A/N: Finally! Took a long time but finally done and hence my first offering of the new year is the conclusion of the first mission arc of this tale. Anyway enjoy.
The Missing Damsel VI
Sasuke had spent sleepless nights before. It wasn't unusual for him. His traumatic past, the one he spent so hard ignoring during his waking hours inevitably caught up with him when he slept. They say you could control the outcome of your dream if you realized you were asleep.
He called bullshit.
He felt just as helpless as he did the first time and knowing he was dreaming didn't help.
He didn't hear the screams in his dreams. No, he had been too late for that. His nightmares revolved around Itachi. He remembered the terror, the helplessness... the hate, but little else. When awake he could focus on the hate and ignore the others. Hatred gave strength to his conviction that one day he will make his elder brother pay for his crimes. That one day he will be as helpless before him as he was.
The only difference... he would receive no mercy from him. Except maybe when Itachi spared his life he probably wasn't showing mercy.
Sasuke realized he had clenched his fist hard enough to dig his nails into his flesh and draw blood. Being sleepless had other perks in addition to being a shield from his subconscious. For one it kept one alive in hostile territory and another it gave him a lot of time to think.
He still wasn't sure what made him follow the genin. It was probably his own impatience at wanting to get to the bottom of this as soon as possible.
His original plan was to get himself re-assigned to ANBU after Kakashi was done with his games and then find his way back into Kusa and see what he could find. Being a hunter-nin gave him a lot of leeway.
Something had caused the revival of Otogakure and it wasn't Orochimaru... it couldn't be.
No, that demon had been exorcised. But it seemed another had taken its place. He would have to nip this in the bud.
"Mind if I join you?"
Sasuke inwardly cursed himself for dropping his guard. A civilian of all people managed to sneak up on him and it didn't look like they were even trying.
"You don't need permission," he said to the lady of the house as she stood next to him on the balcony of their establishment which also served as their dwelling place.
"I thought it'd be rude to interrupt one so engrossed in their own musings," she said, "but unfortunately old habits die hard."
"It's a beautiful view isn't it?"
It was a clear night and the moon was but half-full. The city beneath dazzling, with its thousands of lights mirrored the sky above. He could understand why it would be appealing to some and it would be rude to say otherwise.
"It is indeed."
She laughed softly clearly seeing through his well-meaning deception, "That's very kind of you Uchiha-san, but you don't need to spare my feelings on the matter."
Sasuke didn't know what to say to that, so he remained silent.
"You know," she said, "there was a time when my husband had lost himself. The ugliness of his profession had robbed him off his ability to look for the beauty in life."
"Why are you telling me this Kamakura-san?" Sasuke asked.
A melancholic smile graced her features,"because I think you too have lost ," she turned to him her eyes meeting his, "but then that's the beauty of losing something like that... you can always find it again."
"You're mistaken," Sasuke said, "I can't get back what I've lost and the things you talk about, I didn't lose," he turned around and made his way back to his room, "I gave them up."
Just before he entered his room he paused,"I wish you a good night Kamakura-san."
XxX
In the morning Sasuke found himself responding to a knock on his door to find a man waiting expectantly. He looked vaguely familiar and Sasuke realized that it was the bouncer from last night. The lady had called him Benkei. It was a stark contrast from last night where Sasuke could literally taste his hostility whereas now he was the very picture of docility.
"Yes?"
"Master expects your presence in five minutes."
"I'll be there." Sasuke nodded.
Seeing the hulking samurai remain at his place, Sasuke couldn't help but ask, "Is there anything else?"
"I've been instructed to lead you there," came the rather stoic reply.
"There's no need," Sasuke said,"I remember the way."
"If its all the same to you," the guard said,"I'd rather not be remiss in my duties assigned to me by my master."
Sasuke could barely suppress a smirk at that. His protectiveness of his master while admirable was misplaced. Not to mention if he wanted someone dead, there was little anyone could do about it. Still it was amusing to see if nothing else.
"Suit yourself," Sasuke shrugged closing the door so he could get dressed, replacing the kunai he had palmed in his fist.
Once he got ready for the day he was greeted by the sight of the genin lounging against the wall, the samurai, Benkei standing stoic as ever. When he saw him approach, he nodded in greeting, Sasuke to his surprise found himself returning it.
"Where's Sakura?" He asked the genin, who shrugged noncommittally.
Fortunately they didn't have to wait as she joined them almost immediately, giving them a casual wave in greeting. Sasuke's sharp eyes didn't miss the look the other two shared.
"Lead the way." Naruto told the samurai, who nodded and took them into the room where Hiten had entertained them last night. The door opened to reveal the man being served tea by his wife. Both of them clad in kimono, the scent of jasmine tea permeated the air. The whole effect was rather... homely. Three spots were designated on the floor for them. Sasuke took the middle spot leaving the other two to take their places on either side of him.
The aged samurai placed a scroll on the table, "This contains the map that will lead you to the suspected Oto-base which is where I believe you might find what you're looking for."
"Might?" Sasuke caught on that, "That's reassuring." He got poked in his ribs by Naruto for his troubles.
"Our intelligence suggests that the base is led by a man known only by a moniker 'The Doctor'",Hiten continued as if Sasuke hadn't spoken "My man will drop you to the outskirts of the city," , "after that you're on your own."
"Thanks Hiten," Naruto said pocketing the scroll,"I owe you one."
"I need a word with you," Hiten looked meaningfully at the genin, "alone."
"You guys go ahead," he said to them, "I'll join you in a bit."
This gave Sasuke a pause. He didn't trust Hiten or Naruto and he certainly didn't trust whatever they would be upto, but he couldn't think of a reason to stay.
"Don't take too long," he settled for saying instead as he and Sakura exited the room.
"Uchiha-san," Sasuke turned around to see that Risu had actually followed them out, "please wait."
Sasuke was a little puzzled by her request but complied, even Sakura looked perplexed. Their meeting last night hadn't exactly endeared the woman to him but his curiosity won out over any ill-will she had garnered.
"I just wanted to apologize for last night," she said,"it was presumptuous of me to think I understood what you're going through," she bowed at him in a gesture of supplication, "I hope you can forgive my transgression."
Sasuke wasn't expecting this. The apology caught him completely off-guard and only Sakura clearing her throat loudly him made him realize that he hadn't replied to her.
"That's okay Kamakura-san," he bowed back, "I shouldn't have walked away the way I did either that was... rude of me."
Sakura was now gaping at him, which really annoyed him for some reason. Thankfully Naruto chose this moment to join them, done with whatever Hiten needed him for.
Naruta bowed once to Risu and then stood next to Sakura.
"Guess its time to say our farewells," she said,"I wish you success in your endeavor now and in the future." For some reason Sasuke had the feeling that the last part of her wish was directed more towards him than his companions.
"Benkei will lead you out of the city."
This was it. One way or another he would get to the bottom of this.
XxX
"Did you find it?" Sakura asked Naruto who had just broken his meditative state.
"I think so." Naruto said as he got to his feet and stretched.
After Benkei had escorted them out of the city, the three of them had rapidly made their way towards the area designated in the map. Fortunately there was a relatively dense cover of forests in the way that allowed them to rapidly cover the remaining distance.
The only problem was finding the base.
The regular ninja village consisted of one massive area under the command of its Kage. This area also housed civilians who enjoyed not only the protection of shinobi but also their services.
Otogakure on the other hand consisted of a series of bases operating more or less independently of each other and yet having a central command structure. This made it particularly hard to target. Secrecy and anonymity were the shields they employed.
On the downside it also made it hard to defend them if they were attacked. It was their plan to exploit this weakness. Except there were only three of them. When they reached the spot marked on the map the only thing they found was what looked like a regular village. Sasuke however had assured them that the base was definitely there.
Then they hit another roadblock when Sasuke wanted to take some more time to prepare while Naruto cited the lack of time and how the longer they stayed here the greater were the chances being discovered. Sakura felt both of them had a point so she suggested a compromise by suggesting a quick recon first.
Then they ran into some drama when Naruto offered to do it and Sasuke had questioned his ability to do so. Naruto just went on to create a dozen clones and had them transform into regular looking civilians.
It had been a couple of hours since the clones had gone about their task. As soon as they left Naruto had taken up his meditative pose. He explained that when there were several clones involved it helped him to sift through the memories if he was more focused. Meditation helped him do just that.
"Meditation?" she had retorted, "you don't look like you can sit still for longer than a minute."
"I never said its easy." The genin admitted.
The more time Sakura spent with Naruto the more baffled she felt. The guy was an absolute chakra monster. Making dozens of shadow clones without breaking a sweat and sustain them when even experienced jounin struggled to make more than a few made him a special kind of beast.
And what kind of genin has contacts outside their nation anyway? And why does he have them?
But despite all her doubts and questions she found it hard to distrust him completely. There was a strange kind of sincerity to everything he did, that despite the craziness involved in his plans she couldn't help but admit they did seem to be working.
"So what did you find?" Sasuke asked impatiently.
"We are at the right place alright," Naruto unwrapped one of the rice-balls that Risu had graciously packed for them, "its certainly creepy enough."
"And?"
"Aai fink phish phlashe ish shhe phashe."
"What?"
Naruto swallowed his rice ball before speaking this time, wincing in the process, "I don't think the base is hidden in the village, I think the village is the base."
"You feel like explaining that?" Sakura asked a little irritated by his roundabout explanations.
Naruto unfurled a scroll and proceeded to draw a rough map of the village,"The buildings in these three sectors can be ignored from what I can tell they're just faux-residential areas," he pointed at the west, north and nort-western areas on his makeshift map,"that just leaves these two areas," he tapped the east and southern areas on the map.
"Now there aren't any buildings in this area," he circled the eastern part with his brush,"which makes it rather obvious that there is in fact something there."
"They're underground." Sakura concluded.
"That would be working theory," Naruto nodded,"so now we know where to look."
"There's just one little problem," Sakura decided to point out,"exactly how are we supposed to get in there? I don't exactly see a door with a welcome mat outside do you?"
Naruto opened his mouth to reply and then closed it, now wearing a thoughtful look on his face seemingly pondering the dilemma. To her surprise it was Sasuke who came up with the solution.
"The entrance is probably through these buildings." Sasuke pointed to the southern area of the map.
"That would make sense," Naruto agreed after a while.
"What about the defences?" Sasuke asked.
"That's where things get really tricky,"the genin remarked,"In all the time my clones spent there," Naruto elaborated,"they didn't notice any kids, that can only mean one of two things," he took a sip of water from his canteen and then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, "either the entire village has gone sterile or..."
"Or the village consists solely of people that have been brought from elsewhere," Sakura said, realization dawning on her,"in other words the kidnapping victims."
"They've probably been processed the way those bandits were." Sasuke added.
"You know what that means," Naruto said grimly.
"Every person in that village is a hostile." Sakura concluded.
"Bet these guys don't have problems with door to door salesmen,"Naruto said wryly.
Sakura found herself breaking into a cold sweat as she realized the magnitude of their task.
"Now's probably not the best time to mention this," Naruto said,"but I don't believe we have the element of surprise we were counting on either."
"Why is that?" Sakura asked.
"Think about it," he said,"my clones were meant to blend inside a normal village with normal people, and whatever shit's going down there is anything but normal."
"Guys," Sakura said hesitantly,"I think we should abort the mission."
Her suggestion was met with a stoic silence from both of her teammates.
Sasuke's face had gone expressionless while Naruto looked like he didn't know they had that option.
"This mission has just turned into a suicide one,"she said a little more resolutely,"we need to abort."
Sasuke scoffed contemptuously,"Is that your answer to every situation that goes out of hand? Run away?"
Sakura struggled to hold on to her composure but when ,"Are you calling me a coward Sasuke?"
"This is a hazardous job," Sasuke replied coolly,"if you weren't prepared for the risks you should never have been a shinobi."
Sakura's mind went blank before a single venomous thought resounded above all else.
How dare he?
"You insufferable prick," she muttered under her breath her anger finally boiling over,"you don't get to talk to me about hazards. When you've put your life on the line for someone else and have had others do the same for you, then you'd have earned the right... till then you know nothing."
Sakura turned on her heels and walked away not waiting to hear Sasuke's reply. She didn't know what she would do if she had to put up with his condescending attitude for another second.
After walking for an indeterminate amount of time she found herself in a forest clearing with a stream flowing through the middle of it. The gentle flow of the stream was in stark contrast to the raging river they had traversed not twenty four hours ago.
Exhausted by the turmoil in her mind and the exertions of the last few days she allowed herself to collapse on a rock at the bank of the flowing stream. She was surprised to find traces of moisture on her cheeks. Evidence of tears.
She wasn't sure what prompted her to react the way she did. That was hardly the worst thing Sasuke ever said to her and yet it triggered something in her that she had so far successfully suppressed.
"That guy is a dick."
"Go away Naruto," she said resignedly, wondering if she should be grateful or annoyed that he followed her.
"I wish I could," he sighed and plopped himself down next to her, "but unfortunately we still have a job to do."
"God is that all you can think about?"Sakura was exasperated, "why the hell are you so hell-bent on this?"
The genin stared at her. Though to her surprise she found that his gaze didn't hold any anger or annoyance only contemplation, as if she was a complicated piece of puzzle and he was trying to figure out where she fit.
"Have you always wanted to be a shinobi Sakura-chan?" He asked her.
"What does that have to do with anything?" She exclaimed, but he kept staring at her expecting a reply to his question, so she relented, "not really, no."
"I have," he said,"In fact I don't remember ever wanting to be anything else," his eyes glazed over as if lost in memories,"to me shinobi were heroes who fought for the weak and the defenceless... proud and gallant."
Sakura felt her scepticism increase with every word the genin spoke, only her curiosity about where he was going with this kept her quiet.
"Of course later I realized that shinobi are just mercenaries who would work for anyone with a paycheque and would just as soon slit the throats of those weak and defenceless people than the tyrant oppressing them," he sighed, "if that wasn't a kick to the balls."
"Do you have a point?" Sakura said, her annoyance getting the better of her.
"The point is," he said,"we have the chance to do some good here, that's a rare thing in our line of work."
"You do realize that we may not be able to do any good and just end up getting ourselves killed in a place far away from home without so much as a grave-marker over our tombstones," Sakura retorted,"because that's the fate that awaits us and I'm being optimistic here."
And she really was. At worst they would be captured tortured, experimented on and then lobotomized to serve as brain-dead minions to a madman.
"Maybe," he agreed,"but if we walk away now regret is the only thing we will be taking away from here," he sighed heavily,"but if we survive then somewhere down the line... maybe years from now we're gonna be very glad that we did this, that we didn't walk away from the people who needed us."
Sakura stayed silent. How was she supposed to respond to that.
"I'll leave you alone now, but we're not doing this without you Sakura-chan," he dusted his trousers as he got up.
"Even Sasuke?" she asked mockingly.
"Even him," he replied just as seriously, "you know where we are."
He disappeared in a puff of snow and Sakura couldn't suppress a twinge of annoyance at his blatant abuse of the shadow clone technique. But despite herself she found herself unable to disregard what he said.
How the hell did a regular mission involving a missing girl snowball into... this?
"Damn you Naruto," she said under her breath as she made her way back to the team.
XxX
Tetsuo wasn't looking forward to meeting his employer. To say the last task had been a fiasco would be an understatement. They had not only been expecting Konoha to act for a while now they were hoping for it. His employer was hoping for a shinobi or two to continue his experiments on after success with the civilians. But they had been expecting a genin team at best or a squad of chunin at worst, certainly not a group led by Sharingan Kakashi of all people. Still he had not backed down and even engaged the jounin.
A bad idea that turned out to be.
Tetsuo was no novice. He was an A-ranked missing-nin. And his moniker 'Tetsuo of the Black Rock' was well-earned. But for all his ability and competence he was no match for the Konoha-nin. The man countered everything he threw at him and the only reason he survived was his timely retreat to Kusa territory and Kakashi's reluctance to leave team behind.
He would be counting surviving an encounter with Hatake Kakashi as a win, if not for the fact that he had lost all the subjects. He pushed the door open to the laboratory to face his employer.
He suppressed a shudder of revulsion at the atmosphere inside the lab. Whether it be the smell of chemicals or the moans of the unfortunate victims strapped upon stainless steel tables, the place never failed to give him the creeps.
The man himself was hunched over a microscope in the corner. After all this time he still didn't know the man's real name.
"Hand me the pipette will you?" The man rasped, still engrossed in his work.
"I'm not your assistant you know." Tetsuo growled but complied nevertheless.
"Of course not," the man said his tone dripping with condescension,"you aren't nearly competent enough to qualify," taking the pipette from Tetsuo he then proceeded to change slides.
Tetsuo let it slide. He had a thick skin and insults flowed off his back like water. It was a skill he cultivated while he was still loyal to his village. You didn't have to like your client, you just had to like their money.
"How do you propose to make up for my loss?"
He had been dreading this moment even if he had been expecting it,"It was hardly my fault,"he said,"the security consisted of shinobi this time."
"I thought that's the reason you were there,"came the reply,"to protect my assets," the man abandoned his work to look at him finally giving him his full attention.
He was a man of medium height and built, dressed in whites. His appearance was unremarkable except for his grey eyes which shone with cold intellect. His origins were shrouded in mystery. He didn't use a name. He was simply known as the 'Doctor'. Rumour had it that before being recruited by Oto he was a medic under whose watch dozens of patients had lost their lives. Some said the trauma of losing so many patients and the disgrace that followed made him lose all semblance of humanity. Others believed that he killed his patients during one of his twisted experiments.
Tetsuo found himself leaning towards the latter of the two.
"There were complications,"he explained himself somewhat reluctantly,"the shinobi team was a lot better than expected."
"Or maybe you're just not as good as you think you are."
Before Tetsuo could retort the lab was filled with sounds of alarm. The two moved quickly to the control room. Six monitors hung on the wall displaying the various sections of the village.
"Looks like they're finally making their move."
"You've been expecting this." Tetsuo stated, quickly reading the tone of his employer's words.
"A couple of trespassers," he said,"or atleast that's what I thought."
"And now?"
"Let's find out."
He pressed a few keys and the source of the disturbance was displayed. Tetsuo's jaw nearly dropped to the floor.
"Is that the entrance?" He finally managed.
"Yes it is." The Doctor's voice lacked any inflection, but he could tell his boss was as baffled as he was.
XxX
Sakura took her position south of the village, just as they had planned. Sasuke was two hundred yards to her left, even if she couldn't see him. He was hidden a little too well. After her talk with Naruto they hadn't wasted time.
The plan, if it could be called that, revolved around a distraction, which was Naruto's responsibility, to trigger their defences and flush out any threats after which Sasuke was to identify and take down the biggest one, or more if it came to that. Sakura's role was to infiltrate the village and find the girl...
if she was there, and anyone else who could be rescued.
On the surface her job seemed like the easiest... the safest anyway. She wasn't going to be involved in direct combat and had to do what she did best... save lives.
But missions had a habit of going sideways, something she had learnt the hard way. The fact that there plan was so bare bones didn't help matters. The success of their mission, hell their very survival depended on way too many factors. Naruto's ability to cause a big enough diversion to draw out the greatest threats, Sasuke's reliability as a back-up, not to mention herself. Those were just the things she could think of off the top of her head.
She clenched her fist to stop its shaking. Now was not the time goddamnit!
She will not be a liability.
What the hell was taking Naruto so long anyway? He hadn't told them what the diversion would be, only that they would know when they saw it and that would be their cue to move.
She barely had time to finish her thought when her eyes fell on the entrance to the village.
"What the..."
XxX
"...fuck is he doing?" Sasuke exclaimed as he witnessed the latest antics of his blonde teammate. But certainly his eyes were deceiving him. There was no way someone... anyone could be that over the top crazy.
He thought the orange monstrosity he called a jacket was bad.
But not today.
He had painted his body in grey and white and half of his face was in red. His blonde hair was hidden beneath a green bandanna. A mace in his right hand which he rested on his shoulder. But as ridiculous as his appearance was, it paled in comparison to the fact that he was riding... a bull.
"Shinobi of Otogakure," his voice projected all over the village, "you stand accused of crimes of kidnapping, illegal experimentation and killing of the citizens the Land of Fire, the punishment for which is death."
"As for you 'Doctor'," he continued in a more menacing tone,"hope you have cleared your schedule," he pointed his mace at the gathering of blank-eyed villagers who were beginning to gather a few yards in front of him,"'cause I'm making an appointment."
Who the fuck talks like that?
He did get their attention, Sasuke had to admit somewhat grudgingly, going by how the gathered mob had surrounded him. He probably was going to get himself killed.
Sasuke was considering stepping in when one of the villagers broke away from the mob snarling viciously, rapidly closing in on the genin... and ended up getting his head smashed like a pumpkin for his troubles. His momentum carried him a dozen feet past the genin.
He waved the gore-stricken mace like a conductor would a baton,"Come on," his voice rang out in an open challenge, "I haven't got all day."
All hell broke lose.
XxX
Sakura didn't allow herself to dwell on the weirdness that seemed integral of her teammate. He had provided the distraction, like he had promised. Now it was time to do her part. She made her way into the village pointedly avoiding the chaos that Naruto was the cause of.
She was supposed to look for any sign the girl was here. A simple enough task. She could do this. A sudden spike in killing intent was all the warning she received before she jumped away to avoid a spike of earth meant to impale her. Palming a kunai in her hand she then blocked a series of shuriken. A couple of them got through her defence one nicking her forearm another her left foot.
Her momentary distraction had allowed her opponent to close in on her. She quickly ran through hand-seals to execute a substitution, but she knew she won't be fast enough.
Fortunately for her Sasuke was.
Kunai and chokuto clashed in a flash of steel.
"Go." Sasuke said shortly without turning around and Sakura moved. This fight wasn't hers. The other shinobi didn't pursue her having pegged Sasuke, and rightly so, as the greater threat. She approached the building they had shortlisted as the most likely to hold the entrance to the underground lair.
She didn't bother picking the lock and promptly snapped an exploding tag on the handle, stepping to the side and bracing herself against the wall. No point in being subtle anymore if ever there was one. The door was ripped off its hinges and crashed onto the opposite wall with a loud bang. Palming twin kunai in her hands she charged inside and did not find any resistance.
That was unexpected.
Probably Naruto's plan of drawing the resistance out had worked and she can walk in unopposed. Or maybe the enemy was just drawing her in ensuring she couldn't walk away.
Shelving that problem in the attic of her brain as something to be tackled by her future self, she examined the room. It was empty. She tapped her foot on the floor and repeated the procedure throughout the room, but got nothing to signify if one section of the floor was different or even more hollowed out than the other.
She was about to give up and give the other buildings a try, but there was something about this one which was still rankling her.
Then it hit her. The house was a lot smaller inside than it looked from the outside. She moved closer to the walls running her fingers to search for any hidden... there it was. Her fingers found purchase into the wall and pushed, revealing a hidden panel. A section of the wall slid to reveal something that looked like an elevator.
Scratch that it 'was' an elevator. The doors opened of their own accord and Sakura was left facing another dilemma.
Should she or shouldn't she?
Then she thought about Naruto facing against dozens if not scores of undead freaks and Sasuke taking on that shinobi just so that she could pass through with minimum fuss and her decision was made.
She entered the elevator. There were only two buttons. She pushed the bottom one after murmuring a silent prayer. The elevator couldn't have moved for more than a few feet when it came to a sudden stop.
Was that it? She braced herself waiting for the doors to open. But they remained shut even after a mental count of thirty. Deciding on a more proactive approach she tried to wrench the door open with her fingers. After a brief struggle the doors relented. Sakura realized that she was caught between floors in a way that there was a tiny gap just big enough for her to slip out.
Convenient? Yes
Malfuntion? Probably not.
Trap? Most likely.
Heaving herself out of the elevator she pulled herself through the gap into what seemed like a dark corridor. She had seen horror movies that began like this. They never ended well. She walked deeper into the corridor the sound of her footsteps her only companion.
The darkness coupled with the silence was beginning to unnerve her, and it was only due to her training that she wasn't a quivering mess of fear and panic. She kept walking till she reached the end of the corridor and found... nothing.
Was she supposed to look for another hidden elevator?
The choice was taken out from her hands when all of a sudden a whirring sound echoed through the place. She felt a shiver run down her spine as she turned around to face the way she came. Panels along the walls of the corridor kept opening and out spilled men armed with sickles, knives, blades and other assortment of melee weapons, their faces blank.
"Shit," she said summing up her situation in one word.
XxX
Sasuke parried a blow to his head before bisecting his opponent at the waist... only to have him crumble to dust a quick substitution with the remains of the clone saved him from getting stabbed.
The two of them had been at this dance for close to five minutes now. When the duel began Sasuke had intended to finish this quick and move on to other matters, so he had been liberal with his ninjutsu at the start of the fight, peppering the man with fireballs and going full offence.
His opponent had the same idea apparently and went all-out with his earth techniques. It was, to be frank a little impressive seeing an element widely believed to be defensive used for such an effective offence. The man had clipped his shoulder during that initial exchange, nearly dislocating it and Sasuke had paid him back in kind by slicing up his thigh.
After realizing that neither of them had a definite advantage over the other, they had fallen on trying to scope each other out, sometimes exchanging physical blows or the odd kunai and shuriken shower. Sasuke held the advantage in speed, had better ranged-capabilities not to mention the precognitive abilities of his sharingan. By all means this battle should have been over by now.
Only his opponent was no slouch either. He made up for the inferiority of technique by being crafty. His liberal use of earth-clones in conjunction with the substitution technique allowed him to survive. He hadn't still used his trump-card, his lightning-based techniques but he wanted to avoid using them till he was absolutely sure he could execute a debilitating if not an outright kill strike.
Kunai met chokuto. Sasuke twisted his blade in a move meant to disarm, the man let the kunai go and executed a knife-hand strike aimed at his throat. Sasuke predicted the feint and the subsequent move thanks to his sharingan and redirected his blade to the man's shoulder. It pierced his armoured vest, but then met with resistance. The man rapidly stepped back, but Sasuke was having none of it and followed, that's when his instincts screamed at him to get away and only a quick substitution saved him from certain death. He didn't escape completely unscathed as he had caught some of the debris from the blast on his ribs knocking the air out of him, nothing life-threatening, but annoying nonetheless.
He may not have been Kakashi when it came to memorizing a thousand techniques, but he knew an exploding earth-clone when he saw one. The technique's fame was only exceeded by the secrecy surrounding its mechanics.
He jogged his memory and only two names stood out from the bingo-book. One was Deidara an S-ranked nin who had taken the technique further than anyone who came before him before he betrayed Iwa and the other was...
"Tetsuo," Sasuke said trying to buy time to recover as they circled each other, "a long way from home aren't you?"
"I can say the same about you... Uchiha," his adversary spat out his clan name, breathing a little heavily the combat obviously taking its toll on him,"judging by the lack of a headband I'd say you decided to go rogue. Following older brother's footsteps are we?"
Sasuke ignored the not so subtle jab at the status of his reviled brother, but he just recalled the questions he had and without even knowing it, Tetsuo of the Black Rock had just volunteered answers.
So what if he would now have to take him alive instead and if in the process of extracting said answers Tetsuo suffered a little more than he had to, he doubted anyone would complain.
Sasuke slipped into a seal-less shunshin only this time following the man's reactionary substitution to intercept him. Changing directions mid-shunshin was an impossible feat...for most shinobi. But Sasuke was an Uchiha.
It was a style of combat that Uchiha Shisui had perfected. Using a high-speed travel technique and modifying it for combat in conjunction with the sharingan, and while Sasuke was a long way from mastering it he could use it with some measure of competence. He thoroughly relished the surprise mixed with dread on the face of his opponent as he drove his drove his chokuto channeled with lightning chakra straight through the man's torso, careful enough to avoid his vitals. The man gasped in pain and Sasuke twisted the blade.
"You know you just made this a lot more painful than it needed to be," Sasuke said,"What was that?" he bent closer to the helpless gasping shinobi as he tried to speak. All of a sudden the man gripped his sword arm in a vice-like grip.
"I said... boom!"
Tetsuo dusted himself off as he walked away. Maybe he had overdone it a bit. But then again his opponent was someone who warranted an overkill. The Uchiha was rather good he had to admit, just not good enough. If the mere mention of his brother was enough to make him lose his head the way he did, then he wouldn't have lasted long anyway. Still, he was an Uchiha and killing an Uchiha wouldn't exactly hurt his notoriety.
"But that's the thing about notoriety," a voice whispered in his ear,"you need to be alive for it to be any good to you."
He turned around and saw no one.
"Looking for me?"
"Impossible!" he exclaimed, as the smirking visage of his enemy materialized in front of him,"genjutsu," he flared his chakra to break it but realized it was too late.
He had lost this one.
XxX
Naruto and Gamahiro plowed through another group as he swung his mace, smashing their heads.
"I'm afraid my time is up Naruto," his summon whom he had henge'd as a raging bull said as he gored a charging zombie through the torso as Naruto removed its head.
"Already?" Naruto blocked a staff aimed at his head with his mace and executed a palm-strike on the chest of another adversary driving him into the crowd that was trying to flank him,"but you just got here."
"I have been here for nearly half an hour brat," Gamahiro said jumping over another group.
The two of them finally came to a sliding stop. Soon they were surrounded by more. They were keeping their distance a few yards from him in a loose circle. They may not feel much but whoever was controlling them certainly couldn't have been happy with the losses. Naruto had killed scores of these guys and their numbers while still remaining significant were finite. Sooner or later they would run out minions.
"Guess this is it then," Naruto addressed his mount,"tell the family I said hi and give my regards to Ma and Pa will you?"
"Will do," came the reply,"good luck with the rest," the summon said before disappearing in a puff of smoke, Naruto landed on his feet with practiced ease. He tapped his mace twice on the ground shaking off bits of gore from it and grinned.
He waited for them to attack... and waited.
Suddenly as one all of them turned tail...and ran.
"Huh?" Nauto stood there for a while a little nonplussed by this turn of events,"that was unexpected."
As much as he wanted to believe they were running scared from him, he had a feeling it was something else.
His doubts proved to be true a bare second later when a resounding boom echoed through the base shaking the very earth.
XxX
Sakura knew she had maybe three seconds to come up with a plan. There was no way she could fight her way out of this.
They charged. She ducked under a slash and drove an open palm into the attacker's nose flinging him on to the incoming horde. Not wasting another moment, she turned around and scaled the wall, not bothered by the gravity acting against her. She could claim to have better chakra control than the average shinobi and even a below average shinobi had tree walking down pat.
To her it was second nature.
Soon she was running upside down along the ceiling safely out of their reach. Before she could congratulate herself a knife embedded itself right next to her foot missing it by an inch. She spent the next thirty seconds dodging projectiles, some even tried to grab her by jumping. After a few came close she decided to crouch and placed herself as close to the ceiling as she could. It reduced her speed considerably and affected her ability to dodge, but a few nicks and cuts were a small price to pay in return for her life.
Despite her situation she couldn't help but be reminded of the girl possessed by a demon in one of the horror films her ex-boyfriend had coerced her into watching. In one of the scenes she hung upside down from the ceiling hissing at the protagonist.
Her moment of distraction nearly led one of her pursuers to grab her foot. Cursing herself and then forcing herself to focus she continued on her way. Eventually she managed to gain some distance from her pursuers and landed back on the floor, a plan began to take form in her mind. Breaking into a sprint she drew out a couple of kunai and wrapped exploding tags around them both.
She could see the elevator just a hundred yards ahead of her, suspended between the floors. Sending a silent prayer to the gods, she threw her first kunai not at the mob following her, but at the ceiling and her second kunai at the contraption holding the elevator. Running through hand-seals she executed a near flawless shunshin and slid into the elevator a split second before twin explosions rang out.
The elevator was now in free-fall, she braced herself for impact which fortunately didn't take long in coming. The impact was jarring, but that was all it was. Unfortunately that wasn't the end of her troubles, a low rumble was her only warning before thousands if not millions of tons of earth collapsed on top of her... or would have if she hadn't jumped away just in time just as the elevator was crushed like a plastic cup under the weight of the debris.
Maybe the first tag had a little too much juice in it. She had expected it to be just about powerful enough to collapse that passage and creating a barrier between herself and her pursuers.
It had done a lot more than that.
"What have you done?"
She turned towards the source of the voice to see what was probably one of the most bizarre things she had seen in her life. A man... or at least she assumed it was a man. It was hard to tell from all the wires protruding out of his scalp which were in turn attached to various contraptions behind him. He was seated in a high-backed chair with his hands on the armrests on an elevated platform of sorts glaring at her with murder in his eyes.
The smell of chemicals, the dark foreboding atmosphere and the quiet hum of machines combined together made the place look like something straight out of a sci-fi novel and despite the fact that having so many wires to one's head should have been a very painful process the guy didn't look or behave like a victim, so that could only mean one thing.
"You're the Doctor aren't you?" Sakura said, "and that's" she gestured to the wires, "how you control them I suppose."
The anger faded from his eyes and was replaced by resignation, "I don't expect you to understand," he said, "primitive minds like yours can't even comprehend what I'm trying to do, too constrained by the ru..."
Sakura nailed him with the blunt end of her kunai, effectively putting an end to the man's ramblings as he groaned in pain.
"Shut the fuck up."
He wasn't a threat. He wasn't even a shinobi. He was afraid of her and was expressing his fear at first through impotent rage and just now with weird justifications which could only make sense to the crazy lobby. She turned her attention to the rest of the room and found several cylindrical containers arranged in two rows a glass visor over each, attached to machines used to monitor vital statistics.
She rushed to the first and saw an unconscious woman through the visor. Her brain activity suggested that she hadn't yet undergone the procedure that was supposed to turn her into a mindless drone.
Hope flaring in her heart she once again approached the 'Doctor' who was still groaning in pain.
"Release them," she demanded pushing his chin up to make him face her, he flinched away.
"Why should I?" came the defiant reply,"they belong to me."
Sakura didn't bother arguing with him. If he won't be cooperative then it was time to get creative. She ripped out one of the wires attached to his head and the room was filled with his screams of agony.
"Release them now," her hand danced over another.
"Even if I did," the man gasped, "it won't do any good."
"What do you mean?"
"There was only one way in and out of this place," he said,"and you've just destroyed it and with it any chance of getting out of here alive," the man laughed mirthlessly as blood ran down his face from the puncture wound left by the uprooted wire,"trust me, at the moment they are better off than we are."
Sakura shoved him back utterly disgusted with him. A tremor shook the entire place and Sakura realized that that the place was likely to collapse any minute now, when her attention was attracted to a banging noise coming from one of the sections of the wall. Before she could move towards the source of the noise that section of the wall was torn apart like a plastic screen and a brown mass of blob fell through followed by a river of mud.
The blob struggled to its feet, nearly losing its balance before steadying itself. It then proceeded to wipe its face,"I hate that jutsu," it muttered before turning to her and blue eyes sparkled with joy through the layers of mud.
"Hey Sakura-chan!" he waved at her casually as if he had run into her at a market and not the lair of a mad scientist.
"Naruto!" Sakura nearly cracked with relief.
"This the guy?" he walked towards them, his feet squeaking.
Sakura gave him the short version of the events leading to this and Naruto gave her a patient hearing while their helpless enemy glared at them warily.
Once she was done, without another word the genin ripped out another of the wires attached to his scalp extracting another round of cuss filled screams and looked like repeating the process when without another word his somewhat unfortunate victim rapidly pressed a few buttons on the armrest of his chair and all the cylinders opened with an audible hiss.
Sakura was about to point out the obvious problem of transporting so many unconscious people but realized her concerns were unfounded. Naruto whistled and dozens of clones entered the laboratory through the entrance he had created minutes ago and then went about extracting them from their prisons.
"We have a problem boss," one of the clones shouted. Naruto made his way to the clone and Sakura followed, but not before knocking the 'Doctor' out with a well placed strike to the temple.
The problem turned out to be the various IV lines attached to the victims and the clones not being sure if it was safe to remove them.
"It's okay," Sakura said placing an arm on Naruto who looked like he was ready to rip out a few more wires from someone's scalp,"I got this."
Sakura spent the next forty five minutes unhooking everyone while Naruto debriefed her. He told her how about a third of the village seemed to have collapsed on itself(a result of her stunt with the exploding tags) and how suddenly all of the people gathered near the point of collapse, which was why he decided to get to the bottom of it... literally.
Sakura gave him an abridged version of her own adventures though left out her part in causing the place to nearly collapse and put it down to a security measure. Naruto eyed her speculatively and Sakura was beginning to think he wasn't buying her story. Throughout this mission Naruto gave her the distinct impression that he was a lot more smarter and perceptive than he looked.
"That's fucked up," he finally said, "who the hell rigs their own place to blow up while they are still likely to be in it? Evil guys and their plans am I right?"
Then again, maybe not.
"To be frank he doesn't look all that smart to me," Sakura said as nonchalantly as she could while she unhooked the last person off the cylinder,"guess that's all of them."
"Time to go?" one of the clones inquired as he shouldered one of the victims.
"Time to go." Naruto agreed.
XxX
Sasuke turned the prone body of Tetsuo over with his foot as he groaned in pain from the wounds inflicted on him,"Its been a while since I fell prey to genjutsu," he said, and Sasuke could hear just a hint of grudging respect in his voice.
"That's 'cause you'd never faced an Uchiha," Sasuke retorted,"till today."
"Why am I still alive?"
"I have some questions and your answers will determine how painful your passage into the next world will be, let's start with the big one," Sasuke said,"who's running Oto?"
"I don't know," came the reply and Sasuke plunged his hand into the open wound on his torso earning himself a scream of pain. Sasuke reduced the pressure but didn't withdraw.
"Want to rephrase your answer?" he asked.
"I'm telling you the truth," Tetsuo gasped,"I'm just a hired hand, I'm not even an Oto shinobi."
Sasuke resumed the pressure.
"Wait wait, I said WAIT!" Tetsuo grasped frantically at his arm,"I know someone who might," Sasuke relented as he started speaking rapidly,"my employer... he is said to have been hired personally by the Otokage, if anyone can answer your questions it would be him."
Not quite satisfied but he did have a point. He could always get back to him. Sasuke withdrew his arm and the former Iwa-nin collapsed on the ground, writhing in agony. Sasuke's danger senses started tingling, and he reactivated his sharingan by reflex and the world slowed.
Tetsuo was in the process of slipping into a shunshin, he wasn't trying to escape. He was preparing a killing blow.
Except Sasuke wasn't the target.
In the next moment he was standing a dozen yards from his original position, his chidori laden arm run through Tetsuo's heart. Tetsuo coughed once, spraying Sasuke's face with his blood almost like a final act of defiance before the life seeped from his eyes. With a jerk he yanked his bloody arm from his chest and allowed the husk of the former shinobi to fall facedown on the ground. It seemed he wasn't nearly as helpless as Sasuke had assumed.
The entire thing took less than a second.
"Sa... Sasuke?" the tentative voice of Sakura whose life he had inadvertently saved with his reflexive action called out from behind him. He turned around and disregarded the terror in her eyes. He didn't have the time for this and instead turned his attention the the army of clones who were all carrying unconscious and mostly naked people on their backs.
"You didn't kill the guy running this place did you?" Sasuke demanded.
"Calm down," the clone nearest to him said, rolling his eyes,"the boss is carrying him personally."
"Did someone call for me?" another came forward, like the others he too was carrying someone on his shoulders, the only difference being this one was actually clothed.
"Put him down," Sasuke said,"I have questions for him."
"I will," came the cheeky reply,"but only if you ask nicely."
Sasuke wordlessly drew the chokuto from it's scabbard.
"Fine," the genin relented rolling his eyes at his unspoken threat,"a little politeness never killed anyone you know, and I doubt he's gonna be much good to you in the condition he's in," he dropped him in front of him.
"If by condition you mean dead," Sasuke hissed as he felt the familiar onset of anger coursing through his blood while he examined the man,"then I swear my manners will be the least of your problems."
"Dead?" Sakura rushed to him and placed her fingers underneath the man's jaw to feel his pulse,"can't be... I just knocked him out."
"Congratulations," Sasuke said putting as much venom as he possibly could in his voice,"the one time in this mission you were supposed to keep someone alive you end up killing."
He saw her face blanch even as she worked over the man trying to revive him. By now Naruto had joined her too, an uncharacteristically thoughtful look on his face. But Sasuke had had it with the two of them. This was precisely the reason why he didn't want to be in a team. They just got in the way and messed things up.
"If you could get your head out of your ass for a second," the genin said still examining the body looking for god knows what,"maybe you'll consider the possibility that maybe his death isn't actually Sakura-chan's fault."
"Yeah?" he scoffed,"guess I should blame my imaginary friend should I?"
Naruto turned to Sasuke and from the smirk on his face he knew he will regret that comment,"Only if your imaginary friend did this." he was holding the dead man's mouth open and had his tongue folded with a finger. Despite himself Sasuke found himself moving closer to take a better look. A small horse-shoe shaped tattoo was placed underneath the tongue.
"Is that a..." Sakura started.
"A seal?" Naruto concluded,"yes it is. A suicide seal by the looks of it. They weren't exactly being original here were they?" he then turned to Sasuke,"now how about that apology?"
"Apology?"
"Yeah for being an asshole to Sak..." he broke off mid-sentence hearing Sakura gasp.
"Sasuke," she said her eyes widening in horror,"you're bleeding."
What the hell was she talking about? he thought irritably. He gave himself a cursory examination. There was blood, yes, but it was that of his enemy. He stepped forward and his foot made a squelching sound as if it just stepped in mud. Except the mud wasn't wet with water but blood... his blood.
He had indeed sustained a wound on his abdomen. But when? He put together the pieces together even as his vision was beginning to get blurry.
It seemed his opponent managed one final blow before he died.
'I'm so screwed' was the last thought in his head just before he lost consciousness.
XxX
He found himself outside the Uchiha compound. That's how he knew it was a dream. He would never come here while awake. Still this was different from his usual dreams. For once it wasn't night. It was twilight during autumn. He could tell by the colour of the leaves which had turned golden brown. By the time winter comes the trees would be completely bare.
He liked autumn... or at least he used to. These days he didn't like much of anything. He pushed open the gate and walked on the paved path which led to his house. The clan grounds were deserted and he had a feeling so were the houses.
"Its getting colder sochi," a woman called out,"why don't you come in?"
He realized his feet had carried him to his house. His mother was standing there just outside the door, a small smile playing on her lips borne of the simple joy of seeing her son come home.
He found himself seated at their dining table while his mother poured him a bowl of tomato soup, his favourite... or at least it used to be.
"You shouldn't be here," he said glaring at the soup.
"This is my home silly," she said in mock outrage, before placing a palm on his face gently in a gentle caress,"of course I should be here."
"I don't need you." he said.
The scene changed. Darkness fell. A blade protruded from her chest and he saw his brother behind her, his face impassive. Terror and helplessness flooded his veins as his brother bathed him in the blood of his mother.
He welcomed it.
Sasuke woke up with a splitting headache and in unfamiliar surroundings. His first instinct was to reach for his weapon, which wasn't anywhere near him.
He got to his feet and immediately felt light-headed nearly collapsing back on the bed.
"You're up," he looked up to see a glass of juice in front of his face. He should have been more suspicious but if he was to be harmed it would have already been done.
Not to mention he was thirsty.
He gulped down the beverage in three big, loud gulps.
"Thanks," he grunted as he handed the glass back to the vaguely familiar pink-haired girl... Sakura?
"It's okay," she reassured him,"you'd been unconscious for close to sixty hours, some disorientation is to be expected."
Sixty hours? How long was that? Two... three days? Memories flooded his mind. Kakashi, team seven, a missing girl, undead bandits, Oto...
"The mission?" he said hoarsely.
"We didn't find the girl if that's where you're asking."
"What is this place?" he asked.
"We're in a resthouse," Sakura explained as she helped him back on bed,"back in the Land of Fire."
"What happened?"
"You should rest."
"What happened?" he demanded, Sakura looked like she wanted to argue but seemed to relent after seeing the look on his face.
"You got hurt and lost a lot of blood," she explained,"I healed your wound and Naruto led us out of Kusa back here... we dropped the people in a hospital," she added as an afterthought probably wondering if it mattered to him.
It didn't. Something else did though.
"You saved my life?"
"Its my job," Sakura shrugged,"and you saved my life first and got hurt doing it as a matter of fact."
Sasuke didn't bother to point out that it was his oversight in failing to secure his prisoner that endangered her life in the first place. Thankfully his mistake didn't cost anyone but himself and by the looks of it, it wouldn't be all that high.
They sat in silence for a while before Sakura broke it again,"Why did you do it?" she asked hesitantly as if not quite sure if she wanted the answer.
Any other time he would have blown her off or fired an insult. At the moment however he couldn't summon the energy to do either. Maybe it was the lack of blood or the drugs he was sure he had been given for treatment but he found himself answering in a way that was completely out of character for him.
"I don't know," he said,"my body just moved on its own."
"Hey Sakura-chan," Naruto poked his head through the door of the room and his eyes widened imperceptibly at seeing him awake,"so he's alive," he said neutrally as he walked into the room, his eyesore of an orange jacket was back and so were the whiskers.
Sasuke scoffed and didn't deign to respond as he got off the bed ignoring Sakura's protests, feeling the need to answer nature's call and to get away from the genin, even if temporarily.
XxX
"You know I think we were looking at it all wrong," Naruto said his eyes thoughtful and fingers tapping impatiently on the table where the remains of their meal remained while Sasuke seemed to be lost in his own thoughts, ignoring the two of them.
To be fair it was surprising he joined them at all. But then one probably couldn't be picky about dinner companions after having gone over two days without sustenance.
"Let it go Naruto," Sakura said exasperatedly,"we've done everything we possibly could."
Sakura was beginning to get a really annoyed by his... single-mindedness. While it was somewhat admirable, he didn't know when to give-up, and she was in no mood to tear down another enemy base just to grasp at non-existent straws.
It had been more than two days since they had taken down an Oto-base while looking for a missing girl. In the process Sasuke had gotten hurt, trying to protect her... something she still had mixed feelings about. It went against everything she knew about the Uchiha. If she had to make a list of all the people that she knew who could take a kunai for her, he would be right at the bottom of it. With his borderline contemptuous treatment of her that went back to their Academy days she couldn't really be faulted for thinking that... and yet.
"Hear me out here," the genin persisted after a brief bout of silence,"why did we assume she was kidnapped?"
"You mean she wasn't?"
"We know she didn't want to get married," he said,"we know she wanted to the run away, we know she did run away and even took the help of her fiancé to do so, everything she did was of her own free will."
"She decided to volunteer herself to be an become a brain dead minion to a crazy scientist did she now?" Sasuke said mockingly joining the conversation,"Is that what you're saying?"
"No," Naruto said ignoring the sarcasm,"I'm saying what if she never went to Kusa and completely avoided becoming a brain dead minion to a crazy scientist?"
Sakura was beginning to think the genin was losing it. Did failing the mission really affect him that badly? Failure could hardly be something he wasn't used to. His current rank was an obvious indicator in that regard. But maybe that's why it meant more to him after all and all things considered
"Naruto," she said patiently,"the caravan she was traveling in was attacked and that's where she was taken."
"Yes, she was in the caravan and the caravan was attacked," Naruto continued undeterred,"but why are we assuming she was in the caravan when it was attacked?"
He must have realized he wasn't getting through to them and that only made him more agitated,"Come on guys, keep up," he said exasperatedly,"the caravan was going to Kusa because it had reason to get there, to sell stuff or whatever, but what possible reason could Mei Arisawa have for going to Kusa?"
"Avoiding an unwanted marriage sounds like a good reason to me," Sakura said dryly.
"Yeah," Naruto agreed,"but she just needed to leave Sumer to do that... which she did."
What Naruto was saying was beginning to make sense to Sakura and though Sasuke seemed to have lost all interest in their conversation and had gone back to staring into space,"If she didn't go to Kusa," Sakura mused,"then where did she go?"
Naruto deflated visibly,"I don't know."
The three of them fell silent once more. Sakura wasn't completely convinced by Naruto's arguments but it did give her something to think about. However, she was in no mood to go on another wild goose chase. In midst of all this her eyes were drawn to a poster on the wall of the eatery.
A poster like this one was commonplace enough. She had seen dozens of them during the course of this mission alone. But she had never had any reason to look more closely at it... till now.
Annual Traveling Art Symposium.
The poster proclaimed in calligraphic letters. A memory of Mei Arisawa's bedroom flashed in her mind along with the words spoken by her mother.
'She loved to paint.'
"Guys," Sakura said, her casual tone belied the gravity of her next words,"I think I know where Mei Arisawa is."
XxX
The Traveling Art symposium was housed under a huge canvas tent close to fifty feet in height and nearly three times in diameter took up a sizeable portion of the half-acre ground it was in. The place was fairly crowded but fortunately they didn't have to wait in line to gain entry. The entry fee itself was paltry.
The same couldn't be said about the items on display though.
Paintings, sculptures, pottery, embroidery you name it.
Sakura had been to a few art galleries her mother had dragged her to, but none of them could match this scale. The fact that they would be moving all of this to another town made it even more impressive. Even Naruto looked moved Sasuke on the other hand was his usual impassive self. She was sure the Uchiha would ditch them as his interest in this mission was peripheral at best and yet.
The crowd itself was was varied from young couples out on a date to families looking for respite from their daily mundane lives. Nobles looking for the next item in their collection to art connoisseurs and critics looking for the next big thing.
There were worse places for Mei Arisawa to be.
"I can't believe I'm saying this," a familiar voice called out, "but you guys are late."
Hatake Kakashi walked over to them in his usual languid way, one hand raised in greeting. The image he was portraying was a far cry from the leader who had given them a dressing down less than a week ago.
"What are you doing here?" Sasuke demanded.
"Would you believe if I said I was here to enjoy the art?"
"No," Naruto said,"not at all."
"Then I guess I'm here for the same reason you are," Kakashi led them to another section of the symposium as he spoke, "though I have to say being here has been... enlightening. Did you know there are fifteen different schools of sculpture-car..."
"Cut the crap Kakashi!" Sasuke interrupted the jounin, "how long have you known she wasn't in Kusa?"
"I suspected," he admitted, "but there was a chance that she had indeed been kidnapped and it was necessary to look into it."
"We risked our lives," Sakura said furiously, "are you saying that was for nothing?"
"You infiltrated and destroyed a base of an enemy of Konoha and rescued dozens of their prisoners not to mention possibly stopped future attacks," Kakashi said, "I wouldn't call that nothing."
Sakura tried to muster her anger but failed to do so, even Sasuke looked furious only Naruto remained unaffected. Through the cloud of irritation fogging her mind the implication of his words struck her.
"How did you know that?" she demanded.
"Its my business to know," he said cryptically.
Sakura realized that in a relatively straightforward manner he had praised their work.
"Ah!" Kakashi said as he led them to an unattended display of paintings, "we're here. I made acquaintance of the artist a few days ago, a most charming young woman by the name of Tsuki and while this is the first time she has displayed her work I'm sure Sakura will find it similar to that of our missing friend."
Indeed it was. Sakura could see the similarity in the style of the paintings here and those she had seen in Mei Arisawa's bedroom. The liberal use of colours, the aggressive brush strokes were things she had come to associate with Mei's style.
"And here she comes," Kakashi said drawing their attention away from the paintings and to the painter who approached them. The real Mei Arisawa was a far cry from her photographs. Gone was the prim and proper lady in kimono and replaced by a relaxed if somewhat tired looking woman dressed casually in a skirt and blouse. Her face flushed with pleasure when she saw Kakashi. It seemed the jounin had downplayed his association with the girl.
"Hatake-san," she said, "good to see you back."
"Likewise Tsuki-san," Kakashi said graciously, "I would like you to meet my team," Kakashi made the introductions and they greeted the budding artist. Naruto and herself did anyway, Sasuke just grunted noncommitally.
"So," she took her place by the display, "have you decided on what you want to take?"
"Yeah," Kakashi laughed awkwardly rubbing the back of his head, "about that, I'm afraid I haven't been completely honest with you Tsuki-san... or should I say Arisawa-san?"
Her face paled at Kakashi's words and she nearly collapsed but managed to hold herself up.
"Did my parents hire you?" she asked after a while.
"Yes," Kakashi said, "they did and they are rather distraught by your disappearance."
"I wish I didn't have to put them through this," she said regretfully, "but they left me little choice."
"You don't want to get married."
"No, I don't... not yet anyway," she admitted.
"So you ran away," despite the words his tone remained devoid of any disapproval.
"I would've gone back," she protested, "The day my parents announced my impending nuptials was the day I learnt about the symposium. I just wanted to do this one thing for myself... just for once in my life and people have liked my work. I'm even being offered contracts."
Despite all the trouble this girl had caused, a part of Sakura found herself admiring her. It couldn't have been easy doing what she did knowing it was only going to earn the disapproval of her family. That kind of courage had to be commended and it was something she could empathize with.
"As much as I sympathize with your situation I'm afraid we still have a mission to complete."
"I understand," Mei said resignedly.
"However," Kakashi said and the girl looked up her eyes hopeful, "There are still a couple of days before the symposium concludes, and I suppose it won't be too much of an inconvenience for us to stick around while you finish this."
XxX
Guren waited patiently for her master to speak. She doubted her master would be pleased with the news she brought. More often than not she had seen the messengers of bad news bear the brunt of his temper.
"Is there anything that could be salvaged?" he finally spoke, his cold voice breaking the silence.
"With time, maybe," she replied, "the entire place has collapsed, but there's a possibility that with some of it has escaped complete annhilation."
After a brief bout of silence he spoke again, "Cease all activities there, its a lost cause anyway."
"The enemy got hold of the Doctor," she decided to point out.
"Inconsequential."
"Of course master," she hesitated just for a split-second before continuing, "there is one other thing."
"Go on," he permitted.
"We lost most of the surveillance footage of the attack," she said, "however I had some of the blood samples in the scene analyzed."
"And?"
"One of them belonged to Uchiha Sasuke."
The silence that followed her declaration was deafening and yet when he spoke his voice was as calm as ever though tinged with a hint of humour this time which was probably more dangerous, "So, the prodigal son returns."
His reaction caught Guren by surprise even if she didn't show it. She expected his reaction to be a lot more... life threatening, instead he was just amused as if being indulgently tolerant of the acts of an errant child.
"Is that all?" he chuckled as if knowing what she was thinking.
"Yes master."
"You may go."
"By your leave," she bowed before stepping back, "Orochimaru-sama."
So there you go. Hope you liked this. I might take a break with this one as I've neglected my other stories, unless I'm convinced to change my mind that is(Hint:Hint). Don't forget to leave a review 'cause I'm just not feeling the love guys. And before I forget, a belated happy new year.
Until next time.