Aftermath #7: Confessions
"...Which brings us to today." Hinata finished.
The three were sat in one of the many makeshift hospital rooms that had been created in the area. Itachi Uchiha was lying unconscious on the cot.
"Wait wait wait, hold on." Naruto held up a hand, counting on his fingers. "So I killed Kakuzu and Pain, Sasuke killed Hidan and Sasori, you killed Deidara (who I thought I killed but I didn't), Orochimaru and Neji. Wait, crap, that puts you in the lead-"
"I won't take the Orochimaru point." Hinata waved it off. "He left the Akatsuki long before we ever met him."
"You know," Sasuke hedged, "technically since Neji was betraying the Akatsuki-"
"Don't push your luck." She narrowed her eyes.
"Alright, alright. So we're...tied? Huh." Sasuke blinked. "What happens if we destroy the Akatsuki completely and we're all even?"
"Everyone does the forfeit?" Naruto offered. "We just...all hand-feed each other? That could be funny."
"Or we all make two shadow clones that have to dote on the others for the period." Sasuke chipped in. "Not that it matters, either way. I'll just go off alone and kill all the remaining Akatsuki myself, then I can finally get compensation for all the shit you guys put me through."
"Heh. Oh, and speaking of going off alone..." Naruto turned, and looked pointedly at Hinata.
The Hyuuga exhaled, loudly. "Right, yeah, time to stop putting this off..." she looked up at both of them. "Okay. Look, I'm not sorry for wanting revenge."
"Oh, of course-" Sasuke rolled his eyes-
"Please, let me finish." Hinata cut across him, pain clear in her voice. "I'm not sorry for wanting revenge. Neji needed to be stopped. And I can't apologise for hating him; because it would be the same as giving up on a part of myself. But...I am sorry that I left the Leaf. That part...I mean yes, Orochimaru made me stronger, but how much stronger? It's not like he's the only one who could have found out how to unlock the Gokei, and if I'd stayed I could have shared my knowledge with you, and..." she sighed. "I should have stayed with my village. With my team. Yes, Neji needed to go down, but we should have taken him down together. Especially now knowing what was going on behind the scenes..."
She paused, then got down on her knees, and put her forehead to the floor. "I fucked up real bad, and I almost got everyone I love killed. I'm so, so, sorry. Please forgive me."
The two boys looked at each other.
"...you recorded that on the Sharingan, right?" Naruto asked.
"Of course." Sasuke smirked, looking back down. "Get up, Hyuuga."
She did, slowly, and he met her eyes. "Do you promise never to run off again without our express permission?"
"I do." She nodded.
"Alright then." Naruto pronounced. "You're off the hook. Welcome back to team 7, Hinata."
Her face lit up like a Christmas tree, and she crashed into the two of them for another group hug.
"Yeah, alright. Also don't try and murder my brother again." Sasuke reminded her, disentangling himself. "Oh, speaking of. You gonna stop pretending you're asleep yet?"
There was a shuffle and a sigh as Itachi (obviously struggling) sat up in bed. "Sorry. You were having a moment."
That was when the door slammed open and an exhausted looking Kakashi staggered through, collapsing into a sitting position against the wall. "This...was the most intense day I've had since the third ninja war."
"Is Haku around?" Naruto checked.
"Headed our to report to the Mizukage."
"Then everyone who's...left..." the Uzumaki's face darkened for a moment, but he shook it off, "from the Squad is here. Alright; sound off. Who's dead?"
"Well." Kakashi began. "Good news; due to the fortuitous intervention of our healing squad and many, many Naruto, we've actually managed to do this without any casualties."
"Woooooooo..." came the muffled cheering from everyone else.
"Situation with Rain?" Itachi asked.
"Ask the diplomat." Kakashi shrugged, looking pointedly at Naruto, who coughed.
"Ahem. Well, as ~official~ manager of diplomacy with hidden Rain..."
Like, an hour ago
Konan walked through a chaotic sea of displaced villagers, most of whom completely ignored her, making her way towards where a very tired looking Uzumaki was shouting orders at the top of his lungs.
"THERE'S ONE UNDER THAT HOUSE, GET ONE OF THE EARTH STYLE USERS TO SHIFT THE DEBRIS AND JUST-oh, hey, it's you." He turned, and finally took notice of her.
"Uzumaki Naruto." She inclined her head.
"Uh, hey. K...Kogami?"
"Konan."
"Yeah, thought so." He jumped down from his perch, a particularly large pile of rubble, until he was face to face with her. "So...need something?"
Konan held out her arm, and a bouquet of paper flowers appeared in her hand. She offered it to him.
He frowned. "Uh, is this a romantic thing?"
"It's a symbol of our surrender." She sighed, a small smile tugging at one corner of her mouth for a moment. "That is to say, the surrender of the Rain village."
"Right, got it." He hesitantly reached out and took the bouquet. "This is actually really nice, I'll keep this. Uh, do you have any conditions?"
"Please don't murder us all." She replied.
"Right, concise. As I said in the cave, I'm not gonna let anyone go slaughtering civilians in your village." Naruto looked around. "Shouldn't you be talking to Tsunade about this sort of thing?"
"Nagato overcame your whole village, and you overcame him." She replied, flatly. "You're the one with the negotiating power here."
Naruto paused, and let that sink in. "...Oh. Right. Uh, yeah. We'll not screw you over, I promise."
"Wouldn't mind that in writing, but I'll take it." Konan replied. "I'd also like to formally offer Rain village's help wherever it is required. I'm aware gathering lumber might be easier to do from the forests surrounding you, but if you require food, water or other supplies while you are rebuilding, you need only ask. We are not a rich village, but if you want coin, we'll give you what we can."
"Okay, for all that you will have to talk to someone else." Naruto pointed out. "I have no idea how to rebuild a village."
"Alright." She hesitated. "There's one other thing. Did Nagato tell you about..."
"Tell me about what?" Naruto blinked.
"I suppose not then." She looked to one side. "Well suffice it to say, I recommend that you make your way to Rain as soon as possible. There's something you'll need to see."
"I sent her off to talk to some clever people, and they hashed something out. Then she took Pain's bodies and left." Naruto finished. "Konan's the only other ninja in Rain, apparently. Even if she is S-rank, they're not going to be threatening Konoha again."
"And the Akatsuki?" Kakashi asked.
"Scattered." Itachi said, from his bed. "Pain was the leader, and from what Neji told me, the whole 'gather the Bijuu' plan was all his idea. Without him to lead them...the remaining members are Kisame (the animal) Zetsu (the info guy) and Tobi. The maniac. None of them are going to be organising anything any time soon."
"I wouldn't be so sure about Tobi." Hinata spoke up, frowning. "The madness is an act."
"Neji only ever got second person accounts of him." Itachi said, curious. "What, is there more to him?"
"It's complicated. Tell you all later."
"So, we can actually take a break for once?" Sasuke asked, with a hopeful smile.
The smile died when he saw Kakashi's expression. "Aw shit."
"Yeah." Kakashi cracked his neck. "Want the indifferent news, the bad news, or the worse news?"
"Let's just have them in that order." Naruto advised.
"Got it. The indifferent news: the other Kage want to know what the fuck's going on. Remember that all the tailed beasts except the eight and nine tails are still missing? They've called a Kage summit to discuss the problem."
"A what now?" Naruto asked.
"Kage summit." Hinata supplied. "All the Kage meet up in the independent land of Iron to discuss ongoing events. Always massively tense; all the strongest ninja in the world in one room."
"Okay, that's manageable." Naruto shrugged. "We get Tsunade to go up there and go 'hey, the Akatsuki's screwed, our village is trashed but we're fine (don't even think about it), and we're working on the Bijuu.' Easy."
"Well, not quite." Kakashi cringed. "Bad news: Tsunade...is in a coma."
"She fucking what?" Both Uchiha shouted at once, the elder devolving into a coughing fit afterwards.
"All those perfectly alive Konohanians that we had to pull out the rubble had to be healed of all their injuries. Plenty of them were in mortal condition." Kakashi told them. "Tsunade pushed herself past her breaking point keeping them all alive. She's completely out of it, and we don't know when she'll wake. Days, weeks, maybe months, maybe never. Haku, Ino and Sakura all had to be pulled away before they ended up in the same condition."
"That's...not super doparino for me, guys, imma be honest." Itachi spoke up.
Sasuke looked across at him. "What do you...oh, fuck. The illness."
The older Uchiha tried his best to sit up properly. Even to Naruto, without any special dojutsu, it was plain that Itachi was in trouble. He looked almost as bad as Nagato had, and even as they looked, blood leaked from the corner of his mouth.
"Yeah. Look, before he died, Neji compiled some info on my biology. We think it might be enough for Tsunade to heal me. But in all honesty, I'm not sure I'll make it a week without her. If she doesn't wake up in time..."
The room went silent for a few seconds.
"So..." Kakashi grinned under his mask. "Wanna hear the even worse news?"
Sasuke shuddered. "How could the news get worse-"
"Danzo's Hokage."
"HE'S FUCKING WHAT?" Shouted everyone else in the room at once.
"Kage summit in a matter of days, remember?" Kakashi groused, amid cries of "BULLSHIT!" "THAT BASTARD!" and other such expletives. "But there wasn't even any debate, this time. It was announced just about immediately after Tsunade's condition was confirmed. They're not even pretending it isn't shady as hell; he hasn't even given a speech, just left for the summit."
"The man who orchestrated the murder of my entire family is now in charge of the village?" Hinata growled.
"Also he's made sure to reiterate that you are a criminal who needs to be hunted down, even though he almost definitely knows that Tsunade was down with your mission." Kakashi warned her. "You wouldn't think that would be a priority for him, but there you go."
Hinata exhaled, very slowly, and stood up. "Right. Where is he. I'm killing him."
"You can't." Sasuke emphasised. "This guy's been messing with things behind the scenes for years, if we-"
"Why not?"
There was a pause, in which Sasuke and Hinata looked across at Naruto.
"...Come again?"
"I said why not?" Naruto threw his arms wide. "I mean...look.
We are quite possibly the three strongest ninja in the whole of Konoha. I just saved the village. Sasuke runs the Uchiha clan now. Hinata's single handedly taken down the guy that killed the third Hokage."
"What are you implying?" Kakashi asked, looking at Naruto like he was about to propose an idea for a prank that would incorporate no less than five million ryo in property damage.
"I'm saying." Naruto continued. "If we just rock up and kill the Hokage...what's anyone gonna do about it?"
There was a long silence.
Sasuke opened his mouth. Closed it.
"Even if he has blackmail material on every official in Konoha, that isn't going to matter if he's dead." Itachi pointed out.
"Exactly! And this dude is pittance compared to us. Case in point, Pain killed him along with the rest of the village." Naruto exclaimed. "Think about it, we just rock up and kick his ass, go 'he's a traitor, Kakashi's in charge now', what are they gonna fucking do about it? Declare us enemies of Konoha? Attack us?"
Kakashi frowned. "I don't recall agreeing to-"
"You're proposing a benign hostile takeover of your own village." Sasuke shook his head. "This is, by far, the craziest thing you've ever come up with, and I'm including the Incident with the Kage Statues and the Imported Fish."
"You're forgetting about the summit." Itachi pointed out. "Four other Kage, plus all their personal guard. I doubt they're going to be too happy about-"
"Then we go through them too." Hinata replied. She met Itachi's dumbstruck expression and shrugged. "I am sick and tired of people telling me 'no, you can't do that thing because of all these stupid rules you're supposed to follow.' Fuck it. Bring on the Kage. Let's bring this maniac to justice."
Sasuke looked between his teammates and gave a hysterical laugh. "Yeah, fuck it. Let's do this. Bring on the Kage."
Kakashi groaned and stood up. "Well, I'll go report that Hinata has mysteriously vanished to...whoever's the most senior ninja here. You three have three days to prepare."
He sauntered out the door.
Hinata looked at her teammates. "You know how we just established I'd need to ask you both before I ran off again..."
"Get gone, find us again on the way there." Sasuke waved her off, causing her to nod and start picking up her things.
Naruto then piped up, "Oh, and, Hinata?"
She turned and looked at him. "Yes?"
He ran his tongue over his teeth in indecision for a moment before finishing. "It's...good to have you back."
She blushed, and nodded. "It's good to be back."
Then she was gone.
Sasuke waited a few seconds before remarking "That was fucking pathetic."
"I know, I know, you don't have to rub it in-"
One hour later
Sasuke returned to the medical room. Itachi was actually asleep this time, though he woke up when his sibling entered.
"Hey bro. How'd the meeting go?"
"Pretty well." Sasuke replied, coming up to sit on the bed. "I basically told the clan to sit down and be quiet until after the summit's over, and that we'll deal with everything later." He wrinkled his nose. "I swear my family was less annoying when I didn't have to give them orders."
"Was there resistance?" Itachi asked.
"Not really. I showed them all the fight with you and Dad and after that they basically tripped over themselves to make me clan head. They're just all so...petty. Bitchy. Aren't they supposed to be ninja?"
"Our clan is basically raised believing they're Kami's gift to the world." Itachi explained. "There's the ones who didn't fight in the war that are essentially spoiled brats, and the ones who did, who're a little more self aware but now they're old and bitter."
"Right..." Sasuke shifted in place.
Itachi noticed. "You're not sure what to think of me, are you?"
"It's not just the massacre." Sasuke admitted. "I...well, I wasn't that surprised when I learned the truth. It didn't strike me as something you wouldn't be willing to do, if that makes sense. It's more...everything else."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean-" Sasuke cut off, a little exasperated. "Back in the Chunin exams, I remember you told me you had been manipulating me, a little. I figured you meant that you were just trying to counter Dad's effect on me, but...it runs deeper than that, doesn't it?"
"Ever since Neji left, me and him have been trying to change the world." Itachi admitted. "We've had our fingers in so many pies I almost lose track sometimes. We manipulated politics in all five nations, brought down threats, built up allies. Do you know how many more missing-nin might have joined the Akatsuki if me and Neji hadn't dealt with them ahead of time? The records don't show it but we cleared out a massive chunk of the bingo book by ourselves. And then, of course, there's what I did at home."
"Every time you ever talked to me." Sasuke said, hollowly. "Every time you talked to anyone. It wasn't who you really were. It was what you felt like it would be most helpful to be."
Itachi responded, "No matter how hard you try to sculpt a mask, it always ends up being a self portrait. Sometimes I frowned at you when I wanted to smile, or vice versa. But I never tried to convince you I was some different person than I really am. Hell, do I seem much different now?"
"Tireder." Sasuke pointed out.
"Semantics."
"Well, how do I know you're not still wearing the mask now?"
"Ask the teammate that can tell when people are lying." Itachi chuckled. "But...no. No more masks, no more games. You're ready, brother. Ready to take on the world. There's nothing left for me to do, nothing left for me to say...I've done everything I can.
Except for one thing."
Sasuke turned and gave Itachi a look, even though he knew his brother couldn't see it. "Well that was a hell of a suspicious way to end the sentence. Alright, what is it."
"Your Mangekyo." Itachi said, and Sasuke stiffened. "It's already highly degraded, I imagine. If you're going to get into a fight with the Kage, then you might run it down completely. But there is a way to get that eyesight back." He gulped, and continued. "If you transplanted the Mangekyo of a close family member, my Mangekyo, then you'd unlock the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan. EMS. Your eyesight would be restored, enhanced, you'd be able to use your ocular powers infinitely and at a reduced cost."
"Wait, hold on." Sasuke held up a hand. "You want me to rip both our eyeballs out and put yours in my sockets?"
"Of course not." Itachi scoffed. "I want you to get a medical professional to rip both our eyeballs out and put mine in your sockets."
"Not the point."
"It wouldn't even have to be Tsunade, you could get-"
"Not the point!" Sasuke shouted. "That's sick!"
"That's the Uchiha way." Itachi responded. "I told you that our eye was an eye of pain. From the stone tablet in our compound, Madara Uchiha once did this with his brother."
"But do you have to die?" Sasuke scrabbled for an idea. "What if we just swapped and you took mine?"
"That...might work, actually, but remember I'm dying anyway. It wouldn't help me."
"No." Sasuke shook his head. "I'm not doing it. Not unless I have to."
"Fair enough. It's a long process, and if you did it now you'd probably be blind for the Kage summit. But after..."
"I'll...think about it." Sasuke looked down. "I've told the clan to let Izuna go. I imagine she'll come here pretty soon. Bro...if you don't have anything left to do for us, maybe do some things for yourself, okay?"
Itachi "hmm"ed. "That's...not a bad shout. Thanks, Sasuke. I just might."
Sasuke patted his leg and stood up, walking to the door.
"You're telling me to get laid again before I die, right?"
"Shut up, asshole."
Naruto took in the plot of land that had once contained his house. There was little left but a large pile of stone rubble, cracked wooden floorboards and furniture, a few ramen containers scattered around the wreckage.
"I reckon this is an improvement, to be honest." He remarked aloud to himself. "Uzumaki Nagato; home improvement specialist."
Then he got to work.
Sasuke found him a few minutes later, amongst sorted piles of different material looking through what was left of his cupboards.
"Buddy, are we gonna get going?" Sasuke called over, backpack slung over one shoulder. "I promise you, there are ramen stores in Iron country, you don't have to loot your own house for half-ruined packets."
"That's not what I'm after!" Naruto shouted back, then "Aha!" He pulled a small, misshapen package out of a pile. "Here we go..."
"What's that?"
"A present!" Naruto slung it over his shoulder. "Explain later. How are things going in the village?"
"Still running pretty much entirely on Naruto-clone labour." Sasuke walked up. "You were right about one thing; after this you could probably kill an innocent man in public and they'd still think you're a hero. Those clones'll probably last until we get to Iron, so I think we can slip away now without much notice. I've packed enough for the trip and we're fast enough to make it in a matter of hours. Shall we get going?"
"Yeah, I'm good." Naruto walked over, but as Sasuke turned to go, he called out his friend's name, stopping him. "Hey, Sasuke? One more thing. About...what you said. Back when we were fighting Pain."
Sasuke paused, and grimaced. "Aw, shit. You know there's some things people only say when they're about to die, right? Because they aren't gonna have to deal with the consequences of it?"
"Yeah, I know." Naruto scratched the back of his head. "It's just...I've been mocking you for not getting a girlfriend for almost the last ten years and if that was because you liked guys the whole time I feel kinda bad about it-"
"Oh my lord you absolute moron..." Sasuke growled, walking back up.
"I'm sorry I didn't-"
"Listen..." Sasuke began. "There is a very short list of people on this planet that I really, really care about. Now if you filter that list by 'hasn't horribly betrayed me at some point' then it comes back to just you. Now I'm pretty sure I'm most of the way done with this whole puberty malarkey and I've been waiting for the hormones everyone's so worried about to arrive, and they just...haven't? Like I've seen some attractive people but I've never gone 'whoa; damn, that's hot' or anything. Certainly never about you."
"Hey!"
"Point is I'm not trying to get into your pants, Naruto. I'm not trying to get into anyone's pants. Is there a word for that?"
Naruto squinted in thought. "Ace, I think?"
"Yeah, damn right I am." Sasuke grinned for a moment, before losing the smile. He put his hand on Naruto's shoulder. "But, um. Kami, I'm really bad at talking about my feelings...Look, I like you. And I mean that in the simplest, most basic, no strings attached way you can say it. You're my best friend and you've saved my life more than once. You're hilarious and ridiculous and an absolute disaster, and I'm pretty sure I'd die for you. Now I'm not sure if anything I feel is unusual for teammates, if this is infatuation, I mean it's not like my heart races when I see you or anything...but the carrot-top asked and I was panicking, so I answered."
Naruto nodded, slowly, thinking it through. "So what you're saying is...you're not going to try and kiss me again."
Sasuke rolled his eyes. "No, I'm not going to try and-wait, again? We've never kissed."
"I mean there was that one time-"
Sasuke's eyes widened in realisation. "No, No! That didn't happen."
"Everyone in the class saw it."
"No they didn't!"
"Yes they did." Naruto pointed out. "I know because of how embarrassing it was."
"It was an accident!"
"I know. That wasn't in doubt."
"We swore we would never speak of it again." Sasuke's eyes narrowed.
"Yeah, but I figured that if we were going to ever bring it up, now would be the time."
"Yeah but we didn't need to ever bring it up! What's Hinata gonna say if she hears that you lost your first kiss to me!"
"Uh, she already knows." Naruto reminded him. "She was there. I mean we were all, like, eight-hey, do you think that's when she started hating you?"
"Yo, actually, that might be it." Sasuke paused, then glared. "You're distracting me."
"I am." Naruto grinned. "Now stop acting all weird and insecure, you're not you when you're not giving deadpan glares and sarcastic comments at everything."
"Prick." Sasuke chuckled. "Alright, lets move it."
Together, the duo darted away, moving out of Konoha's crater and into the distance.
"...for the sake of completeness, I wasn't mistaking Hinata's confession for something else was I?"
"Oh, no, she's absolutely in love with you."
"Oh, okay, got it."
And that's that. Sorry I'm a little late; I'm in university now and things have gotten hectic.
Chapter ended up a lot more Sasuke-centric than I planned, but I suppose that's fair given how much focus Naruto and Hinata have had recently. And I hope I've cleared up some confusion regarding his declaration last chapter. I'm not trying to say that this is how he is in the show, but just about every main character is shown with some sort of libido (even for comedic effect) except him. Plus no straight guy does the hand-on-hip as fabulously as Sasuke can and that's a fact. Next chapter...I imagine you know where we're going.
