A/N: Here's the next one. Enjoy.
Officer Watanabe drove him directly home right after the confrontation. Sasuke spent the entire drive stewing silently in the back seat, glaring out the window.
"How dare," he snarled to himself. "How dare he, after everything he's done to my family. How dare he treat me like shit when he's the whole reason that my brother is dead? How dare he treat me like shit when he's the one who's kept Izumi from becoming a real cop?"
As soon as the car stopped at the apartment building, Sasuke unbuckled and grabbed his backpack on the way out.
"Hey, kid," Watanabe called. When Sasuke looked over, he nodded. "I get it."
With that, he drove off, leaving Sasuke standing there.
His heart lifted a little. At least someone got it.
He turned and began his ascent up the stairs, gripping his backpack tightly. The meeting threw off his entire afternoon, and he needed to go patrolling to clear his head and blow off some steam.
As he passed Sakura's door, he paused. Naruto had gotten her from the nurse's office, right? It looked like he understood what Sasuke was saying. Maybe he should check up on her...?
No, not right now. He shook his head, continuing on. He'd probably be sent to check up on her later with a plate of food if Izumi found out, no doubt. For now, he had to get going.
he pulled out the key and put it in the lock and turned it. He opened the door and put his stuff away, pulling off his shoes in the entryway. For a moment, he was confused at the television droning on in the background, but when he heard shifting and saw Izumi peek at him from over the couch, he realized.
"You're... home early," he observed when she smiled wearily at him.
"I was let off early today because of your meeting," she explained, getting up from the couch. "How was it? I know Chief Shimura's a bit..."
"He's rude," Sasuke huffed, his bad mood returning as he went into the kitchen. "I regret ever telling you about it."
Izumi winced. "O- oh... I'm sorry he was so rude. Really, that's just how he is, I guess. I mean he is pretty old at this point... uh, d- do you want a snack or something?"
He grabbed a water bottle from the fridge. "I'm gonna go take a nap."
"Okay," Izumi fidgeted with her fingers as he passed. "Well, I'll be making dinner in a while, so..."
He went into his room and shut the door, exhaling loudly. He heard the TV's volume go down, and he frowned at the floor. "I shouldn't have been so short with her..."
He shook his head, locking his door. He set his backpack down next to his desk and undressed, putting on the suit. Once his mask was in place, he snuck out his window and looked around. He jumped from the building to the next, sticking to the wall and crawling to the rooftop. As soon as he was on the roof he looked out across the street. A quick trip to the North Side wouldn't hurt. He got a running start and leapt from the roof, spraying a web to the next building over and swinging through the air.
He could feel some of his bad mood melting away with the whistling wind and he smiled. Swinging through the city was one of his favorite parts of being Spider-Man. Of course, it certainly felt great punching criminals in the face too.
He made his way to the north side once again, this time going into a roll and stopping on a roof. One of the buildings nearby was the one that Mikoto had worked in years ago, so he knew he was close to the warehouse from before. He found the warehouse in question and found another open window. He slipped in and, to his delight, found that he wasn't in a storage closet this time, but rather a long room with a large conference table and assorted folding chairs around it. It was dark enough that he had to squint a little to see the other end of the room. He crawled into a corner just as the door opened, and a man stepped in.
Spidey froze, eyes warily following the man as he walked around the room, muttering angrily to himself.
A voice followed him in, and a second man joined him, pleading, "C'mon, Reni, it's not that bad!"
"Not that bad?" Reni repeated incredulously, whirling around to stare him in the face, "Not that bad? The boss is gonna be so far up my ass about this that I'm not gonna be able to even breathe for months without surveillance! Some kid goin' up to Danzo like his shit don't stink, tellin' him about 'yOu'Re In DaNgEr, ShImUrA sIr', and now since he knows we can't go forward with the plan!" He threw up his arms in frustration. "We have a tight schedule, and we can't afford any more setbacks unless everything goes kaput!"
Spidey glared at the man from his spot. "My voice isn't that high. Prick. You made me sound like a girl."
"Just keep calm. We can work this out, yeah?" The second man ran a hand through his greasy, shoulder-length dark-gray hair. "What about that Akatsuki gang? Can we still work out a deal with them?"
"Who fuckin' knows if we're gonna be able to do anything with Akatsuki after this!" Reni exploded. "Lord knows their boss ain't gonna want nothin' to do with the likes of us! Especially not after one of their members was killed about a month and a half ago!"
His teeth grit together. "Whatever they're planning, Sasori better not let them do a damn thing with these thugs. At least for Sakura's sake."
"But that was an accident, right?" The second man consoled. "Look, Reni, we just need to let this little incident go. They'll never know the difference if we just let it go. We need a sustainable dealer for this, otherwise he'll have all of our heads faster than our clients will if we get arrested."
"I know," Reni snapped. Then after a huffing breath, quieter, "I know. You're right."
"Aren't I always?" The second man smiled, an oily look that made Sasuke feel vaguely uncomfortable. "Now c'mon, we still need to hold that meeting with the leader of the east end. We'll definitely need the backup if something happens tonight."
With another muttered agreement, Reni was led out by the shorter man. As soon as the door closed, Spidey took a moment to mull over the new information.
"Whatever they're planning, it doesn't sound good for us," he mused with a frown. "Especially not if they're trying to get Akatsuki involved. Why would they want ties to an ambivalent group of vigilantes, anyway? Weed? It may be legal now, but there are better ways to go about getting a shitload of drugs than trying to kidnap the police chief."
Slowly, he crawled out of the corner and towards the window. He gave the door a sidelong glance, trying to decide if it was worth it to investigate.
"... nah," he decided, going for the window again. "This place is probably gonna be crawling with weirdos. The last thing I need is to get caught. They seem like the type of people who don't care about secret identities."
With that in mind, he crawled out of the window just in time to see the men from before walking down the street. He hid in the alleyway, locked on to them.
Reni was wearing a black sweatshirt with the hood drawn up over his head, his hands stuffed into its pockets, with some torn denim jeans and black sneakers.
Meanwhile, the other guy looked less unkempt. He had a scarf around his neck that his hair was kinda stuffed into, over a gray longcoat that was zipped all the way up. Underneath that looked to be some gray sweatpants and some brown lace-up boots. If Spidey had run into him on the street, he probably wouldn't have given him a second glance. Now he memorized their faces and made a mental note to look out for them in the future.
He decided to tail them just because, first keeping a good distance and hopping from building to building. Eventually, Reni made a detour, and he almost wanted to follow him, but something in his gut made him follow the second guy instead.
The guy made his way down into the center of the city, making a couple of turns before disappearing into a shabby apartment complex. Spidey wanted to follow him in but decided that it was too much of a risk. He turned instead and headed back to check up on Sakura. If he had any luck, she would likely be at home in her room right now.
As soon as he got to the apartment, he crawled up to her window and peered in. Her curtains were open, allowing him a brief look of her room. It looked pretty identical to his, save for the placement of her bed, which looked like it was right underneath the window. He could see her lying in bed with her laptop, probably doing some homework.
He tapped on the window and she twisted to look up at him. For a moment, she looked annoyed, but when she saw his mask her face brightened some, and she hurriedly sat up and opened the window.
"Hey, I didn't think you were gonna check on me." She greeted, lying back in bed as he crawled in and landed on her covers. "What's up? How'd the meeting go?"
"It was lame," he replied, sitting at the end of her bed. "The guy was a total dick. Didn't even give me the time of day."
"That sucks," she sighed. "Well, Naruto will be happy to know that you weren't mugged or something. He seemed pretty worried when he picked me up from the nurse's."
"Are you getting a cold?" He asked.
"Nah, the nurse just thought it was stress or something." She sniffled, shrugging her shoulders. "I've been having some pain in my chest lately, but I've also been pretty stressed, so maybe she's right. I dunno."
"If it gets worse, go to a hospital." He ordered.
"You think I can afford a night in the emergency room if it gets worse?" Sakura snorted. "With my abysmal healthcare? I'd rather die, thanks."
A pang of irritation hit him, and he glared at her. "Don't ever joke about dying, Sakura." His tone was icy and angry, and it served to stop her sardonic joking.
She winced. "Sorry, Spidey... I forgot. But still, you know what I mean."
"Don't prioritize money over your health," he chastised. "Sasori's high all the time, but at least he makes enough money to cover both of you."
"Barely," she dryly replied. "Once my birthday hits, I'm getting myself a job. I dunno what I wanna do yet, but maybe I have a career in journalism or something. I don't really wanna sell my soul to the papers, but I'll take what I can get."
He listened to her ramble about her future job and took in her appearance. She was still pale and shivering slightly, although she seemed less sleepy than earlier in the afternoon, which was good. A spot of red in her trashcan caught his eye, and he glanced down to see some bloody tissues. He frowned. "Are those from her coughing...?"
She took a pause in her chat and he asked, "What are those?" He pointed to the tissues, and her eyes widened in realization.
"Ohhhh, those are from a nosebleed I had this morning." She nodded simply. "I kinda got lightheaded and my nose started going. It's fine, though."
He pursed his lips together, but didn't rebut.
"Hey, don't you have to get back to," she shifted her eyes towards the window pointedly. "Not that I don't like you here, but... y'know how worried she gets."
The realization dawned on him, and he nodded, getting up. "i'd better, yeah." He jumped onto the wall and crawled to the window. He paused, glancing down at her, and said, "Oh, and expect a plate of food sometime soon."
She grinned up at him with a thumbs-up. "Hope it's curry. Her curry is freaking awesome."
As soon as he crawled back into his room and changed, there came a gentle knock at his door. "Sasuke? I made dinner, if you're feeling hungry."
"Just a minute," he called back, throwing on a sweater with his school emblem and some sweatpants. He unlocked and opened the door, following her to the kitchen. He almost laughed at the irony; it was indeed curry tonight.
"Oh, I made a plate for Sakura." Izumi remembered, handing him a tray with a plate of curry, rice, and some chicken, along with some utensils. "Her cousin came over today for a chat, and he happened to mention that she was sick. Why don't you take that to her? I'm sure she'd be grateful for some extra food."
He nodded and turned to go. "I'll be a minute."
"Thank you, Sasuke." Izumi was smiling at him. He could tell even with his back to her. "I really appreciate it."
He merely stepped out of the apartment and went a few doors down to Sakura's door. He knocked and waited until Sasori opened the door, his amber eyes slowly trailing down to look him in the face.
He smiled lazily. "You're here for Sakura, right?"
"No, I'm here for Hidan," Sasuke sarcastically answered.
"She's in her room, then." The redhead answered, shuffling out of the way so that Sasuke could walk inside. As soon as he walked past the living room, he could smell the weed emanating from Sasori's room, along with an almost sickening aroma of Febreeze. He almost gagged, but luckily he made it to Sakura's room and opened the door. It looked the same inside as it had fifteen minutes ago.
His expression must've looked fairly disgruntled, because Sakura giggled when he shut the door behind himself. "I know, Sasori really sucks at keeping it in his room," she amusedly said. "And how did I know that Izumi was making curry tonight?"
"Maybe you're psychically linked," he mumbled, handing her the tray. "Don't hurry in bringing back. You can bring it back whenever."
"Thanks," she replied. "I'll definitely see you at school tomorrow, so I'll probably drop this off tonight."
He shrugged and turned to leave the room. The thought of going back out and smelling it again made his nose wrinkle in disgust, and he turned again, giving the window a thoughtful look.
Sakura, who'd started eating, gave him a weird look. "You're not thinking about leaving through the window, are you? You do realize that's gonna make Izumi suspicious, don't you?"
He sighed. "You're right. I forgot."
"Because it's really easy to forget you have the power to stick to buildings, I guess," she sniped with a grin.
He just shook his head and left his room, hiding his nose in his shirt. It was clean, so the laundry scent still stuck to it. Anything was better than cheap 'clean linen' scented Febreeze violently punching his sinuses as soon as he stepped out.
He made his way quickly through the apartment and out into the hallway. As soon as the door was shut, he breathed a quiet sigh of relief and made his way back to his own apartment.
"How did it go?" Izumi asked as soon as he stepped in. She was in the hallway, sweeping some broken glass off the floor.
"You know she likes your curry," he shrugged, walking past her back to the kitchen. He sat down at the table and began to eat, eyes glued to the TV in the living room. The news was going as usual, the anchor droning off some story about some political figure saying something dumb and trying to do damage control. Same as usual, same boring drivel.
Izumi walked in with the dustpan, putting the glass in the trash. She wiped off her hands, placed the dustpan back against the counter, then sat down at the table with him. She dug into her plate, humming. "This is pretty good. I'll have to make this recipe again."
Sasuke nodded in agreement. This curry tasted better than usual. "Maybe she used a different spice blend."
They sat in peace for about five minutes before Izumi's phone began ringing loudly from her pants pocket. She groaned quietly before setting down her fork and pulling out the phone. "Hello, Uchiha Izumi."
She paused, listening for a moment. Whatever the other person said made her jump up from her chair in alarm. "What?! Right now?"
Sasuke stared up at her in surprise, a forkful of vegetables halfway to his mouth. He watched her begin to pace about before she groaned into her hand, walking out of the room.
"Right, I'm on my way," she was saying in the hallway. He heard shuffling in the hall closet.
He sighed, setting the fork down. He got up from the chair and wandered into the hallway, watching her struggle to put on her uniform jacket. "Another call?"
"Urgent," she replied hastily, buttoning it quick. "Robbery at the clothing retailer on the North Side." She glanced over at him, kissing the crown of his head before grabbing her shoes. "I'll be a while. I'm sorry, but you'll have to eat dinner alone."
"I got it, just be careful." He shrugged, wiping off the kiss as he walked away.
"Love you!" She called as she raced out the door with her keys.
He waited until the door shut before sitting back down. He stared at the plate across the table from him and pushed his own away. "I've lost my appetite."
A/N: Please tell me what you thought! See you next chapter.