Chapter Eighteen: Visions and Brothers
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Storm abated—night had fallen hours ago upon the forest; but, now, it began to cast away the blanket of quiet, bursting with life. Chirping crickets in the dense grass dug their way out from the soil, and a night owl, with its yellow eyes gleaming, trilled and hooted overhead. The light rain beating against the foliage barely made it to his face—its path was broken by thick knots of branches that seemed to have mysteriously kept their vigour despite autumn's arrival in all its brutality.
Sasuke looked over his shoulder; his eyes slid from Chōjūrō eyes, misty behind the fogged spectacles perched on his too-thin nose, to Ao's tense face and his eyes that still bore signs of accusation. He did not care: they did not have anything to lay on Suigetsu. He was free and safe under his wing, and they knew they would be sorry the moment they decided to threaten the Uchiha clan. The Uchihas were famous daemons: it was good to play with them, but they never made good enemies.
A smile broke Sasuke's tense features, but it slid from his face just as quickly. His vision swam under the steady rain droplets and the self-inflicted haze on his eyes. Amaterasu was a cruel seductress, but his eyes did not need their vision's trickeries to tell him that dawn was coming across the horizon; red splashed and spread, from end-to-end of the sky which was sombre, and tore away the clouds that, now, yellowed threads were beginning to race down to the ground.
Sasuke screwed up his eyes against the shaft of light that descended on his face. He knew it then: it was morning and Suigetsu and Jūgo had not made it back. Absentmindedly, he whistled and the snowy hawk, dappled with grey spots, landed on his hand. That was enough to capture Ao and Chōjūrō's interest. Chōjūrō adjusted his glasses—a perfunctory habit Karin seemed to have, too. His face was inquisitive, his features breaking into a curious smile at the sight of the bird. Ao looked tense, not letting go of the fact that they could have checked the borders themselves.
"Is . . . is that a hawk?" Chōjūrō asked in an awed voice and made his way towards Sasuke. He stopped only a few inches short of him and stretched taut his finger (to stroke the Hawk) that got nipped painfully in answer. He hissed and wagged his hand. His face had yet to let go of that innocent curiosity that was irritating the hell out of Sasuke. "These small ones are so rare!" he said, a curious expression still evident on his young face, bending his head so low that it looked as though he was bowing before Sasuke.
Sasuke did not say anything and pulled out a small scroll from his jacket's pocket and tied it around Kirin's ankle. He had written everything he needed to in a code only he and his brother understood. It was a brief message, but he was content that, if Itachi had not killed all of the rogues, he should be able to find one hiding away somewhere. He moved his arm a little and Kirin disappeared to the north.
Chōjūrō, who was still bent in an awkward pose before him, craned his neck and adjusted his glasses awkwardly. "You sent this to Itachi-Sama? Aren't we heading in that direction ourselves? Was it—"
"This is a mission, not a fool's errand," Sasuke curtly cut across him, bringing out a blank expression on Chōjūrō's face. "I have to know how things are going at Nii-Sama's end—that he's safe. He's brought a trainee with himself from my team. I had no idea the mess you people invited us to. She wasn't trained for this—I never should've let her come."
An uneasy expression flickered across Chōjūrō's face, but he quickly composed himself and fingered the frame of his glasses. "We had no idea they recruited more thugs," Chōjūrō spoke calmly and roved his eyes over to the vast forest up north; he was kneading chakra for Sensing.
Sasuke frowned, unconvinced. He wanted to get something, anything out of him. "You had no idea they had created an army? I killed twenty myself—twenty-two if you count the last two I burnt alive. What's your Mizukage playing at? I don't like games," he rasped, voice a little rough, and bent his head a little to glare down at the shorter man.
Chōjūrō opened his mouth to speak when Ao intervened, "we had no idea, as well, Sasuke-Sama," he paused, speaking the honorific with such difficulty that it sounded as if he had choked on it, "we were in the dark—same boat as you. Mizukage was tipped off by our spies in Rain. They didn't tell us anything about an army. They probably had a hide-out somewhere close to the borders where they carried out their operations." He stood up from his dirty perch, which was a toppled over tree covered in moss, which grew from the sides. The side of his blue robes was caked green.
"Your Intelligence Division's so well-informed and on top of things that, lucky for the thugs, we never found that hide-out," Sasuke said, keeping a note of sardonic pleasure in his voice; his lips curled in an exquisite smile. The expression seemed to have frozen on his face, and he took great pleasure in watching the hue of humiliation rise in the high of Ao's pale-white cheeks—he had looked away.
"You make a good point, Sasuke-Sama," Chōjūrō said in a fake, simpering voice; he was the cleverer of the two, "but that's why we brought you and your brother along. We knew we needed help. I think a little pat on the back is in order for our simple-minded thinking, too—won't you agree?" He let out a small laugh and folded his arms on his breast. His expression remained untouched by Sasuke's harsh words.
Sasuke narrowed his eyes and looked at him for a few fleeting seconds, taking in the blankness of his face. He was probably sent in to keep an eye on him, and the two ninjas from Mist were sent in to make sure his brother did not do anything unsavoury. They must have met up with Itachi by now . . .
Anger rose in him that his brother was being spied on by Mist swine. He was impressed with himself that the realisation could not break the surface of his calm, and Chōjūrō did not feel the heat of it on his skin. Despite his ready-made smiles and fake masks, sometimes, his short-temper got the better of him. With time and arts of imitations, his skin grew more accustomed to his plays—ready and pliant to create a moody expression that almost never betrayed him. Yes, he impressed himself today. Such a child—it was never that easy!
Slowly, he turned away without saying anything. His ears wriggled and Chōjūrō's eyes widened with a realisation, but he did not move. A moment later, Suigetsu landed with Jūgo close to Ao who staggered back, nearly tripping over his feet in the slippery mud; he was still sulking rather pathetically.
Suigetsu's smile widened as his eyes fell on Ao's face. "Hello, Ao. Watchya doin' in this part of the forest? I heard it gets dangerous at night." He widened his eyes, feigning fear. Ao's cheeks burnt. "Time ta stick yor head into the mud. The dirty spies'll just slap yor plump arse, thinkin' that yor a broad. They don't got that Mist male-bum stiffness to 'em. The thugs'll pass right by ya—after a good gropin'. I guarantee. Ya might like it, too!" he ended that with a loud dramatic sigh and slammed his fist against his breast.
Chōjūrō had an urge to let out a loud laugh, but he turned away with a chuckle. Ao grit his teeth and clenched his trembling, cold-bitten fingers into two mighty knuckles. He looked murderous. Suigetsu opened his mouth to say something more, but Sasuke spoke first, "Suigetsu, knock it off."
"A'right, a'right," Suigetsu said and made a regal gesture at Ao with such an airy grace that even Sasuke could not help let slip a smile. He marched to him with that same mischievous grin on his face; Sasuke could not remember any moment he saw him without it. "Look atcha, all wet, hot, and slippery—bet the thirsty whores would love that!" He winked and leant against the tree. Behind him, Jūgo looked around, and almost magically, several colourful birds swooped down and landed on his shoulders. They sat there and tittered without a care in the world, full of joy!
The wink and Suigetsu's jokey remarks meant that the job was well-done. Sasuke leant his head down and started looking at the tiny buds of flowers just opening up to catch the morning light. "Did you find anything around the border? Any sign of the rogues?" Sasuke asked, his murky eyes flickering from Chōjūrō's curious face to Suigetsu's.
"Nope. Would've told ya if I found any, boss. So—" he broke off and rounded on Chōjūrō, who was looking shrewdly at Sasuke's stone-cold indifferent face, "—how long's this bullshit goin' ta last? 'Am kinda tired. How much's he payin' us, anyway? I need the dough to bury my four-month virgin beak! The sows don't come cheap!" He looked over to Sasuke.
Sasuke's gaze drifted slightly towards Chōjūrō before he brought it back to Suigetsu. "They'll pay as much as the task requires," he said grimly, with an air of finality. He saw Chōjūrō open his mouth to say something; sheepishly, he looked at Ao for support and then closed his mouth when he found him still sulking by the tree, with his back to the rest.
"That settles it!" Suigetsu yawned and raised his arms to stretch. "I was just tellin' Jūgo that he needs ta get some real birds, but he didn't get what I—" he stopped, his hands still up in the air when a loud blast up north shook the whole area. A massive shockwave blew against their faces. Ao, who was cursing Sasuke under his breath with the meanest repository of words he could find, came rushing forward with his Byakugan on—it failed him again, unable to cross the barrier of distance his eye could not pass. Curse this thing!
Colour drained from Sasuke's face. With that mask of control unconsciously thrown away, his features collapsed into a look of absolute shock and terror, his eyes bulging and his mouth opening wide as if he was about to scream. Sweat burst from his every pore, and his heart pumped blood so fast that it ached. His face trembled, and his eyes turned a little misty as he took one step and shouted, "Nii-Sama!" Then he vanished, leaving a cloud of dust in his wake.
"Sasuke, wait!" Suigetsu shouted behind him. He exchanged a fearful look with Jūgo whose shoulders were empty—the birds had left their perch in a frenzy of terror. They did not stick around and chased after him, leaving Ao and Chōjūrō behind.
"That was the meeting place," Chōjūrō said, his face giving the look of a tired, gaunt man. "This is bad. If the rouges killed Itachi—"
"Itachi's good. He won't die that easily," he assured, not turning off his Byakugan. "There's no use sticking around. If he lived and caught one—I don't even want to think about it. Come on!" Chōjūrō nodded in agreement, and they both ran North where a steady pile of smog was rising up into the air, breaking apart the pearly streamlets.
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Hinata sat on a large stone, her eyes downcast, her fingers knotted on her lap. Only a couple of minutes had passed by since they evaded the blast when a Mist shinobi appeared at the rendezvous point. He told Itachi that he was sent out to assist them. Itachi did not look happy as, despite the cool expression, he could not quite suppress a breath of disapproval. The four ninjas Itachi had sent out dragged a rogue ninja into the clearing. He had been hiding it out to give them a slip with a couple of chakra bombs, which he kept throwing out after every ten minutes. It was a miracle they did not spot him earlier; Itachi thought that the guy was such a fool.
The Mist shinobi wanted to kill him, but Itachi stopped him on grounds of interrogation. Now, he sat on the ground, tied to a tree. His eyes were downcast, and he looked like a defeated man. Hinata did not know what to think. She sat quietly under the branches of a sprawling tree. The rain had stopped, and now, a gentle wind whistled in her ears; but she was thinking, ignoring the drops that fell on her cheeks. She could have been killed. The thrill of the moment had passed, and then it occurred to her: Sasuke sent her out, an untrained shinobi, on such a dangerous mission? She felt a surge of resentment towards him, and her breast heaved rapidly with emotion.
He had sent Kirin moments before their encounter with the rogue. Now, it sat quietly in Itachi's front pocket; it moved its tiny head rapidly from left to right. To her horror, Itachi came over and sat down beside her, a touch of weariness on his cold face. He looked out into the distance, as if daydreaming, and suddenly spoke, "family . . . we need them and they depend on us . . . "
Hinata did not say anything. She bent forward and fingered the ground. There was nothing she could have said. She wanted him to talk about anything else, but to her disappointment, he resumed the subject that was foreign to her. "There is a monster in all of us," he whispered, his voice low as though he was hissing in her ears.
She sat upright, and her white eyes stared back into his that held such depths and darkness she had never seen before that, for the tiniest moment, her body quivered with a wonderful sensation of fear. She still did not answer him and bent her gaze ever so slightly to stop him from looking into her secrets. He continued, "it is wise to accept the monsters in us, in others, and learn to embrace them—perhaps in an attempt to bring them to light."
Hinata's lip quivered, and she blinked back a few tears. "You don't know anything—a-about my monsters," she whispered back and her voice quaked. She hated this weakness, but the woman in her was weak.
"I do not want to and I do not need to," Itachi spoke, his voice smooth and cold in equal measures, and looked away, "but it is wise to look deep into ourselves and others. Some daemons in us should be tamed. Do not set everything free and do not try and embrace those that do not belong to you. You will only make things worse for yourself. We all do not enjoy relinquishing the things we need."
Itachi cast one appraising glance her way, stood up straight, walked away. Is he talking about Sasuke? she thought fearfully. Her face trembled and threatened to reveal her weakness, but she composed her face into an expression of anguish. Moments passed and Sasuke landed into the clearing. Hinata leapt to her feet, her heart racing. He had abandoned her with his brother. Did he even care? She took one step, but drew up short at the sight of his dishevelled appearance: his eyes were red and swollen as if he had been weeping.
His breath was ragged as he took one step, taking in Itachi's appearance, whispering his name that floated to Hinata's ears. Itachi moved closer and stretched his right arm as though to catch his brother who looked anguished. His right hand reached around to grasp the back of Sasuke's head. "Sasuke, I am all right," he assured him when Sasuke said nothing. "You worry too much. Look, I caught one for interrogation." He smiled at Sasuke, meeting his eyes that changed patterns.
The world slowed down in Sasuke's vision. He shrunk in size and sat in Itachi's lap, with the same origami bird in his hands, his heart racing as fast as beatings of the thousands of crows' wings all-around—their sounds over-powering his hurried breaths. Fearfully, he looked up at Itachi smiling down at him, his coldest smile broken apart by boyhood's goodness. "I don't want to talk to you like this," Sasuke said and listened to his small voice bounce back at him.
"No?" Itachi asked, feigning surprise; his voice sounded a lot softer than usual. "I have always found the idea of such a change . . . pleasant."
Sasuke blinked and the next moment he stood facing Itachi in his current form. Black ink drops plopped into the grey, and within seconds, they metamorphosed into crows. With fierceness, they beat their wings and flew away to the edge of the dream-world before they melted into the veils—to become the fabric of Itachi's illusions. An icy shiver ran down Sasuke's spine; this place always felt strange to him. It brought out a child-like terror from inside him that he could never deny.
"I'm glad you are all right, Nii-Sama. If something had happened to you, I don't know what I . . . " his voice trailed off, and he lowered his head to hide his anxiousness, not looking into his brother's eyes.
"You should know that I have never enjoyed disappointing you. I have kept a gift for your distress," he said, with the faintest smile on his lips. A few crows landed on his shoulders and few chose to find comfort by his feet. Like his brother's shadows, together they cawed, their noisy language echoing in the rippling world without hues. Sasuke narrowed his eyes as they watered against the noise. "Silence," Itachi let out a whisper that carried itself smoothly to Sasuke and dead silence fell all over.
The crows opened and closed their beaks, but nothing came out; their calls had been silenced, their sounds muted in the dark and grey painted-world, in which he stood with his older brother—fearfully. "Is he one of the rogues?" Sasuke asked and looked around warily. This place . . . it always looked ghastly, terrifying, wintery.
"Yes. I would have killed him after interrogation, but you told me to keep him alive," Itachi spoke and walked to Sasuke. "Did you find anything of value?"
Sasuke took in a deep intake of breath and told Itachi about the Tulip Squad, hiding what he needed to hide. His brother remained quiet and then spoke into the silence, breaking it as though a sword cleaving the wind's delicate fabric in two, "I have not yet interrogated him, but he would not know anything. They probably left the grunt-work for us—a bit humiliating." He sighed afterwards and put his hand to the side of Sasuke's face.
"I'll make her pay. Who does she think she is—sending men to spy on us and thinking that she tricked us into doing her dirty work?" Sasuke spat at the empty air as if he was looking right at her.
Itachi pulled back his hand. "Do not be rash, Sasuke," he paused and placed his hand on Sasuke's untidy hair that had been made even more untidy by this long haul without any rest. "Perhaps you are right and she did all this to test us. I will look into this Squad matter to ease your worries. I know I will not find anything, but we do not have anything to lose."
"I can always draw out the culprit. It's a snake in my team. I know it," Sasuke rumbled and narrowed his eyes at the shadows, hoping that the culprit would jump out from their midst.
"We will find him. Do not worry," Itachi spoke smoothly—his red eyes glinted with an emotion. Then it vanished from his eyes, and he, quite affectionately, stroked Sasuke's hair. The illusion ended before Sasuke could draw in another breath.
Sasuke felt the wind's tingling sensations on his skin; sun greeted his eyes in reality. He inhaled sharply and let out a loud sigh. Then he turned his eyes and stopped them on Hinata. His gaze lingered on her for a few moments, and he watched as she turned pink in the face; then he looked away as the rest of his team landed into the clearing, with the winded Chōjūrō and Ao right at their heels.
"We heard—Sasuke ya—" Suigetsu blurted out whilst he struggled to regain his breath. These two trips had taken out a lot of his moisture. Quietly, Jūgo looked at Sasuke and Itachi.
"I'm fine. Some rogues tried to kill Nii-Sama. They're dead, of course," Sasuke said in a proud voice and ran his thin finger along his lips. He turned his eyes to the Mist guards. "Why are you two still here? The mission is over. Take your shinobi with you."
"The Mist rogue," Chōjūrō began and pointed his hand at the tired man still under Sharingan's Genjutsu, "we'll take him off your hands."
"Yah, mate, I don't think so!" Suigetsu snorted and whipped out his bottle from that fat and over-stuffed fanny-pack dangling over his buttocks.
"That's not up to—" Ao began in a heated voice but stopped when Itachi raised his hand to silence him.
"You lied to us and used our valuable time to do your work. I have a Hokage to answer to. I suggest you do not argue as this is standard protocol under unauthorised missions," Itachi explained and stood close to Sasuke.
Ao tried to speak again but Chōjūrō cut across him, "we understand—but with all due respect, Itachi-Sama, we can't allow you to keep him forever. I believe, forty-eight hours is a suitable time to deal with this matter. Am I right?" He smiled that fake smile of his that Sasuke was beginning to dislike.
"You will kill him before you reach your borders. I do not understand why this lowly grunt is so important to you," he stopped and cast a half-curious glance at the deathly quiet prisoner, "regardless, you will get the prisoner after he has been dealt with accordingly—dead or alive." Then he spoke no more, turned, and walked away from them.
Obediently, Sasuke followed his brother, with the sniggering Suigetsu and the ever-quiet Jūgo in his wake. Hinata kept staring at the Mist ninjas, and she could have sworn that Chōjūrō could not mask that sour expression on his face this time . . .
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