Sasuke followed after Tobi, his stomach knotting at the look Itachi had given him when he had left. It wasn't disapproving as he had guessed, or even angry looking. He had looked...worried. Sasuke knew that was the entire issue-- that his brother wasn't willing to let down his overprotectiveness long enough for him to grow. It still hurt to see it, though.
He loved his brother more than life itself. He would willingly give up his life if it meant Itachi was safe. Not that he thought it would ever come to that-- his brother was much too strong to need his help. If he could just get a little stronger, though, he was sure he would be of some use to him.
The two Uchiha stopped outside the school as Tobi headed in to drop off the paperwork. It barely took more than a moment until he had returned, leading Sasuke towards the outskirts of the village, and tossing him a small bag on supplies. "There are a few things we need to go over if you're going to be my ward, Sasuke." Tobi had reverted to his serious yet light voice.
"One, the lessons I teach you to stay with you but are not to be spread. They are ruthless and an edge on the side of barbaric, but they work much better than the polite ways they teach you in the academy. 'Oh, if you could please give us the information, we won't have to fight.' rarely works, and only gives them an opening. Same with the missions. Do not tell others what happens to them. I do the mission reports to Nagato, you have no reason to whisper a word to anyone. These are not children's missions. This is work for the strong." Tobi explained.
Sasuke nodded in understanding as Tobi continued. "Two, do not question my instructions. I know much better than you at this point. When you better understand the ways of the ninja world, then maybe you can contribute to the conversation. Until then, listen, watch, and learn. A misplaced opinion or word could give the enemy space to attack or tell that there is an issue."
"Three, don't expect happy-go-lucky Tobi. He is gone when away from others. I've lowered such an appearance because it will be distracting when we train or speak. In front of others, I will use this persona to throw them off. I only show you my true self out of a sort of trust. I expect you to return it and tell me all you know." he finished up.
They stopped at the gate of a village. Sasuke read the lining over the gate, his heart squeezing. The sand village. This was where Gaara was from. "Follow those rules, and we will get along just fine. I am of course open to questions before and after the mission, but our result will not be swayed under any circumstances."
Sasuke nodded, hesitantly holding onto Tobi's robe's sleeve for a split second. Tobi turned to him, waiting for his question. Sasuke let go as Tobi settled to listen to him. "Why are we in the sand village? Isn't this where Gaara was from?"
Tobi nodded. "We've come to kill the Kage of this village, his father. Now that you all are becoming ninja, we need to kill him. He sees the tailed beast inside Gaara as a valuable piece; nothing more. If he sees Gaara, he will try to take him back. We will kill him before this happens."
Sasuke's stomach twisted as Tobi bounded off, not allowing him to ask the question buzzing around in his head. That was Gaara's father. They were going to kill Gaara's father. Sasuke couldn't imagine if Gaara and Sasori went out on a mission to kill his father then didn't tell him-- but Tobi had already said no speaking of the mission.
Soon they were on the outer gates of the Kage's office. It had been easy to slip past the guards with his academy training. He could see the man who looked so much like Gaara, writing away in his office. Tobi turned to Sasuke. "Create a soundproofing jutsu and cast it to the walls." Sasuke did as he asked. "Now, go into the hallway and take out any guards. I'll take on the Kage."
Sasuke looked like he wanted to argue-- they had just snuck past all the guards-- but also decided it was better than watching Tobi slice up Gaara's father. He headed off towards the hallway, quickly finding the guards. With little to no effort, he knocked them all out with a bit of the power Karin had started supplying for them in their weapons bag a few years ago. One whiff of it on a rag and you were out before you knew what hit you.
The teen took out seven or so guards, each of them crumbling to the ground without much resistance. Sasuke smiled proudly as he finished, but dropped it as he felt a kunai held to the back of his throat. He tilted his head a bit to see not a guard, but a blonde-haired girl, who looked rather angry. "What are you doing here? I hope you aren't dumb enough to try to attack the Kage." noticing the boy was surprisingly younger than herself.
Sasuke was about to pull his weapon when he met green eyes, strikingly similar to Gaara's in shape as well as sharing a similar color. He halted his weapon drawing. He was frozen. "You're Temari." he stated bluntly. She gave him a startled and weary look, so he fumbled, trying to explain. "Oh- my brother- I mean- Gaara told me about you," he explained.
She gave him a sneer but lowered her weapon out of curiosity. "You just called him your brother? My parents don't have any other children." her eyes turning dark. "You dare bring up my brother for your amusement, then mock my father on top of it? You'll die for that."
As she moved to draw her kunai, Sasuke matched her movements to block her. The clashing of metal drew the attention of the boy down the hall, making him come running up. That and a few passed out guards didn't help his suspicions. "Hey, sis, what's going on in here-" pausing as he saw the fight and quickly bringing out his puppets. Sasuke paled.
"Shit, I shouldn't have said that. I said way too much. I don't mean to start a fight-" he tried, much to the two sand siblings' annoyance.
The one he guessed was Kankuro quickly charged in for an attack. "You should have thought about that before attacking the sand village-!" Sasuke easily sidestepped them both, avoiding their attacks.
"Please stop attacking me. I don't want to have to kill you two." Itachi's words against killing innocents echoing in his head despite his best attempts to shoo them away.
Neither seemed ready to back down, and Sasuke took steps back, unsure what to do until he felt a chest behind him. He jumped a bit, swinging around to see Tobi. Despite his wearing a mask, Sasuke could hear the disapproving in his voice. "Unfortunately, Sasuke, that isn't a choice. You let them see you and get information out of you concerning Gaara from your shocked panic. They'll have to die." Tobi spoke, lifting his weapons.
Temari and Kankuro both seemed a lot more nervous now that someone so much larger than them was there, and dripping with blood too. He had just come out of their father's office, they both noticed with dread. Sasuke grabbed onto Tobi's arm as he moved to kill the other children. "Tobi! Stop! They're Gaara's siblings. He'll never forgive us if he knows we killed them. They're barely older than any of us. Mother and father would be upset if you killed them- they're just kids like us!" he pleaded, careful to not use any names that could let the siblings know exactly who had taken their brother.
Tobi scowled from behind his mask. "I agree to train you and this is my thanks? Disobedience and the breaking of the second rule on your first mission."
Sasuke ignored the baffled looks they got from the siblings. "I'll take any punishment you give for me doing this, but you've already killed his father. You can't take his siblings. It's wrong! It could hurt him!" he shouted, drawing the attention of far off guards. Tobi cursed under his breath as they ran towards them, taking guard over the sand siblings and preparing to attack.
Tobi turned on his heel, making way for the window with a growl as the guards came in. "You've drawn guards in. Your punishment will be you taking responsibility for your actions, like a true ninja. If you can escape, good. If not, well, they say strength grows from pain. This is what you wanted." he reminded with a sly look under his mask. "Let's see just how right Itachi was about you not being ready to face the world."
Then, just like that, Sasuke was alone. The guards blocked the window, getting the idea that the older ninja was going to leave the younger behind. Sasuke took a step back, trying to run to the halls. More guards. He was strong, but even he couldn't take on such large numbers. He was suddenly hit with the harsh realization-- Tobi was gone. He wouldn't protect him as Itachi would have. Pulling out a weapon, Sasuke could only barely shake off the thought. This was why he joined Tobi-- to make himself stronger. He just hadn't expected to be thrown into the belly of the beast so quickly.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Sasuke woke up to feel himself in an uncomfortable position. His arms were bound behind his back, his body tied to a chair. He tried to move his legs but found them tied up as well. Sasuke did notice his sight wasn't blocked, at least. That meant they most likely didn't know of his Uchiha background. His mouth, on the other hand, wasn't so lucky-- it was tied tightly with some sort of cloth.
Since moving around was out of the option, Sasuke settled for glancing around and trying to stay calm. That was right. He needed to remember the training he had learned from his sensei. When being held by enemy ninja, it was best to get a look at your surroundings. He needed to find any possible exits.
Looking around, he only saw two possible exits. One was the main door, and the other was a side window most likely used to intimidate the one being interrogated by the high fall down. It was clearly a room used to interrogate enemy ninja. The room was white, blood crusted around every corner, but it looked old. It was clear they rarely had to interrogate others anymore-- most likely due to the fact the villages were in a time of peace and most rouge ninjas were strong enough to not get captured.
The blood was unsettling for the young teen, the moonlight hovering in through the window being the only source of light. Sasuke clenched his eyes, knowing he should try to keep quiet and not alert them to him waking, but it was a lot to take in. The blood scattered around, the full moon's light filling in, and the dull ache in his head reminded him too much of the massacre. He knew logically that it was all in his head, but the head injury he had undoubtedly got from being knocked out made him especially sensitive.
Sasuke squirmed a bit in his seat, trying to will his mind to ignore the blood and moon but to no avail. Soon enough, his attempts to staying quiet with the panic were destroyed. He twisted and turned in his chair, grunts, of course, leaving his cloth stuffed face in the process. It seemed that whatever he did, he couldn't get out of the chair. They had taken his weapons and drained his chakra. He was helpless.
Slowly, the struggling turned into full-on panic. He reeled his body as far from the chair as possible, eyes glowing a fearful red. Two tomoe slowly turned into three as they circled his pupil rapidly, breathing becoming labored as he yelled muffledly through the cloth. He growled and hissed, hitting his foot against the floor beneath to make as much noise as possible. He just wanted out of this room, damn it!
Eventually, someone did step in. It was the boy from earlier, though now he looked much more tired and worn out. He scowled at younger ninja who was making such noise in the middle of the night. "What the hell do you think you're doin', little punk? First, you and your buddy break in and kill the kage, now you can't be bothered to keep your mouth shut until sunrise? Who the hell do you think you are?" he hissed, grabbing Sasuke by the bangs of his short, dark hair to force him closer despite the bindings.
Sasuke grimaced at the tight hold, looking up at the older teen with nervousness. The lights had been switched on, and suddenly he wondered if subduing to his fear would lead him to his death. He was near during the time of the Kage's death-- he could very well be blamed for it. He couldn't answer the other's question, of course, so he settled for simple clenching his fists to help calm him down.
The sound of a lighter voice knocked him out of his blank stare up at the older teen. He painfully turned his head in the older teen's grip to see Temari standing at the doorway with crossed arms. "Brother, don't go roughing him up yet. There are a few things I need to clear up first." he relaxed lightly at her words, though he quickly returned to his stiffness as she pulled out a kunai and put it to his throat. He grunted in panic at that, though nodded a bit. He wouldn't say anything to put his village or family in danger, but he'd rather get the shit beat out of him without being gagged.
Temari pulled the gag from his mouth, allowing him to clench his sore jaw for only a split second before she began her questioning him. "You're Sasuke Uchiha, aren't you? You were in that batch of kidnapped kids from all those years ago. You disappeared along with our brother. It only makes sense, seeing your eyes" she concluded, turning his face back and forth in her hands to look into his eyes.
Sasuke nodded. It wasn't like it was something he could deny, anyway. She removed her hands from his face. "How do you know Gaara, and why did you call him your brother?" she stood over him, arms crossed as she questioned him.
The Uchiha lightly clenched his fists once more, straightening up as well as he could in the chair. Well, it was already out of the bag. "Gaara and I are not brothers by blood. We have simply close and refer to each other as brothers. I've seen the old articles in the newspaper detailing what they think happened to us. It's right. The same person who took Gaara, took me." closing his eyes briefly. "I can tell you're worried about him. Gaara is safe and happy with us. That much, I can assure you, but I won't speak of any other details of the people who took us.
Temari's eyes seemed to soften at that. Her little brother was safe, after all. Kankuro was the one to interrupt the silence, still seeming annoyed, bit now with a mix of pain in his voice. "Why won't you tell us anything else? Do they have you bugged? If you're worried the captors will kill you, Suna can offer its protection for you and the other children. You just need to tell us where they are."
Sasuke mused a bit, "You really don't listen well. I said Gaara was happy. All of us are. Our 'captors' treat us better than most of our parents ever did. They would never bug us."
Temari gave the younger teen a frustrated look, "If they take such good care of you guys, why did that man leave you behind? If that's the case, wouldn't he be punished for what he's done?" clearly not believing a word he said so far, or rather, having a hard time accepting it.
Sasuke's eyes turned downcast. He mentally scolded his foolish actions. He chose to not fight them all. He had disobeyed his sensei. He had chosen to not listen. He did not do what he did out of spite, he did it to strengthen him. He coldly spoke, "I've said all I'm willing to say. Take it as you will." his eyes narrowed slightly.
No matter what they did, he wouldn't become angry enough to spill information on his family. For their safety, he had to stay quiet until he was able to escape.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Konan was seething. "You left him where?" she hissed, storming towards an oh too calm Tobi.
"Konan~ It isn't Tobi's fault! Sasuke was a naughty boy. He didn't listen to Tobi and stayed with the enemy!" he threw his hands up in false innocence.
The masked man was honestly surprised at the rage that was unleashed upon his as he returned. He had expected Konan and Nagato to be angry. He had expected Itachi and Kisame to prepare to kill him for what he had done. Hell, he wouldn't be too surprised if Deidara cussed him out.
He hadn't expected the zombie combo to pull their weapons and pin him to the wall. He hadn't expected Sasori to have his puppet up and ready to strike him at any moment. He certainly wasn't expecting the glare he gained from Zetsu, who stood off to the corner with his arms crossed. That wasn't even counting the children, either.
Hinata was sitting on the couch, crying gently as she was soothed by Karin and Naruto alike. Both the Uzumaki sent him accusing glares for the absence of their brother. Gaara was part of the group cornering him, along with Neji who was glaring him down, Byakugan blazing. "You didn't even try to help him! Those wounds hardly look like they would have slowed you down to the point you had to abandon him!"
Tobi opened his mouth but got not a single word out as he felt large hands wrap around his throat. He stared wide-eyed at a looming Kisame. The sharp growled, "Sasuke might have joined you because he wanted to be stronger, but that gives you no right to abandon him." which meant a lot, coming from the man who had killed off many teammates before for simply slowing him down. "You swore you would do your best to keep him safe. You swore it the moment you signed those papers agreeing to be his sensei, damn it!"
Seeing Itachi suiting up by the door, Tobi had to admit he was a bit relieved the Uchiha hadn't picked a fight with him. He was pretty sure he could win, but it wouldn't be without cost when it came to Itachi's love for Sasuke. Though, it was also a bit nerve provoking to see him so obviously ignoring him. Nagato lightly put a hand on Itachi's shoulder, "Itachi, we're all upset by this. We shouldn't rush in, though. They'll be expecting us to return. Especially if Sasuke isn't able to stay quiet. Which, I wouldn't blame him if he couldn't. He's in a terrifying position between life and death if he's quiet."
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It was merely an hour ago that Sasuke charged through the forest, his arms paralleling his narrowed body in hopes of pushing himself further than he could normally go. There wasn't a single part of him that didn't hurt. After his refusal to give the two any more information, things had got bloody. Sasuke knew they were most likely hurting him out of the pain of losing their father, but Itachi's psychology lectures weren't doing him much good right now. He was injured-- badly.
With very little knowledge of medical ninjutsu, he couldn't heal more than little scrapes or cuts. The academy had prepared him for a lot, but not holes being torn through his arms and legs. Not kunai being plunged into him at every angle until it hurt to breathe. The lack of food and water he had been provided didn't help his situation much either. He had just barely been able to use what little chakra he had left to get out of there.
He had been running towards the south-east for about a day now. He knew the rain village had to be close. They had gone north-west to get to Suna, so it had to be this way. He knew he looked like a mess. He knew his guards were lowered no matter how to tried to raise them. He also knew even he needed to stop for a rest when he got the chance.
Sasuke parked himself in a small village between the borders of the villages. He gave a quick look around in the area. It seemed to be a run-down village-- mostly poor farmers and shady shop owners by the looks of them. It would be easy enough to snatch a bit of food. He didn't feel bad about tricking them-- he had grown up with the Akatsuki after all.
First, though, he should probably deal with the bleeding out of the situation. He had his Amegakure headband wrapped around his arm tightly to restrict the blood flow from a particularly large wound, but that wouldn't help forever. He would need to take it off soon or risk losing an arm.
The young Uchiha moved low, blending into the bland streets without a problem. He had specialized in stealth lessons, after all. He snuck around a corner, easily snatching some cloth from a merchant when his back was turned. They would work well to press on his wounds. He noticed some honey being sold at another stall and snatched it next. Kakuzu had always told them to use that instead of alcohol since it was cheaper, and Hidan had always followed up with annoyed yelling about how it was too painless. He always said they'd never learn to handle any pain if they used honey, but Sasuke wasn't in the mood for any more pain right now.
He snatched it, and there was only one thing left for dressing his wounds. He returned to the tailor's booth from before, now that he was gone and busy looking for the cloth. He seemed to assume it was the wind, so that worked to Sasuke's advantage. He snatched his needle and made his way towards the exit. He snatched a tomato and a raw beef slab from a food stand. It didn't seem the most sanitary to have the meat out in this heat, nor sitting side by side with veggies and fruit, but he supposed he would take what he could get.
Sasuke made his way to the woods, in the direction he assumed was the rain village. He figured it wouldn't hurt to take it-- if it was okay for Sasori to take people's dead bodies as puppets, why couldn't he have food and supplies to survive? He sat down about halfway through the forest, making himself a little fire with loose wood and stones. He settled a thin piece of wood over the fire and slung the meat chunk onto it to cook. It had a bit of a yellowish-brown color, but he could eat around those parts. It was a wonder that nasty village was still around.
He removed his shirt and took a breath. The many wholes and cuts scattering his body began to feel much more real now that the excitement had worn off. He laid straight on his back, stripping to his shorts with a huff of effort. Sasuke dipped his fingers in the raw honey, rubbing it gently into his wounds. When he got home, he would have to ask Hinata to show him some medical ninjutsu.
He let them sit for a bit, wiping his blood away with the shirt he had stolen. Soon enough the easy part was done. Now for the hard part. He tied the bloody shirt around his mouth after removing the thread, gagging himself to hide any screams of pain. He didn't want to reveal his spot to any sand ninja on the hunt for him.
Lifting the needle and sending it through his skin, he was glad he had a gag. He surely would have summoned the attention of every ninja in a fifty-mile radius if not. Sasuke could feel his eyes watering, but he blinked the tears away. It was a lot harder to stick it through his own skin than to be stabbed. He groaned quietly as he sent it through once more. He focused on the tomato, and eventually his arm numbed from the pain. He tried to comfort himself with the idea that he would soon get to eat some nice roasted tomato and some meat. The beef would help slow the blood flow, and tomatoes were his favorite. He just had to get through this.
It took maybe two hours, the teen having to stand to move the chicken off as it finished and leave it to the side. He had it laying on his jacket so he didn't get it infested with bugs. Sasuke had never stitched a wound-- he had only ever practiced in class on dummies. It was a lot harder than it seemed when it was his own flesh being jabbed into and torn through.
Because of his lack of experience, his stitches were wild and messy. He had many short but deep cuts along his body, now stitched together with a musty red thread from the earlier shirt. Six, from what he could count. One on each of his shoulders, one on each of his thighs, and a pair running across his stomach. He assumed they were meant to immobilize him-- which it was doing its job. He found it hard to move with these slices.
There were a few scattered across the rest of his body-- those would heal. So would the ones he threatened together if cared for properly. He didn't know about the one on his face, though. Just over his lips, three identical slashes had been cut. They ran from about a centimeter above his lips to a centimeter below it. One about two centimeters in on each side of his mouth and one straight down the middle. They were the hardest to do since he couldn't see his face. Based on the amount of blood loss and the pain he felt as he barely curled his lips away from the food as he ate, though, he had a feeling they were bad.
Sasuke sat at his small camp, barely choking down the food after he redressed when he felt the lean arms of an older ninja grab him. Sasuke spun around, trying his best to break free by kicking the older ninja in the face, and dropping the remainder of his tomato in the process. Another arm grabbed his leg, however, making him practically crumble to the floor with his wounds. The older ninja dropped him, seemingly startled by how easily he crumbled. Sasuke was no fool-- he knew to take the chance.
The young Uchiha darted off in the same area he had been running to previously, abandoning his food and resources. If he could just push a little more-- if he could just go a bit further-- all he had to do was make it to rain village territory and the gatekeepers would let him in. He couldn't be that far, right?
Unfortunately for him, this wasn't the case. The forest only went on. There was no sign of his village, and the unfamiliar ninja grabbed onto his sides before he could run too far. Sasuke groaned with pain, body reflexively twisting in the painful hold. His teeth clenched, head lowering as he refused to look at this stranger. "Let go of me! I" he barely hissed with his broken lips, assuming this was a sand ninja preparing to drag him back to that hellish torture. He kicked and flailed, his training doing no good against the man.
Sasuke gave a shuttered breath as he felt the ninja press him to the ground. The man's voice seemed almost bored as he spoke. "You don't look like the description. I had heard the ones to kill Lord Hokage were both elderly looking." twisting Sasuke's arm down in a way that wouldn't hurt him unless he struggled. The ninja hummed out a sigh, "I don't think someone so young could kill him anyway. Come, it's dangerous out here. Who knows if they're still here." acting as though he hadn't seen the terrible markings across Sasuke's face.
Twisting his head to look at the ninja, Sasuke was met with a single bored-looking black eye. The rest of his face was covered by a mask and headband. The hidden leaf headband. A slight pain welled in his chest. His old home. It would be a lie if he said he didn't think about returning to the village someday, but he didn't want to return as a prisoner with this silver-haired man. Instead, he focused on what he had said. An elderly couple? It had to be Hidan and Kakuzu! If Tobi was in charge of the sand village, they must have gone after the leaf. Maybe they were near?
Sasuke's pushed against the man, yelling at the top of his lungs and with as much volume as his torn lips would allow. "Kakuzu!" he shouted, knowing the elder man didn't mind being associated with crime. He prided himself with his reputation, even. "It's me! I need your help-" his words falling short as the elder ninja pushed something against his neck. Sasuke grimaced, all his pride and pain tolerance gone after stitching himself. He felt the dark taking over-- was this how he was going to die?