachi having leapt up onto a branch before Naruto's clones could touch him while leaving a crow clone to take the hit.
"Are you alright?" Oki-Itachi glances down at Sasuke as his crows swarm the Naruto clones.
Yet the Chibi can't even think of a response before the tree they're in teeters and Oki-Itachi jumps off it while the tree drops towards his partner.
"Kisame!" Oki-Itachi warns, landing on the ground.
The sharkman quickly twists back, sword hacking the tree in two. Its pieces fly across the forest, snapping branches and knocking over a few other trees.
Kisame smirks, looking pleased. "These min-nin are gutsy for a bunch of little guys!"
He then turns to slice the tree roots off his legs and Sasuke notices Oki-Itachi's crows have left while Naruto's clones are gone, all having been defeated. Yet Kisame has only just freed himself when a cloud of smoke bursts between him and Oki-Itachi.
Sasuke ignores a soft clink against his jar as he watches the smoke fade away to reveal an orange frog summon slightly shorter than the Oki. Naruto is on top of the toad's head, having used his ridiculously large chakra reserves to summon the frog.
Kisame bears his sharp teeth, raising his sword eagerly. "Now this is a fight—"
Wooden pillars rise out of the earth, shocking Kisame into silence while they curl around him to form a thick dome. Oki-Itachi moves to aid Kisame, but stops as the frog's cheeks bulge and its mouth puckers to release a water jutsu.
Sasuke is concerned Naruto doesn't realize he will be caught in the water attack when there's a click above him and suddenly fresh air rushes into his container. The Chibi looks up and his mouth falls open.
Sakura stands on the jar rim, the lid tucked under her shoulder and a wicked smirk on her face. Yet her eyes are warm as she motions upwards.
The Uchiha slowly shakes off his shock and bends his knees to leap out, but stops as he notices Oki-Itachi staring straight at them.
Sasuke imagines the human's hand slamming down on Sakura, or worse, grabbing the girl and stuffing her into the jar with Sasuke.
However, the Oki simply stares for a moment, and then to Sasuke's amazement, he looks away towards the frog summon. Oki-Itachi's eyes narrow, he weaves rapid hand signs and breathes in deeply before opening his mouth to blow out a stream of fire.
Quickly the frog spits a torrent of water back at him and the elements clash, exploding into a thick mist.
"Sasuke-kun!"
The whisper-shout startles Sasuke and he turns to see Sakura's anxious expression. Realizing he hasn't moved, Sasuke jumps out of the jar and lands on the rim beside her. Sakura quickly drops the lid and leaps to the ground, Sasuke following her lead while a dense mist floods the area.
Sakura breaks into a sprint, trusting he's behind her, and Sasuke is about to go after the kunoichi, but something stops him.
He looks back and barely makes out Oki-Itachi's tall outline through the fog. A strange feeling tightens the muscles in his chest, likening fear, but somehow sadder. However, the fog is already dispersing, and Sasuke doesn't want to be caught, so he forces himself to look away and rushes after the faint bob of pink hair ahead.
They run for three minutes straight, the fog and clamor of battle vanishing in the distance. Sasuke's throat is on fire by the time Sakura stops beside a shrub and he barely avoids crashing into her, unbalanced by the suddenness of his escape. A part of him is questioning if this is a genjutsu, but Oki-Itachi couldn't have known what his teammates looked like or their fighting abilities.
The bush rustles, and Sasuke's hand slides to his back before he remembers his sword has been missing since he was captured. Though it doesn't matter as a familiar brown dog steps out of the thicket.
Pakkun's lazy gaze falls on Sasuke and his mouth curves in an approximation of a smile. "Nice to see you in one piece, kid." He lowers himself and the two Chibi hop on his back, using their chakra to keep their balance as the dog starts running.
Sasuke's eyes rove about while the wind brushes over his hair and the sun kisses his skin unhindered by glass or any other barrier. He's free, truly free…
"Are you okay?" Sakura asks, frowning, and Sasuke realizes he hasn't said a word, having gotten used to keeping his mouth shut for weeks now.
Sasuke nods, and in a voice raspy from disuse and thirst, says, "Yes."
He coughs a little and Sakura immediately pulls out a bottle and hands it to him, the Uchiha quickly chugging down the water.
He lowers the bottle once its empty, about to thank her, but suddenly strong arms wrap around him and Sakura's head falls on his shoulder. "I'm so glad you're alive!"
Sasuke's eyes widen while the kunoichi slowly pulls back to reveal her misty green eyes. The Uchiha is shocked because as emotional as Sakura is, it's rare for her to get so worked up during a mission. After all, she's a civilian Chibi, born without parents or a clan to find her on the day of her birth.
Sakura woke up alone in a field of flowers. Lost, confused, and only eight-years old, she had curled into a ball under the petals of a daisy and cried herself to sleep. By chance an Oki came across the flower patch she was in and dug it up, accidentally taking Sakura with it.
That Oki took the flowers to a shop, where they were to be sorted, put in pots, and sold the following morning. Sakura might have been discovered by humans the next day, but Ino lived in the shop and overheard Sakura crying while she was playing among the flowers. She took the lost girl to her father and the Chibi Yamanaka decided to take Sakura in, teaching her how to borrow food from Oki and registering her for the Chibi Ninja Academy.
Eventually, Sakura moved out to live in the walls of her counterpart's house and graduated as the top kunoichi in their Academy class. Considering most clanless Chibi die of starvation before they're found and those that survive rarely become ninja, it's a testament to her will and power that she's made it so far.
Sasuke's face falls, realizing Sakura must have been very worried about him for her to be this emotional. "I'm fine, really," he insists.
Sakura doesn't look assured, gaze falling on his splint. "But your leg…" Her face hardens, the kunoichi entering medic-nin mode as she kneels to examine it.
Sasuke shakes his head. "I don't need it anymore, I was just using it to hide my headband." He reaches down, pulls off the splint's straps and removes it while picking up his dark blue headband.
He ties the headband around his forehead, savoring the familiar weight on his head, and tucks the splint under Pakkun's vest as Sakura runs her fingers over his leg in search of injuries. Sasuke is certain it's completely healed, but figures she needs to see for himself, so allows her to check until she's satisfied.
"It's not broken," Sakura says, standing. "Though the tendons are a little stiff, but I assume that's because you've been wearing that splint for a while." Her expression turns thoughtful. "Itachi did say you broke your leg."
Sasuke's breath hitches. "You've talked to Itachi!?" The girl jolts in shock as he grabs her shoulders. "He's alive?" Desperation pitches his voice, but Sasuke doesn't care—he needs to know!
Sakura's lips draw to a line. "No, I haven't talked to him."
Sasuke's grip tightens. "Is he alive?" He demands, having not received an answer.
The kunoichi hesitates. "Itachi is—"
"SASUKE!"
The Uchiha releases the girl as an orange blur drops onto Pakkun's head and the dog nearly trips.
"Hey!" Pakkun turns and glares. "Are you trying to break my neck!?"
Naruto doesn't respond, blue eyes narrowing on Sasuke while he marches over to him and jabs an accusing finger in his chest. "Teme! You ruined my party!"
Sasuke blinks. "What?"
Naruto glowers and crosses his arms, chin jutting out indignantly. "I come back to the Village after a spending a whole year away, and expect my friends to throw me a 'Welcome Back Party', but instead, I find everyone moping because you went missing!"
The Namikaze threw up his hands as he mocked. "Everybody was like 'Sasuke, Sasuke! We have to find Sasuke!'" His hands dropped and he scowled. "No one even noticed I returned because you were dumb enough to get caught by some Oki—"
"Who are you calling dumb, baka!?" Sasuke shouts back instinctively, then pauses, surprised by the sound of his voice at such a high volume. It had been a while since he yelled.
"You, teme! Believe it!" Naruto gets in his face. "And I barely got to see my parents before I was sent out to find you just because you're too weak to save yourself!"
Sasuke's eyes bleed into his Sharingan and he grabs Naruto by his collar. "I didn't ask for your help," he seethes.
Naruto opens his mouth, another insult on his tongue, but a soft giggle interrupts them while a man asks, "Are they always like this?"
Sasuke looks over his shoulder to see a brown-haired man with deep, dark eyes wearing a flak jacket. The Uchiha falters, Sharingan fading as he stares at the unfamiliar jonin.
Sakura smiles at the man. "Yeah, they've been like this since the Academy." She giggles again. "Probably before then too."
The man chuckles and Sasuke keeps staring at him until the jonin finally notices and says, "Oh, I haven't introduced myself." He inclines his head. "My name is Yamato, I'm the temporary captain of Team Kakashi."
Sasuke releases Naruto, asking, "What happened to Kakashi?"
"He was on another assignment when we received intel about your whereabouts," Yamato says. "And Tsunade-sama didn't want to waste time waiting for him to return." He gestured downwards. "He sent Pakkun to help us travel faster."
Sasuke's brow furrows. "But how did you know where I was?" He holds his breath. "Did Itachi tell you?"
The man's face goes eerily blank. "No, we heard you were captured by humans from a scouting team near the Land of Rivers."
Sasuke understands he must be talking about those Chibi he ran into at the marketplace with Konan, and while he's grateful they sent him help, he'd been hoping it was Itachi who told them about the hideout…
"We're one of the search parties they sent here, and a few days ago one of Naruto's clones spotted an Oki wearing a black cloak with red clouds and followed them to a cave. We scouted the place, but couldn't confirm you were there until yesterday."
"Since then, we've just been waiting for the right moment to attack," Sakura concluded.
"So Itachi didn't tell you anything?" Sasuke looks from one shinobi to the next, frowning when Naruto and Sakura refuse to meet his eyes. "But one of the Oki said Itachi made it to the hideout, so why didn't he tell you I was there?"
Sasuke doesn't mention that Tobi also said Itachi was dead because he won't believe it. Not without proof.
"Because he couldn't," Sakura suddenly looks up, meeting his wild-eyed gaze.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Sasuke demands, towering over her.
Sakura stares back, lips a stern line. "Because Itachi is in—"
Pakkun suddenly skids to a stop and all the Chibi sway with surprised cries. Naruto rights himself first and goes to shout, but his mouth snaps shut, eyes widening as he stares over Sasuke's head.
"I wasn't expecting so many min-nin."
Sasuke swivels around and stiffens at the sight of Tobi standing a few feet ahead, his lone eye full malice.
"But perhaps this is better." He steps forward and Pakkun growls, bearing his canines while moving back.
Yamato shoots Sakura a glance and the girl unclips her weapon pouch, tossing it back to Sasuke who catches it and clips it on. The dark-haired teen then turns to Naruto who meets his eyes and nods.
"Though I was hoping you would lead us to another Uchiha min-nin," Tobi's eye falls on Naruto. "You all displayed rather powerful abilities, so I'm sure we can find some use for you regardless."
As he finishes the grass bulges behind Pakkun and the dog jumps aside while a man's head, half-white and half-black, rises from the ground surrounded by large Venus flytrap appendages.
"Ooh!" The plant man drawls, his lone human eye sparkling. "The min-nin look so colorful and yummy!"
"Stop gawking and grab them!" A deeper voice hisses from the dark side of the plant man's face before his arms break through the earth, covered in an Akatsuki cloak—is this another member?—and reach for them.
All the Chibi jump off Pakkun while the dog leaps onto a tree, knowing he can't help much, and Sasuke's hands fly through familiar signs before he blows out a volley of fireballs up towards the plant man, tossing shuriken into the flames as he does.
Behind him a high-pitched sound erupts while a Rasenshuriken blooms in Naruto's hand and Yamato weaves five signs, causing tree roots to rise and tangle around Tobi's ankles.
The Uchiha is confident they'll be okay so focuses on guiding his flames towards the plant man's eyes. Yet the man's Venus flytrap appendages close and protect his head from the fire and shuriken. However, the Uchiha smirks as Sakura jumps down from the air and her gloved fist crashes onto the green appendages.
The closed flaps cave under her fist and a wail resounds from inside them before they fall open to reveal the plant man slumped over unconscious.
Sakura smirks triumphantly and Sasuke is sure the plant man is out of the fight, so turns back to see Naruto slinging his Rasenshuriken at Tobi's abdomen with a battle cry.
Yet all the Chibi are stunned when the Rasenshuriken runs straight through Tobi as if the man was a ghost and the Akatsuki member walks right through the branches tangled around his feet.
"Impressive," Tobi's dark eye glints as he gazes upon Naruto. "You will definitely be useful."
Faster than Sasuke can see, the man snatches Naruto off the ground. Sakura gasps, but before they can do anything, Tobi grunts in surprise as Naruto's Rasenshuriken collides with a rock behind him and explodes into a ferocious whirlwind.
Sasuke immediately weaves six signs and spits fire towards the whirlwind. The flames absorb the oxygen eagerly and stretch up to a human height while the whirlwind expands into a fiery tornado.
Suddenly Naruto slips straight through Tobi's hand and plummets as the flames harmlessly pass through the masked man. Yamato quickly extends his arm, which turns into wood and reaches for Naruto.
The Namikaze lands on the wood and slides it down to them while Yamato turns to Sakura and whispers. "Smoke bombs!"
The kunoichi pulls out said bombs and tosses them down, engulfing them all in a smoke so thick Sasuke can't see his own hands. Yet before he can try to find a way to his companions, a hand latches onto his back and he's yanked up, then dropped on something soft and in motion.
"Hold on," Pakkun whispers from below as he sprints out the smoke and dives into a bush.
Sasuke glimpses Naruto, Sakura, and Yamato beside him under the spots of sunlight breaking through the dense shrubbery. Yet peeking out of the bush he sees another Pakkun with somebody that looks like him and his teammates on his back running out the smoke and sprinting past Tobi.
The masked man moves to intercept the other dog and while he's distracted, Pakkun jets out of the bush and jumps silently onto a tree branch.
As the dog hops from one tree to the next, Sasuke regards Naruto. "Your shadow clones henged into us?"
The blond beams. "Pretty clever, huh?"
Sasuke raises a brow. "For a twelve-year old maybe."
Naruto scowls. "Hey, hey, I just saved you, ya know!"
"Then we're even." Sasuke crosses his arms. "Considering all the times I've rescued you."
"Name one—"
"That time you got stuck in dough and that Oki almost baked you into a cake."
Naruto's mouth shuts and a petulant look crosses his face while Sasuke smirks until Sakura asks, "Did we lose him?"
Sasuke looks back, but all he sees are trees and open air with Tobi nowhere in sight.
"I think we're in the clear," he says.
"Just to be safe, we should travel through that river." Yamato points ahead at a tranquil stream. "The water will mask our scent and hide your paw prints."
"Got it!" Pakkun turns and jumps onto a small tree that hangs over the rushing water. He scans over the river below and his gaze settles on a couple of rocks jutting out of the stream.
The dog leaps down onto it, and it's as his front paws touch the stone that Sasuke feels something warm erupt on his back.
"Sasuke-kun!"
The Uchiha twists around to see a white mass bulging off the back of his shirt, its weight pressing down on Sasuke so heavily he ends up tumbling off Pakkun's side.
"Sasuke!" Naruto dives after him, Rasengan in hand, which he presses into the white mass that's vaguely humanoid with green hair before the jutsu hits it and the mass bursts apart.
The explosion knocks Sasuke through the air and he can't latch onto anything before he plummets into the river. The Uchiha flounders under the water, the liquid dragging down his clothes and slowing his movements. Yet he shoves chakra into his hands and waves them blindly until he feels air and slaps them down onto the water's surface.
He pulls himself up and stands on the river, clothes dripping wet, and is stunned to see Pakkun over ten yards away, the river having dragged him that far in a mere six seconds.
"Hold on!" Yamato calls, hands forming signs before wood erupts from the riverside in the shape of a hand and zips towards Sasuke.
Once it's close, the Uchiha leaps onto it, but freezes as the air swirls like a vortex beside him and Tobi appears in front of the aberration. "There you are."
His teammates shout in alarm as Tobi reaches for him and Sasuke only has a second to think before he swivels back and dives off the wooden hand.
Tobi's eye widens as Sasuke plunges into the water and the current steals him away.
The Uchiha rolls in the undertow, paddling frantically to avoid large rocks and logs. Yet it's only once his lungs start to burn that he swims upwards. His head breaches the surface and he gasps for oxygen, rushing to wipe the water from his eyes. However, no one stands on the river or beside it.
Sasuke clambers on top of the water and stands, his Sharingan activating as he looks around. But there's no one to see and all he hears is the river's gurgle.
The Chibi sprints off the water and steps onto the gravely riverside, frowning at a couple of pink flowering plants growing by the water. He's never seen such plants in the Land of Fire, and gazing at the tall trees in the distance, bark pale as snow, Sasuke realizes he doesn't recognize any of the vegetation around him.
Sasuke's Sharingan fades as he frowns. "Where…am I?"
The Uchiha has no idea how far he's traveled from his team and there's a high chance they don't know either, and while they might just run down the river until they come across him, Tobi could do the same. In fact, his team probably left the river to escape the masked man anyway.
The Chibi takes a steadying breath, closes his eyes, and then opens them. He'll have to leave the river too in that case.
Sasuke trudges into the unfamiliar, drooping grass that stands over twice his size, telling himself it's okay if it's unfamiliar. That won't stop him from finding his way back to Konoha and seeing his family again.
I'm coming, Nii-san.
Sasuke pictures his brother's encouraging smile and the image fills him with confidence as he traverses deeper into the unknown.
Sorry for how long it took me to update, but hopefully I can get the next chapter up in the next 2-3 weeks. Also, thank you for all the reviews, it's muy appreciated!
Next time: Sasuke is free, but getting home is harder than he thought…
Take care!
