Chapter 7: Nemesis
Parings: Naru/Sasu...duh.
Rating: K-T (first) M-NC-17 (later)
Disclaimer: I do not own the sheer genius "Naruto"; Shippuden of other. The honours go to Masashi Kishimoto and his genius brain that created this masterpiece.
Summary: Remember the summer camp you went to; that quaint place out in the woods, by a lake, sitting around a campfire telling ghost stories and eating s'mores? Well this summer school, sure as hell, isn't that. Three months, Sasuke, teenage delinquents, illegal alcohol, prescription drugs, annoying shrinks, escape plans, a Shitzu from hell, and new relationships; welcome to camp. NaruSasuNaru.
A/N: Wild Card is being difficult, but it is coming around...be patient.
A/N2: It gets kind of technical in here with some medical and law terms. The definitions are at the end. ... FYI, I'm a research Nazi.
The night air was wrapping him in a blanket of comfortable familiar cold as he crouched on the roof while silently watching and thinking.
Three.
Three people he could tolerate; Gaara, Shikamaru and Kin. All three had the kind of minds he respected; Gaara's brilliance was ruthless, Shikamaru's was lazily excellent and Kin's was just astounding...for a female that is.
Seems like this place did have some benefits.
But still; he needed to get the hell out.
Sighing he shifted to look at the teacher's lounge and wondered about the silver haired psychologist Hayate Kakashi. It was strange... he was strange. His mind never stopped prodding him that the man was... oddly familiar.
Sasuke had considered just confronting the man and asking him straight up or doing some covert reconnaissance. Pros and cons of just asking him directly were Kakashi could tell him the truth or he could lie to his face; better to do the research.
"Hatake Kakashi...who exactly are you?" he murmured.
And another thing; what exactly was his roommate? Naruto Uzumaki was another complete mystery. Yes, he was fit like a bull on steroids and amphetamines but what else? There has to be something else. On the seldom classes that they had together Sasuke had never seen Naruto write anything; he just closed his eyes like he was ignoring the whole thing altogether.
... Or he could be listening.
He scoffed...listening... yeah right. If the blond had an ounce of working intelligence he would be shocked; but right now he needed go down back to the dorm to sketch out a mental plan and first thing tomorrow; get the permission to schedule a library visit. Recon time.
"What's this?" Sasuke asked upon entering the room for his session to find Iruka sitting at a desk, his hands folded lightly on the table beside a rectangular wooden box.
Iruka stood up and pushed the box towards him with a genial smile and three words, "Rekindle your love." And left.
What now? His... love?
Sasuke then stood still for a moment with a confused look. Clearly the shrink was talking about whatever was in the box. Carefully he lifted the lid and nestled in the space was an old violin. Carefully removing the instrument he brushed his fingers over the string and a discorded but familiar sound invaded his mind.
Music.
He stared at it for a moment. Eight years...eight years since he had last held one. He slowly sat down on the chair and balanced the violin in the crook of his arm and brought the bow up to it.
The 'D' minor chord flowed beautifully through the air. It was perfectly tuned.
"Music isn't transitory, it lives for infinity." He whispered the phrase his mother would tell him before every recital.
Before he knew it the 'Blue Danube' symphony was flowing through the air. Eyes closed and clever fingers retracing old paths he sunk into a world he had abandoned. Immediately he was transported to his eight year old self.
'Reversion procedure.' He absently recognized.
It wasn't until he was about to play something else he realized that he was probably being watched.
"I'll give you something to watch." He thought and abruptly switched to Beethoven's' 'The Ruins of Athens',each stanza growing progressively harsher and harsher until he stopped abruptly and switched to a calmer 'Symphony No. 1', for three minutes until he switched that to 'Piano Sonata No.12', popularly known as the 'Funeral March' and dragged it on for a small eternity.
He paused then to flex his fingers, and started a violent rendition of Michael Jackson's "Annie." The harsh chords and the furious strumming, increasing second by second, were taking a toll on his unpractised fingers till he almost snapped the bow in half but he was having too much fun messing with the person who was watching him...and someone was watching him, no doubt about that.
Then abruptly he switched to Enya's soothing "Orinoco Flow,"and, he snickered outwardly, "Mary Had A Little Lamb."
And to finish it off with a curtailed version of Beethoven's "Für Elise".
Satisfied he got up, laid down the violin back in the box, stretched and sauntered out of the room to his next class, "Take that you bastards...I'll make you one plus one equal nine...I will NOT play by your rules."
(*)(*)(*)
Currently there was nothing Kakashi liked more than watching Sasuke. The kid was pure epitome of the Uchiha clan; sinfully gorgeous, talented, crafty, devious, insanely brilliant, shrewd and utterly paranoid.
Just like his old man.
Kakashi shook his head. Genes were such a bitch.
He watched as Sasuke went through the gamut of genres; classic music, ballroom masterpieces, modern music, rock music, instrumental, infantile and back to classic...he was obviously playing with them.
"So?" Iruka asked lowly from the doorway of the ATV room. "What do you see?"
Kakashi pushed himself up from the chair, "Nothing I didn't know already 'Ruka... Sasuke ranked third in the I.Q placements; score 165 just under the Uzumaki's 175 and the Nara's 170... He's an Uchiha...not to be taken too lightly."
He clicked the remote to pause the feed of Sasuke halfway through 'Annie'. "See that Iruka?"
"I'm confused." Iruka said, "What am I looking at?"
"He knows all the songs by heart." Kakashi said, "He stopped playing the violin at nine right... just after his parents died...that eight years Iruka...most people's memories would have failed them after eight years... His hasn't, and not only that...by tracing his eyes I know that he subconsciously analyses and records everything around him... I believe he can just hear a song and his mind will record it and break it down so he can reproduce it."
"And that means?"
Kakashi smiled, the words then said came out in a pleasant tone; "It means we have someone here with L.I. ...Latent Inhibition (1)... and an eidetic memory (2)."
Iruka sobered, "Then what do we do from here on...how do we handle him?"
The psychiatrist smiled mysteriously, "What his father told me to do in cases like this... destabilize his gravitation field; set him off kilter. He'll show us how to handle him."
The smaller sable haired man shot a quick worried look to the freeze framed picture of Sasuke and the violin. "Are you're sure Kakashi?"
Kakashi slung an arm across Iruka's tense shoulders. "Trust me..." he glanced at the picture, "...it will...now... about that dinner..."
Gai opened his door to his office and stopped.
The man in his office had his back turned to him; long black hair with silvery grey streaks fell in graceful place on his shoulders and his pale hands clasped behind his back.
"Orochimaru-san." Gai said stiffly, "What can I do for you?"
The man, Orochimaru Sannin, turned to face him his hypnotic amber eyes piercing Gai where he stood. Orochimaru was one of the people appointed by the Mayor to oversee the five districts in Iwagakure and since this was his district he made sure to spring these 'surprise' visits to the camp.
Gai wasn't afraid to admit the man embodied the word 'creepy'; he walked like a cat, had the gaze of a serpent and talked like one too.
"I've been told that the son of an ...old...acquaintance of mine has been admitted to this facility." Orochimaru said sibilantly, his spider fingers lightly tracing over the file drawer. "...Uchiha Sasuke."
Gai's eyes narrowed with suspicion. He didn't believe for one second that Orochimaru didn't already have the information he was politely asking about. "Yes... I do believe he is here."
Amber eyes lit up, "Brilliant...may I see him?"
"May I ask why?" he returned.
"Just to let him know I knew his family and that I could help him when he leaves this place." He offered.
Gai wasn't buying any of it. Noble objectives, yeahright. Gai couldn't trust the man as far as he could throw him. "All the same... Sir... no matter how good your intentions are; the rules are that the only person allowed to visit an inmate is either a family member of a parole officer...I'm sorry Sannin-san... I cannot allow that."
Tawny eyes narrowed for a second but relaxed soon after. "That's fine Maito-san..." he smiled slightly, "...but I do believe a full inspection is due in three days..."
Gai tensed. Oh no, he wasn't going to play that card.
"... and I also do believe you don't want them to find out about the guest in the basem-"
He played it. SHIT!
"No!" Gai blurted out clutching at the desk, "No."
He was met with the full glare of serpentine eyes, "Then Sasuke or the hidden-away lunatic exposed." Orochimaru said stonily, "...choose."
Between a rock and a hard place; the blasted snake bastard.
"Fine," Gai grunted, "You may meet him in my office, but for no more than ten minutes."
"Splendid." The man said making his way to the door, "Tomorrow at 2 pm...and Gai...do not disappoint me."
"You have fifteen minutes." The librarian said handing him back the permission slip signed by the math teacher Mizuki, "I'd advise you to make it quick."
Sasuke just settled himself before the console and ignoring Google he went to a website he had stumbled on years ago; , a subdivision of the local government that had the census record of Kohona.
"Hatake Kakashi." He murmured while typing. "Show me who you are."
The results popped up.
'Hatake Kakashi. Tax payer registration number 3002189. Resident address; 506 Henmai Rd. Amaratsu district, Kyoto.
Not married or cohabitant.
No children.
Profession: Psychologist.
Practicing licence earned in 1999 from 'The Hogake University' under the supervision of the dean of the Psychology department, Uchiha Fugaku.
Sasuke stopped dead. "...That fucking bastard."
The whole game hasn't just changed; it erupted.
"Excuse me, Shiranui-san," Sakura said politely, "May you excuse Sasuke-san for the rest of the class; Gai-sensei wants to him to come to his office."
Genma's brows furrowed and he shot a swift look to Sasuke then back to Sakura. "That's fine Haruno-san; he may go."
Getting up Sasuke's paranoia tripped into overdrive; what the hell was this? Had he been caught? He was damn sure that he hadn't been spotted on the last three trips he had made to the roof. He was also sure that the incident with Sai wasn't the cause, so why was he being summoned to Gai's office?
"Do you know what it is about?" he asked cautiously walking out of the room.
She shrugged. "No idea."
His eyes narrowed, strange. "... How's Ino?"
Blue-green eyes widened a fraction and a small smile flittered across her face. He had remembered about her talking about her best friend Ino Yamanaka; the flower shop girl, how they grew up together like sisters from pre-school to junior college where statuesque Ino, after various local modelling jobs, was immediately sought after by an international modelling agency.
"U...um...she's fine." Sakura sighed, "I...just... I still don't know what got into her to sabotage the other models."
"Narcissism." Sasuke said curtly.
Sakura smiled slightly. Sasuke then looked at her, absently admiring how she had shifted up her appearance today; her hair was in a high ponytail and her bangs were swept to the side; make-up more noticeable than normal and her usual white clothing was toned down with a summer blue skirt and black boots.
And damn it; he was getting used to her presence.
They reached Admin; at the door Sasuke paused for a nanosecond, reached up and tucked a stray lock of hair behind her pierced ear; he didn't even have to look back to see her blush.
Gai's office door was closed and after steeling himself, slamming down every mental barrier and blanking his face; he knocked. The door swung open; he tensed.
"Please... Come in."
Hold up. That wasn't Gai's voice.
He stepped in and found a man standing by the desk; tall, slender, black haired, golden eyed and pale. Sasuke didn't know why but immediately his hackles started to rise; and the piercing gaze that ran over his person made him internally shiver.
"Uchiha Sasuke." The man said in a sibilant slightly hissing voice.
"Yes." He answered evenly, "... and you are?"
A small smile was crossed the man's face, "Orochimaru Sannin...the general overseer for this district... You may not believe me but I knew your father."
Sasuke went rigid; he was about to clench his fists but something chipped into his mind and slapped him; the man was watching him for a reaction. A condemning reaction...one he damn sure wasn't going to give.
Forcing himself to relax and casually sticking his hands into his pockets he said, "Did you now...from where might I ask?"
"The University Municipal Hospital where he did pro bono assessments of the admitted psychiatric patients... he treated my cousin."
Bullshit. Fugaku had done no such thing. If the man was trying to play on a 'deteriorated memory card' he was barking up the wrong damn tree; but he was going to lead him on for a time...see if he could hang himself.
"So I assume that it was you who summoned me and not Gai-san." Sasuke said evenly looking him straight in the eye, "What do you need from me?"
Orochimaru eyes took on a pleased hue, "Straight to the point then...just like your father..."
More bullshit; Fugaku never got to the point right away; his preferred mode of communication was to spin your mind in concentric circles. By the time he was seven Sasuke knew every tactic Fugaku used; his family was his primary testing lab.
"...but why would I need something from you... Sasuke-kun?" his name was purred out like a pleased lynx on the prowl.
"Because," Sasuke said trying to not physically shiver, "I'm an Uchiha... everyone wants something from me."
"No child," Orochimaru said softly, "I don't want anything from you...instead I'm here to offer you something."
"And that is?" Sasuke was being very careful right now, like treading on hot coals.
"I would like you to do something for me," he said, "a mutual agreement if you will... if you succeed I can expunge your records, give you a new identity and set you up financially for life."
Sasuke waited.
"...I would like you to..."
He was blank.
All though his following classes he was completely blank; emotionless.
The words Orochimaru said were turning over and over in his mind. "Nine months ago the Intercontinental Court of Justice, secretly without attention brought to the local government, prisoned a man named Pein in this facility... but recent developments have surfaced to prove the man innocent... I know of your brilliance Sasuke... I want you to find him and devise a way for him to escape... I'll take it from there and you will be generously rewarded."
Sasuke didn't believe a damn word of it.
Yes, the I.C.J was an independent organization that didn't need to have the cooperation of the local government bodies to imprison someone, but if the man was 'innocent' why didn't Orochimaru have the case reviewed by the court that sentenced him and have him released the legal way?
And another thing; Orochimaru struck him like an undercover mafia kingpin and Sasuke seriously suspected that this Pein guy was either a henchman for Orochimaru that either he wanted to use again or a henchman for someone else that he wanted get out of the way; otherwise why would he have this interest in someone locked away for almost a year ago?
"A man committed of selling state secrets to the Yakuza." Orochimaru's words repeating themselves in his mind.
And if that was really the case Sasuke seriously doubted that the Court wouldn't be so careless to not monitor the situation. They wouldn't prison a person with that level of crimes without having some kind of surveillance; either someone on the inside was feeding them info or someone was inside; literally.
A sigh. He could do it though, get the millions he was promised, disappear for life and just coast on his riches...or he could deny it and proceed with his escape and disappearance plan as before.
Then again, if he did it there was no guarantee that Orochimaru wouldn't just turn on him and he would end up in a worse position...and worse...what if he used an incentive to get him to do it and still turned on him anyways.
The third option was to be drafted into the military and be free from all of this.
He needed more info; after all, knowledge is power.
But still; do it or don't; that was the question.
(*)(*)(*)
The gym was partially dark when Sasuke entered and surly flung his backpack on floor. It was dark but not so dim that he couldn't see Naruto hanging upsidedown from a high fifteen feet bar, camouflage clad knees firmly hooked over the iron rod, hands behind his head and doing vertical crunches. His shirt was slipping down and rock hard abs and cut obliques presented themselves in Sasuke's vision field.
He stopped and stared; something fluttered in his stomach.
Uncomfortable he cleared his throat. The blond twisted, saw him, did two more crunches and with a twist he released the bar and landed on the floor on his feet in perfect cat style.
"What's going on?" Naruto asked tugging down his shirt.
Sasuke grunted, "I've been ordered to do some additional exercises...apparently I'm not adequately fit."
"No shit." Naruto said a hint of teasing smile on his face.
"Screw you usurotankachi," he replied in the same tone "...what was that anyways..." Sasuke asked stretching out, "The landing, I mean... you looked like a freaking cat."
"Oh that." Naruto said wiping his face with a towel, "That's just some capoeira I picked up about two years ago when we were stationed in Brazil...this guy Henrique Muñoz from the local corps taught me everything."
Black brows contracted. "How long were you in Brazil?" And why the hell was he asking this?
"Ummm..." he paused thinking, "...Three months."
Sasuke spun around eyes wide. "W... what? That's impossible...no one can learn a full marital art in three months."
"When you have sixteen hour days and nothing to do... it is possible." Naruto said shrugging; "I did...what... you don't believe me?" his voice took on a challenging tone.
"I don't," he stated intensely, "...and it's because I started to do Karate when I was ten...it took me five years to master half of it and I still haven't completed it all." He groused.
"...You know if you want ... I could show you some simple techniques... it may help with the fitness and get some of the pressure off."
A dark head shot up in surprise, eyes narrowing. "Why?"
Naruto burst into laughter. "I...I was r... right...Y.. you're so paranoid you can spot an international conspiracy in a five years old girl's lemonade stand, can't you?" Naruto said, "Calm down man...there is no angle here...It's just a suggestion... I'm not going to pressure you."
"...Really...okay... great," he replied rolling his shoulders, "... anything I can use to break something off the fucking Hyuuga would be immensely appreciated."
"Dude." Naruto smirked standing three feet away from him, "That guy is an attention slut...stop giving him what he wants from you and he will dry up...ignore him."
"Neji is a sanctimonious bastard." Sasuke said mimicking Naruto's stance. "His whole clan is."
"Still; ignore him." The Uzumaki said shooting him a sly look under his wet bangs, "...and you're still not going to answer me about the girlfriend thing, aren't you."
Sasuke glared; Naruto shrugged, "Whatever...Capoeira is all about rhythm...normally there should be a drum beat but it can be done without one."
"Steady drum beats, right?"
"Yes...open your stance." He was ordered.
He did but the blond rolled his eyes, "Wider."
He shifted more but apparently it wasn't enough. Naruto stepped up to him and softly kicked his legs wider apart.
"This style is animalistic... so you are going to have to mimic them, bend your waist and loosen your shoulders...you need to move freely with this."
"Fine." He replied.
"Ready?"
"Yes."
The warm water was cascading over his head and releasing his tense muscles but Sasuke's mind was far from the present. He was trying his best to not remember a situation in another warm shower in another lifetime, a situation with him and Neji.
His fist struck the bathroom wall.
"You had me Neji" he whispered, "...you had me...and you left me for her. I don't care what your uncle ordered you to do... " Black eyes closed for a moment and opened with fire, "... I should have never trusted you, you Hyuuga bastard."
"Neuroanatomical legion affecting the reticular activating system (3)." Gaara said, castling his king and his rook, "...it mea-"
"You don't sleep unless medicated." Sasuke filled in for him. "...so what... do I really look like I care you're an insomniac?"
Green eyes pierced him as Gaara calmly folded arms, "I'm also bipolar...why are you here and not in medical school?"
"Blood freaks me out." Sasuke returned instantly.
"Liar." The redhead countered seeing through the ruse instantly, "...what's bothering you?"
Sasuke sighed and sacrificed his queen to Gaara's rook ending the game. "Nothing passes you, does it?"
"No; not normally." Gaara admitted, "Bear in mind that if you do tell me, you might be getting advice from a murderer."
"What's that about anyways?" Sasuke said eyes narrowed, "You don't look like the person to just kill someone on a whim."
"I didn't." he said simply, "Kankuro had a problem...one of his regular 'patients' weren't paying up...he wanted some...incentive."
"And he turned to you?"
"Yes... I made an alternative solution to the problem... instead of Kankuro meeting the buyer I would...and lead him into a part of the city controlled by an another gang who was paid to rough him up." Gaara sighed, "Unfortunately I didn't know they were counter ordered to kill him. They were going to kill me too if I didn't perform the fatal blow."
"So figuratively," I said replacing the pieces on the board, "Your hands are clean... why didn't you plead coercion under an ultimatum (4)?"
Gaara waved his hand dismissing the suggestion, "Even if I did it wouldn't have worked...Like I said... I am kryptonite...my father would rather cut me off from him like a diseased limb than lose the elections. It's just him and my media darling sister Temari now." Gaara replied, "And honestly it made sense... I was always nothing but trouble for him and I would have done anything to get away from Suna...but you still haven't answered my question...what is bothering you?"
Damn...caught.
He was going to risk it, "Gaara, what do you know about Orochimaru Sannin?"
Verdant eyes looked to the right for a moment in thought. "Isn't he the overseer of this district?"
"Yes," Sasuke returned tersely, "But what exactly is he?"
"...as in...?"
"Yes." Glad that he hadn't had to spell it out.
"If anyone knows anything about that, it's Kankuro." Gaara replied softly. "I'll find out."
"Thank you."
A smile flittered across Gaara's face. "Now...move your rook or I'll take it."
Whew...another chapter done...none of ya'll saw that coming didja?
I know many of you are asking why isn't Pein in a maximum prison... keep reading.
-smirks-
(*)(*)(*)
A/N: (1) Latent Inhibition...is a technical term devised by Lubow and Moore. People who have L.I. and a high I.Q are capable of processing the normal stream of information their senses feed to them at a muchhigher rate than normal people and it always results in creativity and heightened awareness of their environment.
(2) Eidetic memory - commonly termed 'photographic memory.'
(3) "Neuroanatomical legion affecting the reticular activating system."– Biomedical term for a cause of clinical insomnia.
(4) 'Coercion under an ultimatum'...more BS. (I'm getting really good at this, aren't I?) XD.
FYI, I have all the pairings worked out for this fic... and no, not everyone is gay...that's not even natural and so damn cliché.
Peace ya'll.
AND ONE MORE THING;
REVIEW DAMNIT!
***Black Prodigy***