17

Imma Chill Out A Bit, Yeah?

As I expected, it didn't take too long for it to happen.

It was barely a week later and I was already able to do some light jumping jacks in my hospital room. The big heavy cast was off of my left arm and there was now only a thinner, more comfortable one.

"Sasuke-kun. How are you doing now?" the doctor asked me as I was walking down the hallway.

"I'm actually doing great, doc!" I said as I approached her. "My entire body has never felt better! Well... Maybe except for this arm," I joked as I waved my left arm that was in a sling.

The doctor laughed along with me as she said, "Well, that's great to hear! Your healing powers are really something else. But make sure to take plenty of rest, you understand?"

"Yes, doc! I'll take your advice," I replied as I continued on my way, getting lots of smiles, and waves from the nurses and other patients.

Finally, after my long trek, I stopped in front of a special metal door that was on the ground floor. "Yo!" I said to the two ANBU guarding the door.

"How are you doing, Sasuke?" one of them asked as he placed his hand on a seal that was on the door.

"Not too bad, how about you?" I asked as the seal flashed green and the door unlocked.

"Fine, thanks for asking. Say hello to Captain Lynx for us," he said as he swung open the door for me.

"Sure! Will do. Thanks!" I said, getting a nod from him as I stepped through.

It was as if the scenery had done a complete 180 as I gazed down the long white deserted hallway. This portion of the hospital was reserved only for ANBU and the highest-ranking shinobi. It was rumoured to have the full capabilities of an emergency operations center, in case of an invasion or war.

I walked down the hallway, looking for Room 111. I had been here once before, but since everything looked the same, it was very difficult to distinguish based solely on the amount of distance from the main door. That's why I had to read the room numbers that were written in tiny writing for each door.

At last, I arrived at my destination and lightly knocked on the door.

"Come in," the voice came from the inside.

I turned the knob and opened the door. A light smile floated onto my face as I saw Yugao. She still had her ANBU mask on, but she looked so much more relaxed like this. I mean, both her arms were in a cast and one of her legs was also lifted up in a cast, but she looked peaceful at least.

"Lynx!" I said excitedly as I stepped in and closed the door behind me.

"Sasuke, what... How can you walk already!?" she asked in astonishment as I walked to the other side of the bed and sat on the chair.

"Dunno, I'm just awesome like that," I answered with a cheeky grin.

"Smartass," she replied playfully.

"So, how's the recovery going?" I asked, gesturing to the casts all around.

Yugao sighed slightly. "The medics said it will take me a month or so to heal completely," she said, a little bit of bitterness seeping into her voice. "And then another couple of weeks of physical and mental therapy before I'm ready for active duty again."

"Damn... I'm sorry," I said, feeling like shit that I had technically done this to her. If I hadn't told her about Orochimaru—,

"Oi!" she said angrily, bringing me out of my musings. "Don't you dare apologize. This is my job. This is what I'm trained to do," Yugao declared as her voice softened a little. "In fact, I should probably be thanking you right about now. If it wasn't for you figuring out Orochimaru, we wouldn't have him in custody right now."

I sighed. She was right. It was because of my information that Orochimaru was in Konoha SuperMax right now.

"I know, but I still feel guilty as shit," I said to her.

"Listen, Sasuke," Yugao began slowly. "You are just now starting to feel the stress and trauma that comes with being a shinobi. From here, there are two paths that you can take," she explained as I listened to her carefully. "You can either feel guilty and let go of yourself and die on a mission one day because you were distracted, or you can use this guilt, turn it into a burning desire to protect this village and train to the best of your ability, to become the strongest in this village." She paused, looking at me from the dark holes of the ANBU mask. "Choose wisely, Sasuke," she finished.

I took a deep breath and looked away from her. The choice was obvious. Even without her giving me choices, getting stronger than ever was my plan. But seeing that Yugao cared for me and believed in me that much only made the fire in my heart burn brighter.

"I'll become strong. Strong enough to never let something like this happen ever again," I said, gesturing to her.

"I'll be watching," she replied simply. I couldn't see because of the ANBU mask, but I knew she had a smile on her face.

Speaking of which, I decided to ask her to show me her face. I mean it should be okay now, right? We were so close already.

"By the way, Lynx," I said to her. "Can you take off your mask? I want to see your face."

Yugao laughed a little bit as she gazed at me. "Why do I feel like you already know what I look like, even if I've never taken off my mask in front of you?" she asked.

I didn't know if it was just an ANBU's instincts or a woman's intuition, but she was sharp.

"Aww, c'mon. You know that's not possible," I said, playing dumb.

"Hmm," she hummed playfully. "You know what? Not right now," she said. Seeing my downtrodden look, she added, "Maybe one day when you're strong enough to defeat me when we spar. That's when I'll show you."

That was an interesting offer, but I had another idea.

"Or," I said with a smile. "I can just take it off right now, and see you."

Yugao chuckled as if expecting me to say that. "You can surely try," she said, challenging me. "But these masks are stuck to our face using chakra. So unless you've got enough strength to rip my chakra apart, I don't think you'll be successful."

"Damn it!" I said, reaching over and pulling on her mask, just to confirm her statement.

"See?" she said victoriously.

Hm... This was interesting. Well, I did have one more trick up my sleeve.

"Or what if..." I said, adjusting my cast so that it allowed a little more freedom of movement. "I use the chakra absorbing jutsu?" I asked as I slowly ran through hand seals.

"That won't work either. The rate of absorption is too slow," Yugao said. Had I not been paying close attention, I would have completely missed it, but I didn't. The small waver in her voice when she pronounced 'won't'.

"Oh?" I asked with a smirk. "Are you sure about that?" I finished the hand seal sequence and my hand glowed blue.

"Sasuke, wait," Yugao said with a hint of fear in her voice. Not minding her, I brought my glowing hand closer to her face. "Sasuke, no!" she said, trying to turn her face away and. "Please, Sasuke!" she pleaded.

As my hand got within an inch of her mask, I cancelled the jutsu and instead, flicked her mask.

"Eh?" was all she could say as the knocking noise came from her mask.

I flicked it again, absolutely loving her reaction.

"S-Sasuke?" she asked. One more flick. "What are you doing!?" she started getting a little annoyed.

"You see," I said, flicking one more time. "I thought," flick, "instead of taking your mask off," flick, "it would be so much more fun," flick, "if I just took revenge for those flicks of yours!" I finished with one more flick.

"Sasuke..." she said, earning one more flick. "Sasuke!" she said, a little more forceful this time.

"Go ahead, Lynx," I said with another flick and a devious grin on my face.

"That's enough," she said.

"Oh is it?" Flick. "I think I'm just getting started," I replied with an evil cackle.

"Sasuke, I will kill you," she threatened, trying to move but giving up on that idea as she hissed from the pain. I rewarded her effort with three flicks in a row.

"Oh, will you? That's cute," I said. One more flick.

"Sasuke!" she growled.

Flick.

"Dammit, Sas—,"

Flick.

"Sa—,"

Flick.

"Grr."

Flick.

"You're dead."

Flick.

"You're dead meat, Sasuke!"

Flick.

"Hehe," I laughed with glee. "I can do this all day."

"I will—,"

Flick. Flick. Flick.

...

The flicking lasted for ten whole minutes, and I knew I had to end it then because all I could hear anymore was, a constant low growl with an occasional "You're so dead," thrown in there.

As I was leaving, I waved to Yugao from the door to her hospital room, saying, "I'll be back tomorrow!" And before she could reply, I shut the door.

"You little shit!" I heard her yell from inside and snickered as I sauntered out of the top-secret medical facility.

...

"Kakashi," I muttered as I saw the badly beaten up body of my sensei peacefully unconscious in the ICU. Sitting beside him just strengthened the feeling of guilt in my heart. "C'mon, bro. You gotta wake up," I said – no, pleaded, hoping that he could hear me right now, but all I got in return was the steady beeping of the machines around him that signified that he was alive.

From what the Hokage and the doctors had told me, Kakashi had rushed into the Forest of Death from the ANBU command center as soon as the reports from the ANBU stopped coming in and the chakra signatures of huge jutsus popped up. He had found me just barely in time and had battled it out with Orochimaru and held him off just long enough for the Hokage and more jonin and ANBU to arrive.

Kakashi had expended all of his chakra and then some by taking an ungodly amount of chakra pills which had torn his chakra system. From his fight, he had also sustained multiple injuries that would've been fatal if it was anyone else. Almost every internal organ of his was punctured, or at least injured in some way. His bones had also sustained heavy damage and more third-degree burns from when Orochimaru had used his Fire Style jutsus.

"Mate," I said and paused. It was only now that I realized how attached I had grown to the people around me. I tried to live my life in a detached, carefree way – in a way where I wouldn't feel pain when I eventually lost the people around me. But as I was just finding out, that clearly hadn't worked. "I haven't even apologized for being an ass to you for so long," I whispered.

My time with Kakashi didn't last too long, though.

An ANBU barged into the room urgently as he called out to me. "Sasuke-san!" he exclaimed.

"Hm?" I asked, confused about what the hurry was.

"Please follow me. The Hokage requests your presence."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! What was this, like the third week in a row!? Is Hiruzen a secret pedo too?

"Sasuke-san, it's urgent!" the ANBU said.

"Ffffffffuck! Fine," I said, getting up from my seat. I honestly didn't have the energy to argue, so I'll see what he wanted from me this time.

Walking at a brisk pace, the ANBU led me through the winding hallways of the hospital until we stepped outside.

He placed a hand on me and said, "Please brace yourself. This will be a long jump."

With a nod from me, we body-flickered out of there and landed right in front of the one place I was most wary of.

"Why are we here?" I asked with trepidation as I gazed at the massive prison facility in front of me.

"I do not know the details. The Hokage requests you," he said and led me inside. We made our way through more hallways, cells, guards, and prisoners until we caught sight of the Hokage and his ANBU guard.

"Hokage-sama," the ANBU bowed and disappeared after a nod from Hiruzen.

"Sasuke," the old man turned his head and fixed me with steely eyes as he called out to me.

"What is it now?" I asked, annoyed.

"It's great to see you healed up and moving around," he said with his usual smile plastered on his face. Though even I could see that the smile didn't reach his eyes. "Sadly we are short on time so I'll have to get to the point quickly."

"No problem. What am I here for?" I asked.

"You see," the Hokage began in a lecturing tone. "Not many of the younger generation knows this, but I was actually Orochimaru's sensei when he was young," he said.

"Yeah, I know that. I remember hearing or reading it somewhere."

"Ah, I see," he nodded sagely as he took in the information. "This also means that I know him quite well," he continued, "and when we examined the event more closely, his wasteful actions while attacking you seemed out of place. So, we interrogated Orochimaru about this and he said the most surprising thing," the Hokage said, his eyes suddenly becoming sharp. "He said that he wanted some information from you. That was why he didn't kill you instantly."

SHHHIIIIIIITTT! All that stuff I said about ROOT! Orochimaru gave in to the interrogation!? What the hell!?

"What information?" I asked, acting confused.

The Hokage eyed me for a second before asking me, "Sasuke, what do you know about Danzo Shimura?"

"About what?" I said, making a confused expression.

The Hokage sighed, contemplating what to say, and I knew exactly what his dilemma was.

He needed to make a decision, and he had three choices here. He could either let me go, assuming Orochimaru was a liar, he could either reveal more information to me and risk giving me top secret information if I was truly innocent, or he could reveal that top-secret information in the hopes that I would slip up and say something, incriminating myself.

"Sasuke..." Hiruzen said as he looked at me intently and put two fingers on my neck to check my pulse. "Do swear to stay loyal to Konoha unconditionally and never act against it or its interests?" he asked the same question he had asked before once again. He was trying to reaffirm my loyalty to the village... Not a bad move on his part.

"Hokage-sama," I said, staring him in the eyes. "I know the truth about my clan and I still decided to side with Konoha even after learning what they were going to do and why they were going to do it. I think you should know my answer by now," I stated with a scowl and he pinned me with a very calculating gaze.

It looked like it was a tough choice for him, but if I was in his place, I would've let me go. After all, I have already assured him that I would never act against Konoha or its interests.

"What I am about to tell you is top secret information, Sasuke," the Hokage said finally. I guess he went with the second option. "And the only reason I'm telling you this is because I believe you are truly loyal to Konoha."

I nodded.

From there, the Hokage went on to explain the creation and purpose of ROOT to me and also who Danzo was. However, he held off on explaining Orochimaru's involvement and experiments.

"Your thoughts, Sasuke?" he asked me as he finished his explanation.

I rubbed my chin as I wondered what the perfect answer would be. I mean, when I think about it, what I truly think about this whole thing would also be the perfect answer in this case.

"Well..." I began. "A secret special force, created to secretly take missions that Konoha doesn't condone outwardly, huh? Well twenty bucks are twenty bucks, so I guess I like the idea," I said with a nod. "But I hate one thing about it."

"And that is?" he asked inquisitively.

"It's not under your control," I replied. "A force like this... Especially, a force like this should be directly under the command of the Hokage. Not anyone else. Because the will of the Hokage is the will of the village. So if an OTB operation goes sideways, you can immediately run damage control." I went on to elaborate a bit more. "With how it is now, you'll be too late to find out if a ROOT op goes wrong which gives our enemies an opportunity to take actions, diplomatically and tactically, before us," I finished my explanation.

"OTB?" he asked.

"Off-the-books."

The Hokage rubbed his chin and thought about my argument in silence for a minute. "I see. I'll take your words into consideration," he said.

"Yeah, I'm honoured... Or whatever I'm supposed to say to that," I replied with a shrug.

Hiruzen chuckled as he said, "As disrespectful as you are, for some reason, your insolence grows on people," and mentioned for me to follow him.

I walked in silence beside him as we traversed through the dark, murky prison hallways for a while before coming to a stop in front of a room. Without a word, the Hokage pushed open the door and walked in. I took the cue and followed him in.

I really don't plan out my stories at all, so wherever this goes, I have no control over it. I literally just write whatever I feel like writing at the moment.