woooo it's been a couple of week since I had access, so the stories have been slow. But things are back on track so hopefully updates will be coming a little more regularly from now on. At least we can always hope.
Disclaimer: In case you skipped the first eight chapters, or thought that something might have changed this little message is here to put you right, I am not the actual, original creator of Naruto and co. Though I would have been if I'd thought of them first.
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Wanderings in mind and body,
Sasuke
Somewhere
Sasuke woke up hungover.
I'll kill Naruto and Kiba and then I'll never have to listen to one of their stupid plans again. Sasuke promised himself.
His tongue tasted like shoe leather, and his head was pounding. His stomach felt like it had been a container for acid, and his curse seal hurt.
I swear I'll never drink again. Sasuke promised himself trying to inch open an eye.
Giving up he tried to reach for the hangover medicine Sakura had left on the bedside table. The chains rattled. Blearily Sasuke raised his head and forcibly raised an eyelid. It didn't help for a moment as everything stayed blurry, then slowly thing turned sharper, not much but some.
He wasn't at home, this wasn't his room, this wasn't his bed, he did not own chains. Lowering his aching arm Sasuke tried to gather everything in.
He was...chained down, definately chained down. He was having trouble moving, he felt sick, but not injured. The the only real worry was that his curse seal was hurting, the same type of hurt as when Orochimaru was thinking too strongly about him and somehow it was like Orochimaru's mind was leaning on his. Kabuto had said it was because Sasuke was the new container. Sasuke's particular seal, the special pill he'd taken, had all prepared him for this, a true melding between himself and Orochimaru. The domination of his mind by another.
Sasuke didn't want to be dominated, he wanted out, he wanted free, he wanted to have his bloody mind left alone. Reining in his anger Sasuke concentrated on calming his curse seal. Removing his concentration from his surroundings Sasuke focused on his breathing. Slowly drawing his breath in through his nose, he let his head clunk back onto the bed and relaxed his arms and legs. He knew it was a risk losing track of his situation but with his curse seal fighting him for control, he had to take it.
In the three years since his return to Konoha he'd only once had to turn to his curse seal for help. And then it was only level two, and only Naruto had seen him, but then Naruto hadn't exactly been playing 'human' at the time either. Both had forgotten to mention either incident to Sakura. Noone from Konoha knew he still had access to its strength, most thought it was just an old tattoo, like an ANBU tattoo but from the Sound. He wasn't in a hurry to inform them otherwise.
This was the first time it was putting up such a fight though. Normally it was content to sit in the back of his mind like a worm, grumbling in its sleep. Now it felt like it was getting restless. It fed off his darker emotions, hate, anger, envy, fear, made them bigger then continued to eat them until there was almost nothing left of him.
In the middle of the night when the curse seal's whisperings kept him up in a cold sweat, Sasuke sometimes wondered what would happen if he just let the thing eat everything inside his head. Would it then starve to death, or would it find a way to another? Would he be left an empty shell for real this time? Without an Orochimaru waiting there to fill the empty space, would his body die, or would it linger as long as Sakura's strength could make it?
Sasuke pushed such thoughts aside firmly and settled more fully into his concentration. Slowly he picked apart his fear and anger, letting them drop like undone knots in his system's lines. Then he smoothed out the kinks the knots had made. It was a trick Kakashi had taught him to help control his temper. Just as slowly he made his breathing less deep and rose towards the surface of his awareness.
"Hello Sasuke-kun." The man said.
"Y-you." Sasuke managed in a dry whisper.
"Of course, who were you waiting for?"
Somewhere, laterSasuke watched from the corner of his eye as the man crushed leaves and dried things into a paste. Tension was making his jaw ache, and as the man turned and approached him Sasuke instinctively flinched. The man smiled at the movement and Sasuke bared his teeth daring the man to laugh at his lapse in control.
"Sasuke-kun, Orochimaru-sama taught you better control than that." The man chided, tucking his long sleeves out of the way.
There wasn't anything Sasuke could say to that so he didn't say anything, content to glare at the man as he spread the paste over the small injuries Sasuke'd gained on being dragged through a forest. The man tsked over Sasuke's impolite behaviour and smiled at him again.
"You know you've grown up in three years. But I see your skills have lessened since your training under Orochimaru."
"Matsu, you were a crawling lap dog under Orochimaru, I see you're nothing more under Kabuto."
Matsu smiled again.
"I am what my meagre skills allow me to be." He said tranquilly. "But you are not the only one to have changed. Remember that when dealing with the people here."
"And here is where?" Sasuke asked a sneer in his voice.
"Why, the new Sound of course."
"The Sound was destroyed." Sasuke spat.
"Hmm, your little friends did do a rather thorough job." Matsu admitted putting aside the small pestle.
"But here we are, all new and shiny." Matsu patted him on the knee. "I think we can do without those nasty chains now, don't you? After all, you're home now, you won't go anywhere."
"Don't be so sure." Sasuke said, as Matsu snapped open the locks.
"Oh Sasuke-kun, where would you go? Back to Konoha? Is that what you want? Live your little life surrounded by your little friends, and die a little old man the last of your clan?" Matsu chided him.
"Besides," Matsu said slapping Sasuke's hip and causing a sharp pain to lance through his legs, "with that much paralysis oil running through your veins, you couldn't run away even if you wanted to."
Standing up fluidly, Matsu left Sasuke to flop out of bed onto the hard floor, his arms and legs barely functioning. Sasuke bared his teeth in frustration as Matsu smiled benvolently down at him.
"We know you best Sasuke, we need your skills, your mind, we need you, all of you, especially the parts Konoha would kill you for having, if they knew. This is your place, not back in Konoha. Even you know that."
Matsu took Sasuke under one arm and hauled him to his feet, a surprisingly easy task for a man almost as thin as stick insect.
"Let me show you your new home, your new family."
Outside, somewhere in the forest of Fire Country.
Sasuke stared at the busy campsite. A small of people were spread around, working, eating, practicing. The circle of caravans looked strangely familiar and with a jolt he realised that he'd seen them in Konoha itself. A travelling performance group invited for the celebrations of the New Year, Sasuke remembered watching them with Naruto and Sakura.
A cold shiver went down his spine. This was the new Sound, no wonder Tsunade-sama had such difficultly pinning it down.
"Oh no, this isn't really the Sound village as such." Matsu said reassuringly, correctly interpreting Sasuke's look.
"Well it is a part of it, but it's not all of it." Matsu patted his shoulder before letting him drop to the ground unceremoniously.
Sasuke groaned trying to control his heaving stomach, he'd remember that move and pay Matsu back later.
"Sasuke-kun?" A light voice asked.
Sasuke raised his head slightly blinking dust out of his eyes. For a moment he stared dumbfounded at the girl crouching in front of him. Then his heart squeezed painfully before he got a hold of himself and let a sneer ride his features.
"Really Matsu, such an obvious fake. I don't know what you hope to gain with her, but you're wasting your time."
"Oh give her time, I'm sure you'll learn to enjoy her company." Matsu said patting the girl on her head.
"Personally, I was against this." Matsu said stroking a hand through the girls hair. "But then I'm not the boss. She's here to ease your passage back into the Sound, in case you have any lingering doubts or a sense of loss."
Sasuke winced as the girl wedged her hands under his shoulders and levered him off the ground so she could look him in the eye.
Green stared into black. Pink hair floated in a cloud around her head whipped by the growing wind.
"Hello Sasuke-kun, you can call me Sakura."
Sasuke spat in her face.
The back of a wagon, travelling through Fire Country.
The rain barrelled against the sides of the caravan adding to the pounding in Sasuke's head.
Beside him, the fake Sakura, who Sasuke would only call 'girl', knelt stirring a pot of thin soup. Feeling his fevered eyes on her she looked up and smiled at him, Sakura's smile. Pursing her lips in worry, she left the pot still bubbling gently over the little fire ingeniously shielded within a bowl of her chakra, and moved closer to him.
Picking up the wet cloth that had slid from his forehead, she dipped it again into the bowl of cold water and squeezed it out, a frown of concentration on her face, Sakura's frown.
"Stop that, girl." Sasuke said hoarsely.
The girl looked up eyes wide in innocent surprise. An unsure smile touched her lips, just like Sakura got when she hesitated between pushing and drawing back from him.
"Stop what, Sasuke-kun?" She asked, seeming truely puzzled.
"Stop acting like her." He said pushing her hand away. "You can't fool me, I know you're not her."
The fake Sakura hesitated a hurt look on her face, she masked it by dropping her head letting her pink hair fall forward so it brushed his hand.
"Can't fool you Sasuke-kun! You're just too clever huh?" She said.
She turned back to the soup giving it a couple of half hearted stirs.
Everything from her clothes, to her voice, to her mannerisms were almost indentic to Sakura, it grated, even though he knew it wasn't real. It was the almost which allowed his fevered mind to keep hold of the differences. She was little less firey that the real Sakura, a little more adaptive, a little less skilled in some areas, a little too skilled in others. She looked at him in ways that Sakura would never dare to do now. Openly wanting him to find her attractive. The real Sakura kept hoping for friendship, she'd probably lowered her sights after years of failure, this fake Sakura seemed ready to jump straight to love. The real Sakura hadn't been like that since he'd been dragged back.
No, stop lying, he'd gone back willingly because...because suddenly everything was done, Orochimaru, Itachi, his revenge, and he'd still been alive. The plan had been to die, noone could live like that forever. Revenge had eaten everything, he'd destroyed everything, he'd planned to die, after Itachi's death it wouldn't've have mattered anymore. Let Orochimaru take the flesh if he wanted, Sasuke had forseen his life finish with the death of Itachi. Only his body kept breathing and he hurt, it hurt, life hurt, the thought of being alone hurt, more than he could bear. And they were there, Sakura and Naruto, and Naruto bleeding to death because he'd grabbed Itachi, giving Sasuke the instant needed to strike. And Sakura busy healing Naruto with skill and power he would never have believed from the ditzy, unthinking girl he used to know.
And he thought they would be strong enough, strong enough to forgive him, to love him again like they used to. Strong enough to protect him. Only he hadn't realised until they'd returned to the village just how strong they would have to be to love the traitor of Konoha. And he'd understood that he couldn't ask that from them. He knew that if he said just one word to them they would go through the fires of hell for him, and so he'd cut himself off again. He'd contented himself with living on the outskirts of everything waiting for a reason to leave. It was the only act of love or friendship he could do for them.
He was happy that things seemed to be changing between Sakura and Naruto, they deserved each other. Deserved that happy life that seemed forever out of his reach. He'd do anything to protect that, protect them.
When the fake Sakura lifted his head slightly and spooned the soup into him, he didn't resist. He wasn't going anywhere, Kabuto was in the Sound, Sasuke was in the Sound, eventually the medic nin would show himself and then Sasuke could protect Sakura and Naruto. He didn't even jerk away when the girl lowered him back onto the bed and stroked his hot forehead gently.
Campsite, Fire Country forestSasuke was wrapped tightly in his blanket and leaned tiredly against the girl. Every now and then a curious member of the new Sound would pass by and shyly, or not so shyly, cast a glance in his direction. The girl would smile a little, like a proud mother and bump Sasuke to make him notice all the nice people.
Sasuke would lift his head a little and give a tiny nod in their direction, and they would smile or smirk or stare, and then pass by. It made a difference from the hate glares he usually got in Konoha. But he still thought only of one thing, finding and killing Kabuto.
"Sasuke-kun?" the girl asked smiling at him.
Sasuke didn't respond, he didn't really want to encourage her, he found her annoying, almost as annoying as the real Sakura had been all those years ago.
"Would you like to visit the Happy Bells?" She gave him a 'cute' smile.
"Happy Bells?" Sasuke asked despite himself, trying to pull his cocooned body into a sitting position.
The damned girl would think she was getting somewhere if he kept leaning on her like that. He wouldn't lean on the real Sakura, he wasn't about to do it for a complete stranger.
The girl grinned slapping her forehead in a 'cute' way.
"Duh. Sorry Sasuke-kun, I know everything about you and I forget that you know almost nothing about us." She indicated with a grand gesture the caravans forming a loose circle around the grouping of campfires.
"This is the Happy Bells, or as you know us by another name, the new Sound, east quarter 2 to be precise." She gave him another smile.
"East quarter...2?" Sasuke asked truely interested.
"Yup." Sakura grinned at his interest.
"How many other groups are there?" Sasuke asked trying not to cough, if he could just kick this lingering illness he could get on with his mission.
He wasn't completely convinced that they weren't just keeping him sick to control him easier. It would be relatively simple to do, and then they could more easily transport him to their goal. But as long as their goal was the same as his goal he didn't mind. So long as he had enough chakra to perform one chidori, one last glorious move. For them. To wipe away the shame of having Sasuke Uchiha on their team. To finally clear the way for Sakura and Naruto and that fairytale ending they wouldn't stop believing in.
Feh he must be really sick if he was brooding over such things. Coming out of his thoughts he saw the girl looking at him worriedly. She placed a hand on his forehead, he would've batted it away but his hands were trapped against his body. Had he mentioned being wrapped up like a spring roll in a blanket? Instead he glared at her. He couldn't help it, he hated being cossetted like a baby. Even his mother had stopped treating him like a kid once he'd entered the Academy.
She smiled with that hurt, unsure look that Sakura got whenever he pushed away her well meaning attempts to look after him. It irritated him more than he showed that she would try and pretend to be someone he had spent the last three years running away from.
"So," he growled, "how many groups are there?"
"Uh..." she trailed off looking down at the blanket between them. "I...I mean...you see...it's not my choice.."
"Huh." Sasuke said coldly.
There let her see what it really was to be Sakura then. The girl picked at the blanket, Sasuke let his irritation show on his face. Noticing his look the girl stopped and folded her hands in her lap. She gave him a hopeful look which withered under his unflinching gaze. Silently they sat, her staring at her hands, him glaring down at her.
"Sasuke-kun." Matsu said. "That's no way to look at a young lady, people will start to get the wrong idea."
Changing the target of his glare Sasuke felt his hate rise up thick in his throat. Matsu fussed with his long robe, twitching a hem here, tugging a sleeve there..
"Please remember she was not my idea."
"Then who's idea was she?" Sasuke spat, ignoring the wince from the girl beside him.
"Why, do I really need to tell you Sasuke-kun? You used to be much smarter than this." Matsu said tsking.
Sasuke felt the insult bite, it was true he'd lost alot of edge since living in Konoha. Lost the smarts and instincts needed to stay alive in a vipers nest. He'd become soft, even with all his efforts, he'd lost alot of skills. Alot of skills that Matsu seemed adept at pointing out the lack of.
He missed it sometimes, the sensation of living on the edge, feeling the breath of death on his neck. The closest he had to that feeling of really living in Konoha was pushing Naruto to the limits of his control. He missed it, and he hated himself for missing it. It made him weak.
Under Orochimaru he would've already found a way to kill them all and get away. Three years with Naruto and Sakura and he was still sitting here like a good little pet getting coddled and hand fed soup. It made him burn with the desire to open his sharingan and let the blood rain. At least Matsu's.
Only the thought of finally putting a chidori through Kabuto's chest kept him pinned in the riduculous blanket. He didn't think it would take more than a chidori. He hoped it wouldn't take more than a chidori, he didn't want to think about using his other attacks. The ones he'd learnt under Orochimaru.
"S-sasuke-kun?" The girl's voice wavered in that way that Sakura's voice had once wavered.
Sasuke sighed. He couldn't afford to make them his outright enemies.
"If you're going to pretend to be Sakura, girl, at least get up to date. Sakura hasn't been that uselessly girly for a long time now."
The girl's head bounced up, her eyes bright and shining.
"Right! As you wish Sasuke-kun!" She said brightly in that same annoying way that Sakura had of agreeing to everything he said as if he was still the genius of their year.
Matsu tsked again as the girl hauled Sasuke to his feet, finally unwrapping him from his prison and taking him on the promised tour.
Caravan, Somewhere.
"Are we still in the Fire Country?" Sasuke asked, it had been days since he'd woken to find himself with the Happy Bells group.
Since that time they'd been travelling almost non-stop. Sasuke was only allowed out of his caravan at night and only after they'd set up camp Sasuke found he'd lost track of where they were. The trees still looked like they belonged in the Fire Country, but he'd never taken much interest in trees so...
The girl stopped humming a moment, then as if she had never heard him she restarted the refrain. It had become her little signal that he'd asked a question she couldn't answer. She would pause a second in whatever she was doing, then she would restart as if he'd never spoken.
There were a lot of things Sasuke wasn't allowed to know.
"How do you feel Sasuke-kun?" The girl asked sliding the last piece of cleaned weaponry back into its case.
Sasuke didn't bother to answer. In fact he felt better, he was curious to know why he felt better.
"There's a surprise for you soon." She said scooting over to his bed.
Daringly she put her arm on the bed so it lay along his side. Sasuke refused to acknowledge the move, locking his hands behind his head to stop them automatically slamming down and pushing her off. Her eyes still on him, she leaned her head gently on her arm so that her hair brushed against him. It tickled slightly against his bare skin where the position of his arms had pulled up his top.
He refused to ask what his surprise would be. The girl pouted a little at his silence, but didn't seem surprised.
"I can give you a hint." She weedled, pulling herself up closer to his head.
Sasuke rolled his eyes down from the ceiling and looked at her with all the disinterest he could muster. It was harder than he'd thought trying not to think about the girl being Sakura. She was so close to the original that he had to keep reminding himself constantly that she was just a trick. A fake, a copy, a trap. Except that this Sakura he could have, if he wanted.
He dreaded them trying to copy Naruto, but afterall a major part of Naruto was the Kyuubi, and he didn't think they could do a decent copy of it. Which was probably why they'd chosen Sakura as the sweetener. He wondered what else they'd decided on as sweetener to get him to stay willingly.
"It has to do with the West quarter group we're going to meet up with." The girl said triumphantly.
As normal Sasuke's ears pricked up at the news of another group. He was an idiot, here he was planning to die while killing Kabuto and yet he was still thinking of gathering as much information as possible for his report. Stupid, he was never going back to Konoha. Never going to write that report.
Sasuke clenched his teeth to stop the questions flying out. The girl pouted again at his lack of response.
"You know you're almost better now." The girl said idly, playing with a strap hanging from his arm.
Sasuke grimaced at the casual contact, but the girl ignored him.
"I guess you won't need me to take care of you for much longer." She said, looking hopefully at him from under long eyelashes.
Openly frowning at his stubborn ignoring of her, the girl pushed herself away irritated.
"You could say thank you, you know." She said turning her back on him and drawing her knees up to her chest.
Sasuke gritted his teeth, right up there with being cosseted, he hated having to say thank you. He hated feeling indebted to others.
"I could've taken care of myself." Sasuke muttered.
The girl made a mou of dissapointment.
"You're not easy to love are you?" She said getting to her feet.
Sasuke almost snapped out that he didn't want to be loved, but prudence and natural reserve glued his jaws together.
"But I'll tell you this Mr Sasuke Uchiha, you won't always be able to have your own way." She glared at him mockingly.
"I don't like to lose, and I don't mind playing dirty to win either." He expression changed and suddenly there was a glint in her eye.
Sasuke recognised it as the same glint of mischief that Sakura sometimes got in her eye whenever she and Ino were gossiping. He suppressed a shiver and tried to sit up and change the power plays in the room. He found it impossible to intimidate her lying down. She stopped him with a single finger on his chest, he frowned at it, the one finger became two as she 'walked' them up his shirt to his chin. Flicking his head to jerk his chin away from her fingers he froze as his eye was suddenly confronted with one of her newly cleaned kunai.
"It seems that the cute sugary Sakura was never your thing." The girl said idly turning the kunai a milimeter from his widened eye. I wonder if the dangerous Sakura will do any better?"
Sasuke swallowed carefully. The girl smiled.
"I think we're getting along better every second." She said happily.
With Sasuke's attention still centred on the kunai she bent swiftly and brushed her lips against his cheek. Jerking away into the corner Sasuke bunched the blanket in his clenched fists. He felt riduculous, but suddenly she was making him nervous. The real Sakura was capable of exploding his head or severing major organs with a touch. Of course he never let her touch him in training, and she hadn't seemed to realise that maybe she could touch him now, but this fake Sakura didn't know she wasn't supposed to be able to touch him in combat. She hadn't grown up with the thought, Sasuke is a million times better than you - you can never beat him, drilled into her head.
"I guess we'll find out if prefer being beaten to being coddled soon enough." She said turning on her heel and moving towards the rear door.
"But if you ever want a little 'coddling'," she said emphasising the word coddling, "I'm more than ready to comply."
With a last wink, she slipped out of the door, clicking the lock shut behind her.
Country of Sand border.
Sasuke considered struggling against the ropes holding him to the bed. It was instinctive, just outside the caravan was a Customs Inspector checking the caravans for anything illegal. For example, the last living Uchiha heir tied to a bed, being covered by a high level genjutsu, and gagged by a rather neat medic ninja trick done to his throat. He idly wondered if Sakura knew about it.
His brain told him to hold still, if he broke the genjutsu and alerted the guard, his plan to find and kill Kabuto would go up in smoke. Not to mention the fact that three or four Customs Guards could not take down a troop full of trained ninja and all he'd gain is another round of illness and the meeting with Kabuto being put back again. What really irritated him was the proximity of the girl. She perched on the edge of the bed, her hip pushing into the side of his stomach. She was a skilled genjutsu used. Much more skilled than Sakura.
Early that morning, Sasuke had woken up tied spread eagled to the bed. After a full half hour spent cursing Matsu and his medicines, the girl and her family. Sasuke had finally admitted to himself he was afraid. Call it delayed shock, call it desperation or stress, but suddenly Sasuke had wanted nothing more than to be back in Konoha. Bickering with Naruto, teasing Sakura., arguing with Kakashi over the best way to recognise a genjutsu illusion, avoiding the other sensei's and occasionally passing a word or two with the others.
Sasuke had gritted his teeth while hot tears slid down his cheeks. He hated not being able to move, he hated being sick, he hated Matsu, the girl, Kabuto, Itachi, Orochimaru, himself, practically the whole world. Shaking his head, Sasuke willed away his weakness and sneered at his own tears. What a weakling, what a failure, crying like a baby just because he was tied up. He'd taken worse during his time with Orochimaru, taken it and smiled at the hand that struck him.
Still slightly ashamed for his earlier slip Sasuke flexed his ankles and wrists where he was losing circulation. Hearing the command to move out, the girl stood up whistling to end the jutsu. Considering the way she'd been stuck to him all morning, Sasuke was surprised that she cut his bonds quickly and left without so much as a smile.
Grumbling he sat up rubbing his wrists. He rubbed his throat still too raw to use. The girl had said that the damage would heal itself in a few hours if he avoided using his voice. Sasuke had glared at her until she'd huffed in irritation and threatened to make it permanent.
Sasuke had tried to work out a plan while waiting for someone to return, or for something to happen. But alternating bouts of irritation and depression made it hard to concentrate. He felt the caravan stop mid afternoon while he was eating an improvised lunch. Replacing the uneaten food in the cupboards, he heard the usual preparations for setting up camp. He vaguely wondered why they were stopping so much earlier than usual. But that irritated him too much so he stopped wondering.
It was late afternoon after a particulary strong bout of depression, strengthened by his curse seal, that Sasuke realised they were still drugging him.
He opened the cupboards screwed to the caravan walls and ripped out all the food. Looking at it all rolling and spreading over the floor, Sasuke felt his anger tip dangerously close to opening his sharingan.
Choosing a convenient target Sasuke excuted a precise kick and smashed the clay jar under his sandled foot. A savage smile crossed his face as the red liquid spread over the floor. Sasuke stomped in the spreading stain splashing his shoes and lower legs with the blood like colour.
Sasuke chose another target, and another, and another, and another. He didn't know what the others thought of all the noise he was making but he didn't care. They wanted to screw over his control by drugging his food? He'd show them mentally unstable, he show them the reason Orochimaru had chosen him as his vessel. The destruction felt good to him, cleansing, right. He didn't even realise as his sharingan opened, as the curse seal started to burn darker against his skin.
Late daylight suddenly flooded the rear of the caravan as someone finally opened the door. Sasuke stood revealed in the fall of light, lower legs red, the floor littered with crushed and smashed objects. Sasuke raised his head a little, glaring at the three people grouped around the exit through the fall of his fringe. The girl gasped and stepped back as the blood red sharingan spun. Sasuke bared his teeth, his hands in claw like positions, he felt savage. He wondered if this was how Naruto felt when he accessed too much of the Kyuubi's chakra. The young man looked contempously at the mess. The taller man leaned casually against the floor of the caravan from his lower positioning on the ground.
"That's my Sasuke." He said.
Sand Country BorderSasuke winced as the girl patted antiseptic onto the small cuts on his legs. Though it wasn't from her ministrations. He had a migrane from his curse seal, and he felt the tiniest grain of shame for his earlier behaviour. Which only made him more irritable than ever.
At least now he knew what his surprise was. They were in a wide space formed by two large rock formations sitting at the edge of the desert which formed most of Sand Country. Protected on all sides by the high desert rock, Sasuke could just make out the Sound lookouts in their positions around the high points. A narrow path barely large enough for the caravans was the only visible way in or out. Though Sasuke was sure there was a second more hidden path somewhere.
The girl snapped her kit closed and reattached it around her waist. Seeing that the work was done the other two members of his old team rejoined them.
Ringo looked down at him clearly not happy to see him again. He crossed his arms and it wasn't until Kiriya tsked that Ringo nodded curtly, and muttered a hello. Sasuke curled a corner of his lip in return, feeling the familiar vertige from looking at his own face.
It was possible to reshape a person's face to certain degree, using forbidden techniques. It was painful and generally non reversible. Orochimaru had used a special mask like substance held in place by his powerful chakra, because his vessels were chosen for their natural skills not their resemblance to him.
Ringo had been chosen primarily because he already resembled Sasuke. So Kabuto and Orochimaru had taken him away. A few months later Sasuke turned a corner and walked into himself, and he'd punched himself and kept walking, and Sasuke sitting on the floor rubbing his jaw had been blamed for the fall of Ringo.
Kiriya looked him over briefly before tossing him a belt pouch.
"Get up Sasuke, I want to see if that leaf village of yours taught you anything new." Kiriya had a condescending smile that never left his face.
Sasuke stood quickly, in his memory Kiriya was not one to keep waiting. The girl stood also and trailed after the three males.
Ringo slumped against a rock, a sneer already riding his features at the thin coating of nervous sweat that covered Sasuke's face. Sasuke wiped at his face, trying to pass it off as just a side effect of the intense heat of the desert. Kiriya smirked openly at him. Sasuke narrowed his eyes, he felt more unready for this confrontation than he'd been the very first time he'd had to face Kiriya. Back then he'd had a wonderful disregard for his own life that had allowed him to face people like Kiriya without flinching. Sasuke wondered where that super confident, ready for anything Sasuke had gone.
Cursing Konoha and Kakashi especially, Sasuke sped across the space between them opening the sharingan without hesitating. A flash of bright light blinded his left eye causing a sharp pain to lance across his temple. Thanks to the sharingan he still managed to dodge the strikes from Kiriya even if he found himself driven back almost to the wall by the rain of blows. But a single working sharingan couldn't even out the differences between Kiriya and Sasuke's fighting.
Distance, Sasuke realised, I need distance.
Leaping high over head, Sasuke counted on Kiriya's natural arrogance and over confidence. Sure enough Kiriya did nothing but watch Sasuke turn in mid air, confident that Sasuke posed almost no threat to him.
Noone underestimates me you son of a bitch, Sasuke thought visciously, quickly forming symbols hiding his hands with his tumbling body.
He didn't have many new tricks but he did have this one that a certain friend of a friend had happened to mention.
"Sand whirlwind." Sasuke muttered, forming the last seal.
"Kiriya-sensei! He's..." Ringo called out in warning.
And you're next you little toadlicker. Sasuke thought grimly.
Sasuke knew exactly where that flash of blinding light had come from. They'd accidently found out that the sharingan made his eyes sensitive to strong sudden light sources. Ringo had used his old weakness against him while he was distracted fighting Kiriya.
The whirling sand spun up sudden and hard, just like the chakra Sasuke had used. The sand itself searingly hot against exposed skin. Against a lesser opponent the whirlwind would remove a layer of skin and leave the person beaten and bloody a few kilometres away. Against someone like Kiriya it was simply an annoyance. A distraction. Perfect.
Landing against the hot rocks, Sasuke crouched against the sheer face and formed the seals for one of his trademark fireballs.
"Katon!"
Fire bathed the lower area. Maybe a second had passed between the sand and fireball hitting. Sasuke hoped it had been too short for Kiriya to react. Though his intelligence told him differently. Two set's of yelpings let Sasuke know that Ringo and the girl had had to jump to safety. He grinned.
The fire dissapated, and the sand lowered. Just below Sasuke was a misshapen column of blackened, streaked, twisted glass. Casting his eyes around, Sasuke tried to sense Kiriya.
Sasuke had a milisecond's warning before Kiriya's hands shot from the rock. He leapt from his perch, flipping in midair, Sasuke directed a few shurikans in the direction of the head just emerging from the rock.
Sasuke made a mistake. He hated it when he made mistakes, and this was no different. He'd forgotton Ringo.
Apparently not everyone in the Sound was glad to see the return of the prodigal vessel. Ringo possibly headed the group. Not surprising seeing as Ringo's position in the Sound had been well and truely destroyed when Sasuke had arrived. Then to add insult to injury Ringo had been turned into Sasuke's decoy.
As part of his quest to become the perfect decoy Ringo had learnt most of Sasuke's moves. That included Sasuke's skill with shuriken.
Shuriken flew past Sasuke who twisted desperately in midair to avoid them. A single sharingan was something Kakashi had mastered, and having only one working eye was hampering Sasuke's depth perception. Not to mention the rather large blind spot that Ringo was taking advantage of.
Sunlight glinted on the wires tied to the shurikens. They jerked in their flight turning back to wrap around arms and legs, and Kiriya was suddenly there falling with him. Sasuke bunched into a ball to protect his major targets reaching for extra kunai. Sasuke shuddered under the power of Kiriya's blows.
Behind him Sasuke sensed the ground arriving fast, with Kiriya kneeling on his stomach Sasuke knew a landing like that would kill him. Fighting Naruto had taught him some low moves though, finally freeing a kunai and an arm enough to use, Sasuke jabbed directly for Kiriya's groin.
Kiriya shifted to avoid the strike giving Sasuke an instant to shift with him. Fighting Kiriya's grip on his arm, Sasuke placed his feet on either side of Kiriya's ribs and yanked the older man's upper body back. Unbalanced Kiriya tried to move away, quick as a snake Sasuke twisted in mid air one last time putting himself above and behind Kiriya.
Bracing himself for impact Sasuke cursed as he felt a familiar spike of chakra. Kiriya transformed himself into a large rock and Sasuke felt the breath whoosh out of his lungs as he hit hard. His sharingan whirled faster moving to the third stage of prediction. For all the good it did him as Kiriya hit hard from behind.
Sasuke woke up to the familiar buzz of someone else's chakra humming through his body.
Smiling in relief as Sasuke sat up shaking his head, the girl turned a scowl onto Kiriya.
"You could have killed him." She complained.
"At one time he could've killed me." Kiriya said his voice empty.
Sasuke felt his eyes burn as the sharigan pressed to open, this fight was not over.
"Why didn't you use any of techniques I taught you? Or those that Orochimaru-sama taught you?" Kiriya spat.
"You used to be nearly the best of us, now look at you. Your precious Konoha had sucked out all your venom. You're useless, nothing but a worm. A Konoha worm."
A rare red colour infused Kiriya's cheeks as he ranted. In Sasuke's memory Kiriya never ranted, never lost his cool cynical attitude. Apparently Sasuke wasn't the only one to have changed after the fall of the first Sound.
Pulling his composure back together, Kiriya made a motion to Ringo.
"Let's see if an old rival can pull anything out of you." Turning away as if digusted Kiriya called out.
"You have until sundown to prove who's better. The winner eats, the loser starves."
SundownThe air burned in Sasuke's lungs, the inside of his mouth hurt from using so many projectile jutsus. He'd long since abandoned his reluctance to use his more powerful moves. Afterall noone here was going to go running to the Hokage if he started using some of Orochimaru's signature moves.
Like the poison spit. It made the burns left in his mouth from his Katon moves worse, but it worked well from a close distance. They'd both given up on long distance attacks, they had always been a null point between them. But it wasn't much easier up close. Ringo had spent almost three years being Sasuke's mirror, his moves, his habits, his jutsus. Ringo's knowledge of Sasuke was such that it would've been impossible to better imitate Sasuke without a sharingan helping.
Ringo had been recruited by the Sound for his uncanny ability to copy people. It wasn't a blood limit, just a natural talent like super intelligence. He only had to see something once or twice and he could produce a decent copy. With practice it was often impossible to tell the difference between Ringo's copy and the original.
Ringo had started off being at the head of Orochimaru's chosen youth squad. The cream of the young Sound ninjas, the day after Sasuke's arrival he found himself demoted to shadow. But it wasn't until his precious Orochimaru-sama had taken him and let Kabuto-san practice that face changing technique on him, that he realised his existance as Ringo had ended.
So he blamed Sasuke, it was Sasuke's fault that noone recognised him any more for being Ringo, the amazing Copy Cat. If only Sasuke had never come, Ringo could've continued rising towards the top of the Sound ranks. Now his entire future was limited to being Sasuke's shadow. The potential sacrifice.
But amazing natural skill or not, Ringo couldn't out fight a sharingan at level three. Unless he could empty Sasuke's chakra reserves. Which Sasuke had to conclude he was doing a damn good job of.
Dodging yet another surprise attack, Sasuke again consided moving up to next level of sharigan to dispel Ringo's genjutsu. Ringo it seemed had been improving, again Sasuke spared the breath to curse Kakashi, and the Hokage for limiting his training. The problem was Sasuke just didn't have enough chakra left to waste. Unless he wanted to use the curse seal.
Sasuke shied away from calling on his old trump card, and it wasn't just the force of habit from the last three years. Sasuke was afraid that deliberately using it would strengthen it, help it eat his mind even faster. Already just using Orochimaru's moves had made it stir and mutter louder in the back of his mind.
Nevertheless Sasuke smiled savagely, striking out suddenly and feeling his fist graze an invisible someone. This was life, this was training, here noone scolded you if your training partner had to be carried home afterwards. They would say it would teach them to be quicker next time. Here you could really reach your limits, here you learnt according to your talents.
None of the molly-coddling that so frustrated him in Konoha. It hadn't always been that way, but Itachi had changed that. His slaughtering his own family had finally given the 3rd the ammunition needed to ban child assassins no matter what their skill level, and to limit Jounin status to 16year olds and above. The council had caved against their own wishes, public opinion had been too hot.
Sasuke saw a flicker in the corner of his eye, a sign that Ringo's chakra was also running low.
But not before the sun gave one last dip and the shadows became true twilight.
There was a poof, and Kiriya appeared next to the girl who jumped quickly to the side. Calmly he surveyed the two panting young men.
"You both fail." He said simply. "Don't bother coming back to the camp, you're sleeping rough tonight."
He turned and walked away. Sasuke's arms goosbumped from the growing cold. Without a fire or blankets, tonight was going to be tough.
The girl looked back repeatedly as she trailed after Kiriya towards the lit camp fires.
Sasuke ran a hand through his sweat soaked hair. Ringo spat disgustedly onto the sand.
"Raw meat again." He said drawing a short knife out and testing the edge.
"Kiriya said the loser doesn't eat." Sasuke reminded him curling his lip.
Ringo curled his lip in return.
"You have been living soft too long. As long as Kiriya-sensei doesn't find out it doesn't matter. What? You afraid he'll take away your cookie points?"
Sasuke felt the worm move in his head. The back of his neck heated in time with his anger.
"Maybe I'll just eat you.' Sasuke said lazily, reaching almost without thinking towards that dark strength.
Ringo just wagged his finger at Sasuke and turned away. Behind him Sasuke smiled that slow smile, and shivered as the dark tattoos of his curse seal fluttered over his neck. Shaking his head Sasuke pushed the worm back into it's corner.
"It's not time yet." He whispered to it. "Wait, just wait."