Eyes of family
May in Amegakure is hot, swealty, thick with humidity; the heat weeps with a boisterousness that is lost in the silence of the wildernesses outside its borders. The impact of the cacophony is perhaps so loud, the aftermath is left with anything but the stunned silence of a funeral. Funeral of the divine, the mortal, the dead.
Not long ago was this land anything less red than the wasteland of chest-thumping glory of the bigger mortals. Leaders had come and gone, promises and vows of peace, prosperity, money, money, more money, "we won't beg for scraps anymore", and Ame wiped the wetness away off it's face away each time with valiant children on the frontlines, and with each falling body it cried, cried, cried. The rains would never stop.
Karin woke up from her overextended-to-evening afternoon nap. "Fell asleep, again?", Suigetsu asked incredulously, as if he just didn't wake up from a "five hour nap" thirty minutes ago, "maaan...whyyy am I the only responsible adult here?"
If Karin was still a teenager, and a horny one pursuing a homicidal gay man at that - she would've splashed Suigetsu's face on a rock in a futile and impotent display of anger. But now she was twenty-seven, a grown-up, mature woman. She stared at him in a Sasuke poker face.
Suigetsu frowned- sure they had "hit the thirty bomb", but that didn't mean they Karin would ever be the bigger person. That was unfathomable. It'd be like Sasuke responding to 'official letters from Konoha', it was a cloud-cuckoo land for the never-tiring optimist who believed Iwa and Kusa would stay friends even long after the world war, just by the help of their shitty UN meetings and trials, their war criminals only ever rogue shinobis not associated with the military factions of the bigger nations. But he was at his core, a pessimist. And a perpetually tired man. So tired.
And true to his calculation, a frying pan came flying, smashing his face, splashing it away on Sasuke's cat, who spared a peak at him with the most condescending peak possible on a little beast with four legs. She was even more unpleasant than Sasuke.
He could predict the future. He was afterall, a pessimist. Sasuke should've stayed as the black hole of all hatred, he thought to himself.
"Aren't you too old for this childish violence now?"
Karin narrowed her eyes," we are the same age, and this is the first time I've retaliatedd to your cheap provocations in MONTHS! You're old now Suiegtsu, you're bordering thirty, look at your hair, they're all white now! This is so embarassing."
"I did it for the sake of nostal -"
His face got splashed midway in the sentence with a fist, "and may this nostalgia never end."
"Any news from Sasuke?", Meoko purred and ran into Juugo's embrace as soon as his voice interrupted their fight, "the invasion is at our feet."
"His last letter said it's highly unlikely Ikyuu or Togashi would even consider helping us. He won't ask the hidden villages for help either, even though I think with his influence Naruto surely could negotiate things with Togashi" , Juugo continued witha frown of irritation settled on his face.
"Cut him slack - man, I'm sure he's trying his best. Sasuke care more about place than anyone, I don't think it's an ego game for him." Juugo nodded and settled on the sofa, reading the letters and scrolls Sasuke had assimilated and organized over the course of past few weeks.
Karin's didn't widen in horror anymore, unlike the first twenty times something like this happened, over the course of a decade a lot had changed. She had changed. And this role reversal of Juugo and Suigetsu - where Juugo had begun questioning Sasuke's decisions and Suigetsu would go defensive over him, as jarring it'd be to someone who might've them in their teenage years, was something she had grown accustomed to.
The grass in the wasteland clawed it's leaves around Shinachiku feet, freezing him in that place in the sweltering heat of May, as Sasuke's hands reached out to him - is he going to kill me for me stalking him? - his eyes squeezed shut - as a large hand reached out to his head and started petting him. For a few seconds the hand kept stroking his hair, then stopped and rested on his head. Shina dared a peer to the dangerous face, and mayyybe he wasn't that scary up close, because what greeted him up there was one of the softest smiles he'd ever seen. Impossibly tender. Like the way he'd find his mother watching him at times, often when he'd wake up from sleep. Or the look his father gave him when he came back him screaming in joy that he had made sooo many friends on the first day of school itself. It was a special look he hadn't seen in people outside his family, like his grandmother after a fit of laughter of watching him imitate his mom in a pink wig a few days back.
He had dark eyes, really dark, to the point where you could not distinguish the pupil from the iris. The same eyes that were filled with anguish a few moments back looked starkingly similar to green eyes, blue eyes, brown eyes, eyes who looked at him with same mirth when they cradled him in his arms. Happy eyes. Eyes of family.
"What are you doing out here kid, all alone in a graveyard? Your mother would be worried about you", a deep voice rumbled from the man's throat, as he removes his hand from his head, Shina feels a sweat colder. "I. . .", he opens his mouth, closes, gulps back and " Sasuke!"
The man's eyes broadened at that, "I know who you are!", Shina pointed a finger accusingly, "you are Sasuke, I saw your picture in an article in 'top 10 most dangerous criminals on planet' and father told me you were my friend! "
"Alright, I won't hurt you, stop shouting now."
"I...I...", Shina opened his mouth and gasped air, and continued," father told me they sell a lot of nonsense about you cause they need money and they are jealous that they are not as cool."
"Of course, your father would say that", Sasuke scoffs, rolling his eyes.
"Is it true then?", Shina implored, " all they say...you look very scary when you are angry but not so much when you smile."
"..."
"You look nice.
Like family."
For the second time in the day Sasuke had the wind kocked out of gut; ridiculous crystal, blue eyes, shiny blonde hair -he can see a bit orange here and green there and maybe if he looked longer he will find something grey there( surely, he must have picked some habit from Kakashi) - he averted his eyes from the little, naive face so astonishingly and painfully similar to his fool of a father. Astute, observant, impossibly smart for his tiny age, easily trusting and making a home outside his immediate blood. . . .he's inherited the best if his mother and the worst of his father.
"It's getting late, you should get home now, or your parents would be worrying about you", he says with his regular poker face. "They won't, they don't care about me", the little guy mutters under his breath.
"Huh?", Sasuke's eyebrows arched up .
"You won't ask me my name?", he squeaked out.
"What is your name, Shinachiku?", Sasuke asks amusedly, holding his small hand, "come with me."
He walked the kid out of the graveyard. "You know the way back home, do you?"
"Yeah."
Sasuke stared at the kid for sometime, contemplating some more, before finally arriving at his decision. If someone saw him he'd be in trouble but he couldn't leave him alone after sunset either. Furthermore, from his eyes he could tell he was straight up lying. He was a terrible liar, just like his mother, he thought.
Before he knew, in a flash, Shina was in the main quarters of Konoha's market, near the hokage building. He turned around to see Sasuke looking around cautiously, as if he could be covert about his appearance in a crowded marketplace, "Sasuke-san! How did you bring me here-"
"Lying is bad, Shinachiku", Sasuke replied sombrely.
"How did you. . . "
Sasuke's face curved into a smirk dipped derision, head bowed down, "your eyes.."
"My eyes?"
"Family...knows when you lie", he choked out.
Shinachiku nodded his head like he knew what it meant. He was dazed with exhaustion, his eyes drooped slightly, and the next time he looked at the place Sasuke stood to be greeted by Ichiraku ramen shop.
He did not even catch a sight of him running he was just. . . .gone. . . Just like that.